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It wasn’t meant to be an April Fools’ Day gag, but the Conficker worm had a lot of computer users hoping they wouldn’t be the fool with an infected machine that malware authors could turn into a spam bot.

April 1 has gone and Conficker didn’t cause a network meltdown. Security analysts are speculating on what will happen next, although none are certain. They are staying vigilant, as memories of the Melissa virus linger.

The Conficker worm, also know as Downadup, raced across the Internet in January with tricks to spread undetected. Millions of computers were infected in just a four-day period. There are several variants running wild and the latest, Conficker.C, has been activated but so far there is no new rash of infections.

The worm first appeared in late November, exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows to spread unhindered on local area networks. Its goal so far has been to install rogue software on infected computers. Microsoft issued a patch for the vulnerability, but users who haven’t installed it are open to infection as the worm spreads through portable USB flash drives.

Mistiming for Conficker

Despite the lack of any Conficker-induced apocalypse, users still need to be diligent, according to Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle. Conficker numbers may be down, he said, but it’s still a significant threat. Even a few million infected systems could disrupt many e-commerce sites or send massive amounts of spam.

“Aside from the technology Conficker uses, the most interesting thing about it is that it hasn’t done anything. It has not been used to send mass spam or launch a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack on Web sites. Conficker, for the most part, is sitting idle,” Storms said.

Although some observers are blaming the media for creating what may be remembered as Conficker hysteria,…

Hewlett-Packard is embracing Android, sort of. The computer maker is considering the open-source operating system for future products.

HP said it hasn’t announced any products that would use the Google-backed mobile platform, and spokesperson Marlene Somsak said the company is constantly evaluating systems.

“We want to assess the capability Android may have for the computer and communications industries, and so we are studying it,” Somsak said in an e-mail. “HP wants to understand all the OS choices in the marketplace that may be used by its competitors, and remains open to considering various approaches to meet its own customer needs.”

Somsak would not say if studying Android included testing it on netbooks. “HP is constantly evaluating ways to help solve customer challenges,” she said. “With respect to if, how or when HP might introduce any Android-enabled platforms, we maintain a practice of declining to comment on products that may or may not be under way.”

HP’s OS choices today include Microsoft’s Windows XP and Vista for the majority of its products, Windows Mobile for HP handhelds, and Linux for some computers.

Big Win For Android

Validation from HP could be exactly what Google needs to challenge Microsoft’s dominant operating systems. And adding HP to the Android party would benefit both the platform and HP, according to analyst Michael Gartenberg.

“It is potentially a very big win for Android and it would validate Android as a platform beyond phone devices and, at the same time, give a big boost of support from HP,” said Gartenberg, a vice president at Interpret. “If HP would build and develop products around Android, it would be a big win for Google and the platform.”

It could also mean more business for HP. The company has a third of the netbooks market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and a solid base…

A record number of server and workstation vendors are enthusiastically backing Intel’s Xeon 5500 processor rollout, with the new chips already poised to launch in 230 different computing systems from Cisco, Dell, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, NEC, Sun Microsystems, and other vendors.

For example, IBM is integrating Intel’s Xeon 5500 processor in its latest System x servers and software, noted Adalio Sanchez, general manager of IBM System x.

“The world is going through changes that require IT professionals in every industry to consolidate, virtualize and support a variety of different platforms — a mix of operating systems, hardware, middleware and applications” for which “there is no one-size-fits-all solution for most businesses,” Sanchez said. “System x supports multiple architectures and is designed to lower ownership costs and enable new paradigms, such as cloud computing.”

Sea of Sensors

Big Blue claims its four new x86 rack servers and blades feature unique designs that can slash energy costs up to 93 percent while doubling the computing performance in some models. The new machines, which offer 96GB and 1TB memory options, also run new software with the ability to automatically manage virtual and physical assets across platforms.

Hewlett-Packard’s Xeon-enabled ProLiant G6 server product line sports a collection of 32 smart sensors that automatically track thermal activity right across each machine. HP’s “sea of sensors” dynamically adjusts system components such as fans, memory and input/output processing to optimize system cooling and increase efficiency.

What’s more, HP’s ProLiant G6 machines feature the ability to precisely identify the power requirements for each server in the data center and set an energy-consumption limit based on that usage. The new machines also give customers the option to choose from among four different supplies to best match power performance to specific workloads, which HP claims can achieve energy efficiencies of more than 92 percent…

It may remind some of Y2K. At the turn of the century, clocks around the world struck midnight and none of the fearful predictions about computer networks shutting down happened.

