DigitalX

lol gw

i use 'www.gmail.com' my size goes up by that counting storage size javascript

Considering you can only send up to 10mb attachments, very unlikely. well considering you got a 10 MB per-email sending limit and your average song is 3-6MB and you got 2GB of storage and your average CD is 700MB or so it is possible if you send the CD track by track .......

sure PM me ur email ill send ya one

yup, seems there keeping the idea of invite only...

evil read this..... on the www.gmail.com site it has a counter thin of how much teh size is gowing up Gmail

it appears if you watch slowly at the bottom off your gmail account it goes approx 50 MB every hour atm and they have appeard to say they cannot go unlimited but they will go from 2 GB and count upwards with space for a long time with all accounts... i think thats the messae thy are trying to gicve away on the new 'What's New' page on there homepag of www.gmail.com

Reports that GMail could launch today have been dismissed after Google detailed new plans for popular "invite-only" service. Speaking to CNet News late yesterday, GMail project manager Georges Harik dismissed rumors that the one year anniversary of the email service would mark its public debut. Instead, Harik detailed plans to immediately double the storage capacity of GMail accounts from 1GB to 2GB. In addition, Google will continue to increase GMail account capacity beyond 2GB; effectively creating a limitless storage medium for users. "One gigabyte did seem like a lot, but it turns out there are a lot of heavy users of mail," he said. "They send attachments, share photos. It all adds up." Herik did not provide a timeline for a public release, but with Google currently handing out 50 GMail invites to each user, one would wonder if it even matters. In direct response to the initial GMail threat, leading email providers had to signifigantly increase their storage capacity. This latest move by Google will undoubtedly spark another storage race, benefiting email users everywhere. Update: Looks as though storage space is already on the move. Several users are reporting their accounts steadily increasing in size, or already near the new 2GB limit Source: Neowin

well stated

omfg there not hard to make

lol neither i onyl read main page lines not whole articles...

he posted befor you lol

The number of FBI investigations into Chinese espionage in California's technology corridor has soared, as Beijing allegedly recruits civilians to steal US know-how, Time magazine reported. Suspected espionage cases have been reported from New Jersey on the east coast to California in the west, the weekly magazine reported. The FBI is watching more than 3,000 companies in the United States suspected of collecting information for China, it said. "A hotbed of activity is Silicon Valley (California), where the number of Chinese espionage cases handled by the bureau increases 20% to 30% annually," Time said, referring to the state's corridor of high-tech companies. "China is trying to develop a military that can compete with the US, and they are willing to steal to get (it)," a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official was quoted as saying. A US intelligence official said: "The Chinese are very good at putting a lot of people on just a little piece and getting a massive amount of stuff home." Time called the number of Chinese spies "staggering, if only because average civilians are enlisted in the effort". Chinese nationals are debriefed by state security agents in China before and after their trips to the United States. They are asked what they saw and sometimes told what to get, the magazine said. A couple of Chinese origin was arrested last year in Wisconsin for allegedly sending to China $US500,000 ($NZ700,000) worth of computer parts that could enhance missile systems, Time said. The couple, who are naturalised Americans, are awaiting trial. The FBI has added hundreds of counter-intelligence agents and put at least one in every US Energy department research facility, Time said. It has also begun cooperation initiatives with corporations and considers universities as a soft spot, since there are some 150,000 Chinese studying in the United States, according to the magazine. The FBI relies heavily on Chinese informants to sort spies from the thousands of Chinese who travel to the United States for work, Time said.

