Patrick Mullen writes “The Duke of URL has just posted their review of Pogo’s Verona Pentium 4 Linux box. This is a sub-$1000 Pentium 4-based Linux system and the review covers benchmarks (kernel compilation, Q3A Win/Linux, XHDBench, Netperf), the components, and much more.”

The Register reports that a variety of Cisco products, including its PIX firewall, are subject to SSH vulnerabilities that have been known about for up to a year.

Kelly McNeill writes “Now that Microsoft has had the victory it expected in the appellate court review of the breakup order that was hanging over it, we can expect more news about the plans that the software giant has for the future. And that has end users more concerned. There have been calls for a grassroots assault on Microsoft. The plan many are suggesting is that Linux and Mac operating system users join forces.”

The Register: “The British Government once again voiced its commitment to the wired economy by
attempting to talk its European partners into overturning their commitment to outlaw
spam.

The Government, it seems, is happy for Net users to be bombarded with junk email
containing all manner of pornographic filth, scams, frauds, deceptions and
get-rich-quick schemes that prey on the vulnerable.

The Government is also happy that Net users pick up the tab for this pestering
intrusion. It’s their time online, their phone bill, their subscription costs – let punters
pay for it.

And all in the name of commercial freedom – because companies shouldn’t be
prevented from “connecting with their customers.””

BBC: “US computer firm Hewlett-Packard (HP) has pledged to fight a
German court decision to impose fees on its recordable compact
disc technology.

The Stuttgart district court ruled that Hewlett Packard would have
to pay a fee on every CD burner it sells in Germany, arguing that the
technology was being used to lift music off the internet in
contravention of artists’ copyright.”

CNET News.com: “The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has recommended two related specifications designed to
link pages written in Extensible Markup Language (XML). The first, XML Linking Language, or
XLink, became a candidate recommendation nearly a year ago and achieves its final
recommendation status more than six months past its scheduled approval.”

CNET News.com addresses key questions about the appeals court’s decision not to
break up software giant Microsoft.

EE Times: “A National Committee on Information Technology Standards
(NCITS) working group is pursuing a new protocol standard for the IEEE 1394 bus in a
bid to enable 1394-based “hybrid” storage devices that could efficiently handle both
computer data and audio/video streams.”

The Register: “The first major new office app for Apple’s Mac OS X made its debut quietly last
week, and as you can see from the screenshots below, it’s very lovely indeed. But
the Mesa spreadsheet actually has an interesting history in its own right. Paul
Lynch of P&L Systems in the UK, which publishes Mesa for OS X and has kept the
original NeXT version alive all these years, has an insight into the many twists and
turns of Apple’s OS strategy that’s isn’t often told. So indulge us.”

CNET News.com: “Napster is forcing people who want to trade music through its file-swapping site to upgrade
to a severely restricted version that allows trading of only a fraction of the songs
previously available.

As expected, people who signed onto the site Thursday morning were greeted with a message
telling them their older software would no longer work.

“All previous versions of Napster have been disabled,” the message says. “We’re making this
change as part of our ongoing effort to comply with the court’s orders.””