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Netnomad wrote " Our friend Sanford is in the again. The company once considered "The King of Spam" has lost a $2 million suit filed against them by their ISP. According to the article, Sanford is going back to the restaurant publicity business. Good riddence."

Henrik Edlund writes "Yes, in their late broadcast today they talk about to seriously evaluate Linux. They want to see if you can "live outside the Windows village". They also ask Linux users to write in about product solutions. They make lots of funny jokes about Windows and say that Linux is a real contender. COOL! Listen to their RealAudio broadcast (20:00 minutes in) here."

Toshiba has begun offering DVD-RAM drives on their machines, if customers can wait about 30 days. The drive can hold 2.6GB/side, and discs will cost about $45.

Jupiter devices are here. Jupiter is a version of Windows CE 2.0 that runs on hybrid laptop/handeld PC devices. LG announced the Phenom Ultra, The Ultra has an 8.25" screen, and a bult-in modem. It weighs less than 2lbs. NEC and Hitachi have also announced their machines, the HPW family and the Mobile Gear family (respectively). These machines target the sub-$1000 market and have 70-100MHz processors, and 8-16MB of memory. That Linux port isn't sounding too bad, now that I think about it...

Jupiter devices are here. Jupiter is a version of Windows CE 2.0 that runs on hybrid laptop/handeld PC devices. LG announced the Phenom Ultra, The Ultra has an 8.25" screen, and a bult-in modem. It weighs less than 2lbs. NEC and Hitachi have also announced their machines, the HPW family and the Mobile Gear family (respectively). These machines target the sub-$1000 market and have 70-100MHz processors, and 8-16MB of memory. That Linux port isn't sounding too bad, now that I think about it...

We've mentioned the death of Newton before but Frank Wojcik sent us not one, not two, but three articles about the little PDA that couldn't. But Eric Harlow wrote in with a cool idea: why not have apple release all the specs and code. GPL it. Open it totally up. Geeks would scoop up the leftover newtons and maybe code cool stuff for it. Apple can't afford to maintain newton- why not let the world take a stab at it- there was a ton of cool technology in those little boxes, it would be nice to take advantage of it.

news.com is running this story where they discuss the major problem with Unix- the fact that it has so many flavors that vendors can't support hardware properly. This is obviously true, but diversity is also something that really is interesting under unix as well. Of course if you read RedHat's estimates on Linux workstations, Linux is growing at a strong clip relative to the total unix market. In a few years it may be the standard. Hope Sun, Digital, SGI and SCO are paying attention. Thanks to Robert Gash (NashMan) who sent this link in.

news.com is running this story where they discuss the major problem with Unix- the fact that it has so many flavors that vendors can't support hardware properly. This is obviously true, but diversity is also something that really is interesting under unix as well. Of course if you read RedHat's estimates on Linux workstations, Linux is growing at a strong clip relative to the total unix market. In a few years it may be the standard. Hope Sun, Digital, SGI and SCO are paying attention. Thanks to Robert Gash (NashMan) who sent this link in.

Apple continues their quest for money and market, and few secrets have leaked out about their new product. Apparently the new one is perhaps their first attempt at a NC, but may be a settop design, with the ability to play CDs, DVD--although details are still sketchy. Looks interesting however, and somehow it feels a little bit like the innovative spark that started the whole thing.

Apparently Microsoft and Intel pay vendors to port their applications to NT. And while some rationalise this by saying PC hardware is cheaper, I have to wonder about the monopoly implications. After all, NT does seem to be gaining ground, despite some of its, err, features.

Microsoft presented its next salvo in its war against Java: AVAJ, a language which looks like Java, but has two extra keywords, making it incompatible with Java. Simultaneously, it has announced that Windows Foundation Classes will be included in Visual J++ 6.0. (J as in avaJ) The great thing about Avaj, is that it will probably have a set of classes for building server-side applications that won't run on other machines. Of course, real hackers are not best pleased. (A name has been changed to protect the innocent)

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

As AMD and Intel report disappointing earnings, the price of computers continues its downwards spiral. Intel certainly did not anticipate the success of the sub-$1000 category, but AMD and Cyrix have failed to capitalize on the opportunity. The problem is that a bitter war of attrition will hurt the smaller players just entering the field. But then, perhaps they will address the lack of new features to excite one enough to buy a new PC. Or perhaps, they will find a solution to the root cause of high computer cost: bloatware.

In the continuing worrisome trend of US patent office incompetence, news.com reports that Open Market has been awarded extremely broad patents covering much of the software in common use today for Internet shopping and credit card payments. Larger companies can cross-license or claim patent infringement against Open Market, but smaller ones will be screwed. Nice to know that the fine tradition of patenting prior inventions, such as wheels (also awarded this year) continues in the US.

