AMD Technology honours Viswanathan

AMD honoured the world’s best chess player, Grand Master Viswanathan Anand by gifting him a top-of the line gaming computer, powered by the best of breed quad-core Phenom processor, and the 1 tera flop ATi Radeon 4870x2 graphics card.

Anand relies on fast and multiprocessing technology to stay on top of developments in the chess world, and practice for chess championships across the world. AMD is using this as an opportunity to congratulate Anand on retaining his world championship title.

The computer is powered by AMDs top-of-the-line quad-core Phenom processor and the one teraflop ATI Radeon 4870 x2 graphics card in a futuristic looking Asus chassis with specifications to match the champion’s achievements.

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ASUS Eee PC Is Forbes Asia's Product

ASUS’ Eee PC has been named Forbes Asia’s Product of the Year for 2008, right after being crowned Stuff Magazine’s Gadget of the Year and Computer of the Year. In justifying its selection, Forbes hailed the Eee PC for “its innovation and disruption”, and added that the “ultraportable” netbook had “changed the global PC industry”.

This new addition to the Eee PC’s mantle joins numerous other awards chalked up in the media, design and industry circles over the past year, most notably NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget and the prestigious G-Mark Award.


The Winner of Prestigious Awards from Around the World

Since its official launch in October 2007, the Eee PC has garnered numerous international awards from the media, design and industry circles. Apart from receiving the Forbes Asia Product of the Year and Stuff Gadget of the Year/Computer of the Year honors, the Eee PC has also been named NBC.com’s Best Travel Gadget, Computer Shopper's Best Netbook of 2008, PC Pro's Hardware of the Year, PC World's Best Netbook, and DIME magazine’s 2008 Trend Award Winner, amongst other accolades.
DIME magazine is a publication from Shogakukan, a large publishing enterprise in Japan. Products are nominated by readers, on the basis that users are the greatest bellwether of consumer trends.

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Rabbit Releases New Family of Wireless

Rabbit, a Digi International brand, today introduced the BL4S100 and BL4S200, single board computers (SBCs) that feature either Wi-Fi or ZigBee(R) connectivity, a microprocessor, memory and abundant I/O that allow easy deployment of wireless nodes for industrial, commercial and medical applications. This unique combination of control, I/O and connectivity makes it easy for engineers to add wireless connectivity and control to devices like vision systems, wireless industrial control systems, printing systems, automatic meter reading devices, industrial ventilation systems and HVAC systems. They also allow design engineers to easily gather and control data from ZigBee nodes and uplink the data to a server via Ethernet providing an easy to deploy ZigBee-to-Ethernet gateway.

"With Rabbit SBCs, embedded developers start with a virtually complete piece of hardware and only have to add software and an enclosure to create a product," said Larry Kraft, senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Digi International. "Now embedded developers have the fastest, easiest path to a wireless control product or wireless gateway. They can literally get to market in a few months."

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Toshiba and SGI Japan Develop World’s FirstFull

Toshiba Corporation and SGI Japan, Ltd. today announced that they have developed full HD file-based TV program broadcasting systems and core broadcasting systems, including master control equipment. A terrestrial broadcasting system has already been released and delivered to Japan’s Fuji Television Network, Inc., and systems for BS and CS satellite broadcasting are also scheduled for release in due course.

The main systems of a TV broadcasting station cover the master control, distribution center, studio (program recording) and editing functions. Toshiba’s newly developed core broadcasting systems support the final transmission of recorded programs, and offer the high reliability and high speed processing of broadcasts essential for this demanding function.

Until now, TV programs have typically been recorded and edited on video tape, and the various content elements, including video, audio and closed caption, have been compiled, edited and finalized and then uploaded to a playout server, a long, laborious process. Toshiba’s new equipment, incorporating a file-base program broadcasting system, supports faster transfers to the playout server, and secures vast improvements in workflow and efficiency.

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Google Gadgets for Linux 0.10.4

Google Gadgets for Linux provides a platform for running desktop gadgets under Linux, catering to the unique needs of Linux users. It's compatible with the gadgets written for Google Desktop for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on iGoogle. Following Linux norms, this project is open-sourced under the Apache License.

An important area where Google Desktop for Linux is different from its siblings on other operating systems is support for gadgets. Now, the Linux version of Google Gadgets will extend the gadgets platform to Linux users. By enabling cross-platform gadgets, a large library of existing gadgets are immediately available to Linux users. In addition, gadget developers will benefit from a much larger potential user base without having to learn a new API.

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Facebook bans Project Playlist

Facebook announced Tuesday that it has followed MySpace's lead and will ban Project Playlist from its service. According to the company, it has removed the Project Playlist app from Facebook and all embedded playlists have been removed from user profiles. Facebook said in a statement that it hopes Project Playlist can come to an amicable agreement with the labels so users can get back to using the app.

The New York Times announced Wednesday that it witnessed its online ad revenues drop for the first time in the site's history. According to the company, its online ad revenue slumped by 3.8 percent in November and total revenue from all its continuing advertising operations dropped by 20.9 percent.

Friendfinder Networks, a company that offers adult-oriented sites, is filing for an initial public offering with the SEC. According to documents released by the federal regulatory body, Friendfinder Networks wants to use the IPO to raise $460 million from the sale of the shares to pay off its enormous debt.

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Check Point Protects Against Unpatched Microsoft

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd.,the worldwide leader in securing the Internet, today announced through Check Point SmartDefense Services, users of VPN-1 R65 and R62, VSX NGX R65 and IPS-1 R65 are already protected from an unpatched, publically available Microsoft SQL Server buffer overflow vulnerability.

An attacker can take advantage of the vulnerability by creating a specially crafted Structured Query Language (SQL) request and sending it to a targeted server, triggering a memory overwrite. Successful exploitation would cause a denial of service and may allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. The threat affects users of SQL Server 2000 and 2005. Check Point rates the severity of vulnerability as critical.

“SQL Server vulnerabilities such as this are relatively easy for hackers to exploit and leave businesses quite vulnerable,” said Oded Gonda, vice president of network security products at Check Point. “It’s the goal of Check Point SmartDefense Services to provide our customers with immediate protection from the latest threats, which often arise before patches are available.”

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