NEWS, ETC.
May 2002
Friday,
31 May 2002
Comms
Companies Seen as Next Computing Giants. "Seven years
ago 90 percent of all data that was stored was being stored to be moved
from processor to processor. Today 90 percent of all data is being
stored to be viewed: Its goal is not to be processed but to be seen.
All the Web data is there to be viewed. So we've moved from where the
center of gravity for computing was data processing to where it is
data delivery. As a result, the center of the computer farm is the
backplane of the switch..."
IBM:
Give Hard Drives the Boot? Big Blue announces
a new storage technology, iBoot, that lets PCs access computer networking
to designate remote disk drives as their primary repository for data.
Will networked computers work this time?
Semiconductor
Sales Edge Up 3.1% In April. Worldwide sales of semiconductors
totaled $11.07 billion in April, a 3.1% increase from the $10.73 billion
level reached in March, with all four geographic regions reporting
growth for the second month in a row...
Thursday,
30 May 2002
Vendors
Launch Linux Standardization Effort. Four
Linux vendors today unveiled plans to pool their resources to create
and sell a standardized version of Linux... UnitedLinux
is Born.
The
check is in the Net. Banks often take days to process electronic
payments, offering little advantage over mailed checks. And
probably making money on the money while you wait, I might add.
AMD
Cuts Processor Prices to Match Intel. Cuts
range from 11 percent and 32 percent for desktop Athlon XP chips. Official
AMD Retail Prices. You
can usually get them for less if you shop around.
Online
Sales Keep On Growing. Retail
e-commerce sales for the first quarter of this year were an estimated
$9.849 billion, up about 19 percent from the first quarter a year ago...
Dell
to Use Magnesium Alloy in Cases for More Than 80% of Notebooks
Wednesday,
29 May 2002
Intel's
Itanium 2 Performance Twice That of Itanium. Intel's
next-generation Itanium 2 processor aimed at high-end servers and super
computers performs as much as 2 times better than computers using first-generation
Itanium chips.
Tuesday,
28 May 2002
Microsoft
SQL Worm Crawls To Top Of Attack Charts. An Internet worm that
targets insecure Microsoft databases has quickly displaced forerunners
Code Red and Nimda as the top source of computer attacks...
Pentium
Prices Take a Tumble. Intel slashed the price
of Pentium 4 processors for desktops and notebooks over the weekend
by up to 53 percent, an annual spring ritual designed to stimulate
demand for its premier PC chip.
Samsung
Speeds Ramp of 512-Mbit DDR-II Chips After Evaluations With IBM
Water,
Water Everywhere on Mars. A huge
sea of ice lies just under the surface of Mars, ready to be tapped
by future explorers as a source of fuel and maybe even drinking water,
scientists said.
Friday,
24 May 2002
XP
Makeover Highlights Antitrust Tweaks. Microsoft
is finalizing a major makeover for Windows XP that's intended to make
it easier for consumers to choose third-party software over Microsoft's
own products. Microsoft
to Roll-out First XP Service Pack. Microsoft
to Let Users Disable Windows Features.
AT&T
to Make Broadband Speed Uniform. AT&T
Broadband is standardizing service across its high-speed cable modem
network, doubling connection speeds for some customers but forcing
others to wait longer to upload information from the Internet.
DRAM
Prices Tumble, but 3Q Shortage Looms. Weak demand has once
again sent DRAM prices plummeting, with contract prices for 128Mbit
synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) dropping as much as 20% in May, following
a similar pattern on the spot market. I
don't see drops in DDR memory prices.
Thursday,
23 May 2002
Microsoft
Announces Security Bug in its Debugger. Guess
they used the debugger to debug the debugger to get the bug out the
debugger...
U.S.
Takes Hard Look at Broadband Deployment
Supernova
Poised to Go Off Near Earth. Chicken
Little...
Wednesday,
22 May 2002
Passwords:
The Weakest Link. Hackers can crack most in less than a minute,
thanks to users who choose easily guessable passwords. Good
read.
AMD
Athlon XP and 166MHz FSB: Why Not? Switching from 133MHz
FSB to 166MHz FSB (with DDR333 memory used) the performance gain is
7%-15%. It's a pity that AMD will never take advantage of this
opportunity. And it could be of real help especially taking into account
that the competition between AMD and Intel has got even tenser after
Intel had introduced 533MHz bus.
Sun
Releases Major Software Upgrade. Biggest
software upgrade in years, a new version of its flagship Solaris operating
systems, which the computer maker is trying to integrate with popular
upstart Linux.
