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News for Tuesday September 11th 2001

Cowardly Terrorist Attack on the United States of America.
Posted: 09/11/2001  Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise

Today a cowardly terrorist attack was launched against the United States of America with significant loss of life to innocent people. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.

When Pearl Harbor was attacked the Japanese Admiral Yamamoto felt that by attacking the US Japan would "awaken a sleeping giant". The sleeping giant has awoken again.

This cowardly act will not be forgotten or forgiven.

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New Fujitsu HD technology.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: VR-Zone Added by: Kim Heise

With this new technology Fujitsu expects to fit approximately 110GB of storage on a 2.5 inch HD. That is very impressive. No word yet on price/availability at this point.

Consider this: Imagine having a laptop with 110GB of drive space.

Fujitsu announced its intention to aggressively leverage a major hard disk drive technology breakthrough from Fujitsu Laboratories, as it implements its recently announced push for market leadership in the fast-growing enterprise and mobile HDD markets. Fujitsu Laboratories recently announced the achievement of a world record breaking recording density of 106.4Gigabits per square inch, which gives hard disk drives about three times the recording density of the latest models currently available.
Hard disk drives integrating this increased areal density of 106.4Gigabits per square inch will become available within two years. The benefits will be apparent in PCs, laptop computers and consumer electronics devices with a 2.5`` hard disk drive that will have a storage capacity of more than 110GBytes, enough to record 20 DVD-quality movies -- a capability that Fujitsu believes will eventually mean the end of the 3.5'' desktop drive market.

The technology announcement comes just weeks after Fujitsu Limited announced an aggressive plan to capitalize on exploding demand for enterprise HDD products for servers and storage devices, growth in the mobile HDD segment, and emerging markets for smaller hard drives in consumer-oriented household appliances, audio-visual products and other non-PC applications. To accommodate the new push, Fujitsu Limited will shift development, manufacturing and sales resources away from the 3.5`` IDE desktop drive market that recorded negative growth in the first half of 2001.

New Pocket PC 2002 - Screenshots.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: Active Win Added by: Kim Heise

Active Win has placed screenshots online showing off Microsoft's new Pocket PC 2002 operating system. I must admit it does look like a major upgrade but still cannot be convinced (at this time) that it is worth letting go of my solid Palm OS based PDA.

Toys "R" Us sells out Xbox advance orders.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: CNET Added by: Kim Heise

Anybody care to venture a guess on how many Xbox gaming consoles Microsoft will sell just the first week alone?

Apparently Toys "R" Us sold out their entire first batch in 30 minutes of opening up the Xbox for preorder sales. Keep in mind that no numbers were given so it is remotely possible Toys "R" Us only had a couple of hundred available in the first batch.

You can bet that Microsoft will fall short of demand and consumers will be lining up in front of electronic stores early.

LOS ANGELES--Leading retailer Toys "R" Us said Wednesday that its online store sold out its first batch of Xbox video game units in 30 minutes on Tuesday.
Toysrus.com and its online partner, Amazon.com, began taking preorders for Microsoft's new game console this week, but only in a bundle with $200 worth of extra hardware and games.
The Xbox will be available at retail outlets on Nov. 8 with a suggested price of $299. However, Amazon and Toysrus.com take advance Xbox orders for $499 with a number of games and accessories included.
A spokesman for Toysrus.com said that its entire batch sold out online in about 30 minutes but would not disclose exactly how many such bundled units had been sold. He said the next presale offer opens Sept. 11.
A representative for Toysrus.com said Tuesday that the console will only be available bundled with the accessories and not as a stand-alone unit. The forthcoming GameCube from Nintendo will also be sold as a bundle only, the representative said.

HP and Compaq's merger on shaky ground.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: CNET Added by: Kim Heise

Planning a merger is one task but convincing stake holders is another story all together. I'd say this merger is looking 50/50 split right now to whether it goes through for now.

This will put the new company over Dell in terms of size and yearly computer sales which could change the market significantly. As to exactly how - is anyone's guess at this point.

Call it the incredible shrinking deal.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard dipped further--by about 4 percent--a day after Wall Street first got word of the company's plan to acquire Compaq Computer, driving the price of the deal down about $5 billion since it was announced late Monday.

The merger was initially valued at $25 billion, based on the Friday closing price of HP's stock. But investors have not looked kindly upon the deal, and HP's stock has lost nearly one-quarter of its value since Friday, dropping $5.08 to $18.12 by Wednesday at market close.

That drop placed the value of the deal around $19.6 billion. Unlike some mergers, which have "collars"-- share price thresholds where one of the companies can walk away from a deal--HP's deal with Compaq is at a fixed ratio, meaning the two companies--and their share prices--are joined at the hip.

The terms of the deal call for every share of Compaq stock to be exchanged for 0.6325 of a share of HP stock.

HP and Compaq executives have hit the investment conference circuit to pitch the deal. On Wednesday, HP CEO Carly Fiorina said at an SG Cowen conference in Boston that the companies fit together well and can change the industry, two themes she had sounded when the deal was announced.

