Friday, August 24, 2007
IBM may open source Jazz ... YouTube vows to protect video makers ... 10 fun things to do with Google Earth
HIGHLIGHTS
News: IBM may open source Jazz collaboration software
News: YouTube vows to protect video makers in InVideo ads
News: E.C. accuses Rambus of 'patent ambush'
News: Cogent: Cable was attacked with saw and gun
News: Spam fighters hit criminals' weak spot
Opinion: PDF and HTML: Splitting the difference
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: 10 fun things you can do with Google Earth
NEWS UPDATES
IBM may open source Jazz collaboration software
IBM Corp.'s Rational Software unit is considering putting parts of its Jazz collaboration framework into open source, according to an executive of the company.
YouTube vows to protect video makers in InVideo ads
Google Inc. has promised to give content makers control over advertisements overlaid on video clips they post to its YouTube video sharing Web site.
E.C. accuses Rambus of 'patent ambush'
Six months after U.S. regulators capped royalties that vendors must pay to Rambus Inc., the European Union is taking a close look at the company's monopoly on the DRAM chip market.
Cogent: Cable was attacked with saw and gun
Guns, saws, and some very dim-witted thieves were all apparently involved in a network blackout that affected Internet users, primarily in the Northeastern U.S., earlier this week.
Spam fighters hit criminals' weak spot
For years, spam haters have relied on junk-mail filters and Internet blacklists, but lately, some are saying it's time for a change in tactics. And that means going after the Web sites where spammers sell their pharmaceuticals and watches and male enhancement products.
New phones deliver speedier HSDPA downloads
Samsung, LG, and Pantech have all unveiled this month their first phones that are compatible with 7.2M bps (bits per second) variants of HSDPA (high speed downlink packet access) networks.
OPINION
PDF and HTML: Splitting the difference
By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com
I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but I think the world
needs another file format for storing images.
Like many people in this industry, I have often had to fight the file
format fight converting images endlessly from format A to format B and
back again to achieve some result or work around some application
limitation. More than once I have said to myself "It's only pixels darn
it! How many sensible ways can there possibly be to store these
things?". And now I find myself advocating the creation of another one?
What gives?
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Daily IT News Audio Update
European Commission accuses Rambus of patent ambush ... Via Technologies shows off 1-watt microprocessor ... South Korea upgrades cell phone networks to 7.2M bps
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
She's a 10
* Top 10 PDF tricks
* 10 fun things you can do with Google Earth
* Top 10 worst Mario games of all times
* Ten Must have Programs for Windows Mobile Smartphones
See all the tens
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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Monster shuts down rogue server after breach ... Sony demos sugar-based bio battery ... Seagate to offer solid-state drives
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Monster shuts down rogue server after breach
News: Sony runs Walkman off sugar-based bio battery
News: Seagate to offer solid-state drives
News: Paying Skype users get a week's free service
News: YouTube fans rant, threaten to leave over new ads
Opinion: The annotation age
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Chinese couple tries to name baby "@"
NEWS UPDATES
Monster shuts down rogue server after breach
Monster Worldwide Inc., whose job-hunting sites suffered a massive data breach caused by hackers, has shut down a rogue server that had been used to gather personal details of job seekers.
Sony runs Walkman off sugar-based bio battery
A year ago it seemed Sony Corp. couldn't even get a laptop battery right. A massive recall of lithium-ion cells tainted its image and had the company scrambling, but on Thursday it reported a sweet breakthrough in bio battery technology.
Report: Seagate to offer solid-state drives
Seagate Technology LLC reportedly plans to add solid-state drives based on flash memory chips to its lineup of storage products.
Paying Skype users get a week's free service
Skype Ltd. is offering a week of free service to paying customers who may have been affected by the two-day outage of its Internet telephony service last week.
YouTube fans rant, threaten to leave over new ads
Most users responding to a YouTube blog post asking for feedback gave the idea a resounding thumbs down, and one even made a video to share his displeasure
Nokia offers Windows Live services on handsets
Microsoft Corp. has partnered with handset manufacturer Nokia Corp. to deliver some of its Windows Live services on wireless handsets in Europe and the Middle East.
AMD sales chief steps down
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. sales chief Henri Richard will leave the company in September, AMD said Wednesday. The announcement came shortly after AMD reported its third straight quarterly loss. But the company said that Richard left of his own accord and on amicable terms.
OPINION
The annotation age
By Shane Schick, ITBusiness.ca
A new feature on Google's news aggregator will allow those who are involved in a story to add their own comments to the articles. So, if you were quoted in a story and felt the media got it wrong (as we often do), you'd have a chance to set the record straight. But this is not a media story. It's an IT story, because it is a sign of what will soon become the preoccupation of technology professionals everywhere.
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Today's IT news audio update
Henri Richard quits AMD ... Google testing in-video ads ... Intuit CEO to step down
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
Chinese couple tries to name baby "@"
Most residents of China share a relatively small pool of about 130 surnames, but pushes for individuality are underway. One couple even tried to name their child "@", evoking the new Internet age. It doesn't hurt that the pronunciation sounds like "love him" in Chinese.
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Apple signs iPhone deals for Europe ... Google Earth looks skyward ... YouTube launches in-video advertising
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Apple signs iPhone deals for Europe, report says
News: Google Earth gets starry-eyed
News: Sharp shows slender big-screen LCD TV prototype
News: YouTube launches in-video advertising
News: Turkish police make arrest in TJX data breach case
Windows Tip: Beyond the run box
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Cheating on your spouse? Don't use E-Z Pass
NEWS UPDATES
Apple signs iPhone deals for Europe, report says
Apple Inc. has signed its first deals with mobile phone operators to offer its iPhone in three of Europe's largest markets, ending a period of intense negotiations, according to a report in the Financial Times newspaper.
Google Earth gets starry-eyed
Google Inc. may just be the center of the universe now: A new add-on for its Earth satellite program, called Sky, lets users explore space and see photos of the precise star formation overhead based on their locale.
Sharp shows slender big-screen LCD TV prototype
Sharp Corp. unveiled a prototype TV on Wednesday that's packed with technologies that could appear soon in its products. The wall-mounted TV is just 2 centimeters thick and gets its signal via a high-speed wireless link, meaning the only cable required is for the power.
YouTube launches in-video advertising
Google Inc.'s YouTube division has launched what it hopes will be an unobtrusive way for companies to advertise on videos hosted at its popular Web site. The ads show up briefly as an overlay on the bottom 20% of the video, and people can click and watch the advertisement if they want to.
Turkish police make arrest in TJX data breach case
Police in Turkey have arrested a man allegedly trying to sell data hacked and stolen during the now infamous theft of customer records from U.S. retailer TJX.
Storm spam poses as site confirmation
The Storm malware, which first appeared in January of this year, is showing no signs of slowing down -- just this week reinventing itself as a website membership confirmation message.
Singapore Airlines puts a PC in every seat
To make flying more enjoyable for its passengers, Singapore Airlines Ltd. is adding bigger screens, more in-flight movies and a PC in every seat on its newest planes.
TIP
Windows Tip: Beyond the run box
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
I like to use the keyboard as much as possible and avoid using the mouse, but if I use my Run box for so many different purposes, my RunMRU key fills up with too many saved entries for me to make useful use of this feature. My main priority is for frequently-used UNC paths to be easily accessible from the Run box, so it would be nice if there was an alternative way for me to easily open Web site URLs by simply typing them.
Well, where there's a script, there's usually a way.
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Today's IT news audio update
RealNetworks, MTV combine for online music store ... Apple gains market share for computers ... Skype says last week's outage was a 'perfect storm'
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
Cheating on your spouse? Don't use E-Z Pass
Divorce attorney Lynne Gold-Bikin's client's ex-husband said that he went to Pennsylvania on business. But she got a court order to release the records of his RFID-based electronic toll pass, which revealed that he went to New Jersey for an assignation instead. E-Z Pass is "an easy way to show you took the off-ramp to adultery," according to another divorce lawyer.
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Tuesday, August 21, 2007
MTV, RealNetworks to merge music stores ... Skype details 'perfect storm' outage ... Google offers refunds for irked video customers
HIGHLIGHTS
News: MTV, RealNetworks said to merge digital music stores
News: Skype offers more details of 'perfect storm' outage
News: Google offers refunds for irked video customers
News: Toshiba to offer 320GB laptop drive from Q4
News: Adobe releases Moviestar beta for Flash Player 9
Unix Tip: Viewing device aliases on the command line
ITwhirled: Scientists: Movies raising a nation of science morons
NEWS UPDATES
MTV, RealNetworks said to merge digital music stores
MTV Networks and RealNetworks Inc. will merge their online digital music stores in the latest attempt to reduce Apple Inc.'s hold on the music download market, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday morning.
Skype offers more details of 'perfect storm' outage
The situation that prevented millions of people from accessing Skype Ltd.'s Internet telephony service late last week was a "perfect storm" and should not reoccur, the company said Tuesday.
Google offers refunds for irked video customers
Google Inc. has apologized for the way it shut down its video sales and rental service last week, leaving people unable to play videos they had paid for, and said it will refund their credit cards and allow them to watch their films for another six months.
Toshiba to offer 320GB laptop drive from Q4
Toshiba Corp. will start producing a 320G-byte hard-disk drive for laptop computers before the end of this year, the company said Tuesday.
Adobe releases Moviestar beta for Flash Player 9
Adobe Systems Inc.'s upgrade for its Flash Player, released on Tuesday, adds support for one of the latest video encoding standards as well as new audio support.
