NEWS, ETC.
September 2002
Monday, 30 September 2002
Red
Hat Releases Red hat Linux 8.0 '...designed
for personal and small business computing. Red Hat Linux 8.0 combines
leading-edge Linux technologies with a new graphical look called Bluecurve
and feel that offers users a polished, easy-to-use operating environment.'
AMD Will Roll-out 2700+ and 2800+ XP Processors With a
333 MHz Front Side Bus Tomorrow
Friday, 27 September 2002
Intel
and SiS to Launch B-version Chipsets for Hyper-Threading Support in 4Q.
Intel and Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS) have decided to release B-version
products for some of their chipsets in the fourth quarter to support
the Hyper-Threading technology that will be introduced into the desktop
processor market with the upcoming 3.06GHz Pentium 4.
AMD
333MHz-FSB Athlon Coming in October, Supply Remains Key to Company Performance.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is expected to expand its desktop product
lines with the launch of the Athlon XP 2700+ and Athlon XP 2800+ in early
October.
Sharp
Develops 3D flat Screen. Sharp,
Japan's largest maker of liquid-crystal displays, said Friday its researchers
in Britain have developed a flat-panel display for either two- or three-dimensional
viewing that does not require special glasses.
E-mail
to Double by 2006. The number
of e-mails sent will grow from the present level of 31 billion a day
to 60 billion in just over three years.
Graphics
Standard for DDR-II Expected
Microsoft
VPN Flaw May Open Intranets to Attack
Thursday, 26 September 2002
FrontPage
Flaw Places Servers in Jeopardy. Microsoft
warns Web site administrators that a flaw in its FrontPage extensions
could allow an attacker to take control of their servers or cause their
computers to seize up.
The
State of Linux in 2002. As
2002 draws to a close, Linux has made significant inroads into the low-end
server market, where vendors can reap profits from selling hardware,
software and services in conjunction with the OS. Although its success
is less assured at the high end of the server sector, the operating system
may have a bright future on the desktop.
MandrakeSoft
Polishes Linux Desktop. The
new versions of KDE and Gnome add such modern touches as translucent
menus and instant previews of multimedia files... NTFS support allows
Linux to access Windows disk drives. USB 2.0...
Hopeful
Signs Amid Gloom on Economy. A
flurry of economic reports on Thursday helped temper fears the U.S. economy
was fast losing momentum, but failed to fully dispel a cloud of gloom
stemming from an ailing stock market and concerns about war.
Sony
Plans TV Recording Function for PlayStation 2
Belgian
Startup Supplies Kodak With 14-Megapixel CMOS Sensor
Wednesday, 25 September 2002
Red
Hat Linux Drips From Web Leak. Parts
of the new version of Red Hat's Linux software slip onto the Net
nearly a week before the OS's official release, giving glimpses of
a product with a new mainstream focus.
Linux
Gains Traction Outside of PC, Server Market. Having
established a firm foothold in the server market and a cult-like following
among programmers, the Linux open-source operating system has set its
sights on a new target: the cash register.
Prices
Fall for CD-rewritable Drives. The
market for CD-RW drives is so oversaturated that prices of some models
have fallen below $100. Best Buy is selling an internal 40x Sony CD-RW
drive for $84.92 before a $20 mail-in rebate, as well as an internal
40x Digital Research CD-RW drive for $65.92 without a rebate...
Slowdown
Forces HP to Cut 1,800 More Jobs
Tuesday, 24 September 2002
Ballmer:
United, we'll stomp on Linux. CEO
Steve Ballmer tells a London audience that Microsoft developers must
match the passion and energy of the Linux community, as well as produce
better technology.
Zero
Purchase Price, But. Many
companies that have made the switch to Linux rank its zero price tag
as relatively low on their lists of key ROI factors. Instead, what
counts most are:...
Lexmark will become Dell's 'preferred supplier' for
non-Dell products.
HP
Cuts Price on DVD-Rewritable Drives. The
200i is an internal drive and will now sell for $349... The price
cuts bode well for eventual mass consumer acceptance of DVD-rewritable
drives.
Motorola:
New Chip Will Bring GPS to All. The
company is unveiling a global positioning system chip it says is
the first GPS device small enough and cheap enough for practical
use in gadgets such as cell phones and notebooks. $10 in volume
quantities...
AMD
Inroduces AMD Athlon™ XP 2000+ and 1900+ Mobile Processors
Friday,
20 September 2002
Dual
Channel DDR, DDR-II, and RDRAM. The
finalized DDR-II should be just around the corner, only a few small issues
must be solved and everybody at JEDEC seems to agree upon the solutions.
