AP - Forget shuffleboard, needlepoint and bingo. Web logs, more often the domain of alienated adolescents and home to screeds by middle-aged pundits, are gaining a foothold as a new leisure-time option for senior citizens.

USATODAY.com - Recently, country music star Clint Black recorded a public service message for NASA. According to Black, those launches remind him of something: himself. 'Did you know my guitar is like a rocket?' he asks. Show-business exaggeration? No. It's scientific fact. Black's guitar is like a rocket.

Reuters - Five big backers of Linux are funding an effort to buy up related software patents, part of a plan to reduce legal risks that could impede the broader use of the open source operating system, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

TechWeb - In its first shift away from an all-Intel lineup, Dell is offering retail versions of some AMD Athlon 64 processors. That's raising speculation that the PC giant might adopt AMD in its systems; Dell says they don't now, and won't comment further.

TechWeb - Southwest Airlines Co. has invested $12 million during the past three years to standardize corporate and terminal operations on about 10,000 Dell OptiPlex desktop and Latitude notebook computers.

TechWeb - TransUnion will review its data handling processes after loss of desktop system with information on more than 3,600 consumers

TechWeb - Microsoft focused on core business issues in its presentations, which included unusually detailed demonstrations of Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft Search, MSN and Xbox 360.

TechWeb - Sony BMG Music Entertainment on Tuesday re-issued the patch that reveals the copy-protection files some of its audio CDs install on PCs, but continued to be blasted by security experts outlining more details of the under-fire technology.

TechWeb - Indicating the urgency with which Microsoft views the threat from Google, a leaked email from Bill Gates has him telling top managers to act quickly and decisively to offer more Internet-based software and services.

PC World - RIM's latest PDA/phone hybrid should delight BlackBerry fans who want more than e-mail and phone service from their handheld.

Reuters - Three of the world's biggest electronics companies -- IBM, Sony and Philips -- have joined forces with the two largest Linux software distributors to create a company for sharing Linux patents, royalty-free.

USATODAY.com - Sony BMG Music, in a bid to combat piracy, has contracted with a British firm to copy protect several music CD titles. But playing the CDs on a PC requires installation of a software program that tech security experts say can be classified as spyware.

AP - Siemens AG, Europe's biggest electronics and electrical engineering company, said Thursday its net profit fell by 88 percent in the fourth quarter with losses at its information technology and mobile-phone units pushing its earnings down.

AP - Leading chip maker Intel Corp. on Thursday said it will boost its quarterly dividend by 10 percent and announced plans to repurchase an additional $25 billion in common shares.

Reuters - Intel Corp. , the world's biggest make of computer chips, on Thursday said its board has increased its quarterly dividend by 25 percent to 10 cents a share, starting in the first quarter of 2006.

AP - A digital divide has appeared among Europeans, with age, income and education determining whether the continent's citizens use the Internet, according to a new European Union study released Thursday.

PC World - CTIA introduces voluntary pledge to restrict access to adult content.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

RICHMOND, Virginia (Reuters) - Research in Motion Ltd. RIM.TO RIMM.O, maker of the BlackBerry handheld e-mail device, suffered a setback in a potentially damaging patent infringement suit when a judge said on Wednesday he was unlikely to await a U.S. patent office review.

Reuters - Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Thursday said it plans to buy back as much as $25 billion in stock and said it will boost its dividend by 25 percent.

AFP - Southeast Asia's biggest telecom company, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), has beat forecasts as its second quarter net profit rose 5.7 percent on the back of strong contributions from mobile phone associates in India and Indonesia.

AP - Yahoo Inc. has pulled out of discussions over buying a stake in America Online Inc., leaving Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc. as the leading potential suitors.

PC World - Enterprise unit takes over Google Earth, mapping products to integrate with search tools.

Reuters - Coming soon to fight extremism in Britain: the Imam Roadshow and Islam Online.

Reuters - U.S. Cellular Corp. on Thursday said it would restate some of its financial statements from 2000 to reflect review of certain accounting treatments.

PC World - IBM, Red Hat join Open Invention Network in promoting open source software.

Reuters - Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Thursday said it plans to buy back as much as $25 billion in stock and said it will boost its quarterly dividend by 25 percent to 10 cents a share.

AP - Leading chip maker Intel Corp. on Thursday said it will boost its quarterly dividend by 25 percent and announced plans to repurchase an additional $25 billion in common shares.

AP - The music industry should stop criminalizing customers and limiting their freedom in the battle against piracy, a European consumers' group said Thursday.

AFP - Newspapers have no future without online and digital services, media executives heard at a World Association of Newspapers meeting in Madrid.

AP - Three Tokyo-based companies were formally granted access to Japan's mobile phone market Thursday, signaling changes ahead for a sector that has not seen a new entrant for 12 years.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A computer security firm said on Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's 6758.T controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. court shut down three Internet companies for secretly bundling malicious 'spyware' with ring tones, music programs and other free high-tech goodies, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Thursday.

Reuters - Chipmaker Intel Corp. on Thursday said it plans to buy back as much as $25 billion in stock and said it will boost its quarterly dividend 25 percent to 10 cents a share.

Macworld.com - Yahoo Inc. scuttled talks to take an interest in America Online Inc. (AOL) after learning the proposed terms of the deal, a company spokeswoman said Thursday.

AP - A controversial copy-protection program that automatically installs when some Sony BMG audio CDs are played on personal computers is now being targeted by malicious software that exploits the antipiracy technology's ability to hide files.

Ziff Davis - The device maker is adding photo-viewing capabilities and music service subscription support to its Zen Sleek MP3 players.

NewsFactor - Fears of identity theft have left increasing numbers of consumers wary of banking online, according to a survey released by Entrust, an Internet security firm.

NewsFactor - Responding to concerns about vulnerabilities associated with wireless Internet connections, lawmakers in New York's Westchester County have introduced legislation requiring those offering open Wi-Fi hotspots to secure their networks.

NewsFactor - A federal advisory committee met Wednesday for a presentation set up by IBM (NYSE: IBM) about quantum computers, to determine when the technology might be ready to be considered for government regulation.

AFP - Internet giant Google is offering to cloak its home city in Silicon Valley with free wireless "Wi-Fi" computer service, the company confirmed.

AFP - Dell, the world leader in personal computers, said its third-quarter profit fell 28 percent on restructuring costs, but revenues improved on higher sales of servers and storage gear.

AP - For the fourth straight quarter, Eastman Kodak Co. retained its lead over Japanese rivals Canon Inc. and Sony Corp. in the U.S. digital-camera market.

Reuters - Online auctioneer eBay Inc. on Thursday introduced a new service that allows buyers and sellers to search the price history of any product on its electronic marketplace worldwide for up to 90 days.

Reuters - Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay South Korea's Daum Communications Corp. (035720.KQ) $10 million in cash to settle an antitrust suit against the world's largest software maker, the two sides said on Friday.

Investor's Business Daily - Computer giant Dell on Thursday met Wall Street's lowered expectations for the fiscal third quarter, as server and storage sales helped buck up its slouching desktop PC business.