AOL
Unveils Mozilla-Based Netscape 7.0
Tuesday,
21 May 2002
SQL
Worm Taking Off. A new worm that targets Microsoft
SQL Server software has inundated networks with thousands of scans
for vulnerable database servers, system administrators said Tuesday.
Intel
Plugs Hole With Integrated Graphics Chip Set...with the rollout
of its 845G PC chip set with integrated graphics capabilities, and
claimed the product will command a broad slice of the low-end and mainstream
desktop PC markets.
Via
Hammer Chipsets Give AMD Racing Room. Motherboards based on
Hammer chipsets from Via and rivals Silicon Integrated Systems (SIS)
and Acer Labs (ALI) are expected to be on display at the Computex Taiwan
trade show starting on June 3. AMD
K8-based Chipsets Ready, Related Boards Expected to be Seen at Computex
Taipei
MSN
Launches AOL Defection Tool. Migration
is handled via a three-step Switching Tool from TrueSwitch, a Microsoft
partner.
Worm
Targets Kazaa Users. Unsuspecting Kazaa users could be downloading
more than free music...
Naked
Chicken Plan May Make Feathers Fly
Monday,
20 May 2002
First
Tests Find 1.7-GHz Celeron an Iffy Chip. The 1.7-GHz Celeron
system actually performed worse than older Celeron machines...
IBM
Claims Carbon Nanotubes Outperform Silicon Transistors. The
researchers expect future carbon nanotube field-effect transistors
(CNFETs) to outperform silicon transistors even more dramatically as
their gate length and gate oxide thickness is decreased with further
development. Press
release.
Big-City
Broadband Growing At High Speed
2002:
The Worst Year For IT Services
Microsoft
to Invest $1 Billion in Xbox Live
Saturday,
18 May 2002
Internet
Software Piracy Group Head Sent to Prison. The
leader of "DrinkorDie," one of the oldest and largest international
software piracy rings on the Internet, was sentenced on Friday to three
years and eight months in prison for conspiring to commit copyright
infringement...
Friday,
17 May 2002
Dux Resumes online
shopping with pdf-formatted articles and the Crucial memory selector. Plans
are to add other computer-related items in the near future. I
have to do something to make some money with this site and advertising
is not paying much. Larry
Senate
Panel Votes To Can Spam. The bill, passed by the Senate Commerce
Committee, requires that unsolicited e-mail, or "spam," contain
valid return addresses that recipients can use to opt out of receiving
more unwanted e-mail. The "CAN SPAM" act... Yeah!!!
Microsoft
Says Flaws in Patch May be a New Vulnerability. A
Microsoft security manager said problems reported by researchers about
an Internet Explorer security patch released this week may expose a
potential new vulnerability.
Are
You the Klez Monster? Well, if my inbox
is any kind of indicator, there is certainly a bunch of them out there... More
on the Klez Worm.
Why
We Love Linux. "More businesses are looking at Linux now
because it's no longer considered experimental software," Andrews
says. "We also resell Microsoft, but at this point, we're selling
20 Linux servers for every Windows server."
Networking
Wars: Is Novell Finally Finished?
Digital
Dream House
Thursday,
16 May 2002
Microsoft
Plugs Six More Security Holes in IE. Including
a critical flaw that could allow an attacker to run code on a client
machine. The patch is intended for Internet Explorer 5.01, Internet
Explorer 5.5, and Internet Explorer 6.0. Download. Experts
Rip New Microsoft Browser Patch.
Intel,
AMD Neck and Neck in Chip Costs. Both AMD
and Intel proudly claim they can make chips cheaper than the other
guy, but after doing the math and examining the two companies' divergent
strategies, analysts conclude it's a dead heat.
Dell
Earnings Slip as Spending Tightens. First-quarter
earnings fell on low personal computer prices and weak corporate demand
for technology, but results topped expectations.
Top
10 15-Inch LCD Monitors
NEC
to Spin-off Semiconductor Operations
Wednesday,
15 May 2002
Techs
Drive NASDAQ Up, Dow Rises. Technology
shares gained ground for the third straight day with the NASDAQ rising
2%, as a hopeful outlook for the computer chip sector pushed the broader
market higher.
Intel
Introduces Celeron Processor at 1.7 GHz. 400
MHz FSB or the P4 version of the Celeron, I presume.
Microsoft
Puts Final Touches on Office. News of the
next version of the software titan's Office business software, which
will likely include new Web services, comes as rival Sun announces
its new StarOffice package.
