SeattleTimes: “Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer
told lawyers for the nine states suing the company that
there is no business or consumer demand for a
stripped-down version of the Windows operating system.

He said that is just a ploy for competitors to “torture Microsoft.”

Yahoo: “Microsoft Corp. chief executive Steve Ballmer said in legal depositions released Monday that the company would have to withdraw its monopoly Windows operating system from the market if a court imposes severe sanctions being sought by nine of the states in the antitrust case.”

SeattleTimes: “In contrast to the evasive testimony of Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates that hurt Microsoft early in its
antitrust case, Chief Executive Steve Ballmer was
jocular and thorough during a recent deposition,
videotapes of which were released yesterday.

But Ballmer aggressively attacked the antitrust
remedies sought by nine states, even asserting at one
point they could force Microsoft out of business.”

PCWorld: “Executives from several of Microsoft’s largest rivals will offer their views of the software maker’s anticompetitive
behavior, and provide input for what remedy a federal court should impose in the government’s antitrust case against the company,
according to court documents.”

Wired: The Russian company that created software to circumvent Adobe’s e-book format argued on Monday that its conduct — which caused the
arrest and detainment of programmer Dmitri Sklyarov in a high-profile case last summer — was not illegal.

Elcomsoft, the Moscow-based software firm, claimed that because it offered the encryption-breaking software on the Internet, the company was not
subject to U.S. copyright law.

Joseph Burton, Elcomsoft’s attorney, told U.S. District Judge Ronald Whyte that Elcomsoft’s actions “occurred in Russia or on the Internet, and we take
the position that the Internet is a place” outside of U.S. jurisdiction.”

Yahoo: “In progressively more extreme statements, StreamCast Networks Chief
Executive Steve Griffin has characterized the shutdown as an “attack” on
his company and on the millions of people who used the Morpheus
software. Bulletin and chat boards around the Web have been buzzing with
conspiracy theories, ranging from a competitor’s sabotage to plots by the
record industry.

But in its first public statements since the blackout, Dutch company Kazaa
BV, which provided StreamCast with its peer-to-peer technology, said there
was a simple explanation.”

PCworld: “Microsoft has issued a “critical” security alert for its Java virtual machine (JVM), saying a flaw in the product could let hackers view
users’ information while they surf the Web.

Microsoft is one of several vendors that make a JVM, a program that allows applications written in Java to run on any computer
regardless of its operating system. The company has included its JVM with Windows 98, Windows Me, and Windows 2000, as well
as its Internet Explorer browser up to version 5.5.”

NewsFactor Network writes: “The idea sounds incredible, perhaps a little crazy: Why would Microsoft want to stop licensing its OS to hardware manufacturers and start selling its own brand of PCs? What evidence is there that this might happen? As it turns out, there are two pieces of evidence that support this idea. But it is what happens next that really opens up the can of worms.”

James Chivers writes:
“Open Clustering is a new division of Psi-Domain – initiated to provide high-performance computing (HPC), high-availability computing (HAC) and custom solutions based on a synergy of rock-solid hardware and leading software technologies to fully encompass client requirements.”

“Our team have been extremely successful in the provision of clusters to the UK Linux market for over two years. We have accumulated a great knowledge on how to properly capture clustering requirements, specify project constraints, avoid deployment issues and provide timely delivery – we know how to do it right – and that is very important to our clients.”, commented Mr James Chivers, Psi-Domain’s Technical Director and Founder.

“The launch of Open Clustering is the next natural step for our organisation as we look to broaden our dominance in the UK and European Linux hardware market. We surveyed our existing clients who agreed that a division specifically tailored to providing these solutions, offering undiluted attention to their requirements would be a much welcomed initiative.”, explained Mr Chivers.

Open Clustering’s flagship product is the Samurai Blade Server – designed for accommodating up to 20 server blades within one 3U chassis. That means a 42U rackmount cabinet can contain up to 280 servers.

By installing server blades with 1.2GHz CPU and Gigabit LAN, the whole rack can draw out more than 336GHz of aggregated computing power and 588Gbps of aggregated network throughput.

Research firm IDC suggest that the world-wide forecast for rack-optimised Intel architecture servers will hit approximately 8.5million units by 2004, up from 6million this year, and 5million in 2001. A conservative projection based on IDC data, forecasts an 80% increase in server blade shipments from approximately 200,000 this year to 1million in 2004.

“Open Clustering’s Samurai Blade Server product is positioned squarely at the high-density clustering market – and offers what we believe the best of breed solution in its field.”, explained Mr Chivers. “It’s highly modularised component base, unique KVM daisy chain system, hot-swap blades, power and fan modules and PCI card expansion will make this product a runaway success”.

It is certainly suited for the intensive computing and communication applications of nowadays. The Samurai Blade Server is not only significant in its superior overall performance, but it also performs excellently in the aspect of power consumption, with each server only consuming less than 50 watts.

Open Clustering URL: http://www.openclustering.com“

Anonymous Reader writes: “In a wide-ranging interview, Craig Mundie told The Australian (Newspaper) Microsoft “loved open source” but saw no value in the general public license (GPL).”

“The thing that has made the software industry what it is today is that it’s a bit like being in the movie or music business where all of the investment is made up front to write the program, and your cost of manufacture is pretty small,” Mr Mundie said.” More at AustralianIT.“