Executives from both companies have had a tough time selling the merger to miffed shareholders.

Motorola claims chip breakthrough.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: Chicago Tribune Added by: Kim Heise

Although Motorola falls significantly behind in the Megahertz race the company still develops and ships impressive computer processors.

Only time will tell if Motorola can actually mass produce Gallium Arsenide based processors within reasonable production costs. This technology is nothing new but it does claim a revolutionary manufacturing plan up their sleeves.

Scientists at Motorola Labs contend that new work on fabricating semiconductors is a breakthrough that will reshape the entire industry. The development also has the potential to turn around the fortunes of Motorola's struggling semiconductor unit, analysts said.

The scientists are combining silicon with gallium arsenide, a flashy and expensive semiconductor, in a way that will drastically lower prices.

Richard Cunningham, a senior analyst with Cahners In-Stat Group, said that what Motorola accomplished "has been the Holy Grail in this field. Back in the '80s a lot of people spent a lot of time trying to do it and failed. Most research was abandoned."

Putting crystals of gallium arsenide atop silicon has long been a goal of researchers. Engineers have found ways to make and use gallium arsenide chips, but the technology is so expensive that it's been limited to niche applications.

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola expects that will change within a few years now that it has the "recipe" to cheaply make gallium arsenide chips, said Dennis Roberson, Motorola senior vice president and chief technology officer.

"We have slain the dragon," Roberson said. "This is a revolutionary technology."

Gallium arsenide is a highly regarded semiconductor because it not only conducts electricity faster than silicon, but it also emits light that can be used for information applications. Putting the brittle gallium arsenide on top of a silicon base provides a sturdiness needed by chips, but a slight mismatch between the crystal structures of the two materials had always defeated efforts at combining them.

Nero Enables DVD Creation, Utilizes mp3PRO.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: BetaNews Added by: Kim Heise

Expect DVD recordables to become a household item by the end of the year. The movie/music industry is not pleased with the rapid growth of multimedia recordable devices but can do nothing to slow the demand.

The "cat is out of the bag" and the recording industry had better find a way to embrace it along with the consumer.

Recent crack downs on the illegal distribution of digital media are set to be challenged by the introduction of robust new audio formats and storage devices into the consumer mainstream. As these technologies become more commonplace, several forward looking companies adopt support early on. Ahead Software has done just that by incorporating support for mp3PRO and multi-function DVD recording drives into Nero 5.5.

mp3PRO is the successor to the wildly popular MP3 audio format, which opened the flood gates for online music swapping through services such as Napster. Ahead introduced the first recording software to utilize MP3, and has since licensed mp3PRO as well, banking on the format's continued dominance. However, competing file formats such as Ogg Vorbis, Windows Media, and Real have garnered attention from music fans by offering their own distinct advantages.

mp3PRO proprietor, Thompson Multimedia, is marketing mp3PRO as being capable of accommodating 128 kbps audio quality in a 64 kbps encoded file -- without sacrificing playback. This means more music can be effectively stored on each CD. The new format is fully backward compatible with the original MP3 codec, a feature meant to ease the transition.

According to the press release, "Nero will now include DVD ISO/UDF/UDF Bridge, Bootable DVD, DVD Copy, and DVD Image." The latest release of InCD, version 3.0, will also sport UDF v1.5 support for all compatible drives. InCD allows removable media to take on the same role as a hard drive or floppy -- making DVDs a solution for added storage needs.

The use of recordable DVDs is expected to take off when prices begin to fall, as DVD media offers considerably higher capacity than traditional CDs. A single DVD is capable or storing many albums and even a series of movies such as The Godfather. New drives often include a combination of supported media formats, requiring recording software like Nero to provide an integrated solution to its customers.

Log In, Pay Out - IRS goes on the web.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: NewsBytes Added by: Kim Heise

Just think how much money the IRS would save if the governmental division did not need to send out and process all the paper mail.

Having a online tax processing system would be outstanding (and inevitable) but opens up a whole can of worms if the system has flaky security protocols.

Somehow - I do not believe the IRS will trouble finding the money to hire top-notch security firms to beef up the system.

The Treasury Department on Thursday intends to unveil a system designed to make it far easier for ordinary citizens to pay their taxes online.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has accepted electronic payments through its Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) since 1996, but thus far, that system has required taxpayers to use special software and access codes, Treasury Department spokesperson Tara Bradshaw said today.

The new system - called EFTPS-OnLine - will be available to any U.S. taxpayer with an Internet connection, Bradshaw said. "If you have a browser, you can pay."

Although the Treasury Department reports that more than 3.5 million businesses and individuals have filed their taxes online since the debut of EFTPS, Bradshaw said that, to date, the biggest EFTPS users have been large businesses.

"This will just open it up to allow smaller businesses and individuals to pay taxes online," Bradshaw said.