In the continuing worrisome trend of US patent office incompetence, news.com reports that Open Market has been awarded extremely broad patents covering much of the software in common use today for Internet shopping and credit card payments. Larger companies can cross-license or claim patent infringement against Open Market, but smaller ones will be screwed. Nice to know that the fine tradition of patenting prior inventions, such as wheels (also awarded this year) continues in the US.

Hotmail has taken a lot of heat since MS bought them, but Henrik Edlund wrote in to tell us that someone sent everyone @hotmail.com and email from 'admin' telling them that their trial period was over. I find this quite amusing. Anyway, you can read more at news.com

Henrik Edlund was the first of many people to report that Nasa has been hacked by a flood of various denial of service attacks. The rumor is that they were hit by the new tear drop variation that we talked about yesterday as well. You can learn more here.

Well up till recently, DVD has been the second biggest vaporware product in recent decades (only HDTV seems worse to me). But that's all changing. Joe MacDonald wrote in to tell us that Creative Labs is selling DVD drives now. They hold up to 4.7 gigs, and can be had for as little as $150. Read more at news.com.

sIX / aEGIS wrote in with a note saying that IBM might be making AMD chips. AMD has been having a rough time producing its chips lately, and with IBMs gigantic manufacturing facilities, AMD may gain a more impressive market share. Read more at news.com.

US President Clinton has declared a total ban on any new net taxes, whether goods or services. With the telcos whining about how they need money, and how modems ar ruining their profit margins, despite huge profits they have all posted, this comes as welcome news.

The Economist has another example of bumbling German bureaucrats pushing Germany back into the Dark Ages. Given the number of Europeans in US high-tech industries, it's pretty clear that Europe lacks opportunity and not talent. Indeed, in the US, it seems that large companies buy much of their innovation, rather than developing it themselves. This means a favourable environment for start-ups is essential to hot technology. This is what Europe lacks.

Intel will be using the StrongARM design for handheld devices, and other low cost appliances. This is the first time Intel has used a non in-house design and architecture: it is a licensee of ARM , which keeps control of the direction of the chip. Hopefully this will boost rather than diminish ARM's chances of survival. StrongARM may now replace i960 as RISC chip for the I2O spec. While being good news for Corel, it may prove problematic for x86 vendors hoping to build x86's for the information appliance market.

news.com reports on its front page that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has given Pioneer Awards to Linus Torvalds and Richard Stallman. Please post any other references to this you may find. I couldn't find any on EFF's site.

3com company, the parent of former US Robotics has announced that it has built the first 56k modem built to the new international standards agreement. The announcement comes only a short while after the announcement of the standard, a couple weeks old now. Now we just need to see whether they really will be upgrading all those x2 modems they sold to everyone and their mother.

Microsoft has had a busy day. Having a suit against them thrown out, attempting to use the VBI for their own good, and being written about in a fascinating Red Herring article. Read more... A Texas judge has dismissed the suit the State of Texas brought against Microsoft last year, a suit that attacked Microsoft for its ultra-secretive non-disclosure agreements.
Also, Microsoft is in talks with several TV content partners to discuss how the vertical blanking interface (a way of transmitting data through television signals, at about 9600bps, by my calculations) wil be used. Sounds as if exclusive content enhancment services will be available only to Win98 and WebTV users.
Finally, an amusing but fascinating article talks about how Microsoft is 'a good monopoly'. Aside from the obvious errors (I'm sure Microsoft forced SCO to include code in their OS to make it incompatible with Windows...). I particularly enjoyed the part about 'increasing returns', a concept that can be applied in other places besides economics, and one that I've been studying for a long while...

Microsoft has had a busy day. Having a suit against them thrown out, attempting to use the VBI for their own good, and being written about in a fascinating Red Herring article. Read more... A Texas judge has dismissed the suit the State of Texas brought against Microsoft last year, a suit that attacked Microsoft for its ultra-secretive non-disclosure agreements.
Also, Microsoft is in talks with several TV content partners to discuss how the vertical blanking interface (a way of transmitting data through television signals, at about 9600bps, by my calculations) wil be used. Sounds as if exclusive content enhancment services will be available only to Win98 and WebTV users.
Finally, an amusing but fascinating article talks about how Microsoft is 'a good monopoly'. Aside from the obvious errors (I'm sure Microsoft forced SCO to include code in their OS to make it incompatible with Windows...). I particularly enjoyed the part about 'increasing returns', a concept that can be applied in other places besides economics, and one that I've been studying for a long while...

Eric Anderson sent in this link where you can read about Sun's statement filed with the court saying that MS Java is incompatible, and that violates license agreements. This thing needs to be resolved soon if Java is going to have a future that's for sure.

Simon Janes wrote in with this news.com story where you can read about a new Plastic Screen Technology. It's pretty interesting, but what I found more interesting was the list of investors in the technology: Cambridge University, Intel, and the rock group Genesis. Who knew that Genesis was concerned with investing in interesting video technology.

