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A Utah District Court judge has put a hold on a state law that targets spyware -- quiet computer programs that can creep onto people's computers as they navigate the Internet and download seemingly innocuous applications that then track their online behavior The ruling from Utah Third Judicial District Court Judge Joseph Fratto Jr. was hailed as a ...

Last week, I talked about the cell processor expected from Sony and IBM [Paul Murphy, "Fast, Faster and IBM's PlayStation 3 Processor," LinuxInsider, June 17, 2004]. This week I want to think out loud about what happens in the industry if Toshiba launches a PC based on this processor into the Asian market and IBM promptly follows suit with a series aimed at the American and European markets. Such a machine would run Linux, be compatible with most Linux software, and come with a subscription license to a suite of IBM software built around Lotus Workspace...

The chief executive of Network Associates quashed speculation Tuesday that his company is in talks to be acquired by Microsoft, cutting into earlier gains made by the stock, which still managed to close up nearly 4 percent. Shares in the Santa Clara, California-based company ended off their best levels following comments by Chief Executive George ...

MediaLive International today announced that Comdex Las Vegas 2004 has been "postponed." The company said the reason for the postponement is to "reshape the event" with the cooperation of IT industry leaders. Comdex 2004 had been scheduled to open November 14, 2004, in Las Vegas. Industry watchers already have begun to speculate that the reason Co...

George Samenuk, chairman and CEO of Network Associates, sent an e-mail to all company staff reassuring them that rumors of a Microsoft takeover are not true. "Many of you have seen the article in Computer Reseller News (CRN) which says that Network Associates is being acquired by Microsoft," said the e-mail from Samenuk that is now making the roun...

Hosted CRM vendor salesforce.com made its NYSE debut Wednesday, and got off to a quick start. After announcing its initial public offering of 10 million shares of common stock at US$11 per share, the company's stock soared to around $17 per share by day's end The previous day, salesforce filed a pre-effective amendment with the Securities and Excha...

TransGaming Technologies on Tuesday announced the release of version 4.0 of its flagship product, WineX. The product, which allows Windows games to run under Linux, has also been renamed Cedega. Cedega 4.0 includes support for Microsoft DirectX 9.0, which significantly broadens the scope and availability of the latest titles for Linux gamers, according to TransGaming...

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) this week continued its legal campaign against online file-traders who use peer-to-peer (P2P) song-swapping networks. In the latest move to stem the flow of pirated music, the RIAA has taken legal action against another 482 individuals across the country The RIAA, which now has taken legal action...

MasterCard International said it would launch an aggressive campaign against identity theft schemes that use phony Web sites to collect personal information from Internet users. The credit card company said it tapped NameProtect, a digital fraud-detection company, to scour the Web for so-called "phishing" schemes that attempt to dupe consumers into revealing personal information, such as credit card data, to sites that appear to be legitimate...

The Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), formerly called the Digital Home Working Group (DHWG), today announced the availability of the Home Networked Device Interoperability Guidelines 1.0. A year in the making, the Interoperability Guidelines define the design principles necessary to move content from one consumer electronics, personal computer or mobile product to another in a wired or wireless home network...

I saw a quote the other day from the CEO of a new hosted CRM company that really got me thinking. Describing his company's introduction, he optimistically quipped, "The second mouse gets the cheese." What he meant was that now that the category is defined, it should be relatively easy for his company to gain market share. But in my experience, thin...

In a decision that could have far-reaching implications -- from the fate of free software to the technology used in developing countries -- the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted the Public Patent Foundation (PubPat) a reexamination of a recently granted patent (number 5,579,517) on the use of file allocation tables (FATs), a ubiquitous technique for accessing a file system...

Delivering what it called capabilities previously limited to high-end, specialty computers -- including high-definition video, surround sound and file protection -- Intel released new products based on its new Grantsdale and Alderwood chipset designs The Santa Clara, California-based chip giant said its 915 G/P and 925 X chipsets, formerly codename...

Fujitsu today announced a new version of the company's fifth-generation Sparc64 processor. The new Fujitsu Sparc64 V is fabricated using 90-nanometer process technology, a first for Unix-based servers, and operates at 1.89 GHz. According to Fujitsu, the enhancements offer a significant performance boost that will average out to a 35 percent speed improvement over previous generations...

Cisco announced today a new technology, called the Cisco Metropolitan Mobile Network, that is designed to provide broadband wireless access for government agencies across an entire city. With a unified IP network foundation, the Cisco Metropolitan Mobile Network is designed to offer mobile access to applications and tools that Cisco hopes might ul...

COLSA Corporation has purchased 1,566 dual-processor 1U rack-mount 64-bit Xserve G5 servers from Apple to build a new supercomputer that the company hopes will be one of the fastest in the world. The supercomputer, named MACH 5, is expected to deliver a peak performance capability of more than 25 teraflops at a cost of US$5.8 million and will be u...

In an effort to expand its horizons both geographically and in terms of digital content, business-to-business digital media solutions provider Loudeye has purchased European digital music leader On Demand Distribution (OD2) for US$20.7 million Seattle-based Loudeye said the acquisition would double its pro forma revenues and create "the largest bus...

The latest edition of the TOP 500 Fastest List, which measures the speed and dominance of the world's supercomputers, has indicated that Linux systems are now represented on more than half of the list The list creators use the Linpack benchmark to measure performance of the world's machines, and have been compiling data for the past 12 years. The l...

In its fourth quarter and as a result of higher demand for its handhelds and smartphones, PalmOne posted its first profit in its short history as a standalone company PalmOne, created last year when Palm separated its hardware and software units, said it brought in US$267.3 million in the quarter ending in May, up 23 percent from a year ago and up ...

Cell phones are no longer used simply for voice communications; increasingly, they support text messaging, e-mail, Web surfingand even video transmissions. With this transformation has come the need for a more sophisticated mobile operating system. Half a dozen vendors, including Microsoft and Symbian, are trying to deliver it, but a few years will pass before a clear-cut winner emerges...