Techno-News Blog Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield |
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Saturday, May 22, 2004
A Scan of the Headline Scanners - Ryan Singel, Wired
The Web is awash in little orange buttons. Those buttons take readers to pages filled with XML code for RSS or Atom syndication services. People who don't know about XML or RSS or Atom get a screen full of ugly computer code. But those clued into the secret handshake -- or more accurately, the right decoding software -- know those buttons are the key to speed-reading the Web. Those buttons are for people who use aggregators (sometimes called newsreaders or RSS readers). These programs are hybrids of a Web browser and an e-mail client, allowing Web users to peruse hundreds of information sources in one place. Instead of surfing dozens of sites for the latest news or blog postings, aggregators let people read headlines from those sources in one window.
Gates on the Future of Productivity - Susan Kuchinskas, Internet News
Microsoft is ready and willing to help customers make a great leap forward in productivity and security, Bill Gates told top business leaders today. "We're redefining business productivity and rewiring the economy," Microsoft's (Quote, Chart) Chairman and Chief Software Architect told an audience of 100 CEOs. By the end of the decade, he said, companies will be able to balance the need for IT uniformity and security with users' desire for communication, content creation and collaboration. Gates opened Microsoft's eighth annual CEO Summit, which brought executives from around the world to Redmond, for two days of discussions on the theme of "Transforming Information Into Impact."
New Bill Proposes Tech Training Tax Credit - Roy Mark, Internet News
U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) hopes to slow the technology offshoring trend with an initiative to provide up to an $8,000 tax credit for information and communications technology education and training expenses. The credit can be used by both employed and unemployed workers, as well as employers. Weller's Technology Retraining And Investment Now Act of 2004 (TRAIN) calls for the proposed tax credit to be applied to a broad range of programs, from vocational and/or private certification courses to related college expenses. Friday, May 21, 2004
'Future of Search Will Make you Dizzy' - Ryan Naraine, Internet News
Amazon.com's A9 subsidiary wants to play a large part in pushing search technology to a future where the relevancy of search results will be startling and exciting. That's the word from A9 chief executive Udi Manber, PhD, who insists that full development of search and resource discovery tools remains at least a decade away. "Think about how the Web has changed your life in the last 10 years. Now, try to extrapolate 10 years forward and you should feel dizzy. We're still in day one of developing and innovating in search. There's still a lot of exciting discoveries to be made," Manber said in a keynote address at this year's World Wide Web (W3C) conference here. Manber, who worked as Amazon.com's chief algorithms officer before taking the reins at A9, predicts a future where the relevancy of search results will be measured and understood to deliver information to users.
A Modern Day HAL? IBM Says Anything But - Erin Joyce, Internet News
Ever since HAL, the self-aware computer, doomed the Discovery space mission in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 sci-fi classic "2001: A Space Odyssey," one of the movie's key themes -- man vs. machine -- continues to drive debate over how much control we should cede to computers. As autonomic computing systems that can diagnose problems and then fix them build steam in the 21st century, members of IBM's research group find themselves answering the question: Are computer scientists creating modern day HALs? Well, to paraphrase one of HAL's most famous lines: "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid they won't do that." What they are doing, said research executives at the first ever International Conference on Autonomic Computing, is freeing up network administrators to focus on larger problems in managing today's complex networks by infusing self-healing abilities in networks.
Street Maps in Political Hues - TOM McNICHOL, New York Times
For proof that all politics is local, look no further than Fundrace.org, which follows the political money to your front door. While records of campaign contributions have long been available online, Fundrace has a twist: plug in any address and retrieve a list of all the donors in the neighborhood, the names of their favored candidates and the amount bestowed. http://www.fundrace.org/ Thursday, May 20, 2004
Google Reportedly Working on Desktop Search - Pamela Parker, clickZ News
Google is at work developing a desktop application designed to search personal computer hard drives, according to a report in today's New York Times. Citing "several people with knowledge of the company's plans," the article says Google has been working on the project, code-named Puffin, for about a year. It also says the new software will be offered as a free download, raising the possibility it could be supported by advertising -- as are most of Google's consumer search tools. Google didn't respond to a request for comment by press time. A Google desktop application is viewed primarily as a reaction to Microsoft's moves in the search space. It would give Google a more prominent position on the largely Microsoft-dominated desktop. (Google already has a browser toolbar and a "deskbar" that provides Web search functionality outside the browser.) The application would head off Microsoft's own plans to provide an improved search experience in its long-delayed next Windows version, code-named Longhorn.
