Stories about: Ricoh

For many of us, our first painful introduction to old-school Linux installs came from installing early versions of Red Hat. Like most early Linux installs, it was a highly technical, highly finicky process that was best left to the experts.

Some home and office laser printers pose serious health risks and may spew out as much particulate matter as a cigarette smoker inhales, according to a local air quality researcher said.

It's an interesting contrast: consumers are fast ditching videotape for DVDs and hard-disks but the people who make TV shows are sticking to tape for some cutting edge applications. When it comes to recording broadcast-quality HDTV today's optical disc systems, just can't spin fast enough to keep up with the video -- but that may be about to change.

Japan's Turbolinux will begin selling its Wizpy Linux-based multimedia player in February. As a bonus, the device can also be used to boot a PC into the Linux OS, allowing users to access their files in their own working environment on almost any PC.

Sun Microsystems is set to advance the NetBeans open-source tools platform on devices and the application lifecycle management (ALM) front.

Companies running virtual servers will soon find them easier to back up as the list of software vendors supporting VMware grows, but the cost to backup could vary significantly depending on whether vendors charge a fee based on virtual or physical servers.

In a move that analysts say indicates a problem that still needs a solution, Google said it has removed BMW's German Web site from its index for violating Google's guidelines against trying to manipulate search results.

In a move that could influence the rewritable DVD format battle, Microsoft is joining the DVD+RW Alliance, the group that promotes and develops the DVD+RW format.

DVD-R/RW (DVD recordable/rewritable) drives are getting faster. Several hardware makers are unveiling drives that write DVD-R discs at up to 4X normal playback speed, and DVD-RW discs at 2X speed. However, the industry is currently watching how the market trend goes, since the drives are still relatively expensive and not many compatible discs are available, yet.

An open-source software license permits users to read, access, change and reuse the source code of a software product.

The DVD+RW Alliance displayed a united front Thursday promoting its standards for DVD+RW (DVD+rewritable) for PCs and video recorders. The group also announced DVD+RW/+R (+recordable) products from some of its members, including Hewlett-Packard (HP), Koninklijke Philips Electronics, Sony and Ricoh.