Reports are pouring in now that Conficker, at last, has started doing its dirty work -- and that work is nothing which thousands of malware applications haven't done long before it: Sending out spam.

The activation is being deemed a "quiet" one, as Conficker's creators seem to want to take advantage of the powerful botnet they've built without drawing too much attention to themselves. As a result, Conficker may shape up to be a relatively innocuous exploit compared to some of its massively destructive predecessors, and that's undoubtedly a good thing.

Got an old Nokia 1100 sitting around? You may be sitting on a fortune... albeit with a catch. Certain circles are said to be paying upwards of $32,000 for the handsets, at least those made in Nokia's Bochum factory in Germany. Why? According to reports, the criminal underground has found a way to hack into the phones' firmware to allow for illegal bank transfers by reprogramming the phone number on the handset.

Global Mail Exchange (GMX.com) brings a lovely AJAX interface and ease of use to satisfy any home-users' needs. According to the holders of the service 11 million members enjoy the benefits and functionality of the webmail. And judging by the features sported the number cannot but grow in the future unless the main competitors decide to do something about it.

The capabilities of the new player on the webmail market are quite astounding as it allows the collection of third-party email accounts in a single inbox. This means that the contents of inboxes from popular and in some cases less popular webmail services can be viewed directly from GMX. It supports POP3, IMAP and SMTP protocols as well as mobile device integration for ultimate portability.

Nepal Telecom, a service provider of prepaid and postpaid PSTN, ISDN, CDMA, and cellular mobile phones in Nepal. plans to expand its mobile phone services to the top of Mount Everest, benefitting climbers on the world's highest mountain, a company official said on Thursday.

Hundreds of climbers, who go to the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) Mount Everest every year, depend on expensive satellite phones to speak with their families as the remote Himalayan region does not have communication facilities.

"We are going to set up mobile towers in Thakdin, Manjo, Pheriche and Gorak Shep, which will bring the summit of Mount Everest within the network coverage," Anoop Ranjan Bhattarai, director of the satellite service wing of Nepal Telecom, said.

Oracle Corp. snapped up computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. for $7.4 billion Monday, trumping rival IBM Corp.'s attempt to buy one of Silicon Valley's best known — and most troubled — companies.

The deal would end Sun's 27-year history as Silicon Valley's brash independent and shake up the computing industry. It comes after a monthlong drama that entered its final chapter last week.

IBM had retracted an earlier buyout offer for Sun after the two sides couldn't agree on key details. Last Thursday, Sun reached out to longtime business ally Oracle to make a bid, two people familiar with the discussions told The Associated Press. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the talks were considered confidential.