When US President George W. Bush comes to town next week, Washington's European allies will be hoping to extinguish the heat of transatlantic rancour over Iraq. But just as one issue gets switched to the backburner for Bush's participation next Tuesday in EU and NATO summits, another in the form of Iran's nuclear ambitions threatens a fresh flare-up. The EU trio of Britain, France and Germany has taken the lead in negotiating with Iran to persuade the Islamic republic to sign up to tough UN inspections of its nuclear facilities. The United States has thus far been content to let the powerful EU countries get on with it, but has of late begun to rattle its sabre a little more loudly. There is talk in Washington of military strikes if the negotiations fail. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Europe to prepare the ground for Bush last week. Her meetings were marked by what both sides agreed was a shared desire to move on from Iraq. But Rice also urged the EU three to take a tough line with Iran, warning Tehran of UN sanctions if it refuses to renounce its suspected nuclear weapons programme. Michael Emerson, a Middle East expert at the Centre for European Policy Studies, said Iran was the toughest nut on the table for Tuesday "because here you do have a real difference between the Europeans and the Americans". "On the American side, there is a division of views between those who would like to drop bombs on every nuclear establishment in Iran versus the people in Washington who think that that would be a crazy idea," he said. "At this point, we don't know what President Bush thinks." For its part, Europe would like to hear from Bush that the United States will take a more constructive role in the delicate talks with Iran. "I strongly encourage the US administration to actively support the Europeans' diplomatic efforts," German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Saturday. "Iran will only abandon its nuclear ambitions for good if not only its economic but also its legitimate security interests are safeguarded," he said, calling on the United States to get involved in Gulf security talks.

One of the main reasons for the Firefox browser's successful seizure of market share from Microsoft's Internet Explorer is the desire to escape the inundation of PC-slowing spyware. However, spyware experts indicate that with its increased popularity, Firefox itself will become a target for spyware creators, who are already poking at the open source browser alternative. Webroot Vice President of Threat Research Richard Stiennon said he expects there will be spyware for Firefox this year, adding that while the browser was designed to be immune from the spyware infecting IE, Firefox will face a new breed of spyware tailored specifically for it. "Basically, if you use Firefox today, you're not susceptible to any spyware, other than what you download when you're on Kazaa," Stiennon said. "The spyware writers target mostly Explorer users because that's the most fertile feeding ground for piranha-like (spyware) attacks. They'll watch as Firefox becomes mainstream, they'll see opportunity there and start targeting them." Spyware action and reaction Stiennon said while spyware for Explorer has become widespread and relatively easy to create, it will be the more advanced spyware writers who turn their sites on Firefox. "It'll be the more sophisticated guys that'll write Firefox spyware," he said. "I predict that by the middle of the year, we'll start to see it." Stiennon also said Firefox was created specifically, in part, to avoid the kind of spyware that has riddled Explorer along with worms and adware. "Firefox was written for the existing world of Internet Explorer exploits, but it has its own vulnerabilities that will be exploited," he said. Stiennon said while a computer running Firefox will still not be as good of a machine to infect with spyware and it takes the malicious software some time to have an impact, the Mozilla browser will come under fire as it nears and surpasses 10 percent market share. Nevertheless, Stiennon also indicated the creators, maintainers, and even users of Firefox will quickly and aggressively step up their anti-spyware efforts along with the increased threat. "The people who use Firefox -- their reaction to any spyware-type attacks will be pretty vehement," he said. "There'll be fast reaction from both Firefox developers and users." Not so fast for Firefox Despite Stiennon's prediction, other experts are not convinced that spyware will besiege Firefox as soon as this year. Computer Associates Director of Malicious Content Research Roger Thompson said although spyware for Firefox this year is possible, it is unlikely. "It's possible," Thompson wrote in an email to NewsForge. "While user numbers would need to be pretty big to present a more attractive target than something known to be on about every desktop by default, I don't believe the botherds (a bot gives the botherd complete control over a "zombied" machine) are actually doing their own research. They are merely following the security lists closely, and quickly implementing those exploits, and vulnerability researchers probably do subject Firefox to scrutiny, and probably do find things, so it is possible. "But unlikely," Thompson continued. "The preponderance of Internet Explorer users is simply too good a target. And in any case, it's just not necessary and only a small percentage of spyware plants via an exploit -- most relies on social engineering to 'talk' people into installing it, or by allying itself with some 'desirable' service or product, such as the various P2P networkers." Thompson, however, said some typical spyware vectors may be open for Firefox, too. To infect and run on machines, for example, much of today's spyware either talks directly via port 80, or inserts itself as a Layered Service Provider (LSP), "which will nail Firefox too," Thompson said. The expert also said with increased spyware competition, which he is seeing already, anything is possible. Thompson said while Firefox and other "non-IE" browsers avoid exploits, ActiveX control issues and browser helper object (BHO) issues, the alternatives are not necessarily immune to keyloggers, LSP injectors, remote administration tools, and adware that is "invited in." In terms of the Firefox spyware tipping point, Thompson said he believed 10 percent market share might be too low, but again emphasized that increased spyware competition will put other browsers to the spyware test. Working on it now For his part, Stu Sjouwerman -- founder and COO of Counterspy maker Sunbelt Software -- agreed that Firefox spyware is likely in 2005. "I'm pretty sure you can expect one or two Firefox (spyware) exploits before the end of the year," Sjouwerman said. "The more popular a platform gets, the more likely it is to come under attack. Firefox -- which I use myself -- I don't think is going to be immune from that. If you go wide like this, you have to expect that your product will be exposed to a trial by fire." Sjouwerman reported that his company's research on Firefox revealed some Explorer-like situations that may draw spyware. "We looked into it and found that the security of Firefox had similar openings or vectors where spyware can be utilized to exploit or bypass protection," he said. Adding that the spyware exploits would have to be changed to target Firefox, Sjouwerman said once the alternative browser has around 15 percent of the browser market, it will be "commercially interesting" for spyware creators to target. In response to spyware for Firefox, Sjouwerman said developers and other backers of the alternative browser will fix the holes that allow it. Third-party companies, such as Sunbelt, will also provide protection against spyware for Firefox, he added. There is not yet a Firefox version of Sunbelt's CounterSpy anti-spyware, but it is coming, the company has said. Sjouwerman indicated spyware writers are likely already playing with other, non-IE browsers and the first spyware for Firefox -- the most likely browser to "break through" with significant market share -- is probably coming soon. "I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of Russian spyware writers were turning Firefox inside out," he said. "In the next couple of months, we'll see the first exploits."