Transparent
Token is Cryptographic Key. Shining a laser through a cheap, little
disc can generate an immensely powerful secret code - they could be used
to secure credit cards
3Com
Drops Dell As Authorized Reseller. 3Com is joining Cisco Systems
in dropping Dell... "They must be selling something to somebody,
but they are not going to be selling 3Com product."
AMD
VP: K8 Launch Delay Caused by SOI Verification and Design Change
Linux:
100 Flavors and Counting
50,000
Atoms of Anti-hydrogen Made
Thursday,
19 September 2002
Web
Ads, From Roach To Rich. ...the pop-up will
inevitably metamorphose into the Internet equivalent of a roach. Once
the Internet ad recession ends -- which it inevitably will -- what self-respecting
advertiser is going to want to use a roach to reach customers? They
served a pop-up with the article. Therefore, one might conclude
that the Washington Post is not a "self-respecting advertiser."
Lindows
Upgrades OS. Only
available to users who have purchased LindowsOS computers. A general
release of the software, LindowsOS 3.0, is due out later this year.
Desktop
Linux Distros Blooming. Beyond Mandrake,
there's Lindows, Lycoris, Xandros, and... Red Hat. In addition, at
least one vendor of big-iron servers will join the fun...
Is
Apple's Innovation Only Skin-Deep? Apple,
like Linux, now has an opportunity to gain market share as dissatisfaction
and disaffection for Microsoft continues. But to do so, the company must
innovate on price and hardware openness.
Microsoft
Urges Users to Patch Flaws In Its VM for Java. All
Windows users should patch their software to correct the flaws, which
Microsoft described as critical in a notice late Wednesday.
Microsoft
Gets Serious About Business Apps. Over
the next 12 months, Microsoft plans to release five new sets of business
applications, adding to the bookkeeping software it already sells through
its Great Plains division...
Microsoft
Launches Home Networking Hardware. Microsoft
plans to release new wired and wireless networking products into the
crowded and hypercompetitive consumer hardware market.
Top
10 Digital Cameras
Will
Evolution Leave Humanity Behind?
Wednesday,
18 September 2002
Seagate
and Western Digital Follow Maxtor: Reduce the Warranty on HDDs to
one year for consumer drives...
DVD
Groups Agree to Disagree. The two industry
groups fighting to set a rewritable DVD standard are showing no interest
in working together, but technology tricks and behind-the-scenes talks
could inch the sides toward a compromise.
UnitedLinux
Beta Slated for Sept. 23. Formed
by the SCO Group, formerly known as Caldera, as well as Turbolinux,
Conectiva and SuSE Linux, UnitedLinux aims to unify their various distributions
behind a single core distribution built out from the SuSE Linux Enterprise
Server product.
Sun
to Spotlight Desktop Linux at Show. "We
have been saying that this market is really coming on because the core
set of apps desktop users need are now there, like Star Office, Mozilla,
and [Ximian's] Evolution. But this is also well timed because Microsoft
continues to frustrate and alienate corporate users with its licensing." Sun
Attempts to Dethrone Microsoft With Low-cost PC.
$199.95
Robot Vacuum Cleaner
Intel
Rolls Out 2GHz Celeron
Gigabyte
667MHz Boards for Sale
Cable
Likely to Hold Lead in Broadband
Tuesday,
17 September 2002
Intel
Unfurls Experimental 3D Transistors. The chipmaker plans to unveil
more details behind its Tri-Gate transistor, an experimental circuit
that could be important in the company's quest to keep up with Moore's
Law.
Pioneer
Warns of "Hot" DVD Drives. DVD
rewritable drives can cause PCs or DVD players to overheat when recording
on certain high-speed disks.
SiS,
VIA Back-out From DDR400-Supporting Chipsets
Monday,
16 September 2002
Windows
XP Slow to Gain Foothold. Corporate adoption of Microsoft's Windows
XP operating system has been sluggish during the past year. In
the Dux Computer Digest web site statistics Windows XP, 2000, and 98
are now in about a three-way tie for the top three operating systems.
PlayStation
Application Weds PC to TV. BroadQ's QCast Tuner Enables PS2
to Play PC Video, Audio Files on TV Screen.
Intel
Unveils New Mobile Processors. 11
new mobile PC processors, including the Mobile Pentium 4 Processor-M
at 2.2GHz.
P2P
Worm Targets Linux Apache Web Servers
West
Digital Announces 200 GByte Special Edition IDE Hard Disk Drive With
8 MBytes Cache'
Friday,
13 September 2002
Ouch!
