AT&T Inc. said on Sunday it would buy BellSouth Corp. for $67 billion to expand its reach into the southeastern United States and acquire the rest of Cingular Wireless it does not already own.

Together, AT&T and BellSouth would have a national long-distance telephone and data network, residential customers stretching from Florida to California and business customers comprising more than half of the Fortune 1000, analysts have said.

BellSouth shareholders will receive 1.325 shares of AT&T common stock for each common share of BellSouth. Based on AT&T's closing stock price on March 3, that equals $37.09 per BellSouth common share, a 17.9-percent premium.

The new AT&T, which was formed in November when SBC Communications Inc. completed its acquisition of AT&T Corp., also said it would repurchase at least $10 billion of its common shares over the next 22 months.

The companies have a combined market capitalization of $165 billion and annual revenue of about $64 billion. The next largest telephone company, Verizon Communications, which bought MCI Inc. last year, has a market capitalization of $99 billion and 2005 annual revenues of about $75 billion.

The deal would bring ownership of Cingular Wireless, the No. 1 U.S. wireless telephone company, under one roof, which Wall Street analysts have said would streamline management and allow one parent company to enjoy all of the financial benefits.

AT&T currently owns 60 percent of Cingular, while BellSouth owns the remaining 40 percent. Despite its heft, Cingular has been losing marketshare of the most lucrative, post-paid customers to its main rival, Verizon Wireless.

At the completion of the deal, which is expected to close within a year, all the landline and wireless businesses will exist under the sole brand name of AT&T, the companies said.

A purchase of BellSouth would recombine the former "Ma Bell" with four of the seven original Baby Bells regional telephone companies. AT&T was broken up in 1984, with the parent controlling the long-distance assets and its seven offspring controlling regional local telephone services.

As traditional landline phone businesses have been hurt by a shift to e-mail and wireless phones, telephone carriers have shifted their focus to faster growing businesses such as wireless and data services.

AT&T and other major telephone companies also have been upgrading their networks to offer subscription-television services to thwart competition from cable TV operators, which are offering phone services. AT&T in January began offering video in Texas and plans to expand service to 21 cities in its home territory this year.

Recently, Skype and Intel have announced a deal that would limit Skype's functionality on all but specific Intel processors. Currently, Skype 2.0 offers 10-way conference calls only on Intel's latest dual-core CPUs, while other chips, including all AMD chips, will only allow for 5-way conference calls. Maxxus.com now has posted an version of Skype that integrates a patch and allows users with non-Intel dual-core processors to engage in conference calls with up to 10 participants.

Details about the pathc as well as the doanload can be found here.

The company's original plan would have required all bulk e-mailers to pay a small fee — ranging from 1/4 cent to 1 cent per message — to route their e-mail directly to a user's mailbox without first passing through junk mail filters.

AOL, a unit of Time Warner Inc., said the system would reduce help reduce spam because only legitimate groups would be likely to pay the fee.

But on Monday, a consortium of nonprofit groups, including the AFL-CIO labor union and political group MoveOn.org Civic Action, blasted plans to charge for the service, claiming it would stifle communication from organizations that couldn't afford to pay.

On Friday, the DearAOL.com Coalition again criticized AOL's latest move, saying it would "create a two-tiered Internet with one standard of e-mail reliability for the big guy and an inferior standard for the little guy."

AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said the service offered to nonprofit groups would have the same reliability as the commercial service. AOL plans to contract with a third-party e-mail accreditation service within the next two months, he said.

Call it anything you want it changes the way the web functions and adds a hook that simply not necessary. It seems that putting a white-list and black-list feature to all AOL users is clearly a better approach. 

Also they clearly cannot tell a spoofed or forged header any better than anyone else. So there is no new black magic being applied here. We know this as we have signed up to AOL's list and can confirm the emails never transited our email servers. No problem we are keeping the server transcripts in case they are ever necessary in a court case. Yeah the headers would indicate they have. Yet the server logs tell the truth and are valid in any court. Offering a service which cannot give the truth about the true path a mail is transiting is nothing new.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a class-action lawsuit against AT&T on January 31, 2006, accusing the telecom giant of violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications.

In December of 2005, the press revealed that the government had instituted a comprehensive and warrantless electronic surveillance program that ignored the careful safeguards set forth by Congress. This surveillance program, purportedly authorized by the President at least as early as 2001 and primarily undertaken by the NSA, intercepts and analyzes the communications of millions of ordinary Americans.

In the largest "fishing expedition" ever devised, the NSA uses powerful computers to "data-mine" the contents of these Internet and telephone communications for suspicious names, numbers, and words, and to analyze traffic data indicating who is calling and emailing whom in order to identify persons who may be "linked" to "suspicious activities," suspected terrorists or other investigatory targets, whether directly or indirectly.