Tech's own data centers are their green showrooms
Two Silicon Valley companies are showcasing technology in their own facilities to demonstrate how energy-efficiency can help companies act green and save green.
Dell to offer networked SCSI array
Dell is set to launch its first networked serial-attached SCSI (SAS) drive array. It will offer up to 6TB of capacity to small and medium enterprise customers and be a SAS alternative to its EMC-supplied AX150i.
VOICECON: Microsoft, others scramble for spotlight
Microsoft Corp. has licensed its RT Audio Codec for IP (Internet Protocol) voice calls to major hardware vendors including Intel Corp., Texas Instruments Inc. and Polycom Inc., the company is set to announce Tuesday at the VoiceCon conference. It joins several vendors using the event as a showcase for IP telephony advancements.
New tool turns users into SOA programmers
Serena has said it will jump into the software-as-a-service (SAAS) market next month with a user-oriented development toolset aimed at promoting the idea of "enterprise mashups."
UNIX TIP
Viewing device aliases on the command line
By Sandra Henry Stocker
Ever wish you could take a look at the device aliases on a Solaris system without having to descend all the way down to the ok prompt? Well, you can. By issuing the proper version of the prtconf (print system configuration) command, you can include a list of device aliases in your prtconf output.
Read the full article here.
ITWHIRLED
Scientists: Movies raising a nation of science morons
Two physicists who teach undergraduates in Florida are concerned that implausible physics in sci-fi and action movies are giving young people entirely incorrect ideas about how the physical world works. Thus, they're fighting fire with fire, teaching a class that uses these same movies to illustrate good and bad science.
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Monday, August 20, 2007
Skype says crash followed Windows security update ... FCC schedules 700MHz auction ... Sony to upgrade digital camera line
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Skype says crash followed Windows security update
News: FCC schedules 700MHz auction on Jan. 16
News: Sony unveils upgrade to T-series thin camera range
News: Google Gadgets can be misused by phishers
News: Another Brocade exec faces backdating charge
Interview: Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Crowds may provide alternative energy source
NEWS UPDATES
Skype says crash followed Windows security update
The widespread failure of Skype Ltd.'s Internet telephony service last week happened when millions of Windows users tried to log in to the system at the same time, after downloading a software update from Microsoft Corp. and rebooting their machines, Skype said Monday.
FCC schedules 700MHz auction on Jan. 16
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will begin its long-awaited auction of 700MHz radio spectrum on Jan. 16, 2008, the agency said Friday. The sale is expected to take in $10 billion or more in bids for what has been called "beachfront property."
Sony unveils upgrade to T-series thin camera range
Sony Corp. is upgrading its thin T-series digital still camera line with a new model that packs a larger display with a touch screen.
Researcher: Google Gadgets can be misused by phishers
The domain used to host small Google Gadget applications written by Web developers could be misused by phishers, a Web security researcher said Friday. Attackers could create a phishing site on the gmodules.com domain and then send that URL to victims. Because Google's gmodules.com domain is trusted by antiphishing filters, victims might then go to the phishing site without being warned by their browser's filtering software.
Another Brocade exec faces backdating charge
A third former Brocade Communications Systems Inc. executive faces federal charges related to stock options backdating, just 10 days after the firm's former CEO became first person in the U.S. convicted on backdating charges.
INTERVIEW
Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
The role Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, plays at the organization that supports the user generated and edited encyclopedia is changing as he shifts more of his time to activities in the wiki and open source communities, and shares time with his for-profit venture, Wikia Inc. In this interview, Wales discusses his changing role at Wikimedia, plans for the future, and other topics.
PODCAST
Daily IT News Audio Update
Skype declares outage over ... Sony to upgrade digital camera line ... Google sets up resource center on click fraud
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
Train passengers, concertgoers may provide alternative energy source
Our evil robot overlords in the Matrix movies used humans as batteries by keeping them in vats of goo. But if two MIT grad students have their way, we'll all be generating electricity by our mere presence in large numbers at the same place at the same time.
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Friday, August 17, 2007
Dell to restate earnings ... Three indicted on software piracy ... Skype problems continue
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Skype problems may continue throughout the day
News: Dell to restate results after finding manipulation
News: Three indicted on software piracy charges
News: Nokia asks U.S. to ban import of Qualcomm products
News: PC and software sales boost HPs revenue, profit
Unix Tip: Redirecting standard error in Perl
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Top 10 science moments in 'The Simpsons'
NEWS UPDATES
Skype problems may continue throughout the day
Skype Ltd. is still trying to restore service to millions of its customers almost 24 hours after they began to experience problems logging in to the VOIP service.
Dell to restate results after finding manipulation
Dell Inc. will restate its earnings for fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 after an internal audit found that certain employees had changed corporate account balances in order to meet quarterly financial targets, the company said Thursday.
Three indicted on software piracy charges
Three Florida men were indicted Thursday on charges related to selling millions of dollars worth of counterfeit software through several Web sites, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Nokia asks U.S. to ban import of Qualcomm products
Nokia Corp. wants the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of Qualcomm Inc. chipsets that allegedly infringe on five patents held by the Finnish handset maker.
PC and software sales boost HPs revenue, profit
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s PC business and software sales from its Mercury Interactive acquisition helped produce net profit of $1.8 billion, for a 29 percent increase, with a 16 percent boost in revenue in the fiscal third quarter, according to financial results released Thursday.
Solaris on z mainframes next on the agenda for IBM, Sun
As IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. laid out a new agreement to have more IBM x86 servers and blades run on Solaris, the two companies were already looking ahead to another partnership, which could see IBM mainframes support the Sun operating system.
UNIX TIP
Redirecting standard error in Perl
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com
There are numerous ways to redirect standard error in a Perl script. You can redirect the output from one particular command, you can combine standard error with standard out so that the two are handled together or you can send all standard error to the bit bucket. None of these techniques depends on what the person running the script does. Instead, they can all be set up in your Perl scripts. Let's take a look at how this works.
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Today's IT News Audio Update
Skype outage appaears to be over ... Dell to restate earnings .... IBM to put Sun's Solaris on more servers
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
She's a 10
* Top ten easiest-to-implement green technologies that already exist
* Ten greatest legal battles in technology
* Top 10 science moments in 'The Simpsons'
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New tool exposes self-edits in Wikipedia ... Sun, IBM ink OS agreement ... Bug hits Skype network
HIGHLIGHTS
News: New tool exposes self-edits in Wikipedia
News: Sun, IBM ink OS agreement
News: Diebold fails to sell e-voting subsidiary
News: Bug hits Skype Internet telephone network
News: iPod woes could leave executives singing prison blues
Opinion: The rush of tools to the hand
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it
NEWS UPDATES
New tool exposes self-edits in Wikipedia
A word of caution about editing entries "anonymously" in Wikipedia: a tool has been developed that can show who made the changes.
Sun, IBM ink OS agreement
Longtime rivals IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. have signed an agreement related to operating systems technologies, the two companies said Wednesday.
Diebold fails to sell e-voting subsidiary
Diebold Inc. has been unable to sell its electronic voting subsidiary, and has slashed its full-year revenue expectations for Diebold Election Systems due to controversy surrounding e-voting security, the company said Thursday.
Bug hits Skype Internet telephone network
A software bug has affected Skype Ltd.'s peer-to-peer network, preventing users in some parts of the world from logging on to its widely used VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service.
iPod woes could leave executives singing prison blues
Nine executives at Inventec Appliances Corp. could face jail time for failing to reveal plans by Apple Inc. to reduce iPod orders to the company in a timely manner.
NSA spying program argued at court hearing
A U.S. appeals court agreed on Wednesday to weigh a government motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging the National Security Agency (NSA) monitored phone lines and e-mails without a warrant, but judges asked a government lawyer tough questions over the issue.
OPINION
The rush of tools to the hand
By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com
I think there is a universal law that goes something like this:
The degree to which information technology can
truly help problem X is inversely proportional
to the enthusiasm with which the average young
software developer approaches the problem.
Maybe "universal law" is a bit high here? How about "rule of thumb"? Yes, that's better. Example? Personal productivity. "How hard can it be?", says the typical enthusiastic young software developer. "You have meetings, calendar appointments, notes, TODO lists, contact list, task lists, expense recording...Just a whole bunch of lists really. How hard can it be to get a computer application to manage that sort of thing?"
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Today's IT news audio update
U.S. court to consider dismissal of wiretapping suit ... Xandros licenses messaging protocols from Microsoft ... SingTel to get stake in Taiwan's Far EasTone
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
Google mistakes own blog for spam, deletes it
Readers of Google's Custom Search Blog were handed a bit of a surprise last week when the Web site was temporarily removed from the blogosphere. The problem? Google had mistakenly identified its own blog as a spammer's site and deleted it.
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Citrix to acquire XenSource for $500M ... Yahoo replaces Google as top portal
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Citrix to acquire XenSource for $500M
News: Researchers use ionic wind to keep chips cool
News: VMware the bright spot on a gray Wall Street day
News: Vulnerability uncovered within Yahoo Messenger
News: Novell doesn't want to be the next SCO
Windows Tip: Annotating web content
Podcast: Today's IT news update
ITwhirled: Bloggers eye union membership
NEWS UPDATES
Citrix to acquire XenSource for $500M
Citrix Systems Inc. plans to acquire virtualization vendor XenSource Inc. for approximately $500 million to enable the application delivery software vendor to enter both the server and desktop virtualization markets.
