Techno-News Blog Ray Schroeder, editor, OTEL - University of Illinois at Springfield |
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Saturday, November 12, 2005
Blog-Spotting With IBM - Colin C. Haley, Internet News
Corporate leaders who ignore what bloggers are saying about them and their businesses could have serious consequences. IBM today introduced new software that monitors and analyzes blogs, wikis, news feeds, consumer review sites, newsgroups and other community-generated content to keep tabs on their image. The Public Image Monitoring Solution is a response to two developments, Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM's vice president of technology strategy and innovation, said at a news conference at the company's research offices here.
Windows AntiSpyware becomes 'Defender' - Joris Evers, CNET News
Microsoft is giving Windows AntiSpyware a makeover. The tool, designed to protect PCs against hidden software, has been renamed "Windows Defender" and is getting a new look as well as capabilities to detect rootkits, keystroke loggers and other threats. The news of the revamp came Friday in a posting to a new Microsoft corporate blog dealing with malicious software. The updated application will be part of Vista, the successor to the Windows XP operating system that is expected to launch by the end of next year.
Lupper Worm Targets Linux: So far it's benign, but security vendors urge inoculation - Nancy Weil, IDG News Service
A worm that affects Linux systems and spreads by exploiting Web server-related vulnerabilities has been reported by antivirus companies, but so far Linux.Plupii, which is also known as Lupper, hasn't spread much and isn't seen as much of a threat. Linux users should update antivirus software and patches to protect against the worm, say representatives of the major antivirus product vendors said. Both McAfee and Symantec have updated their software to identify and stop the worm. Information about the worm can be found at McAfee's Web site and also from Symantec. Friday, November 11, 2005
History's Worst Software Bugs - Simson Garfinkel, Wired
Last month automaker Toyota announced a recall of 160,000 of its Prius hybrid vehicles following reports of vehicle warning lights illuminating for no reason, and cars' gasoline engines stalling unexpectedly. But unlike the large-scale auto recalls of years past, the root of the Prius issue wasn't a hardware problem -- it was a programming error in the smart car's embedded code. The Prius had a software bug. With that recall, the Prius joined the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1947 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark 1 system. The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."
Podquake Alert: Anyone can broadcast over the Internet, new technology entices more to listen - Mike Devlin, Times Colonist
Internet tech columnist Doc Searls was first to notice the trend. A little more than a year ago the word "podcasts" returned just 24 matches on Internet search engine Google. On Monday, the same search netted 101,000,000 hits. Still, finding actual podcasts -- which are in essence custom-made broadcasts -- isn't always easy for the newcomer. "One you've got it figured out, then it is fairly easy," said amateur podcaster Ted Riecken, an associate professor in the faculty of education at UVic.
Microsoft scans British Library - BBC
About 100,000 books in the British Library are going to be scanned and put online by software giant Microsoft. The books, which are out of copyright, will be digitised from 2006 and put online as part of Microsoft's book search service next year. Microsoft is already working with the Open Content Alliance (OCA), set up by the Internet Archive, to put an initial 150,000 works online. A separate global digital library plan by Google is also under way. The search giant is spending $200m (£110m) to create a digital archive of millions of books from four top US libraries. It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK's Oxford University. Thursday, November 10, 2005
Open source turns money-spinner - David Reid, BBC Click Online
Open source code, written by a community of thousands of software developers, has always been made freely available. But there are ways of making money from it, as David Reid finds out in Amsterdam. The Dutch are pretty open about the sort of stuff that many of us prefer to keep to ourselves - what goes on beneath the sheets, for example. Perhaps that is why Amsterdam was chosen for a recent international get together of the open source movement. The movement believes strongly that rather than being a trade secret, the source code of the software should be open for anyone to play with.
A Pro-Bug Vote on the Court? - DAN MITCHELL, New York times
Much of the attention being paid to Samuel A. Alito Jr., President Bush's second nominee to succeed Sandra Day O'Connor, is focused on a few hot-button issues, led by abortion. As is often the case with Supreme Court nominees, many issues that may be more important to more people are getting short shrift, both in the Senate and in the media. Cnet News.com is one exception. This week, Declan McCullagh considers Judge Alito's heft on matters involving technology business, free speech, privacy and copyright. Mr. McCullagh writes that Judge Alito's "judicial philosophy seems nuanced and not doctrinaire." He offers a survey of the judge's rulings, presenting them as possible clues to how the judge might rule if confirmed.
Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies - STEVE LOHR, New York Times
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry. "We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board. In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby. Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Imagine, Make It Real in Fab Lab - Associated Press
When Makeda Stephenson compared flight simulator games sold in computer stores and didn't find anything she liked, she didn't stop there.... A computer program Stephenson wrote with help from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology student guides the plane's movements on her computer screen. She did it all through a teen learning program at one of seven so-called Fabrication Labs that MIT has established in places as distant as Norway and Ghana. Each lab has tool sets that, costing about $25,000, would be out of the reach of most fledgling inventors. Advocates of such "Fab Labs" think they have the potential to vastly expand the creative powers of tinkerers and usher in a revolution in do-it-yourself design and manufacturing that can empower even the smallest of communities.
Want 'War and Peace' Online? How About 20 Pages at a Time? - EDWARD WYATT, New York Times
In a race to become the iTunes of the publishing world, Amazon.com and Google are both developing systems to allow consumers to purchase online access to any page, section or chapter of a book. These programs would combine their already available systems of searching books online with a commercial component that could revolutionize the way that people read books. The idea is to do for books what Apple has done for music, allowing readers to buy and download parts of individual books for their own use through their computers rather than trek to a store or receive them by mail. Consumers could purchase a single recipe from a cookbook, for example, or a chapter on rebuilding a car engine from a repair manual.
