Cisco Systems, Inc.

Cisco Systems, the dominant provider of the digital pipes that run the Internet, is making a big play in digital entertainment. The company says it plans to introduce a new line of products in January, including a digital stereo system that is meant to move music wirelessly around a house.

Yes, guys, those spam e-mails for Viagra or baldness cream just might be directed to you personally. So, too, are many of the other crafty come-ons clogging inboxes, trying to lure us to fake Web sites so criminals can steal our personal information.

A new study by Cisco Systems Inc. found an alarming increase in the amount of personalized spam, which online identity thieves create using stolen lists of e-mail addresses or other poached data about their victims, such as where they went to school or which bank they use.

Michael Dell has grown tired of discussing his company's reinvention.

He mocks suggestions that the company he founded is taking more risks than in the past and parries questions about how Dell's culture had changed.

"It's O.K. if everyone doesn't understand what we're doing," Dell said during an interview at Dell headquarters here, just north of Austin.

Mohamed Shommo, an engineer for Cisco Systems Inc., travels overseas several times a year for work, so he is accustomed to opening his bags for border inspections upon returning to the U.S. But in recent years, these inspections have gone much deeper than his luggage.

Border agents have scrutinized family pictures on Shommo's digital camera, examined Koranic verses and other audio files on his iPod and even looked up Google keyword searches he had typed into his company laptop.

The Free Software Foundation filed a copyright-infringement lawsuit Thursday against Cisco Systems in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The FSF alleges Cisco violated its copyrights, including for GCC, binutils and the GNU C library, in various products distributed under the Linksys brand.

In doing so, the FSF said, Cisco denied its users their right to share and modify the software. Cisco acquired Linksys in 2003.

The Chinese government is stirring trade tensions with Washington with a plan to require foreign computer security technology to be submitted for government approval, in a move that might require suppliers to disclose business secrets.

Mohamed Shommo, an engineer for Cisco Systems Inc., travels overseas several times a year for work, so he is accustomed to opening his bags for border inspections upon returning to the U.S. But in recent years, these inspections have gone much deeper than his luggage.

Border agents have scrutinized family pictures on Shommo's digital camera, examined Koranic verses and other audio files on his iPod and even looked up Google keyword searches he had typed into his company laptop.

With video and other rich media growing by leaps and bounds on the Internet and in corporate networks, Cisco has decided it's time to optimize. On Monday, the San Jose, Calif.-based company introduced new technologies and solutions it said will better enable "medianets" in home networks, businesses and through Internet service providers.

The company said "data-based communications are being replaced by video and rich media," and this is straining networks originally designed primarily for data.

'Immersive New Experiences'

Hewlett-Packard Co. surprised Wall Street on Tuesday by saying its earnings will be slightly above analysts' expectations, going against the grain as other technology bellwethers have slashed forecasts and posted weak results in the sagging economy.

Its shares climbed more than 12 percent in morning trading.

Cisco on Tuesday announced a new router that pushes the envelope of networking technology in the "zettabyte era."

The Cisco Aggregation Services Router 9000 Series, or ASR 9000, is designed to deliver a massive-scale, nonstop video experience and a reduced carbon footprint. With its latest router, Cisco is promising to increase the speed, longevity, services, richness and efficiency of the network edge. The product seeks to answer the demand spurred by the massive spike in video and data traffic across wired, cable and mobile networks.