Fujitsu to replace 300,000 faulty HDDs. Fujitsu
may have to replace up to 300,000 faulty hard disk drives, made between
September 2000 and 2001. They can be found in NEC and IBM PCs, as well
as Fujitsu Siemens home-grown PCs. Crash!
Dud Fujitsu HDDs All Over UK.
Could
Macs Mean Business at Last? OS
X could stand a better chance of challenging Windows on the desktop than
Linux does, or ever did.
AMD
Delays Introduction of Desktop Microprocessor. Personal
desktop computers using AMD's next-generation Athlon XP microprocessor,
known as Clawhammer, will now be available late in the first quarter
of 2003 or early in the second quarter of 2003. Barton, the next
Athlon XP, will have a 333 MHz FSB and the cache' will double to 512K.'
DRAM
Makers Seriously Hiking DDR Output Ratios. With even Intel saying
that it might consider switching its servers from RDRAM to DDR, an ever-brighter
DDR outlook has prompted DRAM makers worldwide, particularly in South
Korea and Taiwan, to seriously pump up DDR output ratios by year-end.
P2P
Worm Targets Linux Apache Web Servers
Microsoft
Word, Outlook Vulnerabilities Identified
Thursday,
12 September 2002
Mintera
Claims Record Optical Transmission at 40Gbit/s. Mintera announced
that it has demonstrated error-free transmission of 40 channels at 40
Gbit/s over a record distance of 5,200 km of UltraWave fiber without
electrical regeneration.
Wednesday, 9/11 2002
Rambus
Memories Fade Into the Sunset at Intel. Officials
at Intel Corp. have at last confirmed that the company is phasing out
PC and workstation support of RDRAM from Rambus Inc. in favor of DDR
SDRAM.
EpoX
EP-8RGA+ AMD nFORCE2 Motherboard with 333 MHz FSB.
Integrated network adapter and 4MX display adapter, DDR400 MHz, AGP 8X,
USB 2.0. New site, as well.
On
nForce2 Based Mainboards Availability. As
our sources at NVIDIA assured us, the mainboards will be available by
the time Athlon XP processors with 333MHz system bus are on the market,
as a result, we are not going to see nForce2 based devices in big quantities
until October.
AMD
Announces Technology to Enable Ten-Fold Performance Leap in Future Transistors. Research
breakthrough could foster the placement of a billion transistors on the
same size chip that currently holds 100 million transistors.
E-mail
Eorm Uses Sept. 11 Lure. The
worm has the subject line "All people" and appears to be
from "main@world.com." It has an attachment titled "11September.exe."
Intel
Plans Secure Microprocessors. The "virtual vault" will
not only protect data against hackers but also provide anti-piracy features.
Intel
showcases 4.7GHz P4 at IDF
Windows
XP SP1 Irons out the Wrinkles
Win-XP
Help Center Request Wipes Your HD
Monday,
9 September 2002
Maxtor
Reveals Innovative Hard Disk Drives With Reduced Warranty. Maxtor
slashed the warranty from three to one year...
More
Manufacturers Drive DVD Recorders. An
expanding list of electronics makers are finalizing plans to start
making DVD recorders, a sign that prices could drop dramatically.
HP
Makes Breakthrough in Molecular Electronics. The
circuit, a 64-bit memory using molecular switches as active devices,
is less than one square micron in size, and has a bit density more than
10 times greater than today's silicon memory chips...
Seagate,
Intel, and Silicon Image Unveil ATA Serial II. What
is a Serial ATA disk drive?
Microsoft
Posts XP Service Pack. The
133 MB Windows XP SP1 is downloadable in its entirety from Microsoft's
Web site. "Service pack"? The
download is larger than Windows 98. You can also
order it on CD for about US$10 plus shipping and handling. PC
Makers Take Slow Foad to Windows XP Update.
Don't fix it if it ain't broken...
Microsoft's
Next Must-Have Operating System. Its
code name is "Longhorn," and for many industry-watchers, Microsoft's
next major operating system release promises some dramatic changes in
the way information is organized, retrieved and displayed.
Tricks
of the Light Promise Record Data Speeds. Researchers have shown
that a new combination of techniques for manipulating light can increase
the amount of data squeezed through the fibre optic cables laid in
cities by more than 100 times.
AMD
K8-core Opteron Shows-up in China. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) displayed
samples of K8-core processors at the recent CeBIT Shanghai exhibition.