Andy Tai writes " Sun is pushing Javasoft, its division in charge of Java development, to become profitable. This article analyze potential profit sources for Javasoft, which include embedded systems and consulting. Even though this article says Javasoft won't change its policy on JDKs, how will this pressure change Javasoft's bahavior, and how will this incluence Java on Linux, where Sun cannot expect to get significant license fees from, remain to be seen." Here's the link.

This News.com story was sent to us by Max Enders. It talks about tomorrows release of Intel's new i740 graphics chip. It's fast, it's cheap, and I suspect that it's competitors aren't too happy about it.

Jeremy Collins send us this little tidbit 'o news: W3C today made XML a standard for webpages. My understanding is that this is HTMLs big brother. Anyway seems interesting. Check it out.
This is good news (tm). How much playing with XML have people done?

Mitsubishi Electric has ceased its production of the Digital Alpha chip. Under a joint development agreement, Digital allowed Mitsubishi (and Samsung) to produce Alpha chips and share other intellectual property- Mitsubishi may not ever make another Alpha, however. Is Samsung enough to keep the Alpha alive? Volume production is necessary to keep costs down...

Architecture is as important as fabrication process for new advances in CPU speeds, claims Mark Dean, director of the IBM Austin Research Lab. IBM has demonstrated the GUTS of a new PowerPC processor running today at Gigahertz speeds. An interesting question is whether IBM has the tools to produce scalable PowerPCs based on the dynamic circuit-design style which is more difficult to move between processes.

Netscape will announce tomorrow that it has signed distribution deals with over 3000 companies, potentially boosting the number of Netscape copies by 36 million. Major distributors include Autodesk, Clarisys, and McGraw-Hill who will be bundling Netscape with their products.

Today, CETI has suffered another set-back. CETI is the for-profit limited liability joint venture that Microsoft, GTE, Hughes Electronics and Fujitsu want to set up to become the exclusive technology provider to California State University. The deadline for CETI to sign the ten-year exclusivity deal has been postponed from the end of March to end of May, having originally been scheduled for the end of January. Many fear that the deal will influence students, biassing them in their professional lives against competitor products which they have never encountered. Coming from Europe, I have been surprised at work, by how few Americans encountered Unix at University. In Europe, using Unix is required for many sciences, and definitely for Computer Science. Netaction has organized a campaign against CETI.

Today, CETI has suffered another set-back. CETI is the for-profit limited liability joint venture that Microsoft, GTE, Hughes Electronics and Fujitsu want to set up to become the exclusive technology provider to California State University. The deadline for CETI to sign the ten-year exclusivity deal has been postponed from the end of March to end of May, having originally been scheduled for the end of January. Many fear that the deal will influence students, biassing them in their professional lives against competitor products which they have never encountered. Coming from Europe, I have been surprised at work, by how few Americans encountered Unix at University. In Europe, using Unix is required for many sciences, and definitely for Computer Science. Netaction has organized a campaign against CETI.

In one of the stories that brings a smile to my face, the White House has officially confirmed that it has sent a letter to the owner of whitehouse.com. Apparently, the White House does not take kindly to the owner of the rather..er..racy whitehouse.com using the presidential and first lady's likeness as sales techniques.

The Argentine Supreme Court has ruled that copying software is not a criminal offence. Those with long memories will remember the pressure placed on Taiwan, China, and other Asian economies by the U.S. government, prime champion of intellectual property. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for Argentina to be persuaded to change its mind. The story broke here

Brian Knotts has sent us an interesting link and a quick comment:"Basically, Jai Singh is taking the position that Compaq's acquisition of Digital is the final nail in the coffin for all things non-Wintel."

At long last hackers are using their skills to improve our lives rather than pull childish pranks. Ethical Hackers Against Pedophilia aims to determine the identity and physical location of people who post child pornography on newsgroups and Web Sites. Read more here

andrew sent us this link to news.com where you can readabout Microsoft and the 11 states that have subpeona'd her with regards to Windows 98.

It appears that in addition to the Department of Justice's crusade against MS, eleven states have subpoenaed Microsoft, looking to see whether Microsoft has violated any states' laws against unfair practice. The war continues...

kossico told us that in the aftermath of Netscape's big news, News.com has a special feature about Free Software. Features RealAudio for RMS and more juicy Netscape tidbits.

news.com reports that the heads of Iomega's ZIP drives can become misaligned if the units are not left perfectly still. To find out more about the click of death read this Anyone had problems with Syquest's alternative?

news.com reports that the heads of Iomega's ZIP drives can become misaligned if the units are not left perfectly still. To find out more about the click of death read this Anyone had problems with Syquest's alternative?

Vice President Al Gore announced that the US Federal Government will be extending by 2.2 billion dollars the grant money that is offered to high-tech money. The money has been set there to help get some of the cutting edge companies, like biotech and such, get off the ground.

AMD Inc., has announced large price cuts on its K6 line of processors. All prices have been slashed drastically. A 200MHz model can be had for under US$100 now (in volume). Compaq will also announce a K6-based laptop in the near-future.