But the government did not act-and is not acting-alone. The government requires the collaboration of major telecommunications companies to implement its unprecedented and illegal domestic spying program.

AT&T Corp. (which was recently acquired by the new AT&T, Inc,. formerly known as SBC Communications) maintains domestic telecommunications facilities over which millions of Americans' telephone and Internet communications pass every day. It also manages some of the largest databases in the world, containing records of most or all communications made through its myriad telecommunications services. Full Article

We wish to express our serious concern with AOL's adoption of Goodmail's CertifiedEmail, which is a threat to the free and open Internet.

This system would create a two-tiered Internet in which affluent mass emailers could pay AOL a fee that amounts to an "email tax" for every email sent, in return for a guarantee that such messages would bypass spam filters and go directly to AOL members' inboxes. Those who did not pay the "email tax" would increasingly be left behind with unreliable service. Your customers expect that your first obligation is to deliver all of their wanted mail, and this plan is a step away from that obligation.

AOL's "email tax" is the first step down a slippery slope that will harm the Internet itself. The Internet is a revolutionary force for free speech, civic organizing, and economic innovation precisely because it is open and accessible to all Internet users equally. On a free and open Internet, small ideas can become big ideas overnight. As Internet advocacy groups, charities, non-profits, businesses, civic organizing groups, and email experts, we ask you to reconsider your pay-to-send proposal and to keep the Internet free.

http://www.dearaol.com/

NAME:	WSR-3800 Combo Kit
SUMMARY:	The WSR-3800 is EnGenius Technologies answer for operators who wish to deploy Internet accessibility with an integrated billing system open to the general public without any subscriptions. The WSR-3800 runs on an 802.11g 200mW high powered connectivity and is backwards compatible with 802.11b devices. The WSR-3800's robust features include internal firewalls, traffic control, bandwidth control, and industry leading AAA technology. Along with the WSR-3800 is the WSR-3800TP, the included ticket printer with multiple settings, an industry first. No longer will the cashier need to have extensive PC experience while dispensing tickets to customers; with a simple press of a button, a ticket will print out with an individualized User and Password information for the customer.
PRODUCT FEATURES:	Complete evaluation kit for extended range around corners or other obstacles Total 802.11g with 200mW high powered solution Includes WSR-3800TP multi-setting ticket printer, an industry first!

Redline AN-100 is a scalable carrier-class broadband wireless solution for point-to-point and multipoint backhaul networks. The AN-100 uses OFDM optical line-of-sight and non line-of-sight technology to overcome typical urban obstacles such as trees and buildings. The long-range capabilities and high-capacity of the AN-100 allow wireless connectivity to remote locations with a minimum number of repeater stations.

The low latency AN-100 system provides reliable delivery of delay sensitive services including circuit switched voice traffic, voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), optimized transport for video, and prioritized data traffic - all converged over a single robust wireless link. The time division multiplexed (TDM) option can replace expensive leased full and fractional E1/T1 circuits while supporting legacy TDM traffic and increasing network capacity.

AN-100 features include:

• Industry leading spectral efficiency ensures high data rates
• Low latency for delay-sensitive traffic
  
• Long range capabilities minimize the required number of hops
  
• Versatile QoS for multi-services, including voice and video over IP
  
• Optional eight port TDM E1/T1 full and fractional (nx64)
  
• 2004 SUPERQuest award for “Backbone/Edge Networking Equipment”

Designed to be interoperable with a host of emerging, WiMAX-certified base stations, including the RedMAX Base Station (AN-100U), the indoor RedMAX Subscriber Unit (SU-I) contains Intel’s PRO/Wireless 5116 system-on-a-chip, which sets the stage for a new and exciting phase of standardized broadband wireless solutions.

SU-I is an indoor broadband wireless subscriber access product designed to WiMAX Forum Certified Specifications. Compliance to the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard ensures interoperability with an emerging industry-wide base of compatible Point to Multipoint (PMP) equipment. The system is easy and economical to deploy, allowing service providers to quickly provision new services with bandwidth comparable to xDSL. The RedMAX SU-I self-install indoor unit, with fully integrated antenna, includes a LED installation tool for quick and simple alignment.

Features-at-a-glance:

• Easy and economical to deploy, allowing service providers to quickly provision new services with bandwidth comparable to xDLS (self installable)
  
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 5116 ‘system on a chip’
  
• Available with fully integrated antenna, and includes LED installation tool for quick, simple alignment
  
• Indoor Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) adaptor powers both unit and user’s Ethernet access port
  
• 3rd-generation OFDM, NLOS technology operates in 3.4-3.6 GHz band
  
• Dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) settings
  
• Available with up to three interfaces [Ethernet, Ethernet + POTS, Ethernet + VoIP]
  
• WiMAX Forum Certified™ Design
  

Operating in the 3.4 – 3.6 GHz band, Redline’s built-in, third generation Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) non Line of Sight (NLOS) technology helps overcome common urban obstacles such as building sand trees while maintaining high reliability. Rugged design standards and sophisticated technology, including advanced forward error correction (FEC), combine to deliver wireline-equivalent high availability.

