DaniWeb IT Discussion Community

News Story Avoid Windows Denial of Service

EddieC — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:01 GMT

Microsoft on Tuesday is set to release six security updates, three of which it has deemed critical and apply only to versions of Windows other than Windows 7. Microsoft released advance notice of its Security Bulletin for November, on Nov. 5. The bulletin itself will be released on Tuesday along with remedies, as per its normal patch cycle. Other alerts are labeled "important," one of which involves a denial of service vulnerability for Windows; the other two affect Excel. Redmond will reportedly release updates for Windows XP, 2003 and 2007 and Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac OS X.

Save the one warning of DoS attacks, all the vulnerabilities involve remote code execution, as did the 13 patches released by Microsoft on October 13, fixing nearly three dozen flaws, all of them critical. A critical warning is one "whose exploitation could allow the propagation of an Internet worm without user action," according to the company, while one that is one step down at important, is said to be one that "could result in compromise of the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of users data, or of the integrity or availability of processing resources."

Microsoft on Monday also released an update to MS09-054, the part of its October patch-fest that applied to Internet Explorer. This one, which went somewhat under the radar, as explained on the company's technet Website, addresses the way pages are rendered.

News Story 9 Free Linux Distributions: A Linux Free For All

khess — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:41:22 GMT

Have you searched for Linux distributions that are 100% free? Did you find more than one that suited your needs? Well, here's a list of nine from which you can choose your favorite. Free means freedom to alter, redistribute, sell or release as a different product with no restrictions on you or your new distribution.

1. BLAG - Blag is an operating system. Blag has a suite of graphics, internet, audio, video, office, and peer to peer file sharing applications. Based on Fedora, Blag has just about everything you'd ever need for productivity and fun.

2. Dragora - Dragora is an independent distribution of GNU/linux based on the concept of the simplicity. It aims to be a multipurpose, stable and powerful operating system while maintaining the simplicity of Unix. The initial release of Dragora was June 13, 2008. Dragora GNU/Linux 1.1 was released October 8, 2009.

3. Dynebolic - A GNU/Linux distro that focuses on audio/video production with a host of applications such as Jack, SuperCollider, Csound, Fluxus and of course Pure Data with a great collection of externals (PDP, PiDiP, Gem, GridFlow, RRadical, PixelTango).

4. gNewSense - a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian and Ubuntu, with sponsorship from the FSF. This is the distribution that Richard Stallman himself uses--so you know it's good because he could use any of them.

5. Kongoni - Kongoni is the Shona word for a Gnu (also known as a Wildebeast) the animal which inspired the name of the GNU operating system. The name represents the spirit and history of Kongoni, a GNU/Linux operating system of African origin. Kongoni is a desktop-oriented operating system with a strong belief in being truly free software. This means that Kongoni will neither include nor ship any software not under a license approved by the Free Software Foundation.

6. Musix GNU+Linux - Based on Knoppix and oriented toward audio production, Musix contains a giant repository of free software. Don't let the website fool you; Musix is available in a variety of languages including English.

7. Trisquel GNU/Linux - Based on Ubuntu, with all proprietary and non-free software removed, Trisquel is a free and easy to use operating system with multi-language support.

8. Ututo - The first fully free distribution recognized by the GNU Project. This one is Gentoo based and is actively developed in Argentina.

9. Venenux - VENENUX GNU/Linux is a free/libre operating system primarily for people in Ibero-America. It aims to cover the needs of any type of user, with software for almost every necessity while remaining fast and easy to install. VENENUX is the fruit of the work of a group of people of different Hispanic countries.

There are a few distributions that come close to free but still contain non-free and proprietary software, allow you to install non-free software or advertise non-free software during the installation process. These will be listed in an upcoming post so watch carefully for that. In the meantime, if you can check out these nine very capable distributions and report back to me on how you like them.

What do you think? Is it important or not for a distribution to be composed of and only allow free software?

News Story Google Tries Transparency with New Dashboard

Techwriter10 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:35:48 GMT

"If we went into an “evil room” and had an “evil light” shined on us, and we then behaved in an “evil” way we would be destroyed… there is a fundamental trust between Google and its users.”
~Eric Schmidt, Google CEO

Google released an exciting new product today called the Dashboard. I don't usually call Google products exciting because it makes me sound like I'm writing their marketing literature, but the Dashboard provides a way to see an overview of all your activity across every Google product you use. And if you're like me, that's a lot. Instead of guessing what information Google has, you can now see it all in one convenient place.

Getting To The Dashboard

Accessing the dashboard is a simple matter. Follow these steps:

Go to Google.com.
Click Settings > Google Account Settings and your account page opens.
At the top of the page in the right column labeled Personal Settings, click View Data Stored with Account (next to the Dashboard label). The Google Accounts page opens with all of the information across each of your Google accounts.

Why It's Great

I always loved that quote at the top of this post from Google CEO, Eric Schmidt above. It suggests that for some reason we should just trust Google with our data. It's an absurd notion of course, and even more so in that ridiculous quote, but Google Dashboard is a good first step. It gives users a one-stop shop to see all of their data and settings.

As individuals interested in accessing and understanding data, this is a huge step forward. For businesses, it's even more important, especially from a regulatory and compliance point of view. It gives everyone, big or small, access to their data in a simple fashion, which is as it should be.

Google's Free Tools Are Attractive and Scary

When I saw Marissa Mayer's presentation recently on the Google's new social search, one thing jumped out at me. You have to give Google information about your social networks in order for the search engine to display social search results. This seemed like a huge thing to ask users, and it goes directly to the heart of the problem many people have with Google. Yes, the tools are wonderful and free and available wherever you go, but any thinking person has to wonder about the portfolio of information that Google has on each of us -- our mail, our search history, what we read and the pictures we take, the videos we watch and the ones we add, and on and on it goes. And the social search would mean Google would have access to our friends too (whom we associate with).

All of this is a bit scary, so you'll have to pardon me if I don't trust Eric Schmidt's assertion that they won't ever step into that "evil room." But for starters, the Dashboard at least gives us insight into what information that Google has on us its databases, and gives us the opportunity to change our privacy settings and to delete services we don't want anymore. It may not be a panacea for paranoia, but it's a start, and I'll take it.

News Story I'm in love with an eight megapixel Android

newsguy — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:31:59 GMT

Now that's what I call an Android phone. Actually, that's what I call an Android phone that might just kick some iPhone ass.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 social networking phone is Android powered and feature rich. How rich? Well, how does 1GB RAM plus 16Gb of flash storage and a stunning 8.1 megapixel camera that comes complete with a geo-tagging function strike you?

That's on top of the 4" (854 x 480, 262,144 color TFT) touch-screen and GPS, and WiFi, and Bluetooth of course. OH, and not forgetting the Qualcomm Snapdragon, a 1GHz system-on-chip that you can also find inside the new Acer Liquid phone.

And, of course, there's the all important Android inside. This time working with the Sony UX layer for social networking. The new UX platform, as I understand it, throws a new UI on top of the Android OS which will integrate and sync a variety of social networking and comms media content. From what I can tell it would appear to be the Sony take on the HTX Sense UI.

There will be UX specific apps coming, although they are in short supply right now. So far you get a unified comms management app called Timescape which supports Twitter and Facebook as well as your email and text message services. Plus there is another called mediascape which integrates media content for playback from sources such as YouTube and PlayNow.

Expect the Xperia X10 to arrive early in the new year, with Japan getting first dibs on the sexy 8 megapixel Android.

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News Story Drag-and-drop GUI-testing for Windows 7

EddieC — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:13:47 GMT

GUIdancer 3.2, the latest version of flagship automated GUI testing tool from Bredex, now "officially" supports Windows 7 and Vista, and includes additional enhancements to its library of pre-built test actions. It began shipping on Nov. 3. Before you decide that US$5785 is too much to pay for an automated keyword testing tool (more if you're subject to Germany's voracious appropriation tax), take a look at these demos of the software in action. You can also try the software for two weeks for free. There are versions for Linux and Windows; a Mac OX S version is in beta.

According to the company, new actions in GUIdancer 3.2 improve support for testing GUI-embedded tables, context menus--such as those that pop up when something is right-clicked--and the tabbed panes common in Web applications. Also, UI elements can now be collected using mouse clicks whenever GUIdancer enters Object Mapping Mode, during which the tool detects and indicates objects that can be mapped (and automatically tested). It is also now possible to switch between databases while GUIdancer is running; the tool previously required a restart. Support for testing dynamic web-application components also has been added.

GUIdancer 3.2 now includes more than one hundred pre-defined test actions for testing Java or HTML applications simply by drag-and-drop. The approach requires no code and no knowledge of the coding or the inner workings of an application, the company says. "A variety of checks and synchronization actions are available alongside other flexible actions to automatically test applications through the GUI," it said in a news release (pdf).

News Story Hamleys loses site

GuyClapperton — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 13:34:35 GMT

It's almost reassuring to see a large company make basic mistakes like this - UK toy store Hamley's (one of our best-known retailers, a tourist destination in its own right so I'm told although personally I find it looks a little dated) forgot to renew its domain for a few days.

Inevitably it was infested with ads for a while.

I do wonder what these companies think they're doing. It must be almost a decade since the satire site B3ta registered introducingmonday.co.uk - a consultancy was rebranding as Monday, put a lot of serious corporate stuff on introducingmonday.com but forgot about the UK equivalent - and people are still being caught out.

I'm a self-employed individual and I manage to renew my domains because the registrars send automatic reminders. I have to ask myself, how easy do the registration companies have to make this stuff..?

News Story FIGHT: World of Warcraft vs China

happygeek — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:04:15 GMT

It would seem that there is something of an ongoing battle in the world of online Chinese gaming, and World of Warcraft is right in the midst of it.

As I reported back in July, the company behind World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment) was having problems in getting The Burning Crusade expansion pack up and running in China. Best not even mention Wrath of the Lich King then. It's all a little, well a lot, complicated and just a tad political, of course. Here's what I said a few months ago:

"A planned upgrade to the game which involved moving to a new operator in China, an online gaming outfit by the name of NetEase, has been anything but easy. Because it is a foreign game, and the move to a new local operator makes it a new foreign game for good measure, the Chinese government get to put it through a strict approval process."

Now it would seem that the publishing regulator in China has returned that application and halted the approval process as a result. NetEase, meanwhile, has already started operating World of Warcraft in China again despite not having approval. It fired up the local WoW servers back in September, one assumes as it was tired of waiting for that bureaucratic rubber stamp. Remember, WoW had already been approved and had been operating in China previously, all that changed was the local operator. Heck, NetEase apparently even got the nod to go ahead from the Cultural Ministry in China to rev up the WoW servers again.

But that has not appeased the agency concerned with the approval process, the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and it has now demanded NetEase stop taking money, stop new players from signing up, and in effect just, well, stop. No doubt part of this intransigence stems from the declared intent of GAPP to clean up the online gaming sector and remove violence and pornography from the MMORPG genre (oh how China loves those weapons of mass censorship) but it will be interesting to see how the war is won between commerce, a Government with one eye on foreign investment and an internal agency seemingly struggling to justify its own existence.

News Story Leslie Stahl Needs To Get a Clue About P2P

Techwriter10 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:16:36 GMT

Attachment 12439
Leslie Stahl had a piece Sunday night on 60 minutes on the supposed impact of piracy on the movie industry. (You can watch it here.) Her piece was so slanted toward the Motion Picture Association of America, it was almost laughable (if it weren't so maddening).

At one point, Stahl explained P2P networking using Bit Torrent in a way that made it sound like it was used exclusively for movie pirates and that it was the brand new gee-wizz technology--neither of which is true. In fact, many mainstream media companies are using P2P technology to deliver their content, and have been for years, because it's cheap and efficient.

BitTorrent is Mainstream, Baby

BitTorrent, the software that Stahl shows off in the piece was developed by Bram Cohen, who is Chief Scientist and company co-founder of BitTorrent, the company. His company, the one if you listen to Stahl's piece is responsible for moving pirated content around the internet, has many media companies as its clients.

According to its web site, clients include Fox, MTV, Warner Brothers, Lions Gate and Paramount. If the movie industry is so worried about piracy on BitTorrent, it certainly has no problem using its 100+ million client network to distribute content.

The MPAA flacks interviewed in the piece who suggest that pirates are stealing their profits neglect to say MPAA members are using the same technology the piece was demonizing.

Understanding P2P

P2P (or peer to peer) networking is nothing more than a technology for distributing content across a network of peer computers, taking advantage of the computing power of each one. Like any technology it can be used for good or ill, depending on who is using it. I published an article for StreamingMedia.com back in July, 2007 about the mainstreaming of P2P. As I wrote at the time, quoting Monty Mullig, who was was SVP of digital media technologies at Turner Broadcasting System Inc.:

Quote:

“I would say that P2P as a technology, per se, hasn’t been the problem for content and copyright owners. It’s been the use and the way some services that are based on P2P technology have been deployed. There are plenty of ways to use P2P distribution that don’t infringe on the interests of copyright holders,” Mullig says.

Imagine that. There are ways to use the technology that don't infringe on copyright owners. You would never know that from the piece broadcast on Sunday night.

Stahl Unbalanced

Stahl's piece was flawed in so many ways, but she seemed to mix the up idea of pirates creating physical copies and selling them for money with those who were distributing movies for free over the internet. Meanwhile, she failed to acknowledge (while never even naming by name) that P2P technology has legitimate content distribution uses. Further, she had spokespeople from the MPAA and director Steven Soderbergh, but never saw the simple contradiction between the MPAA's position in this piece and the fact their members are partners with BitTorrent.

My fellow-DaniWeb blogger Davey Winder wrote the other day in a post, Hold the Front Page: Piracy is Not Killing the Music Business, a recent study found that people who downloaded music tracks illegally actually spent more on music than people who didn't. Winder suggests that it's not piracy that's the problem at all, but a failure to understand the way content is distributed in 2009.

He's spot on of course, and the same lesson applies to the MPAA. It's time for them to stop demonizing software and trying to tie piracy to organized crime and figure out ways to use the technology to sell and distribute their content. 60 Minutes has a long reputation for hard-hitting investigative pieces, but this piece did it a disservice. At least try to get a dissenting opinion next time. Wouldn't have been that hard to find.

Photo by hellochris on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

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News Story Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Available

EddieC — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:26:04 GMT

Firefox can finally orient itself, at least in terms of iPhones and MacBooks. Mozilla's latest browser, Firefox 3.6 beta 1, can now talk to accelerometers such as those in many Apple devices, thanks to orientation event objects introduced in the new Gecko 1.9.2 presentation engine at the browser's core. Also among DOM enhancements are drag-and-drop for file transfer and the ability for Web workers to self-terminate.

And that's just the beginning. The download of Firefox 3.6 beta 1 for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows contains thousands of bug fixes, including numerous repairs to CSS image rendering and text alignment.

There also were significant updates to XUL, and separate pages were created to advise extension and plug-in developers of how to update your work. For plug-in developers, you'll need to know that main () is no longer supported as an entry point. There are also some user interface changes and Mac OS X-specific mods, and with Gecko 1.9.2, the old Code Fragment Manager will be officially phased out. For extension developers, the add-on package has been modified, and there are UI and HTML 5 compliance improvements to deal with.

Firefox 3.6 also reportedly supports some aspects of Windows 7, including Aero Peek and taskbar thumbnails (does anyone like these?), but will not support Jump Lists when released later this year.

News Story My First Impressions of Google Wave

Techwriter10 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:54:36 GMT

A few weeks ago I received a Google Wave invitation from my friend David Knopf (after publicly begging for one in my post Hoping to Surf the Google Wave). Since then, I've had a chance to use it and I've seen the good, the bad and the ever-present potential of the tool. While it does have tremendous potential, I think some of my initial concerns as outlined in my post A Curmudgeonly Look at Google Wave, have proven true.

The Good

Just the other day, I was invited to be on a panel to discuss Google Wave at the Gilbane Conference in Boston on December 3rd. Larry Hawes, the Gilbane consultant organizing the panel, invited me to participate on Twitter and moved the conversation to a Wave. There, the participants were able to get an idea of the scope of the panel discussion, the logistics and organization of the panel and we were able to exchange bios and pictures for the conference program. We did this quickly and efficiently all inside a Wave.

As John Blossom, a panel participant who is president of Shore Communications, Inc and author of the book Content Nation, pointed out, we were able to use Wave to do in a few minutes, what would have taken hours and many emails back and forth to achieve with traditional email. It certainly proved the power of Google Wave, but at the same time, it also proved its weaknesses.

The Bad

As you exchange information back and forth, people reply to blips in the Wave. (Blips are like individual emails or responses). All of the blips are active within a Wave at any given time. The problem is that each blip is its own separate "conversation" and while I might be responding to Blip 1, another respondent might be replying to Blip 2 and a third starting an entirely new blip.

As you can imagine, it can get confusing trying to keep up with this kind of flow, especially when it happens in real time. As I worried in my Curmudgeonly post, as you get more participants, it makes it all that much more difficult to keep up with the flow of the conversation.

And the live typing where you can watch as each participant types his/her response in real time only adds to the confusion. I would hope that Google would eventually enable users to turn this off. As I suspected, it can get really annoying and I don't really see much purpose to this feature.

While the technical folks have taken to this tool as the early "wave" of adopters, I still worry that it's far too complicated for the masses and that people will quickly become confused. While I agree that traditional email is clearly broken, it's not clear that Google Wave in its current state is an adequate replacement for the average user out there.

The Potential

I still believe the potential is so great, and its greatest strength could lie in its API and the third party developers who building gadgets and plug-ins for Google Wave. I also think that that the idea that you can use Wave in web sites and blogs independent of the client itself has tremendous potential. Google Wave provides a two-way communications platform, the likes of which we haven't seen to this point.

But for now, Google Wave is clearly a work in progress. Some people like John Blossom have done some very creative things with Wave, using it as a living, breathing publication with an on-going live discussions with his readers. But it's clear that people are still trying to define what it is and what it's best suited to do, and it's still very early, too early to making any definitive judgments about it.

News Story Hold the front page: Piracy is not killing the music business!

happygeek — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:39:06 GMT

If piracy and illegal downloaders really are killing the music industry, how come more singles have been sold this year than ever before and people who file-share spend more money on legal releases than those who do not file-share?

I have to admit, it's not been a good week to be on the side of law and order and the established way of things as far as the music business is concerned. While the UK Government pushes ever onwards with the Digital Economy Bill which promises a robust legal and regulatory framework to deal with illegal file-sharing, and continues to insist that illegal downloading is a real threat to the music industry, figures have been released which seem to undermine the official 'three strikes and your out' to save creative output position.

According to the Daily Mail a newly published study shows that, in the UK at least, those who download illegal music actually spend considerably more on buying legal music than those who do not admit to illegal downloading. When it comes to music singles and albums, the illegal downloaders spend an average of £77 per year on official releases while people who say they have never downloaded any music illegally spend only £44 per year.

Of those asked, around two thirds would stop downloading illegally if music download services were cheaper. Just reducing the cost to 45p a track could double the sales of legal downloads it would seem. Add to this the fact that 42% of people said they download illegally to try before they buy, and 83% insist they buy more music as a result of such downloading, and you get the feeling that the music industry needs to be examining new music distribution business models and exploiting them rather than applying the big stick with fingers in ears going la la la approach.

The British Phonographic Industry, the UK music industry trade association, reckons that illegal downloaders will cost the music biz around £200 million in lost sales by the end of this year. Yet at the same time it is being reported that the BPI is also saying that 2009 will be the biggest year ever as far as sales of singles in the UK is concerned. The previous record for most single records being sold was et, er, last year in fact. Even more proof, were it needed, that illegal downloads are simply not killing the music business as is constantly being suggested by the industry powers that be.

News Story How to Dump AT&T in 30 Seconds

EddieC — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:21:34 GMT

If you're yearning to break free from Apple-sanctioned iPhone carrier AT&T (and you don't mind trading your warranty for the privilege), then reach out and touch George Hotz. The iPhone hacker yesterday posted a video showing an iPhone call on T-Mobile, and Wednesday is expected to post the code that made it possible.

Hotz, who goes by the hacker alias GeoHot, drew attention earlier this year when he posted "purplera1n," a so-called "jailbreak" for iPhone 3GS (OS 3.0) that lets the phone run code other than that expressly authorized by Apple or purchased at the AppStore. The hack was quickly made ineffective by Apple when it released OS 3.0.1.

While undeterred, Hotz skipped OS 3.0.1 when he went to work on blackra1n, which targets iPhones running OS 3.1.2 (including the third-generation iPhone Touch, but that one needs to be tethered). According to an Oct. 11 blog post announcing the release, Hotz claims that blackra1n can jailbreak an iPhone about 30 seconds.

His latest work, blacksn0w, will allow such jailbroken devices (running baseband 05.11.07) to be used on any GSM network. The 17-year-old told CNN in an interview that getting his iPhone to work with T-Mobile was what got him started on this project in the first place.

News Story Social Media Costs UK £1.4 Billion Annually

slfisher — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:50:02 GMT

Calling social media sites a "productivity black hole," the UK IT services group Morse said that staff who use Twitter and other social networking sites while at work are costing UK businesses £1.38bn every year, according to the BBC.

More than half those surveyed said they used social networking sites during the working day for personal use, with the average being 40 minutes per week on these sites. While this doesn't sound like much, it adds up to almost a week a year, Morse said.

Other responses from the study, which surveyed 1,460 people:

More than three-quarters of respondents said their employer had not given them specific guidelines with regards to using Twitter.
A third of workers said they had seen sensitive information posted on social networks.
84 percent said they felt it should be up to them what they posted online.

News Story Cities Moving from Microsoft Office to Google Apps

slfisher — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 02:43:14 GMT

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously earlier this week to outsource its e-mail system to Google Inc., according to an article in the Los Angeles Times. The contract is worth $7.25 million and covers 30,000 employees.

In June, Washington, D.C. made a similar decision, signing a contract worth almost $500,000 for its 38,000 municipal employees to use Google's e-mail, spreadsheet and word- processing programs, giving them an Internet-based alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Office software, installed on computers, according to Bloomberg.

Interestingly, the chief technical officer responsible for the decision was Vivek Kundra, now Chief Information Officer of the United States. The White House recently decided to migrate its website from proprietary software to Drupal.

Los Angeles plans to complete implementation of the Google system by June and will begin with a pilot period during which a limited number of employees will test the system, the Times said. City law enforcement agencies including the Los Angeles Police Department will migrate to the new system once they are satisfied with the security and functioning of the system.

Los Angeles worked on the decision for nearly a year, where Google competed with other software vendors, including Microsoft. "Parties on all sides believe that if smaller cities see Los Angeles successfully transition to Google's cloud system, they may be more likely to follow suit," the Times said.

News Story Any function point specialists out there?

EddieC — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:30:26 GMT

Are you a certified function point specialist or play one on TV? Then the Counting Practices Manual version 4.3 might be for you. Unveiled today by the International Function Point Users Group (better known as IFPUG), the $100 CD contains the latest "body of knowledge used by function point analysts to measure the functional size of applications and projects for benchmarking and estimating world-wide for many domains and business areas," announced the group.

The "must-have" publication documents the Counting Practices Manual (CPM), which has been approved as an international standard under ISO/IEC 14143-1 Information Technology-Software Measurement. This revision, which officially replaces CPM 4.2 on Jan. 1, 2010, "further clarifies the rules and enhances the definitions and examples, thereby enabling a more consistent interpretation and application of rules." Major changes to the document involve Part 1, which copies the ISO-standard Functional Size Measurement Method (FSM) describing the process, definitions and rules. FSM methods are designed to allow measurement of the size of a software project by quantifying the functional requirements, often for the purpose of developing project estimates and evaluating risk.

