Articles by Jay Lyman

In a somewhat uncharacteristic announcement about Linux, Hewlett-Packard said its revenue from the open-source operating system and connected products and services hit record levels in 2003, earning the Palo Alto, California-based company US$2.5 billion, an increase of about a half-billion dollars from last year HP, which led the hot Linux server m...

Redirecting its wireless course after betting on the weaker of two technologies, Intel has introduced an 802.11g wireless network connection aimed at boosting the speed and capability of wireless local area networks (WLANs) The Santa Clara, California-based chip giant said its new PRO/Wireless 2200BG network connection -- a standards-based 802.11 W...

The Internet population of China continues to grow and now totals nearly 80 million people, according to a new report released this week. According to the report, there were only 620,000 Chinese Internet users in 1997 With a total population of more than 1.2 billion people, China represents the largest potential Internet market in the world. The U....

Information technology researcher Meta Group predicts that less than half of all corporate computer users will use a desktop as their primary information device within two years. A new report from the research firm highlights the mobile-computing trend that has been boosted by lower laptop prices, increased mobile performance and the popularity of wireless connectivity...

VeriSign, the same company in charge of the .com and .net Internet registries, has been chosen by an international standards group to provide and run a root directory for a massive radio frequency identification (RFID) network considered to be the next evolution beyond bar codes EPCglobal, a nonprofit standards organization, said the selection of V...

After skipping its December security update even after the publication of several new vulnerabilities -- some of which were used to perpetrate Internet crimes, such as identity theft and financial scams -- Microsoft has released several security patches as part of its new monthly security initiative The patches primarily address issues in three of ...

Opposing forces in the DVD format world are lining up support and touting firm rollout timelines as they compete to establish the next generation of DVD format specs, with the Blu-ray disc format winning support this week from computer makers Dell and Hewlett-Packard The two American companies join Sony, Hitachi, Matsushita, LG, Pioneer, Philips, S...

Internet telephony player Vonage and silicon specialist Texas Instruments have announced a collaboration on voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology for equipment designers The partnership, which combines Vonage broadband telephony software with TI's VoIP silicon, is aimed at speeding adoption of VoIP, touted as a cost-saving, unencumbered al...

A new Trojan horse computer program, which secretly steals personal information by tricking users into visiting a malicious Web site, is trying to duplicate the devious success of the Swen worm, which infected more than a million machines last September Known as "Xombe," the Trojan horse program mirrors Swen by masquerading as a critical update fro...

Bill Gates and Microsoft outlined a vision of "seamless computing" at the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas this week, but consumer electronics giant Panasonic has begun to advance a plan founded on the concept of computing without PCs. Part of the company's vision is to create home networking with a new power-line technology that does not req...

Apple Computer set its sights even more squarely on supercomputing and distributed grid computing this week with the preview and beta release of its Xgrid technology designed for scientists and their compute-intensive environments. Apple's announcement of the technology, available as a free beta download from the Cupertino, California-based compan...

The upcoming presidential election, a job-challenged economic recovery and an unstoppable trend toward outsourcing have forced a debate on the offshore hiring of IT services workers. Tech industry leaders are arguing that foreign employment is necessary to compete in the world market Presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts) has propos...

This week Microsoft announced its intention to deliver Office 2004 and Virtual PC for users of Apple Mac computers during the first half of 2004, hoping to hold on to the small, profitable Mac market. To entice Mac users, Microsoft is offering an upgrade to the new Office 2004 for free to users who buy the current version anytime from now until 30 days after the new product's release...

Taking a stab at simplicity in the incompatible world of online music and portable players, RealNetworks has released a major update to its flagship media software, now called RealPlayer 10. The release is the company's first new player in two years that is capable of playing media in the formats sold in the online music stores of competitors, including Microsoft and Apple...

A European consumer group is suing major record labels Sony, EMI, BMG and Universal over a CD copy-protection technology that reportedly blocks playback of the labels' releases on some devices. Claiming it has received some 200 complaints from European users, Belgium's Test-Achats announced the suit on behalf of consumers and is asking the record labels to stop producing the reportedly problematic CDs...

Kicking off the new year by trying to leverage last year's biggest PC trend -- burgeoning sales of cheaper notebook computers -- Intel and AMD released new mobile processors for the value and 64-bit markets this week Intel is aiming the Celeron M at the value market to compete with AMD in the value space and to create differentiation from the compa...

More than three-fourths of all Web users access applications such as instant messaging, media players and file-sharing applications -- not just browsers -- in connecting to the Internet, according to a new study by Internet researcher Nielsen//NetRatings Out of a total audience of 106 million people using Internet applications in November 2003 -- u...

By suing individual computer users, the Recording Industry Association of America has succeeded in curbing the online trading of unlicensed music files and herding peer-to-peer network users to licensed-music sites such as iTunes and Napster, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project The Internet research organization...

A new worm that quickly infects its victims via MSN Messenger is not terribly rampant and was mitigated by poor timing on the part of its author, but the Jitux.A worm does illustrate how use of new avenues of attack is likely to grow in the coming year It used to be that viruses and worms almost always traveled and spread through e-mail attachments...

While U.S. legislators and e-mail users are hoping a new national anti-spam law will stem the flow of unwanted electronic solicitations, companies engaged in legitimate marketing are concerned they will pay a higher price than spammers who skirt legislative requirements or conduct their business from offshore However, analysts say the federal law t...