Teen Blaster suspect can still attend school

An 18-year old from a Minneapolis suburb, accused of spreading a damaging Internet infection weeks ago, was arrested on Friday and later released under restrictions set by a federal judge.

AP reports that US Magistrate Judge, Susan Richard Nelson, told Jeffrey Lee Parson not to access the Internet or any other network connection, and placed him on electronic monitoring.

Parson is known online as "teekid".

Meanwhile, Eweek reports that Net virus writers and senders are rarely jailed.

Although nearly 63 000 viruses have rolled through the Internet, causing an estimated $65 billion in damage, criminal prosecutions have been few, penalties light and just a handful of people have gone to prison for spreading the destructive bugs, the site reports.

Microsoft has again shifted the schedule for the release of "Longhorn," the company`s next major version of Windows, reports Eweek.

Microsoft executives have long described Longhorn as the company`s "most revolutionary operating system" to date. The product was originally expected to ship next year. Then in May of this year, officials pushed back the release date to 2005. But now executives are declining to say when they expect the software to ship, reports the site.

Applied Micro Circuits has agreed to acquire JNI, a provider of Fibre Channel hardware and software components for SANs, reports crn.com.

Applied designs, develops, and markets high-bandwidth integrated circuits for WANs. The company was in the past involved in the storage market, and had developed some Fibre Channel ICs, but it focused on the telecom boom just before it became a bust.

JNI gives Applied a chance to expand into a growing business while leveraging its telecom expertise, say the companies. The storage host bus adaptor business, in which JNI plays, is growing.