Researchers use ionic wind to keep chips cool
Researchers at Purdue University have demonstrated an ionic wind engine that promises to reduce the heat generated by semiconductors at a substantially faster rate than is possible with traditional cooling technologies.
VMware the bright spot on a gray Wall Street day
VMware Inc.'s initial public offering of stock was a happy side note to a tough day on Wall Street Tuesday.
Vulnerability uncovered within Yahoo Messenger
A new vulnerability in Yahoo Inc.'s instant messenger program can potentially cause unwanted code to run on a PC, according to security researchers.
Novell doesn't want to be the next SCO
Now that it has scored a major win for Linux in its legal battle with The SCO Group Inc., Novell Inc. has no interest in becoming like the company it just defeated and won't mount any copyright-infringement claims over Unix, a spokesman said Tuesday.
Ask a penguin to see which way Linux wind blows
The nonprofit Linux Foundation has unveiled the Linux Weather Forecast, a Web site aimed at giving people a better sense of the status of specific Linux kernel projects.
Gartner predicts strong interest in software as service
Software as a service is forecast by Gartner to grow at 22.1 percent until 2011 for the aggregate enterprise application software markets -- more than double the 9 percent growth rate expected in the market as a whole.
Hosting customers say no to shared servers
Hosting providers offering virtual servers could be barking up the wrong tree, according to Rackspace. Virtualization is not yet ready for the big time, and is unlikely to save its users money, the hosting company claimed.
WINDOWS TIP
Annotating web content
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
It's easy to annotate a Word doc with Ink, but what if I need to annotate a Web page? For example, say there's a long Microsoft Knowledge Base article I need to read through and annotate -- how I can I annotate a Web page? I've been doing it the hard way until I discovered this trick.
Read the full article here.
PODCAST
Today's IT news audio update
VMware stock rises sharply on debut ... Yahoo replaces Google as top portal ... Nokia offers to replace 46 million batteries
ITWHIRLED
Bloggers eye union membership
A cadre of left-leaning (and, somewhat bafflingly, self-employed) bloggers is seeking to form or join a union. "You're constantly scanning for news. Your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse," says one, justifying the push for unionization. Keep your eyes peeled for pajama-clad persons forming picket lines of one in front of their own homes.
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Tuesday, August 14, 2007
VMware sets IPO price at $29 ... Oracle announces 11g pricing ... Nokia says 46 million batteries may overheat
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Nokia says 46 million batteries may overheat
News: Oracle to charge for four 11g database add-ons
News: Microsoft trumps Google on free e-mail storage limit
News: VMware IPO price set at $29 per share
News: Microsoft reorganizes around aQuantive acquisition
Interview: Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Sweaty man electrocuted by PC
NEWS UPDATES
Nokia says 46 million batteries may overheat
Nokia Corp. is offering to replace 46 million batteries made by another
company for use in its mobile phones because of a risk of overheating,
Nokia said on Tuesday.
Oracle to charge for four 11g database add-ons
Oracle Corp. has issued details on pricing for its new 11g enterprise
database, with the vendor making some of the most talked-about features
available as extra-cost add-ons.
Microsoft trumps Google on free e-mail storage limit
Microsoft Corp. is increasing the storage limit for its Web-based e-mail
service, surpassing competitor Google Inc.'s limit but far short of
Yahoo Inc.'s unlimited storage.
VMware IPO price set at $29 per share
VMware Inc. set the price for its Tuesday initial public offering at
US$29 per share, the top end of the range of starting prices that the
software virtualization company had forecast.
Microsoft reorganizes around aQuantive acquisition
Microsoft Corp. has appointed the former CEO of aQuantive Inc. to head
up a new division devoted to serving advertisers and publishers, moves
that are part of the company's close of its acquisition of the digital
media and advertising services firm.
Microsoft questions FCC's 'white spaces' decision
The FCC on July 31 said a wireless prototype submitted by Microsoft and
other members of the White Spaces Coalition interfered with cable
television channels and therefore would not be licensed for use. But
Microsoft claims that the device was malfunctioning when the FCC tested
it.
INTERVIEW
Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
The role Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, plays at the organization
that supports the user generated and edited encyclopedia is changing as
he shifts more of his time to activities in the wiki and open source
communities, and shares time with his for-profit venture, Wikia Inc. In
this interview, Wales discusses his changing role at Wikimedia, plans
for the future, and other topics.
PODCAST
IT news audio update
VMware sets IPO price at $29 ... Critics sound warnings over German
antihacker law ... Oracle to announce 11g pricing today
More podcasts
ITWHIRLED
Sweaty man electrocuted by PC
Hint for PC users: if you think your computer is too hot, maybe removing
the case and exposing the electronic innards and dangerous power source
isn't the best idea. But if you simply must do so, perhaps you shouldn't
keep your sweaty, naked flesh too close to said innards.
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
Monday, August 13, 2007
SCO down but not out in Linux case ... XenSource updates virtualization software
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Qwest names new telecom veteran CEO
News: SCO says it's down but not out in Linux case
News: XenSource new release closes gap with VMware
News: AT&T wiretapping case headed for hearing
News: Microsoft loses key US OpenXML vote
Interview: Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
Podcast: IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Second Life prepares for its first bank run
NEWS UPDATES
Qwest names new telecom veteran CEO
Qwest Communications International Inc. has named telecommunications industry veteran Edward Mueller chairman and CEO, replacing the retiring Richard Notebaert.
SCO says it's down but not out in Linux case
A U.S. district court judge ruled Friday that SCO does not own the copyrights to the Unix operating system, undermining its cases against both Novell and IBM Corp. The ruling was seen by many as the death-knell in SCO's legal fight, but the SCO said it may not be done fighting yet.
XenSource new release closes gap with VMware
An upgraded version of the XenSource Inc. virtualization hypervisor out Monday closes the features gap with market leader VMware Inc., but a wide market share gap between the two companies remains, an industry analyst says.
AT&T wiretapping case headed for hearing
A federal appeals court will hear arguments next Wednesday on whether to stop a class-action privacy suit that is based on allegations that the government and AT&T Inc. have been working together in an illegal wiretapping program.
Microsoft loses key US OpenXML vote
The executive committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) fell one vote shy of the nine required to approve Microsoft's Open XML standard. It voted 8 to 7 in favor of approval with one abstention, the group announced Thursday.
Spam surge sways stock market
Last week saw the Internet's biggest-ever spam surge in a single day, and also offered a lesson on why "pump and dump" stock-market spam campaigns have become so prevalent, according to Postini.
INTERVIEW
Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
The role Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, plays at the organization that supports the user generated and edited encyclopedia is changing as he shifts more of his time to activities in the wiki and open source communities, and shares time with his for-profit venture, Wikia Inc. In this interview, Wales discusses his changing role at Wikimedia, plans for the future, and other topics.
PODCAST
SCO down but not out in Linux case ... XenSource updates virtualization software ... ISPs complain about BBC media player
ITWHIRLED
Second Life prepares for its first bank run
Want to put some money in a bank that promises no-strings 43 percent
interest? What if the "bank" is in what's essentially a MMORP, where
there's no equivalent to the FDIC? What could possibly go wrong?
News: Qwest names new telecom veteran CEO
News: SCO says it's down but not out in Linux case
News: XenSource new release closes gap with VMware
News: AT&T wiretapping case headed for hearing
News: Microsoft loses key US OpenXML vote
Interview: Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
Podcast: IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Second Life prepares for its first bank run
NEWS UPDATES
Qwest names new telecom veteran CEO
Qwest Communications International Inc. has named telecommunications industry veteran Edward Mueller chairman and CEO, replacing the retiring Richard Notebaert.
SCO says it's down but not out in Linux case
A U.S. district court judge ruled Friday that SCO does not own the copyrights to the Unix operating system, undermining its cases against both Novell and IBM Corp. The ruling was seen by many as the death-knell in SCO's legal fight, but the SCO said it may not be done fighting yet.
XenSource new release closes gap with VMware
An upgraded version of the XenSource Inc. virtualization hypervisor out Monday closes the features gap with market leader VMware Inc., but a wide market share gap between the two companies remains, an industry analyst says.
AT&T wiretapping case headed for hearing
A federal appeals court will hear arguments next Wednesday on whether to stop a class-action privacy suit that is based on allegations that the government and AT&T Inc. have been working together in an illegal wiretapping program.
Microsoft loses key US OpenXML vote
The executive committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) fell one vote shy of the nine required to approve Microsoft's Open XML standard. It voted 8 to 7 in favor of approval with one abstention, the group announced Thursday.
Spam surge sways stock market
Last week saw the Internet's biggest-ever spam surge in a single day, and also offered a lesson on why "pump and dump" stock-market spam campaigns have become so prevalent, according to Postini.
INTERVIEW
Jimmy Wales talks on the future of Wikimedia
The role Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, plays at the organization that supports the user generated and edited encyclopedia is changing as he shifts more of his time to activities in the wiki and open source communities, and shares time with his for-profit venture, Wikia Inc. In this interview, Wales discusses his changing role at Wikimedia, plans for the future, and other topics.
PODCAST
SCO down but not out in Linux case ... XenSource updates virtualization software ... ISPs complain about BBC media player
ITWHIRLED
Second Life prepares for its first bank run
Want to put some money in a bank that promises no-strings 43 percent
interest? What if the "bank" is in what's essentially a MMORP, where
there's no equivalent to the FDIC? What could possibly go wrong?