Content formerly in Part 1 has been moved to Part 2 - The Bridge. Parts 2, 3, 4 and the Appendices have been updated and enhanced with additional examples and guidance, IFPUG said. To purchase CPM 4.3, visit the IFPUG order page. It is also available to current IFPUG members as a free for download on the member side of the IFPUG website. Members get it for free.

News Story Intel Hot on Flash's Trail

EddieC — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:24:18 GMT

While the competition is hard at work on a 100-core processor, Intel this week reported advances in phase-change memory (PCM), a type of non-volatile memory that is seen as a possible next-generation replacement for flash.

In a joint announcement yesterday with Swiss memory maker Numonyx, the companies said they had demonstrated for the first time the ability to "stack multiple layers of PCM arrays within a single die," significantly increasing the space savings and reducing power consumption related to the technology.

Memory cells consist of a storage element and a selector. Several stacked memory cells make a memory array. By stacking PCM-cell arrays, the companies have demonstrated what they call a phase change memory and switch (PCMS), a vertically integrated memory cell. "The ability to layer or stack arrays of PCMS[es] provides the scalability to higher memory densities while maintaining the performance characteristics of PCM, a challenge that is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain with traditional memory technologies," according to the statement.

At the center of the advance is the Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS), which in essence is a thin layer of glass that changes its resistive state depending on the level of current being applied to it. Researchers deployed the thin film in a new way, with the "two-terminal OTS as the selector, matching the physical and electrical properties for PCM scaling." With the compatibility of thin-film PCMS, multiple layers of cross point memory arrays are now possible, the report said, giving way to layered arrays that when combined with CMOS circuits, can be used for decoding, sensing and logic functions.

News Story Trick or Treat Security Scares

happygeek — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:36:34 GMT

You probably call it Halloween, for myself and other pagans it is Samhain, but for the cyber-gangs it is phishing time. Seasonally-themed spam is on the up at this time of the year, Halloween related messages accounting for 0.5% of the daily spam traffic by volume in mid-October according to the latest Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence Report.

Currently, with the 'Witch's New Year' Sabbath itself coming this weekend, there are some 500 million emails circulating worldwide and the majority of the Halloween spam is originating from the Rustock and Donbot botnets. Most of this would appear to be pointing towards pharmaceutical sites and rogue/counterfeit software sites.

"As is typical with spammers this time of year, we are seeing them try to capitalize on the holiday season" said MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Paul Wood. "Although they may be a bit overzealous, spamming is a numbers game and the spammers have certainly succeeded with volume thus far. Perhaps their early-bird approach is an attempt to compete with the other botnets and get in early to maximize their chances of success."

This month has also seen a batch of intercepted event-related advance-fee fraud spams, mostly relating to the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa which try and get the target to pay an up front fee in order to supposedly receive their prize draw winnings.

The October phishing activity has been 1 in every 293.7 emails, an increase of 0.11% since September but a drop of 10.5% if looked at as a proportion of all email-borne threats.

When it comes to viruses, October has seen the global ratio of email-borne viruses in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources increase by just 0.18% from September to 1 in every 230.8 emails. However, only 19.2% of email-borne malware contained links to malicious websites, which is a huge drop of some 20.6% from the previous month.

Geographically speaking, Denmark was the most spammed country with levels of 96.2 percent of all email, with the US on 94% and the UK on 93.3% while China tops the virus activity charts though, with 1 in every 80.7 emails being infected.

News Story $50 Wolfram Alpha App Makes iPhone Top Grossing List

newsguy — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:36:07 GMT

I got a gloating email today from those awfully clever folk at Wolfram Alpha which informed me that the iPhone app version of the 'Computational Knowledge Engine' popped up on the App Store What's Hot list. What's more, they positively gushed at how they were "pleasantly surprised" to see the app "appear on the store's 'Top Grossing' list on the second day it was available and remain there through the week".

Perhaps whoever wrote that email should have first asked the Wolfram Alpha engine why the app was on the top grossing list. I suspect that drawing on more than 20 years of development, 50,000 plus built-in algorithms and 10 trillion pieces of continually updated and curated data, it might have popped out the following answer: because it costs fifty bucks, stupid.

Sure, it may well let you get "expert-level answers to your specific freeform questions—complete with stunning, dynamically generated visualizations and tables, and richer and deeper information than you imagined possible" right there on your iPhone. It may well come replete with "elegant native iPhone interface that includes a special notation keyboard, customized iPhone output, editable history, and integration with maps and other iPhone services" for good measure.

It may well also be less than half the price of a graphing calculator at $49.99 as one Wolfram Alpha spokesperson has insisted, while missing the point that an iPhone graphing calculator app can be picked up for just a couple of bucks. And missing the point that a graphing calculator doesn't need an Internet connection to work. And missing the biggest point of all, that anyone with an Internet connection (including iPhone users) can use the full Wolfram Alpha service on the web for a lot less than $49.99 - to be precise, for £49.99 less as the service is totally free.

Which makes me sit back and ask myself just who is buying this app on the iPhone in such volume as to push it onto those top grossing and what's hot lists? Now I don't claim to be the brainiest of boxes, but I'm not stupid enough to be paying $50 for something that I can get for free.

News Story Developers Say 'Hello World' to IT

EddieC — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:50:57 GMT

Companies using IBM's Rational and Tivoli product will breathe easier today, thanks to new, integrated versions of nine tools that the company says will facilitate communication and closer collaboration between software development and support teams in the enterprise. What's more, prices will remain where they are, and the updates are free for current subscribers.

According to the company, the integrations are intended to address individual frustration points that it sees being experienced by teams, particularly those of the geographically dispersed variety, and improve efficiency for organizations using both through automation.

One of the four couplings involves Rational ClearQuest, which development teams use to track bugs and changes, and Tivoli Service Request Manager, used by support teams for logging help requests. The integration synchronizes trouble tickets in Service Request Manager with the ClearQuest's bug-fix tracker, reducing human error and adding traceability to service requests. Work orders are automatically kept in sync with ClearQuest, and can even be assigned to individual developers based on the suspect code, if known.

Also paired are Rational Asset Manager and Tivoli Change and Configuration Management Database, helping organizations deal with pre- and post-deployment issues. While Asset Manager keeps track of all the elements that go into development, such as servers, Web services and other components, it also now keeps people on the Tivoli side informed about the latest versions of everything.

Rational Test Lab Manager is now integrated with Tivoli's Provisioning Manager and Application Dependency and Discovery Manager apps, which keeps the test lab in sync with what's going on in the real-world production environment, and vice-versa. Each continuously gathers information on the other in real time, reports changes and can even create server and workstation images that can be provisioned to systems for deployment.

Finally there's Rational Performance Tester and Tivoli Composite Application Manager. This integration allows IT systems to peer inside performance-testing data and compare it with performance data from users. Discrepancies can be addressed by feeding the discovery details back to the lab's function and performance test cases for further analysis.

News Story Stimulus Funding State Internet Mapping, Too

slfisher — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:52:07 GMT

In addition to funding broadband projects in the states, particularly in rural areas, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, includes funds for collection of state-level broadband data, as well as state-wide broadband mapping and planning.

The project, which will also help create a national broadband map, is being managed by the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

The State Broadband Data and Development Grant Program, announced on July 1, is a competitive, merit-based matching grant program that will provide approximately $240 million in grants to assist states or their designees to develop state-specific data on the deployment levels and adoption rates of broadband services, the NTIA said. Awardees are required to contribute at least 20 percent non-federal matching funds toward project costs.

Each state could have only a single, eligible entity to perform the mapping. Applications for the program were accepted from July 14 to August 14.

On September 9, the NTIA announced that it had received applications representing all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia. Fifty-two of the 56 states (or their designated entities) also submitted requests for broadband planning funds, typically about $500,000 each over a 5-year period, the NTIA said, which also released a list of the applicants.

Now, the NTIA is beginning to announce grant awards made to the states for mapping. On October 5, the NTIA announced the first grants:

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC): approximately $1.8 million
Indiana Office of Technology (IOT): approximately $1.3 million
Rural Economic Development Center, Inc. (e-NC Authority): approximately $1.6 million
Vermont Center for Geographic Information (VCGI): approximately $1.2 million

The CPUC was also awarded $500,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in California over four years, bringing its grant award total to approximately $2.3 million, and the e-NC Authority was awarded approximately $435,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in North Carolina over five years, bringing its grant award total to over $2 million, the NTIA said.

On October 23, the NTIA announced a grant of approximately $1.4 million to fund broadband mapping and planning activities in West Virginia. In addition, the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey will receive $185,000 for the cost of broadband planning activities in West Virginia over two years, bringing its grant award total to approximately $1.4 million.

Other states are waiting to hear responses.

The national broadband mapping project has come under criticism in recent months for bowing to industry pressure and planning to put less detail in the map.

News Story Firefox by the numbers: 30 million new users in just 8 weeks

happygeek — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:31:34 GMT

Some Twitter postings just demand you read them two or three times to take in what is being said in 140 characters. One such posting was made today by Mozilla CEO John Lilly which simply said: "Firefox user growth has been amazing last 8 weeks or so. +30M or so unique monthlies"

That's worth repeating, 30 million new users for Firefox in an 8 week period. Wow!

Tristan Nitot, President of Mozilla Europe, confirmed the figures when speaking to ZDNet in the UK. Nitot explains that it can calculate the number of users per month by multiplying the active daily users by a factor of three to allow for those days when they are not actually browsing the web. In confirming that Mozilla has seen a "significant increase" in Firefox user numbers, Nitot said "Firefox checks for new versions every 24 hours, when it's running, and when it checks, it pings the Mozilla server. We count the number of pings."

The figures collected show that Firefox now has some 330 million monthly users, and increase over the last eight weeks of some 10 million daily users on average. Although the numbers look good for Mozilla, and the latest global market share statistics suggest it is up around 3% from this time last year, it only has 23.75% of that world share. Microsoft, on the other hand, is in decline with a loss of 5% share during the same period, but crucially Internet Explorer still commands an impressive 65% of the market. That share does vary from country to country though, and Firefox rules the roost in 17 European countries for example.

News Story It's On! Ubuntu and Microsoft Going to the Mat

khess — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:12:01 GMT

Ubuntu's CEO, Mark Shuttleworth fired one over Microsoft's bow with a statement that the soon to be released Ubuntu 9.10 is ready to go head-to-head with Windows 7 on Netbooks. He also said that Windows XP is still hanging around on some Netbooks as a "ghost." Shuttleworth wants another shot at the U.S. market with his new Ubuntu 9.10 and Ubuntu One offering. Ubuntu One is a file backup and sharing service where registered users receive 2GB of free storage and 50GB of storage for $10 per month.

I hope that works out for you Mark. I really do. Ubuntu is the ultimate Linux distribution built upon the best parent distribution (Debian) available today.

There's just one small catch: Not everything works yet.

That's actually a pretty big catch.

Windows has the best driver and application support. It also has the advantage of having the favorite corporate Kool-Aid taste. In other words, big companies like Windows because it's created and supported by one of the world's best companies: Microsoft. I know what you're thinking: "He's a traitor" or "He's being paid by Microsoft." I wish it were true that someone was paying me some big buckazoids to say these things but they aren't.

I love Linux. It's my favorite operating system. I use it and support it every single day of my life--and have for the past 14+ years. I have a full system dedicated to it and at least virtual machines running Linux various flavors. It has shortcomings for a user interface (formerly known as a Desktop) computer.

Linux is the best server operating system currently available. No question about it. On the user side, well, that's another story. Though I'm a big user of all Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Red Hat, CentOS), I use it almost exclusively as a server operating system.

At one time, I used Linux as my primary desktop but I just can't do that any more and haven't for a long time. The reason? Mostly it's about ease of use and compatibility. Sure, I could use OpenOffice.org and remember to Save As all the time for everyone who uses MS products, I could forfeit my QuickBooks, I could use web-based apps for everything and I could just play Delta Force any more too. That last one would certainly make my wife happy. But I don't want to have to go to a lot of trouble just to use a computer.

I'm afraid Mr. Shuttleworth has his work cut out for him when trying to compete with Microsoft for user attention. It isn't likely to happen any time soon. There are too many issues and problems surrounding the use of Linux for a user's computer. One is peripherals and gadgets like phones, iTunes, printers and Netbooks.

Netbooks? Hey, that's what started this whole post. What's wrong with Ubuntu and Netbooks? Probably nothing, but for Mark Shuttleworth to assume Ubuntu 9.10 is going to compete favorably with Windows 7 on Netbooks, he must have something up his sleeve. I hope it's more than just a little magic or marketing hype because I've seen Windows 7 and it's good. Really good. I've also seen Ubuntu 9.10 and it's good too. Really good.

It should be an interesting showdown when both have had a chance to be Netbook-proven.

What do you think about the best operating system for Netbooks? Is Windows XP a ghost? Is Windows 7 all it's cracked up to be? Will Ubuntu 9.10 break in to the Netbook market in a big way?

News Story Amazon: New, Improved Cloud, Now With MySQL

EddieC — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:08:11 GMT

At the risk of coming off like TV's "Mad Men," Amazon Web Services really are New and Improved. The company today announced the addition of Amazon Relational Database Service, giving users of Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) access to a virtual instance of MySQL. That's the New part. Improvements include a family of high-memory instances and a price reduction of Linux-based EC2 compute time to 8.5 cents per hour from 10 cents. The 15 percent price drop takes effect Nov. 1.

"Many customers have told us that their applications require a relational database," said Adam Selipsky, vice president of Amazon Web Services, in a statement. "That’s why we built Amazon RDS, which combines a familiar relational database with automated management and the instant scalability of the AWS cloud." Existing MySQL applications can be "work seamlessly with Amazon RDS," according to claims, while the cloud automates common administrative tasks such as setup and provisioning, patch management and data backups, which are stored for a user-definable period. Database scaling--such as adding add more storage or changing to a larger or smaller DB Instance class-- can be executed with a single API call, the company said. Developers retain control of schema, indices and controls for performance tuning.

For less complex database needs, Amazon also offers SimpleDB, with which applications can store and retrieve data using simple Web services requests. As with Amazon RDS, provisioning and maintenance are automatic, as are data indexing and backup. Amazon also provides "geo-redundant replicas of the data," which keeps data available and helps improve performance. Scaling also is automated, the company said, as the cloud responds to changes in database traffic, and schema changes can be accomplished without changes to database code.

Amazon charges no up-front fees for its Web services; you pay only for the resources you use.

News Story Is Google Android Strategy to Trip up Win Mobile?

Techwriter10 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:45:28 GMT

There was a good analysis in the NYT yesterday regarding the Google Android strategy, which according to author Saul Hansell, is intended not to make money for Google, but to block Microsoft from getting traction in the mobile space. Given that Google is giving Android away, it's a theory that makes a lot of sense.

Yes, There is Such a Thing as a Free Lunch

For Google, the apparent reason for giving Android away is that if it expands access to the internet, it increase the likelihood that people will use Google services and view Google Ads. And Google Ads are really what it's all about for Google. Hansell writes:

Quote:

After all, Google isn’t approaching smartphones like a normal business. It has made Android open source available freely to any handset maker to use and change at will. It says its only reason is to expand the use of the Internet on cellphones because it believes this will allow more people to use its search engine and other products on which it sells ads.

He goes onto say that Microsoft is handling the Mobile Windows market like any other, charging for the right to install Windows Mobile on each phone, just as they charge PC makers to install Windows on each machine they sell.

Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Freedom?

Microsoft says when you get Win Mobile, you get a familiar interface, familiar tools and you can get up and running quickly. There's something to be said for this. With Google's strategy, the handset makers get Google for free and they can adapt it as they wish, but when you pick up the phone, you have to learn how to do everything based on that handset maker's implementation. It's entirely possible, in fact, that you could could own one Android phone, then pick up a second one from a different manufacturer and not know how to use it.

But reports from far and wide suggest that Microsoft is playing into Google's strategy because the most recent release, 6.5, has not received favorable reports. Even Steve Ballmer, the Microsoft CEO admitted the company screwed up the release. When a lot of people expect Microsoft to screw up in this fashion, it's not a great testimonial when your own CEO comes out and says as much.

And Then There's iPhone and Blackberry

All of this doesn't even take into account that as of right now, it's neither Windows Mobile nor Android which are at the top of the market share heap. Instead it's Apple and Blackberry, two companies that have gone at it from different directions, but are finding great success.

So it may be that Hansell is right. Google doesn't give a hoot about making money directly on Android (or it would be), but the mobile revenue stream should matter to Microsoft because all things point to an increasingly mobile world.

It would be nice for Redmond if we had a complete Windows experience across our entire lives. We used it at home, on our laptops and netbooks, at work and on our phones (even in our cars), but in reality the world is becoming more fractured than that, and if Microsoft wants to play in the Mobile space it needs to come out with an OS that kicks butt and takes names, a task made harder by its own ineptitude, not to mention a competitor running interference with a free OS, and the iPhone and Blackberry sitting back and capturing the lion's share of the market.

News Story 100-Core Processor on Tap

EddieC — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:39:19 GMT

Thought you were bleeding edge with your quad-core PC? Think again. A company called Tilera today announced that it's working on a chip containing 100 processor cores, which it says could be seen by 2011. It's part of its new TILE-Gx line of 64-bit multi-core processors, the first of which--a 36-core chip--will be sampling by the end of 2010, the company said today in a statement. With its top-end TILE-Gx100, Tilera claims to outstrip Intel's next-generation Westmere processor in performance-per-watt by a factor of 10. Other models will contain 16 and 64 cores, and will sample in early 2011.

But all those cores won't do much good without applications to exercise them, right? So Tilera also offers Multicore Development Environment, a simplified multi-core Eclipse-based IDE that can target SMP Linux 2.6, Zero Overhead Linux, Bare Metal Environment and hybrid systems. The package includes an ANSI C/C++ compiler, system simulator, GNU command line tools and graphical multi-core application debugging and profiling.

The breakthroughs in multi-core technology are the result of an architecture under development since 1990. TILE-Gx chips share local cache across all cores, and a proprietary two-dimensional interconnect eliminates the need for an on-chip bus.

“We believe this next generation of high-core count, ultra high-performance chips will open completely new computing possibilities,” said Tilera CEO Omid Tahernia, a 21-year veteran of Motorola who joined Tilera in 2007 after running the DSP division of Xilinx. “Customers will be able to replace an entire board presently using a dozen or more chips with just one of our TILE-Gx processors, greatly simplifying the system architecture and resulting in reduced cost, power consumption, and PC board area. This is truly a remarkable technology achievement...[and] ushers in a new era of many-core processing.” Tell me, Tilera, would that be the "Tile Era?"

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News Story Will SharePoint 2010 Be Sold Separately?

EddieC — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:48:24 GMT

With all the coverage of last week's Windows 7 launch, it was easy to overlook news of the forthcoming release of SharePoint Server 2010, the next edition of Redmond's collaboration platform. A public beta is expected next month, which according a speech given by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last week will demonstrate significant new functionality. What Ballmer didn't directly confirm in his speech was recent speculation that that by June of 2010, the platform will no longer ride along with Windows Server products, but instead be offered stand-alone.

Helping to fuel the speculation about platform status of SharePoint 2010 was talk of a set of new cloud-based APIs; support for business connectivity services, permitting developers to connect application or Web-service data with SharePoint or Office client apps; REST, LINQ and ATOM support; an improved SharePoint designer; social tagging and "backstage" life-cycle management links with Office; and integration with Visual Studio 2010. Also new will be hosted and on-premise versions.

Speaking at Microsoft's SharePoint conference in Las Vegas on Oct. 19, Ballmer himself referred to the tool as a platform, implying that it had evolved hast its previous status as merely a server application. "SharePoint 2010 will transform efficiency by connecting workers across a single collaboration platform for business.” The update is scheduled for general availability "in the first half of 2010," which typically means June.

The new tools also reportedly will simplify Website creation with native support for video, audio and Silverlight, as well as content management and adherence to WCAG 2.0 . SharePoint Online also will support Excel and InfoPath Forms Services, "which make it simple to use, share, secure and manage interactive forms across an organization," the company said.

Last but not least, SharePoint 2010 adds everyone's favorite UI land-grab: the ribbon.

News Story Android Shmandroid, Who Cares?

khess — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:41:07 GMT

It's a cell phone for crying out loud. Do you get it? A cell phone. You know, you make and receive phone calls on it. It's a telephone that you carry around in your pocket. Who gives a rip whether it's equipped with a web browser, a file editor or an ice cream dispenser; it's a telephone. People who care about the operating system or applet X on a cell phone are either under the age of 18 or don't have anything better to do with their time.

I don't really care that my cell phone uses some version of Microsoft Windows or Linux or Mac or OS2. I just don't care. As long as I can make and receive phone calls, I just don't care.

I apologize to all my faithful readers who want me to rail against the oppressive Microsoft and its crashy Windows operating system and champion our collective free software fight but when it comes to the operating system on my cell phone; I just don't care.

I remember a day when telephones, cell phones included, didn't have (or need) an operating system. We survived somehow without one. We survived without browsing the Internet on our telephones and we're still here alive and kicking to tell you about it. We also didn't need to 'text' anyone--especially while driving.
Do you want to know why we didn't need to text someone that, "we're bored?" We didn't need to. We had a telephone that dialed their number so that we could say in a loud, clear voice, "OMG, I'm sooooooo bored."

Yes, that's right, we actually spoke. With our voices. To each other. In some cases, we actually met face to face (f2f) with each other and some of us actually enjoyed it. I know that sounds crazy but we did it.

And social networking, that was hanging out together at the mall, clubs, scouts, school, or in (gasp) special interest groups.

Oh, far be it from me to suppress your non-creative, non-blinking idle chit-chat on Twitter, Facebook and the like but, and this is way off the hook (a term from old telephones that you picked up off the "hook"--oh never mind...), when we had an emotion, we didn't have to create a three-stroke winky face to show it, the other person could actually see and hear our emotion by looking at or listening to it.

Sorry, I digress.

So, why should I care that my cell phone has which operating system or any operating system at all? I don't. It could be Android, Shmandroid, KlaatuNix, CharlesMansonNix or even BalloonBoyNix for all I care. I just want to make and receive phone calls--reliably.

So wot do u think? R u bored w/ cell OS talk 2? Holla back n tell me. TTYL. ;-)

News Story White House Site Switches to Drupal

slfisher — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:37:34 GMT

The Associated Press reported this weekend that the official White House website has been switched to using the open-source Drupal content management system

Using open source will result in improved security -- because more programmers will be looking for errors in the software -- as well as more quickly and less expensively updated, the AP said.

The White House site had been using technology held over from the administration of former President George W. Bush, but the staff had been working toward the transition since the inauguration. For example, the website that tracks stimulus spending, launched in February, was already built using Drupal.

Several other federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, and the General Service Administration, are also said to be using Drupal.

However, modifications made by the White House staff, such as to improve security, have not thus far been given back to the Drupal community, noted Tim O'Reilly in his blog. "The source code for Drupal (and the rest of the LAMP stack) is indeed available, but the modifications that were made to meet government security, scalability, and hosting requirements have not yet been shared," he said.

News Story Microsoft and Apple: A Tale of Two Earnings Report

Techwriter10 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:27:28 GMT

There was a a lot of news coming out Microsoft and Apple last week:

* On Monday, Apple released its stellar earnings report.

* On Monday, Microsoft opened up the SharePoint 2009 Conference in Las Vegas

* On Tuesday, Apple released its latest product line

* On Wednesday, Microsoft announced a deal with Twitter to expose Twitter information in Bing

* On Thursday, Microsoft released Windows 7.