In addition to the same old accusations of lack of familiarity, applications, and support, Linux on the desktop may be facing an attack against its one clear advantage -- price. Microsoft may be willing to make deep price cuts to staunch a potential market outflow to Linux, according to Amy Wohl, a longtime software industry observer who presented a Linux desktop achievement report at the recent OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit in San Francisco. As she laid out the Linux landscape around the world -- indicating developing nations with lower installed bases of computers were much riper for Linux desktop opportunities -- Wohl cited the Munich, Germany, case, where Microsoft made the city's officials an offer that was hard to refuse after it seemed they were opting for open source. The reported €950 million potentially saved by the city was not something Microsoft would discuss, according to Wohl, who said the company's representatives simply indicated that all major software deals are negotiable. In the end, Munich chose Linux instead of Windows. While it is no secret that municipalities and companies both may be using the threat of conversion to Linux to bargain with Microsoft, Wohl said Microsoft may go beyond its Windows XP Starter program announced last year to maintain its grip on the desktop market. "Microsoft has targeted some of these countries with its Starter edition," Wohl said. "They said they looked at it as an experiment to find out what they need to do to get people to prefer Microsoft to other alternatives. When they say other alternatives, they mean us," she added in front of the open source audience. "What that means is, if this doesn't work, they might decide to change [starter] to be more competitive against Linux," she said. "You should expect this to happen over and over." Government powers a change Wohl credited governments around the world -- including the U.S. -- for promoting Linux on the desktop, mainly for the cost savings. While her talk was on desktop Linux, Wohl indicated that deployment in other, developing nations -- such as African countries, China, and elsewhere -- may occur on simpler, cheaper handheld devices, where Linux already has a leg up. Wohl said that the Windows installed base in North America may be last to make a change. However, with a world population of six billion, there are still plenty of folks who are not locked into Windows at all, she added. Wohl also said colleges and universities were fueling the open source operating system on the desktop, with the educational sector taking its usual lead in technology. As for business, she said organizations may be buying more Linux desktops than is apparent, as the orders for Wal-Mart's Linspire-equipped computers have been mostly for multiple machines, according to chip suppliers. Barriers and predictions Wohl went over some of the typical barriers to more Linux desktop movement: lack of familiar software, lack of familiar support, and of course, FUD. She challenged the open source community to concentrate more on selling Linux on the desktop and conveying the value of its software. "A lot of this has to do with peer pressure, where the momentum builds," she said. "We have to figure out how to get that started. This is marketing. We need to get better at it." Wohl also made some predictions, indicating that in some geographic locales, Linux is likely to capture 25 to 30 percent of the desktop market within a few years. In the U.S., she envisioned desktop Linux as "a strong alternative," and predicted 10 percent market share for the OS in three years. However, Wohl estimated the current Linux desktop share in the U.S. at 3 to 3.5 percent, a figure that Hewlett-Packard's Bdale Garbee corrected to about 5 percent, with Wohl gladly accepting the increased estimate. Wohl -- who foretold a blurring of the lines between the Linux desktop and its server deployments, where Linux is generally accepted as a success story -- also referred to the "killer app" theory. She said that was what heralded the end of Apple's reign on the desktop -- desktop Macs are now outnumbered by Linux machines -- and said the same type of compelling software could dethrone Microsoft. "If we want people to make the change, we need to find out what will make people that gleeful and that willing to go out and change," she said.

