Nominet responds to privacy concerns

Nominet UK, the domain name registrar, has announced measures to protect the privacy of individuals, following concerns raised about its plans to publish the names and addresses of those who register .uk domains. The issue was first brought to public attention by a letter published in MacUser magazine. ...more

IDC's PC sales forecast drops a point due to US slump

Slow growth in the US has been bolstered by healthy demand elsewhere in the world, resulting in analyst IDC lowering its PC sales forecast by one per cent Analyst IDC has adjusted its PC sales forecasts, citing slowing growth in the US during the last quarter. While, worldwide, users' hunger for new PCs hasn't been totally satisfied yet, with growth of 9.1 per cent overall in Q3, the US has recently demonstrated a slightly smaller appetite for new machines, leading to slower country growth during the same period. ...more

Intel reports harder times ahead for PC industry

Wall Street takes the temperature of Intel, as another IT corporation announces its quarterly financial results. Once again, expectations that had been played down in advance have been met, but discouraging noises are being made about repeating the achievement. On the one hand, read record levels of revenue, on the other, heed the warnings (again) about future growth. ...more

Palomino will be Athlon 4, say sources

Rumours are going round the Net that AMD is planning to call its new processor the Athlon 4. According to Ace's Hardware, internal documents within AMD already have the new name Athlon 4 replacing code-name Palomino. If the rumours are true, then this will be an attempt to compete directly against Intel's Pentium 4. ...more

Virginia introduces toughest-ever spam penalties

The US State of Virginia has enacted the toughest anti-spam laws yet, threatening spammers with seizure of assets earned from junk mail and up to five years in prison. Home to a number of major Internet businesses, including AOL, Virginia is one of the busiest points on the Web, but while other US states have anti-spam laws, none go so far as this. Governor Mark Warner explained, 'We want to be able to put out not only a potential criminal violation with the felony but also to seize the proceeds from this illegal activity - their cars, boats, airplanes, homes. ...more