Taking advantage of PMP delivery, the SU-I can accomodate several interfaces with traditional Ethernet; Ethernet + TDM (E1/T1); Ethernet + POTS and Ethernet + VoIP. The RedMAX SU-I also features a signal-strength indicator for easy installation, while providing SOHO businesses and residences with a higher throughput.

Designed to be interoperable with a host of emerging, WiMAX-certified base stations, including the RedMAX Base Station (AN-100U), the outdoor RedMAX Subscriber Unit (SU-O) contains Intel’s PRO/Wireless 5116 system-on-a-chip, which sets the stage for a new and exciting phase of standardized broadband wireless solutions.

SU-O is an outdoor broadband wireless subscriber access product designed to WiMAX Forum Certified specifications. Compliance to the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard ensures its interoperability with an emerging industry-wide base of compatible Point to Multipoint (PMP) Equipment.

Features-at-a-glance:

• Easy and economical outdoor unit featuring flat panel antennae (external antenna optional)
  
• Intel® PRO/Wireless 5116 ‘system on a chip’
  
• Audible installation tool for quick, simple alignment
  
• Indoor Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) adapter powers both unit and user’s Ethernet access port
  
• 3rd generation OFDM, NLOS technology operates in 3.4-3.6 GHz band
  
• Dynamic Quality of Service (QoS) settings
  
• Can come with up to four interfaces
  [Ethernet, Ethernet + TDM (E1/T1), Ethernet + POTS, Ethernet + VoIP]
  
• WiMAX Forum Certified™ Design
  
  

Easy and economical to deploy, the RedMAX SU-O allows service providers to quickly provision new services with bandwidth comparable to xDSL. This outdoor unit, with fully integrated flat panel antenna, or optional external antenna, includes an audible installation tool for quick and simple alignment. The indoor Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) adapter provides power for the outdoor unit and the user’s Ethernet network access port.

Operating in the 3.4 – 3.6 GHz band, Redline’s built-in, third generation Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) non Line of Sight (NLOS) technology helps overcome common urban obstacles such as buildings and trees while maintaining high reliability. Rugged design standards and sophisticated technology, including advanced forward error correction (FEC), combine to deliver wireline-equivalent high availability.

This carrier-class, high-reliability product can serve as either a base station or a premium-grade subscriber unit, and is designed to be completely interoperable with WiMAX- compatible equipment including the Red MAX SU-O and RedMAX SU-I subscriber units. RedMAX Base Station provides a scalable solution for any WiMAX access network. It delivers PMP enterprise access and residential/SOHO services. The RedMAX Base Station also delivers point-to-point backhaul services to the RedMAX Backhaul subscriber station.

Features-at-a-glance:

• Can act as a powerful PMP base station or a ‘premium grade’ subscriber unit
  
• Carrier-class, highly-reliable unit with solid security (including AES encryption)
  
• Field upgradeable via software download to accommodate future enhancements
  
• Compliant with IEEE 802.16-2004 and 802.16e (mobility) – ready
  
• WiMAX Forum Certified™ Design
  

Easy and cost-effective to deploy, the RedMAX Base Station system facilitates the rapid provision of new services by service providers, while its very low latency ensures reliable delivery of data-sensitive services, including circuit-switched voice traffic, voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP), video and prioritized data traffic. Individual Quality of Service (QoS) settings can be set dynamically, according to the service level agreement (SLA).

The RedMAX Base Station can be deployed in clusters of up to six (60 degree) sectors, supporting up to 4,000 unique user-data flows. The GPS time synchronization feature ensures efficient use of available spectrum and channels, providing scalable and reliable cell deployment when operating Time Division Duplexing (TDD) radios in close proximity.

The hardware is fully upgradeable in the field by software download, to accommodate such future enhancements as IPv6 support, scalability, additional classifiers, alternative encryption standards, and the continued development of the 802.16 standard. Adherence to stringent carrier-class NEBS Level 3 specifications provides high reliability for mission critical deployments. The indoor unit has a selection of radios for operation in licensed and unlicensed bands using the 802.16-2004 specified 3.5 MHz and 7 MHz channel profiles.

