Technology

A major security vulnerability in Microsoft's Windows operating system has security experts concerned about widespread attacks even though Microsoft has issued a patch for the problem -- this time a security vulnerability in the widely used Abstract Syntax Notation (ASN.1) protocol. Microsoft, which...

Two new standards approved this week by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) are poised to provide consumers with content more appropriate for their needs, enabling computers to locate relevant information on the Internet more quickly than was ever possible before. The consortium disclosed Tuesday th...

Recently, Bill Gates claimed the problem of spam, the annoying unsolicited e-mail that congests the Internet, could be solved in the next two years. Some may scoff at this idea, but when one examines the marketplace, Gates' prediction may even seem conservative. That's because an old idea is finally...

PalmSource has released two operating system updates -- one major and one minor. PalmSource's Cobalt is an almost entirely new OS aimed at giving enterprise users more flexibility, while Garnet is a collection of minor updates to an earlier version of the popular Palm operating system. Cobalt OS fea...

This week, we will get one of the best views on how well the separation between the Palm hardware and software units is going, and, coincidentally, we'll also get yet another view of what probably would have happened had Apple taken a similar risk a few years ago and separated itself into hardware a...

Diebold Systems, a $2 billion company that makes most of its money by manufacturing ATM machines but most of its headlines by producing electronic voting devices, found itself in court Monday for alleged abuse of copyright protections created by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The lawsu...

Privately held Norwegian technology company Opera Software, maker of the increasingly popular Opera Web browser that serves as an alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer, has announced its intentions to offer an initial public offering next month. The company, which also reported fourth-quarter...

SPECIAL REPORT

Computing Invades the Living Room

Computing is moving out of the office and heading for the living room, the coat pocket and the car. In a convergence with traditional home entertainment, computing and telecommunications technologies are starting to weave together a pervasive mix of "lifestyle" products and services. In the near fut...

RealNetworks has released several updates to close security gaps in its media players, including RealPlayer Enterprise and the beta version of RealPlayer 10. The vulnerabilities, if exploited, could give attackers control over victims' computers. The Seattle-based company said it has received no rep...

In a move reminiscent of government tactics used against drug dealers and organized crime, an Australian group working on behalf of the recording industry there raided offices and homes belonging to executives of the Kazaa peer-to-peer (P2P) network operator, Sharman Networks. Using a search order s...

LOOKING FORWARD

Preparing for the Superworm at the Front Lines

Imagine a war in which the combatants are invisible and the weapons they bear are hidden in trickery and stealth. Now picture that war being waged on a battlefield consisting not of desert fields but of thousands of ragtag computers in bedrooms, dens and corporate cubicles across America. These batt...

Diverging from its usual dedication to Intel-based machines, Microsoft has made public a beta version of Windows XP for use on 64-bit computers running the AMD Athlon 64 and Opteron processors. Microsoft said its Windows XP 64-Bit Edition is designed for technical workstation users who require large...

As the entertainment industry attempted this week to overturn a court ruling protecting the operation of file-sharing services on the Internet, peer-to-peer outfits rolled out new products that could cause more hand-wringing among movie and music execs. StreamCast Networks released a new version of ...

In stark contrast to statistics released by Netcraft, a survey conducted by San Diego-based Port80 Software indicates that Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) server is used by more high-traffic Web sites than the rival Apache server. Port80 Software polled the 1,000 most-visited Web sit...

Spammers are now targeting mobile phone subscribers throughout Asia, sending text messages through the popular short message service (SMS) system. The practice is generating concern at major technology companies like Microsoft and NTT DoCoMo about a potential emerging tsunami of unwanted e-solicitat...

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