Fast-forward about nine years and the hype about Conficker appears to have been overinflated — at least so far. The media helped to spread Conficker doom and gloom over the past week as the world prepared for the malware authors to begin using a new algorithm to determine what domains to contact. That contact could set off a new rash of computer infections if vulnerable Windows operating systems have not been patched.

The Conficker worm, also know as Downadup, raced across the Internet in January with tricks to spread undetected. Millions of computers were infected in just a four-day period. There are several different variants running wild already and the latest variant, Conficker.C, is being studied by security researchers to determine what might happen next.

Discovering the Real Threats

“I kept telling everyone to worry about being secure, not about Conficker. Some people listen, some don’t. So what happened over about the past 24 hours?” asked Randy Abrams, ESET’s director of technical education. “By about 2 p.m. GMT on April 1, of the top 20 threats encountered by our users in the past 24 hours, four out of five of them were not Conficker.”

Specifically, about 16.17 percent of the threats were online-game password stealing threats. Another 21.5 percent were threats that were not Conficker and were trying to use Autorun to infect computers. Nearly 10 percent of the threats were something called Win32/Agent, which tries to steal data from a computer.

“Eighty percent of the risk was not Conficker, but 99 percent of the attention was on Conficker,” Abrams said. “Does that make sense to you? Can you imagine crossing the street and ignoring…

Virginia’s attorney general said Monday that his office will rewrite the state’s anti-spam law now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review a lower court’s decision striking down the measure.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled in September that the law, among the nation’s toughest in banning unsolicited bulk e-mails, was unconstitutional because it barred political, religious and other messages along with commercial solicitations.

The nation’s highest court said Monday that it will not consider reinstating the law.

Attorney General Bill Mims said he was disappointed with the decision but added that his office will draft legislation for the 2010 General Assembly session that addresses constitutional concerns.

“We are dedicated to protecting all Virginians from unscrupulous spammers who fraudulently send millions of unsolicited garbage e- mail messages,” Mims said in a statement.

The Virginia statute was challenged by Jeremy Jaynes, who once was considered one of the world’s most prolific spammers. Jaynes bombarded Internet users with millions of pieces of spam, all of it commercial.

In 2004, Jaynes became the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of a felony for sending unsolicited bulk e-mail. He was sentenced to nine years. That conviction was overturned, but he is now serving time in federal prison on an unrelated conviction for securities fraud.

Jaynes’ attorney, Thomas M. Wolf, said he was not surprised that the court refused to consider the case.

“The U.S. Supreme Court obviously did the right thing, and maybe now the Virginia General Assembly will pass an anti-spam statute that complies with the constitution,” Wolf said in a telephone interview.

He added, “It’s rare to have a 7-0 opinion of the state Supreme Court reversed.”

Authorities claimed Jaynes sent up to 10 million e-mails a day from his home in Raleigh, N.C. He was charged in Loudoun County, Va., because much of his spam passed through…

Panasonic Corp. officials expressed hopes Tuesday that technology for three-dimensional images will allow it to charge more for gadgets that have been plunging in prices.

The technology is growing in popularity at movie theaters. The Japanese electronics maker hopes to bring the technology into homes globally with 3-D Blu-ray players and 3-D high-definition TVs by 2010. Rivals Samsung Electronics Co. and Sony Corp. are also working on similar technology.

Three-dimensional video works by sending different images to the left eye and the right eye to create an illusion of depth. As with much of today’s 3-D technology, Panasonic’s 3-D TV requires the viewer to wear special glasses that rapidly shutter one eye’s view, and then the other, synchronized with the image.

In a demonstration, Osaka-based Panasonic showed on a 103-inch plasma TV dazzling footage of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, in which rows of colorfully costumed dancers seemed to almost pop out from the screen.

The global slowdown has battered Japan’s electronics makers, including Panasonic, which is expecting its first annual loss in six years.

Keisuke Suetsugi, a Panasonic manager, said gadget prices are falling rapidly, but 3-D features will help add value to products. Image quality has improved from previous 3-D technology, and Hollywood studios are sold on 3-D films, he said.

A host of 3-D movies are scheduled for theatrical release this year, including DreamWorks Animation comedy “Monsters vs. Aliens,” which opened recently and pulled in well over half of its $59.3 million opening weekend grosses from 3-D screens.

Of some 36,000 theater screens in North America, about 2,000 are 3-D, according to Panasonic.

“Consumer reaction is good for this new technology,” said Panasonic general manager Masayuki Kozuka.