Wireless Internet Radio Shoots for Mainstream - Eric Griffith, WiFi Planet
Home networking leader Linksys, a division of networking powerhouse Cisco Systems (Quote, Chart), today made official a new product in the world of wireless media playback -- an area that has yet to take the home networking world by storm. This new product can play digital audio over the wireless LAN without any help from the stereo receiver in your living room. Use of wireless for playback is all the rage with products out from almost all the major (and many minor) vendors in home networking. All take audio and sometimes video from your PC to be played on your living room TV and stereo. Until now, all of these products were for transport only. Linksys is the first to enable music playback without hooking up to external components. In fact, it doesn't even need a PC if all you'll do is play pre-set Internet-based "radio" stations.
Why Open Source Works - Steven Weber, Ubiquity
Author Steven Weber looks beyond the hype on Open Source. More than a self-governing utopia, it's a practical, sustainable way of organizing and innovating. Its methods may soon be applied successfully in other sectors. Plus, a "crazy" idea for Microsoft. Steven Weber, author of the new book "The Success of Open Source" (Harvard University Press, April 30, 2004) is a political scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. His specialties include the political economy of global economic change and the open source software process. He is also a consultant with the Global Business Network and a former adviser to the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Yahoo sets up standard to combat spam - Reuters
Internet portal Yahoo on Tuesday released an e-mail standard that prevents spam marketers from hiding unwanted messages behind legitimate e-mail addresses. The technique, if widely adopted, could help Internet providers more easily block the unwanted bulk messages that currently account for up to two-thirds of all e-mail traffic. Yahoo's proposed standard, known as DomainKeys, would embed outgoing messages with an encrypted digital signature matched to a signature on the server computer that sends the message. Internet providers could check the signatures on incoming messages and block those that do not match up. The procedure would be invisible to regular e-mail users, because it would be implemented by e-mail providers, Yahoo said on a Web page describing the standard.
Longhorn goes to pieces - Mike Ricciuti and Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
Bill Gates' dream of an end-to-end search tool for corporate networks remains just that: a dream, at least until the end of the decade. Advanced search features that Gates has termed the "Holy Grail" of Longhorn, the next major version of Windows, won't be fully in place until 2009, Bob Muglia, the senior vice president in charge of Windows server development, told CNET News.com. The technology, called WinFS, is an add-on the Windows file system that Microsoft says will make it easier for users to find data such as documents, e-mail messages and multimedia files--no matter what their format--on local PCs and across the network.
Congress eyes 'fair-use' access to DVDs - eSchool News
Newly appointed House Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, R-Texas, is backing legislation that would amend a landmark 1998 copyright law to allow educators, librarians, and other consumers to make copies of digital video disc (DVD) movies and other digital content for certain "fair-use" purposes. Sponsors of the proposal describe it as a consumers' rights bill for digital media that would allow consumers to bypass encryption locks built into DVD movies by Hollywood to prevent copying. Such encryption schemes are increasingly common in music and movies, frustrating educators' attempts to make copies of movies they have legitimately purchased for personal or classroom use. Tuesday, May 18, 2004
RFID: The tags that would not die - Jo Best, silicon.com
Businesses are all too keen to talk up the potential of radio frequency ID (RFID) while privacy campaigners are similarly vocal in calling for some hardcore data protection to go with the new tagging technology, and one of the emerging battlegrounds is all about when exactly the tracking chips need to die. Item-level tagging is some way off yet, mainly due to cost rather than retailers' lack of enthusiasm but, when it does kick off in earnest, it's worth putting money on consumers being at loggerheads with retailers over when exactly to switch off and kill the chips. RFID tags can be read – either by a store or by an unrelated third party – unless they're shut down by the company that installed them in the product.
Microsoft Turning Attention to Search - ALLISON LINN, AP
When it comes to the latest technology craze, Microsoft Corp. isn't known for being first or best: It's known for being biggest. The software behemoth has used its strength, money and reach to go from underdog to top dog on everything from Internet browsers to digital content players. Now, its attention turns to the growing field of search, with a broad-based push that extends from its dominant Windows operating system to its MSN online division. Google Inc. currently dominates Internet search, something analysts say could pose problems for Microsoft - and not only because Google takes away advertising dollars.