Friday, August 10, 2007
Universals tests DRM-free music ... MySQL falls out with developer community
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Google faces more than just a new rival in Wikia
News: Universal to test sales of DRM-free music
News: U.K. report questions role of ISPs in online safety
News: Fujitsu's easy-to-use phone packs advanced features
News: Bankrupt BenQ Mobile sues parent again
Opinion: Video Lessons
Podcast: Daily IT news update
ITwhirled: Bus driver fired for running up $34,000 bill on company phone
NEWS UPDATES
Google faces more than just a new rival in Wikia
Google Inc. and other search engines face far more than just a new rival in Wikia Inc., they face the prospect of hundreds, even thousands of new competitors.
Universal to test sales of DRM-free music
As part of a six-month test to end in January, UMG, a subsidiary of French conglomerate Vivendi Universal SA, will sell a wide range of albums and songs from artists such as 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas and Sting -- in MP3 format, without DRM (digital rights management) copy protection, the music company confirmed Friday.
U.K. report questions role of ISPs in online safety
A new report on Internet safety has concluded ISPs (Internet service providers) should take more responsibility for online security since end users are often lax.
Fujitsu's easy-to-use phone packs advanced features
The latest model in Fujitsu Ltd.'s Raku Raku cell phone line, which emphasizes ease of use, packs some advanced features.
Bankrupt BenQ Mobile sues parent again
The mobile phones that once flowed from bankrupt German handset manufacturer BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG are being replaced by lawsuits.
OPINION
Video Lessons
By James Gaskin, ITworld.com
Suddenly it's a video world, or perhaps I'm paying more attention since I mentioned the Altus video products earlier this month. The good news? You can watch plenty of technical videos after you get tired of Diet Coke and Mentos on YouTube. One of the most technical set of videos comes from Cisco and their TechWise TV series of webcasts.
Read the full article here
PODCAST
Universals tests DRM-free music ... MySQL falls out with developer community ... Report says ISPs should help with online security
ITWHIRLED
Bus driver fired for running up $34,000 bill on company phone
Bus drivers in the Polish city of Slupsk get cell phones from their employer, and are supposed to keep their monthly bills to $5. But Leszek Wojcik kept sending text messages -- at 86 cents a pop -- to enter a contest, and rang up charges of $34,000. It's a good thing he stopped when he did: had he won (which he didn't), the prize would have been $36,000.
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
News: Google faces more than just a new rival in Wikia
News: Universal to test sales of DRM-free music
News: U.K. report questions role of ISPs in online safety
News: Fujitsu's easy-to-use phone packs advanced features
News: Bankrupt BenQ Mobile sues parent again
Opinion: Video Lessons
Podcast: Daily IT news update
ITwhirled: Bus driver fired for running up $34,000 bill on company phone
NEWS UPDATES
Google faces more than just a new rival in Wikia
Google Inc. and other search engines face far more than just a new rival in Wikia Inc., they face the prospect of hundreds, even thousands of new competitors.
Universal to test sales of DRM-free music
As part of a six-month test to end in January, UMG, a subsidiary of French conglomerate Vivendi Universal SA, will sell a wide range of albums and songs from artists such as 50 Cent, Black Eyed Peas and Sting -- in MP3 format, without DRM (digital rights management) copy protection, the music company confirmed Friday.
U.K. report questions role of ISPs in online safety
A new report on Internet safety has concluded ISPs (Internet service providers) should take more responsibility for online security since end users are often lax.
Fujitsu's easy-to-use phone packs advanced features
The latest model in Fujitsu Ltd.'s Raku Raku cell phone line, which emphasizes ease of use, packs some advanced features.
Bankrupt BenQ Mobile sues parent again
The mobile phones that once flowed from bankrupt German handset manufacturer BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG are being replaced by lawsuits.
OPINION
Video Lessons
By James Gaskin, ITworld.com
Suddenly it's a video world, or perhaps I'm paying more attention since I mentioned the Altus video products earlier this month. The good news? You can watch plenty of technical videos after you get tired of Diet Coke and Mentos on YouTube. One of the most technical set of videos comes from Cisco and their TechWise TV series of webcasts.
Read the full article here
PODCAST
Universals tests DRM-free music ... MySQL falls out with developer community ... Report says ISPs should help with online security
ITWHIRLED
Bus driver fired for running up $34,000 bill on company phone
Bus drivers in the Polish city of Slupsk get cell phones from their employer, and are supposed to keep their monthly bills to $5. But Leszek Wojcik kept sending text messages -- at 86 cents a pop -- to enter a contest, and rang up charges of $34,000. It's a good thing he stopped when he did: had he won (which he didn't), the prize would have been $36,000.
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Hacker strips DRM from streaming Netflix movies ... Microsoft reveals roadmap for Commerce Server
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Hacker strips DRM from streaming Netflix movies
News: Microsoft reveals roadmap for Commerce Server
News: Cisco blames site outage on accident
News: Security firm automates generating attack code
News: HP turns to Linux for data center of the future
Windows Tip: Building a supportable enterprise, part 3
ITwhirled: Ten reasons to ditch your cellphone
NEWS UDPATES
Hacker strips DRM from streaming Netflix movies
A hacker has posted instructions for how to save streamed movies from the Netflix Inc. service, undermining Microsoft Corp.'s copy protection technology designed to prevent people from saving the content.
Microsoft reveals roadmap for Commerce Server
Interest in software that enables companies to build marketplaces on the Web is not as keen as it used to be back in the early days of e-commerce. However, Microsoft Corp. Wednesday made a commitment to keep developing its offering in this space for at least the next three years.
Cisco blames site outage on accident
Cisco Systems Inc. blamed an outage that affected part of its Web site Wednesday on an accident during maintenance of a San Jose, California, data center.
DEFCON: Security firm automates generating attack code
Security firm Immunity has released a tool aimed at largely automating the process of putting together security exploits, a move some believe will lead to a dramatic rise in the number of "zero-day" exploits making the rounds.
LINUXWORLD: HP turns to Linux for data center of the future
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s ambition to build the "next-generation data center" depends on Linux and open source, an HP executive said at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Wednesday.
Former SunRocket customers struggle with new provider
Customers of SunRocket Inc., the VOIP company that recently folded, may have hoped their troubles were over when two competitors stepped up to offer them service in the absence of the failed provider. But for some, transferring to one of the new providers hasn't proved to be a better option than SunRocket.
WINDOWS TIP
Building a supportable enterprise, part 3
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
It's called the law of unintended consequences -- you do "A" to take care of "B", and then "C" unexpectedly happens. In a previous tip, I talked about "leaving well enough alone" and gave the example that when you uninstall Outlook Express from your domain controller (Why not? Who needs an email client on a domain controller? What could go wrong?), an unintended consequence can occur: it breaks your CDO interfaces on your server. While this example might seem a bit obscure to some, there are many more such "hidden dependencies" in Windows, and casual tweaking (in the name of "hardening") can often cause you to run up against these dependencies.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
She's a 10
Ten reasons to ditch your cellphone ... Top 10 transhumanist technologies
... Mars Rovers' 10 most amazing discoveries
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
News: Hacker strips DRM from streaming Netflix movies
News: Microsoft reveals roadmap for Commerce Server
News: Cisco blames site outage on accident
News: Security firm automates generating attack code
News: HP turns to Linux for data center of the future
Windows Tip: Building a supportable enterprise, part 3
ITwhirled: Ten reasons to ditch your cellphone
NEWS UDPATES
Hacker strips DRM from streaming Netflix movies
A hacker has posted instructions for how to save streamed movies from the Netflix Inc. service, undermining Microsoft Corp.'s copy protection technology designed to prevent people from saving the content.
Microsoft reveals roadmap for Commerce Server
Interest in software that enables companies to build marketplaces on the Web is not as keen as it used to be back in the early days of e-commerce. However, Microsoft Corp. Wednesday made a commitment to keep developing its offering in this space for at least the next three years.
Cisco blames site outage on accident
Cisco Systems Inc. blamed an outage that affected part of its Web site Wednesday on an accident during maintenance of a San Jose, California, data center.
DEFCON: Security firm automates generating attack code
Security firm Immunity has released a tool aimed at largely automating the process of putting together security exploits, a move some believe will lead to a dramatic rise in the number of "zero-day" exploits making the rounds.
LINUXWORLD: HP turns to Linux for data center of the future
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s ambition to build the "next-generation data center" depends on Linux and open source, an HP executive said at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Wednesday.
Former SunRocket customers struggle with new provider
Customers of SunRocket Inc., the VOIP company that recently folded, may have hoped their troubles were over when two competitors stepped up to offer them service in the absence of the failed provider. But for some, transferring to one of the new providers hasn't proved to be a better option than SunRocket.
