Neowin.net

Sony has forced a programmer to remove from his Web site code that changed the behavior of its Aibo robot dog.
According to a report in New Scientist, the programs gave Aibo new functionality. One, called Disco Aibo, made the robotic canine dance to music.

Sony protested, saying that the applications used proprietary and encrypted code. The Japanese company demanded the removal of the programs, along with details of Aibo's software protection.

The anonymous enthusiast has complied but insists that he never published any specific details of how to break the security of Sony's Memory Stick storage media, which stores the programs that define Aibo's behavior.

New Scientist reported that some figures in the robotics community are unhappy that Sony clamped down on efforts to customize Aibo. They believe that the community of Aibo hackers would have benefited from knowing how to successfully modify the dog's behavior.

Sony launched the original Aibo robot dog in 1999 and sold over 45,000 models. An updated, and cheaper, version hit Japanese shops in November 2000.

Two new models were launched this autumn. "Latte" and "Macaron" are described by the company as "cute, cuddly and intelligent," and Sony has predicted they will be popular items during the holiday shopping season.

News source: ZDnet

One of the problems for Dell has been that storage systems aren't made out of standard building blocks and don't have standardized software, a difference from areas such as PCs and low-end servers where Dell is more successful. In storage, a lot more research, development and testing are required.

Dell sells two kinds of storage devices--lower-end "network-attached storage" (NAS) systems that attach to ordinary computer networks and higher-end "storage area network" (SAN) products that reside on special-purpose networks.

Dell's foray into storage began in 1999 with a deal to sell NAS devices from leading supplier Network Appliance while building its own SAN storage systems.

However, Dell and NetApp parted ways in September 2000, with Dell deciding to stick to a lower-end NAS market segment by selling the Quantum systems.

But the company will re-enter the high-end NAS market, this time with the IP4700 "Chameleon" product from storage specialist EMC through a deal announced in October.

Also as part of that deal, Dell canceled its own SAN products, despite recent work to improve the product line, and now will sell EMC's products.

Eventually, though, Dell still believes storage systems will come to resemble the server and PC market, filled with interchangeable "commodity" parts, McAnally said.

Storage systems attached directly to servers are a commodity today, he said. "NAS is quickly approaching that model. SAN would be farther up the commiditization curve," McAnally said.

Dell's new products, aimed at smaller customers or at the branch offices of larger ones, are made of commodity parts.

The 715N, aimed at entry-level consumers, costs between $2,000 and $4,000 and can store as much as 400GB of data. The 750N and the rack-mountable 755N version cost between $8,700 and $30,000, has capacity up to 7 terabytes, and competes mostly against models from IBM, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

The new models all use a specially tailored version of Windows 2000, Dell said.

Dell began selling NAS systems of its own design in February.