Hewlett-Packard plans to unveil on Monday its first blade servers using Advanced Micro Devices' Opteron processor, as well as a more conventional server and a workstation that use the new chip. HP last year let Opteron into its ProLiant server family, which until then only used Intel chips. AMD in 2003 pioneered the extension of such x86 chips with 64-bit memory, which permits easy access to more than 4GB of memory. But Intel followed suit in 2004 with its "Nocona" version of the Xeon processor. The ProLiant expansion was significant in light of HP's commitment to the higher-end Itanium processor line, a rival 64-bit family from Intel that HP helped develop. However, the vast majority of x86 software, including Microsoft Windows until later this year, is still 32-bit. On the same day and also at the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in Boston, Intel and AMD are expected to unveil new higher-end chips for dual-processor servers, said sources familiar with the companies' plans. The Opteron 252 will run at 2.6GHz and boost the speed of the HyperTransport communications links from 800MHz to 1GHz, while Intel will release the new "Irwindale" version of Intel's Xeon, which doubles the amount of high-speed cache memory to 2MB compared with existing "Nocona" Xeon models, the sources said. Dell confirmed it planned to launch new Irwindale servers Monday, and IBM and HP are expected to announce their own with the chip the same day. AMD, Intel, HP and IBM declined to comment for this story. The faster HyperTransport link is expected across all AMD Opteron processors as the company moves the chip family to a new manufacturing process with 90-nanometer (billionths of a meter) features, a source familiar with the plans said. Also arriving will be the SSE3 instructions Intel added to its chips last year to speed multimedia operations such as decoding video. Dell doesn't sell Opteron servers, though the company is warming to the idea. IBM sells an Opteron model only for high-performance technical computing customers. The most eager partner is Sun Microsystems, which has passed HP as AMD's top Opteron customer and which plans an eight-processor server and other new systems in coming months. Intel and AMD are planning new dual-core processors that combine two processing engines on the same slice of silicon. AMD's are scheduled to arrive first, midway through this year, while Intel's won't reach high-volume production until 2006. However, some customers, computer makers and software companies won't have to wait until 2006 for dual-core Xeons. Intel is expected to announce Monday that it will send thousands of systems with the new chips to those business partners and premium customers in the second half of 2005. HP is expected to offer two dual-Opteron blades, the BL25p with the 2.6GHz Opteron 252 and the BL35p with the 2.4GHz Opteron 250. The BL25p is larger than the BL35p, but offers more storage capacity. The BL25p is expected to cost $3,499 with one processor and 1GB of memory and $5,209 with two processors and 2GB memory. The corresponding BL35p prices are $2,899 and $4,209. According to an HP Web site, the workstation can accommodate dual Opteron processors and up to 16GB of memory. It uses dual nVidia graphics cards employing the graphics chipmaker's Scalable Link Interface, or SLI, technology, which connects the two into a single, more powerful graphics subsystem.

