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When I saw this article it made me laugh and it comes as a major embarrassment for Microsoft. Microsoft could have avoided the latest assault on their servers had they applied their own patches to fix the security holes.

Since the embarrassing admission of the hack attack of its corporate network, Microsoft has suffered two more high profile attacks, both of which hit its Web site. The attacks on Microsoft's Web site, which runs on Windows NT/2000 and the company's IIS Web server, were breached using known vulnerabilities of the products. What's amazing is that fixes for these vulnerabilities had been available--from Microsoft--for some time, but they'd never been applied to the site. A hacker known only as Dmitri performed both hacks: In his first attack, he simply added a text file with the words "Hack the planet" to the site, without damaging any of the other files. His second attack goaded Microsoft for not fixing the problem that let him into the site in the first place: He added a new page to the site that reads, "Patching your system is very hard, huh?" Dmitri forwarded the address of the new page to journalists and other hackers to prove that he had broken into the site.

Infineon Licenses Mips 64-bit RISC Core.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: TechWeb  Added by: Kim Heise

You can bet that next year (2001) is going to be the year of 64bit processors as Intel and AMD scramble to be the first. Mips has had 64 bit processors available for sometime but unfortunately the x86 processors rob the limelight.

Infineon Technologies AG (stock: IFX) will license a 64-bit RISC processor core from Mips Technologies Inc. (stock: MIPS) for use in new ICs for next-generation IADs and specialized LAN switching equipment. The Munich, Germany, chip company said it will license both the Mips64 5Kc processor core and related subsystems for design of system-on-chip products. The former chip division of Siemens AG said it selected the 5Kc core from Mips Technologies because it believes the RISC processor has become the de facto standard for 64-bit applications in the communications market. Terms of the deal were not released.

SQL Server 2000 Goes Mobile.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Here's another race I've been watching closely: Who is going to develop the first standard for portable database clients? Microsoft has the advantage over Oracle in that it owns WinCE and can readily develop solutions more rapidly.

Microsoft is stepping in to the mobile database arena with a mini version of the massive SQL Server 2000 database, a move that foreshadows many more applications and partnerships in the mobile and wireless computing marketplace.

Microsoft's new SQL Server 2000 Windows CE Edition will face its staunchest competition from Sybase, which nailed down 61 percent of last year's mobile database market, according to numbers from Gartner Group's Data quest. But Oracle and IBM will be tough players, as well, notes Jon Rubin, a Gartner analyst.

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Crusoe to land in wearable computers.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: ZDNET  Added by: Kim Heise

Transmeta's "Crusoe" CPU is very impressive on how little resources the chip demands during average workloads. The performance is nothing to be impressed by but the company is targeting itself at a very specific market. Namely the PDA's and the next hype-driven item called "wearable" computers. Doesn't my watch qualify as a wearable computer?

Via Inc. says it will use Transmeta's chip in its next-generation device, citing the chip's frugal power use and low heat generation.

Following on its successful initial public offering, upstart computer-chip maker Transmeta Corp. today is expected to announce that computer maker Via Inc. will use its low-power Crusoe processor in a wearable computer it plans to produce.

Via said that the first versions of its wearable PC are now being used by the U.S. Army Military Police in tests at Fort Polk, La., and elsewhere. The Crusoe chip will be used in the next iteration of the wearable PC.

PC World Voters Guide.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: PC World  Added by: Kim Heise

While we are becoming the world's laughing stock over the most recent developments during the presidential race, PC world has posted up a table depicting how each candidate views the technology sector. It may be a little late but may help to indicate what we can expect (once we settle on a winner). I will refrain from making any "Internet Innovation" jokes but you know it's very tempting.

By now, you've probably read all the election coverage you can stand. With rallies in the news, debates on the networks, and political ads everywhere the eye can see, you'd think the candidates could have blown enough hot air to elucidate their positions on every possible issue.

Not quite. Throughout the current presidential campaign, most of the candidates have largely ignored the Internet and related technology concerns. We decided to pin down the candidates on critical technology issues.

We queried each presidential campaign on 20 top technology issues, including whether the government should tax Internet sales or pay for wiring schools, and whether e-mail deserves First Amendment protection. Since some of the campaigns did not answer all the questions, we scoured their official campaign Web sites for any statements, position papers, or FAQs that explained their stands on these issues.

Supercomputers for rent over the internet.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: Ars Technica  Added by: Kim Heise

Have plenty of data to crunch and need some extra horsepower? Here's a possible solution and I suspect it isn't cheap:

While harnessing unused desktop CPU cycles via the Internet has become the basis of a trendy cottage industry, Computer Sciences Corp is coming in at the other end of the distributed computing spectrum. They plan to offer "companies in biotechnology, engineering, seismic exploration and mapping or molecular science" processing time on their banks of supercomputers for a pay-per-use fee. Interfacing to the new service will be done through the Internet at their High Performance Computing site. No mention of just what the fee is going to be, but it does suggest that there is money to be made. This bodes well for all the newly hatched commercial distributed computing companies (e.g. Dcypher.net, Centrata) which hope to process the same sort of large data sets that CSC is after.

Viking Releases Engineering Samples of 184-Pin DDR Memory Modules.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: Electic Tech  Added by: Kim Heise

This is good news since the more vendors we have developing DDR RAM, the more likely for competition to lower the prices. We just need to see more motherboards available.

Viking Components, one of the world's largest and fastest growing manufacturers of OEM and upgrade component technology, is now shipping engineering samples of its next-generation 184-pin unbuffered and registered Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM modules supporting the AMD-760(TM) chipset.

Viking DDR samples are now available in 128 MB and 256 MB capacities.

