PC giants detail high-spec microprocessor
Sony, IBM and Toshiba will today announce details of their newest microprocessor design, which is expected to offer faster computing performance than microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
According to NY Times, Sony plans to use the new microprocessor - known as Cell - in its PlayStation 3, likely to be introduced in 2006, while Toshiba will look to use the chip in advanced high-definition televisions, also to be introduced next year.
The Cell chip, say computer experts, could have a theoretical peak performance of 256 billion mathematical operations per second, which would place the chip among the top 500 supercomputers on a list maintained by scientists at the University of Mannheim and the University of Tennessee as recently as June 2002.
eBay to cut fees
Online auctioneer eBay announced yesterday that it would lower the fees it charges to list items for sale.
According to Reuters, the company also announced other changes in pricing and customer service policies in response to user feedback.
In a message posted to eBay`s Web site, eBay.com and eBay.ca will lower the minimum insertion fees for auction-style listings and fixed price categories, among others, from 30c to 25c as of midnight.
The company says it is standing by its move to hike final value fees on store inventory format listings, but it will credit $15.95 (R100) in May to all sellers who operated an eBay Store in April.
eBay is also expanding telephone support to provide access to all eBay Store owners from 1 April.
Ex-AOL worker guilty of spamming
A 24-year-old former America Online (AOL) software engineer has pleaded guilty to stealing and selling e-mail addresses to spammers.
According to AP, Jason Smathers stole 92 million screen names and e-mail addresses, which resulted in up to seven billion unsolicited e-mails being sent out.
He told the judge that he accepted $28 000 (R170 000) from someone who wanted to pitch an offshore gambling site to AOL customers, knowing that the list of screen names might make its way to others who would send e-mail solicitations.
Smathers is likely to face from 18 months to two years in prison at a 20 May sentencing, and also faces mandatory restitution of up to R2.5 million - the amount the government estimates AOL spent as a result of the e-mails.
The stolen list of 92 million AOL addresses included multiple addresses used by each of AOL`s estimated 30 million customers. It is believed to be still circulating among spammers.
Record industry sues the dead
Lawyers representing several record companies have filed suit against an 83-year-old woman who died in December, claiming she made more than 700 songs available on the Internet.
Robin Chianumba, daughter of the deceased, says she sent a copy of the death certificate to the company`s lawyers in response to an initial warning letter, but the suit was still filed a week later.
"I believe that if music companies are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people. I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park to attend the hearing," says Chianumba.
According to AP, the record industry also sued a 12-year-old girl for copyright infringement in 2003, claiming she had harboured an MP3 file of her favourite TV show on her hard drive.
Her parents were forced to pay $2 000 in a settlement deal.
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