“Judging a book by its cover alone would mean that AMD’s Hammer architecture would be used in the
first 64-bit x86 microprocessors. We already know that Intel has taken a route away from x86 for their
64-bit solution, Itanium which uses a new instruction set architecture (ISA) called EPIC. The point of
this article is to not only examine the pros and cons of AMD’s extension of the 32-bit x86 ISA but also
the rest of the story when it comes to Hammer since there is a lot more to this architecture than a few
more registers and greater memory addressability.” Anandtech explains it all for you.

CNET News.com reports that Gateway has officially killed off its Connected Touch Pad appliance. The Linux-powered device, developed in partnership with America Online was unveiled last November with a $599 price tage. Experts had written off the product as dead back in March when Gateway restructured its top management and announced that it was putting all of its Internet appliance plans on hold.

Linux Weekly News posts Dr. Dobb’s Python-URL, linking to all the news of interest to the Python development community.

Reported at Network World Fusion: “SBC Communications’ project to make high-speed
Internet access available to 80% of its customers by
the end of 2003, will be among the programs hit by
capital expenditure cutbacks announced Monday by
the incumbent regional carrier.”

Reuters (via The Globe and Mail: “A computer virus
named after Osama bin Laden,
the Saudi-born fugitive accused
of masterminding the attacks on
the United States, has surfaced
in South Korea, a local anti-virus
software maker said on
Wednesday.”

Reuters (via ZDNet: “Consumer and privacy groups criticized the U.S.
government Tuesday for failing to limit certain features on Microsoft’s
new Windows XP operating system that they say compromise
consumers’ privacy.

Privacy groups, led by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the Federal Trade
Commission should have taken action when they filed their first complaint this summer.”

IDG: “Bill Gates kicked off two days of Windows XP launch ceremonies here with the
declaration that Microsoft Corp.’s new operating system facilitates “things people never expected to be able to
do with PCs.”

Scores of Microsoft partners filled a floor at the Marriott Marquis with kiosks hosting demos of Windows XP-optimized
third-party applications for home and corporate users. But despite Gates’ grand pronouncement, Windows XP-only features
and products were in short supply.”

IDG (via CNN): “NeuLevel Inc., the company holding the registry for the .biz domain name, is delaying the
start of live, first-come, first-serve online registrations for .biz until Nov. 7, citing
higher-than-expected demands that require a heftier system architecture.”

ZDNet: “Sun Microsystems and AOL Time Warner will begin testing technology to enable their
instant messaging services to communicate with each other.

Sun becomes the second company–after IBM’s Lotus–to undergo interoperability trials with
the online giant. Its America Online division, which owns the two most popular instant messaging
services, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) and ICQ, has long been criticized by competitors for
blocking efforts to communicate with its products.”

ZDNet: “IBM has released a new low-end Unix server, addressing the weakest part of the
company’s Unix server line.

The p610, a two-processor system code-named Colt, has a starting price of $7,495,
said Val Rahmani, the new general manager of IBM’s Unix server division. More
typical models with two processors, 8GB of memory and two 36GB hard drives cost
$43,800, the company said.”