DigitMemo.com

Microsoft is giving away copies of Vista Ultimate and Office if you will let the Vole closely monitor how you use the software.

While the more cynical amongst us might think that Vole can’t sell its software and so is giving it away, the deal is part of Microsoft’s Feedback programme.

According to its website, the Feedback Program allows you to connect directly with the Windows product team using your computer.

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Tiffany, the world’s second-biggest luxury jeweler, said eBay is a “rat’s nest” for counterfeiting and urged a judge to rule that the biggest online auctioneer was liable for infringement.

Tiffany assailed eBay in a legal brief submitted Dec. 7 to U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan in Manhattan, as the companies await his ruling in a trademark infringement trial. EBay said in its brief that it’s a “model citizen” in the fight against counterfeiting.

At issue is whether eBay must pay damages for failing to make adequate efforts to block sales of counterfeit silver jewelry. New York-based Tiffany and other retailers claim online sales of counterfeit clothes, bags and jewelry cost them about $30 billion a year.

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AMD reached its lowest share price for more than four years last week and, as a result, its market value dropped to around US$5 billion – that’s $400 million less than it paid for ATI in July 2006.

Intel, AMD’s major competitor in the CPU business, has been on a roll for the past 18 months and is now worth around US$162 billion, which makes the chip giant more than 32 times the size of AMD in monetary terms.

Even worse for AMD is that its partner-cum-archrival, Nvidia, has a market cap of around $19 billion, which makes it almost four times as valuable as the struggling platform company.

Click for more on AMD now worth less than it paid for ATi »

Two labs of America’s top scientists have fallen for the oldest trick in the hackers’ book

A report featured on ABC News concluded that two nuclear labs had been “hacked.”  The true story is a bit more entertaining and the reveals that there is no threat to the country’s nuclear safety.  Real threats such as concerted “hacks” conducted by the Chinese against the U.S. government are certainly a concern, but the only thing dangerous about the compromise at these labs is the stupidity of a few scientists and workers at the plants.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee and Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico have made a habit of collecting the social security numbers, names, and birth dates of scientists who visit the plants.  The information is put into a database, which reads like a who’s who of America’s top scientists.

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The chain’s 103 retail stores will remain open and staffed during the holiday season, offering discounts on computer and electronics.

CompUSA, the computer and gadget retailer controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, has been sold to a restructuring and investment firm that will close stores and sell some company assets.

The new owner is Boston-based Gordon Brothers Group, which recently helped CompUSA sell under-performing stores. The terms of the deal were not not disclosed.

Click for more on CompUSA Sold, Stores To Close »

Full versions, which Microsoft hopes will help spur increased Vista adoption, are due to be released early next year.

Microsoft released on Wednesday new test versions of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack, two highly anticipated technologies that are scheduled to be released early next year.

Microsoft also revealed partner resources to prepare customers for the release of the server OS, which the company plans to release to manufacturing on Feb. 27, 2008, the same day as a joint-launch event that also will promote SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. Combined, the three mark Microsoft’s major product release cycle for the year, although the products are not scheduled to be released simultaneously.

Click for more on Microsoft releases new Windows Server, Vista SP1 test code »

The next evolution of labels

Back in the Paleolithic Era, the world was a very different kind of place. People were hunter-gatherers, lived in caves, and kept all their email in folders*. You can’t really blame them. Between tracking woolly mammoths, fashioning crude stone tools, and auditioning for commercials, having a highly tuned system for organizing email wasn’t their highest priority.

But people changed. We moved out of caves and into skyscrapers. We hunt for bargains at the corner grocery. And we play video games simulating ourselves playing video games.

Click for more on Coloured Labels Now Available on Gmail »

Microsoft is to withdraw an anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which disables the operating system when invoked, following customer complaints.

The so-called “kill switch” is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.

But the tool has suffered from glitches since it was introduced with many Windows users claiming that legal copies of Vista had been disabled.

Click for more on ‘Kill switch’ dropped from Vista in SP1 »

Piracy rates are lower because it’s harder

Microsoft said Monday that it’s seeing piracy rates for Windows Vista that are half those of Windows XP.

Now cynical me wanted to write this up as “even pirates prefer XP two to one over Vista,” but that wouldn’t be fair. In reality, the decline in piracy rates is largely due to the fact that Vista is much tougher to fake than XP.

“Piracy rates are lower because it’s harder,” Microsoft Vice President Mike Sievert said in an interview Monday.

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An interesting list containing the first 100 .com domains registered.

Many of the names you haven’t heard of, many you have. What was interesting to me is that it took 2 years just to get 100 domains on-line.

SYMBOLICS.COM   March 15 1985
BBN.COM         April 24 1985   
THINK.COM       May 24 1985     
MCC.COM         July 11 1985    
DEC.COM         September 30 1985
NORTHROP.COM    November 7 1985 
XEROX.COM       January 9 1986  
SRI.COM         January 17 1986 
HP.COM          March 3 1986    
BELLCORE.COM    March 5 1986    
IBM.COM         March 19 1986   
SUN.COM         March 19 1986   
INTEL.COM       March 25 1986   
TI.COM          March 25 1986   
ATT.COM         April 25 1986   

Click for more on The First 100 Dot Coms Ever Registered »