WINDOWS TIP
Building a supportable enterprise, part 3
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
It's called the law of unintended consequences -- you do "A" to take care of "B", and then "C" unexpectedly happens. In a previous tip, I talked about "leaving well enough alone" and gave the example that when you uninstall Outlook Express from your domain controller (Why not? Who needs an email client on a domain controller? What could go wrong?), an unintended consequence can occur: it breaks your CDO interfaces on your server. While this example might seem a bit obscure to some, there are many more such "hidden dependencies" in Windows, and casual tweaking (in the name of "hardening") can often cause you to run up against these dependencies.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
She's a 10
Ten reasons to ditch your cellphone ... Top 10 transhumanist technologies
... Mars Rovers' 10 most amazing discoveries
Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
SAP describes road ahead for PLM software ... Service-pack previews for Vista, XP released
HIGHLIGHTS
News: SAP describes road ahead for its PLM software
News: Nokia discontinues some chipset development
News: Former Brocade CEO guilty of backdating charges
News: Microsoft releases service-pack previews for Vista, XP
News: Sun to axe jobs by mid-2008
Unix Tip: A SCSI mystery: Come and gone
ITwhirled: Argentine doctors perform surgery by cell-phone light
NEWS UPDATES
SAP describes road ahead for its PLM software
Business applications vendor SAP AG on Wednesday laid out the future path for its product lifecycle management (PLM) software over the next three-plus years.
Nokia discontinues some chipset development
Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. will halt some chipset development and instead rely on technology from other chipset manufacturers, the company said Wednesday.
Former Brocade CEO guilty of backdating charges
A jury has found former Brocade Communications Systems Inc. CEO Gregory Reyes guilty of charges related to the company's backdating of stock-option grants.
Microsoft releases service-pack previews for Vista, XP
Microsoft Corp. has quietly released pre-beta code to two forthcoming Windows service packs to testers in the past week, but the company continues to remain vague about when the final code for Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista SP1 will make it to end users.
Sun to axe jobs by mid-2008
Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to lay off an unspecified number of employees by the middle of 2008 as part of a corporate restructuring effort, according to a filing Tuesday with the SEC.
Cisco sees Web 2.0 boom after posting strong Q4
Cisco Systems Inc. expects Web 2.0 to drive a growth curve similar to the Internet expansion of the 1990s, accelerating the company's revenue growth, Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Tuesday as Cisco announced strong fourth-quarter numbers.
Vodafone decides to hang onto Verizon
Vodafone Group PLC has decided to keep a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless Inc. in a move to retain a toehold in the important U.S. mobile phone market.
UNIX TIP
A SCSI mystery: Come and gone
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com
On a late Friday evening, just as I was about to leave for home, one of the servers I manage suddenly started having what appeared to be serious disk problems. Its NFS clients were collecting "NFS server not responding still trying" errors. The system itself was unable to process share and unshare commands. My initial fear was that the system had suffered a disk crash and would have to be rebuilt from spare parts and backups before the staff's arrival on Monday morning.
The system was still running, but having serious problems running ordinary commands and the console was filling up with messages like these...
ITWHIRLED
Argentine doctors perform surgery by cell-phone light
If your surgeon whipped out his or her cell phone while removing your appendix, you'd probably be a little concerned. But when a hospital in Argentina lost power, doctors borrowed mobile phones from the patient's family so that they could see well enough to complete the operation.
News: SAP describes road ahead for its PLM software
News: Nokia discontinues some chipset development
News: Former Brocade CEO guilty of backdating charges
News: Microsoft releases service-pack previews for Vista, XP
News: Sun to axe jobs by mid-2008
Unix Tip: A SCSI mystery: Come and gone
ITwhirled: Argentine doctors perform surgery by cell-phone light
NEWS UPDATES
SAP describes road ahead for its PLM software
Business applications vendor SAP AG on Wednesday laid out the future path for its product lifecycle management (PLM) software over the next three-plus years.
Nokia discontinues some chipset development
Mobile phone maker Nokia Corp. will halt some chipset development and instead rely on technology from other chipset manufacturers, the company said Wednesday.
Former Brocade CEO guilty of backdating charges
A jury has found former Brocade Communications Systems Inc. CEO Gregory Reyes guilty of charges related to the company's backdating of stock-option grants.
Microsoft releases service-pack previews for Vista, XP
Microsoft Corp. has quietly released pre-beta code to two forthcoming Windows service packs to testers in the past week, but the company continues to remain vague about when the final code for Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista SP1 will make it to end users.
Sun to axe jobs by mid-2008
Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to lay off an unspecified number of employees by the middle of 2008 as part of a corporate restructuring effort, according to a filing Tuesday with the SEC.
Cisco sees Web 2.0 boom after posting strong Q4
Cisco Systems Inc. expects Web 2.0 to drive a growth curve similar to the Internet expansion of the 1990s, accelerating the company's revenue growth, Chairman and CEO John Chambers said Tuesday as Cisco announced strong fourth-quarter numbers.
Vodafone decides to hang onto Verizon
Vodafone Group PLC has decided to keep a 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless Inc. in a move to retain a toehold in the important U.S. mobile phone market.
UNIX TIP
A SCSI mystery: Come and gone
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com
On a late Friday evening, just as I was about to leave for home, one of the servers I manage suddenly started having what appeared to be serious disk problems. Its NFS clients were collecting "NFS server not responding still trying" errors. The system itself was unable to process share and unshare commands. My initial fear was that the system had suffered a disk crash and would have to be rebuilt from spare parts and backups before the staff's arrival on Monday morning.
The system was still running, but having serious problems running ordinary commands and the console was filling up with messages like these...
ITWHIRLED
Argentine doctors perform surgery by cell-phone light
If your surgeon whipped out his or her cell phone while removing your appendix, you'd probably be a little concerned. But when a hospital in Argentina lost power, doctors borrowed mobile phones from the patient's family so that they could see well enough to complete the operation.
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Lenovo and Dell sneak Linux on to new PCs ... Microsoft drops XBox 360 price
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Sybase, HTC aim to improve Windows Mobile devices
News: Web scam: Pssst... wanna buy a house?
News: Mobile Linux group gets wider support
News: Microsoft lowers XBox 360 price
News: Google ups Linux support as OIN licensee
Opinion: The message is the message
ITwhirled: North Dakota texting contest won by an exclamation point
NEWS UPDATES
Sybase, HTC aim to improve Windows Mobile devices
IAnywhere Solutions Inc. has announced a partnership with High Tech Computer Corp. that could help smart phones based on Windows Mobile compete more effectively with the BlackBerry, according to an iAnywhere executive.
Web scam: Pssst... wanna buy a house?
Web scammers are turning to online property forums to collect personal information about users for later attempts to swindle them out of money, according to a security researcher.
LINUXWORLD: Mobile Linux group gets wider support
A nonprofit organization formed by six of the biggest names in the cell phone business to promote the use of Linux of handsets has gotten wider industry support.
Microsoft lowers XBox 360 price
Microsoft is lowering the price of its XBox 360 games console by $50, in an attempt to keep pace with rival Sony Corp.'s own price cuts and introduction of a new model of the Playstation 3.
LINUXWORLD: Google ups Linux support as OIN licensee
Google Inc. has increased its support for the open-source Linux operating system by becoming Open Invention Network's first end-user licensee. Set up in 2005, OIN is an intellectual property company focused on acquiring and pooling patents to protect Linux against patent infringement attacks.
FCC pans 'white space' device from MS, Google, others
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on July 31 said that a prototype device built by Google, archrival Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies doesn't work as promised. The devices were designed to sniff for broadcasts in spectrum before transmitting in the band, to avoid interfering with the TV signal. But the FCC found that the devices do not consistently sense or detect TV broadcast signals and in fact, sometimes could cause interference to TV broadcasts.
LINUXWORLD: Lenovo and Dell sneak Linux on to new PCs
Open source software has made further inroads into Microsoft's heartland this week as both Lenovo and Dell announced Linux-based PCs.
OPINION
The message is the message
By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com
I have been struggling for quite some time now to get to the essence of one of the biggest confusions I see in modern day enterprise application integration practice. On one hand sits the practitioners who think in terms of enterprise objects that talk to each other by means of messages sent to and fro over the wire. On the other hand sits the practitioners who think of webs of services but who also send messages to an fro over the wire to get things done.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
North Dakota texting contest won by an exclamation point
http://www.itworld.com/jpitw/itwtodayblog/itwhirled/#news
When you're sending a text message from your mobile phone, does accuracy really count? It does if you're in a contest at the North Dakota state fair. Kevin Taylor finished typing his message first, but left out an exclamation point -- and missed out on $800 in prize money.
News: Sybase, HTC aim to improve Windows Mobile devices
News: Web scam: Pssst... wanna buy a house?
News: Mobile Linux group gets wider support
News: Microsoft lowers XBox 360 price
News: Google ups Linux support as OIN licensee
Opinion: The message is the message
ITwhirled: North Dakota texting contest won by an exclamation point
NEWS UPDATES
Sybase, HTC aim to improve Windows Mobile devices
IAnywhere Solutions Inc. has announced a partnership with High Tech Computer Corp. that could help smart phones based on Windows Mobile compete more effectively with the BlackBerry, according to an iAnywhere executive.
Web scam: Pssst... wanna buy a house?
Web scammers are turning to online property forums to collect personal information about users for later attempts to swindle them out of money, according to a security researcher.
LINUXWORLD: Mobile Linux group gets wider support
A nonprofit organization formed by six of the biggest names in the cell phone business to promote the use of Linux of handsets has gotten wider industry support.
Microsoft lowers XBox 360 price
Microsoft is lowering the price of its XBox 360 games console by $50, in an attempt to keep pace with rival Sony Corp.'s own price cuts and introduction of a new model of the Playstation 3.
LINUXWORLD: Google ups Linux support as OIN licensee
Google Inc. has increased its support for the open-source Linux operating system by becoming Open Invention Network's first end-user licensee. Set up in 2005, OIN is an intellectual property company focused on acquiring and pooling patents to protect Linux against patent infringement attacks.
