Articles by Jay Lyman

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 Netcraft's Web server findings, based on a survey of more than 47 million Web sites, have consistently i...

It may already be the de facto voice platform for the Internet, but this week the Voice XML 2.0 specification has moved closer to becoming an official World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standard. The W3C, the body responsible for maintaining many of the core standards and protocols at the heart of the Internet, has published the new Voice XML 2.0 specification as a Proposed Recommendation...

Major ISPs -- including Microsoft and Yahoo -- have indicated interest in an e-mail "stamp" approach that would charge bulk e-mailers 1 U.S. cent for each piece of e-mail in an effort to differentiate legitimate e-mail marketing from spam However, critics of the stamp approach -- which, in theory, is similar to the approach used by postal services ...

Laying the groundwork for the next generation of computer microprocessors that will push clock speeds higher, Intel has released new Pentium 4 desktop chips -- code-named "Prescott" -- that promise improved performance for both consumer and business users Intel said the desktop processors are the result of manufacturing technologies based on the ne...

While Apple may have lost the operating system battle to Microsoft, it has become a major player in the digital music market, thanks to the company's successful iPod player and iTunes online music store. However, Microsoft has managed to make its Windows Media Audio (WMA) music format the standard of nearly all other online music stores and players -- with the notable exception of PC partner HP, which recently announced a partnership with Apple to adopt its competing music format...

In the face of criticism that any legislative efforts to curb spam will be limited by national boundaries, the Federal Trade Commission has announced collaboration with 36 agencies in 26 countries to inform ISPs and other organizations that their servers can be used to relay spam with spoofed Internet addresses The FTC said it and the other agencie...

In a move aimed at bolstering its business model after struggling in the PC space and attempting to move into the consumer-electronics market, Gateway has announced it will buy low-end PC seller eMachines for 50 million Gateway shares and US$30 million in cash. It is a deal altogether worth about $234 million The deal will make the combined company...

After its initial print-advertising offensive against the Linux operating system in the United States this month, Microsoft soon will be telling U.K. technology professionals to "Get the Facts" as it broadens its cost-benefits campaign overseas Microsoft initially launched the multimillion-dollar marketing campaign -- which details cost savings of ...

Marking a new level of sophistication in computer attacks, a variant of the MyDoom worm -- described as the fastest-moving virus in history -- is following up on the first worm's success with a new outbreak While antivirus experts indicated MyDoom.B is not spreading nearly as quickly as MyDoom.A -- which generated an estimated 3 million copies and ...

In a new report, the Entertainment Software Association counters the perception that it sells mostly violent video games to America's youth. Mature-rated games accounted for just 12 percent of last year's US$7 billion in computer and video game sales, according to the report. Despite the decline in violent video game sales, lawmakers across the co...

In response to what is being called the fastest-spreading computer virus of all time, SCO Group -- targeted by the MyDoom worm's estimated 3 million infected machines in a planned denial-of-service (DoS) attack scheduled for February 1st -- is offering a US$250,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the worm's creators C...

IBM and Philips announced a joint initiative to collaborate on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology for companies using supply-chain software The two companies are major players in the RFID market, which is expected to generate between US$1 and $3 billion within four years. Confident of the RFID technology's benefit, Philips said it wil...

PKWare and WinZip, companies that have been competitors in the world of the popular Zip file format, have called a truce on the latest versions of their products in hopes of cultivating greater interoperability between the two companies' file-compression and decryption technologies As we reported last November in the TechNewsWorld feature "The End ...

As a result of a copy-protection secret being made public, individuals who posted instructions on the Internet that outlined how to use software to break DVD copy protection are off the hook after a long legal battle A copyright owners group known as the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA) -- mainly composed of Hollywood studios and copy-protect...

Despite a recommendation from researchers to halt the project before it is applied in the upcoming primary elections, the United States is pushing forward with intentions to use an experimental Internet-voting system in the primaries and in the presidential election in November The federally funded online absentee voting system in question -- which...

Internet music file traders who thought they were in the clear after a court ruling late last year might still find the Recording Industry Association of America looking for them and taking them to court The industry association -- on a lawsuit campaign to stifle use of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks and applications such as Kazaa, Morpheus and Grokst...

In an effort to pair and propel two emerging technologies, IBM, HP, Akamai and other tech companies have proposed new specs to integrate grid computing with Web services The companies, which announced the new WS-Notification and WS-Resource Framework specs, said the proposed standards represent the first availability of a common, standards-based in...

Move over, pop-ups. There is a new advertisement on the Internet promising television-quality video and audio without the usual stutters that typically have been associated with streaming media across the Internet Online advertising company Unicast unveiled this week its "video commercial" online ad format, which the company said is capable of deli...

If your name were Mike Rowe and you created Web site software, the thought of an Internet site at MikeRoweSoft.com might sound like a good bet. But as a 17-year-old Canadian named Mike Rowe has found out, that bet turned out to be risky Redmond, Washington-based supercorporation Microsoft contacted Rowe regarding his domain name last November. Afte...

A worm -- known as Bagle -- is spreading primarily among Asian and Pacific Rim computers. The worm does not disguise itself as porn, pictures from friends or funny jokes, yet its simplicity has already duped many users into running the attached executable and perpetuating its existence Arriving with the subject line "Hi" and body text of "Test, yep...