Techno-News Blog Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield |
|
|
Technology News for Higher Education Times and Dates Coordinated Universal Time
Subscribe to Techno-News Blog by Email
|
Saturday, August 03, 2002
http://www.80211-planet.com/news/article/0,4000,1481_1438701,00.html 802.11b Gets a Little 'WiSER' Michael Singer Think you're a wireless wizard? Sure, you prance around the office with your 802.11-enabled laptop. But, wait... Why do you have to use a serial device for your projector or an interactive whiteboard? Well, Fremont, Calif.-based OTC Wireless Friday announced it is currently beta testing hardware that will let users use an 802.11b solution to connect any two RS-232 devices together, eliminating the physical serial cable that connects them.... http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358201&rel=true US Internet traffic set to grow North American Internet traffic is on track to grow 85 percent in 2002, according to a new report from RHK. However, while Internet traffic continues to rise at a fast rate, revenue growth continues to lag and will remain flat due to pricing pressures, slow rollout of differentitated IP services, and sluggish consolidation. RHK report indicates that industry revenue-per-bit will decline by 46 percent this year.... http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358189&rel=true Korea leads the world for broadband Jul 19 2002: Over 80 percent of households in South Korea will have broadband access by the end of 2002, reports Korea Times. This is according to a new report from the Ministry of Communication and Information. Broadband Internet penetration reached 9.21 million homes at the end of June, equivalent to 64 percent of all households in South Korea. The number of broadband subscribers in the country rose by 430,000 during the month of June and if the current growth rate continues, over 10 million homes will have broadband access by the end of the year. However, the Ministry indicates that there is still a gap in penetration between urban and rural areas.... http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020722.html Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Becoming a Usability Professional A successful usability career requires some theoretical knowledge, but mainly rests on brainpower and many years' experience testing and studying users. The only way to gain that experience is to start now. To reach the goal of making technology truly suited for humans, the world will need about half a million new usability professionals over the next 20 years. The sooner their training begins, the better off we'll all be. People frequently ask me what it takes to become a usability professional and get a job in the field. The answer lies in three characteristics that all great usability professionals share:... Friday, August 02, 2002
http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=technologynews&StoryID=1278701 China Becoming World's No. 2 Web, PC Market Eric Auchard and Jonah Greenberg NEW YORK/BEIJING (Reuters) - China overtook Japan in July to become the world's second most active Web audience, and its personal computer market is set to surpass Japan later this year, according to several industry sources. The most populous nation, which in 2001 outpaced the United States to become the world's biggest mobile phone market, is benefiting from years of rapid economic growth of at least 7 percent a year that has fueled an explosion in electronics demand. In international Web traffic, however, China remains a distant second to the United States. Chinese Web surfers overtook Japanese, despite Japan's higher number of individual users, because the Chinese have become more active users of the global Internet.... http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/technology/circuits/01DOLL.html A Chatty Doll of a Different Kind REBECCA FAIRLEY RANEY In a room the size of a small classroom, under the gaze of Tweety Bird and Tekno the robotic puppy, Bob Del Principe engages his newest creation. The floor is littered with stuffed animals, and the walls are covered with role-play kits complete with swords, whistles and walkie-talkies. But Mr. Del Principe's attention is fixed on a doll. She sits on the conference table in a denim jumper, with white-blond hair tied in a ribbon. The company that makes her, Manley Toy Quest, has named her Cindy Smart. She can hear. She can talk. But above all, Cindy is the first doll that can see — a feat that Mr. Del Principe, a toy maker, describes as the holy grail of his craft.... http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/01/technology/circuits/01HAND.html Tablet PC Makers Embrace a Dying Art: Handwriting MICHEL MARRIOTT For Steven Storch, a New York lawyer, the process was gradual but the realization sudden: his handwriting had devolved into an illegible scrawl of hurried, inky scribbles. Mr. Storch, 52, does not blame the digits on his writing hand, but rather the pervasive digital technology in his office and home. For most of his life he had jotted notes and thrashed out ideas with a pen and a yellow pad, but over the last eight years he has typed almost everything into computers. These days, he said, "the only writing I do is to sign a check and put my signature on a letter."... Thursday, August 01, 2002