MP3tunes, a new digital music store started by Michael Robertson, founder and former CEO of MP3.com, opened for business on the Internet at mp3tunes.com. Robertson, CEO of MP3tunes, unveiled his new venture at the Desktop Summit in San Diego this week. Songs are available for download from the MP3tunes site for $0.88 per song or $8.88 per album. All music sold at MP3tunes will work on any computer and with any portable player including popular models like the Apple iPod, Dell DJ and Creative Nomad. At www.mp3tunes.com, consumers never run the risk of losing their music -- songs that have been purchased are permanently stored in a "music locker" and accessible from any Web browser. Even if a computer crashes or a user switches machines, the music is saved and can be accessed without repurchasing. MP3tunes only offers songs for purchase and download that are legally licensed for distribution from the copyright holders. More than 22,000 artists are participating in the launch of MP3tunes, and 300,000 songs representing nearly 30,000 complete CDs are now available for immediate purchase in high-quality 192k MP3 format. No special software is required to sample the music and make purchases and virtually any Web browser will work. MP3tunes differs from other online music services such as Apple's iTunes and Microsoft's MSN Music Store because it does not use digital restrictions management (DRM) technology, which restricts how a buyer can use the music. DRM restrictions limit what software or computer can be used to listen to the music and also limit what types of portable players will work. Songs in the open MP3 format, like those found at MP3tunes, are the most flexible for consumers because the songs work with a wide array of software players such as iTunes and Windows Media Player and are also compatible with virtually all digital players or computers, including the iPod series.

