Mac owners have figured out how to install and boot a pre-release version of Windows Vista on their Intel-based machines, messages on the OSx86 Project’s Web site claimed Sunday.

Unfortunately, to run Vista on an Intel-based iMac, the Mac OS X operating system has to be deleted, wrote a user identified only as “AirmanPika.”

“When you get to the section where it asks where to actually install vista….well here’s the main problem,” wrote AirmanPika. “You delete all of them. Even OSX. Yes this isn’t a dual boot solution (yet anyway) but it does allow vista to run.”

Source: InformationWeek

Comcast Corp. and Sony Corp. will launch a horror films on-demand cable, Internet and wireless network on Halloween this year, an executive at the top U.S. cable operator said on Sunday.

Movies for the yet-to-be named network, which will debut on October 31 and expand Comcast’s programing lineup, come from more than a thousand horror titles in the Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer libraries.

Source: Reuters

European cell phone giant Vodafone is introducing a new content filter that could be used to block subscribers from using competitive phone services.

A Vodafone spokesman scoffs at such a notion. He said the new feature, and another content filter that the company has had in place for the last 18 months, are only to keep those underage from viewing illicit Web sites on their phones.

Source: eWeek

About half of corporate PCs are not equipped to run all the features of Windows Vista, and companies should plan to gradually deploy the upcoming operating system through new computers, rather than take the more expensive alternative of buying new hardware for older machines, a research firm said Monday.

Desktops or notebooks with less than 50 percent of their useful life left when Microsoft Corp. ships Vista, expected in January, should not be upgraded, since the cost would exceed replacing it with a new Vista-enabled machine at the end of the older computer’s life cycle, Gartner Inc. said.

Source: InformationWeek

Attacks launched over instant messaging and file sharing networks are up dramatically over last year, a security firm said Monday, and exploits are becoming ever more sophisticated.

In the first quarter of 2006, malicious software attacks across instant messaging (IM), chat, and peer-to-peer (P2P) were up more than 700 percent over the same quarter last year, Foster City, Calif. FaceTime Communications said.

Source: InformationWeek

A software security expert warned users of Oracle Server that a software flaw could allow any user to read, modify, and delete data used by Oracle applications; he also says that Oracle may have unwittingly shown hackers how to exploit the previously unknown hole.

Alex Kornbrust of Red-Database-Security said on Monday that an article posted on Oracle’s MetaLink knowledge base on Thursday identified an unpatched and previously unknown security hole in Oracle Server Enterprise Edition Version 9.2 to 10.2.0.3 that allows Oracle users with read-only privileges to delete or modify rows of data used by Oracle applications. Sample code published with the knowledgebase article showed Oracle customers how the flaw could be exploited, he said.

Source: InfoWorld

Japan-based TDK has begun shipping 25GB recordable and rewritable Blu-ray Disc media nationwide.

According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, TDK is the first to market with bare Blu-ray Disc media. The company began sampling discs in December.

Retail pricing is set at $19.99 for a 25 GB BD-R (recordable), $24.99 for a 25 GB BD-RE (rewritable).

In addition, TDK will ship 50 GB Blu-ray Disc media later this year with retail pricing set at $47.99 for a 50GB BD-R (recordable) and $59.99 for a 50G B BD-RE (rewritable).

Source: eetimes

The producer of Terminator 4 - slated to begin production in Australia next year - has said the project will certainly go ahead, whether Arnold Schwarzenegger can make a cameo appearance or not.

Source: The Register

What a coincidence that just as Tomb Raider: Legend launches in Europe and the week before the busty female’s United States debut, Eidos Interactive announces she’s been awarded “Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine” by Guinness World Records.

Source: 1UP

AMD appears to be playing down the availability of its Opteron 1xx series, at least for now. The chip maker today unveiled Opteron price adjustments which relegate the 1xx CPUs’ presence on its public price list to mere ‘call for details’ status.

Today also saw the debut of Opteron x56 two-way and four-way server chips, as forecast, while AMD raised the prices of its Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 processor lines slightly.

Source: The Register

Sweden’s Lantmäteriverket, the state GIS agency, has been caught camouflaging its censorship of the country’s spy headquarters on aerial images it makes public, and Google Maps is directly responsible for the find.

Source: ogleearth.com

Red Hat (NASDAQ: RHAT), today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire JBoss. By acquiring JBoss, Red Hat expects to accelerate the shift to service-oriented architectures (SOA), by enabling the next generation of web-enabled applications running on a low-cost, open source platform.

“It is at Red Hat’s very core to help unlock the power of open source and open communities to innovate across industries, geographies and economies,” said Matthew Szulik, Chairman and CEO of Red Hat. “Red Hat and JBoss are fully aligned around the belief that the open source development model continues to change the economics of enterprise IT in favor of the customer, and we truly believe in the potential of software innovation, once freed from the fetters of proprietary development.”

Red Hat will acquire JBoss for approximately $350 million in initial consideration, plus approximately $70 million subject to the achievement of certain future performance metrics. The transaction consideration is composed of approximately 40% in cash and 60% in Red Hat common stock. The acquisition is expected to be completed around the end of Red Hat’s first fiscal quarter (May 2006), subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.