PC
Sellers Lure Shoppers With Rebates. With the early summer selling
season approaching, retail PC sellers and manufacturers are stepping
up their use of rebates and special offers to keep inventory moving.
Microsoft
Cuts Xbox Price in U.S., Japan. Under $200.
Robot
Music
Judge
Orders VeriSign to Stop Advertising Campaign. Domain-name
seller BulkRegister sued VeriSign in Baltimore on Monday, saying the
company sent thousands of "renewal notices" to BulkRegister
customers that sought to trick them into unwittingly transferring their
accounts to VeriSign. Be advised
that VeriSign's $35/year for a .com domain name registration fee is
the highest I've seen. The registrar I use charges $8.95/year
per domain name. duxcw.com is a domain name (web site name).
Larry
Tuesday,
14 May 2002
Stocks
Jump on Surge in Retail Sales. Stocks
rallied at midday on Tuesday after retail sales in April scored the
biggest gain in six months and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. topped
earnings expectations, boosting Wall Street's confidence in the nation's
economic turnaround.
Intel
Cuts Celeron Prices by Up to 13 Percent. Pricing
for mobile Celerons and other Intel microprocessors remained unchanged. Probably
to clear inventory for the P4 version of the Celeron.
Monday,
13 May 2002
'New
HP' Targets Dell with PCs, Servers
AMD
Pits MirrorBit Against Intel StrataFlash. AMD introduces 64-Mbit
flash memory that stores two bits per cell using a distinctly different
technology than rival Intel. Press
Release.
IBM
Announces One Terabyte Tape Initiative. In May 1952, IBM introduced
the Model 726 tape drive, which stored a total of 1.4 megabytes (equal
to that of 1 floppy disk today) on a movie reel over 12 inches in diameter...
On April 5, 2002 the first 1 TB linear tape was written in a 3590 tape
form factor cartridge still small enough to fit in a jacket pocket
but capable of storing 1 TB of data - or the equivalent storage capacity
of more than 1500 CD's.
Credit
Card Theft Thrives Online as Global Market. You
may have to log into the NY Times, but it is free and is well worth
the little effort that it takes.
Sears
Buying Internet, Catalog Titan Lands' End
Saturday,
11 May 2002
The
week in review: The HP challenge
Redesigned
Celerons Coming to Market. Intel's
first Celeron chips based on the architecture behind the Pentium
4 will come out next week, a move that will allow the company to
cover the entire PC market with the same chip design.
The
New HP: You Are What You Eat
NASA's
'Frozen Smoke' Named Lightest Solid
Friday,
10 May 2002
Klez
Worm (Virus) is Infecting Computers All Over the Internet
DRAM
Breaks Through US$2 Floor. Dropping over 30% since the beginning
of the week and likely to continue their relentless decline through
next week... Hynix has flooded the market...
IBM
Plans to Cut Up to 9,500 Jobs. Faced
with stagnant sales due to a technology spending slowdown, is poised
for its largest work force reduction in a decade...
Microsoft
Licensing Plan Not Popular. About two-thirds of its business
customers have yet to sign up for a new subscription program.
Fujitsu
Claims Disk Drive Breakthrough. New
read/write disk head technology which will enable hard disk drive
recording densities of up to 300GB per square inch.
PC
Makers Jump Into House Call Business. No. 1 PC maker
Dell Computer recently launched home installation for $119
to $139. That includes hooking up a Dell PC, installing up to three
peripherals such as printers or scanners, and connecting the PC to
the Internet -- as long as the Internet service was bought though
a Dell partner, AOL or MSN.
The
PC Needs Improvement, Microsoft Exec Says
Thursday,
9 May 2002
AMD
to Fight Against Intel’s P4s With New K8-core Processors. The
64-bit desktop Athlon will hit the market in October, while shipments
of the Opteron server and workstation processors are expected to start
in the first half of 2003. The shipment ratio of the K8-core processors
should be able to exceed that of the company’s 32-bit, K7-core products
as early as 2003.
High-Speed
Internet Access a Boon to Business - Study. The study said
90 percent of 550 small businesses that use SBC's digital subscriber
line (DSL) service said gains from increased productivity meet or exceed
the monthly cost of the service.
Unchecked
Buffer in MSN Chat Control Can Lead to Code Execution. Details
plus link to download fix.
CERT:
DHCP Bug Could Give Attackers Control
Boeing
Puts Digital Movie Systems in 23 Theaters
IBM,
Startup Launch Massive 'Grid' for Online Gaming. A
start-up, Butterfly.net
Inc., and computing giant IBM have created a global network for
online video games capable of supporting a million players or more
that will be rented to major game publishers.
