Kelly McNeill writes: “Apple recently gave out invitations to the October 23rd unveiling of a new Apple-branded digital device that it would not describe, other than to say that it was “not a Mac.” The product, which Apple is calling a “breakthrough digital device,” will be revealed only two days before the official launch of Windows XP, the new operating system from Microsoft …Who knows, maybe Apple caught wind of my eRing key ring video-to-video communication concept device and is unveiling it for Tuesday’s event.”

Zoe Knipe writes: “SMEs and corporates often find controlling and reconfiguring their email a cumbersome process. For simple jobs such as setting up a new mailbox, creating an autoresponder or changing passwords, they usually have to contact their ISP?s help desk for assistance. In most cases, the only alternative is to install a local mailserver, costing upwards of $1000, plus ongoing maintenance and licensing.”
VSDMail provides a simple, secure method for the domain owner to configure email from their own desktop. From the user?s point of view, VSDMail puts the reconfiguration process at their fingertips, requires little technical knowledge, and means that changes can be effected immediately rather than waiting for technical support.

VSDMail is available to SME and corporate customers running sendmail on Linux. Pricing has been designed to offer attractive margins to resellers whilst also enabling very affordable end-user pricing.

The following features are included in VSDMail:

· Add or remove domain names
· Manage multiple POP3 mailboxes
· Change mailbox passwords

· Email address/alias configuration

· Email autoresponder configuration
· Fully secure – all communication encrypted using OpenSSL

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About Idaya Ltd.
Idaya Ltd develop innovative software solutions for the ISP, ASP and web hosting marketplaces. The company?s mission is to provide the cutting-edge solutions, support and consultancy that enables Service Providers to increase market share and enhance their services.

Idaya?s core products are VSDControl, VSDClient and VSDMail. Together these applications provide the ability to delegate the administration of a freeVSD powered hosting server, virtual environment or virtually hosted domain respectively.

The company is also the primary sponsor of the freeVSD project, an open source ‘virtual environment’ platform for Service Providers.
www.idaya.com

About freeVSD
FreeVSD is an advanced web-hosting platform for ISP?s, educational institutions and other large organisations. It allows multiple Virtual Servers to be created on a single hosting server, each with a truly separate and secure web-hosting environment. This reduces an ISP?s hardware outlay and also lowers the cost of support due to delegated administration.

Freely distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL), freeVSD comes complete with a documented administration protocol and an open source web-based administration system.

The project website is http://www.freevsd.org.

For further press enquiries, please contact Idaya?s publicity representatives:
Zoë Knipe or Paul Lindsell
Lindsell Marketing
Tel: 020 7434 2090
Fax: 020 7437 4130
E-Mail: zoe@lindsellmarketing.com”

Kelly McNeill writes “The company reported quarterly earnings per share of 23 cents and operating income of $2.9 billion, compared to $2.78 billion last year. Though Microsoft’s stock gained slightly during the day’s trading, the world’s largest software company indicated a lower target for the next quarter.”

CNet reports that Taiwan-based Acer is launching the first Chinese-language handheld device by translating Palm OS to Chinese.

ZDNet reports: “Bell Labs has created a tiny new transistor and discovered a way to whip it up in a laboratory beaker.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Despite an unprecedented second consecutive quarter of lower personal computer sales, Dell continues to widen its lead over the rest of the PC makers, says a major research company. The Austin, Texas-based Dell now owns 13.8 percent of worldwide shipments and a quarter of all domestic shipments, according to Gartner Dataquest.”

CNN reports: “Cisco Systems says it has initiated a recall of about 95,000 power adapters it sold worldwide because of overheating problems.”

From O’Reilly BSD: “When arguing for building corporate solutions on BSD, you can cite reliability and ease-of-use, but the commercial solutions spend a lot of money creating that exact same image. With BSD, the burden of proof is on you. Michael Lucas looks at how to prove yourself to managers and present your case.”

– By Grant Gross –
Penguin Computing founder Sam Ockman has retaken the reins as the Linux hardware and services company’s CEO, and has cut about a third of the staff in a reorganization he says has moved the company onto the profitable side of the ledger.

Ockman, speaking to NewsForge late Thursday, said CEO Martin Seyer, who’d been with the company about 10 months, was let go, as were the company’s vice presidents for operations and engineering. Ockman, who was the company’s chairman and CTO, has moved back into the CEO position he occupied for two years after founding Penguin Computing, and some of the executive layoffs happened because he wanted to replace Seyer’s team with his own, he said.

“It’s just like any executive, you have your own team of people you’ve worked with before,” said Ockman. Reports of several executives walking out after Seyer was fired are untrue, he said, although one person resigned.

The company, which creates customized configurations and customized Linux appliances in addition to selling traditional Linux hardware, now has about 40 employees, including consultants; according to Ockman it had about 60 before the layoffs. Some of the marketing, sales, I.T., and software development teams were part of the cuts.

“The board decided we needed to adjust to the new economy, and I was the best person to do that,” Ockman said. “We were more fortunate than most, in that we were leaders in the space. When VA [Linux] exited the space, we became the number one Linux systems company in the world.”

Ockman, a veteran Open Source advocate, said the cuts were needed to insure profitability: “It’s a shame, but it’s what has to be done. The number one thing is to continue the company for our customers and be profitable every month. We’re a profitable company with this restructuring.

“The whole computing industry is going through this,” he added. “For us to be immune to this would be crazy. We remain a very healthy company. We’re not immune to the economy, but I think our leadership position and the type of services we offer really puts us in a unique spot.”

Customers shouldn’t see much difference in the company, said Ockman, because the technical support and customer service teams weren’t affected by the cuts.

Look for Penguin Computing to come out with clustering server products shortly. Ockman said Beowolf clustering will be a growing focus within Penguin Computing. The company also plans to release 64-bit products “when 64-bit is ready for prime time.”

CNET News.com: “IBM will announce upgrades to its mainframe computer Friday, refreshing a high-end server
line many had given up as extinct.

The upgrades improve some of the features of the z900 mainframe, introduced a year ago, though
it leaves the heart of the refrigerator-size machine unchanged.

The changes make the mainframe better able to run the Linux operating system, help it screen out
some types of computer attacks, improve the system’s ability to conduct encrypted
communications, and make it possible to add memory without shutting the machine down.”