A press release from PR Newswire states: “Aladdin Knowledge Systems (Nasdaq: ALDN),
a global leader in the field of Internet content and software security, today
announced it discovered that Brazilian hacker groups named “Hacker Brazil”
and “VR Brazil” worked together to produce an automated tool used to help
create the Kournikova vandal.”

Kelly McNeill writes “Microsoft has a history of buying out its competition. We as industry observers undoubtedly know that the company has recently confirmed that Linux is a huge threat to its way of business. Accordingly, in the wake of Microsoft’s inability to purchase Linux, the king of competition-buyout seems to have learned a new way of doing business. Can’t buy out the company that competes with your application? Why not buy out its developers?“

In most parts of the world, it is generally accepted that once you stop paying for services, there is a good chance that those services will no longer be provided. In the San Francisco Bay Area, however, it’s just your mean old upstream trying to steal your customers no matter how many millions of dollars you might owe. Catch up on the DSLnetworks vs. Covad struggle at the startribune.com.

Here we go again? The free PC movement might be back, if your service provider cooperates. ZDNet reports on the efforts of ZF Linux to market its MachZ chips by providing low-cost hardware and blueprints to ISPs and other interested companies, who could then build their own computers for subscribers at less than $250 per unit.

CNET News.com says that Microsoft has named distributors for its forthcoming Xbox game and multimedia console in Japan. Former Ziff-Davis owner Softbank and toy maker Bandai will form a new subsidiary to distribute the console to Japanese retailers. Now all that’s left is for Microsoft to announce a shipping date. Oh, and perhaps a few game titles would help.

Opera is moving its popular browser off the desktop and onto the palmtop — or in this case, the celltop. The company announced today that it has released a test version of a Web browser for Symbians EPOC operating system. The new OS will be featured on the next generation of cell phones, due out in stores right around the time you get bored with your current cell phone. Read the story at CNET News.com.

CNET News.com reports on HP’s decision to pull the plug on a graphing calculator/Windows CE hybrid code-named Xpander. The company says now just isn’t the time for such a product.

From a story at mozillaquest.com: “Are you normally a Microsoft Windows user who now is using Linux as a second or alternative computer operating system? Or, are you making the switch from Microsoft (MS) Windows to Linux? If so, then chances are that you want your Linux installation to look and to feel as much like MS Windows as possible.

The more Linux looks and feels like MS Windows, the less time and effort you need to invest in learning Linux and Linux applications …

However, in the long run you will get more out of Linux if you learn to use Linux as Linux rather than Linux as an MS Windows clone. Once you get use to using Linux and the K desktop with the Windows Theme, try re-setting the K desktop to the KDE Default Theme.

LinuxToday Australia reviews several word-processing programs available for Linux. The writer finds several programs that offer an alternative to running Microsoft Word on Wine, but says most alternatives fall short in some way.

Reuters reports that the European Parliament has approved a new law allowing rights holders to prevent “illegal” copying of copyrighted works by technology such as encryption.