NTPC issue sold 4 times on Day 1
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National Thermal Power Corporationâs (NTPCâs) initial public offering (IPO) opened to a thumping response today, and was subscribed almost four times.
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By Cinthia Ritchie, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska  Feb. 26--The cables were the problem.   Or wait! Maybe it was the RAM. Or the processors. Or ...
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(InfoWorld) - More than a month after Symantec Corp. knocked out 50,000 Chinese PCs with a bad software update, the company is ready to offer compensation. But Chinese users eligible for the offer have to act fast; it's only good for a couple of weeks. Symantec's problems in China began on May 18, whenÂ it released a bad software update that caused its Norton antivirus software to wrongly identify two system files in the Simplified Chinese version of Windows XP as malware and quarantine them. That mistake, which Symantec blamed on "an automated process," left tens of thousands of PCs crippled and Internet bulletin boards full of angry posts. Chinese users who lost data because of Symantec's faulty update demanded compensation, and at least two lawsuits were filed against the company. But Symantec was slow to respond, saying earlier this month it was considering requests for compensation. After five weeks, Symantec is ready to make amends. The company is offering affected Chinese consumers a 12-month Norton license extension and a copy of Norton Save & Restore 2.0. Corporate customers are being offered Symantec Ghost Solution Suite licenses, depending on the number of PCs affected. Symantec is not offering to extend Norton licenses for corporate customers affected by the bad update. Symantec described its offer as "a gesture of our goodwill." Chinese users will have to move fast if they want to take Symantec up on the deal. The company is only accepting applications for compensation during a brief window of time: from June 27 to July 15. The company didn't say why the period is so short, but said it was a sufficient span of time. "We are offering more than two weeks for the registration period which we believe is a reasonable period of time for customers to register," said Catriona Turner, a Symantec spokeswoman in Australia, in an e-mail response to questions. "If there are legitimate reasons why a particular customer is unable to register by July 15, we will give consideration to extending the date for that customer." Turner said the terms and conditions of the compensation offer did not require users to forego the right to legal action over damage caused to their systems by Symantec's update. "We hope that our customers will recognize that we are offering this goodwill gesture in recognition of any inconvenience caused by this incident," she said. Users who want to take Symantec up on its offer must apply at a special Web site , which will validate their copies of Norton Antivirus to make sure they are licensed copies and eligible for the offer. "Customers will be asked to complete a series of questions during the validation process to help us ascertain that the customer was genuinely impacted," Turner said. Â
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What a difference an "8" makes Customers of the Los Angeles-based web hosting provider Dreamhost awoke to an unwelcome pang in their wallets today. A late-night accounting cock-up caused every customer to be charged a year's worth of truant payments when the wrong date was slipped in its automated billing program.â¦
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Blog: The No. 2 PC seller will offer a $899 desktop, a $599 desktop and a $599 laptop with Ubuntu Linux preinstalled.
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Windows XP Service Pack 2 gets a 'hotfix' for VPNs, part of the \
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Nearly 50 programs may be disrupted by XP's Service Pack.