The AN-30e is a carrier-grade TDM backhaul solution for mobility network and enterprise network operators. Operating in the 5.4 and 5.8 GHz unlicensed bands, the system is capable of long-range links exceeding 80 km (50 mi) in clear LOS conditions. Redline’s proven AN-30e system is the ideal platform for migration to VoIP - capable of supporting up to eight T1/E1 circuits and mixed TDM/IP traffic applications. Enterprise operators and MUSH can benefit by using the AN-30e as an inexpensive alternative to leasing circuits and installing new wired services.

 

AN-30e features include:

• Up to eight E1/T1 full and fractional (nx64) TDM ports
  
• Simultaneous transport of mixed IP and TDM traffic
• Up to 44 Mbps average data rate
  
• Very low TDM round-trip delay (RTD)
  
• High availability operation
  
• Full loop-back capability
  
• DFS and ATPC

Despite being faced with logistical complications caused by Hurricane Wilma, Florida-based xG Technology twice demonstrated last month the long-range capability of its xMAX solution, transmitting a data stream capable of high-quality video 18 miles using low power levels.

In the Nov. 10 demonstration, xG transmitted a 3.57 MB/s data stream on 10 MHz of spectrum in the unlicensed ISM 900 MHz band using just 35.8 mW of power from its omnidirectional whip antenna on an 850-foot tower to a patch antenna on a 12-foot mast. The off-the-shelf antennas combined for 14 dB gain.

“The message is: It's real,” Chris Whiteley, xG Technology's vice president of business development, said. “It really works, and it's so big that we can't get our brain around it.”

Indeed, the notion that an entity could become a broadband wireless provider without investing in any spectrum is compelling, especially when xG officials say the company's receiver — the key to the solution — is “simple” and can be built “dirt cheap.” As a result, an xMAX system can be deployed much more cheaply than networks using other technologies.

“It reduces the costs of deploying broadband services; it finally makes it affordable,” Whiteley said. “It changes the economics, and it's been the economics that have slowed the deployment of broadband services.”

And the data rates achieved in the demonstration are “as bad as it gets” for xMAX, said Joe Bobier, xG Technology's president of operations and inventor of xMAX. No carrier signal — which would have required 6 kHz of dedicated spectrum — was used, reducing the data rate by about 25%, he said. In addition, many common techniques to improve performance were not used in an effort to keep the demonstration as simple as possible, he said.

Whiteley noted that xG used just 10 MHz of the 26 MHz of spectrum available in the ISM 900 MHz band; using the entire band would result in a commensurately faster data rate. In addition, Schwartz said there is no reason that xG should be compelled to operate at such low power levels.

“It's true, they covered 18 miles of swampland, and it was essentially line-of-sight,” Schwartz said. “But, don't forget, they [used less than] 50 milliwatts. They can use up to 1000 milliwatts [without violating FCC rules]. So, if you are in an urban area, and you want to send it toward Miami, you boost up your power. And, because you're using lower frequencies, it goes through buildings better.”

No in-building demonstrations were conducted, but Bobier said xG has run in-building tests with a rudimentary receive antenna on the interior of hotels and other buildings along the beach in Fort Lauderdale about 7 miles from the tower. “When we were testing, we were in the middle of those buildings at the ground level and were getting an incredibly strong signal … [with a power level of] close to 200 milliwatts,” he said. “We almost had too much signal; it was almost saturating the receiver, there was so much signal.”

I did not know anything or even care about Goodmail one way or the other until the earlier article. Then I went and read their poorly written rebut.

GoodMail Quote FACT: Small business and non-profits will not have to pay for something that used to be free.
First of all, no one has to pay. The service is optional. First class email has not suffered with the introduction of priority and Express Mail. With CertifiedEmail there is literally no change in the ability of Internet users to participate however they desire, nor will any user incur any new charges. Optional offerings, such as CertifiedEmail, allow ISPs to provide better and better services to those who chose them, and in turn provide a higher degree of safety to their members.   

This was taken right from their site and one has to question their own ability to proof read. I have read all their points and it sounds so much like the garbage brought to you by the ad-aware companies. I never had any intent in bringing goodmail in the fight it is they who are joining this fight which honestly they could have stood outside of easily as they are focusing on a completely different line of business than AOL and Yahoo.

This all reminds me of the days when Piss tests were optional. Thats right no one can force you to take the test, just do not apply for the job. You have your rights so what is the problem? In the case of any of these companies they do and can do what ever they want. Why on earth anyone cares whether AOL goes broke with this logic is beyond me. As for Yahoo well the name says it all. AOL can spout this stuff for years, and no matter how long they talk is just babble and another way to make a buck! By not simply putting a white-listing ability to their users is nothing short of ransom.

Remember the famous email rumor that made the rounds in the 1990s: "Congress is trying to tax your Internet connection, write in now!"

