HP refutes merger windfall payment deal

Top executives to pocket millions of dollars on the back of the HP-Compaq deal? In what has become an increasingly undignified war of words, HP board dissident, Walter Hewlett, and HP top management have made accusation and counter-accusation over the proposed acquisition of Compaq. In the latest volley of exchanges Walter Hewlett has alleged that Carly Fiorina and Michael Capellas, the respective CEOs of HP and Compaq, could stand to receive payments totalling $115m as apart of executive compensation packages. In the wake of the Enron financial scandal and the fall-out of the dot-com collapse, such payments to top executives could not be a more sensitive issue. ...more

Browsers hit by dialog box spoofing security flaw

Several Web browsers are afflicted with a dialog box security vulnerability which can be exploited by malicious web sites to spoof dialog boxes. Firefox, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape and Opera are affected by the flaw, where inactive windows can launch dialog boxes so they appear to be displayed by a website in another window or tab. This can be exploited by a malicious site to show a dialog box, which seems to originate from a trusted site. ...more

Apple's iPod enters global currency markets

One of Australia's biggest banks, the Commonwealth Bank, has used the latest version of Apple's music player - the slimline iPod nano - to compare global currencies and purchasing power in 26 countries. Along the lines of the Big Mac index launched 20 years ago by The Economist magazine, the survey prices the 2GB Nano in US dollars and found Brazilians pay the most for an iPod, shelling out $327.71, well above second-placed India at $222. ...more

Linux community offers free drivers to hardware makers

The Linux community has stepped up to address one of the bigger barriers to mainstream Linux adoption: device drivers. Greg Kroah-Hartman posted in his blog earlier this week that the community will take on all comers to develop Linux drivers for products free of charge. 'You will receive a complete and working Linux driver that is added to the main Linux kernel source tree. ...more

Symantec discovers first 64-bit Windows virus

Symantec has announced it has received the first virus aimed at 64-bit Windows. The virus can run not only on 64-bit machines like the Athlon 64 or the Intel Itanium but also 32-bit machines which are using 64-bit emulation software. Symantec says that Rugrat is a direct-action infector. ...more