IBM, Cray win DARPA supercomputer contracts ... Vista complies with U.S. antitrust ruling

HIGHLIGHTS
News: IBM, Cray win DARPA supercomputer contracts
News: Virtualization takes toll on physical server sales
News: Vista complies with U.S. antitrust ruling
News: Gartner: Mobile phone sales grow - except in Japan
Opinion: The Chinese Internet: No happiness
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Did electronic voting machines eat this man's only vote?


NEWS UPDATES

IBM, Cray win DARPA supercomputer contracts
IBM Corp. and Cray Inc have beat out Sun Microsystems Inc. to win sizable U.S government contracts to design a new generation supercomputer.

Virtualization takes toll on physical server sales
New numbers from Gartner Inc. show that computer server sales slowed in the third quarter, a trend the research company attributes to virtualization.

Vista complies with U.S. antitrust ruling
Microsoft Corp's Windows Vista OS doesn't pose antitrust issues so far, according to the latest status report on Microsoft's compliance with the U.S. antitrust settlement.

Gartner: Mobile phone sales grow - except in Japan
Worldwide mobile phone sales grew 21.5 percent year on year to 251 million units in the third quarter, with India and China driving growth, according to research from Gartner Inc.

Dell beats estimates with AMD chip sales
Dell Inc. Tuesday pointed to its adoption of processors from AMD for pushing it to $677 million in profit for the third quarter, though the company has delayed reporting final numbers due to an accounting investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Microsoft licenses Office UI for free
Microsoft Corp. is licensing the new user interface (UI) in Office 2007 for free so developers can build applications that look similar to the programs in the suite, the company said Tuesday.

Google adds indexing tools for News portal
Google Inc. has developed new tools it says will make it easier for webmasters and publishers of news sites to control how the search engine indexes their content for inclusion in the Google News portal.

Google explores separate test network in SF
Google Inc. has asked for the right to use as many as 1,500 San Francisco light poles for wireless equipment on a test network of its own, separate from the citywide Wi-Fi infrastructure that the company proposed along with EarthLink Inc.


OPINION

The Chinese Internet: No happiness
By Dan Blacharski

I've lived and traveled all over Asia, and love it -- there's nothing quite like strolling by the street vendors peddling fried beetles and chicken heads. In countries like Thailand, where there is relatively more freedom than some other Asian countries, I marveled at the stark contrast of seeing a vendor in her big straw hat selling live fish right outside of a flourishing and modern Internet café.

Over the weekend, Reporters Without Borders reported that Chinese Internet users could no longer connect to the Chinese or English versions of Wikipedia. There's been some back and forth in China around Wikipedia (as well as several other online sites), with China re-opening the English Wikipedia on October 10, and the Chinese version in the middle of November. Has there been a change of heart again by the powers that be? It would seem so, and today, if a Chinese citizen wants to know about the history of American Thanksgiving, what was the longest novel in English ever published, or to read about British game show host Richard Dawson or some other such trivia, they'll have to go elsewhere.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft won't use Vista activation feature in Office 2007 ... Analysts back Yahoo "Peanut Butter" memo ... Dell reports Q3 results


ITWHIRLED

Did electronic voting machines eat this man's only vote?
Randy Wooten knew he'd get at least one vote for mayor in Waldenburg, Arkansas (population 80) -- his own. But when the final results came in, and there was a big "0" next to his name, his suspicions turned to the electronic voting machines that kept the talley.