Friday,
6 September 2002
Industry
Group Unveils New Storage Network Standard. The
new iSCSI standard allows SCSI hard disk commmands to be sent over IP
networks. It is used to rapidly transmit data over local area networks
(LANs), wide area networks (WANs) and the Internet, allowing companies
to rapidly retrieve massive amounts of data stored at geographically
distant locations.
Technology
Exports Fall 20% in First Half of 2002. Between
January and June 2002, U.S. high-tech exports totaled $82.4 billion,
down from $102.5 billion in 2001.
Intel
Unveils Network "System-on-a-Chip." Intel
this week unveiled new chips that enable more powerful and space-efficient
computers to be created for telecommunications networks.
Back
to Schoolers Make Do With Old PCs. Students
appear to be carrying old PCs to school, computer and microchip makers
say, confirming glum expectations and stoking fears that holiday sales
might also falter.
Microsoft
Patches Core Cryptography Interfaces in Windows.
Microsoft has released a patch that plugs a security hole in its cryptography
software that allows hackers to use bogus digital certificates to hijack
secure communications and forge digital signatures.
Google
Mirror Beats Great Firewall of China
Wednesday,
4 September 2002
Apple
Keeps x86 Torch Lit with 'Marklar'. As
Apple Computer Inc. draws up its game plan for the CPUs that will power
its future generations of Mac hardware, the company is holding an ace
in the hole: a feature-complete version of Mac OS X running atop the
x86 architecture. Sources
Note Sizable Corporate Apple Stock Purchases.
AMD
Barton-core Athlon XP on market in October. "Its
first FSB 333MHz-supporting processor, the Athlon XP 2700+, is scheduled
to be launched on October 7, but this will still adopt the Thoroughbred
core with 256K cache memory."
Netscape
7.0 Brings Mozilla to the Masses. All
but the Netscape name has taken a giant leap forward in Version 7.0.
Just released as a free download, Netscape 7.0 packages the open-source,
developer-oriented Mozilla browser into a consumer-friendly package,
complete with shopping links, Net2Phone, Web radio, and integrated
AIM.
Microsoft
unveils Windows Media 9. Microsoft
has introduced its long-awaited digital media software, Windows Media
9, in an effort to establish dominance for its operating system in distributing
high-quality digital content.
Fairchild
Climbs out of Slump.
...the chip industry is coming back, and many analysts believe Fairchild
is poised to make a strong recovery...
Tuesday,
3 September 2002
Stocks
Suffer Biggest Fall Since Sept. 11.
Down 355 points.
Chip
Sales See Midsummer Boost. Consumer
electronics helped the global chip market achieve its first year-over-year
revenue gain since early 2001, according to new figures from the Semiconductor
Industry Association. Strong
Chip Growth Predicted by Research Firm.
Microsoft
Opens Wallet Service, Bolsters Passport Security. The free MSN Wallet
service stores payment and address information to help simplify online
shopping by allowing users to make purchases without having to retype
information.
ICANN
Threatens To Revoke VeriSign's Right To Sell Dot-Com Names. VeriSign
Inc. could lose its right to sell "dot-com" domain names if
it fails to address accusations that it violated its contract with global
Internet addressing authorities.
Launch
Date Set for XP Service Pack. Sept.
9th.
Can
Apple's Jaguar Break Windows? With the release of Jaguar, the Cupertino,
California company became among the largest Unix retailers in the world,
and has credited Unix with its ability to add features to the OS very
rapidly. I don't know about Apple,
but Unix/Linux might. It sort of gives DOS back to the users who
want it, plus many free applications. Users are becoming more sophisticated
these days.
New
PCs Restrict Copying. Microsoft
and Hewlett-Packard have released additional details about digital entertainment
PCs coming for the holidays. But new anti-copying technology could hamper
sales, say analysts and potential buyers.
16x
CD-RW Retail Price in Taiwan Drops to US$38. Due to the continuous
launch of faster-speed optical storage devices, lower-speed CD-RW drives
are faced with inventory pressure and their retail prices have gone down
below US$38.
Computer
Grids Promise Leap in Computing Power. A
grid is a kind of hypernetwork that links computers and data storage
owned by different groups so that they can share computing power.
USA
Technologies, IBM Power Web-enabled Washing Machines. USA Technologies
and IBM will Web-enable 9,000 washing machines and dryers at U.S. colleges
and universities, eliminating much of the hassle associated with laundry
day at the dorm. e-Suds
Intel
Cuts prices, Analysts Cut Q3 Estimates
It's
All Over For Napster
Cockroaches
Serve as Model for More Natural Robots
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