A
Visual Rather Than Verbal Future. With all due respect to fellow
computing gurus around the world, the University of Maryland's Ben
Shneiderman doesn't think speech will ever become the main way people
communicate with computers... Interesting.
Wednesday,
8 May 2002
Stocks
Rise as Cisco Beats Estimates. Cisco,
the world's No. 1 maker of gear that directs Internet traffic, more
than tripled last year's soft earnings... Dow
Jones up 305 points at 15:000 EDT! Cisco's
Strong Results Lead Tech Markets Up.
Microsoft
Supports Intel's New 64-bit Processor After Endorsing AMD
Sony
Mulls Memory Options for Next Game Machine. "Will need
memory with incredibly high speed and tens-of-gigahertz bandwidth.
I'm not sure that even what we have seen for DDR-II on the present
(industry) memory roadmaps will be high enough performance for us."
Ultra-wideband
Players Look for Global Footprint
Tuesday,
7 May 2002
Apple's
Jaguar Ready To Pounce. Jobs
buries OS 9 for developers and previews the next release, which has
a few goodies for Windows, Unix and AOL users... and Apple's first
rack mount server?
Chip
Makers Say Gigabit Ethernet's Ready for Desktops. Companies
including Intel Corp. and Broadcom Corp. have been pushing for Gigabit
Ethernet prices to drop enough to bring the technology to the desktop,
and many companies now claim that point has been reached. Yes,
but are desktops ready for the Gigabit Ethernet? Most desktops
cannot go as fast as a 100 Mbps Ethernet.
HP
Offers Peek at New Product Line
IBM
Overtakes Oracle in Total Database Sales
From
Molecular Movements To Nanoconstruction Tools. ...proteins
might be shuttled from place to place in tiny chemical wheelbarrows
or built upon molecular scaffolding... cell-sized ambulances that could
travel to and selectively repair or destroy diseased cells in a human
patient's body.
Monday,
6 May 2002
Information
Technology Work Force Set to Grow. Hiring
managers report they will attempt to fill 1.1 million information technology
jobs in the next 12 months...
Intel
Announces Reference Design For Advanced Home Media Platform.
Products based on the design will provide broadband Internet access,
DVD playback, personal video recording, interactive gaming, TV reception,
MP3 audio, content storage, video on demand and home networking in
a single device. Schematics for the Intel Media Center Reference Design
will be available for download in late May.
Faster
Bus, Faster Processor from Intel. For starters, Intel
has upped the P4's top speed from 2.4 GHz to 2.53 GHz. More important,
both the 2.53-GHz chip and the new versions of the 2.26-GHz and 2.4-GHz
processors support the current 400 MHz front-side bus (FSB), in addition
to the new 533–MHz FSB.
Red
Hat Releases Linux 7.3. Red Hat released a
new version of its Linux operating system Monday that is aimed at educators
and small businesses.
Analysts:
Cable Operators Avoid Regulatory Heat
Friday,
3 May 2002
Semiconductor
Alert! Commentary & analysis of week's chip news, April
29-May 3. The trade association believes the chip business is recovering
from its worst downturn in history, rebounding in the same way that
it did back in 1986. But March semiconductor revenues were still 25.4%
lower than they were in the same month a year ago... AMD admits losing
share to Intel, but outlines ambitious roadmap...
H-P
Closes $18.7 Billion Compaq Merger. HP
closed the largest acquisition in technology industry history, ending
a divisive merger battle as it bought Compaq for $18.69 billion
in HP stock.
Security
Flaw Found in Flash Player. A new download of
the player fixes the flaw.
DrinkOrDie
Software Pirate Goes To Prison. First of many members of the "warez" organization
that will be sentenced for their roles in an operation that caused
millions of dollars in damages.
Thursday,
2 May 2002
Chip
Sales Show Strongest Surge in March Since 1986, says SIA. Worldwide
chip sales grew 7.2% to $10.75 billion in March from $10.03 billion
in February.
Wednesday,
1 May 2002
Dell
and AMD May Align for 64-bit Chips. Dell
Computer is inching closer to bringing Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
on as a second chip supplier after the introduction of the company's
64-bit chips for PCs next year, the top executives from both companies
indicated Tuesday.
AOL
Users: You've Got Google. Increasingly popular search engine
will be used throughout AOL starting later this year.
Cable
Companies Commit to Speed Digital TV
Index |
