GPS helps you find you friends

Location-based services appeared here, there and everywhere at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, as service providers maneuvered to take advantage of the increasing number of mobile phones shipping with integrated GPS (Global Positioning System) modules. Many of the services put the emphasis on finding your friends, not finding your way, as GPS evolves into more of a social tool. ...continue reading 'GPS helps you find you friends'

Four newspaper companies form online ad partnership

Four major U.S. newspaper chains launched an online advertising network on Friday that will let advertisers book national campaigns through a single point of contact, reaching 50 million people a month across the U.S. ...continue reading 'Four newspaper companies form online ad partnership'

Report: Yahoo board reported split over Microsoft bid

Yahoo Inc.'s Chairman Roy Bostock is leading a group of the company's board members in favor of accepting Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, according to a new report. ...continue reading 'Report: Yahoo board reported split over Microsoft bid'

OLPC, IDB to launch pilot project in Haiti

The One Laptop Per Child Foundation (OLPC) has teamed up with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to launch a pilot project in Haiti, the first time the group will be able to comprehensively evaluate the idea of giving laptops directly to students as a learning tool. ...continue reading 'OLPC, IDB to launch pilot project in Haiti'

Successful SOA implementations are on the increase

Most SOA implementations are now successful, with nearly four out of ten enterprises meeting all their goals and 60 percent meeting most of them. ...continue reading 'Successful SOA implementations are on the increase'

Microsoft executive shakeup prepares for Yahoo acquisition

Microsoft confirmed a number of high-level executive changes, moves that could be designed to better position the company to digest an acquisition of Yahoo, an analyst said. ...continue reading 'Microsoft executive shakeup prepares for Yahoo acquisition'

HP settles pretexting cases

Hewlett-Packard settled cases with The New York Times Company and three BusinessWeek journalists Wednesday after being caught spying on reporters in 2006. ...continue reading 'HP settles pretexting cases'

Red Hat's JBoss dons Black Tie to target BEA Tuxedo

Red Hat Thursday revealed a JBoss middleware project aimed at displacing BEA's Tuxedo transaction-monitoring engine, which has a significant legacy install base. ...continue reading 'Red Hat's JBoss dons Black Tie to target BEA Tuxedo'

SCO to get $100M bailout; McBride out if deal goes through

Five months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as part of a reorganization effort last September, The SCO Group Inc. Thursday unveiled a potential $100 million cash infusion and a plan to take the embattled company private. ...continue reading 'SCO to get $100M bailout; McBride out if deal goes through'

Most analog cellular to fade away on Monday

You may think of sunsets as something nice to look at, but if you have an older cell phone or a home alarm system, there's one coming up on Monday that may not be so pretty. ...continue reading 'Most analog cellular to fade away on Monday'

SIIA sues eBay-based software sellers

Online auction giant eBay has been slow to respond to concerns about pirated software being sold there, prompting the Software & Information Industry Association to file nine lawsuits against eBay-based oftware sellers, an SIIA official said. ...continue reading 'SIIA sues eBay-based software sellers'

'Critical' Linux kernel bugs discovered

Security researchers have uncovered 'critical' security flaws in a version of the Linux kernel used by a large number of popular distributions. ...continue reading 'Critical' Linux kernel bugs discovered

Investment firm extends offer to buy Transmeta

An investment firm on Wednesday extended its unsolicited offer to buy the remaining shares in Transmeta, keeping Intel's former chip-making rival on its toes. ...continue reading 'Investment firm extends offer to buy Transmeta'

BenQ to start T80 mobile near field communications trial

Next month, residents of a Farglory Land Development housing project in Taiwan will be invited to test a new mobile phone from BenQ, the T80, that uses NFC (near field communications) technology to access home security systems and pay for items including subway rides. ...continue reading 'BenQ to start T80 mobile near field communications trial'

Yahoo tightens on staff quality in India

Yahoo has trimmed some staff in India as part of an exercise to improve the quality of its research and development (R&D) team in the country. The company has removed less than 5 percent of staff after they failed in a performance appraisal, according to an informed source. Yahoo employs 1,500 staff in India in R&D and its sales and marketing operations. ...continue reading 'Yahoo tightens on staff quality in India'

Yahoo sends letter to shareholders over Microsoft bid

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang cited the growing online advertising market and his company's position to take advantage of that growth as reasons for shareholders to reject Microsoft's acquisition bid, he said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday. ...continue reading 'Yahoo sends letter to shareholders over Microsoft bid'

Woman hits Best Buy with $54M suit for losing laptop

A Washington, D.C., woman has filed a lawsuit seeking $54 million in damages from Best Buy after the electronics retailer lost her laptop computer last year. ...continue reading 'Woman hits Best Buy with $54M suit for losing laptop'

Report: News Corp., Yahoo in talks to fend off Microsoft

Yahoo may team up with News Corp. to fend off Microsoft's bid to buy the struggling Web portal, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday. ...continue reading 'Report: News Corp., Yahoo in talks to fend off Microsoft'

Attack code posted for Microsoft Works bug

Just one day after Microsoft issued a massive set of security patches for its software, hackers have begun posting code showing how to exploit one of the flaws. ...continue reading 'Attack code posted for Microsoft Works bug'

Unix Tip: Stripping file extensions with the basename command

I recently discovered a new trick for using basename to extract filenames from a full pathnames. This can be useful if you want to extract some portion of a file's name and then reuse it. For example, if you want to find the differences between a number of files with .old extensions and the original files. ...continue reading 'Unix Tip: Stripping file extensions with the basename command '