* On Friday, Microsoft released their earnings report, which was shall we say, less than stellar (compared to Apple's).

And so it went in a week full of big news. Google got into it too, announcing its own deal with Twitter. It was enough to make your head spin, but surely one thing that stood out among all that news was how well Apple did in its earnings and how poorly Microsoft did in comparison.

Apple Scores a Record Quarter

As I wrote the other day in Win 7 Left in the Publicity Dust, Apple had a quarterly earnings report for the ages:

Quote:

Not only did they do well, they did freaking incredible scoring their best quarter ever. In the middle of the biggest recession in 50 years, Apple generated a whopping $1.67B profit.

You don't need to be a financier to know that's doing really well and the profits resulted in earnings of $1.82 per share (according to numbers on Mac World). And here's some other tidbits:

Quote:

Comparing those numbers to Apple’s year-ago figures, quarterly profit rose 46 percent, while earnings per share jumped 44 percent. Revenue increased 25 percent from the September 2008 quarter. At the end of the [quarter], the company had $34 billion of cash on hand.

That we are in the middle of a recession, only makes those numbers that much more impressive. Meanwhile, Microsoft's numbers came out today, and the results: not so good.

Microsoft's Number Are a Different Story

When the good news is that you beat analysts expectations by not having a quarter as *bad* as analysts thought, it's not such a great thing. And Microsoft's numbers were mediocre at best. Mary Jo Foley reports on her Ziff-David blog:

Quote:

For the quarter, which ended on September 30, Microsoft’s net income was down 18 percent, to $3.57 billion, and revenues down 14 percent, to $12.92 billion — both compared to the first quarter earnings for fiscal 2009.

Foley said the losses were due mostly to Microsoft's biggest earners, Windows and Office, taking a big hit. To be fair, it should be interesting to see if there is a turn-around next quarter with the holiday shopping season and the release of Windows 7 and the new Zune along with more time for Bing to bake. There had better be or Microsoft could be starting to show signs of faltering a bit.

Hard Not To Compare

These two companies battle each other and when one is doing so much better than the other, it's hard not to see the contrast and point it out. It's clear at this point, that Apple is doing great at the high end. Its computers and laptops are selling well and at a high profit margin. The iPhone market continues to grow.

Microsoft has yet to find a new product that can match the success of products rolled out by Apple this decade, still living off its Windows and Office profits. But if that continues to diminish, how will Microsoft continue to maintain its profits in the years to come? It's not an easy question to answer and one that the powers that be in Redmond are very likely puzzling over even as we speak, hoping I'm sure, that their recent moves will result in their own stellar earnings reports in the future.

News Story Groups Working to Set Up .Gay Domain

slfisher — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 02:57:08 GMT

Two groups are working to set up a .gay top-level Internet domain, with plans for using some of the proceeds for registering sites in that domain to support gay causes, according to an article in the New York Times.

While it can cost up to $400,000 to set up a new top-level domain, companies compete for control, because the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which oversees the development and management of the Internet’s unique identifiers, awards the registry rights to just one applicant for each new top-level domain, which can result in millions of dollars per year, the Times said.

Currently, the two groups are competing for the right to apply by each claiming to be more gay than the other. "The Dot Gay Alliance (dotgay.org), out of New York City, is being led by a longtime gay activist," the Times said. "And dotGay (dotgay.com) is being spearheaded by a heterosexual German man in Riga, Latvia, who has incorporated a company in San Francisco."

The Dot Gay Alliance points out that it is run by a gay man, while dotGay points out that it is based in San Francisco and that its head has experience setting up new top-level domains.

Neither of the for-profit groups has said what percentage of revenues it would commit for gay causes, though Joe Dolce, founder and executive director of the Dot Gay Alliance, spoke favorably of Al Gore's declaration that he would support a particular group's right to the .eco top-level domain -- where a similar fight is taking place -- only if half the proceeds went to environmental causes.

News Story Craigslist: Developers' Jobs and Other Jobs

EddieC — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:48:52 GMT

Craigslist hosts classified ads of all kinds, including lengthy lists of developer's jobs in New York and the San Francisco Bay area. But another type of job listing was in the spotlight today, and it's nice to know there's at least one person out there who's thinking clearly.

A judge in Illinois yesterday threw out a case brought against Craigslist for facilitating prostitution, simply because people listed what were alleged to be such services on the company's no-frills Websites. That would be like blaming gun makers every time someone is shot to death, or suing makers of aluminum bats for the risk they pose to amateur pitchers. Oh wait, those are both happening.

But a cooler head prevailed in the Craigslist case, which was brought by Cook County Sheriff's office. John F. Grady, the U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois, ruled in a 20-page judgement (pdf) that Craigslist can't be blamed. "Intermediaries are not culpable for 'aiding and abetting' their customers who misuse their services to commit unlawful acts," the judge wrote in his dismissal of the case. Citing the Communications Decency Act, an early Congressional attempt to regulate online porn, shields companies from liability because of the way people use their services.

Craigslist already had banned advertising of illegal services prior to the case. The service drew attention in April when Phillip Markoff, a Boston man dubbed the "Craigslist Killer," was apprehended following a series of robberies in which he allegedly selected his targets from people posting such services. One such woman was murdered. All such deaths are tragic, yes, but you can't blame the phone company for telemarketers.

News Story Connecticut Republicans Set Up Fake Democratic Accounts

slfisher — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:52:58 GMT

Twitter, Inc., has shut down 33 fake Twitter accounts created by Republicans using the names of Democratic state representatives, but fake websites using the Democrats' names are still up.

The story was reported in the Hartford Advocate, an alternative newsweekly.

State Republican Chairman Chris Healy told the paper that it was the Connecticut Republicans' idea.

Twitter announced earlier this year that it planned to verify the accounts of people such as public officials, after several cases of Twitter impersonations.

According to the paper, a Democratic legislative leader reported the accounts to Twitter, which replied, "A person may not impersonate others through the Twitter service in a manner that does or is intended to mislead, confuse or deceive others. ... Impersonation is against our terms unless it is a parody. The standard for defining parody is, 'Would a reasonable person be aware that it's a joke?' Because this is not the case in your situation, we have removed the profile(s) from circulation."

Healy criticized the Democrats' response as "stopping free speech."

The fake web sites all use the same theme and basic design, and note at the bottom that they were "Paid for and Authorized by the Connecticut Republican Party, Jerry Labriola Jr. Treasurer." They are called "Meet Matt Lesser," "Meet Joe Aresimowicz," and so on, with the names of the 33 Democratic legislators.

The sites, as well as other articles about the issue, can be found with this web search.

News Story Ads in your OS?

GuyClapperton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:32:19 GMT

Sometimes you see something and you really, really hope it's a hoax. Take this story on Slashdot, which confirms if true that Apple has applied for a patent to put advertising into its operating systems.

I really, really don't want adverts when I switch my computer on. Actually that's not strictly true; I tried it once, when ISPs were experimenting with how to go free in the 1990s and one of the ideas was that you could push ads out to people. It rolled over and died because people ignored the ads and didn't click on them.

It will happen again if any major OS manufacturer tries to do it. I hope, hope, hope, this is a hoax. I'm fond of my Apple kit (most Apple users are, we have to go beyond rational because of the price) and would hate to see them blow it completely.

News Story 5 Reasons Why You Should Switch to Windows 7 (And 5 More Reasons Why You Shouldn't)

khess — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:58:32 GMT

Yesterday was Microsoft's big day. Windows 7 was released. Did you go buy your copy already? Are you waiting? Whether you have or haven't doesn't really matter but I'm going to give you my five reasons why you should switch to Windows 7 and five more why you shouldn't. Both are compelling and perhaps might change your mind one way or another.

This list might seem odd coming from a guy who ordinarily writes on Linux topics, but as an IT professional I have to work with all operating systems and deal with their quirks accordingly. This is my list of reasons to switch and not to switch based on my experiences with both Windows and Linux--and more specifically Windows 7.

The Five Reasons to Switch to Windows 7:

1. It's new. That's right; simple enough. It's new. What's better than a new version of an operating system (OS)? Windows 7 is a new OS which brings a lot of new promises and hopes to a world that has either held on too long to Windows XP or had issues with Windows Vista. In either case, Windows 7 is a refreshing change and it's long overdue.

2. It's not Vista. Vista was Microsoft's biggest mistake since Windows Me--and no, I won't let it go. Windows Me was bad. Really bad. Windows Vista is also very, very bad. It's slow, it's clunky, it's often unresponsive and it is not a pleasure to use. Every computer, except one, I have upgraded to Windows XP from Vista every time I see it on a computer that I have any control or say so over. Being Not Vista is a very compelling reason to switch. I think Microsoft owes Vista owners a huge discount or a free copy of Windows 7 and an apology for Windows Vista but that's just me.

3. Performance. Windows 7 boots way faster than any other MS OS since Windows 3.1. It's impressive to say the least. It also was an almost complete rewrite of all subsystems from a performance standpoint. It takes advantage of multi-core processor technology and it has the same hardware requirements as Vista--so that means you don't have to go out and buy a new computer to run it. Windows 7 feels "lighter" and snappier than even Windows XP. It runs comfortably on Netbooks, which is a huge boost over the not recommended for Netbooks Vista.

4. XP Mode and Virtualization. All of your applications should run fine on Windows 7 if they run on XP. 7 also has built-in virtualization with Virtual PC if you purchase the Ultimate or the Enterprise version.

5. Smooth Upgrade Path from Vista. Windows 7 upgrades from Vista without issue but don't expect that behavior from a Windows XP to 7 upgrade; it won't work. To do this upgrade, you'll need a third party product or you'll have to wipe out your Windows XP installation and install Windows 7 fresh.

The Five Reasons to Not to Switch to Windows 7:

1. It Isn't Windows XP. To this you might be saying, "Duh" but I have a good reason for saying this: Windows 7 is more 'Vista-esque' in its behavior than XP is. So, if you're expecting a smooth cutover to 7 from XP, fugettaboutit. It's not the same. Oh there's still the familiar Control Panel, Programs and so on but when you look for your "My Documents" folder, surprise, it isn't there. There's a Documents folder under Libraries. Libraries replaces My Documents for some odd reason. Libraries is where you'll find your documents, music, pictures and videos. But, there's another surprise for you. If you go poking around a bit under your user name: C:\Users\username, you'll see a My Documents folder which is an alias to your Documents folder under Libraries. Cool, huh? Why the change? Who knows? Basically, Microsoft has "Macified" Windows 7 with all this 'I don't know where on the actual disk my stuff is' design. Oh, well, get used to it; it's what you've always wanted: A Mac for less than half the price.

2. It Isn't a Desktop Savior. If you're going into a Windows 7 upgrade with the hope that Windows 7 is the finest operating system since DOS, you're sadly mistaken. Windows 7 is Microsoft's apology for Vista. Windows 7 is really a transitional operating system for Microsoft. It is the OS that will keep you quiet long enough for them to work on and launch the true next generation of operating system, which will be something totally unique.

3. It's Expensive. Microsoft made no real apologies for Vista in the way of a cheap upgrade to Windows 7, so go into this with your eyes open to a cost ranging from $100 to just over $300, depending on the version you choose to use.

4. It's Still Windows. Another 'Duh' moment but allow me to explain that statement. "It's still Windows," means that you'll still have the same issues that you've always had with Windows operating systems; this one is no great stray from the mother ship on that matter. Expect lots of patches that require rebooting, driver issues, security fixes that also require rebooting and a fantastic array of new viruses, malware and spyware specifically designed to target 7's weak spots.

5. It Ain't Linux. OK, yet another 'Duh' for the list and I'm sure that I'll receive rancid attacks from the Microsoft Fanboy Cheering Section on this but hear me out first. People are so quick to call some new version of an OS as a "Insert your least favorite operating system here" killer. Well it ain't. It ain't Linux and it ain't a Linux killer by any stretch. In fact, there will be a great number of people and companies who will mull the switch from their current operating system to either Windows 7 or some Linux distribution. Windows 7 prompts us to take a good long look at vendor lock-in, fewer freedoms and more expense. It ain't Linux and it ain't free.

Have you seen Windows 7 yet? Do you expect to upgrade soon or are you going to wait? Tell me about your plans to switch or to wait and why.

News Story Are you a Citizen Developer?

newsguy — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:13:39 GMT

Within the next five years, Citizen Developers will be responsible for building at least 25% of all new business applications. That is the rather startling claim being made by Gartner analysts ahead of the Gartner Symposium and ITexpo in Cannes, France next month.

So what is a Citizen Developer then? No, it is not somebody who creates avatars for immersive virtual world projects but rather, so says Gartner, a "user operating outside of the scope of enterprise IT and its governance who creates new business applications for consumption by others either from scratch or by composition".

Eric Knipp, a senior research analyst for the company, is convinced that citizen-developed applications will, over the next few years at least, start to leverage IT investments below the surface. The idea being that IT can then focus on the deeper architectural concerns that should be of most concern anyway, while the end users can concentrate upon 'wiring together' services within business process and workflow.

"Citizen development introduces the opportunity for end users to address projects that IT has never had time to get to" Knipp insists "a vast expanse of departmental and situational projects that have lain beneath the surface".

As long ago as 1982, when James Martin coined the term 4GL in his "Applications Development Without Programmers" book, this notion of application development performed by business users themselves has been floating about. So what's changed to push it into the limelight now? Knipp thinks the answer is cloud computing which has "unlocked the market for 4GL-style development environments delivered as a service" and predicts "rapid growth will occur through 2014 as cloud computing matures".

During the last Gartner Symposium in Orlando, which has just drawn to a close this week, Knipp identified four converging forces that are advancing the cause of Citizen Development:

Mass personalisation is custom tailoring by a company in accordance with its end users' tastes and references. End users start to become developers when they start to personalise software for their use. Mashup tools enable personalisation while allowing reuse of existing service-oriented-architecture investments. Ubiquitous access via mobile devices drives the need for further personalisation of content and applications.

Infrastructure industrialisation is coming via cloud computing, a model of delivering elastically scalable computing resources as a service over the internet. Cloud computing frees application development from infrastructure ownership.

Changing demographics are resulting from the retirement of baby boomers, and the maturation of "digital natives" means that the workforce will expect technology to "just work." The consumerisation of technology is not a trend for these people — it's a way of life.

Developer tool evolution resulting from stepwise advances in programming tools (programs used by software developers to create, debug, maintain or otherwise support other programs) has made application development more accessible than ever.

News Story Insights from the cloud

GuyClapperton — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:51:14 GMT

So I'm helping host an event for Google yesterday - called Atmosphere, it was based in London and had about 300 CIOs present. I was lucky enough to be chairing a couple of panel discussions (and will put YouTube links in here if anyone's interested in what CIOs from Amazon, Jaguar Landrover and elsewhere had to say on the cloud).

One interesting point was when a member of the audience asked what the panel would be doing about Windows 7. The response was unanimous. First they said they wouldn't be doing anything on day one of a release of a new system and no self-respecting CIO would disagree (for what it's worth I found this an entirely reasonable view).

Second, though, after agreeing there might be a place for it in a couple of years, they added that they didn't care about Windows, Macs or anything else any more. The one thing driving these international CIOs is what you can find on the browser - what's useful, what's working, what's productive, if it's stored locally they just don't want to know any more.

This could end up as quite a shock to that nice Mr. Gates and even that nice Mr. Jobs as it starts to filter out to the small business community and then the consumer market. Cynics will say it's thin client all over again. Other critics say that themassive advance in the 1980s and 1990s was that everybody had a personal computer on their desk. But as one of the speakers said yesterday, arguably the big change now is that everyone's going to have their own managed data centre on their desk without having to worry how it's done.

Windows? Mac? Linux? I wonder how long we'll care?

News Story Make Virtual Apps For (and From) Windows 7

EddieC — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:10:26 GMT

Keeping pace with Microsoft's latest releases, Xenocode this week unveiled Virtual Application Studio 2010, an update to its virtualization engine that supports Windows 7, simplifies app-publishing to the Web, and permits deployment to multiple platforms using a single executable, the company said. Microsoft this week began shipping Windows 7, and put out a final beta of Visual Studio 2010, which is set for general availability in March.

Virtual Application Studio turns an application into a self-contained executable, which can be e-mailed or transported on a USB drive and executed on any modern Windows PC without regard for what else might be installed. With just a few clicks, developers can virtualize their Windows-based applications for instant deployment to internal servers or the Web. The cost is US$40 per developer seat; there are no royalties.

Introduced in 2008, Virtual Application Studio 2010 now reportedly can execute vitualized apps on any version of Windows 7, can virtualize apps designed for it, and now permits applications to be launched directly from within a Web browser (via Spoon), reducing the time required by the traditional download-and-install process, the company said. A new platform merge function allows virtual apps to be customized based on the target operating system, allowing deployment to multiple platforms using a single executable. The new version includes application templates for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Office, OpenOffice and other popular software, which simplify the virtualization of applications. You can also now set expiration values for your apps, with the option to halt after a set number of days or executions. On that note, Xenocode also lets you download an evaluation version and see a demo of Virtual Application Studio 2010 at xenocode.com.

News Story Wait, Windows 7 Costs How Much?

EddieC — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:48:00 GMT

With the price of Windows 7 topping out at US$320, Microsoft will be handing shoppers less cash at the end of its "I'm a PC" commercials. Price advantages of Windows-laptops over those from Apple evaporated further today as Microsoft's latest operating system hit store shelves and OEM factories.

In typical Microsoft fashion, there are six versions of Windows 7, something for everyone at every price point. All but the Starter Edition support 32- and 64-bit architectures. At $320 are the feature-identical Ultimate and Enterprise Editions. Both are available at retail and pre-installed through OEMs; volume pricing is available for Enterprise. Here's a question for Microsoft: If they're identical in every way, why offer two? The company says it's targeting one at corporations and the other at hobbyists. And?

Even more puzzling is the way Microsoft divided features of its Home Premium ($200) and Professional Editions, (both also available at retail or pre-installed). Home Premium limits system to RAM 16GB, while Pro permits up to 192GB (as do Ultimate and Enterprise). Home Premium also is limited to a single CPU (others max out at two), can't back up to a network drive or encrypt files, and lacks an XP Mode, which runs a virtual instance of Windows XP for apps not yet ready for Windows 7. Today's "home" users are a pretty sophisticated bunch; I don't think Microsoft gives them enough credit.

Windows 7 is still cheaper than Vista, which maxed out at $399. And if you're upgrading from a prior Windows version, the cost is about $100 cheaper. Also, if you're moving from XP, you'll have no choice but to do a clean install. Which means reinstalling all your apps, plug-ins, drivers and data. This is a serious bummer. Vista users can choose between an upgrade path or clean install. Either way, support will cost you extra.

Microsoft offers a pair of tools to help you determine compatibility with Windows 7 of your system and installed applications. For a full feature breakdown, refer to Wikipedia's Windows 7 feature comparison chart.

News Story Google, Bing and Twitter sitting in a tree...

happygeek — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:36:49 GMT

Forget the Windows 7 launch, the real big news from Microsoft this week is that it has reached a deal with Twitter to include real-time tweet data in Bing searches. If that wasn't excitement enough for the Twitterati, just a few hours after Microsoft made its announcement Google joined in and announced that it too had reached an agreement with Twitter to do the same.

If you still play buzzword bingo, then forget Web 2.0 or even Social Media if you want to score big points, the buzzword today has to be Real Time Web. And that is what has got both Microsoft and Google so excited, the notion of capturing and enabling access to data in real time. It is something of the Holy Grail as far as search is concerned, and something which the deals with Twitter makes a little more of a reality.

In an announcement on Wednesday Microsoft was positively gushing over the glory of Twitter, stating "Twitter is producing millions of tweets every minute on every subject you can imagine. The power of those tweets as a form of data that can be surfaced in search is enormous. Innovative services like Twitter give us access to public opinion and thoughts in a way that has not before been possible".

Which is why Microsoft was pleased to announce that "we now have access to the entire public Twitter feed and have a beta of Bing Twitter search for you to play with" which is great, and you can try the thing out here. Assuming you are in the US that is. The great real time global news and opinion feed that is Twitter is only available to Americans for now. The logic behind that particular decision escapes me, so if anyone from Microsoft, or on the Bing team, cares to comment here and explain I'm ready and waiting.

I am also ready and waiting for the Google Twitter Search which is not just available for the US audience. In fact it is not even available for the US audience, or any other for that matter. All Google has done is quickly react to the Microsoft announcement and let everyone know that it too has done a deal with Twitter to try and take some of the sting out of Bing beating them to the PR punch.

"We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data" says Marissa Mayer, Vice President of Search Products and User Experience at Google, who continues "we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months".

Coming months? Looks like Microsoft really has stolen a march on Google this time. Another feather in the Bing bonnet, but one that may well blow away when Google does get that Twitter search integration sorted. I just hope it doesn't take too long to archive and index the 5 billion tweets that have already been tweeted, and the millions more that are being added every day.

News Story Poor Win 7 Left in the Publicity Dust

Techwriter10 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 19:33:42 GMT

It's supposed to be Windows 7's big week, but other news just seems to keep getting in the way. And it's not just competitors like the news coming out of Apple this week, it's big announcements coming from inside Microsoft too. You would think that Microsoft could at least keep its own house in order, but that doesn't seem to be the case this week.

Apple's Earnings Surprise

As Joe Wilcox writes in Beta News, the timing of Apple's news this week was not coincidental. On Monday Apple released its quarterly earning reports and it blew analysts' expectations away. Not only did they do well, they did freaking incredible scoring their best quarter ever. In the middle of the biggest recession in 50 years, Apple generated a whopping $1.67B profit.

Consider that Apple sold more than 3 million Macs and 7.4 million iPhones in the quarter. The only bad news was that iPod sales were down 8 percent as people gravitated toward the iPhone. Beyond that, the only thing Apple has to worry about is unrealistic expectations for next quarter.

Apple Releases new Toys

As though the outstanding earnings report weren't enough, Apple released a new line of Apple products on Tuesday generating yet another wave of publicity. There was the new Mac Book, the updated iMac, the new Mac Mini server and of course, the superbly named, Magic Mouse (who wouldn't want one, so much cooler sounding than Mighty). The social networks were buzzing with folks talking and talking about this new line and it continues today, but it wasn't just Apple stealing that spotlight from Windows 7. Microsoft has had some news of its own.

SharePoint 2010 Anyone?

Meanwhile, in a case of poor corporate planning, Microsoft was holding a major conference in Las Vegas this week announcing their own upcoming SharePoint 2010, which includes a cloud and server versions. Steve Ballmer gave the keynote, and as I wrote the other day in Ballmer Gets that Sidekick Issue a Matter of Trust, he gave interviews afterward to ward off the bad publicity generated around the Sidekick data loss incident.

Oh And Bing Makes Deal With Twitter

As though all this weren't enough to cause the folks in charge of Win 7 publicity to be biting their finger nails down to bare knuckle, today Microsoft announced a major deal between Bing and Twitter with a rumor that one with Facebook is not far behind. This is of course great news for Microsoft, but it's a day ahead of the Windows 7 release party. You would think that this week of all weeks, they probably wanted to keep the company focus on one thing and that's Windows 7.

In the context of all this news, suddenly the Windows 7 release seems pretty anti-climactic, doesn't it? If it were competitors alone trying to undermine the big release, you could understand it, but when the publicity competition comes from inside your own company, you have to wonder why there wasn't a little bit better coordination here. Windows 7 should have the spotlight to itself and now it's sitting backstage all alone and feeling blue watching everyone fawn over SharePoint and Bing (and magic mice).

