California stands firm against spam

A state appeals court panel in California has ruled that people should have legal protection against 'deceptive unsolicited commercial e-mail'. Two Californian companies that were originally charged with 'spamming' claimed the 1998 laws regarding the commercial use of e-mail were unconstitutional - that they interfered with inter-state commerce - and this was later upheld by a San Francisco Superior Court judge in 2000. This has now been reversed. ...more

Google to launch eBay competitor?

Google watchers were agog when a new service from the world's biggest search engine briefly made an appearance and then disappeared again. The service called Google Base appeared to be a classified advertising service that would allow users to post their items for sale. The page itself explained that Google Base allows users to 'add all types of content. ...more

AMD adds ECC unbuffered memory support for Opterons

Due to 'overwhelming customer demand', AMD says it has widened the types of memory supported by the AMD Opteron 100 Series processors. The range now offers error-correcting code (ECC) unbuffered memory support. AMD foresees this type of memory being used in critical markets for one-way servers and workstations. ...more

Microsoft warns of bogus email alerts

Hoax emails purporting to be Microsoft security bulletins are frustrating the company's efforts to alert users to updates and warnings. The company's Technet security portal has posted a warning that 'malicious individuals' are duping users into downloading executable files from Web sites or opening attached files that purport to be a Microsoft Security Bulletin or Patch, but instead contain viruses. It warns users to delete these emails if they are not signed using the Microsoft Security Response Center's digital signature. ...more

VIA releases HyperTransport Analyzer 1.0 for AMD64

VIA Technologies has released version 1.0 of its HyperTransport Analyzer tool for AMD64 systems. It is available for free download. ...more