Tuesday, January 27, 2004, 06:00 pm

Napster lunges at Apple, Feds interested in VT Xserve cluster

By According to the Mail and Guardian Online, after Apple's applications and internet service vice-president Eddy Cue made an upbeat pitch about sales on his company's $0,99-per-track iTunes store, online competitor Napster warned music delegates to "stay-off the Apple platform".

"These fighting words were issued by Chris Gorog, chairperson and chief executive of Roxio, owner of the relaunched Napster paying online music service."

Gorog reportedly tried to convince music execs they should "make their record catalogues available on Napster with claims that its Windows-based PC platform is compatible with two-thirds of all the mobile music devices currently available."

Meanwhile, TechWeb is reporting that Virginia Tech has received "a number of inquiries" from federal agencies to use the university's installation or its supercomputer-kit technology to build their own supercomputer installations, following the universities announced plans to transition the cluster to Apple's new dual Power PC 970 Xserve G5 systems.

Argonne National Lab, the National Security Agency, and NASA, are among those expressing interest in the supercomputer technology. According to the article, negotiations were underway with potential customers who could use the university's installation itself, or obtain rights to build their own supercomputer based on the university's technology.