News Story Google finds 700 million lost messages

newsguy — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:51:16 GMT

Once upon a time, Usenet newsgroups were the Twitter, Facebook and forums of the online world. All the early Internet community makers were there, and important announcements such as the arrival of Mosaic by Marc Andreesen broke there first.

Then the inevitable happened, and Usenet slowly imploded. That could have been the end of it, but everyone assumed this fairy tale would come with a Hollywood ending after Google got involved and waved a magic wand over the Usenet archive and turned it into Google Groups.

Unfortunately, not a lot happened in the years since February 2001 when Google acquired Deja.com and that archive, with some 700 million Usenet posts appearing to be lost as far as anyone performing a Google search on specific newsgroups were concerned.

As Wired reported, "Searching within a newsgroup, even one with thousands of posts, produces no results at all. Confining a search to a range of dates also fails silently, bulldozing the most obvious path to exploring an archive" - oops! And Wired was reporting a year after the Usenet search bugs had first been spotted and Slashdotted.

The good news is that Google has, it would appear, finally fixed Google Groups. Apparently a bug was found within days of the Wired feature, and it is now possible to search specific groups for specific text and actually find what you are looking for.

The bad news is that date range searches are still not working, although Google has promised that it is now working on applying some tender loving care to Google Groups and getting the kind of functionality we expect from Google into place.

News Story What Broadband Projects are in Line for Stimulus Funding?

slfisher — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:03:48 GMT

In the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, Congress appropriated $7.2 billion for broadband grants, loans, and loan guarantees to be administered by the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (RUS) and the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The deadline for submissions was earlier this year.

Now, you can search the database yourself to find what projects were submitted.

Endeavour Partners, a consulting company, downloaded the data to see what it could find out about the proposals.

First of all, $28 billion in requests was submitted for $7.2 billion in funding.

Other observations include:

2,186 applications were received
The average application size was $12.7 million, but the median application size was $2.7 million
Alaska had the largest total dollar amount requested, at $1.3 billion
The largest application was from RADgov, a proposal to build and connect computer learning centers in underserved communities across the US for $938 million
The top 10 states requesting the most money were California, Florida, Colorado, Alaska, New York, Texas, Virginia, Missouri, Maryland, and Illinois.
The top 10 states requesting the most money per capita were Alaska, the District of Columbia, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Hawaii, Vermont, Colorado, New Mexico, and Maryland.

While a number of the top 10 per capita states actually are laggards in terms of broadband availability, "three of the top 10 states ranked on funding requests per capita are in the top 10 for actual broadband performance: Rhode Island, the District of Columbia, and Maryland," the group said. "These are all densely populated areas with meaningful broadband competition."

Awards for this first round are expected to be announced in November.

"It will be interesting to see how the process plays out – if awards will be made to a few large, pork barrel projects or if dollars will be carefully allocated to the rural states and areas where broadband economics break down and private sector competition is likely to remain weak," Endeavour concluded.

News Story Launches ain't what they used to be

GuyClapperton — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:37:32 GMT

The Microsoft Windows 7 launch is all but upon us and I can't say I'm sorry. Not that I'm directly affected as a Mac user but Vista is now almost officially acknowledged as a flop and it'll be good to see Microsoft back in the game properly, in terms of a good system as well as market share.

The launch itself, though, is leaving me cold. In the past we've had a lot of showbiz from both camps. The launches were an event in their own right - remember as far back as Windows 95, when Bill Gates used 'Start Me Up' by the Rolling Stones as the soundtrack? With the line 'You Make A Grown Man Cry'? Now where was that when we were struggling with Vista.

Likewise this year's Snow Leopard launch from Apple. The critics - including me - said it was more of a nudge up, a maintenance release, than a full-blown new OS. The launch wasn't exciting, and neither was the last batch of iPods.

One of two things is happening, possibly both. First the recession is really kicking in. In spite of talk of recovery, no-one has the confidence to spend a lot of dollars marketing anything no matter how confident they tell us they feel. Second - and this could be a good thing - these companies are finally starting to grow up. There is suddenly an understanding that we're not going to go back to our desks, punch the air and behave as if they'd invented a new and better way of breathing, they finally understand that these are just systems that make computers run with a bit more juice.

Convinced? Nah, me neither, it'll be the money. Roll on Windows 8, I could do with a good gig...

News Story Ballmer Gets that Sidekick Issue A Matter of Trust

Techwriter10 — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:54:53 GMT

Attachment 12206
I've lived long enough to have learned
The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned
But that won't happen to us
'Cause it's always been a matter of trust
~Billy Joel, Matter of Trust

When word got out last week about the Sidekick data loss debacle, you knew it would be fodder for every cloud critic on the planet. When you're Microsoft and you lose data, there isn't going to be any place to hide. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, gets this.

That's why he was trying to soothe cloud consumer fears, while at the same time pushing the new SharePoint Online service in an interview with Network World yesterday, following his keynote at the SharePoint 2009 Conference in Las Vegas. Perhaps calling the data loss "not good" was minimizing the impact, but overall Mr. Ballmer seems to get the enormity of the problem (even while hoping to minimize it; that crazy political tightrope that CEOs like him must walk).

Kicking Sidekick data to the Curb

Microsoft had a major data loss last week involving Sidekick smart phones. This much is clear. There are indications (at least coming from Microsoft) that they are in the process of recovering the data, and that their initial fears that the data had been lost for good was fortunately not the case. But the Sidekick data disaster has to be seen in the context of the bigger cloud picture, particularly for Microsoft's ongoing cloud strategy.

Fear in the Cloud

Even the most avid cloud advocates must have a niggling fear in the back of their minds that a data loss similar to the one that happened to Sidekick is out there waiting to happen. Microsoft is in the process of trying to build a cloud business. The Network World article reports that SharePoint in the cloud already boasts 1 million users, and they have a big cloud strategy around the Azure platform. There is a lot at stake here involving the whole future strategy of the company and the shift from the desktop to the cloud.

Microsoft Trust Issues

When you're Microsoft, you face an even deeper issues of trust. Many companies are probably wondering if they can trust their data with Microsoft, and this just feeds into those concerns. Ballmer admits that his company has used this scare tactic against competitors, and they will be likely to throw this right back at them:

Quote:

"It is one of the things that we highlight in competitive battles; that our competitors have had a whole lot of outages in their services. We do highlight it [when they have a problem],” he said.

“I'm sure our competitors will highlight this outage,” he said.

You better believe they will. They are probably feeding the social networks, printing the brochures and shouting about it from the rooftops, as we speak. This isn't going to go away because whether they fix it or not, the fear is out there, and it has Microsoft's name attached to it.

That's why Microsoft's job just got harder. This one incident could have a major impact on their cloud strategy and it's going to take a lot of soothing talks from Steve Ballmer and a spotless track record to regain the trust. I'm sure this interview is just the beginning.

Photo by bargainbriana on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons License.

Attached Images

trustme.jpg (124.2 KB)

News Story Warning: Trojans Hiding In Facebook Apps

newsguy — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:01:33 GMT

It's not just phishing scams that Facebook users have to worry about right now,

According to Roger Thompson, the Chief Research Officer with security vendor AVG, hacked Facebook applications are increasingly reaching out to exploit sites based in Russia. As Thompson says, this is different to the normal run of things whereby people are linking to hacked pages innocently enough on social networking sites. "These seem to be actual Facebook applications that have been hacked" Thompson points out, adding that the application developers are "innocent victims too".

AVG researchers first spotted the trend when a fire-fighter simulation game which it assumed was a developer hack, pointing to a Russian site where a scareware scam was being peddled. But when they looked closer, they discovered in the source code for the web pages an injected iframe that did the damage.

What is not obvious at the moment is just where the holes are in the infected Facebook apps which are letting the bad guys inject their code, but Thompson is as sure as he can be that the app developers are just as much victims as anyone else in these matters. So far AVG has uncovered at least 8 Facebook apps which have been compromised, and the full details can be found here along with screenshots of one exploited app and the exploit sites it reaches out to.

Maybe it is time to rethink the way that Facebook approaches app development and reconsider adopting the Apple approach to app security?

News Story 5 Billion Tweets!

happygeek — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:13:10 GMT

GigaTweet has been counting the total number of messages posted to Twitter in real time, and the rolling count is almost hypnotic. Overnight the 5 billionth Tweet was posted.

So what was it?

Perhaps someone speaking out against corporates trying to gag freedom of the press again? Nope.

Maybe another campaign kicking off against insensitive and homophobic ranting in the Daily Mail newspaper? Nope.

Must be an anarchist orchestrating a protest movement then? Nope.

Which surely only leaves the willy waving celebrity crowd, was it one of them letting us know they had eaten dinner with another celeb and were off to bed now? Nope.

It surely wasn't me, @happygeek, saying something profound? Nope, no chance of that I am afraid.

Actually, the 5 billionth Tweet was something of a let down, yet a refreshing reminder that the real power of Twitter is with ordinary users having ordinary conversations with their ordinary friends.

It would appear that Tweet 5,000,000,000 was posted by one Robin Sloan (@robinsloan) in reply to a user called @sexysloan9912e, and simply said "Oh lord".

Indeed.

News Story "I've Been Mugged! Send Money!"

slfisher — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:40:16 GMT

The other day I was on Facebook and a chat window popped up from a college friend of mine.

Bob: Hey there. How are u doing?
Sharon: ok. you?
Bob: Am not too good. Im in some kind of deep mess right now
Sharon: uh oh. what happened?

What "Bob" didn't know was that I was already suspicious of him by then.

Bob: Im stranded in London. I got mugged at a gun point last night!

Sure you did, "Bob."

This is a classic example of the "I've been mugged!" scam that's been going around Facebook chat. A friend starts a chat, tells how they've been mugged in some world city, and begs you to use Western Union to wire them some money.

(Poor Western Union. Does anyone use them for anything legitimate any more?)

Not to mention -- robbed at gunpoint? In England? Are you kidding?

But I played along.

Sharon: oh no!
Bob: All cash,credit card and phone was stolen!
Sharon: that's terrible!
Bob: Thank God i still have my life and passport
Sharon: yes, for sure
Bob: I need your urgent help Sharon!
Sharon: how can I help?

Then I waited for "the touch." Sadly, there were no more messages, and four minutes later "Bob" had signed off.

I got into email to contact "Bob" and let him know what was going on, only to find email from him in my mailbox, warning that he thought his account had been hacked and to ignore any chat messages from him.

What tipped me off is that I'd read articles about this method. But what tipped Bob -- the real one -- off?

"They tried to change my contact email address," Bob said. "FB sent a notice asking me to confirm the change. I had not initiated said change, so I knew something was up."

(Notice, too, the sorts of word choices and spelling the real Bob uses, compared to the fake one.)

What should you do if you're on the receiving end of one of these scams? Experts suggest that you try to confirm some piece of information that only the real person would know, such as the last time you saw each other or the names of their children or pets. And, of course, try to contact the real person to see if they're actually in London or wherever.

Obviously, also, pay attention if you get an unexpected message trying to change your email address. Bob took the additional step of emailing his friends, plus posting a message with his real location so people would be suspicious if they then heard he was in London.

Sadly, many of these scams are perpetrated outside the U.S., so it's tough to nail them.

News Story 2009's Top 10 Reader's Choice Linux Distributions

khess — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:17:24 GMT

My "10 Best Linux Distributions of 2009" list drew a bit of disdain from some of my readers, so I thought I'd make it up to them by posting a list of Linux distributions that they like to use. Since I have no way of knowing which of these distributions is better or worse than the others, I've place them in alphabetical order instead of any real ranking based on quality, community, development cycle or other criteria. I want to show you, faithful reader, that I do indeed read your comments and take your feedback seriously. You have a voice and I thank you for using it--this is your list--by you and for you.

Since I'm not familiar with some of the distributions on this list, most of the information is taken directly from the distribution's own website.

1. Arch Linux - Billed as a lightweight and flexible Linux distribution that tries to Keep It Simple. Arch Linux is an independently developed, i686/x86-64 general purpose GNU/Linux distribution versatile enough to suit any role. Development focuses on simplicity, minimalism, and code elegance. Arch is installed as a minimal base system, configured by the user upon which their own ideal environment is assembled by installing only what is required or desired for their unique purposes. GUI configuration utilities are not officially provided, and most system configuration is performed from the shell by editing simple text files. Arch strives to stay bleeding edge, and typically offers the latest stable versions of most software. Arch Linux uses a "rolling release" system which allows one-time installation and perpetual software upgrades. It is not generally necessary to reinstall or upgrade your Arch Linux system from one "version" to the next. By issuing one command, an Arch system is kept up-to-date and on the bleeding edge.

2. Gentoo - I included Gentoo in the original list but I thought I'd include it again since so many readers responded positively to it. Gentoo Linux, a special flavor of Linux that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme performance, configurability and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience. Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD that can be automatically optimized and customized for just about any application or need. Extreme configurability, performance and a top-notch user and developer community are all hallmarks of the Gentoo experience. Thanks to a technology called Portage, Gentoo can become an ideal secure server, development workstation, professional desktop, gaming system, embedded solution or something else -- whatever you need it to be. Because of its near-unlimited adaptability, we call Gentoo a metadistribution.

3. Hannah Montana Linux - I laughed out loud when someone asked me why I didn't include it in my top 10 for 2009. It's a real distribution, based on Kubuntu, with a Hannah Montana theme. Hannah Montana Linux is fast, stable and powerful. It includes a Hannah Montana themed boot screen, KDM, icon set, ksplash, plasma, color scheme, and wallpapers. It is not vulnerable to Windows viruses. I've tried to keep my eight-year-old daughter from seeing this one--so far, so good.

4. Mandriva Linux - Very popular in France, Brazil and some African countries. On the consumer side, Mandriva develops and distributes Linux distributions: Mandriva One, the light, easy to use and safe free distro, Mandriva Free, the pure GPL free Linux distro, Mandriva Powerpack, the complete and customizable distro for the power user and Mandriva Flash, the mobile desktop USB key. Free products are available for download from the Mandriva site. Commercial products are available through Mandriva's electronic store, in retail stores and through partners worldwide. The company provides a number of electronic services through its web site. It evaluates its number of users to a few millions. On the corporate side, Mandriva helps large and medium size organizations to migrate to Linux, thanks to its Corporate Desktop and Corporate Server products and helps them administer large number of machines thanks to its system administration tool, Pulse. The company provides to its corporate customers technology, products and services (consulting, training and support). It has about 100 corporate customers.

5. Mepis - Mepis is a Debian-based distro that touts its ease of use, user friendly interface and a live CD image that allows you to try before you commit. The unique nature of MEPIS Linux makes it an ideal foundation for developing a custom version of Linux for large scale deployment. MEPIS is available to work with integrators and end user clients to develop privately branded and optimally tweaked Linux configurations.

6. OpenSUSE - OpenSUSE advertises itself as follows: openSUSE is a free and Linux-based operating system for your PC, Laptop or Server. You can surf the web, manage your e-mails and photos, do office work, play videos or music and have a lot of fun! The openSUSE project is a community program sponsored by Novell. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, openSUSE.org provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE. The openSUSE project gives Linux developers and enthusiasts everything they need to get started with Linux. I didn't include it in my top 10 for 2009 list because it might come in the top 20--just not the top 10. I don't hate openSUSE but it definitely isn't one of my all-time favorites.

7. PCLinuxOS - PCLinuxOS was founded in October 2003. The flagship product, the PCLinux operating system, is a free, easy-to-use Linux-based operating system for the home. PCLinuxOS was founded by Texstar, and is headquartered in Houston, Tx. PCLinuxOS is distributed as a LiveCD, and can also be installed to a local hard drive. LiveCD mode lets you try it without making any changes to your computer. If you like it, you can install it to your hard drive. Locally installed versions of PCLinuxOS utilize the Advanced Packaging Tool (or APT), a package management system (originally from the Debian distribution), together with Synaptic, a GUI frontend to APT. PCLinuxOS has a script called mklivecd, which allows the user to take a 'snapshot' of their current hard drive installation (all settings, applications, documents, etc.) and compress it into an ISO CD/DVD image. This allows easy backup of a user's data and also makes it easy to create your own custom live CD/DVD.

8. Puppy Linux - Puppy Linux calls itself; small, fast and free OS. It is a small but full-featured distribution. Puppy Linux is an operating system for computers. Puppy Linux is based on GNU/Linux. It is completely free and open source software. At ~100MB it's worth checking out for a mini distribution. I put Damn Small Linux in my list because I've used it for some time and this was the alternative that some of my readers suggested.

9. SUSE Studio - While SUSE Studio isn't really a distribution, you can build distributions from it--as long as you want them to be openSUSE-based distributions. SUSE Studio is a website that assists you to build customized appliances for use as standalone machines or as virtual machines. I'm including here simply since it was mentioned by a reader. I love SUSE Studio and highly recommend it for others to use. The only drawback is that you can only use openSUSE. If there was something else this cool that you could use the distro of your choice with, I'd be willing to purchase it.

10. Tinycore - Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux GUI Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, and Fltk. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly. Also offered is Micro Core a 6 MB image that is the console based engine of Tiny Core. CLI versions of Tiny Core's program allows the same functionality of Tiny Core's extensions only starting with a console based system. It is not a complete desktop nor is all hardware completely supported. It represents only the core needed to boot into a very minimal X desktop typically with wired internet access. The user has complete control over which applications and/or additional hardware to have supported, be it for a desktop, a netbook, an appliance, or server, selectable by the user by installing additional applications from online repositories, or easily compiling most anything you desire using tools provided.

Someone also mentioned FreeBSD, which is not Linux but is still worth a mention. I'm not a huge fan of it and though it touts itself as very secure, it was the only system on my network that ever got hacked. I didn't install or support the system; one of my employees did and noted that one day it was hacked and owned by someone who did a fair job of covering his tracks though we did trace his steps back through several other systems and notified each one along the way.

There you have them, my reader's choice list for their favorite Linux distributions. Do you have a favorite that wasn't covered by either list? Write back and let me know.

News Story People still fall for scareware?

GuyClapperton — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:52:38 GMT

Symantec has published one of those rare things - a report that contains an actual surprise. It seems some 4 million people have fallen for Scareware in the last 12 months.

I'm stunned.

Not because people are installing fake antivirus systems. That's a shame but in some ways it's inevitable; people on their own will fall for scams. No, what alarms me is that the IT community (and if we include journalists and bloggers that's all of us) are doing so little to dissuade them.

It wouldn't take much. An email sent to all remote workers reminding them that not only should they not install pirated software onto their systems, not only is clicking a link in an email from someone they don't know and filling bank details in after that a really, really bad idea, but if someone approaches you with AV software it's probably fake. Coming from someone they trust, like an employer, it could transform the way scams succeed on the Internet.

Now if you'll excuse me I have a mail telling me my ISP is going to close my account if I don't log on and confirm all of my passwords...

News Story Gary McKinnon wins extradition reprieve for psych review

happygeek — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:01:16 GMT

Just when it looked like every avenue to prevent the extradition of self-confessed NASA Hacker Gary McKinnon had been exhausted, especially when just last week a couple of High Court judges denied him leave to appeal his case to the highest court in the UK, it looks like the hacking cause célèbre has got a reprieve.

In an unexpected twist, Home Secretary Alan Johnson has delayed the extradition proceedings while he considers the medical evidence. Diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, it has been argued by the Free Gary campaign that to send him to prison in the US would be the equivalent of signing his death warrant.

Certainly there seems to be a groundswell of opinion (both here and in the US) that were McKinnon tried in the UK he would most likely face a more lenient sentence. I myself have argued that he should face the music, as it were, in the UK rather than the US. I recently stated right here on DaniWeb that "I seriously doubt that McKinnon could get a fair trial in the US where he has already been branded a fugitive from justice (for merely going through the legal process of appealing against an extradition order, something to which he has every legal and moral right) and various government and military mouthpieces have made it quite clear that they think the book should be thrown at him and McKinnon should get 'what he deserves' which would appear to be 60 years in a supermax prison apparently".

However, I have also made it quite clear that I believe McKinnon should not be let off with a slap on the wrist. He has broken the law, he admits as much, and must face the consequences - Asperger's Syndrome or not. This has, let's face it, been dragged out long enough now. McKinnon was arrested way back in 2002 and the 43 year old needs to be prosecuted and tried in a court of law so that he, and everyone else, can move forward.

News Story How the Internet is Changing Politics -- or is It?

slfisher — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:35:28 GMT

The 2008 presidential election featured a new emphasis on using the Internet, ranging from raising money to advertising to getting support.

It's still going on. Facebook, in particular, due to the ease in which people can set up affinity groups, is proving to be a new source of online activism, according to a recent article.

"Facebook’s features, such as the ability to add real-world events to a group or fan page, the ability to send a message to up to 5,000 members on a group page and the built-in discussion boards, make it an all-in-one stop for the connected protester," the article said.

It's also expected that, while the Federal Elections Commission ruled in 2006 that campaign regulations do not apply to most Internet activity, except for paid political advertising on someone else's Web site, new rules on campaigning will be in effect by the 2010 election cycle, according to an AP article.

"When does a blog connected to a campaign need to disclose its allegiance?," the article asks. "Does a candidate's personal Facebook page need a disclaimer if it is updated by a staffer? Can a campaign-related tweet — a message posted on social media site Twitter — even be regulated?" Another example cited in the article was whether Internet advertising -- such as pop-up ads whenever someone Googles an opponent -- need the sort of "Paid for by..." disclaimer that printed ads require.

Ironically, however, a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project called Civic Engagement Online found that the Internet hasn't much changed the political landscape.

"Contrary to the hopes of some advocates, the internet [sic] is not changing the socio-economic character of civic engagement in America," said Aaron Smith in the report. "Just as in offline civic life, the well-to-do and well-educated are more likely than those less well off to participate in online political activities such as emailing a government official, signing an online petition or making a political contribution."

However, this may change in the future, Smith said. It is "not inevitable that those with high levels of income and education are the most active in civic and political affairs," he said. "In contrast to traditional acts of political participation -- whether undertaken online or offline -- forms of engagement that use blogs or online social network sites are not characterized by such a strong association with socio-economic stratification."

News Story Do stressed women love to blog?

newsguy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:58:56 GMT

Apparently, women are more than twice as likely to go online and vent when stressed than speak to their partners. That's according to the results of a recent survey which also suggests that when stressed many women go and blog instead of turning to alcohol or chocolate.

The survey, conducted by women's online community Powder Room Graffiti reveals that some 58% of women will write more online during difficult times, either by blogging, commenting or taking part in social networks. Only 23% said they turned to their partners when things got on top of them.

"Our research would certainly indicate that the blogosphere has a real psychological benefit for some women and appears more effective than the more obvious stress relievers of alcohol or face-to-face exchanges with a close confidant" said Diane Hayman from Powder Room Graffiti. "Being encouraged to speak honestly is clearly very liberating for women... we’ve seen people share and debate the full gamut of subjects, many of which would be off-limits in a coffee morning setting or on the pages of a glossy magazine" she added.

Or, of course, there's the alternative theory that the Internet in general, and social networks/communities in particular, are just great places to let off steam no matter what gender you happen to be.

News Story Who needs an iPhone FM radio anyway?

newsguy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 19:26:41 GMT

Why so much fuss about the rumour that Apple is developing an in house app to bring FM radio to the iPhone? Sure, the fact that (assuming the rumour is true) this will be a native application that can run in the background just like the iPod app does on an iPhone is cool, but do we really need a FM radio on the iPhone? It's a valid enough question. Sure, the new iPod Nano has a radio and it adds a needed function, but the iPhone has apps. And, as any app lover will know, there are plenty of streaming radio apps already out there which bring all the radio functionality you could want, and then some.