Unlike PC100 and PC133 SDRAM, DDR memory can send and receive data on both the rising and falling edges of a clock cycle, achieving memory transfer rates up to 100 percent higher than existing SDRAM technology.

And DDR memory is manufactured at cost levels that are in line with today's mainstream PC memory costs making it possible to realize improved system performance at comparable costs to current SDRAM solutions.

``Viking is committed to supporting DDR and other next-generation memory to guarantee fulfillment of our customer's high-speed computing requirements,'' said Shannon Biggs, Viking executive vice-president of engineering and manufacturing.

Maxtor Now Shipping DiamondMax Plus 60 in Volume.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: Electic Tech  Added by: Kim Heise

I think I'm going to pick up one of these drives as soon as they hit the shelves. 

Maxtor Corporation today announced volume shipments of the DiamondMax Plus 60, a 20 Gigabyte (GB) per disk, 7200 rpm hard drive. This latest addition to the DiamondMax Plus family is now shipping to Maxtor's worldwide distribution and retail channel partners.

``Maxtor is the first company to ship, in volume, a 7200 rpm drive with up to 60 GB on just three disks,'' said Mike Cordano, Maxtor's vice president of worldwide sales. ``The demand for our performance ATA hard drives continues to grow as our traditional customers move to faster processors and new customers start to use ATA hard drives for their enterprise storage needs.''

DRAM prices keep falling.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: SemiBIZNews  Added by: Kim Heise

One of my co-workers reported that EggHead software is selling 133mhz 128MB DRAM for around $79.00. Just last week it was costing well over $150.00.

If you need some extra memory for your PC then you had better move fast. Typically these low points only last a couple of days before prices double.

Mainstream synchronous DRAM prices today continued their spot-market free fall, with workhorse memory chips hitting their lowest prices ever.

Industry reports show PC133 8-by-8 64-megabit SDRAMs plunging below $3.50 on Asian spot markets and PC100 8-by-16 128-Mbit chips falling to $9.80. The 8-by-8 64-Mbits were slightly higher, at $3.85 to $3.90, on U.S. commodity markets.

Contract OEM pricing followed the commodity market lower, reportedly dropping to about $5 for 8x8 64-Mbits, and below $11 for 128-Mbit SDRAMs.

Analysts and DRAM suppliers blamed a slowing rate of PC growth, which was both curtailing new customer orders and reducing the previous inventory buildup into the spot market. The continuing drop in 128-Mbit SDRAMs saw these chips this week selling below the price that 64-Mbits commanded only a few months ago.

The steep SDRAM drop in a month was reminiscent of a similar plunge a year ago, when they bottomed out at about $4.50. Only a month ago, 8-by-8 PC133 SDRAMs were selling for $5.50 and 8-by-16 PC100s were at $15.50 in spot markets, according to both American IC Exchange and NECX. That marks a 36% price fall in the past 30 days for both types of mainstream memory.

Dieter Mackowiak, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Samsung Semiconductor Inc. in San Jose, said he believes the suddenpricing nosedive would hit bottom once OEMs worked off the SDRAM inventories they had built up for PC production ramps this fall that didn't hit the target. Ironically, trailing-edge EDO 4-by-16 or 16-by-4 DRAMs were selling at nearly three times the price of similar-density SDRAM parts, because of very limited production by only a few producers.

Seagate Fastest Cheetah 10K Drives.
Posted: 11/09/2000     Source: Seagate  Added by: Kim Heise

Here's another fast new drive on the market from Seagate that uses 10,000RPM disk speeds. The fast rotational speed shows some very impressive results but it would be interesting to see some more "non-PR" results using average machines.

Seagate Technology today announced two new members of its Cheetah family of 10K disc drives -- The Cheetah 36XL and Cheetah 73LP. The Cheetah 36XL delivers an average seek time of 5.2 msec, formatted data transfer rates up to 46.1 Mbytes/sec, and a low power rating of 9 watts that keep the Cheetah 36XL running cooler than previous-generation designs. The Cheetah 36XL is offered in capacities of 9.2, 18.4, and 36.7 Gbyte capacities to fulfill user's various capacity requirements.

The Cheetah 73LP is a low-profile design that stores up to 73 Gbytes to allow businesses to fit more storage in their server enclosures. It features an areal density of 18 Gbits/in2, average seek time as low as 4.6 msec, formatted data transfer rates up to 63.9 Mbytes/sec, and operates at a low 10.3 watts (SCSI). The 73LP is also offered with a 16 Mbyte V-code cache option for data streaming applications such as audio and video. The Cheetah 73 Gbyte model comes in both Ultra160 SCSI and 2 Gbit Fibre Channel interfaces while the 36 Gbyte Cheetah 73LP is offered exclusively in a 2 Gbit Fibre Channel interface. Additionally, with the Cheetah 73LP, Seagate is introducing its Rotational Vibration Protection System that monitors drive movement in relationship to the cabinet or the drive mounting system and provides feedback to the drive's servo system, reducing positioning errors resulting from rotational vibration within the cabinet or mounting system.

Both Cheetahs include a 1,200,000 hour Mean Time Between Failure Rating (MTBF) and are backed with a full 5 year warranty. Single evaluation-unit Suggested Retail Pricing (SRP) of the Cheetah 36XL at 9.2, 18.4, and 36.7 Gbyte capacities is $245, $365, and $615 respectively. Single evaluation-unit SRP of the Cheetah 73LP at 73 and 36 Gbyte capacities is $1,139 and $615. Actual street pricing of the new Cheetah disc drives will vary, and will be determined by Seagate authorized resellers. The availability of the new Cheetahs will be Q1, 2001.