Web attack takes out Google, Yahoo and others

Google, Yahoo and others were effectively taken off air for more than two hours yesterday as a denial of service attack on the servers hosting them took its toll. According to Internet monitoring company Keynote Systems, the attack on web infrastructure company Akamai Technologies used by Google, Yahoo, Apple and Microsoft, drove their sites to 'near zero' availability, according to Keynote's VP of technology and operations, Lloyd Taylor. Akamai said a hacker attack had targetted four of its customers, but the severity of it had knocked out its DNS system and thus affected others. ...more

Desktop boost for Linux from OSDL

Desktop versions of the GNU/Linux operating system received new impetus with the news that the Open Source Development Labs have formed a Desktop Linux Working Group initiative at LinuxWorld on New York. Linux has first found favour as a server platform in the enterprise, but it's now casting its eye farther afield to take on Microsoft's hegemony in the desktop arena at least in the enterprise space. 'Linux has started to make inroads on the desktop in many areas of enterprise computing such as kiosks, fixed-function workstations, technical workstations and point of sale,' said Tim Witham, OSDL lab director. ...more

IT Forum 2004: Microsoft revises TechNet 2.0

Microsoft has rejigged its TechNet support offering. While version 2.0 of TechNet Plus 2. ...more

Napster shows revenue surge as ad-supported music attracts audience

Napster managed to cut its losses by $10 million in the last quarter, despite a seven per cent fall in subscriber numbers. Napster CEO Chris Gorog attributed the decline to the launch of a free service in May. However the income from advertising on the new site underpinned record revenues for the digital music business as a whole. ...more

Sony Music employs Magic touch to stop p2p theft

Sony and Audible Magic have announced an agreement to work together on a number of content management and anti-piracy initiatives. Audible Magic is a company whose software can block the network transfer of copyrighted files and which also provides an anti-piracy information service. Under the terms of the agreement, Sony Music will electronically register its new music with Audible Magic's CopySense (which can block unauthorised downloads of copyrighted songs on P2P networks). ...more