FCC pans 'white space' device from MS, Google, others
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on July 31 said that a prototype device built by Google, archrival Microsoft Corp. and other technology companies doesn't work as promised. The devices were designed to sniff for broadcasts in spectrum before transmitting in the band, to avoid interfering with the TV signal. But the FCC found that the devices do not consistently sense or detect TV broadcast signals and in fact, sometimes could cause interference to TV broadcasts.
LINUXWORLD: Lenovo and Dell sneak Linux on to new PCs
Open source software has made further inroads into Microsoft's heartland this week as both Lenovo and Dell announced Linux-based PCs.
OPINION
The message is the message
By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com
I have been struggling for quite some time now to get to the essence of one of the biggest confusions I see in modern day enterprise application integration practice. On one hand sits the practitioners who think in terms of enterprise objects that talk to each other by means of messages sent to and fro over the wire. On the other hand sits the practitioners who think of webs of services but who also send messages to an fro over the wire to get things done.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
North Dakota texting contest won by an exclamation point
http://www.itworld.com/jpitw/itwtodayblog/itwhirled/#news
When you're sending a text message from your mobile phone, does accuracy really count? It does if you're in a contest at the North Dakota state fair. Kevin Taylor finished typing his message first, but left out an exclamation point -- and missed out on $800 in prize money.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Mozilla can patch flaws in 10 days ... Nokia to use Microsoft DRM ... Websense lures Web 2.0 attackers
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Mozilla says it can patch flaws in 10 days
News: Nokia to use Microsoft's latest DRM software
News: Notebooks drive European PC shipments in Q2
News: Congress to probe Yahoo over jailed China journalist
News: Websense lures Web 2.0 attackers with HoneyJax
Windows Tip: Outlook migration
ITwhirled: Online feud leads to cross-country arson vendetta
NEWS UPDATES
BLACK HAT: Mozilla says it can patch flaws in 10 days
A Mozilla Corp. executive has vowed that his company can patch any critical vulnerability in its software within 10 days, a sign that Mozilla may intend to step up its efforts to improve security.
Nokia to use Microsoft's latest DRM software
Nokia Corp. has agreed to license Microsoft Corp.'s new PlayReady DRM (digital rights management) technology, giving the service providers it works with a greater choice of copy protection software.
Gartner: Notebooks drive European PC shipments in Q2
PC shipments in Western Europe increased 9.3 percent in the second quarter compared to the year-earlier period, fueled by strong consumer demand, particularly for notebook computers, according to market research published Monday by Gartner Inc.
Congress to probe Yahoo over jailed China journalist
A U.S. congressional committee plans to investigate whether or not Yahoo Inc. lied during testimony over its role in a human rights case in China that sent journalist Shi Tao to jail for 10 years.
DEFCON: Websense lures Web 2.0 attackers with HoneyJax
Websense Inc. has developed a threat detection system designed to spot Web 2.0 attacks soon after they are launched. Called HoneyJax, the system will root out attacks on social networking sites, blogs and wikis, and then update the company's Web Security Suite to protect users from malicious Web sites or pages.
Red Hat's SMB desktop Linux delayed
Red Hat has released more details about its plans for Linux on the desktop, including news of a launch delay.
Kittens could solve spam
An executive at Microsoft Corp. has an unusual idea for beating spammers. Powerful software tools and supercomputers aren't involved, but kittens are. Or rather, photos of kittens.
New Bluetooth standard approved
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced unanimous approval of the new iteration of the Bluetooth standard by its 8,000-member strong group.
WINDOWS TIP
Two Outlook migration tips
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
Here are two Outlook migration tips I thought readers might want to know about. The first tip has to do with upgrading ANSI .pst files to UNICODE files. A user we’ll call Bob was running Outlook 2003, but his PST file was originally created with Outlook 2000 (he had previously upgraded his computer from Windows 2000 to Windows XP and had upgraded Office 2000 to Office 2003). The problem was that Outlook 2000 only supported ANSI .pst files, which meant when his .pst file reached 2 GB, Outlook choked (actually it choked long before that point was reached). Outlook 2003 had introduced UNICODE format for .pst files, but Bob hadn’t tried to upgrade his PST file from ANSI to UNICODE (Bob got scared off by some Microsoft Knowledge Base articles he read but couldn’t understand on the subject.)
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Online feud leads to cross-country arson vendetta
John Anderson and Russell Tavares were two of the millions of people who get drawn into pointless, stupid arguments over the Internet every day. Anderson even went so far as to call Tavares a "nerd" and Photoshop an image of him portraying him as such. So naturally Tavares drove 1,300 miles and then burned Anderson's trailer down. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
News: Mozilla says it can patch flaws in 10 days
News: Nokia to use Microsoft's latest DRM software
News: Notebooks drive European PC shipments in Q2
News: Congress to probe Yahoo over jailed China journalist
News: Websense lures Web 2.0 attackers with HoneyJax
Windows Tip: Outlook migration
ITwhirled: Online feud leads to cross-country arson vendetta
NEWS UPDATES
BLACK HAT: Mozilla says it can patch flaws in 10 days
A Mozilla Corp. executive has vowed that his company can patch any critical vulnerability in its software within 10 days, a sign that Mozilla may intend to step up its efforts to improve security.
Nokia to use Microsoft's latest DRM software
Nokia Corp. has agreed to license Microsoft Corp.'s new PlayReady DRM (digital rights management) technology, giving the service providers it works with a greater choice of copy protection software.
Gartner: Notebooks drive European PC shipments in Q2
PC shipments in Western Europe increased 9.3 percent in the second quarter compared to the year-earlier period, fueled by strong consumer demand, particularly for notebook computers, according to market research published Monday by Gartner Inc.
Congress to probe Yahoo over jailed China journalist
A U.S. congressional committee plans to investigate whether or not Yahoo Inc. lied during testimony over its role in a human rights case in China that sent journalist Shi Tao to jail for 10 years.
DEFCON: Websense lures Web 2.0 attackers with HoneyJax
Websense Inc. has developed a threat detection system designed to spot Web 2.0 attacks soon after they are launched. Called HoneyJax, the system will root out attacks on social networking sites, blogs and wikis, and then update the company's Web Security Suite to protect users from malicious Web sites or pages.
Red Hat's SMB desktop Linux delayed
Red Hat has released more details about its plans for Linux on the desktop, including news of a launch delay.
Kittens could solve spam
An executive at Microsoft Corp. has an unusual idea for beating spammers. Powerful software tools and supercomputers aren't involved, but kittens are. Or rather, photos of kittens.
New Bluetooth standard approved
The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced unanimous approval of the new iteration of the Bluetooth standard by its 8,000-member strong group.
WINDOWS TIP
Two Outlook migration tips
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises
Here are two Outlook migration tips I thought readers might want to know about. The first tip has to do with upgrading ANSI .pst files to UNICODE files. A user we’ll call Bob was running Outlook 2003, but his PST file was originally created with Outlook 2000 (he had previously upgraded his computer from Windows 2000 to Windows XP and had upgraded Office 2000 to Office 2003). The problem was that Outlook 2000 only supported ANSI .pst files, which meant when his .pst file reached 2 GB, Outlook choked (actually it choked long before that point was reached). Outlook 2003 had introduced UNICODE format for .pst files, but Bob hadn’t tried to upgrade his PST file from ANSI to UNICODE (Bob got scared off by some Microsoft Knowledge Base articles he read but couldn’t understand on the subject.)
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Online feud leads to cross-country arson vendetta
John Anderson and Russell Tavares were two of the millions of people who get drawn into pointless, stupid arguments over the Internet every day. Anderson even went so far as to call Tavares a "nerd" and Photoshop an image of him portraying him as such. So naturally Tavares drove 1,300 miles and then burned Anderson's trailer down. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Friday, August 03, 2007
Microsoft cuts Vista price to $66 in China ... Man sentenced to two years on copyright violations
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft cuts Windows Vista price to $66 in China
News: Open source going mainstream
News: U.S. man sentenced to two years on copyright violations
News: Nissan turns to high-tech to stop drink driving
News: Diebold voting machines vulnerable to virus attack
Opinion: Vista Update
ITwhirled: Washingtonians' spirits lifted by 'compliment machine'
NEWS UPDATES
Microsoft cuts Windows Vista price to $66 in China
Microsoft Corp. has dramatically cut the price of Windows Vista in China in a bid to boost sales of its new operating system. The new prices, which were introduced Wednesday and outlined in a statement from the company on Friday, represent a steep discount compared to what users in the U.S. and elsewhere are charged for the software.
LINUXWORLD SF: Open source going mainstream
As more than 11,000 attendees prepare to converge on San Francisco for the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo next week, one industry analyst says customers are evaluating open-source software the same way they evaluate proprietary software: It has to be priced right and work well.
U.S. man sentenced to two years on copyright violations
An Illinois man was sentenced to two years in prison for violating copyright law through the unauthorized sale of video games on his Web site, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Thursday.
Nissan turns to high-tech to stop drink driving
As part of its drive to reduce road deaths and injuries, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. has installed in a car three prototype high-tech systems designed to stop drink driving.
Diebold voting machines vulnerable to virus attack
Diebold Election Systems Inc. voting machines are not secure enough to guarantee a trustworthy election, and an attacker with access to a single machine could disrupt or change the outcome of an election using viruses, according to a review of Diebold's source code.
