Bad things lurk on government sites

The U.S. federal government took steps earlier this week to shut down Web sites in California in order to protect the public from hacked Web sites, but new incidents show that the problem is not going away any time soon.

Microsoft to patch Windows, Word next week
Microsoft Corp. will release critical patches for its Windows and Word software next Tuesday as part of its monthly release of security patches.

Fon's shared Wi-Fi network goes mainstream with BT
BT Group PLC is turning to its own broadband subscribers to help crack a nut that many governments and service providers have struggled with: Widespread Wi-Fi access.

Qualcomm explains failure to provide evidence
Court documents filed by Qualcomm Inc. this week describe a disjointed legal team with communication failures and internal engineers who were forgetful and ignorant of basic principles of technical standards-setting procedure.

U.S. Net ad spending close to $10B in 2007's first half
The growth in online ad spending on U.S. Web sites slowed in the first half of 2007, compared with the same period last year, but the market is still experiencing a boom, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Jajah cries foul over eBay's block
Web-site buttons from Internet telephony startup Jajah Inc. that allowed eBay Inc. buyers and sellers to initiate phone calls have been banned by eBay, a move that Jajah charges is unjustified.

EMC snaps up Berkeley Data Systems
As previously predicted, EMC has acquired Berkeley Data Systems, provider of Mozy Online backup and recovery services.

DoCoMo flirts with e-paper for phones
NTT DoCoMo Inc. engineers are tinkering with the use of e-paper for cell phones, hoping to develop a keypad that changes icons depending on which application is being used.

Feds pull the plug on ca.gov .. Gov't e-mail becomes spam cannon .. FCC plays favorites with lobbyists

IN THE NEWS

Feds pull the domain name plug on State of California
The Federal government pulled the plug on the ca.gov Web domain used by the State of California on Tuesday, setting into motion a chain of events that threatened to grind government business to a standstill within the state.

U.S. gov't e-mail server turns into spam cannon
Subscribers to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security daily e-mail bulletin were inundated with dozens of e-mails on Wednesday due to a glitch with the mailing list.

MontaVista, Arm, others to build Linux UMPC platform
A group of seven companies including Mozilla Corp., Arm Ltd. and MontaVista Software Inc. are hoping to grow the market for a relatively new device category that sits in between a smartphone and a laptop.

Fraudsters jump to U.S. to cash out on U.K. cards
The U.S. has overtaken France as the number one place where fraudsters can convert U.K. credit and debit card details into cash, according to a U.K. banking trade group.

Auditor: FCC provides more information to some lobbyists
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has routinely let some telecom lobbyists know in advance when votes important to them will happen, but has not done the same for some consumer and public-interest groups, according to a report by a government auditor.

Alcatel-Lucent board pledges support for Russo
The board of Alcatel-Lucent SA voiced support for the company's embattled CEO, Patricia Russo, while acknowledging it is "clearly disappointed" with declines in Alcatel's financial outlook.

FCC plays favorites with lobbyists .. Microsoft launches new Zunes .. Adobe eyes real-time collaboration

IN THE NEWS

Auditor: FCC provides more information to some lobbyists
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has routinely let some telecom lobbyists know in advance when votes important to them will happen, but has not done the same for some consumer and public-interest groups, according to a report by a government auditor.

Motivational speaker sentenced for child porn
A U.S. motivational speaker who took his laptop computer to a Best Buy store for service has been sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison for transporting child pornography, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday.

Malicious code infects Chinese security site
The Web site of one of China's Internet security organizations has been laced with malicious code.

Adobe eyes real-time collaboration with new services
Adobe Systems Inc. is preparing two hosted services that will allow developers to add real-time collaboration capabilities, including voice over IP, to RIAs (rich Internet applications). The company demonstrated the services -- code-named Pacifica and CoCoMo -- at its Adobe MAX 2007 user conference in Chicago Tuesday.

3Com adds three IP PBXs for small businesses
3Com is broadening its IP PBX offerings with the introduction of three new products geared for businesses with as few as five phones.

Tiny Linux hits the streets
A very small Linux operating system, known as Puppy Linux, has had a "major upgrade" after version 3.0 hit the streets this week.

Microsoft launches new Zunes; Google adds Postini services to Google Apps; Sun combines servers, storage businesses

IN THE NEWS

Microsoft unveils new Zune players and community
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled three new models of its Zune portable digital media players featuring touch-sensitive buttons for navigating the device, the ability to sync with wireless networks, and flash memory in two of them.