Yes, I like the sound of integrating radio and iTunes Store so that you could get more info about a song playing and then go on to purchase it in just a click or two. But to be honest I prefer being able to stream that song through the likes of Last.FM or Spotify rather than having to buy it at all.

Yes, I like the idea of the live pause function, assuming that this carries over from the Nano into the iPhone app that is.

But I'm just not convinced that there is any real need for old technology such as FM radio on a next-generation device like the iPhone. It's almost as bizarre as having a Blu-ray player built into a top end HD TV which lets you play VHS tapes.

Maybe it's just a relatively simple thing to do, from the technology perspective, for Apple which will bring a nice but of publicity and no doubt get the media drooling over added features. The iPhone has been able to receive FM radio signals for a while, it is just not enabled as a radio application. The Nike+ fitness system uses the iPhone FM signal functionality to works its magic, for example.

So what do you think? Would you listen to FM radio on an iPhone or is it just a waste of time?

News Story German Book Publishers Cool to eBook Market

Techwriter10 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:13:46 GMT

In a story this week by German news magazine Der Spiegel, I was surprised to learn that German book publishers are actively avoiding the eBook market, fearing it will eat into their print publishing business, instead of seeing it as an obvious new market for consumers to read their books.

eBook Market Slow to Grow in Germany

For now, the eBook market in Germany is lagging far behind the US and other countries where eBook readers are being sold. In fact, according to numbers cited in the article, 10,000 readers have been sold in Germany. Recent projections have the Kindle selling 1.2M units in the US in the 4th quarter of 2009 alone (and that's just one manufacturer). German readers bought just 65,000 eBooks in the first six months of this year compared with some estimates that have Kindle owners buying 600,000 ebooks per *week*.

This is partly due to the way that Germany regulates its publishing industry keeping book prices artificially high in an effort to protect authors, publishers and small book sellers in a highly competitive marketplace, and partly because German publishers want to keep the prices of eBooks high.

To that end, eBooks are only made available only after the paper back version of book has hit stores, and then, unlike the US where the eBook is sold for a fraction of the cost of the hard cover version, German eBooks are sold at the cost of the cheapest printed version, not exactly making it an attractive buy to the average German consumer.

Why Fear the Future

The whole approach seems rather silly to me because the eBook market represents just another way to market and sell the book. eBook Readers remain too costly for most consumers to buy their books in this fashion, and as I've written in the past, unless they come down substantially, it's likely eBooks will remain a niche market for the foreseeable future. That said, there is a market there and to ignore or to quash it, makes little sense to me. If the idea of these pricing strategies is to protect the publishing business, then it doesn't make sense to cut off a market that could contribute to the revenue stream for author and publisher alike.

Exploring the Lower Costs

Yes, eBooks cost less than their paper counterparts, but there is a corresponding lower cost of production for a digital copy. There is no printing involved, eliminating the need to run expensive presses and to roll trucks (and planes) to distribute the books to a network of book sellers around the world. This would seem to increase profit margin by eliminating a substantial part of the cost of producing the printed work, and therefore justifying the lower cost.

Regardless, eBooks aren't likely to completely eliminate the market for print any time soon. There will always be people who prefer to hold the printed work in their hands, and publishers can encourage this market by creating special print versions. For German book publishers to try and limit a market that could help publishers and writers make additional money seems to be missing a substantial opportunity, and carrying their desire to protect the industry a bit too far.

News Story Mozilla says Microsoft browser malware can Firefox off

happygeek — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:21:34 GMT

Odd isn't it, how Microsoft kicked up a fuss when Google announced the Chrome plugin for Internet Explorer on the grounds that it could make the browser more insecure. Indeed, it went as far as to suggest that it doubled the potential surface area for malware and scripted attacks. Yet, amazingly, Microsoft sees no such problem with installing a plugin into the Firefox browser. What's more it is installed without asking the permission of the user and, he says with more than a hint of irony, it left Firefox vulnerable to a drive-by exploit.

This is nothing new, as those with a memory for such underhand shenanigans will recall, as Microsoft started 'silently' installing a .NET Framework Assistant extension for Firefox users earlier in the year. The sting at the time was that it could not be uninstalled, and when an uninstall option was provided (after much media attention) it managed to break some other Firefox extension during the uninstall process.

So imagine the surprise when numerous Firefox users were presented with an 'Add-ons may be causing problems' popup when they had not added any new extensions. That popup quickly explained what was going on (see screenshot) determining that the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.1 may be "unstable or insecure". Given the option to restart Firefox so that the add-on could be disabled most punters would, I suspect, jump at the chance.

People have a right to be angry both at Microsoft for plugging something into a non-Microsoft browser client which could impact upon the security of that client, and doing so without their knowledge or prior consent I might add, but also with Firefox for allowing this silent installation in the first place.

But why the fuss now, when this plugin was pushed out some months back? Well it all boils down to the recent big Patch Tuesday roll out from Microsoft. On Tuesday Microsoft warned that unless Firefox users had installed the appropriate Internet Explorer patch then they would be vulnerable to an exploit enabled by a .Net Framework Assistant extension bug. Microsoft stated that installing Tuesday's MS09-054 patch protected all users from the exploit, no matter the attack vector, including Firefox users.

Mozilla responded, quite correctly, by telling Microsoft to Firefox off. It automatically turned on a system to block the extension for all Firefox users. Mike Shaver, Vice President of Engineering with Mozilla, explains "Because of the difficulties some users have had entirely removing the add-on, and because of the severity of the risk it represents if not disabled, we contacted Microsoft today to indicate that we were looking to disable the extension and plugin for all users via our blocklisting mechanism. Microsoft agreed with the plan, and we put the blocklist entry live immediately."

The thing is, if you silently or stealthily install software which impacts upon the security of the user, without that users knowledge or prior consent, isn't that called malware?

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News Story IntelliJ IDEA Goes Open Source

EddieC — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:24:09 GMT

One way to become the "ultimate" of something is to simply declare it. JetBrains, maker of the IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE, on Thursday began previewing IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition, the latest version of its commercial integrated development environment for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. The "ultimate" designation is presumably to differentiate it from the Community Edition, which is now available as open source.

The company had previously offered a free version if IntelliJ IDEA for non-commercial use, but source code was not made available until now. Both are based on the forthcoming version 9 of the IDE, formerly code-named Maia. No release date was given.

"Open source has become the mainstream, and we continue to embrace it as an exciting challenge," said JetBrains CEO Sergey Dmitriev of the move. "In brief, we're not changing direction — we're moving forward." The company positions the Community Edition, which will be available under the Apache 2.0 license, as a good choice for developers of pure Java/Groovy applications or for doing Swing development. "It has all the crown jewels ofIntelliJ IDEA, including various refactorings and code inspections, coding assistance, debugging, TestNG and JUnit testing; CVS, Subversion and Git support, as well as Ant and Maven build integration." It differs from Ultimate in too many ways to list, but if you're working with PHP, Python, Ruby or SQL, the free version won't cut it. Also, it works with CVS, Git and Subversion, but if you're using a commercial CMS, you'll need Ultimate. Luckily, JetBrains publishes a full comparison matrix.

Ultimate 9 will include lots of new framework support, including Java EE 6 with JSF 2.0, JPA 2.0, Servlets 3.0, Bean validation; Android, Google App Engine and GWT; Adobe AIR and FlexUnit; JavaScript refactorings and debugging; Tapestry/OSGi; and PHP.

Version 9 pricing was not disclosed, but buyers of IntelliJ IDEA 8.x personal (US$249) or commercial ($599) will be upgraded for free. Visit the company's Early Access Program page to download the preview version of IntelliJ IDEA 9.

News Story Net 'Neutrality' Not So Neutral

EddieC — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 15:58:39 GMT

One might have titled this story "Beware of government bearing gifts." We should be exceedingly wary whenever law makers begin dabbling with something that's been working exceedingly well for decades. Today that thing is the Internet, perhaps the least-regulated industry in the U.S. today.

This week the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is considering a set of new (and as yet unpublished) rules that would impose regulations on how broadband service providers are allowed to maintain their networks. Shrouded in the innocuous veil of "Network Neutrality," the potential restrictions are anything but neutral, and could tie the hands of service providers and send investors running for the exits. And with investors go innovations and expansion.

You probably disagree. I did too, at first. Neutrality and openness are good things. Everyone should be allowed to operate on an even playing field. On the surface, the issue seems fair to all parties. But once you really think about what's being proposed--that cable and phone companies would not be free to manage their networks the way they wish--what's to keep them in the game? After all, they're the ones who took the risks of investing in and maintaining the infrastructure. Shouldn't they be free to regulate their own systems, provided they're not giving unfair advantage to one player over another?

It took a bit of digging before I found enough information in favor of leaving things alone before I could finally wrap my head around this. Most of what's out there is in favor of legislating "neutrality." But what does that really mean?

One analogy I came across that the absence of such legislation would be like phone companies telling you who you're allowed to call. That is incorrect. Carriers don't want to forbid anyone from accessing anything. Their aim is to keep control over how you access things on their networks, just as telcos currently control how your phone calls are routed over their copper. Without such management, phone calls would be very different today and bandwidth hogs could crowd out little guys like you and me with impunity. Would that be fair?

There's no need to rush this, and nearly a dozen recent letters to the FCC--from a bipartisan mix of state governors, 18 Republican Senators and representatives from the House minority leadership. -- have stressed this. One such letter, by Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry, informed FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski that the number of broadband subscribers in his state has grown by more than 1,000 percent since broadband regulations were eliminated in 2002, and that Internet service prices have declined by 50 percent, according to a report today in TulsaWorld.com.

The latest letter, which arrived Friday, was signed by "18 members of the Congressional Black Caucus, 31 Blue Dog Democrats and 10 members of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC," according to a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal. The letter was signed by 72 members of Congress in all, including Tim Bishop of NY's 1st congressional district (for my neighbors in Eastern Long Island).

The letter, in part, urges lawmakers “to avoid tentative conclusions which favor government regulation,” and cites concerns of reaching “conclusions based on slogans rather than substance and of policies that restrict and inhibit the very innovation and growth that we all seek to achieve.” Until there's a problem, government should laissez faire.

News Story World ad-supported first as C4 lets you see more on YouTube

happygeek — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:42:24 GMT

UK broadcaster Channel 4 has signed a deal with YouTube to bring full TV programmes online, streamed for free. It's the first time that any broadcaster in the world has made such a comprehensive schedule of 'catch-up' programming available for free via YouTube.

Of course, when I say free I mean ad-supported but that's only to be expected. With YouTube now serving some one billion video streams a day, it makes commercial sense to increase your advertising reach in this way. Financial terms are not being disclosed, but the partnership runs for an initial term of at least three years on a shared revenue basis. We do know, however, that the deal is non-exclusive, allowing Channel 4 to continue distributing its 4oD service via its own website and other third party sites.

According to the press release from Oliver Rickman, manager for Google UK Communications and Public Affairs, the terms of the deal mean that "Channel 4 will make its 4oD video-on-demand ‘catch-up’ service of new programmes available via YouTube shortly after television transmission, including series that have already proved particularly popular with online audiences such as Skins, Hollyoaks, The Inbetweeners and Peep Show".

As well as that, YouTube users will also be able to access around 3,000 hours of full length programming from the Channel 4 archive at any given time, including shows like Brass Eye, Derren Brown, Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Teachers to name but a few.

Although the service will not be available in full until early next year, content is expected to start dribbling through in the coming weeks and months.

Andy Duncan, Channel 4’s Chief Executive, said: “Channel 4 was the first broadcaster anywhere in the world to make all its commissioned content available online and we’ve consistently pioneered in this field. This strategic partnership is another important milestone for us and we’re delighted to be combining the power of the ‘4’ brand and the appeal of our content with YouTube’s unrivalled reach and reputation online. Making our programmes directly accessible to YouTube’s 20 million UK users will financially benefit both Channel 4 and our independent production partners and help bolster our investment in quality British content. It demonstrates our ability to strike dynamic commercial partnerships to help underpin our future as a commercially funded, not-for-profit multi-platform public service network.”

News Story A Black Eye for Cloud Computing

Techwriter10 — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 20:27:36 GMT

To put it mildly, it's been a bad week for cloud computing. First of all word got out that Microsoft, the keepers of the data for users of Sidekick phones completely hosed the data. I mean kaput, gone, vanished. See you later, bye. If you don't have a back up, you are pretty much screwed because the keepers of the data have committed the ultimate sin and lost it.

Meanwhile, the The Unofficial Apple Weblog reports that MobileMe might be having a data leak and letting people randomly see the contents of your address book. This is the kind of nightmare scenario that cloud computing naysayers always seem to bring up, but we quickly dismiss as not likely to happen. Well, it did happen and it happened twice in one week.

We're Not Talking an Outage Here

Last month, I made fun of they hysteria that developed when Gmail went down for a few hours in my post, The Day Gmail Stood Still: A Tale of Horror, but losing a service for a few hours is a minor annoyance. Losing your data? That's catastrophic and there is no sugar coating it. That these two cloud computing doomsday scenarios were perpetrated, not by some Mom and Pop cloud company, but by two of the largest computing organizations, Apple and Microsoft, makes the situation all that much worse.

Tough to Defend

As a fan of cloud computing, I tend to dismiss the control arguments I hear when people say they won't let their data out of their sight. The easiest argument here, which frankly is the one that vendors always seem to say, is that your data is probably safer with them than it is with you. After all they have fail-safe systems, back-ups of their back-ups and your data is safer with them because you won't be as thorough. What's more their reputation is on the line, right? If something like this happens, well their whole business model is basically up in smoke.

Apple and Microsoft Are Not Pure Cloud Vendors

If Google or Salesforce lost or leaked data in this fashion, it would be truly a monumental failure since this is what they do for a living. That it was Apple and Microsoft, is still horrible, but this is not their primary business model. They still sell other services, hardware, software and so forth. The cloud business is a sideline and maybe that's the problem.

As we navigate this new way of computing, let's not panic and throw the baby out with the bath water, but neither can we idly dismiss data backup and data leak concerns as the worries of control freaks. It's something we should all be concerned about. Something we should all be asking hard questions about and something we need to take much more seriously because next time, the data could be yours and it won't be so abstract. Remember it's ultimately your data and always make sure there is a way for you to back it up locally so that you have a copy too in case your vendor turns out to be someone incompetent, like say Apple or Microsoft.

News Story DVD Jon bites Apple on ass again

newsguy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:53:24 GMT

Jon Lech Johansen is perhaps best known as DVD Jon, the chap who cracked DVD movie encryption at the tender age of just 15. He may soon have to adopt a new nickname, how about iTunes Jon, as he releases software that takes iTunes out of the iPod music equation.

doubleTwist exists on the foundation that in the same way you don't have a different web browser for every web site that you visit, you shouldn't have to have different software when you use an iPod, a Nokia smartphone, a Sony device and so on. "The typical household today has many such devices" the company website says "there is a need for a simple and powerful software that connects them." Which is where the newly released software comes in, and iTunes goes out the door.

doubleTwist co-founder Monique Farantzos has even gone as far as to describe Apple as the new Microsoft, referring to a dark side that has emerged with apps being blocked from the App Store for example, and the Palm pre not being allowed to sync with iTunes. And so we now have a piece of software that has all the functionality of iTunes, but does not restrict the user to just an iPod or even just to iTunes for that matter. doubleTwist will, so I am informed, allow iPod users to buy their music from the Amazon MP3 store if they prefer. That said, it's the ability to play an iTunes library of music on any device that really appeals to me.

Apple must be getting very fed up indeed with DVD Jon, especially after an advert was placed alongside the San Francisco Apple Store back in June to encourage people to turn their backs on iTunes and the iPhone. Not forgetting the 1984 video parody made by Johansen casting Steve Jobs as Big Brother, for good measure.

News Story Can Sky beat Apple at the iTunes game?

newsguy — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:14:37 GMT

Sky, better known for news and sport television broadcasting, has today announced that it is entering the online music business with an ad-free streaming download service. All of the four million songs accessible by users of the service will be available by way of unlimited online streaming as well as in MP3 format for storage and playback on any compatible device.

Launching on the 19th October, Sky Songs in the UK will start off by providing access to new release and back catalogue songs from EMI. Sony, Universal and Warner along with a host of independent labels for good measure.

Mike Darcey, Sky’s Chief Operating Officer, says "Our music partners bring an outstanding catalogue and unrivalled expertise that complements Sky’s strengths in content distribution. Sky Songs will reach out to consumers who want legitimate digital services offering choice, ease of use and great value. Offering legal access to digital music is a vital step in combating illegal downloading."

That's as maybe, but the service is up against existing online music powerhouses such as Apple's iTunes and the streaming service Spotify in a market which was worth £106 million in the UK last year, that's an increase of 48% from the year before. Not that the CD market should be ruled out either, in terms of competition, at least not just yet. Sure, it is on the decline with income down 8% last year but it still managed to earn £856 million in the UK which is none too shabby and far outstripped online music sales in terms of income.

So how much is Sky Songs looking to charge users?

According to the press release:

Quote:

Sky Songs offers users unlimited streaming, plus download-to-own tracks and albums from £6.49 a month. Customers can also purchase additional music on a per-track or per-album basis from 65p and £6.49 respectively.

There are two subscription options available:

pay £6.49 and download either a £6.49 album or 10 songs, and receive unlimited access to listen to over four million songs online for one month; or

pay £7.99 and download either a £7.99 album or 15 songs, and receive unlimited access to listen to over four million songs online for one month.

So, unlike Spotify there is no free ad-supported model, which means it will struggle to steal share away from them - although the subscription is cheaper than a Premium Spotify, ad-free, account. iTunes may feel the heat a little more, especially as the downloadable MP3s are in a DRM-free format and the streaming model is certainly starting to appeal to the younger listener these days. Just look at how the iPhone App Store is beating iTunes and the presence of streaming music apps on the iPhone for example.

News Story Spam fighting Europeans must do better

happygeek — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:03:08 GMT

The European Commission has called on EU member countries to do more, and do better, in fighting spam and other online privacy threats. In a newly published study, commissioned by the EC, it was revealed that almost all EU countries have at least one spam, spyware or malware reporting site for members of the public.

Yet the actual number of prosecuted cases, or occasions of imposed sanctions against privacy lawbreakers, varies considerably from member country to member country despite the EU-wide ban on spam. European law has actually banned spam and spyware since 2002, although you wouldn't know it considering that some 65% of European citizens are still plagued by both. And, of course, that apparent different interpretation of the law between members.

In the report an analysis of some 140 enforcement cases from 22 different member countries highlights the considerable differences between the number of cases per country and the fines imposed. The highest numbers of cases were reported in Spain (39), Slovakia (39) and Romania (20). The highest fines were imposed in the Netherlands (€1 000 000), Italy (€570 000) and Spain (€30 000). However, spammers in countries such as Romania, Ireland, and Latvia received modest fines ranging from hundreds to several thousand Euros.

The EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Viviane Reding, says that the figures "show that several EU countries are doing more to enforce online privacy rules" but concedes "spam is an area where we can and must improve for the benefit of internet users in the EU".

Reding argues that the EU needs to step up the fight against spammers and make sure that it adopts "legislation that provides for strong civil and criminal sanctions against spammers".

Not least, I would have thought, a better system of Europe-wide cooperation between countries in order to enforce the law and brings perpetrators to book. The report suggests that the level of cooperation also currently differs strongly between EU countries, with agreements existing in Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Romania and the UK. Luxembourg and Malta, however, rely purely on informal cooperation. Others seemingly do not cooperate at all.

"I call on EU countries to reinforce their national efforts to fight on-line privacy threats such as spam, spyware and malicious software" Reding concludes "If we can end the spam plague within Europe we will set the example for our neighbouring countries and other parts of the world which are as responsible for spam we receive in Europe".

With spam figures rising and the spammers always quick to adapt to changing market conditions, something needs to be done and done soon.

News Story Twitter gets knickers in a twist over security scare

happygeek — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:08:45 GMT

I love Twitter, and post a lot of links to security related stories via my @happygeek account. But now I am getting a little worried that I might suffer the same fate as a well known, and highly respected security expert. Mikko Hypponen is a familiar face around the security conventions, and a familiar name to anyone who reads security news blogs. Mikko is the Chief Research Officer at F-Secure, and knows a thing or two about issuing security warnings.

Shame that Twitter cannot say the same.

It all started back on August 3rd when Mikko posted a tweet which simply read:

Quote:

"I guess somebody will fall for it... a desperate MySpace phishing site at www. rnyspece. com (don't go there)."

The eagle-eyed amongst you will note that Mikko inserted spaces into the URL to prevent the hard of thinking from clicking on a link to a phishing site. You might even have spotted the words 'phishing site' and the phrase 'don't go there' which were part of the posting.

Twitter, it would seem, did not spot any of these things. Although it took the micro-blogging outfit a couple of months not to spot them and suspend the @mikkohypponen Twitter account. Yes, suspended the account of a well known Internet security expert for passing on a warning about an Internet security threat. Doh. Or, as Twitter called it, strange activity. The official Twitter response when Mikko tried to access his account was a warning which read "this account is currently suspended and is being investigated due to strange activity. If we have suspended your account mistakenly, please let us know."

Mikko did just that, and got the rather patronising response from Twitter customer services of "I've unsuspended you acct. You were suspended for using the malware URL rnyspeceDOTcom in DMs. Be careful! We scan evrythng for malware." Yes, those were the Twitter customer service spellings.

Nice to know that Twitter apparently considers itself to be the security expert here. You might recall that it has been at the centre of some slack security scares itself in the recent past, such as when an employee got hacked and confidential company documents became public record. Not that I am going to dwell on such things, the issue here is why Twitter suspended the mikkohypponen account, the manner in which it did it and the nature of that customer service response.

Maybe Twitter didn't realise that Mikko was a leading security expert, after all there are millions of users of the service. Well, he told ZDNet that he had "worked with Twitter previously regarding twitter worms and such" so you might think they would remember him.

OK, but Twitter restored the account once he complained loudly about it so no harm done. Well, apart from the fact that, initially at least, Twitter did not restore the thousands of followers that Mikko had nor the people he himself followed, not to mention his Tweet archive. That has now been rectified I am pleased to report.

The above shows something of an immature system for dealing with such issues, as indeed does the customer service response which was not only patronising but I think really rather rude as well. Is it that hard to say 'sorry, we got it wrong' apologies for the inconvenience' rather than 'you've been very naughty and you are lucky we are being so nice about it' or is it just me?

Look, I'm pleased to learn that Twitter takes security matters seriously. Especially the posting of malicious links which is a real problem for it, the bad guys can and do post links to bad places. Yet the nature of the suspension would suggest that this is some kind of automatic scanning system for content deemed inappropriate or links known to be malicious. In this case I would suggest it was looking for the word rnyspece as Mikko deliberately posted a malformed URL to prevent link clicking. Again, you might think that this is a good thing, but here are two reasons why it is not.

Firstly, how come it took two months to discover the link and suspend the account posting it? If that's the time-scale involved then Twitter might as well save some resources and pull the plug on that filtering. The phishing gangs do not hang around for months, they are generally fly-by-night types with sites up and down like a whore's drawers.

Secondly, what about the retweet situation? Twitter itself states, in a blog posting regarding Project Retweet which will bring official support to retweeting, that "The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact and the more efficient dissemination of information across the entire Twitter ecosystem is something we very much want to support." Well, it has a funny way of showing it. If you suspend someone for posting something inappropriate, what about anyone who retweets that posting? If the filtering system is, indeed, automated then rewteeters are surely also at risk of suspension.