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(InfoWorld) - Some of Taiwan's DRAM makers have reported record monthly sales for August, highlighting an increase in DRAM prices that could continue in the months ahead. The higher prices are unlikely to affectÂ PC pricesÂ thanks to the stiff competition among system vendors and makers of other types of components, such as microprocessors. But users who want some extra DRAM for their PCs could find themselves handing over a bit more money than before. Nanya Technology, Powerchip Semiconductor, and ProMOS Technologies all reported record sales for August this week. The higher sales stem partly from an increase in PC sales in some parts of the world. That increase drives up prices for DRAM, since most of the chips -- around three quarters of the global supply -- end up in PCs. Analysts say PC demand could stay robust for the next several months, as back-to-school demand and holiday demand are followed by the launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Vista. That could keep prices for DRAM high. The spot price Tuesday for the most widely used DRAM, 512Mb DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) chips, is around US$6.00, according to DRAMeXchange Technology. Crystal Lee, a memory chip industry analyst at ABN AMRO AsiaÂ in Taipei, forecasts that prices for the chips will remain at or near that level in coming months. Powerchip and ProMOS have been improving their ability to make chips using 90-nanometer production technology, which allows companies to make chips that are smaller, more powerful and more energy efficient. It can also help them reduce costs, because making smaller chips allows their production lines to churn out more chips using the same raw materials. Nanya's sales for August rose 32 percent to NT$6.62 billion, a new all-time high for the chip maker, the company said Tuesday. A day earlier, Powerchip Semiconductor said its sales for August rose to NT$8.03 billion (US$245 million), up from NT$4.45 billion in the same month last year. The figure was also 14 percent higher than July, due to higher prices for the chips and increased output at factories. It was the company's fifth straight historical high. ProMOS's sales hit NT$6.01 billion last month, up from NT$2.53 billion during the same time a year ago, and 15 percent higher than July. "DRAM contract and spot prices continued to rise last month, but we also benefitted from our 90 nanometer process," said Ben Tseng, spokesman for ProMOS.
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At Fry's this afternoon, where I bought two 500GB Firewire drives. Which it turns out I needed because after I got home all three external drives attached to my desktop were reported as damaged beyond repair by the new Mac OS. Coincidence? Lucky that I had exactly the hardware I needed to dig out of the mess? Who knows!
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By Nichole Monroe Bell, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.  Feb. 22--Ever wonder who the office techs call when a glitchy computer problem has even them stumped?   Quite often, they call right down the street.
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The potentially faulty machines were sold under the Lexmark, IBM and Dell brands. The company has recalled these products because they could short circuit and potentially give users an electric shock.
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Europeans interested in the One Laptop Per Child Project&#39;s XO laptop may soon have the chance through a &quot;give one, get one&quot; offer similar to that offered in North America last year.&quot;At some point we might do it in Europe,&quot; said Walter Bender, OLPC&#39;s president, in an interview Friday.Under the &quot;give one, get one&quot; program offered in Canada and the U.S., customers could buy an XO laptop for US$400 and a second XO laptop would be donated to a developing country. Each XO laptop currently costs around $188.OLPC hasn&#39;t yet made the offer available in Europe because the XO has not received the necessary certifications to be sold there. &quot;We haven&#39;t finished all that stuff, so we couldn&#39;t do it in Europe yet,&quot; Bender said.Whether or not OLPC does make the XO available in Europe remains to be determined, and such an offer remains under consideration. &quot;We may or may not do it,&quot; Bender saidFrom OLPC&#39;s perspective, the &quot;give one, get one&quot; offer helped large numbers of people in North America get involved with the group&#39;s efforts to bring computing to children in developing countries, Bender said.&quot;A lot of people [are] jumping in to the software, to learning and to support. ...That&#39;s what I was hoping Intel would do, but they didn&#39;t. The public is doing it instead,&quot; he said, referring to&#160;Intel&#39;s acrimonious departure&#160;last week from OLPC&#39;s board of directors.OLPC has so far shipped around 50,000 XO laptops to North American customers under the &quot;give one, get one&quot; program, and more remain to be shipped, Bender said. The number of customers who ordered laptops under the program was not immediately available, but as many as 150,000 units may have been donated through the program.&#160;
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An unadvertised four-day sale on certain Sony HDTVs leaves lucky consumers delighted, others frustrated.
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By Bridget Carey, The Miami Herald  Sep. 22--Weina Scott answers about 100 tech support e-mails a day. The website must be perfect -- one glitch, and 6,000 irate customers will bombard her inbox.   But first, she has to study her physics.
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An investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior in the flat-panel display market widened Tuesday, with at least four more big vendors saying they had been contacted by investigators.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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The computer company recalls nearly a 1 million power adapters that could start fires. Also: Microsoft continues pursuit towards the computer television & hellip;. Nextel & rsquo;s phone is a mapquest in your hand & hellip;. and more.
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Lock-up issues Problems in updating Kaspersky anti-virus software have led to widespread reports of machines locking up.â¦