OPINION
Vista Update
By James Gaskin, ITworld.com
How goes your Vista upgrade? Many people who called me stupid for my Vista Budget Vacuum column in October now need to find a new reason to call me stupid, because no one counts Vista as a bell- ringing success.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Self-loathing Washingtonians have spirits lifted by soulless machine
Thousands of residents of the United States capital were expected to have their self-esteem boosted by the "Compliment Machine", a new piece of public art that will soon hit Washington's streets. The device includes an iPod Nano loaded up with a number of affirmations and compliments, which it will chirp out at random at passersby. Experts expect the inanimate collection of electronics to make listeners feel better about themselves than they have in years.
News: Microsoft cuts Windows Vista price to $66 in China
News: Open source going mainstream
News: U.S. man sentenced to two years on copyright violations
News: Nissan turns to high-tech to stop drink driving
News: Diebold voting machines vulnerable to virus attack
Opinion: Vista Update
ITwhirled: Washingtonians' spirits lifted by 'compliment machine'
NEWS UPDATES
Microsoft cuts Windows Vista price to $66 in China
Microsoft Corp. has dramatically cut the price of Windows Vista in China in a bid to boost sales of its new operating system. The new prices, which were introduced Wednesday and outlined in a statement from the company on Friday, represent a steep discount compared to what users in the U.S. and elsewhere are charged for the software.
LINUXWORLD SF: Open source going mainstream
As more than 11,000 attendees prepare to converge on San Francisco for the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo next week, one industry analyst says customers are evaluating open-source software the same way they evaluate proprietary software: It has to be priced right and work well.
U.S. man sentenced to two years on copyright violations
An Illinois man was sentenced to two years in prison for violating copyright law through the unauthorized sale of video games on his Web site, the U.S. Department of Justice announced late Thursday.
Nissan turns to high-tech to stop drink driving
As part of its drive to reduce road deaths and injuries, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. has installed in a car three prototype high-tech systems designed to stop drink driving.
Diebold voting machines vulnerable to virus attack
Diebold Election Systems Inc. voting machines are not secure enough to guarantee a trustworthy election, and an attacker with access to a single machine could disrupt or change the outcome of an election using viruses, according to a review of Diebold's source code.
OPINION
Vista Update
By James Gaskin, ITworld.com
How goes your Vista upgrade? Many people who called me stupid for my Vista Budget Vacuum column in October now need to find a new reason to call me stupid, because no one counts Vista as a bell- ringing success.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Self-loathing Washingtonians have spirits lifted by soulless machine
Thousands of residents of the United States capital were expected to have their self-esteem boosted by the "Compliment Machine", a new piece of public art that will soon hit Washington's streets. The device includes an iPod Nano loaded up with a number of affirmations and compliments, which it will chirp out at random at passersby. Experts expect the inanimate collection of electronics to make listeners feel better about themselves than they have in years.
Thursday, August 02, 2007
CA files $200 million lawsuit against Rocket ... Dell buys software license
HIGHLIGHTS
News: CA files $200 million copyright lawsuit against Rocket
News: Dell buys software license management company
News: Nokia posts big Q2 profit on one-time gain
News: After complaints, Adobe axes link to Kinkos
News: Google's AP deal passes 1-year mark, yields nothing
News: Web browser attack skirts corporate firewall
Unix Tip: Taking advantage of trust in a script
ITwhirled: Elderly Swede wastes world's fastest Internet connection
NEWS UPDATES
CA files $200 million copyright lawsuit against Rocket
CA Inc. has filed a $200 million copyright lawsuit against rival developer Rocket Software Inc., alleging that the company hired away developers and stole source code.
Dell buys software license management company
Dell Inc. has agreed to acquire ASAP Software Inc. in a move to meet demand from large customers for tools and services that help manage their software assets.
Nokia posts big Q2 profit on one-time gain
Second-quarter net profit soared at Nokia Corp. thanks to a large one-time gain from the company's new telecommunications equipment manufacturing venture with Siemens AG.
After complaints, Adobe axes link to Kinkos
Adobe Systems Inc. will remove a menu option in its Acrobat and Reader programs that lets users send documents over the Internet to FedEx Kinkos for printing, the company said on Thursday.
Google's AP deal passes 1-year mark, yields nothing
One year after Google Inc. acknowledged signing a licensing deal with The Associated Press to launch new Google features and services, the promised offerings haven't been delivered.
BLACK HAT: Web browser attack skirts corporate firewall
A 10-year-old security problem has come back to haunt corporate IT, security researcher Dan Kaminsky told an audience at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas Wednesday. Kaminsky showed how problems in the way browser software works with the Internet's domain name system could be exploited to give attackers access to any resources behind the corporate firewall.
UNIX TIP
Taking advantage of trust in a script
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com
If you Google the terms "ssh" and "password", you will come up with a generous number of hits on how to set up SSH so that you can log in to a system or run commands remotely on that system without entering a password. While representing something of a security risk (anyone who breaks into your account on one system can access your account on the other as well), this configuration is extremely handy if you need to collect data from the system using a script. For example, you could type "ssh bandana uptime" to find out how long bandana has been running since its last reboot.
Detecting whether a command run via ssh within a script required entry of a password or made use of public key authentication, on the other hand, is more than a little tricky.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Elderly Swede wastes world's fastest Internet connection
The Swedish city of Karlstad installed an experimental Internet connection in Sigbritt Lothberg's house. She can download data at 40 gigabits a second -- fast enough to download a full-length movie in two seconds. Of course, since the 75-year-old Lothberg has never had an Internet connection, she's not necessarily impressed by the speedy link: she apparently mostly uses it to read newspapers online.
News: CA files $200 million copyright lawsuit against Rocket
News: Dell buys software license management company
News: Nokia posts big Q2 profit on one-time gain
News: After complaints, Adobe axes link to Kinkos
News: Google's AP deal passes 1-year mark, yields nothing
News: Web browser attack skirts corporate firewall
Unix Tip: Taking advantage of trust in a script
ITwhirled: Elderly Swede wastes world's fastest Internet connection
NEWS UPDATES
CA files $200 million copyright lawsuit against Rocket
CA Inc. has filed a $200 million copyright lawsuit against rival developer Rocket Software Inc., alleging that the company hired away developers and stole source code.
Dell buys software license management company
Dell Inc. has agreed to acquire ASAP Software Inc. in a move to meet demand from large customers for tools and services that help manage their software assets.
Nokia posts big Q2 profit on one-time gain
Second-quarter net profit soared at Nokia Corp. thanks to a large one-time gain from the company's new telecommunications equipment manufacturing venture with Siemens AG.
After complaints, Adobe axes link to Kinkos
Adobe Systems Inc. will remove a menu option in its Acrobat and Reader programs that lets users send documents over the Internet to FedEx Kinkos for printing, the company said on Thursday.
Google's AP deal passes 1-year mark, yields nothing
One year after Google Inc. acknowledged signing a licensing deal with The Associated Press to launch new Google features and services, the promised offerings haven't been delivered.
BLACK HAT: Web browser attack skirts corporate firewall
A 10-year-old security problem has come back to haunt corporate IT, security researcher Dan Kaminsky told an audience at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas Wednesday. Kaminsky showed how problems in the way browser software works with the Internet's domain name system could be exploited to give attackers access to any resources behind the corporate firewall.
UNIX TIP
Taking advantage of trust in a script
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com
If you Google the terms "ssh" and "password", you will come up with a generous number of hits on how to set up SSH so that you can log in to a system or run commands remotely on that system without entering a password. While representing something of a security risk (anyone who breaks into your account on one system can access your account on the other as well), this configuration is extremely handy if you need to collect data from the system using a script. For example, you could type "ssh bandana uptime" to find out how long bandana has been running since its last reboot.
Detecting whether a command run via ssh within a script required entry of a password or made use of public key authentication, on the other hand, is more than a little tricky.
Read the full article here
ITWHIRLED
Elderly Swede wastes world's fastest Internet connection
The Swedish city of Karlstad installed an experimental Internet connection in Sigbritt Lothberg's house. She can download data at 40 gigabits a second -- fast enough to download a full-length movie in two seconds. Of course, since the 75-year-old Lothberg has never had an Internet connection, she's not necessarily impressed by the speedy link: she apparently mostly uses it to read newspapers online.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Symantec's 'Dark Vision' mines carder sites
Mozilla rushes out second Firefox patch this month ... Google Analytics in data blackout since Saturday ... Top 10 GMail tweaks
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Mozilla rushes out second Firefox patch this month
News: Sharp planning major LCD, solar plant in Japan
News: Google Analytics in data blackout since Saturday
News: Merger costs dog Alcatel-Lucent in Q2
News: Web-based development platform goes open source
News: SF Wi-Fi wait grows
News: Symantec's 'Dark Vision' mines carder sites
News: Microsoft comments support reports of new Zunes
ITwhirled: Top 10 GMail tweaks
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
NEWS UPDATES
Mozilla rushes out second Firefox patch this month
Mozilla Corp. has patched a pair of nasty flaws in its Firefox browser, two weeks after security researchers first started posting code that showed how the flaws could be exploited in attacks.
Sharp planning major LCD, solar plant in Japan
Sharp Corp. is to build an LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing plant in west Japan that is likely to be the most advanced of its kind when it begins production.
Google Analytics in data blackout since Saturday
Google Inc.'s Analytics service stopped delivering data to users on Saturday, another in a series of recent performance and availability problems affecting this popular Web site traffic-monitoring service.