Well what wasn't true in the 1990s is apparently coming true in 2006, only the beneficiaries won't be Uncle Sam -- it will be Yahoo, AOL, and a company ironically called Goodmail. Yahoo and AOL have announced that they will guarantee access to your email inbox for email senders who pay $.0025 per message. They will override their own spam filters and webbug-strippers, and deliver the mail directly with a "certified" notice. In the process, they will treat more of your email as spam, and email you're expecting won't be delivered.

The justification is that if people have to pay to send email, they won't send junk email. Apparently AOL and Yahoo believe that if we "tax" speech then only desirable speech happens. We all know how well that works for postal mail -- that's why no one gets any "free" AOL starter disks, right?

More seriously, as we discuss below, this isn't really an anti-spam measure as much as a "pay to speak" email measure, and it won't end spam or phishing. Prominent anti-spammer Richard Cox of Spamhaus agrees: "an e-mail charge will destroy the spirit of the Internet."

Full Article

British telecommunications firm Cable and Wireless (C&W) said it would axe 2,000 to 3,000 of its British workers by 2010 in a radical restructuring that will slash customer numbers by 90.0 percent.

C&W currently employs a total of 5,500 workers in Britain, of which 350 are to leave the group before the end of March 2006, the group said in an official statement. The group, which is suffering from fierce competition from the likes of BT, also said it would cut its customer base from 30,000 to just 3,000 customers as it sought to concentrate on simplified products for larger companies and institutions.

"Cable and Wireless expects that, by concentrating on fewer, larger customers and reducing complexity in its products, systems and processes, it can set new standards for customers' service experience while, at the same time, reducing costs," C&W said Tuesday.

"As part of the reduction in costs, the company expects that UK headcount will fall from more than 5,500 to between 2,500 and 3,500 over the next four to five years." By the end of September this year, the measures would result in a 9.0-percent reduction in monthly operating expenses, while customer numbers in Britain would drop to around 18,000, the group added Tuesday.

C&W also repeated its long-term goal of generating annual revenues of 2.0 billion pounds and "double-digit" operating profit margins. In reaction to Tuesday's news, the share price of C&W was showing a fall of 1.38 percent in early afternoon London trading as analysts questioned whether the long-term targets could be achieved. The British capital's FTSE 100 index, on which the group is quoted, fell by 0.44 percent to 5,850.20 points.

America Online said on Tuesday it had filed lawsuits this week against three identity theft gangs, seeking combined damages of $18 million and using a new law against so-called "phishers."

The online division of Time Warner Inc. said it had filed three civil suits in Alexandria's U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, charging phishing gangs with tricking its members with fake Web sites of legitimate companies to fool them into giving up personal information.

The suits were filed under Virginia's new anti-phishing statute, the Federal Lanham Act, a trademark law, and the Federal Computer Fraud & Abuse Act, an anti-spam, or junk mail law. AOL said they were the first suits filed by an Internet service provider under the Virginia law passed in July 2005.

The company is targeting gangs that they believe reside in the U.S., Germany and Romania that created "hundreds and hundreds of Web sites to mislead consumers." AOL also said it has stored "tens of thousands" of phish e-mails sent by these gangs. I am sure they are scared to tears over this civil case.

Today AOL kicks off their pay to send them commercial email program. I think at AOL you can have it their way no matter what.

After spending the last decade building its brand around a cartoon character named Jeeves, Ask.com wants everyone to forget the dainty butler and remember its long-overlooked internet search engine as the next best thing to Google.

To make its point, Ask.com is jettisoning Jeeves as its corporate mascot on Monday and unveiling a retooled website that's designed to make it easier to find and use its search technology.

Does anyone really care about the butler? Doubt it! Sorry but that was not the reason at all that people used other alternatives. When will you guys get it? Your behavior in the other side of the business of collecting demograph information and the other side of ad ware was the cause people would typically give for walking away from ASK.com.

This hardly has anything to do with the silly butler images as if that was the reason. Ask.com could argue the point until they run out of air. Most of their arguments sound alot like Clinton saying I did not have sexual relations with that woman. Though it is a bit like Sony saying we did not crash millions of computers. Hey maybe not who knows? Just one opinion which we have for awhile yet.

The competition has been so fierce that they relatively hit a price floor," said Robert Schult, analyst with TeleGeography, which tracks the fiber-optic telecommunications industry. Schult sees indications of further recovery ahead as internet traffic levels increase and operators of telecommunications networks upgrade their capacity.

But, in the beaten-down fiber-optic cable business, the concept of price stabilization should be taken with a grain of salt. Current revenues don't come close to compensating for the billions spent in the late '90s to build out fiber-optic networks. The building boom led to a massive oversupply of fiber capacity and culminated in most builders filing for bankruptcy a few years later.