Semantic Web to Take Center Stage at WWW2004 - Clint Boulton, Internet News
Discussion about what may be the most exciting and controversial concept in Web development will be the main course on the menu at the 13th annual World Wide Web Conference in New York next week, according to event chairman Dr. Stuart Feldman. In offering a taste of what attendees can expect, Feldman, also head of IBM's Internet Technology division, has told internetnews.com that the notion of the "Semantic Web," which some computing experts argue has ties to artificial intelligence, will be the talk of the town at the event. "The Semantic Web is an increasingly hot topic," said Feldman, who began his career as a member of the original development team that built the UNIX operating system at AT&T's Bell Labs. "There's no question that the idea of being able to know what you're looking at and interpret it properly is about to come of age." Monday, May 17, 2004
Programs protected as they're written - Dan Lee, Mercury News
Hackers love stabbing at the soft spots in software. They exploit vulnerabilities deep within source code -- the blueprint for a piece of software -- to steal information, to crash or seize control of a computer, or just for a challenge. Fortify Software, a company established last year by venture firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, seeks to protect computer systems from the ``inside out.'' The company has created tools for software developers to stamp out vulnerabilities as applications are being written. Fortify's Source Code Analysis tool checks code for common flaws exploited by hackers. ``Every day, they are able to check through 100 percent of that code base,'' said Mike Armistead, Fortify's vice president of marketing.
Science.gov 2.0 launches - Sara Michael, FCW
The governmentwide Web portal for science and technology information has been upgraded. Energy Department officials heralding new features and more advanced search capabilities launched Science.gov 2.0, a collaboration among 12 major science agencies, this week. "These agencies together have combined innovative technology, forward thinking and hard work to build an invaluable science resource," Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in a statement. "From the most current information on new technologies, to historical research results, to the most promising medical advancements, Science.gov connects citizens to the world of science."
Colleges Offering Video Game Studies - Holly McKenna, Reuters
Playing video games is no longer just a pastime of young boys. Now it's also homework for American college students. Thanks to the growing place of games in mainstream entertainment, universities across the nation are now offering classes in video game design, hoping to teach students skills for a career in a business that now generates roughly as much revenue as Hollywood's domestic box office receipts. This fall, students at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York -- internationally known for its mathematicians and engineering programs -- can minor in video game studies, said Kathleen Ruiz, co-director of the new program. Sunday, May 16, 2004
Broadband creates 417-day business year - Robert Jaques, VNunet
UK firms which have moved from dial-up to broadband internet access are recovering 52 days a year in lost productivity, research has claimed. According to a study by communications firm NTL, the primary benefits of adopting broadband were cited as saving time and making money. Two thirds of the 400 UK companies interviewed said that broadband had significantly improved their ability to communicate effectively with customers and suppliers. Half of the respondents identified the ability to implement new business applications as a key advantage.
Google Mail: Virtue Lies in the In-Box - DAVID POGUE, NY Times
As Google's white-hot initial stock offering hogs the headlines, its rivals can only gnash their teeth and wonder: How did a couple of Stanford Ph.D. dropouts build an outrageously profitable billion-dollar-a-year company in only five years? Part of the answer is great Web-search technology. But another part is the company's motto: "Don't Be Evil." That credo explains why Google's home page is practically empty, because ads and graphics would slow dial-up modems. It also explains why Google's ads are clearly labeled and separate from search results. Slipping paid-placement links into your search results, as MSN and Yahoo do, would be evil. So six weeks ago, when Google described Gmail, the free e-mail service it is testing, the prevailing public reaction was shock. The company said that its software would place ads in your incoming messages, relevant to their contents.
Vietnam Adopts New Internet User Policies - Associated Press
Web surfers in Vietnam must abide by a number of new policies and restrictions, which come following a crackdown on cyber dissidents who used the Internet to speak out against the communist government, state-controlled media reported. Many of the new requirements - which went into effect in March and were publicized this week by Vietnamese media - involve Internet cafes where many Vietnamese access the Web. Personal identification information must now be presented before logging on and will be stored for 30 days on computer servers, and all Internet activity will be tracked, according to the An Ninh The Gioi (World's Security) newspaper, the mouthpiece of the Ministry of Public Security. "IDs or passports are now required at Internet cafes just like at boarding gates for flights," Nguyen Minh Vinh, a police officer who helped write the new policy, was quoted Wednesday by the paper as saying. |