Have you ever wondered whether your e-mail is really being read? Now, for the chronically insecure among us, there's a company that hopes to answer that question. DidTheyReadIt.com is a service that tracks whether e-mail actually makes it to its destination. Once you sign up for an account, you will receive detailed reports about all your outgoing messages each time they are opened. The cost is $24.99 for a three-month period. Sure, it's a little pricey, but, hey, sneakiness like this costs money. The person you are e-mailing will know none of this. Once you've signed up, just add ".DidTheyReadIt.com" to the end of the recipient's e-mail address. The message will then be routed through their servers, assigned tracking information, and will arrive at the recipient's inbox looking just like any other message. The only way he or she will suspect anything at all is if you're just the type of lowlife who would use this sort of thing. But wait, that's not all. Not only will you find out whether your e-mail is read, you'll also learn exactly how long it was read and whether it was opened more than once. If the e-mail is forwarded to others, you'll receive a report every single time someone else reads it. You'll even find out where the message was read. Obviously, the location information isn't perfect; it's based on the Internet provider the recipient is using. Still, if you lie and say that you're out of town, this service could give you away. How does it work? The company simply embeds invisible image files into e-mails. When the recipient opens the e-mail, that image file, located on the servers at DidTheyReadIt.com, is also opened. In essence, the company is tracking whether that image has been opened, rather than the e-mail itself. If this sounds familiar, that's because it's the same way spammers learn whether their junk mail has been read. In some ways, this company is simply letting the masses have the same tools that spammers have been using for years. Luckily, in most e-mail applications, it's easy to turn off images and thwart this service, not to mention those spamming you. With recent security updates to Windows XP, Outlook Express is even set to block pictures in e-mail automatically. In some ways, none of this is exactly new. With Eudora, Outlook Express, and other e-mail applications, it has long been possible to place a return receipt on your e-mails, no matter how annoying this may be to those who receive them. However, with return receipts, the recipient knows that the message is being tracked and can always refuse to send back the receipt. DidTheyReadIt.com has gotten the most attention, but it isn't even the first to do this. Other similar services, including MsgTag.com, ReturnReceipt.com, and ReadNotify.com, have been around longer. Some even let you send "self-destructing e-mail," which sounds especially fun. Frankly, I've always wanted to be able to write, "This message will self-destruct in thirty seconds." Send one of these, and the recipient won't be able to print, forward, save, or copy the e-mail. Unfortunately, unlike on "Mission Impossible," the recipient's computer doesn't blow up once the message is read, but I'm sure that type of malware is just around the corner. In any event, if not downright unethical, all this is at least a little creepy. One wonders what sketchy services other companies have in the works. DoTheyThinkI'mAnIdiot.com This service will let you know whenever a message of yours is forwarded to anyone with sarcastic comments. Also, find out exactly how many seconds it takes for your message to be deleted. Win a free DoTheyThinkI'mAnIdiot.com trash can, if your message is trashed in less than five seconds. AmIInTheirAddressBook.com Find out exactly how important you really are. With this service, you'll know whenever you are added to anyone's address book; you'll also receive an e-mail the moment you are deleted. Sure, this may hurt, but don't you want to know the truth? AreTheyUsingDidTheyReadIt.com Actually, a company called Wizard Industries has released software that will block DidTheyReadIt.com and similar services. It costs $8.95. IsMyFriendASlowReader.com If you've always thought your friend was kind of slow, now you can tell for sure with this new service. Find out exactly how long it takes your friend to read your messages. Each message will be secretly tagged so that your friend will never know, though let's face it. He's no rocket scientist. Even if we didn't keep it secret, he probably wasn't going to figure it out anyway. DrunkEmailStopper.com Have you ever written a regrettable e-mail to an ex-girlfriend or ex-boyfriend while drunk? Well, with DrunkEmailStopper.com, you no longer have to worry about embarrassing yourself. Simply choose up to 10 e-mail addresses, and any e-mail that you send to those addresses will automatically be delayed for 12 hours so that you can review your message when you finally sober up. Note: Special 24-hour delay option available for power drinkers. GirlfriendDumper.com Now, not only can you use a tracking service to find out exactly when your girlfriend reads the e-mail in which you dump her. With this service, our artificial intelligence software will even write the e-mail for you. Have peace of mind when you must dump someone. Soon, our artificial intelligence software will also be able to go out on dates for you, so that you'll never have to leave your apartment. Isn't technology grand?

lol mirc mp3 players go slow enough without pictures :|

if its a main panel (control panel) for ur script your after there a customizable one i cant remember the full name of it but u will find it if u search the add-ons database of http://www.mirc-scripts.org

A Russian security company claims it found a way to beat a security measure in Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2, a major update aimed at securing customers' PCs. The SP2 measure, known as Data Execution Protection, is intended to prevent would-be attackers from inserting rogue code into a PC's memory and tricking Windows into running the program. However, in a paper published Friday, Moscow-based Positive Technologies said two minor mistakes in the implementation of the technology allow a knowledgeable programmer to sidestep the protection. The company notified Microsoft of the problem Dec. 22, but it apparently decided not to wait for the software giant to patch the flaws. Neither Microsoft nor Positive Technologies immediately responded to requests for comment Friday. After several delays, Microsoft began rolling out SP2 in August of last year, at which time company Chairman Bill Gates called the update "a significant step in delivering on our goal to help customers make their PCs better isolated and more resilient in the face of increasingly sophisticated attacks."