Google's Apps Premier suite adds Postini e-mail services
Google Inc. will add e-mail security, compliance and recovery services to Google Apps Premier edition at no extra charge, boosting an area of this hosted communications and collaboration suite that is key for its adoption by large organizations.

Adobe to give designers visual tool with 'Thermo' project
Adobe Systems Inc. next year will release a visual tool for designers to help them more quickly and easily build RIAs (rich Internet applications) and work better with developers writing code on the back end.

SAP offers NetWeaver subscription for developers
SAP AG is allowing individual developers to buy a one-year subscription for its NetWeaver software in a move to bring new blood to the platform and expand its community of users.

WLAN patent threat may be resolved
A roadblock that reportedly could have held up a key wireless LAN standard seems to have been cleared now that an Australian research group has responded to the IEEE standards body.

Sun combines servers, storage businesses
Sun Microsystems is combining its servers and storage businesses to better sell computing systems to data center customers.


OPINION

I have looked at clouds from both sides now
Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Depending on your particular point of view, network clouds can be a fantastic concept, not requiring you to know or care where stuff lives or whether the right thing is going to happen when you connect to it. Or they can be a dangerous concept: You cannot know where your stuff lives on the cloud. You cannot care for or protect it by yourself. You have no option but to connect to it and hope that matters such as security, availability etc. happen somehow. How scary is that!


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft launches new Zunes, Google adds Postini services to Google Apps, Broadcom launches multimedia phone chip

More podcasts


GADGET GIVEAWAY

It's Fall, and we have a new gadget giveaway ... just for the heck of it. We've brought back the ultimate geek tool, the Swiss Army knife equipped with USB flash drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen.

Enter now for a chance to win!


ITWHIRLED

Linux nerds attempt to sell themselves to sorority girls
Sometimes, when you can't give the junk in your basement away, you can slap $1 price tag on it, set up a garage sale, and people will take it off your hands because they think it's a "bargain." Perhaps that's the logic behind the Washington State University Linux User Group's attempt to auction its members off to campus sorority members.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


POLL

Have you ever been fired?

* Nope - I've been at the same job my whole working life
* Nope - I've always left on my terms
* Well, I've been part of mass layoffs, but I've never been singled out
* Yes, but I've grown as an employee since then
* Yes, due to personality conflicts with the boss
* I am unemployable

Vote now!

Microsoft buys Jellyfish.com .. Toshiba puts fuel cell in media player .. Yahoo sharpens search

IN THE NEWS

Microsoft buys Jellyfish.com comparative shopping site
Microsoft Corp. has bought comparative shopping Web site Jellyfish.com, which gives its customers a cut of advertising revenue from retailers, offering a rebate on purchases made through the site.

Yahoo sharpens precision of search terms
The latest version of Yahoo Inc.'s search engine senses when people are trying to find the right keywords and offers suggestions, an improvement the company says reduces "search fatigue."

Toshiba prototype media player powered by fuel cell
Toshiba Corp. has unveiled a prototype version of its Gigabeat media player that's powered by a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) instead of a battery.

Samsung takes wraps off its iPhone rival Serenata
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and audio product maker Bang & Olufsen on Tuesday unveiled their latest joint music-mobile phone, Serenata, which holds 4G bytes of songs and has a number of other music features similar to the iPhone.

Qualcomm licenses AMD graphics technology
Qualcomm Inc. has licensed 3D graphics core technology from Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), for integration with Qualcomm's wireless chip sets for mobile gaming devices.

JVC shows prototype 4X high-def camera
As high-definition TV continues its seemingly unstoppable march around the world, engineers at Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. (JVC) are busy working on cameras for a next generation system.


WINDOWS TIPS

I appreciate hearing from readers with cool tips. Here are three recent submissions. Please note that I haven't had a chance to test any of these tools, so they are presented "as is". -- Mitch Tulloch

Annotating web content with JumpKnowledge

Pushing out Group Policy changes across a domain

Web filter blocks unwanted sites


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Toshiba puts fuel cell in media player ... SAP updates Netweaver software .. Microsoft buys Jellyfish.com retail site

More podcasts


GADGET GIVEAWAY

It's Fall, and we have a new gadget giveaway ... just for the heck of it. We've brought back the ultimate geek tool, the Swiss Army knife equipped with USB flash drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen.

Enter now for a chance to win!