Details on how the new system will work will be unveiled at a press conference on Thursday morning.

U.S. abandons Microsoft breakup effort.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: Yahoo Reuters Added by: Kim Heise

This news post is just hot off the press if you haven't heard that the government will not consider breaking Microsoft into smaller companies.

Personally I think it is good news because the government should not involve itself in the private enterprise that made the US a powerful financial nation - just my two cents....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department (news - web sites) said on Thursday it was no longer seeking the breakup of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) and would strive to find a remedy in the three-year old case ``as quickly as possible.''

In a statement that initially pushed the technology giant's shares higher, the department said it would also not pursue an unresolved claim that the company illegally tied its Internet Explorer browser to its Windows operating system.

``The Department of Justice (news - web sites)'s Antitrust Division today advised Microsoft that it will not seek a break-up of the company in remand proceedings before the U.S. District Court,'' the statement said.

Instead, the department said it will pursue a remedy ''modeled after the interim conduct-related provisions of the final judgment previously ordered in the case.''

The announcement came as the Justice Department and Microsoft try to work out a proposal on how further proceedings should be structured.

Disney, News Corp. in Video-On-Demand service.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: Yahoo Reuters Added by: Kim Heise

When I heard about this business plan I thought these companies must be joking. How about running a public survey to see how many people would actually use this system?

What I mean is how many people would be prepared to sit in front of their computers to sit and watch a movie. Now if the companies developed a system to feed the video directly into your large screen TV then we are talking about something more useful.

There is no doubt that we will be downloading video-on-demand off the internet for most of our viewing options in the future but there needs to be a system for allowing the user to view the footage over a large screen TV instead of a 15 to 22inch monitor.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood giants Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS - news) and News Corp Ltd.(NCP.AX) on Wednesday joined forces in a video-on-demand joint venture, just weeks after five rival studios announced a separate Web initiative to zap movies to viewers at their convenience.

The venture, dubbed Movies.com, will be an equally-owned company between Disney and Fox, providing films and other content on demand to U.S. consumers beginning early 2002. The venture will absorb Disney's existing Movies.com Web site.

News Corp and Disney previously worked together in another joint venture involving Disney's ESPN and News Corp's Star Sports in Asia, company officials said.

Cisco to ship 10-Gig modules.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: TechWeb Added by: Kim Heise

Ten gigabit Ethernet switches? All I can say is WOW! Consider saving up around $80,000 if you plan to implement this mind boggling bandwidth.

Code Red turns Code Green.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: Win Informant Added by: Kim Heise

The idea of developing a program to "squash" the Code Red virus sounds appealing until you consider that this approach has viruses being developed to attack other viruses.

What we don't need is for these viruses to turn into a dueling match between who can stop who and wreak total havoc. This is sure to prime certain personal ego's for war.

The fact of releasing viruses to catch viruses sounds unsettling.

A German programmer released source code for a new worm called CodeGreen, which he designed to combat the Code Red worm. The Code Red worm infects unpatched Microsoft IIS systems by exploiting a vulnerability related to index services. Once the worm infects the IIS systems, the worm spreads rapidly. CodeGreen works by running on a system and waiting for Code Red to attack that system. When CodeGreen detects an attack, it launches a counterattack that removes Code Red and installs a copy of CodeGreen on the attacking system.

New cable standard may triple speeds.
Posted: 09/06/2001  Source: CNET Added by: Kim Heise

Just was notified about a new cable modem standard that could triple the connection speed. That would be fantastic news to existing/future cable modem users.

I didn't see anything about improving the upstream connection speed but I'm sure that is in the works.

A new cable Internet standard slated to be finalized later this year could boost cable modem speeds, clearing the way for a raft of new services.

Denver-based CableLabs, the cable industry's research and development arm, announced recently that it will certify a new version of DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification), the technology protocol cable operators use to deliver high-speed Net access using cable modems.

The latest version, which will be called DOCSIS 2.0, significantly increases cable bandwidth, or network capacity, particularly for so-called upstream transmissions, according to CableLabs. The standard, which will be finished by year's end, is designed to triple the speed at which cable modem users may send data and Internet traffic. But equipment--certified as being based on the standard--is unlikely to be ready for more than a year, some analysts say.

Using new techniques, cable networks based on the standard will be capable of sending data as much as three times faster than previously possible. DOCSIS 2.0 uses A-TDMA (advanced frequency agile time division multiple access) and S-CDMA (synchronous code division multiple access) to accomplish the gain in speed. According to one manufacturer, S-CDMA is not based on the CDMA technology born a decade ago by Qualcomm for wireless networks.

Lack of news posts.
Posted: 09/05/2001  Source: N/A Added by: Kim Heise

Work has been insanely busy over the last several weeks with a major software release imminent in our company. On top of that I am without my main machine as for yet unknown reasons my new system decided to quit leaving me with a fried motherboard and CPU.

A week I would like to forget....

Hopefully later this week I will find time to update the web site.

Apologies for the lack of posts.

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