Today's prices, barely cover the administrative cost of running the network. But while prices remain low, encouraging signs are emerging in the markets for "lit" fiber, which is already equipped to carry internet traffic, and unlit or "dark" fiber, which can be equipped to carry traffic. Chief among these indicators is a recognition that the fiber glut cannot last forever.

We've known for a long time that the opportunity we've had for the last three or four years really was, in essence, an artifact of a very pronounced economic downturn in the telecommunications industry," said Steven Corbato, a managing director at high-speed network Internet2.

FiberCo, a fiber holding company and subsidiary of Internet2, has facilitated the purchase of over 10,000 route miles of dark fiber by the research and higher education community. Though prices were quite low and not likely to stay that way.

Large telecom service providers, have shown seemingly renewed interest in purchasing fiber. Google said it also sees dark fiber factoring in to its long-term plans.

Earlier this month, Broomfield, Colorado-based Level 3 Communications bought an unprecedented 300 GB of transatlantic capacity from the Apollo Submarine Cable System network, and also acquired rival internet network operator WilTel in December.

While today, there is more than enough lit fiber to satisfy the most gluttonous bandwidth users, demand is growing. Internet traffic across the Atlantic, for example, rose by about 40 percent last year.

Sometimes a photo is worth only a few words--a few very revealing words. That was apparently the case recently when The Washington Post accidentally left clues to the identity of a confidential source in an article about hackers.

The story was about a 21-year-old hacker identified as "0x80" who claimed to have broken into 2,000 PCs around the world and to have used the hacked PCs to send out spam. The article revealed that "0x80" smokes, has a southern accent and lives in a small town in Middle America. "The nearest businesses are a used-car lot, a gas station/convenience store and a strip club," the article said.

Fairly innocuous details unlikely to offer much in leading to the source's identity. But the article ran with a modified photo of 0x80, at which some of the people at Slashdot took a closer look. The metadata inside the photo apparently revealed when and where the photo was taken, who the photographer was and even what kind of camera was used.

According to Slashdot, the photo was taken in December in Roland, Okla., a city of 2.6 square miles and a population of 2,842.

Using the other clues provided in the article makes if awfully easy to narrow down the list of suspects, as Slashdot users pointed out.

IntelliSense Code Snippets are reusable, task-oriented blocks of code. Visual Studio 2005 includes code snippets covering tasks ranging from creating a custom exception, to sending an e-mail message, to drawing a circle. A set of Visual Basic and Visual C# Code Snippets are included in the Visual Studio 2005 box – additional Code Snippets can be found here.

What is Advanced IP Address Calculator?

Advanced IP Address Calculator is an easy-to-use IP subnet calculator that lets you to calculate every aspect of your subnet configuration in a few mouse clicks!

You can use it for FREE. Download now!

The calculator generates a color-coded bit map, breaking down the network, subnet, and host portion. It shows you the subnet host address range, the subnet ID, and the subnet broadcast address. The binary representation and hexadecimal representations of IP addresses are supported.

Advanced IP Calculator v1.1

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5-GHz CPUs are should soon be on store shelves, according to chipmakers at a conference in Silicon Valley this week.

Chip-making advances announced at the SPIE Microlithography Conference in San Jose, California, showed that Moore's Law is alive and well. Moore's Law dictates that chip densities double every 18 months, leading to smaller chips with double the processing power. But the Law has become doubtful lately as lithography and other chip-making processes butt up against the limits of physics. Naysayers say the chip industry has shrunk chips about as far as they can go.

But IBM, for example, said this week it will defy "conventional wisdom" and print circuits with 30-nanometer ridges, a third of the size of the 90-nm chips in production today, using current lithography imaging processes. Also this week, Dutch-based lithography equipment maker ASML Holding NV demonstrated its 42-nm production process and said it had the equipment to make 35-nm chips.

Both developments followed CPU-giant Intel's announcement last month that it had produced a 45-nm SRAM, or Static Random Access Memory, chip.

Shrinking chip ridges below today's 90-nm sizes means PCs in the near future will likely offer performance jumps equivalent to those achieved through the last 20 years (remember when a system with a 468-MHz Pentium and 64M of DRAM was considered a high-end PC?)

According to chipmakers and a technology road map from the Semiconductor Industry Association, we can expect transistor counts on CPUs to double from 1 billion to 2 billion in two years, and to an astonishing 4 billion in four years. The SIA roadmap predicts chips will continue to become smaller and denser through 2020.

Intel and AMD have said CPU clock speeds -- measured in gigahertz -- will not increase to the same degree as in years past due to constraints in power consumption and heat. However, the companies will take advantage of increasing chip densities to pack multiple cores onto each chip, resulting in performance leaps. Intel said there may be as many as 100 cores packed on a single processor within 10 years.

