Headline Feeds
E-Commerce Times: AOL Dangles $299 PC To Lure New Subscribers
Story Highlights:
In its latest attempt to stem the flood of membership losses that has besieged it for more than a year, America Online has partnered with Systemax to offer a complete PC for just $299. The computer comes complete with monitor and printer, but there is a catch in the form of a required 12-month subscription to AOL's full service, which costs $23.90 per month. IDC analyst Jonathan Gaw told the E-Commerce Times that AOL appears to be trying to wring any remaining growth out of the Internet-neophyte market.
Full Story on the E-Commerce Times
TechNewsWorld: Next Gen DVD Standard Fuels Format War
Story Highlights:
An industry group has approved a standard for the next generation of DVD players, but the move could be just the first skirmish in a future format war. The Tokyo-based DVD Forum has given its nod to a design for "blue laser" DVD players proposed by Toshiba and NEC. Blue-laser players use DVDs that store five times the data of current DVD discs. That allows them to store up to three hours of high-definition video, which will be important as more HD TVs begin appearing in homes in the next five years.
CRM Buyer: The Root of All Great Service
Story Highlights:
Who's No. 1? Most U.S. companies jump to answer this question by saying their customers take top priority. However, some firms have begun citing a new crown jewel: customer-service employees. On the surface, this trend might seem counterintuitive -- many companies in recent years have chosen to outsource customer-service functions entirely -- but those businesses taking the road less traveled report good results. "Employee satisfaction is synonymous with customer 
satisfaction," Bob Furniss, president of Call Center Ideas, told CRM Buyer.
E-Commerce Times: Reports: E-Tailers Lagged in Black Friday Stampede
Story Highlights:
Some of the biggest retailers' Web sites reacted sluggishly during the post-Thanksgiving e-tail rush, with as many as one in five potential transactions failing at peak times, but overall the e-commerce sector held up under intense shopping activity, according to tracking data from two firms. Keynote Systems said poor performance by a small number of well-known retailers caused the average transaction success rate to fall to 80 percent between 9 a.m. and noon Pacific time on Friday. "Typically, the success rate across most sites is above 95 percent," Roopak Patel, product manager at Keynote Systems, told the E-Commerce Times.
Full Story on the E-Commerce Times
LinuxInsider: Japan's Robot Developers Go Linux
Story Highlights:
Linux is poised to claim a major victory: the bourgeoning market for robot software. The battle is not over yet, but if developments in Japan are any indication of what the future will bring, Linux will rule the world of robots. The stakes are high. Carmaker Honda believes that robots will become the company's most important business. If Honda and other proponents are correct, the size of the robotics industry could end up overtaking the PC industry.
TechNewsWorld: Spam Fighters Targeted by New Virus
Story Highlights:
Some folks find flattery in imitation, but spam fighters are finding it in denial-of-service attacks. The attacks are being generated by a nasty but undistinguished virus called Mimail-L, which, as part of its mischief, is commandeering its victims' computers to deluge with e-mail eight prominent antispam sites. The targeted sites include Spamhaus.org, SpamCop.net and SPEWS.org (Spam Prevention Early Warning System) as well as others, such as Disney's Go Web site.
E-Commerce Times: Hunting Down the Best Web Hosts
Story Highlights:
The Web hosting industry is vast and growing -- but for potential customers, the array of choices can be mind-boggling. Faced with hordes of vendors vying to win their business, companies must determine their goals before leaping into the fray. Questions prospective customers should ask themselves, according to ebi Group senior analyst Shirley Siluk Gregory, include: How much disk space will we need for online content? What traffic volume do we expect our Web site to handle each month? How sophisticated must our database be?
Full Story on the E-Commerce Times
LinuxInsider: Market Blows Wind River to Linux
Story Highlights:
Wind River, one of the world's top embedded systems suppliers, has joined two key Linux proponent groups and solidified its intention to coexist rather than compete with the open-source operating system. As a supporter of Unix and its own proprietary VxWorks embedded operating system, Wind River said that many of its telecom equipment and other embedded systems customers have been migrating from "a world of fragmented Unix offerings to Linux."
TechNewsWorld: U.S. Officials Warn of Lax Cyber Defense
Story Highlights:
U.S. Cyber Security Division director Amit Yoran, warmly embraced by the IT security community as head of the nation's cyber security when appointed in September, warned this week that more sophisticated and potentially disruptive cyber attacks could be looming. Speaking with U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge at a summit this week, Yoran said that even against previous attacks that have been less sophisticated, the government failed to protect its own systems adequately.
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