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/07/31/020731hnupdates.xml More updates and fixes for Windows 2000 Matt Berger THE LATEST SET of updates and security fixes for Microsoft's Windows 2000 operating systems began trickling out on the Web late Tuesday, including updates to the software that brings the company into compliance with parts of its proposed antitrust settlement with the U.S. government. Windows 2000 Service Pack 3 became available to some top Microsoft customers Tuesday. The package of updates and fixes will become generally available to Windows 2000 users on Thursday, Microsoft said.... http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/07/31/020731hnw3c.xml W3C hails semantic Web, Web services usage scenarios Paul Krill THE WORLD WIDE Web Consortium (W3C) on Wednesday detailed the release of working drafts of its OWL Web Ontology Language to enable development of the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is intended to enable more structured, intelligent processes on the Internet, allowing, for example, the automatic lookup of flights and hotel information after a person confirms attendance at a meeting in a specific city, said Ian Jacobs, W3C spokesman, in New York. "The whole idea of the semantic Web is when you say something, I need to know what you're talking about. The idea is we want computers to know things," Jacobs said. He described development of the Web Ontology Language as being in its early stages.... http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18796.html New Trends in Virus Technology Jay Lyman, NewsFactor Network Many machines are falling prey to attackers who are using back-door viruses to take over computers to use them in distributed denial-of-service attacks. This year might seem like a summer break compared to last year's swarm of viruses, including Code Red and Nimda , that wreaked havoc on computer systems worldwide. But experts say that viruses and the mechanisms for spreading them continue to evolve. True to their history of building on one another's work, virus writers continue to blend hacking techniques with worms and trojans -- hidden programs designed to open back doors into unprotected systems -- to take control of systems around the world.... http://www.e-insite.net/commvergemag/index.asp?layout=article&stt=000&articleid=CA236133&pubdate=8/1/02 Tongue twisters Richard A Quinnell, Contributing Editor, CommVerge The saying that a picture is worth a thousand words contains a hidden truth: Words are the standard of communications by which everything else is measured. As old hat and low tech as the written word may seem, it is an essential part of the way companies and individuals communicate. Even in today's Internet-dominated world, where audio, video, and graphics get all the attention, text still forms the backbone of communication. What has changed with the advent of the Internet and its offspring—Web pages, email, and instant messaging—is the globalization of that text. Now, more than ever, communications and information exchanges are crossing both national and linguistic boundaries.... http://www.inc.com/magazine/20020701/24376.html IM Is Here. RU Ready 2 Try It? Anne Stuart ...CEOs nationwide are discovering what teenagers and twentysomethings, including Sanderson's daughter and staffers, have known for years: IM is an addictively fast, simple, and cheap way to communicate. There's nothing exotic about the technology. It's basically real-time E-mail, either in-house or over the Internet. But unlike E-mail, IM is, well, instantaneous; as soon as the message writer hits "send," the message pops up on the receiver's screen. And unlike E-mail, IM doesn't generate in-box clutter. Conversations usually vanish when they're finished (although programs increasingly allow one to save them), and users, because they control their lists of authorized contacts, are less likely to receive "spam," or unsolicited messages. The best-known IM programs are free; even commercial products are relatively cheap. Although an IM conversation typically involves just two people, power users may conduct several conversations simultaneously or create a chat room where any number of users can join the discussion. With some programs, users can even swap graphics, video clips, or voice clips. And unlike any other form of communication, IM monitors physical presence. With a glance at their contact lists, users can tell who's logged on and available right now.... Wednesday, July 31, 2002
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/25/technology/circuits/25PRIN.html At Grocery Checkout, No Wallet Needed CHRISTINE BLANK A handful of grocery stores in the United States are testing fingerprint imaging machines that enable shoppers to pay for their purchases simply by putting a finger to an electronic pad. Shoppers who demand a speedy checkout process and retailers who are battling credit card fraud laud this new application of biometric technology, but some consumers worry that it could expose them to being tracked by government or industry.... http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/1435421 CERT Warns of Multiple SQL Flaws Amy Newman A CERT advisory issued Monday evening warns of several vulnerabilities in Microsoft SQL Server. Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, and Microsoft SQL Server Desktop Engine 2000 are affected. http://www.cert.org/advisories/CA-2002-22.html http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/07/30/020730hnplan.xml Microsoft shifts licensing plan Reed Stevenson SEATTLE (REUTERS) - Microsoft Corp. is about to complete the biggest change in five years in the way that it sells its software to businesses with a system of locked-in upgrades and fixed payments that promises steadier revenue but has also rankled some smaller customers. By Wednesday, the world's No. 1 software maker will have fully implemented the change in the way business customers pay for the right to use the latest versions of its software.... Tuesday, July 30, 2002