While CPUs with 5-GHz clock speeds in four years is probable, analyst Nathan Brookwood of Insight64 agreed that performance boosts on levels commensurate with years past will be based on multi-core CPU designs.

Also, the amount of DRAM per chip should continue to double from a maximum of 1 Gigabit now to 4 Gigabits per chip in four years, according to memory chipmakers and the SIA roadmap. As DDR2 memory designs become increasingly available now for 1-Gb DRAM chips, it is possible to pack in modules with high-end motherboards that can handle more than four GB of DRAM. With the advent of 2-Gb memory chips in less than two years, 4-Gb devices are expected to follow in four years.

The Stanford guidelines for web credibility:

• Make it easy to verify the accuracy of the information on your site.
• Show that there's a real organization behind your site.
• Highlight the expertise in your organization and in the content and services you provide.
• Show that honest and trustworthy people stand behind your site.
• Make it easy to contact you.
• Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose).
• Make your site easy to use -- and useful.
• Update your site's content often (at least show it's been reviewed recently).
• Use restraint with any promotional content (e.g., ads, offers).
• Avoid errors of all types, no matter how small they seem.

Reports that Apple Computer Inc. has taken legal action against so called hacker who has been working on OS X for Intel to make it work on other processors appear misplaced. The OSx86 Project yesterday speculated at Apple action against the hacker.

It was posts and downloads from Maxxuss that spurred Apple to take legal action against the site, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to force it to remove certain links and posts from its forums.  When Maxxuss' own site disappeared it made it seem like Apple may have extended its action.

However, this morning the site reports that the hacker -- Maxxuss -- has simply launched a new Web site and blog to share what he find out with others who want to run Mac software on their Intel-based PCs.

What I simply do not understand is Apple's strong approach. If a person buy's their OS and finds a way to run it on a clone, what has apple lost really? In fact they stand to gain a large following. If they simply do not support running this on a non apple machine and people are left out in the cold where then is the problem. It seems that making it clear that anyone who sells such a machine would then be violating the law as they are then cloning for resale.

I really think that flooding the market with MAC OS on many or any Intel platforms would not be a bad thing. If they state they would never support such a beast should be clear. If people are paying for the OS where then is the problem? Personally I have refused to buy a MAC over this position. I personally would not want a clone but I think that all forms of dictatorships aren't the type of people I do business with.

I would simply like to ask Steve and WAZ did you guys forget your days in college? Seems that everyone else remembers your bout with the phone companies but you! Selling an OS without support could in no way harm Apple in fact it would only place the OS in places it was never seen before. Who knows you might even find out as many PC people that it runs faster on AMD than it ever did on Intel.

The at-large open-source community of MySQL users is panicking over Oracle's second buy of the database's two transactional storage engines, Berkeley DB, although enterprise users are far more sanguine.

"God*it"—that's a polite rendering of the very first public reaction of the MySQL community to Oracle's purchase of both of the open-source database's crucial transactional back-end engines, InnoDB in October and Berkeley DB from Sleepycat Software on Feb. 14.

The fear is based on the vision of Oracle forcing its tiny competitor out of business, thus leaving the MySQL user community in the lurch, forced to fork the source code.  "The reason MySQL DB users are concerned, even though the source is GPL, is because MySQL DB is heavily dependent on MySQL AB. If MySQL is forced out by Oracle, what's left, aside from some source code?" one Slashdot poster asked.

"First they bought Innobase, giving them the ability to cut MySQL's transaction [capabilities] off, then they buy another open-source-friendly DBMS which has transaction capability," another Slashdot reader posted.

"Now, if you were the largest commercial DBMS vendor in the world and you were worried about the OSS people moving into your space, what would you buy in order to stop them cold? Me? I'd keep them out of atomic transaction space."

At any rate, MySQL's April user conference is fast approaching—a time when the company has promised a full rollout of its product roadmap and storage engine architectures.

Until then, MySQL is sticking by the premise that trying to kill open-source products by buying companies that make open-source products is like trying to kill a dolphin by drinking the ocean.

America Online Inc., seeking to encourage its subscribers to sign up for high-speed connections, is raising the price of its main dial-up plan to equal that of its new broadband offerings.

That means most subscribers will pay $25.90 a month for either dial-up or broadband beginning March 9, although AOL is offering discounts to dial-up subscribers who commit to a year. AOL currently charges $23.90 a month for unlimited dial-up access.

"We're doing this because a majority of AOL members will be able to get high-speed connections and access the AOL service for this new price," spokeswoman Anne Bentley said Tuesday. "Hopefully it's an encouragement for them to get high-speed connections."

Although AOL has been shifting its focus to providing free articles, video and other materials on its ad-supported Web sites, the company sees paid broadband accounts as key to making that strategy work.