News Story Netscape Communicator is born again

happygeek — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:50:41 GMT

Remember when a web browser was so much more than just a web browser? It seems that the days of the all-you-can-eat Internet suite are back as the SeaMonkey 2.0 release code is made available to download.

There was a time when Netscape ruled the online world, but you have to be something of an Internet veteran to remember it to be honest. Back in the day, and that would be 1997 if my memory serves me well, Netscape Communicator was the only browser in town but it wasn't only a browser. You got email in the form of Netscape Messenger which also included a Usenet News client, and address book, a calendar and even an HTML editor known as Netscape Composer.

That was before Mozilla came along with Firefox and declared war on browser bloat. Now, as the likes of Google with the Chrome browser have stripped back to the basics, the circle of online life has been completed. Yes, the SeaMonkey Council is adopting the bloatware principle and brings you an all-in-one Internet suite. There's the familiar web browser, of course, but also a Mail and Newsgroups client with spam controls built in, an IRC 'chatzilla' client and, oh yes, the SeaMonkey Composer for HTML editing.

The big question remains, to be fair, does anyone actually want this kind of Internet application suite anymore? To be honest if I wanted a bloated browser I would still be using Internet Explorer. Oddly, back at the start of 2005 Mozilla itself didn't seem to think anyone wanted bloated browsers either. On March 10th, 2005, the Mozilla Foundation said that the Mozilla Application Suite (as it was then) would not have any more releases. The pretty sound reasoning being that it needed to concentrate on Firefox and Thunderbird as people wanted standalone clients. The development door was left ajar, however, with the SeaMonkey Council taking over the project and release management allowing community members to continue pushing the concept and the code forward.

So why do I say that Netscape Communicator has been born again? Well I have a very long memory, and was indeed around working online at the time, and can recall that while Netscape Communicator 5 never actually saw the light of day it did have a code name. That code name was SeaMonkey...

News Story The Myth of the Apple Fan Boy

Techwriter10 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:32:37 GMT

I have to say that I really hate the term "fan boy." It's usually used as a dismissive term to put down someone who speaks favorably of a product. It suggests that if you like a particular brand, it must mean that you blindly support everything that company does, and will come to its defense even when it's not warranted. The term is most often used with the word "Apple" in front of it, as in "oh, he's just an Apple Fan Boy."

If you speak positively about Apple products, it could be that they are often good, but it doesn't mean they're perfect. Nor does it mean you automatically defend every action of the corporation behind the brand. I use Apple products. I've got an iPhone, a Mac Book Pro and several iPods. I buy them because they are mostly well designed, they work very well and they look great. Yes, they're expensive, but in my 20 years of working with computers and gadgets, I would gladly pay for what I perceive as quality. That doesn't make me a "fan boy." It makes me a smart and reasoned consumer.

Definitely Not Flawless

All that said, it doesn't mean I don't go after Apple in this space when they deserve it because regular readers know that I do. I remember when I bought iPod Mini, having never used an iPod before, I sat there frustrated trying to figure out how to use it. Once I understood the elegance of the scroll wheel, I was hooked, but it was not apparent how to use it out of the box.

As someone who just performed a RAM upgrade on my Mac Book Pro, I would like to talk to the Apple engineers and ask them what they were thinking using five of the smallest screws I've ever seen to hold down a protective case over the RAM. I think two would have done it or maybe a thumb screw would have been nice. Instead, I had to use a Jeweler's screw driver to get the screws out. This was certainly not the most user-friendly approach I've ever seen.

That Famous Apple Arrogance

Let us not forget the famous Apple arrogance or the strange cult of personality that surrounds Apple Grand Poobah, Steve Jobs. Apple doesn't always plan right for obvious demand as happened with the release of iPhone 2.0. That they insist on giving AT&T exclusive rights to sell the iPhone remains baffling to me. They have taken away features users obviously still wanted like fire wire, and they have taken petty steps like blocking iTunes syncing on the Palm Pre. They have even sent out their lawyers to harass a small business.

But They Make Good Stuff

When it comes down to it though, I buy Apple products because they make good stuff most of the time. I couldn't care less if they are fashionable or cool. It doesn't mean Apple's a perfect company, far from it. It only means that what they do right, they do very, very well. There's no shame in reporting that, but it doesn't mean I'm going give to them a free pass for their foibles and screw-ups, nor does it mean I'm a mindless "fan boy," who doesn't consider all of the facts before making a purchase decision.

News Story The 10 Best Linux Distributions of 2009

khess — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:00:05 GMT

It was exactly one year ago today that I published my original "The 10 Best Linux Distributions" and it's time to put forth a new list for this year's best. Without looking at the old list, I've decided to compile this one from scratch. This 2009 list takes several factors into account for placement in the list: Community support, commercial support, software variety, update engine and distribution frequency. Even for old Linux salts, there are a few surprises on this list. For starters, Ubuntu is not number one.

The problem with this list is that I don't hate any of the distros that I've entered here. Even number ten is one of my all time favorites but something has to be on top and something has to be on bottom. Check out the list and see what you think.

1. gNewSense - Ever since my conversation with Richard Stallman, I've decided that gNewSense is the distro that claims the top spot for this year. Based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian, gNewSense contains only free software. It's also the distro that Stallman himself uses--how can you beat that?

2. Debian - Debian is a GNU/Linux distribution that has it all: Great support, unsurpassed stability, awesome developers, a huge community, dozens of offspring including Ubuntu and gNewSense, regular updates, apt-get, thousands of ready-to-install programs and it makes a great user computer or server system. Debian also has the best hardware discovery of any distribution, which is probably why it's used to parent so many other distributions. If Debian has one weakness, it's commercial support. There's no Debian, Inc. for businesses to point to should something go awry. For businesses to adopt a particular distribution, it must have commercial support. For some, the risk is too great otherwise.

3. Ubuntu - Ubuntu picks up the slack where (don't confuse this with SlackWare which doesn't make the list this time.) Debian leaves off. Ubuntu offers commercial support, albeit somewhat expensive support through Canonical, Ubuntu's commercial sponsor.

4. CentOS - This distribution is Red Hat Enterprise Linux compiled from sources. It is still my personal distribution for my user/server computer. I do most of my testing on it. I use Debian for testing as well in virtual machines but they all ride on top of my CentOS computer. I spoke with Karanbir Singh, Project Lead of CentOS a few weeks ago and he gave some insight into the project that I had not heard or read before. Listen to the original podcast, if you get a chance.

5. Fedora - Fedora is the community version supported by Red Hat, Inc. It is what we used to call Red Hat Linux. It's also the version of Linux that Richard Stallman says comes pretty close to being an all free distribution. If you can impress Stallman, you've done your job. Fedora is often a bit unstable because it is out on what some call the 'bleeding edge' and is for those who are a bit more on the adventurous side. Don't use it for production. For production purposes, use CentOS if you don't want to purchase a commercial Linux distribution. Just as a side note, this is one of the funniest true stories I've ever read. It would still be funny if it weren't Oklahoma but since I live here, it makes it even better.

6. Red Hat - Short of being blessed by Richard Stallman or Linus Torvalds, how can you not love Red Hat? It was one of the first companies that bucked the Microsoft-only trend and gave it a go on Linux. It worked. Red Hat is the most profitable and successful Linux/Open Source/Free Software company in the world. It's very profitable and it keeps growing. It is one of three Linux distributions that ever makes its way into large companies as a supported operating system. SUSE (Not on this list) and Ubuntu are the other two.

7. Gentoo - Do you have a few free weekends and a need for something that goes ZOOM when you're done? Gentoo is for you, then. Gentoo is not for those who are wanting to download, burn and boot; it's for those who like to tinker, twist and fidget with something until it's perfect. If you want something that rocks, and is rock-solid when you're done, then you want Gentoo. Gentoo is the Harley-Davidson of the Linux world. It's cool. It's stable. It's hot. It's also a royal pain in your backside. If you're impatient, like me, keep moving and just appreciate Gentoo from afar.

8. Knoppix - Yeah, Knoppix, baby. It's cool like that. Knoppix is one of those "Show it, don't explain it" distributions. If you want to try to explain Linux to someone, show them a Knoppix Live CD. They might never look at a Windows computer again. It's that good. If you have an old computer that won't handle a large hard drive, buy yourself a fast CD/DVD ROM drive and download, burn and boot Knoppix for your user computer. Save your documents and files to the 'too small for Linux' disk and never look back.

9. Presto - Got Windows but also want Linux? Get Presto. I installed it on my netbook and I love it. When I'm in a hurry and just want to check email or make a Skype call, I boot into Presto and get to work in about 15 seconds flat. It's the best $20 you'll ever spend.

10. Damn Small Linux - Damn Small Linux (DSL) is the cool of cool in small distro land. In as little as 50MB, you can have a full Linux computer and in these days of operating system bloat; that's a real winner. DSL isn't just small but it has features you'd expect from larger distributions: Web, RDP, Terminal Services, SSH, productivity tools, SSH server and much more. If I ran a company with more than just a handful of employees, it's likely that DSL is what I'd use for their user interface possibly as virtual desktops on a hypervisor system. If you haven't experienced DSL for yourself, you should. Download, burn and boot. It's impressive.

If your favorite distro didn't make the cut, I'm sorry, maybe next time. Perhaps you can convince me to write up another list of my reader's favorites if you write back and tell me what they are.

News Story GWT With the Program

EddieC — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 19:09:23 GMT

With all the libraries available that have emerged, Java and Ajax applications practically build themselves these days. This week Java tool maker Instantiations added support for Ext GWT to GWT Designer 7.2, the latest version of its Eclipse-based drag-and-drop GUI-building environment that can be had for as little as $5 a month.

Also known as GXT, Ext GWT builds on the Google Web Toolkit, adding a slew of customizable UI widgets and CSS-based themes, plus full documentation and backward compatibility. It's made by Ext LLC. And if you're currently building Web apps and you haven't hard of them, a look at their JS Desktop for an idea. For a couple hundred bucks, their libraries might help you avoid reinventing the foundation.

Now back to the news. With the addition of GXT 2.0.1 support, GWT Designer 7.2 adds multiple GXT-specific palette categories for Panels, Layouts, Widgets, Forms, Menus and Toolbars. It also provides WYSIWYG editing for all GXT components, properties and layouts, and adds several Ext-specific wizards for creating GXT Windows, Dialogs and Composites.

GWT Designer v7.2 also adds a multi-page CSS Style Editor as well as other CSS enhancements and continued support for GWT through 1.7.1, and stays in sync with GWT 1.7, which adds better support for Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5 and Safari 4. The company also claims to have improved the tool's overall performance and specifically its parsing speed.

Current subscribers can upgrade to GWT Designer 7.2 at no additional cost. One-year subscriptions cost $79; a perpetual license costs $169 including one year of support. Try the tool for two weeks free at http://www.instantiations.com/gwtdesigner.

News Story Richard Stallman Speaks

khess — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:20:52 GMT

I had the honor and pleasure of speaking to Richard Stallman a few days ago while he was in New Zealand on a speaking tour. I had been in an email conversation with him over several days asking about which software programs he uses and I finally connected with him for some clarification and more details. So, if you've ever wanted to get the scoop straight from the man himself, you'll want to listen to the podcast.

The conversation begins abruptly because the phone conversation is a continuation of that email dialog. We also got cut off at one point during the interview and I had to call back.
I found him to be very personable, articulate and a pleasure to speak with. He was very patient with my nervous fumbling and was quite happy to discuss free software, his software choices and even his choice of computer.

To begin, I wanted to know not just about free software and the movement but his personal choices and I got quite a surprise. He is definitely no hypocrite. He is so much of a free software advocate that he even chose his personal computer because of the type of BIOS it uses.

I personally feel that using only free software is very limiting and would be very difficult to successfully accomplish. Richard Stallman doesn't find it difficult at all.

After speaking with him, I wrote "What Free Software Means" and placed it over in the *nix Software forum. Our conversation has certainly changed the way I speak of free software and my perspective on the whole movement.

For the bits that we didn't get to in the phone call, here is the list of software that Richard Stallman uses on a daily basis:

Operating System: gNewSense
Email: Rmail
Editor: Emacs
PDF Viewer: xpdf
Audio: Audacity

He doesn't typically use a browser unless he views html offline. He only uses OpenOffice.org when someone sends him a file in those formats. My guess is that if you send him a proprietary file formatted file, he would either not open it or send you back a message stating that you need to convert the file to a free software alternative.

I liked speaking with him so much that I asked for another interview where we could actually have some time to sit down and do something in-depth. He agreed. He will be in southeast Asia next month and I'll catch up with him for that interview. Stay tuned for that one.

For more information on Richard Stallman, go to the Free Software Foundation site and GNU.org.

News Story Symbian C++ Toolkit announced, iPhone and Android support soon

newsguy — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 21:17:10 GMT

Mobile developers will be pleased to learn that Recursion Software has announced the availability of a C++ Toolkits Symbian bundle. The cross-platform, mobile and embedded app development tools specialist took the opportunity at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment Expo 2009 to announce that C++ libraries for the iPhone and Android platforms would be forthcoming.

The Symbian C++ Toolkit promises to deliver a rich array of libraries, templates, and code samples to help the coder to create high performance applications requiring sophisticated computing and information handling functions while retaining a small program size. It comprises a total of five separate toolkits including Communications and Foundations, Standard and Extended Template Libraries (STL/ETL), Math, plus a collection of more than 500 example programs.

This Symbian implementation is just the latest in a long line of the Recursion code base, a code base that has been compiled more than a million times over the last four years.

Bob DeAnna, CTO, Recursion Software said "Symbian-based handsets from Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, Sharp and others represent a vast and vital market. These new tools will allow our many existing customers to extend their market reach by bringing their desktop, server and embedded applications to the many millions of Symbian device users, and will enable Symbian developers to bring their mobile apps to millions more new customers who use the many other platforms we already support. And with our planned releases for other C++ enabled mobile phones, we will make the promise of 'write once, run everywhere' a reality for mobile devices."

News Story Warning: Apple Hardware in Danger from the DOJ

khess — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:50:12 GMT

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating IBM's computer market conduct and, depending on the outcome, it might just affect your beloved Apple computers. As everyone knows, IBM is the major player in the mainframe computer market but now their business practice of not licensing other hardware makers to run their software is causing issue.

The following excerpt is from an article by Associated Press writer, Jordan Robertson:

Quote:

The accusations stem from claims by IBM rivals that they've been illegally frozen out of the mainframe market because of IBM's refusal to allow its mainframe operating software to run on non-IBM computers. IBM doesn't have many rivals anymore that make mainframe computers, but some smaller companies are trying to develop technologies that would allow the software to run on cheaper hardware.

They allege that IBM, which used to license its mainframe software to competitors and for the back half of the last century operated under an antitrust agreement with the government, stopped doing so in recent years to choke off competition.

It's possible that you don't realize the implications of these two paragraphs. Let me attempt to clarify them for you.

IBM created the mainframe software. It runs on IBM mainframes. IBM used to license it to other companies to run on their hardware. They stopped doing it. Now their competitors are upset by this practice.

Implication #1: If the DOJ finds against IBM, it essentially takes away IBM's right to innovate and compete in a market they created.

Implication #2: Apple is in a similar quandary, should the DOJ rule against IBM, in that Apple only licenses its operating system for its own hardware. Apple never sanctioned clones like IBM did in the PC market.

Implication #3: Apple clones will undermine Apple integrity and quality that's been their mainstay for all these years.

Implication #4: No company will ever be able to tie their operating system with hardware. For example, OS400 will have to be licensed for AS400 compatible hardware, mainframe zOS will have to be licensed for IBM mainframe compatible hardware, Solaris will have to be licensed to run on Sparc compatibles and the Mac OS will have to be licensed to run on Apple compatibles (aka Hacintoshes).

Implication #5: Cheap commodity hardware (read 'throw away') will dominate the world's data centers and become such a tragic loss for IBM, Sun (Oracle) and Apple that they each might release their software to the public as 'community' versions but still maintain their own proprietary branded software that runs specifically on their own hardware.

Not all bad, you say?

You haven't considered the real implication that summarizes all five of the others: If you can't innovate and outdo your competitors, why be in business at all? Why should Coke license Pepsi to pour Coke into Pepsi bottles? Why should Chevrolet license Ford to use Fisher bodies on their cars?

At one time, I believed that Apple should have licensed its operating system to run on clones but they were smart in not doing so. When you own an Apple product, you have Apple quality, Apple support and Apple service behind that product. If you have a clone, you have no Apple to assist you because clones can be made of anything.

I'm afraid of situations where innovation and quality are challenged. I don't want to trust mainframe operations to a clone. I don't want my niece to use an Apple clone in college. Too much depends on the integrity of both.

The DOJ hasn't ruled yet but I'm expecting the worst from them.

The only hope is that IBM and Apple would make those license purchases so prohibitively expensive that it would be pointless to purchase them without the proper hardware underneath.

What do you think? Should the DOJ take away IBM's right to innovate? Should they also take away the quality associated with the Mac or a Sun system?

News Story The Return Oriented Programming Hackers

happygeek — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:21:06 GMT

Want to know how to fix an election without resorting to bribery and corruption? Ever thought about throwing some Return Oriented Programming into the voting equation?

Ordinarily, the hacking into of an electronic voting machine might spark a little bit of interest if there were an election looming perhaps. That said, the potential insecurity of such machines can happily be filed under old news.

However, my attention was grabbed by the paper (Can DREs Provide Long-Lasting Security?) from a bunch of security researchers based at the Universities of California, Michigan and also Princeton. Not least because while it did, I admit, involve revealing how a Direct Recording Electronic voting machine had been hacked it also described something called Return Oriented Programming. Also, much of the research that has gone before when it comes to the security of voting machines tends to rely greatly upon having access to source code. The researchers say that they hope their results "go some way towards answering the objection, frequently raised by vendors, that voting security researchers enjoy unrealistic access to the systems they study."

The DRE voting machine in question, a Sequoia AVC Advantage, dates back to the 80's so maybe it is not that surprising that it can be hacked today. However, that does not make it an easy target: the thing employs numerous safeguards such as separating data and code, and throwing up a non-maskable interrupt error if someone were to try and execute injected code in RAM (the actual executable code for this machine is held in ROM). Nor does it make the research irrelevant, as the team states in its paper "because the development, certification, and procurement cycle for voting machines is unusually slow, the service lifetime can be twenty or thirty years."

Yet the research team are insistent, courtesy of Return Oriented Programming techniques, that if someone used the same techniques as they describe it would be possible, assuming they had access to the machine in the first place, to replace the installed election application with one of their own which could manipulate the voting in any way the attacker wished.

"The Z80 instruction set is very dense. Every byte is either a valid opcode or is a prefix byte. As there are no invalid or privileged instructions, instruction decoding of any sequence of data always succeeds" the researchers explain in their paper, adding "This density facilitates return-oriented programming since we can exploit unintended instruction sequences to build gadgets — a sequence of pointers to instruction sequences ending with a ret." By using a stack that is made up of code snippet addresses the researchers were able to show how they can recreate what are, for all intents and purposes, arbitrary programs. It's clever stuff, using a bog standard buffer overflow within the program code to create the stack and having a ret instruction triggering one ret after another in order to execute the vote rigging code itself.

The team have managed to demonstrate that an attacker could exploit vulnerabilities in one particular voting machine in order to install vote-stealing malware using a maliciously formatted memory cartridge. The important thing being that they have done this without replacing the system ROMs and starting out with "no source code, schematics, or nonpublic documentation." The whole attack-stealing code was produced in less than 16 man-months of labour and at a cost, if replicated in the private sector of around $100,000.

Kudos to Stephen Checkoway, J. Alex Halderman, Ariel J. Feldman, Edward W. Felten, Brian Kantor and Hovav Shacham for their innovative research.

News Story Dell Cell Phone Would Face A Steep Climb

Techwriter10 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:22:50 GMT

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Dell plans to build its own cell phone running Google's Android operating system, and release it some time next year. It's worth noting that Dell has tried to get into the gadget business before. They made a couple of failed stabs at the MP3 player market. They also tried a PDA back in the day. None of these attempts made much of a dent in the market. That's why I'm wondering why they think they can succeed in the crowded cell phone market.

Partnering with AT&T

The announcement includes news that AT&T will distribute the phones, which like the iPhone, will boast a touch screen, but even though Android phones have gained in popularity, if for no other reason than the sheer number of them, they will be competing at AT&T with some fairly heady company including Apple and Blackberry, not to mention the very nice Samsung Propel. I've been curious about Android phones for some time, and up until recently they were only available from T-Mobile and Sprint. There are also plans for Verizon to offer Android phones very soon. That AT&T now has at least one in the works certainly makes sense, but is Dell the right partner?

Apple Didn't Make Phones Either

It's worth pointing out that before the iPhone, Apple was famous for computers and MP3 players. They had never delved into the phone market, yet they've done extremely well by any measure. So there is a precedent for a company that hadn't made cell phones having great success in the market (and with AT&T as exclusive partners to-boot), but Apple's Apple and Dell's Dell and I don't see the success being matched here. Dell makes decent, low-cost computers and they've done very well doing that. They've never been able to duplicate that success in the device market.

Need a Homerun to Work

They can make a phone of course without my permission. Last time I checked, Michael Dell didn't confer with me over business decisions, but if they hope to make any dent in the crowded US smart phone market, they better hit a home run first time out. There can be no bugs. The interface has to be flawless. The display has to be sharp. The case has to be elegant. The price has to be low and they have to market it aggressively and intelligently. They need to get a few very key players on their side. They need to leverage social media channels. In short, they have to do everything right, and even then, there is no guarantee they will succeed.

As an AT&T customer, and pretty much stuck there because of the nature of my family plan contracts, I'm happy to see more competition. I'm also thrilled to see an Android phone, but I'm just not convinced that Dell is the company to deliver the goods. Still, I would happily be proven wrong and to see them develop a killer phone that took the market by storm. I just don't believe that's going to happen.

News Story The Incredible Arrogance of Being Eric Schmidt

Techwriter10 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:46:03 GMT

In wide ranging interview with Peter Kafka of the Digital Memo Blog, Google CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brinn did their best to give people the impression that Google was run by a couple of arrogant SoBs. Whether it was purchasing Android or suggesting that Google could never be evil because of the fundamental trust between Google and its users, they came off as cavalier and pretentious. (But to their credit, they weren't afraid to mention Microsoft by name or admit that Bing is good for competition, unlike Steve Ballmer who refused to name Google in an interview last week.)

See No Evil

Without a doubt my favorite part of the interview was where Schmidt suggested that it was simply not possible for Google to be "evil," whatever the heck that means, because users wouldn't stand for it. Here's what Schmidt said to Peter Kafka (in a quote that is positively Kafkaesque) when he asked him "Why won't you be like Microsoft in regard to antitrust?":

Quote:

Seriously, Eric? An evil room with an evil light? My goodness that's some heavy load of crap he's throwing there, isn't it? I have to admit I use a lot of Google tools (I'm writing this post in Google Docs), but do I trust Google to stay away from the evil light? Not so much.

Million Here, Million There

And as though that weren't enough, his co-founders can casually throw around a million here and there and he doesn't even know until after the fact. That they talk about it so casually in an interview is beyond belief to me. 'Oh by the way, Eric old boy, just bought Android for a few mill. Forgot to mention it old chap.' Here's how Schmidt describes it in the interview:

Quote:

One day Larry and Sergey bought Android, and I didn’t even notice. Think about the strategic opportunities that has created. Sergey found Google Earth one day while he was surfing on the Web. And then he walked into my office and told me he bought them. “And I said, “for how much, Sergey?” And it turned out to be a few million.