http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/481782p-3848030c.html Firm hopes to offer new wireless platform using satellite planes B.J. REYES, Associated Press Twelve miles high, an unmanned, solar-powered aircraft could provide telecommunications companies with a platform for delivering a host of wireless services for the next generation of mobile devices. SkyTower Inc. said it's successfully tested the equipment and the idea and hopes, within three years, have the unmanned craft aloft over the major cities of the United States to demonstrate the technology.... http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/07/29/military.ids.ap/index.html Pentagon may add biometrics to high-tech IDs Associated Press Future versions of military identification cards will encode information about fingerprints or other physical characteristics, the Pentagon's latest move to tighten security. The newest cards already have information such as name, rank and serial number on a computer chip embedded in the card under the user's picture. The Defense Department passed out the one-millionth computerized ID card earlier this week to an Army soldier who works at the Pentagon.... http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/02/07/29/020729hnacademicupdate.xml Gates, academics join on security, shared source Matt Berger Microsoft is enrolling a team of academic researchers to boost its security efforts and develop new technologies based on its .Net technology. The company Monday announced the formation of the Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory Board, which will bring together academics from 12 to 15 colleges and universities to study and contribute to Microsoft's recent effort to improve the security and reliability of its products. Microsoft calls that effort the Trustworthy Computing Initiative.... Monday, July 29, 2002
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/demo0702.asp The Programmable Building The MIT Media Lab's Neil Gershenfeld tours the building of the future, where interchangeable power sockets, switches and appliances snap into the walls—then plug into the Internet. Neil Gershenfeld thinks every light switch, power outlet, doorknob and thermostat should be on the Internet. That way, says the director of the MIT Media Lab’s new Center for Bits and Atoms, everything from climate control to security could be coordinated through a single Web-based interface.... http://www.nandotimes.com/technology/story/479021p-3825641c.html Mouse Potato Syndrome Steve Brewer, Scripps Howard News Service Among the many new, high-tech words included in the most recent edition of the New Oxford Dictionary of English is a listing for "mouse potato." While this sounds like an exotic dish (perhaps one they enjoy in England), this term actually refers to someone who spends too much time sitting zoned in front of a computer, akin to the TV addicts known as "couch potatoes" or "sofa spuds." (Which also sounds like something they'd eat in England.) It's easy to make light of mouse potatoes, but the levity disguises a serious social ill.... Sunday, July 28, 2002
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,54098,00.html Time to Hop on the Gridwagon Daithí Ó hAnluain Grid computing has its own kind of Moore's Law: "We've hit an inflection point and now we're seeing attendance double for every conference," says Charlie Catlett, Global Grid Forum chair and computer scientist at the Argonne National Laboratory. More than 1,000 participants thronged the main hall for the plenary session of the fifth Global Grid Forum held in Scotland this week, and one of the most promising signs of grid maturity was the heavy presence of major vendors. Grid computing uses distributed computers, data storage systems, networks, and other resources as if they were a single massive system. It uses software to create "virtual supercomputers" far larger the individual hardware components.... http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-946529.html Linux poised to plug in USB 2 Stephen Shankland Support for a faster version of USB in Linux is imminent and will become a permanent part of the Linux landscape when the next version of the operating system is introduced. The upcoming 2.4.19 version of the Linux kernel--the core part of the Unix-like operating system--for the first time will include support for many USB (universal serial bus) 2.0 features and devices. USB lets people easily plug devices such as digital cameras, mice or printers into a computer. The support, crucial to making Linux fully compatible with the mass of PCs and gadgets just coming to the market, demonstrates the ability of a host of volunteer programmers to keep up with computing trends. Linux, though bankrolled by some companies, remains a cooperative software project.... http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2002/0722/tec-pda-07-22-02.asp No computer needed: Infrared tech links PDAs directly to a local-area network or the Internet Michelle Speir IrdaNet iRE201 is available through a host of retail and online stores for an estimated price of $73. If not for the hard-to-understand user manual, irdaNet would have received an A. The device is affordable, easy to use and extremely convenient, giving office workers direct local-area network and Internet access through their personal digital assistants. Laptop users can also benefit by connecting via the computer's infrared port.... |