An influential congressional committee has dropped a political bombshell by suggesting that a tax originally created to pay for the Spanish American War could be extended to all Internet and data connections this year. The committee, deeply involved in writing U.S. tax laws, unexpectedly said in a report Thursday that the 3 percent telecommunications tax could be revised to cover "all data communications services to end users," including broadband; dial-up; fiber; cable modems; cellular; and DSL, or digital subscriber line, links. Currently, the 3 percent excise tax applies only to traditional telephone service. But because of technological convergence and the dropping popularity of landlines, the Joint Committee on Taxation concluded in its review of tax law reforms that it might make sense to extend the 100-year old levy to new technologies. The committee did not take a position on whether Congress should approve such an extension and simply listed it as an "option." "Cellular phones are being manufactured that may operate using VoIP through Wi-Fi access, as well as through more traditional means," the tax committee's report says. "As voice phone service migrates to using Internet Protocol, there may be no way to distinguish 'packets' of voice and 'packets' of data." VoIP refers to voice over Internet Protocol, or making telephone calls through a broadband connection. The congressional report comes not long after the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department said they were considering how the Spanish American War tax should be reinterpreted "to reflect changes in technology" used in "telephonic or telephonic quality communications." Tech companies including Microsoft, Intel and Skype slammed that idea in a September letter, asking the IRS to "refrain from any attempt to extend the excise tax to VoIP services." The discussion in the tax committee's report, however, ventures far beyond VoIP. "Extending the tax to all communications requires taxing Internet access, bandwidth capacity, and the transmission of cable and satellite television," it says. Technology trade associations were instantly critical. "We need to be careful in trying to stretch a taxation system this old to be a catchall for all modern technology," said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology. "We need to avoid starting down a path of overtaxing nascent forms of communication." Congress enacted the so-called "luxury" excise tax at 1 cent a phone call to pay for the Spanish American War back in 1898, when only a few thousand phone lines existed in the country. It was repealed in 1902, but was reimposed at 1 cent a call in 1914 to pay for World War I and eventually became permanent at a rate of 3 percent in 1990. Thursday's report, titled "Options to Improve Tax Compliance and Reform Tax Expenditures," is a broad review of tax law and proposes a number of ways--such as reforming the taxation of overseas corporations--to boost the federal government's bottom line by up to about $400 billion over the next decade. It lists three different telecommunications tax options, one of which would cover all data communications. A second choice would extend the excise tax to cell phones and perhaps VoIP. The third would clearly levy the charge on VoIP, including Internet-only phone calls using services such as Skype that do not touch the public telephone network. "It is not necessary that the voice communications service provide" that capability, the report says. James Maule, who teaches tax law at Villanova University and edits a related blog, said the more extreme taxation option may be a way for committee members to make the others "look a bit more palatable. There's some psychology going on." "The odds of something happening in 2005 that amends the tax law is extremely high," Maule said, referring to President Bush's promise to revise the tax code. "I suspect that (one of these options) is going to be tacked on." A few years ago, the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to repeal the excise tax, but the Senate never acted on the measure. Members of the Joint Committee on Taxation include Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa; Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Max Baucus, D-Mont.; John Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; and representatives Bill Thomas, R-Calif.; and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y