ITWHIRLED

Store owner turns tables with GPS
They told Chris Rowland, whose store was struck by a series of burglaries, that he'd never get his stuff back ... so he started hiding GPS gear in certain items in his store. This allowed the police to track the stolen goods to the apartment where they were stashed -- but sadly, not to the thief himself.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


POLL

Have you ever been fired?

* Nope - I've been at the same job my whole working life
* Nope - I've always left on my terms
* Well, I've been part of mass layoffs, but I've never been singled out
* Yes, but I've grown as an employee since then
* Yes, due to personality conflicts with the boss
* I am unemployable

Vote now!

Hackers post iPhone upgrade reversals .. Palm's financial slide continues .. Microsoft buys Jellyfish.com

IN THE NEWS

Microsoft buys Jellyfish.com comparative shopping site
Microsoft Corp. has bought comparative shopping Web site Jellyfish.com, which gives its customers a cut of advertising revenue from retailers, offering a rebate on purchases made through the site.

Hackers post techniques for reversing iPhone upgrade
Owners of hacked iPhones have begun posting instructions on how to roll back a recent Apple firmware upgrade that rendered their mobile phones unusable.

Palm's financial slide continues despite smartphone gains
Palm Inc. hasn't yet managed to turn around its declining fortunes, posting a quarterly net loss of $840,000 on Monday.

Skype CEO steps down
Skype's co-founder Niklas Zennstrom has handed over his CEO title to become non-executive chairman of the board of directors of this eBay Inc. unit, whose impact on its parent company remains an open question.

Adobe releases developer updates to help AIR take flight
Adobe Systems Inc. Monday released updates for key developer technologies to a newly revamped developer site called Adobe Developer Connection, part of a larger strategy to promote its vision for taking rich Internet applications to the desktop through its Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR).

Former NetApp exec charged with embezzling $90K
Former Network Appliance Inc. executive Bernadette Escue is scheduled to be arraigned in federal court on Oct. 11 on a charge of embezzling more than $90,000 from the storage vendor

3Com acquisition good for customers, analysts say
Customers should feel little impact from last week's acquisition of 3Com by Huawei and Bain Capital, analysts say. If anything, users should be comforted that they are not dealing with a company distracted by shareholder scrutiny as 3Com will be taken private under the $2 billion deal.


WINDOWS TIPS

I appreciate hearing from readers with cool tips. Here are three recent submissions. Please note that I haven't had a chance to test any of these tools, so they are presented "as is". -- Mitch Tulloch

Annotating web content with JumpKnowledge

Pushing out Group Policy changes across a domain

Web filter blocks unwanted sites

Nokia spends $8.1 billion on mapping company .. Microsoft puts Office docs online .. FTC settles with spyware operation

IN THE NEWS

Nokia buys mapping service for $8.1 billion
Nokia Corp. has agreed to buy the digital mapping company Navteq for $8.1 billion, supporting a plan to add navigation capabilities to more of its devices.

FTC settles with alleged spyware operation
A Nevada company will pay $330,000 to settle a complaint from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that it hid spyware in other software consumers could download for free, the FTC announced Monday.

Microsoft puts Office on the Web, Adobe follows
In line with its software and services strategy, Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced new services such as Microsoft Office Live Workspace, a new Web-based feature of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.

E.U. begins antitrust investigation into Qualcomm
The European Commission has begun an antitrust investigation of Qualcomm Inc. for suspected exploitative practices in the market for chipsets for mobile phones, it announced Monday.

San Dimas, eBay's desktop app, enters public beta testing
EBay Inc. will significantly widen the beta test for San Dimas, its PC application designed to let buyers interact both offline and online with the company's marketplace.

Adobe releases Media Player beta, boosts SaaS
Adobe Systems Inc. will boost its strategy of helping developers and users create desktop and Web applications that share a similar user experience at its Adobe MAX user conference in Chicago this week.

Fund to invest $25 million in Salesforce.com startups
Salesforce.com Inc. has launched a $25 million investment fund to encourage the development of new applications using its Force.com hosted development platform.

Adobe teams with Business Objects to fight Microsoft
Adobe Systems Inc. is teaming up with Business Objects SA to add business-intelligence capabilities to rich Internet applications (RIAs). The companies plan to announce a partnership at the Adobe MAX 2007 North America user conference, which kicks off Monday in Chicago.


