Sun Microsystems reported a loss of $158 million, or five cents a share, on revenue of $2.86 billion for the most recently concluded quarter. That marks a 43 percent decrease from the $5.05 billion in revenue the company reported in the year-ago quarter.

ICANN signed a deal allowing the Museum Domain Management Association (MuseDoma to you) oversee the forthcoming .museum domain. The new domain will be limited to museums and “individual members of the museum community.” Idle thought: someone could have fun with those definitions.

CNET News.com: “Although Transmeta’s Crusoe chips have been showing up in notebooks for about a
year now, the company’s financial picture hasn’t changed dramatically.

The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip designer on Thursday reported third-quarter revenue of $5
million with a net loss of $29.4 million, or 22 cents a share, including charges. Its net loss,
excluding special charges, came to $20.5 million, or 16 cents per share. A consensus of analysts
was expecting a loss of 15 cents per share, according to First Call.

For the same period a year ago, the company reported revenue of $3.5 million and a net loss of
$27.7 million.”

Anonymous Reader writes “LawMeme has the inside legal scoop on the government’s decision to sign an exclusive contract for IKONOS satellite imagery over Afghanistan. Turns out only the Secretary of Commerce has the power to restrict commercial satellite imagery and a certain retired LT General in the Department of Defense is getting too big for his britches…”

Macworld: ”
Apple overcame a bleak economic climate to turn a $66 million profit and finish slightly ahead of analysts’ expectations for the
fiscal fourth quarter. And while the company’s solid performance was greeted warmly by investors, don’t expect Wall Street to
get too excited over Apple’s immediate prospects.

The reason? Investors hate uncertainty. And when it comes to looking ahead to the end of 2001, retailers and computer
makers–Apple included–can offer little besides uncertainty.”

Reported at ZDNet: “When it comes to developing faster computers, Intel has seen the light.

The chipmaker recently launched a new effort inside its Microprocessor Research Lab aimed at
examining a move from using aluminum and copper wires for moving data inside computers to
using fiber-optic strands. Fiber could be used to connect components, researchers say, but it
could also eventually replace wires inside chips.”

Reported at CNN: “The U.S. House of
Representatives Tuesday voted to
pass a bill that would extend the
current moratorium on Internet taxes
for two years, aiding states as they
work together to invent a new tax
structure that incorporates Internet
commerce.

The House passed the bill, called the
Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act, with
a voice vote. It aims to extend
legislation passed on Oct. 1, 1998,
which prohibited state or local
governments from imposing new taxes
on Internet access and on goods
purchased over the Internet.”

Proving that no government official has a monopoly on making incredibly stupid statements, the United Kingdom’s Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewett kicked off a new IT employment initiative by saying “We want to see more IT girls and fewer Net nerds in our computing industries.” Oink. ZDNet.

SecurityFocus: “The Linux Intrusion Detection System (LIDS) is a Linux kernel patch that will allow users to take away the all-powerful nature of root. They will be able to
give programs exactly the access they need, and no more. The root user can be stripped of all his majesty until he is no more powerful than any other user.
In the end, it is possible to have a completely functioning system, without worry that some wayward process or malicious cracker can destroy a machine
beyond reparability.

This article is the first part of a three-part series that will offer an overview of LIDS. This installment will offer an introduction to LIDS, including how it works,
booting LIDS, sealing the kernel, and configuring LIDS.”

ZDNet: “A worm disguising itself as a security patch for Microsoft products will in fact reformat
the victim’s C: drive. The Redesi worm spreads by e-mail under a number of guises, and
is set to trigger on November 11, 2001. But not all PCs are vulnerable to the worst of its
effects, and there is an easy way to stop the damage.”