"Sun will have to launch a tremendous marketing campaign to convince people they are a player in open source," says Yankee analyst Laura DiDio. "They will have to find a way to ... recast themselves in the image of an open source provider since that is not the first thing people think about when they think about Sun." After months of anticipation, Sun Microsystems Latest News about Sun Microsystems finally has a concrete roadmap to roll out the source code for Solaris 10 under the OSI (Open Source Initiative) approved Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL). The company has released code under the CDDL for its Solaris DTrace technology and says that buildable source code for Solaris will be available in the second quarter of 2005. If They Build It, Will They Come? But will the Linux Latest News about Linux community bite? Does open source Latest News about open source Solaris have the mind share potential to tempt enough Linux developers to start dabbling in its code and possibly realign in Sun's direction? In theory, Sun's move toward open source is yet another boost for the open source community, giving it access to the patented utilities supporting one of Sun Microsystems' most popular products. But Sun may have a difficult time overcoming earlier perceptions the open source community may have formed about it: namely that at a time when the other vendors -- such as IBM Latest News about IBM and HP Latest News about HP -- were moving to commodity systems, Sun still was pushing its high-end proprietary servers. That is actually Sun Microsystems' big challenge right now, Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio tells NewsFactor. "Sun will have to launch a tremendous marketing campaign to convince people they are a player in open source," she says. "They will have to find a way to reverse that trend and recast themselves in the image of an open source provider since that is not the first thing people think about when they think about Sun." IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky, for one, does not believe Sun will be able to stem the momentum established by Linux. "Some developers may be enticed to take a closer look at Solaris, but I doubt it will attract the mainstream Linux developers," he said. Calling Planet Linux But while it may have a marketing battle ahead of it, Sun does have a formidable array of resources to call upon. Even as enterprises move away from the proprietary products, the brand name of Sun still resonates. "Executives say they still value Sun as a company, even as they are hedging their bets with open source," DiDio says. "They don't want to get rid of Sun as a vendor completely." Then there was the resolution of Sun's long-simmering rivalry with MicrosoftRelevant Products/Services from Microsoft last year. "A lot of people did not notice that after the agreement was announced, the two companies completed a cross-licensing agreement," DiDio says. "That gives Sun a huge leg up. It means that Sun, Solaris and its open source products can play with Microsoft." The problem is -- again -- one of market awareness. "How many people remember this announcement now and understand the implications?" asks DiDio. Sun Microsystems did not respond to requests for an interview in time for publication.

The U.S. Justice Department and the state attorneys general have submitted a list of Longhorn issues on which they want more information, and Microsoft has agreed to give regular briefings, with the first of those taking place in February. U.S. federal and state antitrust Latest News about Antitrust regulators are due to meet with MicrosoftRelevant Products/Services from Microsoft in mid-February to discuss possible areas of concern regarding Longhorn, Microsoft's next version of Windows. The meeting is an outcome of the long-running U.S. Department of Justice Latest News about U.S. Department of Justice vs. Microsoft antitrust case, according to a report issued late Tuesday by a district court. As part of the settlement of 2001, the plaintiffs and a court-appointed technical committee have been in charge of monitoring Microsoft's operating system. "Plaintiffs have prepared a list of topics that relate to the final judgments that plaintiffs wish to track as Microsoft progresses in its development of Longhorn, enabling early detection and resolution of any potential areas of concern," the report said. For some months now, the Department of Justice and several states have been reviewing plans for the new operating system, which is expected to ship next year. The Justice Department and the state attorneys general have submitted a list of issues on which they want more information, and Microsoft has agreed to give regular briefings, with the first of those taking place in February. The report noted that more companies have taken out licenses for the communications protocols Microsoft made available as part of its settlement of the case. Under the terms of the settlement, Microsoft is required to license, for a fee, a set of Windows communications protocols, essentially the means by which rivals can connect to Windows-based computers. In addition, an independent technical committee plans to develop its own prototype software using the protocols, in an effort to see whether Microsoft's documentation is adequate, which is a point that has been a subject of some disagreement in the past. The committee will hire about 20 additional engineers to complete that work, which it expects will take a year. Microsoft has also agreed to change the format in which it distributes the technical information. It has been distributing the information in a rights-protected format that can only be read with its Internet Explorer browser. The company said it will offer the information instead via the Portable Document Format, or PDF, developed by rival Adobe Latest News about Adobe. "We think it's important that we work closely and openly with the DOJ and states early in the process to address any questions and concerns," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.