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For the last three weeks I've been talking about the impact the new Sony, Toshiba and IBM cell processor is likely to have on Linux desktop and datacenter computing. The bottom line there is that this thing is fast, inexpensive and deeply reflective of very fundamental IBM ideas about how computing should be managed and delivered. It's going to be a winner, probably the biggest thing to hit computing since IBM's decision to use the Intel 8088 led Bill Gates to drop Xenix in favor of an early CP/M release with kernel separation hacked out...

Following issues such as world hunger and global warming, the rising volume of unwanted e-mail is now among the problems that are being dealt with on an international level as officials with the United Nations and International Telecommunications Union (ITU) called spam "an epidemic" at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland this week. Echoing the wa...

Thirty-six percent of the software installed on computers worldwide was pirated in 2003, representing a loss of nearly US$29 billion. These are the key findings of a global software piracy study released today by the Business Software Alliance, an international association for software manufacturers Conducted for the first time by global technology...

There was an interesting article in the New York Times over the weekend. Called "From a High-Tech System, Low-Fi Music," its focus was on compressed music files that are lossy by virtue of the fact that they've been compressed and, hence, are missing information So people who use iTunes for their iPods aren't getting value for money, the story sugg...

Hoping to stay competitive and avoid more drastic measures in the future, Microsoft plans to reduce costs by US$1 billion this fiscal year by trimming employee benefits and cutting other expenses The savings will come from a more coordinated marketing effort among the company's various divisions and other measures, but will not require any salary c...

Many companies understand that, to be successful, they must be aware of political environments and regulations, cultural and labor considerations, national and international economic pressures, and technological developments, but perhaps one factor affecting companies most intensely in the new millennium is the competitive environment The ramificat...

At the moment, the truism that "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" can easily be applied to Apple's iTunes online music store and those services that are attempting to compete with it. In April 2003, Apple launched the iTunes service and quickly sold millions of songs. As a result, companies such as AllofMP3.com, Microsoft, MusicMatch, Napster, Rhapsody, Sony and even Wal-Mart have taken various approaches to try and duplicate Apple's success...

Sony today introduced the Micro Vault PRO, a new USB storage device that provides 2 GB of space plus a built-in "Auto Sync" file synchronization feature -- all in a form factor about the length and width of a business card The Micro Vault PRO uses a one-inch hard disk drive in a brushed-silver case that measures 2 x 2.75 inches, is a half-inch thic...

Through a partnership with Questar, a PC distributor, Dell has introduced a line of Linux-based desktop computers in Europe Each computer will be shipped by Dell and preinstalled with the English or Italian version of the Linspire 4.5 Linux-based operating system. Each PC will include Dell's gold technical support....

A U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling involving an ISP's ability to scan and use the content of customer e-mails equates to "free rein to invade the privacy of users" for ISPs, according to privacy advocates Others downplayed the impact of the ruling in U.S. v. Councilman, which involves a defendant who configured software to copy and compile cert...

Bo Vesterdorf, the judge presiding over Microsoft's appeal of the European Union's antitrust decision, has scheduled a meeting for July 27th. It is Microsoft's first meeting with the judge....

Veritas Software lowered its second-quarter revenue and profit guidance, becoming the latest tech company to say the quarter did not measure up to expectations. Saying enterprise sales were down, particularly in the U.S., the storage software maker lowered its revenue targets to US$475 million to $485 million and per-share earnings to 18 cents to ...

Bill Gates was recently quoted as saying, "You know what my toughest competitor is? It's pirated software.... If you really look around, you'll find way more pirated Windows than you'll find open-source software. Way more." Gates couldn't be more wrong. At least in China, his tough stance against piracy is backfiring. The more the Chinese governmen...

A move to help TV viewers avoid restrictions on digital broadcast signals scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2005 has been launched by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) The campaign is targeted at something called the "Broadcast Flag," a digital rights management scheme that the EFF maintains will stop viewers from making digital copies of ...

For U.S. consumers, this week's big news is that the average price of gas fell below $2 a gallon nationwide -- at least for now. But prices aren't even everywhere in the country. In Mississippi, for example, the AAA says the average price is US$1.94 per gallon. In Southern California, the Automobile Club of California says a gallon of regular averages $2.34.

Developers at last week's JavaOne conference got a chance to check theprogress that tools vendors have made in their long quest to ease Javaprogramming so they can better compete against Microsoft For starters, conference sponsor Sun Microsystems tried to reassertitself as a major player with the release of Java Studio Creator. Thevisually oriented...

One of the things that has stuck with me after meeting with HP last month is that the movie industry is going through a lot of changes. It seems to me that few consumers have any concept of how much this industry is likely to change by the end of the decade. So this week, I thought it might be interesting to explore the technology changes that are coming -- from creation to delivery -- and revisit why it might take some time for us to see the full potential of these changes exhibited in the market...

Software piracy is so widespread that it exists in homes, schools, businesses and government offices. According to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the leading software developers, software piracy is practiced by individual PC users as well as computer professionals who deal wholesale in stolen applications...

Microsoft has hit the news once again by invoking its next major update to Windows XP -- called Service Pack 2 (SP2) -- in response to the significant security risks that have emerged over the past couple weeks. This time, the company has gone beyond its vague time-frame for releasing SP2 "later this summer." Microsoft product manager Tony Goodhew told attendees of the TechEd 2004 conference in Amsterdam that SP2 will ship within the next two months -- guaranteed...

Employers added 112,000 workers to their payrolls in the U.S. during the month of June, a figure that fell far short of expectations and left the national unemployment rate unchanged as more people joined the ranks of those actively seeking work. In its monthly report released early Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said the unemploymen...