Ya, a few million. Who would have noticed, right? My wife came home the other day and said she bought a company. I said, "How much, honey?" And it turned out to be a few million. Oh no bother then. Thanks.

When asked about Google employees feelings of entitlement around salary and perks, Brinn had this to say:

Quote:

We cut down on snacks, etc to “reset expectations” re: entitlement.

Wow. That's some tough love Sergey, eh?. You mean employees have to actually pay for their food? Whoo Boy, you guys are really are hard core.

And these are just three examples. I encourage you to read the whole interview to get the whole picture. These comments show a real lack of connection to what most of us face in the real world on a daily basis. There is a sense of entitlement and arrogance that comes shining through throughout the interview. Let's face it though, whether it's Ballmer, Jobs or Schmidt, it's tough living in that end of the stratosphere, and arrogance just seems to go with the territory.

News Story Moving to Ingres is Easier, Company Says

EddieC — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:17:45 GMT

With the release of Ingres Database 9.3 today, the company says it's now easier for developers to migrate their application to the open source system from MySQL, Oracle,SQL Server and Sybase. It does so, the company said, through "improved accessibility of table procedures from within the query" and support for positional parameter notations, making database procedure invocation more flexible.

“As the fate of MySQL is currently in the hands of the European Commission, open source community developers and our global business customers and partners are seeking a more stable, reliable open source database,” said Deb Woods, vice president of product management of Ingres, in a statement. She was referring, of course, to the Sept. 3 investigation launched by the EC into possible conflicts between Oracle and MySQL due to Oracle's pending acquisition of Sun Microsystems, which owns MySQL. Source code for both databases is available under open source licensing.

Also reportedly new in version 9.3 is a pluggable authentication modules (PAM) structure that allows the database to support more authentication mechanisms than before, and simplifies integration with programs that support multiple security services. Authorization programs can run either with no special privileges or with shadow group privileges, providing less security exposure, the company said. It's also compatible with Liferay, the open source portal and social collaboration platform. This is intended to simplify customization for large organizational structures, such as developing individual security permissions for separate business units.

Enhancements to ODBC, JDBC and .NET Data Provider capabilities give 9.3 the ability to automatically start multiple Data Access Servers "to improve scalability in environments where large numbers of .NET and JDBC applications are connecting to Ingres," reported the company. Ingres also now includes a JDBC driver properties generator, further simplifying setup.

News Story WWIII Coming to a Computer Near You?

khess — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 20:08:01 GMT

No, I'm not talking about a Linux vs. Microsoft or Apple vs Microsoft but rather a prediction by UN Telecommunications Agency Chief Hamadoun Toure'. Apparently, the U.S. Homeland Security and other U.S.-based paranoia groups agree since US Secretary for Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said that she received the green light to hire up to 1,000 cybersecurity experts to ramp up the United States' defenses against cyber threats. Need a job?

To launch such an attack successfully would take thousands of experienced hackers in different locations simultaneously attacking a site or sites with malicious intent. Depending on the type of attack, it would easily be thwarted with IP bans, router bandwidth restrictions or reverse denials of service. And, not just from the U.S. Any country with ISPs worth their salt would catch these attacks and deny access to the users initiating them. An attack like this would also require a lot of bandwidth and would easily show up in bandwidth reports.

If it is a foreign government sanctioned attack, once the culprit is identified, it's bombs away on them. I don't see that a full-scale cyber war is possible. The renegades would be cut off, identified and dealt with in non-cyberspace ways.

Is such an attack possible? Yes. But it would have to be well-coordinated and extremely covert. So, is an attack like this likely? No. I don't see WWIII being waged in cyberspace--a cute thought but it wouldn't work. But, hey, if it means hiring 1,000 cyber security nerds for government jobs, more power to the paranoia. I just hope they select their 'experts' more wisely than I'm going to assume they will. My guess is that any cyber security breaches will come from within the ranks of those hired to prevent such attacks.

Quote:

"I don't know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." Albert Einstein

News Story Write Once, Run on Most Mobiles. Really?

EddieC — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:17:33 GMT

Can't decide whether to develop for Android, BlackBerry, iPhone, or Symbian? You may not have to, if the latest "write once, run anywhere" claim from Recursion Software bears fruit. The company today unveiled Voyager 7.2 Pervasive Software Platform, and says that developers can use the tool to target those platforms as well as Windows Mobile and LiMo and Maemo Linux-based devices with a single code base.

Apps built with the platform can execute on smartphones, netbooks and PCs and share contacts and other personal information, location data and media files," the company said, opening the door to simpler collaboration, data collection and fleet and asset management and other mobile application development. According to 2Q 2009 stats from market researcher Canalys, the top three mobile platform makers (Symbian, RIM and Apple) account for 85 percent of the market. Add in Microsoft and Google and you're at better than 96 percent.

Helping to do its magic is a location-aware messaging system that Recursive says enables peer-to-peer collaboration without the need for a host PC, server or cloud. The system can communicate and form decentralized groups over "any Telco or WiFi network," it reported. The messaging is part of an abstraction layer that also encompasses C/C++, Java, .NET and numerous other platforms. News of the updated platform came from the 2009 CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment conference, running now through Friday at the San Diego Convention Center.

The cost? Well, you can download a 30-day evaluation version for free (registration required).

News Story Amazon launches Kindle in UK

GuyClapperton — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:09:41 GMT

It's official - Amazon is finally going to bring the Kindle e-book reader to countries other than the US, including my own UK. Thing is, there are going to be issues.

The first is a practical one. In the absence of any specific announcement to the contrary, we're all going to be ordering the American version and importing it for the moment. American readers might shrug and ask what the problem is as long as we can get the voltage right and recharge the thing. Well, yes, up to a point, kind of, and other half-hearted agreement; but if this thing carries an American sim card then guess what, we're going to be hit with international data roaming charges every time we download a book. Amazon is going to have to clarify this if it isn't the case, or amend it with deals with local carriers if it is.

If there is an issue then you have to ask why release internationally before those carrier deals are in place, and I may have an answer. Rumour has been rife for many months that Apple is ready to release some sort of tablet computer, which will act as a media/entertainment machine. Apple, you'll recall if you're outside the US, has done a brilliant job of blocking Microsoft every time there appeared to be a gap in the international market for the Zune media player. There'd be a new iPod, a new iPhone, something to block the gadget market completely just when you'd swear the time was right for a European Zune. If analysts are right and Apple is going to use the next MacWorld Expo to launch something that will do so much more than act as a reader, then it's going to block the New Year market and pull off the same trick again. Amazon had better make the best of the Christmas market before it emerges because the standalone reader could be a dead duck within months.

That logic holds good only if you regard Apple as the ultimate marketing big-bad, and there have certainly been signs of a tide turning against the company. But past history suggests you don't underestimate Steve Jobs and co's ability to create whole new product categories and leave the mass market with the impression that they're the first. The Amazon launch, in which non-Americans have to order kit from the US and are promised there'll be a more localised experience sometime, looks rushed and maybe forced; I can only think of the one reason why this should be so.

News Story Microsoft, Palm Launch 'App Stores'

EddieC — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:01:55 GMT

Microsoft and Palm today separately advanced web sites designed for developers to post and sell (or give away) applications for their respective mobile platforms, playing catch-up with Apple, whose App Store celebrated its one-year anniversary in July. Redmond also unveiled a series of new phones this week based on Windows Mobile 6.5, its latest version.

Microsoft's new site, dubbed Windows Marketing for Mobile, includes a bare-bones landing page from which you can view your application purchase history or visit the user forum or developer community. At launch, Microsoft claimed to offer 246 mobile applications, and 753 independent software developers and vendors building more. Popular mobile applications available now include Facebook, MySpace, Netflix, Twikini, WunderRadio and ZAGAT, the company said.

But don't bother going there now to shop. You can only buy stuff from a device running Windows Mobile 6.5, which was first available on a phone just yesterday. DOH! Not only does Microsoft shut out 99.9 percent of current its user base, but also fails to address an obvious usage pattern--buying something through a PC browser (where it's faster and easier than through a handheld device) and then deploying it to the device. Fortunately, if you're a user of Windows Mobile 6.0 and 6.1 and want to buy apps online, there's an app for that.

As limited as Microsoft's site is, at least it's a site. That's more than Palm can claim. The company's on-again, off-again App Catalog as of today is apparently off again. Under development since July, the latest "official" launch date was supposed to have been Sept. 24. The company today announced that its e-commerce beta program went live today, and that "[d]evelopers selected to participate in the beta program have the opportunity to make their applications, both free and paid, available to consumers." Developers have been submitting applications since August.

Also today, the company announced that the Palm developer program would include webOS in December. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall a day when Palm's developer programs would [I]precede[/] the device, or at least accompany it. Now, there's an "unofficial" Palm App Catalog web site that keeps track of the official one. This cannot portend good things for Palm, which should read and heed the Palm Pre tag line: "Thinking Ahead is a Beautiful Thing."

News Story Use a Real Email Address and Other Web Site Tricks

Techwriter10 — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:35:08 GMT

I'm not a web developer by trade, but I visit web sites all the time, and as journalist I'm looking for a couple of key things. First of all, I want to find your press page and a press contact. Short of that I want to find an email address. Note that I don't want to find a form, which could as far as I know never be seen by a human and rot in the IT dustbin for all time. In short, you want to make it really easy for people to contact you.

Don't Use A Form

Some companies seem to have a real fear of contact, but social media marketing guru Seth Godin writes in his blog this week that having a real email contact is essential to a successful web site. He points out that too many sites use an email form, some of which even limit the number of characters a person can write. What could be more unfriendly than that? You want to make it easy for your customers (and yes, journalists) to find you.

Godin guesses that many companies use the form because they are afraid of Spam. He's probably right, but as he says, you can filter the Spam a lot easier than you can find customers (or journalist s who really want to write about you). He even offers a trick of using a mailto: to link with a built-in subject line to help you identify email from interested parties.

Don't Forget the Press

In the post, All Kinds of People, Visit Your Online Media Room, Not Just Journalists; author David Meerman Scott suggested that the press room isn't just for the press. It often contains lots of great content that you may want other interested parties like customers to see too. You may notice if you scroll down that I was quick to comment and criticize this advice, but I can admit when I'm wrong. I don't think that Scott was suggesting you clog your media page with junk, he just wants you to let others know that there's lots of good stuff there.

However, I still stand by that last part of my comment about including an email address for your press contact where I wrote:

Quote:

You want to offer some good advice for companies about their media room? How about prominently displaying your contact email and phone number. That's job 1 and you would be surprised how often companies fail to provide this crucial piece of information.

Most companies want publicity. If a journalist like me is writing about you, that's usually a good thing because it gets your name out there. I find it horribly frustrating when I go to a web site and I can't find the press page, or worse I can't find a press contact including both email and a direct phone number (not the central company number). You want to make your press contact information highly visible. Let people know that the given email is for journalists and analysts only and direct the rest of the (unwashed) masses to the main email address, which by now, if you've been paying attention, you've displayed prominently on every page (or at least on an easy-to-find Contact page).

The purpose of the web site is to get the word out about your company, to provide great content and to let people know who you are and what you're about. If you succeed at that and fail to provide easy contact methods, you have thrown all of that good work out the window. The great thing about these tips is that they don't require a huge effort to achieve and they can pay off for you and your organization in big ways.

News Story Ultra-thin iMacs coming this week?

newsguy — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:33:56 GMT

If you are in the market for a new Apple computer, you might want to wait a few days. It would appear that new super thin iMacs, MacBooks and even a cheaper Mac Mini are on the way real soon.

According to AppleInsider a raft of advertisements were published ahead of time, in error, by the Netherlands Apple Store online.

The Google Adsense adverts were spotted on Google.nl but when eager shoppers clicked the links they arrived at the Apple Store only to discover the goods were not actually available. And what goods. The advertising would appear to confirm many online reports over the last few months that Apple is about to launch thinner polycarbonate MacBook, am ultra-thin series of iMacs and a speed increased but price decreased Mac Mini.

AppleInsider expects them to be "accompanied by redesigns of the company's Mighty Mouse and Apple Remote, as well as aluminum wireless keyboards."

The online grapevine is suggesting that the new product line could be announced before the end of this week.

News Story AnthillPro Piles on Code Analysis Tools

EddieC — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:08:00 GMT

Urbancode today unveiled AnthillPro 3.7, the latest version of its build and deployment automation tool that piles seven popular source code analysis tools onto its list of third-party integrations. There's also support for the GIT repository and DB2 and PostgreSQL databases, the company said today in a statement. Anthill Pro 3.7 began shipping on Sept. 15, but had not been widely announced.

Among the most significant features in 3.7 is its plug-in API, which permits organizations to build integrations with third-party or proprietary tools of their choosing, the company said. "With plug-ins, users can create, customize and rapidly update integrations," and most subsequent integrations will be implemented as plug-ins, said the company.

AnthillPro 3.7 now integrates with Checkstyle, CodeSonar, Coverity Prevent, FindBugs, Fortify 360, Klocwork Insight and PMD. The integrations allow users to detect defects earlier, enforce their code quality standards, and build quality from the beginning, the company said. Integration steps vary from product to product, so Urbancode has compiled this list of product-specific steps to get each of the source-code analyzers working. Pretty slick.

Also new is the ability to access AnthillPro from the command line, and to impersonate user agents for greater security and control of permissions given to agent scripts, according to the reports. This is a major update, as you'll see from the extensive release notes.

News Story Ubuntu 9.10: First Impressions

khess — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:59:42 GMT

Ubuntu has redeemed itself with its latest version 9.10 (Karmic Koala). I took a look at Ubuntu 9.10 on October 1st and have been playing around with it for a few days. My first impression is that it is good stuff--seriously good stuff. From the new, updated installer to the faster boot times, I'm impressed. Way to go Ubuntu developers, you deserve applause for this one.

I didn't think that Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) was all that great. There weren't enough improvements over 8.10 to justify a whole new distribution or wasting a cute name on it.

Karmic Koala's installer is the best I've ever seen on any Linux distribution. It's fast, nice to look at and, most important of all, it's easy for people who might be new to Linux. Click through a few screens; enter your name, login name, password and computer name--and away you go toward having a new Ubuntu system. The more difficult part for most users will be the download, burning of the ISO image to a CD and changing their BIOS to boot from the CD/DVD drive.

Boot times are also much improved. This isn't necessarily limited to just Ubuntu as several Linux distribution developers have been working toward shortening your wait time in the boot department.

Once inside GNOME, you recognize all the familiar desktop items. Nothing new going on here although you might notice a few cosmetic changes with your startup screen and desktop background. I'd have to say though, that the improvements made are well worth the wait from older versions.

If you've been waiting to jump in to Ubuntu, Karmic Koala is the place to do it. And if you have an older versions, this is the one to upgrade to. Wait for the production-level release to come out later this month because right now the 9.10 distro is still in beta.

One word sums up this Karmic Koala Ubuntu incarnation: Super.

Have you tried Karmic Koala yet? Write back and tell me your first impressions.

News Story Win7: To Migrate or Not to Migrate?

EddieC — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 17:47:04 GMT

With the release of any new OS release, the question facing developers is whether or not to port existing applications. Often the answer hinges on two major factors: Will the operating system be widely adopted and what's downside of doing nothing?

In the enterprise the decision is often made for you, when policy dictates whether the company will upgrade its desktops to something new. According to a survey of 450 developers conducted by Visual Studio Magazine published this month, almost two out of every five (38.9%) are currently developing for Windows 7 or plan to do so within the next three months. That, despite the fact that not all of Win7's promised capabilities will be present in .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack, which is included with the release. The Multi-Touch UI, ribbon toolbars and other major functionality will have to wait until next year when .NET 4.0 comes out.

While UI whistles and bells are a major focal point of Windows 7, most of the developers surveyed were more interested in better performance. When asked about their "level of excitement about specific Windows 7 features," the top two responses were improved security and optimized I/O handling. Tied for third place were a "power-efficient infrastructure" and an "updated graphics stack and high DPI support."

Will Windows 7 be the must-have OS that XP was, or will it fall flat in the enterprise as Vista did? I'll admit I'm rooting for Microsoft. After all, Apple's OS fortunes certainly turned in the 1990s with System 7, the focus of which was not on look and feel, but on performance and peer-to-peer functionality. Perhaps Microsoft will be as fortuitous when Windows 7 arrives in stores on Oct. 22. The way I see it, Windows 7 is already widely referred to as "Vista fixed," meaning that Vista's coming whether the world wants it or not. So you might as well get to work.

News Story Hotmail security breach

GuyClapperton — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 15:38:49 GMT

Smaller businesses and people who use Hotmail as n email system or backup email system need to change their passwords - Microsoft has confirmed it's investigating a security breach.

It seems that in spite of the industrial strength security everybody of any size applies to these systems - and let's not single out Microsoft or be anti-anything here, nobody honest benefits from this sort of thing happening - reports are circulating stating that 10,000 email addresses and passwords have been taken.

You might want to change yours as a routine precaution.

News Story What Free Software Means

khess — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:20:56 GMT

You often hear the terms 'free software' and open source used interchangeably but they're not the same. In fact, true free software zealots launch into a fiery diatribe on the issue should you even utter the words "open source" when speaking of free software. Free software is not related to the amount of money you pay (or don't pay) for software; it is an ideology. Free means freedom. Most writers relate the concept to free speech or free beer, however, neither fully illustrates the concept.

Free software, as defined by the Free Software Foundation (FSF), comply with the Four Freedoms.

Freedom 0: The freedom to run the program, for any purpose.

Freedom 1: The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish.

Freedom 2: The freedom to redistribute copies.

Freedom 3: The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits.

So, you see, for Freedoms 2 and 3 to be met, the source code must be available. And not only must it be available, it must be available for modification for any purpose, commercial or otherwise. These two freedoms make the term 'open source' redundant and unnecessary.

The other major issue with the term 'open source' is that it does not imply freedom of any kind. Just because you can look at the source means nothing from a freedom perspective. Restrictions might keep you from modifying the code for any purpose, redistribution or charging for your new version. These restrictions are abominable to the FSF and its members.

The two key points to remember are:

Open source and free do not mean the same thing.
Free software has nothing to do with price.

For more information, please visit the Free Software Foundation and the GNU website.

News Story The political power of Twitter challenged

happygeek — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:59:44 GMT

It would appear that a political activist from New York has been arrested by the FBI in connection with helping orchestrate G20 summit protesters in Pittsburgh. According to The Guardian the man, Eliot Madison from Queens, has been charged with hindering prosecution after helping G20 protesters evade police by using Twitter.

Along with another man, Madison is said to have been tracked by law enforcement agents to a motel room during the summt, where he was found in front of a row of laptops and emergency frequency radio scanners.

The official police documents say that both men were using Twitter in order to "inform the protesters and groups of the movements and actions" of law enforcement during the protests. Of course, it should come as no surprise that Twitter is being used to help organise political protest if, indeed, that were the case in this instance. After all, people Tweeting have a proud and proven track record of providing information during all kinds of political disturbances around the world.

When it is someone using Twitter to report on the movements of police during a rebellion in a hostile nation then it is positively encouraged by the US authorities. However, it appears that when the political unrest is nearer to home (well, right inside the house, as it were) then US authorities are less accommodating of the democracy afforded by such real-time micro-blogging.

During the G20 summit the police were seen to be openly monitoring Twitter feeds so as to be able to listen in on the protesters' communication lines, but this is the first time that I am aware of arrests being made as a result of that monitoring.

If this goes to court, as seems likely, I will be interested to see the defence that Madison puts up. Especially if reports that he is a member of a group called People's Law Collective, which serves to give legal advice to protesters, are true.

The New York Post reports that Madison is also charged with criminal use of a communication facility and possessing criminal instruments.

So, is this a case of the political power of Twitter being challenged right on it's own doorstep? Let me know what you think...

News Story Hoping to Surf the Google Wave

Techwriter10 — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:21:07 GMT

I have watched you on the shore
Standing by the ocean's roar
Do you love me, do you surfer girl
~Beach Boys, Surfer Girl

Google Wave invitations went out last week to 100,000 lucky people and I didn't get one. I'm stuck on the shore line while the fortunate few are riding the first Google Wave. I don't mind telling you, I really want to get my hands on an invitation. I know what you're thinking if you're a regular reader: 'Aren't you the guy who wrote A Curmudgeonly Look at Google Wave when it was first announced?' Well ya, I was and that post (which is my second most popular ever with over 50,000 views) represents a snap shot of what I felt at the time, but I'm also a technology journalist and I'm innately curious, and I want to try this dammit.

What's This All About?

If for some reason, you're not familiar with Google Wave, you can learn more in this 8 minute Google video. It is an elegant looking email/communications/social/collaboration platform. You have the ability to share email and communication in a single interface, so instead of sending multiple emails or messages to multiple people, you point them to a single wave, which acts as a central communication hub where you can share text, documents, pictures and video (which you can edit and share in real time). Using the platform, you can build widgets. Some early ones allow you to run your Twitter stream (or a Twitter search) directly in your Wave. I'm sure over time we will see companies develop widgets that communicate directly with internal enterprise applications.

You can drag and drop files and addresses making it very user friendly, but what's really exciting about this whole phenomenon to me is that you can embed Waves into blogs and web sites, so that you forgo the need for a Wave client if you don't want one. On the flip side, say you embed a Wave in a blog post, you can then watch the comments section in real time in the Wave client. Having this choice to use the client, embed it in a web site or use both is very powerful indeed.

Social Implications

This ability to use Wave as a single container on your web site or blog means that you can communicate and socialize in a single tool. While FriendFeed (which recently purchased by Facebook) provides some of this ability for social applications, it hasn't really caught in a big way. Wave has the ability to take the idea of FriendFeed to an entirely new level because you can incorporate your entire social and communications infrastructure inside a single platform without a lot of heavy lifting.

If Google can get it working right, it could be huge because it will act as a single social and communications center regardless of the application. Think about this for a second. You could have a single hub where you could see your email, instant messaging, text messages, Twitter stream, Facebook traffic; in short, everything in one place. Then think about the fact that you don't even require a client to get this done, that you can embed it in a web site or blog fairly easily.

Not Everyone's Excited

Before you get carried away with my enthusiasm, remember that post that I wrote the week Google first announced Wave. There are potential issues here and I'm not the only to consider them. Technology luminary Robert Scoble calls it "overhyped" and "noisy" in a recent blog post. Meanwhile Anil Dash likened it to the Segway (the much hyped self-propelled scooter device) on Twitter where he wrote:

Quote:

I have huge respect for the Google Wave team, but it seems as more people try it, they agree that it's like a Segway for email.

I'm not sure these two esteemed gentlemen don't have agendas of their own here, but the fact is Google Wave is supremely interesting technology and as a person who follows and writes about it, it's something I want to try and decide for myself. For now, I'm forced to sit on the sidelines and watch while others debate its merits. And I find that very frustrating, Earthling.

News Story Patent on Streaming Porn Tossed Out

slfisher — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 21:50:39 GMT

A company that has been attempting to obtain licensing fees from adult companies, as well as other providers such as Internet radio stations and leading satellite and cable companies such Echostar, DirectTV, Time Warner Cable, and CSC Holdings, Inc., has had its patent thrown out by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Acacia Research's patent on streaming media technology had been targeted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of its Patent Busting Project for being overly broad. "Laughably broad patent would cover everything from online distribution of home movies to scanned documents and MP3s," the EFF described it.

The company systematically acquired a number of patents on streaming media, with an eye toward making money on licensing fees, according to a 2003 CNET article.

