Google Earth Enterprise data now in browsers

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Google Earth Enterprise data now in browsers
News: Web hosting outage a teachable moment on backup power
News: Identity framework moves into next phase
News: Mozilla ponders separate organization for Thunderbird
News: Lenovo opens manufacturing plants in Mexico and India
News: Nasscom wants Indian outsourcers to innovate
News: Researcher publishes attack code for Mozilla flaw
News: User pressure leads SugarCRM to adopt GPLv3
News: Cisco announces third-generation data center
News: US standards committee still undecided on Open XML
Feature: WORLDBEAT: The old man and the Internet
Feature: DIGITAL GEAR: Wireless USB makes a splash
ITWhirled: NASA makes public spelling goof


NEWS UPDATES

Google Earth Enterprise data now in browsers
Google Inc. will release on Thursday an upgrade to its Google Earth Enterprise mapping system that for the first time will let users display two-dimensional (2D) geospatial data from the product on a Web browser.


Web hosting outage a teachable moment on backup power
The Web hosting company The Planet.com Internet Services Inc. tests its backup generators monthly and some employees ask if that's really necessary, said manager Urvish Vashi. The blackout in San Francisco Tuesday explains why.


Identity framework moves into next phase
The Liberty Alliance Project has started developing technical specifications for how companies can protect sensitive personal data within their IT systems and securely share that data with other organizations.


Mozilla ponders separate organization for Thunderbird
The Mozilla Foundation is thinking about creating a separate organization to take control of its Thunderbird e-mail application, allowing it to concentrate on development of the Firefox Web browser.


Lenovo opens manufacturing plants in Mexico and India
Lenovo Group Ltd. plans to ramp up its PC production by spending US$30 million on two new manufacturing and fulfillment plants in Mexico and India, the company said on Thursday.


Nasscom wants Indian outsourcers to innovate
Indian outsourcers have typically been associated with strong processes for services delivery rather than with innovation. A trade organization now wants IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to focus on innovation to increase revenues.


Researcher publishes attack code for Mozilla flaw
Mozilla Corp. is working on patching its Firefox browser after a hacker posted details of a flaw that could let criminals run unauthorized software on a victim's machine.


User pressure leads SugarCRM to adopt GPLv3
SugarCRM Inc. is to adopt version 3 of the GNU general public license (GPLv3) for the next release of its open-source CRM (customer relationship management) software after coming under pressure from its user community to move away from its own Sugar Public License.


Cisco announces third-generation data center
Cisco has announced a platform to provision server, storage and network resources as virtualized services in the data center. It is part of its Data Center 3.0 strategy, one aimed at the real-time, dynamic orchestration of infrastructure services from shared pools of virtualized server, storage and network resources, while optimizing application service-levels, efficiency and collaboration.


US standards committee still undecided on Open XML
A key U.S. standards committee remains undecided about whether it will support a document standard proposed by Microsoft Corp., even while the company asserted that the committee has already signalled its "yes" in an upcoming vote.

FEATURES

WORLDBEAT: The old man and the Internet
On a lazy June afternoon an old man with a suntanned and weather-beaten face wanders the beach introducing himself to visitors. He tells them about the beach, a little about the marine life to be found just a few meters from the shore and he makes small bracelets and necklaces from string and dead coral that he gives as souvenirs.


DIGITAL GEAR: Wireless USB makes a splash
Cables connecting USB devices to PCs may soon disappear thanks to Wireless USB, a short-range wireless communications technology developed by nonprofit USB Implementers Forum Inc. (USB-IF), which also developed the USB 2.0 standard.

ITWHIRLED

NASA makes public spelling goof
The space shuttles are named after ships that are famous for exploring the seas; that's why the most recently built shuttle is named the Endeavour, after a British ship (and thus with the British spelling). But someone at NASA forgot, or maybe just relied too much on an automatic spellchecker, with embarrassing results.