UNIX TIP

Recovering from a fatal error: Lost libgen.so.1
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

Unix vets know that it is possible to recover from fatal errors. A recent example is when a sysadmin accidentally zeroed out a file named /usr/lib/libgen.so.1. This file is used for string pattern matching and pathname manipulation. When you don't have this shared library on a system, you will get errors such as this. Read the full article here.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Nokia spends $8.1 billion on mapping company ... Microsoft puts Office docs online ... Japan earthquake warning system launches

More podcasts


GADGET GIVEAWAY

It's Fall, and we have a new gadget giveaway ... just for the heck of it. We've brought back the ultimate geek tool, the Swiss Army knife equipped with USB flash drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen.

Enter now for a chance to win!


ITWHIRLED

Texas teen finds herself on Australian billboard, thanks to Flickr
When you put a picture up on Flickr with a Creative Commons license, do you know what that means, exactly? Among other things, it means that companies can use it in their advertising without paying you, or even consulting the people in the pictures. That's how Alison Chang of Dallas ended up on ads in bus shelters in Melbourne, Australia. Naturally, the lawyers are getting involved.


POLL

Have you ever been fired?

* Nope - I've been at the same job my whole working life
* Nope - I've always left on my terms
* Well, I've been part of mass layoffs, but I've never been singled out
* Yes, but I've grown as an employee since then
* Yes, due to personality conflicts with the boss
* I am unemployable

Vote now!

Gap contractor blamed for data breach .. Internet tax bill stalls .. SCO gets reprieve from Nasdaq

IN THE NEWS

Powerline networking groups connect their standards
Fast in-home networks over electrical wires got a boost on Friday as proponents of two rival technologies merged their approaches and said products already in the market will work together.

Gap contractor blamed for data breach
An unnamed contractor is being blamed for a data breach at Gap Inc. that has compromised the data of about 800,000 people who applied for jobs with the U.S. clothing retailer.

SCO gets reprieve from Nasdaq
The Nasdaq stock exchange has given The SCO Group Inc. a little more time to get its financial house in order.

Huawei, investment fund to buy 3Com for $2.2B
Network equipment vendor 3Com Corp. has agreed to be acquired by associates of Bain Capital LLC and of Huawei Technology Co. Ltd. in a deal worth US$2.2 billion, 3Com said Friday.

Internet tax moratorium bill stalls
A U.S. Senate committee has postponed action on a bill that would extend an Internet tax moratorium after it expires Nov. 1.

Avaya shareholders approve private equity buyout
Avaya stockholders have approved the company's $8.2 billion acquisition by two private equity firms.

Internet blackout in Myanmar stalls citizen reporting
The loss of Internet access in Myanmar has slowed the tide of photos and videos shared with the rest of the world but people outside of the troubled country continue to use new media sites and other technologies to protest military activity in the Southeast Asia country.

EFF sues to uncover alleged telco lobbying
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) believes telecommunications carriers are pushing for an amnesty to protect them from lawsuits over alleged illegal wiretapping, and it is suing for the evidence.

Microsoft: Halo 3 caused 'minor' Xbox Live hiccup
If you were one of the few Xbox 360 owners who didn't buy Halo 3 this week, you were probably wondering why your game of Uno wasn't working properly. The answer, in a word, was Halo.


UNIX TIP

Recovering from a fatal error: Lost libgen.so.1
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

Unix vets know that it is possible to recover from fatal errors. A recent example is when a sysadmin accidentally zeroed out a file named /usr/lib/libgen.so.1. This file is used for string pattern matching and pathname manipulation. When you don't have this shared library on a system, you will get errors such as this.

Read the full article here.


GADGET GIVEAWAY

It's Fall, and we have a new gadget giveaway ... just for the heck of it. We've brought back the ultimate geek tool, the Swiss Army knife equipped with USB flash drive, LED light, and ballpoint pen.

Enter now for a chance to win!


ITWHIRLED

Texas teen finds herself on Australian billboard, thanks to Flickr
When you put a picture up on Flickr with a Creative Commons license, do you know what that means, exactly? Among other things, it means that companies can use it in their advertising without paying you, or even consulting the people in the pictures. That's how Alison Chang of Dallas ended up on ads in bus shelters in Melbourne, Australia. Naturally, the lawyers are getting involved.


POLL

Have you ever been fired?

* Nope - I've been at the same job my whole working life
* Nope - I've always left on my terms
* Well, I've been part of mass layoffs, but I've never been singled out
* Yes, but I've grown as an employee since then
* Yes, due to personality conflicts with the boss
* I am unemployable

Vote now!