This passed Wednesday, 4 of the Internet’s 13 root servers malfunctionned for about one hour, says ZDNet”

CRN ponders out loud about our technological advances, and if they are helping or hurting us.

In one month, the patent on RSA will expire. ZDNet explores the fallout.

Several tech groups are having their say in the Napster vs RIAA dispute, says ZDNet.

S3 has quietly formed an internal subsidiary to design and sell Transmeta-based Internet access devices, part of a retooling of S3 itself, reports TechWeb. S3 Inc., the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that once dominated the graphics market, is in the midst of trying to reposition itself as a dual-purpose digital media and Internet-access company. The process began in April, once the company had shifted its graphics chip unit to a joint venture between itself and Via Technologies Inc.

MacWeek reports: Some key Linux developers, encouraged by the announcement of GNOME as the standard desktop environment for Linux and Unix, believe that Linux is poised to overtake the Macintosh as the primary challenger to Microsoft Windows. One, open-source advocate Eric S. Raymond, went as far as to describe the Mac platform as “a noble but doomed cause.”

NTT is pushing very hard to impose I-mode, A proprietary standard for wireless data communications, as an alternative to WAP in Japan, reports Computerworld Hong Kong.

A key author of the Philippines’ E-Commerce Act of 2000 on Friday disputed a complaint by the nation’s chief prosecutor that the law is inadequate to prosecute future suspects in cases like the dissemination in May of the ILOVEYOU virus, reports IDG.net.

From an InfoWorld story: “There is a small but growing number of entrepreneurs creating new business-to-consumer and business-to-business models for monitoring and delivering wireless services to any industry that dispenses a product — from soda machines to copiers. What makes the technology especially appealing is that, in almost all cases, the wireless-commerce platform can be deployed without partnering with a telecommunications provider.”

Among the product annoucements at this week’s Intel Developer Forum: Red Hat announced the IA-64 JumpStart Program, which aims to provide software and hardware vendors with the software, tools, support, and training they need to develop products that will work with Red Hat’s version of Linux for Intel’s forthcoming 64-bit Itanium processor, reports InfoWorld.