Unsecured Wi-Fi would be outlawed by N.Y. county - Anne Broache, CNET News
According to a new proposal being considered by a suburb of New York City, any business or home office with an open wireless connection but no separate server to fend off Internet attacks would be violating the law. Politicians in Westchester County are urging adoption of the law--which appears to be the first such legislation in the U.S.--because without it, "somebody parked in the street or sitting in a neighboring building could hack into the network and steal your most confidential data," County Executive Andy Spano said in a statement. Tuesday, November 08, 2005
AOpen's Mac mini look-alike to hit US stores - Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Taiwanese computer maker AOpen Inc. is about to put on sale a mini PC that looks a lot like Apple Computer Inc.’s Mac mini. The computer was first unveiled at this year’s Computex exhibition in Taipei in June and the design similarities caused a stir at the time. The two machines are virtually the same size — both measure 165 millimeters square and at 50 millimeters high the AOpen machine is a millimeter thinner than Apple’s computer. They also have the same curved edges and a CD slot in the upper portion of the front panel.
Microsoft Buy Will Help Office Find a Voice - Colin C. Haley, Internet News
Microsoft has purchased privately held media-streams.com to add Voice over IP capabilities to Office applications and servers. It's Microsoft's second recent acquisition in the space and comes as a slew of Internet, communications and software industry players buy or build VoIP offerings. Zurich, Switzerland-based media-streams.com said its e-phone product turns e-mail into a phone by integrating corporate voice communication into Microsoft Outlook.
Yahoo revamps map service in duel with Google - The Associated Press
Yahoo Inc. has redesigned its online maps to make it easier to get driving directions to multiple destinations and find local merchants _ the latest move in the company's duel with Internet powerhouse, Google Inc. The Sunnyvale-based company planned to unveil its latest mapping improvements Wednesday, less than a month after Google upgraded its maps service. Yahoo's service will be available on a test basis at http://maps.yahoo.com/beta. Monday, November 07, 2005
Firefox beta out of the foxhole - Dawn Kawamoto, CNET News
A test version of an updated Firefox browser is out, offering such features as automatic updates and improvements designed to speed browser navigation. Firefox 1.5 Release Candidate 1, which came out earlier this week, is a preview of the upcoming version of the browser. The final release is expected later this year, following several delays. "It has been made available for testing purposes only, with no end-user support. If that sounds scary, you'd probably be better off with the latest version of Firefox 1.0," according to a statement on the Mozilla Foundation Firefox Project's Web site. The Mozilla Foundation assists in the development of the open-source browser.
E-paper moves from sci-fi to marketplace - Reuters
In Neal Stephenson's sci-fi novel "The Diamond Age," a young girl's companion is a book with amazing qualities--it talks, and the words magically change with the story. A decade after Stephenson's book was published, what was once labeled science fiction is finding its way to the real-world market. "Electronic paper" is a display technology that makes possible flexible or even rollable displays which, unlike current computer screens, can be read in bright sunlight. But, much like when LCD displays came to the market, consumers are first likely to see the technology in clocks and watches. The popular example of an electronic newspaper that automatically updates itself wirelessly is still years away.
Amazon, Random House throw book at Google - Elinor Mills, CNET News
As Google put thousands of public domain books online Thursday, Amazon.com responded by announcing plans to allow people to read books on the Web. Meanwhile, Random House, the world's largest publisher of trade books, said it had come up with a business model for allowing people to pay to view its books on the Internet. Amazon's new "Amazon Pages" program will let people purchase online access to anywhere from a few pages of a book to an entire work. The e-commerce company also announced a program called "Amazon Upgrade" that will let customers pay extra to be able to access books electronically that they've had shipped to them in printed form. "Buy a cookbook and you will not only have it on your shelf, but also be able to access it anywhere via the Web," Amazon said in a statement. Sunday, November 06, 2005
What's on your children's minds? Check their blogs - Chris Cobbs, Orlando Sentinel
This is not your grandmother's diary, though she may log on and read it. Blogs, or Web diaries, are surging in popularity among today's youths, a tech-savvy generation that doesn't flinch at posting musings online for potentially millions -- or at least a few friends -- to see. Whether fretting over relationships or ranting about politics, about 4 million of the nation's youths are turning to blogs to share their thoughts and feelings. And nearly double that number are reading them, according to a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
iPod Steps Up Its Game - Ronald Diemicke, Hoftstra Chronicle
It used to be enough just to have a Walkman to stay entertained. But now, Apple is revolutionizing how idle time is spent. The newest addition to the iPod family enables users to watch videos clearly on its two-and-a-half-inch screen. The big question is, with so many options, which iPod is the right choice? The iPod brand just got its latest overhaul. The photo iPod is a thing of the past, with all new iPods equipped with photo and video capabilities. The iPod Video comes in either black or white, and there is a 30gb and 60gb model, priced at $299 and $399 respectively.
Federal report finds greater use of Web - AMAN BATHEJA, Dallas Fort Worth STAR-TELEGRAM
When Devin Pike and his childhood friend Marty Yawnick first launched Web sites in the 1990s, the Internet was a very different place. Going online was seen as a luxury, and those with access were considered technologically savvy. The Net may have spread itself around the world, but it had yet to snag Middle America. About two years ago, Pike and Yawnick, both graphic designers in Fort Worth, noticed the start of a change. The growing popularity of their Web site, www.DevinAndMarty.com, made them realize that more people than ever were getting comfortable doing different things online and not just sending e-mails. "My fiancée's grandmother can hop online and see what we did over the weekend," Pike said. "That was unheard of even five years ago." |