Personally I love it when a company this big rarely understands why a customer is even on dial-up in the first place. Most are in rural areas which broadband is either difficult if not impossible. The giant lacks understanding of a number of issues, and this is but another which will only cause people to make the right choice. What I personally fail to understand is why people on dial-up from AOL in the first place when others are already much cheaper.

Memory Speed:  The link between the CPU and memory is called the memory bus. Often, it runs at the same speed as the Front Side Bus (FSB), which regulates the communication between the CPU and lots of other system components. The newer Intel Pentium Processors seem to run better with the memory using an asynchrous 4:5 memory divider, meaning that the memory is running faster than the front side bus. The bus speeds are measured in MHz, or million clock cycles (CC's) per second.

Modern processors transmit 8 bits of data on every clock cycle, and all Athlon 64 and the older Socket 478 Pentium 4 CPUs run with a 200MHz memory bus. Newer Intel Pentium CPUs that use the LGA775 socket use either a 266MHz or 333MHz memory bus speed. The memory bus speed depends on whether they're an Extreme Edition or not - standard Pentium CPUs use a 266MHz memory bus, while Extreme Editions use a 333MHz bus.

If you multiply 400 (200 times 2 as Double Data Rate (DDR) memory runs at twice the clock speed) by 8, and you get a theoretical maximum figure of 3200Mbits/s transfer - hence the memory rating speed PC3200 found on the label of most new sticks of DDR memory. With the newer Pentium CPUs, you will see modules labelled with PC2-4200 (DDR2-533), PC2-5400 (DDR2-667) and modules up to PC2-8000 (DDR2-1000).

Memory Latency:  Addressing memory is much like reading from a large, multiple page spreadsheet. It doesn't matter how quickly you can read, before you can start you have to find the page the data you want is on (this is known as tRAS), work your way to the row and column the data's stored on (tRCD), when you've found the cell you want it takes some time before you start reading (CAS) and when you get to the end of a row you have to switch to the next, which takes time (tRP).

tRAS is the time required between the bank active command and the precharge command. Or in simpler terms, how long the module must wait before the next memory access can start. It doesn't have a great impact on performance, but it can impact system stability if set incorrectly. The optimal setting ultimately depends on your platform - the best thing to do is to run Memtest86 on your system with variable tRAS settings to find the fastest setting for your system.

The tRCD timing relates to the number of clock cycles taken between the issuing of the active command and the read/write command. In this time, the internal row signal settles enough for the charge sensor to amplify it. The lower this is set, the better - the optimal setting is either 2 or 3, depending on how capable your memory is. As with any other memory timing, setting this too low for your memory can cause in system instabilities.

CAS Latency is the delay, in clock cycles, between sending a READ command and the moment the first piece of data is available on the outputs. Setting CAS to 2.0 seems to be the holy grail with memory manufacturers, but the difference between tight timings and high memory bus speeds is an arguement that we hope to settle over the course of this article.

The tRP timing is the number of clock cycles taken between the issuing of a precharge command and the active command. It could also be described as the delay required between deactivating the current row and selecting the next row. In conjunction with the tRCD timing, which relates to the time taken between the issuing of the active command and the read/write command, the time required to switch banks (or rows) and then select the next cell for reading/writing or refreshing is a combination of the two timings.
 "Full Article here"

After dealing with many issues about user passwords and clients saying; I did not do this, or that, how is your mail server doing this? Well let's first say the obvious, a mail server simply is not smart enough to do anything on it's own. It will not selectively pick a user to mess with.

After spending three hours messing about with a user saying all I ever use is the web interface to make sure I never get a virus, and I am absolutely certain that no one has my password. I have never given it to anyone!! It was quite clear that the person was doing little to help the situation. He was more concerned with proving that the mail server was messing with him, and he finally had the proof.

After hours of digging through the logs of every single transaction the mail server had made over several day's it was quite clear he was incorrect and someone had got his logon and password. They had clearly attained it in a cyber cafe where he been on holiday.

I asked the fellow have you ever heard of a key logger? I knew we were in trouble when his reply was what is that? It is clear that you are sending emails from the US and France minutes appart. So someone has that logon and password. Rather than spending even more time explaining how they work. I would suggest a rule for anyone traveling. Change your password each time you use an unknown network! Paranoid perhaps, but then your link to your identity has to be protected. It is more logical than thinking your own mail server is messing with you.

The best approach when planning a vacation trip. Change that password regularly. It is totally impossible to know the security of a publically open network like a Cyber Cafe or even a Hotel or Motel. You know better than leaving cash in your Motel or Hotel room right! It should be logical to not leave your passwords laying around. A keylogger can have this information in a matter of second and using your ID to make you a major spammer on the web. Or worse yet intercepting confidental company information. There are people everywhere, that work to make the best of your information.