Monday, April 1, 2002		Latest in IT world

A $ 50 card inserted in your laptop can raise an alarm in case the laptop is stolen, Business World reports. Available at www.caveo.com, the card looks like a credit card that can be inserted into the machine. If someone picks up the machine, the card goes off, the way a car alarm does.Then there are laptop tracking agencies like Lucrira, zTrace, Laptrack. You pay them annual fee and install apiece of software on the machine. When laptop is lost, they remotely activate the software. When the thief logs on to the Net, the software sends out bits of information, like the IP address, to the tracking firm. The software also dials the tracking firm's toll-free number, letting it know what number it is calling from. This information is then passed on to the police.

Many computer makers are so fearful of possible retaliation from Microsoft Corp. that they have refused to even discuss configuring machines with a competing operating system known as Linux, according to testimony of an executive of Red Hat Inc., a Linux provider, Washington Post reports. In a written testimony as part of ongoing federal court hearings into how Microsoft should be sanctioned for breaking antitrust laws, Michael Tiemann, Red Hat's chief technology officer, said "it was as if a skunk had come into the room" when he would approach computer manufacturers such as Compaq Computer Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and Dell Computer Corp. about carrying Linux on personal computers. Linux is growing in popularity for networks of business computer systems, but is rarely found running personal computers, in part because it is cannot offer applications such as Microsoft's dominant Office suite of word-processing and spreadsheet programs. Tiemann testified that Linux on personal computers also is "taboo" among manufacturers because of a fear that Microsoft would retaliate if machines were not shipped with the software giant's Windows operating system.

Hackers operating outside the USA tried unsuccessfully to enter the computer network at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, officials told AP. There were 1,25,000 attempts made last week, Lt-General Richard Reynolds, commander of the Aeronautical Systems Centre said. "I don't know whether they wanted to get in and just get information, or whether they wanted to get in and cripple our network," he said. It was "a concerted and directed attack," and one of the most orchestrated seen by the Air Force in the last six months. The base is home to the National Air Intelligence Centre, research laboratories, and the programme-management offices for the B-2 Stealth bomber and F-22 Stealth fighter.

Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. last week launched an oblique attack at Microsoft Corp. by reaching out to developers whose loyalty is crucial to setting standards for hooking cell phones and other devices into the wireless Internet, Reuters reported. At the JavaOne annual conference for software engineers using Sun's Internet-friendly Java platform, Sun rolled out new tools to make long-hoped-for applications, like buying aeroplane tickets on a cellphone. The wireless Web has been a disappointment to many in North America, with years of hype but few of the promised nifty applications, such as games, programs to buy stock by wireless Web and wireless inventory management programs. Some 109 million Java-enabled wireless clients, like phones and personal organisers, will be sold this year, rising to more than 400 million next year and 1 billion the next, Sun executives quoted market research as showing.