VNUnet reports that Internet security researchers have warned that criminals are planning to launch internet-based denial of service (DoS) attacks on web retailers over the Christmas period.

Israel’s Business Arena has this story: “Ehud Tenenbaum (“the Analyzer”) was only eighteen-and-a-half at the end of 1998 when he achieved his fifteen minutes of fame by breaking into the US Pentagon computer. The Tenenbaum trial has continued ever since and the defense is now entering its plea.”

ZDCOUK commentary: “Linux system vendor VA Linux is boxed in. On one side of the equation you have broke dot-com startups that can’t buy VA Linux boxes. On the other side, you have enterprise giants IBM, HP, Compaq and Dell getting serious about Linux systems.” (VA Linux owns NewsForge)

The BBC reports that firms in the UK are being urged to allow staff “occasional
and reasonable” use of personal e-mails as long
as it does not interfere with their work.

From the Register: “Remember how, when Intel announced the upstart USB 2.0 spec
eighteen months ago, it promised we’d be buried by compliant
periipherals in time for Xmas? Well it’s late, but assuredly on its
way.”

Wired.com reports that recent FTC action against the adult Web business may be, as one attorney put it, the beginning of a “clean-up-the-Internet sweep.”

From The Register: “About time too. Borland chose Comdex to sneak out the news that
the Inprise moniker was finally being cast overboard. We imagine
that the relief expressed down at Scotts Valley will have been
enough to generate a small thermal discernable from Las Vegas.”

While dot-com businesses continue to drop like flies, Internet regulators agree on a list of new top-level domains. Registrars — who stand to profit handsomely from new dot-suffixes — say worldwide demand necessitates additional domains. From Wired.com.

Embedded operating systems have become a hot topic lately, with vendors deciding which OS is likely to run the next generation of Internet appliances. IDG.net reports.

Infoworld reports: Intel on Monday will usher in the age of
its NetBurst micro-architecture with the introduction of
the Pentium 4 processor, according to sources for the
Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip giant.