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By all accounts, the e-commerce sector is poised for another blockbuster holiday season, with forecasters calling for another year of double-digit growth and sales of about US$27 billion for the fourth quarter, according to Forrester Research Most retailers are already well underway with plans to capitalize on that growth, putting in motion plans c...

Sourcefire, provider of open source security software Snort and other intrusion detection and prevention solutions, filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) The IPO is a rarity in that it involves a security company, as well as a company that relies on open source development and software...

As founder, president and chief executive officer of custom PC maker Velocity Micro, Randy Copeland has seen a lot of change over his 15 years in the business. New consoles and online play were key additions to the industry. Perhaps most significant, however, is the purchase of competitors by PC giants Dell, which bought Alienware, and more recently Hewlett-Packard, which bought Voodoo...

Concerns have been growing that voting machine mishaps might undermine the results of the upcoming Congressional elections -- among the most bitterly fought in recent memory -- either through glitches in the new technology or through outright fraud The latest worry? The ownership of Boca Raton, Fla.-based Smartmatic, which last year acquired Sequoi...

Oracle has stirred up the tech world with the announcement of its "Unbreakable Linux" strategy. The company's announcement that it will support its own version of Red Hat Linux has already made an impact, as evidenced by Red Hat's quick response under the banner "Unfakeable Linux." It is still unknown whether Oracle will succeed in undercutting Red...

MySpace.com on Monday said it has licensed technology to block unauthorized copyrighted music audio recordings from being posted on its site Like YouTube and other social networking sites, MySpace is feeling the pressure from major record labels and Hollywood studios to stem the tide of copyright infringers. Social networkers often use songs or mov...

Existing copyright laws in the United Kingdom are out of date and should be updated to provide consumers with more flexibility, including the right to copy the content on DVDs and CDs to portable players, a new report argued The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) issued a report Sunday saying that copyright laws should be amended to create...

Verizon Communications nudged past Wall Street estimates for profit in its third quarter as surging revenue in its wireless business helped offset a surge in expenses Verizon said revenue rose 26 percent to US$23.25 billion as the company began to reap the benefits of its consolidation efforts, including a boost in sales due to the acquisition of l...

In the the wake of a lawsuit seeking to blameKFC for health problems, the leading fried chicken chain on Monday said it is converting all of its 5,500 restaurants in the United States to a zero grams trans fat cooking oil The new oil, a low linolenic soybean oil, will replace the partially hydrogenated soybean oil KFC currently uses. The transition...

The business-to-business market was the darling of e-commerce pundits way back in the early '90s when companies began to get serious about using the Web to do business. B2B e-commerce was expected to lead the way into a brave new online world of business communications, management and international trade However, it turns out that the business-to-c...

So your small business is experiencing better-than-expected growth,and you're ready to take the next step and expand globally? Think aboutwhen you go shopping -- more often than not, you may notice phrases like"Made in Mexico," "Made in Sri Lanka" or "Made in Italy." Perhaps they'reon your clothing tags, your daughter's new doll, the towels in yourbathroom or the radio on your desk...

The open source market is decidely hot right now, from software to support and services. Recently, venture capital firms have upped the ante, investing millions in open source-focused companies with the hopes of cashing in like JBoss did, when Red Hat scooped it up for a tidy US$350 million in June "Compared to two years ago, I would say [VC intere...

I spent most of last week in Las Vegas with IBM, learning about things that firm doesn't often talk about. While that was going on, Oracle implemented the first step in its latest world domination plan and I continued to hear chatter on Apple's planned surprise for Microsoft during its Vista launch. This is Halloween week -- and we are in store for a scary ride...

Unrestricted access from the office to personal Web-based e-mail can pose security risks to businesses, but the practice is being largely ignored, according to a survey released by a security firm this week According to a poll taken at the Internet security monitoring portal of UK-based Marshal, 48 percent of the 242 respondents surveyed said they ...

Everex Systems has released an energy-efficient notebook with a Via Technologies C7-M processor that saves on battery power and electric bills The StepNote NC1500 is being sold only at Wal-Mart stores and at Wal-Mart online for US$498. Its 1.5 GHz Via processor consumes a low 12 watts, Everex said....

With millions of voters set to cast ballots in key mid-term elections in just over a week, a long-simmering controversy over voting machines continues to percolate. New reports suggest a major manufacturer of e-voting kiosks quietly repaired a flaw without informing election officials The case involves machines in Maryland, where, according to pub...

Ubuntu -- an increasingly popular, Debian Linux-based operating system -- just got updated by its commercial backer Canonical, giving users of the new software an improved interface, faster boot time and better security, the company said this week Dubbed "Edgy Eft," Ubuntu 6.10 is freely available and carries on the operating system's trademark usa...

Strong demand for the Xbox gaming console and server software helped push Microsoft to a strong first quarter, with the company exceeding its own revenue projections and surpassing Wall Street forecasts for profit The Redmond, Wash., software giant said revenue rose 11 percent over the same period a year ago, to US$10.81 billion. Net income was $3....

IBM researchers are using biological principles to cool computer chips with the aim of making faster, denser computer systems Inspired by the way liquids are drawn away in tree leaves, roots or the human circulatory system, scientists developed a chip cap with a network of tree-like branched channels on its surface. When pressure is applied, it rem...

NetSuite has introduced a new development platform that gives both users and partners deeper customization capabilities for their respective needs. Called "SuiteFlex," the platform gives customers the tools to build their own workflows and user interfaces -- for example, a billing application that reflects the multiple pricing policies the firm offers -- within NetSuite...