DigitMemo.com

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   

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Even though the 4GB version of Asus’ elfin Eee PC isn’t exactly easy to get hold of, some system sellers have started taking advance orders for the as-yet-unreleased 8GB model.

Set be available in both white and black versions, the 8GB solid-state disk Eee PC comes with 1GB of DDR 2 memory - double that installed in the 4GB model.

Like that machine, the 8GB incarnation has 802.11b/g Wi-Fi; three USB ports; a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet port; a 7in, 800 x 480 display; and a 900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV processor underclocked to 630MHz.

Here in the UK, one reseller, Clove, is offering the 8GB Eee PC on pre-order for £304.32 - around £84 more than the average price of the 4GB model. The unit is due sometime in Q1 2008.

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Tens of thousands of Britons’ financial details are sold on the internet

Security breaches that are allowing the financial details of tens of thousands of Britons to be sold on the internet are to be investigated by the country’s information watchdog.

Without paying a single penny, The Times downloaded banking information belonging to 32 people, including a High Court deputy judge and a managing director. The private account numbers, PINs and security codes were offered as tasters by illegal hacking sites in the hope that purchases would follow.

Click for more on Websites sell secret bank data and PINs »

However, good news inside

SADLY FOR AMD, the Phenom launch was dumbed down by a nasty bug that stopped AMD from launching a 2.4 GHz variant (9700).

At the same time, problems with the OS freezing were solved by a BIOS fix inside the motherboards that actually reduces performance between five to 10 per cent, since that BIOS update did nothing but ordered a processor to avoid that ill-fated corrupted cache data.

The problem with L3 cache caused performance reduction on all clock speeds and yes, Phenoms 2.2 and 2.3 GHz are affected as well, but it was really noticable at 2.4 GHz. BIOS run-around caused a 2.4 GHz part producing performance of 100-200 MHz slower parts. Of course, standard disclaimer in some rare-found, practically laboratory-only instances applies here.

Click for more on All Phenoms feature infamous L3 cache errata »

AnandTech reviews ASUS’s much talked-about Eee PC

The “Eee” in Eee PC is an acronym of sorts, because computer people love those. “Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play”; “Excellent Internet Experience”; “Excellent On-the-Go”. Look at the ASUS Eee webpages, and you will find a preponderance of the use of words starting with “E” used to describe the Eee PC. One acronym you won’t see used is UMPC, but while the Eee PC is certainly different from your typical UMPC - it lacks the touch sensitive stylus interface and it runs Linux by default - it can certainly fulfill the same niche if necessary, with some caveats. Considering it costs half as much as the cheapest UMPCs, anyone looking for such a device should give the Eee PC some consideration.

Click for more on ASUS Eee PC: Laptop, UMPC, or Something Else? »

It was actually a ruse used by a co-worker to cover up an accidental vehicular homicide.

Police and a doctor who examined the body of a 33-year-old quarry worker had said on Thursday the victim was found dead with a burning mobile phone stuck to his chest and they were looking into whether he was killed by an exploding battery.

“The co-worker confessed to us last (Thursday) night that he had actually hit him by accident and lied about the mobile phone exploding,” said an official with the Cheongju Heungdeok police station, about 100 km (60 miles) southeast of Seoul.

Click for more on ‘Exploding Mobile Phone’ a Scam After All »

Any device, any application sounds impressive, but skeptics see a play for new spectrum.

Executing a neat reverse-field, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) declared last week that it will throw open its cellular network to third-party devices, applications, and services. Once considered to be one of the strictest gatekeepers of its network, the No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier is now setting an example for other carriers to open their systems to outside hardware and software.

Industry observers remain skeptical, to put it mildly. Verizon will never let itself become just a dumb-pipes provider for other companies’ devices and services, they maintain, and anyone who says otherwise is either a fool or a liar. Tactically, Verizon’s move could be another maneuver on the chess board that is the FCC auction of valuable 700-MHz spectrum for wireless broadband networks, now scheduled for January. On Dec. 3, companies planning to bid must file a “short form” license application for that auction, which is seen as the last, best chance for fully open and accessible wireless broadband networks in the United States.

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Mozilla has issued a fix for a bug found in an update issued earlier this week.

It is the first time ever Mozilla has released two versions of the open-source browser in the same week. When Mozilla released Firefox 2.0.0.10 Monday, it included a bug in its rendering canvas HTML elements. Canvas elements allow for dynamic, scriptable rendering of bitmap images in HTML.

“The bug affects a specific use case of the Canvas tag, which is not yet in wide use,” said Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla. “We used our standard process of releasing a beta to tens of thousands of users and had no reports of this issue prior to the full release of 2.0.0.10. Once we became aware of the issue, we worked overtime to address it.”

The new version, Firefox 2.0.0.11 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux for free download.

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IBM is suing a company for selling fake IBM batteries that catch fire, asking $1M for each fake battery.

IBM is suing Shentech for selling laptop batteries that catch fire and sport allegedly fake IBM logos.

The suit, filed Nov. 20 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, accuses Shentech of trademark infringement, false advertising, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices.

IBM says that a consumer in Ohio bought a battery from Shentech for a ThinkPad laptop. The battery overheated and caught fire, causing damage to the laptop, IBM said. The user reported the problem to Lenovo, which licenses the IBM trademark. After examining the faulty battery, IBM discovered that it was not a genuine IBM battery, the company said in the suit.

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Google Plans to Bid 4.6 Billion on 700MHz Band

Google Inc was set to announce on Friday it will bid on coveted airwaves to launch a U.S. wireless network, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The Silicon Valley-based company had said several months ago it was considering bidding in the auction of 700-megahertz wireless spectrum due to begin January 24. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission deadline for companies to declare their interest in joining the airwaves bidding is December 3.

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