Columnists’ Corner: While Sun Microsystems and other companies have touted lower energy servers, the time has come for the green trend to take root in storage systems as well, writes Mario Apicella, in Storage Insider. “Although it’s true that many servers — to use McNealy’s verbiage — behave like “space heaters,” the amount of electricity they consume and the heat they generate pale when compared to some storage devices,” Apicella explains. Hardware: Oliver Rist reviews Gateway’s M280E convertible notebook. Although the company is billing it as a value machine, in the case of the M280E that does not mean a system stripped down to match a low price tag. “Not only is it decently equipped for a notebook, it’s also got an additional feature: It’s a convertible. Grab the 14-inch screen, hold down the release key, turn the screen around and you’re tableting,” Rist writes, and adds, “Initially, I didn’t think the tablet capability would be that exciting; but once you get accustomed to using a tablet it really is better for meetings.” And Tom Krazit gets a glimpse inside Intel’s primary manufacturing research facility, known as D1D, or at least the hallway leading to the fab. Security: Microsoft warns that hackers are attacking an unpatched bug in IE that leaves Windows XP, 200 and 98 boxes vulnerable. Via releases a security kit built to enable Linux and Windows developers to tie security to hardware encryption. The news beat: Yahoo adds RSS to new Web mail service, but it won’t be injected into the company’s current Web mail. A federal judge says he won’t hold up case proceedings in NTP Software’s patent infringement case against RIM, and Samsung’s price fixing case ends with the company agreeing to pay a $300 million penalty. Technology Industry