Merger costs dog Alcatel-Lucent in Q2
Merger costs, flat sales and a strong euro contributed to a second-quarter net loss at Alcatel-Lucent SA.
Web-based development platform goes open source
Australian software company Once Technologies has released what it claims is the first browser-based Web 2.0 development platform as an open source project.
SF Wi-Fi wait grows
The next crucial votes on San Francisco's municipal Wi-Fi proposal will be delayed until next month while chosen contractor EarthLink Inc. becomes increasingly skittish about building wireless networks for cities.
Symantec's 'Dark Vision' mines carder sites
Researchers at Symantec Corp. have developed a system that mines underground Web sites and chat rooms for sensitive information that is being sold.
Microsoft comments support reports of new Zunes
Microsoft Corp. hasn't divulged detailed plans for the next release of its Zune music player, but a company executive last week offered hints that seem to support reports that a flash memory-based Zune and 80-gigabyte device could be in the works.
ITWHIRLED
Top tens
> 20 companies and products that didn't deserve to die
> Top 10 GMail tweaks
See all the 10s
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Mozilla rushes out second Firefox patch this month
News: Sharp planning major LCD, solar plant in Japan
News: Google Analytics in data blackout since Saturday
News: Merger costs dog Alcatel-Lucent in Q2
News: Web-based development platform goes open source
News: SF Wi-Fi wait grows
News: Symantec's 'Dark Vision' mines carder sites
News: Microsoft comments support reports of new Zunes
ITwhirled: Top 10 GMail tweaks
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
NEWS UPDATES
Mozilla rushes out second Firefox patch this month
Mozilla Corp. has patched a pair of nasty flaws in its Firefox browser, two weeks after security researchers first started posting code that showed how the flaws could be exploited in attacks.
Sharp planning major LCD, solar plant in Japan
Sharp Corp. is to build an LCD (liquid crystal display) manufacturing plant in west Japan that is likely to be the most advanced of its kind when it begins production.
Google Analytics in data blackout since Saturday
Google Inc.'s Analytics service stopped delivering data to users on Saturday, another in a series of recent performance and availability problems affecting this popular Web site traffic-monitoring service.
Merger costs dog Alcatel-Lucent in Q2
Merger costs, flat sales and a strong euro contributed to a second-quarter net loss at Alcatel-Lucent SA.
Web-based development platform goes open source
Australian software company Once Technologies has released what it claims is the first browser-based Web 2.0 development platform as an open source project.
SF Wi-Fi wait grows
The next crucial votes on San Francisco's municipal Wi-Fi proposal will be delayed until next month while chosen contractor EarthLink Inc. becomes increasingly skittish about building wireless networks for cities.
Symantec's 'Dark Vision' mines carder sites
Researchers at Symantec Corp. have developed a system that mines underground Web sites and chat rooms for sensitive information that is being sold.
Microsoft comments support reports of new Zunes
Microsoft Corp. hasn't divulged detailed plans for the next release of its Zune music player, but a company executive last week offered hints that seem to support reports that a flash memory-based Zune and 80-gigabyte device could be in the works.
ITWHIRLED
Top tens
> 20 companies and products that didn't deserve to die
> Top 10 GMail tweaks
See all the 10s
Monday, July 30, 2007
Intel backs specification for low-cost blade servers
HIGHLIGHTS
News: Intel backs specification for low-cost blade servers
News: Desktop on a USB drive ready for enterprises
News: Ransomware Trojans work of single group
News: UK government plans carbon offset code
News: Verizon revenue, net income up on Fios strength
News: Verizon Wireless to acquire Rural Cellular
News: California report slams e-voting system security
News: Hotmail maintenance glitch locks users out
News: Online legislation-writing effort gets good reviews
News: Virtual data center tests utility computing limits
News: RIM refutes security concerns over BlackBerry 8820
ITWhirled: Self-loathing Washingtonians have spirits lifted by soulless machine
NEWS UPDATES
Intel backs specification for low-cost blade servers
Intel Corp. expects a draft specification for blade servers to help vendors cut their development costs and push the space-saving systems into new markets.
Desktop on a USB drive ready for enterprises
Software that lets you carry your data, applications and personal desktop around on a USB-attached device is expanding into enterprises.
Ransomware Trojans work of single group
The two most prominent ransomware Trojans of recent times could be the work of the same or a closely-related Russian group, an analysis has suggested.
UK government plans carbon offset code
A U.K. government quality mark will help IT purchasers choose suppliers with valid carbon offset plans instead of untrustworthy ones, when it arrives later this year.
Verizon revenue, net income up on Fios strength
Verizon Communications Inc.reported net income of US$1.7 billion for the second quarter of 2007, up slightly from a year ago, fueled largely by increases in data and wireless revenues.
Verizon Wireless to acquire Rural Cellular
Verizon Wireless Inc. has agreed to acquire Rural Cellular Corp., a mobile telephone service provider focused on rural areas in the U.S., the companies announced Monday.
California report slams e-voting system security
Researchers commissioned by the State of California have found security issues in every electronic voting system they tested, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday.
Hotmail maintenance glitch locks users out
Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Live Hotmail Webmail service remained inaccessible to a portion of its users for several hours on Friday, but the problem has been resolved.
Online legislation-writing effort gets good reviews
A blog launched this month has teamed with a U.S. senator in an effort to write new broadband legislation, and so far participants have given the process high marks.
Virtual data center tests utility computing limits
A pair of utility computing vendors have stress-tested what they claim is the world's largest virtual data center, including 443 CPUs, 920GB of RAM and 47TB of storage.
RIM refutes security concerns over BlackBerry 8820
Research In Motion (RIM) shot back at criticism from industry analysts that Wi-Fi security concerns would mean limited enterprise use for its new dual-mode BlackBerry 8820.
ITWHIRLED
Self-loathing Washingtonians have spirits lifted by soulless machine
Thousands of residents of the United States capital were expected to have their self-esteem boosted by the "Compliment Machine", a new piece of public art that will soon hit Washington's streets. The device includes an iPod Nano loaded up with a number of affirmations and compliments, which it will chirp out at random at passers by. Experts expect the inanimate collection of electronics to make listeners feel better about themselves than they have in years.
Friday, July 27, 2007
P-to-P users expose US government secrets
HIGHLIGHTS
News: P-to-P users expose US government secrets
News: SourceForge unveils the winners of the 'open-source Oscars'
News: Making sense of AMD's processor road map
Related Reading: AMD unveils strategy to 'Bulldoze' the competition
News: Cisco to acquire equity stake in VMware
News: BLACK HAT: With Black Hat approaching, a rush to patch iPhone
News: Microsoft describes technology behind software plus services
News: Aruba, Alcatel-Lucent deepen mobility partnership
News: AirMagnet analyzes 802.11n Wi-Fi
News: Storm worm gets smarter
News: Google, Sprint team on WiMax mobile services
ITWhirled: Geek Comic of the Week: Bag of Toast
NEWS UPDATES
P-to-P users expose US government secrets
Contractors and U.S. government employees are sharing hundreds of secret documents on peer-to-peer networks, in many cases overriding the default security settings on their P-to-P software to do so, according to a company that monitors the networks.
SourceForge unveils the winners of the 'open-source Oscars'
Popular open-source software development site SourceForge.net hosted the equivalent of the open-source Oscars on Thursday evening, billing the event as a big party, not a painfully long and formal awards ceremony.
Making sense of AMD's processor road map
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) Thursday gave journalists and analysts a peek at its road map of upcoming processors, including more details on the company's quad-core processors and plans for a family of server chips with 16 cores.
Related Reading: AMD unveils strategy to 'Bulldoze' the competition
Executives at Advanced Micro Devices Inc. are pursuing a new strategy to combine CPUs and graphics processors into one unit and put them into everything from workstations to HDTVs to wireless phones.
Cisco to acquire equity stake in VMware
Cisco Systems Inc. plans to acquire a 1.6 percent equity stake in virtualization software player VMware Inc., mirroring a step Intel Corp. took earlier this month.
BLACK HAT: With Black Hat approaching, a rush to patch iPhone
With security researchers set to reveal details of a critical security flaw in the iPhone at the Black Hat 2007 conference next week, Apple Inc. now has fewer than seven days to patch a critical vulnerability in the product.
Microsoft describes technology behind software plus services
Microsoft Corp. gave some of the clearest examples yet on Thursday of its vision for software plus services.
Aruba, Alcatel-Lucent deepen mobility partnership
Alcatel-Lucent SA plans to extend enterprise security into cellular networks through its own fixed-mobile convergence systems and Aruba Networks Inc.'s "follow-me" security technology as part of a planned joint venture.
AirMagnet analyzes 802.11n Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi management company AirMagnet has launched an 802.11n laptop analyzer, ready for the host of performance issues expected from the emerging fast wireless LAN standard.
Storm worm gets smarter
Newer variants of the widespread Storm worm have introduced a new technique for evading security experts -- detecting when they are running in a virtual environment and changing their behavior if they are.
Google, Sprint team on WiMax mobile services
As part of its strategy to increase its presence in as many Web-enabled mobile devices as possible, Google Inc. has agreed to collaborate with Sprint Nextel Corp. to offer a range of Internet services to users of the U.S. operator's planned new WiMax network.
ITWHIRLED
Geek Comic of the Week: Bag of Toast
If robots and cyborgs coexisted, would they run political campaign ads smearing one another? Is there any point to practicing with Wii controllers? Does time travel automatically involve Abe Lincoln and dinosaurs? This whimsical comic answers these questions and more.
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