"The company's digital media strategy began in earnest several years ago," the article said. "It had determined that it owned about a third of the patents it needed to mount a licensing strategy for Web streaming, and its attorneys spent considerable time researching the rights held by another set of companies that Acacia ultimately purchased in 2001. By the time Acacia finished, it owned five U.S. patents and 17 international patents dating back to 1991."

Acacia started with the adult website market. "The case reaches all the way back to 2002, when Acacia began sending out media packets to online adult companies asserting that the companies were violating patents associated with its Digital Media Transmission technology, which Acacia claimed covered virtually any manner of transmitting and receiving digital and audio content over the Internet," according to an article in XBIZ Newswire. "Although Acacia was able to secure settlements from a number of adult companies, other companies fought back, and eventually coalesced into the united Adult Defense Group effort, spearheaded by Homegrown Video parent company New Destiny Internet Group."

In 2003, the company began targeting Internet radio providers, and obtained licensing fees from a number of them, including Radio Free Virgin, the online music division of Richard Branson's Virgin corporation.

In 2004, it moved on to colleges and universities, sending letters demanding licensing agreements of a minimum of $5,000 to more than 100 of them.

The company has not yet commented but is expected to appeal the ruling.

News Story Injuncted via Twitter

GuyClapperton — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:52:45 GMT

A judge has said a lawsuit can be delivered via Twitter. It's an interesting case, an odd idea and a pity there are going to be so many logistical obstacles.

The scenario is simple. Someone is posing as a (real) right-wing blogger - they've effectively 'borrowed' his name for a Twitter account and are putting notes up that the actual blogger finds objectionable. In British law, and I have no doubt other territories will have their equivalents, there is a thing called 'passing off', which means I can't pass myself off as someone else, they can't pass themselves off as me, and soforth. So the blogger doesn't need a trademark, he's protected.

Thing is, the Tweeter hasn't identified himself. So the judge has said the lawsuit can be delivered via Twitter - a link will take the Tweeter through to the text of the injunction.

Yeah...and then what? There are a great many things that can happen and only one of those involves the perpetrator actually being caught. The most likely is that he or she will ignore the lawsuit. If he or she can't be found then there's nothing to gain from coming forward. The second is that they shut the account down and start again under another name, and continue this sort of Twitter-tag for a while. The third is that he or she gets caught but denies having seen the Tweet with the lawsuit link (maybe you can prove someone opened a Tweet but I can assure you I have Tweetdeck running on my computer all the time so about 1500 people could 'prove' I'd opened their Tweets without any certainty that I'd read them unless I'd replied).

In fact the more I look at this, the less enforceable it appears and the more objections to Twitter as a means of delivery start to look. I'd be delighted if someone could prove me wrong but I just don't see how this can fly.

Details of the case are in a report here.

News Story Who's Going to Develop an Ideal Academic eBook Reader?

Techwriter10 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:12:21 GMT

On the face of it, you would think eBook Readers would be perfect for an academic setting, but according to a post on Engadget this week, Princeton students participating in a pilot program were unhappy with the Kindle DX's feature set, particularly ones essential to students such as annotation and highlighting. Given that eBook Readers at some point will be relegated to niche devices (if they aren't already), you have to think that the academic setting would be *the* perfect niche, and that means that one of the eBook manufacturers is going to have to step up and develop a product specifically geared to the needs of this market.

Why Academics?

Let's face it, text books are heavy, expensive and they use a lot of trees. They are also require frequent updating, forcing reprints and quickly making the paper versions obsolete. If a student could carry one light-weight device with all of the texts, hand-outs and homework, it would be make life so much simpler for them. Of course, there would need to be some cloud-based updating and backup because you know that some students would inevitably lose the device. The feature set should also include solid annotation and note-taking tools, the ability to highlight text and access related materials in online libraries and on the web. None of this is beyond the reach of the current state of technology, so it begs the question: Why hasn't someone created a device like this?

What do Students Want?

IREX, which just last week introduced a new eBook reader to the market, has been studying the academic market, and IREX’s North American CEO, Kevin Hamilton says, they have learned that students have very specific requirements including:

Quote:

Students strongly preferred a larger screen that more closely resembles the size of a textbook.
Students said that the readability, weight and size of eReaders are strong, but that battery life and the speed of turning pages need improvement.
Students strongly preferred reading on an eReader rather than a laptop / netbook.

Who's Going to Meet Demand?

Hamilton understands that the lack of note-taking ability is a problem, one they plan to address in the their latest offering in the first quarter next year. "The IREX DR800SG will have note taking capabilities available via an easy firmware upgrade in Q1 2010 and our other eReaders have had this feature available for years." He adds, "Our business eReaders are very popular among attorneys, academics, etc. because they allow a user to make annotations while reading. This will surely spill over to the U.S. market as we implement the note-taking capabilities on the IREX DR800SG."

The long-rumored Apple Tablet is also set to take the market by storm at some point and you have to believe that that it will come equipped with all of the features that students and business people alike would want. One thing Apple usually gets cold is usability, and I can't imagine they aren't watching and making adjustments to market needs. Meanwhile, you have to wonder why Sony and Amazon aren't taking this part of the market more seriously and giving students what they want out of the gate.

These devices will only carry so far as pure book readers. They have to do more and the academic market is one that is ripe for the picking. At some point, one of these players (or perhaps one we haven't seen yet) needs take advantage of this market because I think it's going to be substantial.

News Story Government Social Media Site Sold

slfisher — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:57:05 GMT

GovLoop, an online social network for government workers that was started by a federal worker, has been sold to GovDelivery Inc., a venture-backed government communications platform, with GovLoop founder Steve Ressler as its head of social networking.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

The service currently has about 20,000 members, and Ressler would like to increase it to 100,000, he told the Wall Street Journal.

GovDelivery is "a supplier of government-to-citizen email and wireless communication systems (mostly for mass notification) to state and local but also to some federal agencies," according to Gartner government analyst Andrea DiMaio. However, noting that government users are now allowed to use mainstream services such as Facebook (though not Twitter), he wondered in his blog how much relevance GovLoop would continue to have -- comments that Ressler himself agreed with. "I see the future of GovLoop as a “knowledge network” for government – a place where government people can go to get their questions answered to do their job better," he said. "That can be asking a question on their government career, on a niche topic like how to implement a wiki, or a broad scope like talking about the future of cloud in government."

News Story Toshiba not quite in Netbooks

GuyClapperton — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:14:21 GMT

Toshiba has launched a new selection of notebook computers - but they look rather like Netbooks. Priced at the upper end of the cheaper notebook market (and the exact cost will depend on your territory, let's just say they're starting at £429 in the UK) they're called the CULV satellites - that's Compact Ultra-Low Voltage to you.

They're nice looking machines and they're bound to do pretty well alongside heavier competitors. But they're full of contradictions. They are single core processors but the company decided Atom processors weren't going to be good enough. They're powered up to handle serious applications, the company says, but you're never - no, seriously never - going to want to edit multimedia or something on a 10.1in screen. It's just not going to happen.

The really baffling element is that these are for consumers rather than professionals. If someone says to a professional, OK, you can hook this up to a larger monitor and it'll have enough oomph to handle the serious work but remain seriously portable, or you can put an external DVD drive on if you want, that's one thing. If you say it to a consumer, and try to explain the single core/dual core thing to them, they're going to get bewildered.

Toshiba knows this, it had the misfortune to be selling televisions when high definition started (so things were HD ready, or they had full HD, or true HD, it still makes my head bleed to think about it) and now they have no option but to sell laptops in an equally complicated manner. It's genuinely not their fault, Intel has the market for chips all but sewn up.

I'm anticipating a lot of confused customers in the superstores. And the fact that these look so much like Netbooks isn't going to help.

News Story Malware hosting trends exposed

happygeek — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:46:42 GMT

Using newly registered domains with a very short lifespan to host malware websites is so last year. It would appear that these days such things are far more likely to be hosted on much older compromised web sites instead. Could this be down to a decline in domain tasting?

The latest MessageLabs Intelligence report appears to think so, suggesting that the previously widespread practise of cancelling a new domain registration within a few days 'cooling off' period has been in decline recently. Indeed, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers stated as much in June. The MessageLabs analysis of those websites which had been established purely to deliver malware showed that those domains classified as young, registered within three months of being blocked for hosting malicious content, are now relatively small in number. Mainly because they are discovered and taken down within the first 38 days of registration in 90% of cases. When it came to older domains that had been registered for more than three months and then compromised for malware service, MessageLabs discovered that they have a much longer shelf life: 90% are taken down after 138 days. Overall, 80% of sites blocked for serving up malware are established legitimate sites which have been compromised.

"It is not surprising that with a small window of opportunity for younger domains, the attackers register domains much faster" Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec says "suggesting that attackers are working very hard to set up new domains and compromise new websites. However, in an effort to keep up with the rapid turnover of domains, the bad guys are often serving up the same malware". Which is why it is of a greater benefit for the bad guys to compromise those existing sites rather than establish a specialised new domain for the purpose. "Fundamentally, using legitimate websites to spread malware reduces the labor for the cybercriminals and extends the lifetime of the malware" Wood explains, adding "moreover, by taking advantage of the Add Grace Period, a policy that allows scammers to register a domain at no cost and cancel after five days, ‘domain tasting’ and ‘domain kiting’ have become common practice for cybercriminals, allowing them to beat the system without ever paying for malware distribution."

The report also highlights a decrease in the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and previously unknown bad sources in September, down 2.1% since August to 86.4% or 1 in every 1.2 emails sent. Year on year though, spam levels were up: 88.1% for Q3 2009 compared with 81.0% for Q3 2008. There was also bad news about botnets, which appear to be have well and truly recovered from the McColo takedown hiccup and are now responsible for sending a staggering 150 billion spam emails every day!

News Story Is Microsoft the Newest Free Software Advocate?

khess — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:53:04 GMT

What the heck is happening in Redmond? Is Microsoft really giving away antivirus software? Yes, friends, it appears that they are. Come on Microsoft, we really want to hate you. I've carried this Microsoft voodoo doll* around with me for years--stabbing it every time I have to pay money for one of your products on a new laptop or desktop computer. I cringe when I see "Vista Ready." And, I almost hurl penguin when I have to activate my software. So, somebody please pinch me, wake me up, take the needle out of my arm and tell me it's all been a bad trip.

Microsoft giving away software is like Donald Trump giving away real estate. First, they come up with that dastardly excuse for an open source lab they cleverly named, Port25. Next, they have the nerve to donate money to The Apache Foundation. A couple of months ago, they made their new flagship virtualization platform, Hyper-V, available free of charge. Then they founded The CodePlex Organization headed by Sam Ramji. Now, they're giving away antivirus software.

My head hurts.

What's next for Microsoft? Are they going to join the Free Software Foundation?

My head really hurts.

It must be global warming that's causing Steve Ballmer's hair and brains to fail him. Steve, are you sure about all this? Microsoft is the most hated company in all the world. Stop this madness. You're giving your legacy a bad name.

My head hurts so bad that I'm now banging it on my pile of Microsoft original product CDs.

Is there no end to their audacity? Oh, there I said it: Audacity. Now they'll go buy that or donate money to it or somehow make it better...I mean worse, don't I? This is all very confusing.

My head is numb from the holographic impressions made into it by the legal copies of my Microsoft software.

I'm starting not to hate Windows and Redmond and Ballmer and even the blue screen of death is looking pretty to me now.

Oh, what's happening to me?

The lines between free software, open source software and commercial software are blurry as is everything else in my room.
Wait, I feel funny. Linus, is that you?

Abort, Retry, Fail?

* It's actually a purple Teletubby but I call it my Microsoft voodoo doll (It's called artistic license--read about it).

News Story Portland Plans to Become Open Source Mecca

slfisher — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 02:26:06 GMT

In its ongoing effort to become the coolest city in the U.S., the mayor of Portland, Oregon, is going to attempt tomorrow night to make it an "open source city," making its data as open as possible while respecting privacy, and buying open source applications when possible.

If passed by the City Council, Mayor Sam Adams' proposal will have the following steps:

"a. Enter into agreements with our regional partners to publish and maintain public datasets that are open and freely available while respecting privacy and security concerns as identified by the City Attorney;
b. Develop a strategy to adopt prevailing open standards for data, documents, maps, and other formats of media;
c. Organize a regional contest to encourage the development of software applications to collect, organize, and share public data;
d. Establish best practices for analysis of business requirements in software review and selection processes, identify existing commercial software systems with licenses that are scheduled to expire in the near future, and encourage the consideration of Open Source Software in the review, replacement and continual improvement of business solutions."

As for carrots, the city is also hoping to encourage the lucrative conference industry to come to Portland; the proposal also suggests promoting "Portland as a host city for leading Open Source Software conferences and related technology events, such as LinuxCon, Innotech, etc."

In addition, all formal technology related purchasing and contract opportunities will be offered to the open source community, according to the proposed resolution.

Adams first declared his intention of making Portland more open in June, during the Open Source Bridge conference. According to the Silicon Florist blog, this was a way of competing with Vancouver, B.C., Canada, which had announced in May its intention of doing the same thing.

News Story One For All and All For One: A Single Linux Distribution

khess — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:12:51 GMT

Since I check my linkbacks religiously, I noticed one of the comments over at linsux.org (An anti-Linux rant site) on my recent post, "5 Things You Can Do to Put Linux in the Driver Seat" and thought I would share one of the entries with you. He wants us Linux types to stop work on so many disparate distributions and focus on a single one. Is this a good idea or the best idea I've ever heard?

He lists a few items, beginning strangely at #6, that he wants Linux fans to cease and desist on but the one that caught my attention is #10:

Quote:

OEF (His site nickname)
Stop making web press releases every time someone tosses a bunch of open-source crap and artwork onto a CD. "Chuckie's Linux" will not change the world. In fact, it further muddies the landscape. Pick a distro. Just ONE damned distro and work on improving it.

Wow, OEF, whoever you are; you have my vote for the Grand High Exalted Poobah of all that you survey in Open Source and Linux. I like the idea of a single distribution. It really simplifies everything.
I love the idea of having a single distribution upon which to bestow our time and energies.

The only problem I see with it is, which one are you gonna choose for THE distribution? Will it be SUSE, Debian, Red Hat, Gentoo, or Slackware? Since it has to be a top-level distribution and not a derivative, it will have to be one of those--unless I've missed one.

Let's examine those choices.

Novell's SUSE Linux is a decent choice. It's well-supported, not that expensive, developed by some of the best programmers in the business but is a bit conservative for those leading-edge nerds.
Debian is a wise choice since it is the GNU Linux distribution and not particularly partial to any platform or company.
Red Hat is a great choice. One of the first commercial distributions, one of the best supported and most widely used distros in the IT world and is home to the most profitable of all Linux-based companies.
Gentoo--I don't know--since you can have a Gentoo operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD, this one leaves me a bit cold. Sure it's secure and cool with its Portage but let's face it, if we wanted a hybrid operating system, we could opt for Mac OS X.
And, finally, we have Slackware. Poor, poor Slackware, I used to love you so but now your luster has faded in favor of the shinier, sexier Debian and Red Hat distros. Sorry Slackware, you just don't make the cut.

So, really we have to choose from Red Hat, Debian and SUSE for a single distribution. We need to be able to point a finger at someone when things go wrong for businesses to feel comfortable enough to use Linux, and Debian doesn't have that, so that leaves us with just Red Hat and SUSE to choose from.

Since I've had fewer bad experiences with Red Hat than with Novell, I'm going with Red Hat. Congratulations, Red Hat, you're now the one and only Linux distribution for the entire world! No one can make illegal copies of your software, in fact; no one can make any copies of your software, no one can take your software and create anything new from it because it's now basically proprietary and it no longer needs to be open source.
You are the sole creator and maintainer of this, our only Linux distribution. Manufacturers will flock to you to create drivers to work with our, I mean, your distribution so that we may all enjoy the fruits of your labors.
Of course, we can all still create third-party applications that work with your distribution but since you make the bulk of your own apps too, we might need to worry with that at all. Your office suite, programming suite, browser (oh you will create your own won't you?), gaming software, mapping software, web server and database server are the bomb and we love them all. We will only buy your products because no one else's have the same cool feature sets or 100% compatibility that we all need.
You are our one stop shop for all our operating system and application software needs. Thanks Red Hat, for being THE one for everyone.

I think I've heard this story somewhere before.

News Story Ballmer Won't Call Google by Name in Interview

Techwriter10 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 13:15:26 GMT

In a strange part of what was otherwise and interesting and insightful interview with TechCrunch this week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer went out of his way to avoid naming Google, instead referring to them repeatedly as "the incumbent." This seemed to be a deliberate strategy and left me shaking my head wondering why he couldn't refer to Google by name. (The whole interview is interesting, so I encourage you to watch it, but the part I'm referring to begins at around 6:30.)

The Harry Potter Strategy

This reminded a bit of Harry Potter, where of course they refer to the evil Voldemort, as "he who must not be named." Perhaps by not naming Google, Ballmer (and by extension his strategy team) believe they can demonize the company and maybe reflect some of its own bad karma back to Google. It's important to remember that Google started this whole thing by inserting the "do no evil" nonsense into its business charter, which was no doubt a subtle dig at Microsoft.

These two companies could back on forth on this all the live long day and you wouldn't have a definitive answer. When companies get as large and rich as Google and Microsoft (and yes, Apple), they have the capacity to do great good and they have capacity to be evil. When the nature of the business is to destroy your competitor, some nasty crap can go down in the process.

The Advantage of Not Being the Incumbent

What Ballmer said when he was referring to Google as "the incumbent," was that his company had a bit more flexibility than "the incumbent," which could be true, but it's not as though Google has been sitting around resting on its success. But Ballmer argues that when you're on top like Google is, and by a good margin, you don't necessarily have the same flexibility to try new things as the company who has less to lose. One idea that Ballmer brought up was natural language processing. Again, I don't think this was just picked out of the air. He maintained that Microsoft could try things and still begin to creep up in the market share department.

But Google is not exactly sitting around doing nothing. They have recently developed Caffeine, a new algorithm. They are constantly introducing new services into Google Labs. This year, for example they introduced Google Voice and just last week, they debuted Sidewiki, a fascinating new project that enables visitors to add content to any web site. So while Ballmer would like us to believe that that "the incumbent" is slow and inflexible, the evidence suggests that's just not true.

And for the record, even though Ballmer would like us to believe his company is the underdog, it's not as though Microsoft is a poor relation here. They have plenty of resources to put to bear on this battle.

Microsoft Needs to Focus on Its Products

As Ballmer and TechCrunch reporter Michael Arrington pointed out, this has had a good year for Microsoft. It introduced Bing, the Zune HD and Windows 7 is having its coming out party next month. But when the chief executive speaks, he is always speaking deliberately on behalf of the organization. Ballmer understands this, so it seems more than a bit strange when he won't name his competitor. Can this nonsense get any more absurd? If you think these products are good, then why not simply let them stand on their own and stop the Harry Potter antics.

News Story WARNING: iPhone Blackhat SEO Poisoning

newsguy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:13:58 GMT

It seems that Google searches on terms that are related to iPhone SMS information are being used to return results that direct unsuspecting users to rogue AV sites. According to the Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network blog malicious URLs related to Apple iPhone SMS/MMS searches are ranking as high as result number six. Examples of the kind of searches that are being poisoned include "iphone how to send multiple chats over sms" amongst others.

Websense researchers have tracked the infection trail should a user click on a link controlled by the attackers using this particular rogue antivirus coupled to SEO poisoning scheme. It appears that they will be taken on the usual runaround of 302 redirects until they land on a scareware site that does the old 'run into a room shouting fire' trick and then try and sell you a fire extinguisher. Although in this case it is displaying a warning that your computer is infected with malware and then offering to let you buy and download fake antivirus software in order to clear up the non-existent infection.

Websense concludes that "The use of Blackhat SEO leading to Rogue AV will only increase in the upcoming year. This scare tactic has proved to be a very successful method of social-engineering users into installing software onto their computers and tricking them into paying for it".

News Story UK looks for bite of 110 million CERN contract cherry

newsguy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:45:58 GMT

According to the British government organisation which helps UK-based companies to succeed in the wider global economy, UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), it is currently helping some 76 UK companies pitch for business with the European particle physics laboratory, CERN. Apparently, CERN spent a massive £110 million ($175.75 million) on such supply contracts last year.

UKTI is working with the Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to bring senior procurement officials to the UK who are looking to fulfil contracts in areas such as IT, mechanical engineering and electronics. The UK companies will be meeting with CERN officials at two roadshows, the first of which is to be held at the STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire today while the second will be tomorrow at the STFC Daresbury Research Laboratory in Cheshire.

Sir Andrew Cahn, UK Trade & Investment Chief Executive says "Working with CERN is not only a feather in the cap for a British company but also an excellent business opportunity. Firms which meet the highest scientific standards required by this facility win not only business but also a world-class endorsement of their innovation and quality."

John Womersley, Director of Science Programmes at STFC, added: "This is a fantastic opportunity for UK businesses to be involved in one of the world’s most exciting scientific projects, and for the UK to reap some of the benefits of the major scientific investment made by the Science & Technology Facilities Council in CERN."

UK firms that are winning business at CERN include:

ELITE, from Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, won a contract for £68,000 to produce power packs for the new magnet protection system of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Didcot’s Qudos Technology (RAL) designed, constructed and commissioned the large clean-room for the Tracker Integration Facility (TIF).
TM Engineers, from Kingswinford in the West Midlands, manufactured the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter endcap support structures.
Cemgraft Electronics from Newbury, Berkshire, provided half of the 700 ROBin cards in ATLAS.
eXception EMS, from Calne in Wiltshire, manufactured the tracker front-end drivers for CMS, an electronic system designed and developed at RAL.

News Story WW2 code breakers win the lottery

happygeek — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:01:10 GMT

Bletchley Park, the top secret code breaking hub that played a pivotal role in the outcome of World War Two, has finally been awarded development funding of some £460,500 ($735,500) from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The money will literally save the place the saved the lives of countless people by shortening World War two by at least two years. With the money, the Bletchley Park Trust will be able to start plans for transforming Bletchley Park itself into a world class heritage and educational centre. The Trust now has a further two years in which to finalise the plans before submitting them to the HLF in order to raise a further £4.1 million ($6.5 million) of the total £10 million ($15.9 million) needed for the project.

One very vocal supporter of Bletchley Park, the renowned actor, author and Twitterer Stephen Fry could hardly contain his joy: "the news that Bletchley Park has the initial support of the Heritage Lottery Fund is simply wonderful" Fry enthused, adding "and yet, what should the Heritage Lottery Fund do if not exactly this? As each year passes it is becoming clearer and clearer just how vital a role in winning the war Bletchley played".

It has been a good month for code breaker fans. Just a couple of weeks ago the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, apologised for the prosecution and persecution of Alan Turing which ended up killing the man who led the technological fight against Hitler and the Nazis. "The Prime Minister’s apology on behalf of the nation to Alan Turing last month was the first step" Fry explains with "the government announcement in July of Commemorative Badges for Bletchley Park veterans" the second, and now the funding announcement completes a trio of good fortune.

Since 1994, Bletchley Park has been open to the public in the guise of a museum and houses the National Museum of Computing which, also this month, announced it was on a mission to restore the world's oldest original working computer. Bletchley Park Trust wants to transform the current museum into a world-class heritage and educational site that can remind us all of the profound significance of the impact its work had on the outcome of war and as a permanent tribute to its unsung intellectual warriors.

Carole Souter, Chief Executive of Heritage Lottery Fund, said "Bletchley Park is an extraordinary part of the UK's heritage. The Heritage Lottery Fund's initial support for the Trust's restoration plans demonstrates our belief that Bletchley's story should be much more widely known and appreciated. We also recognise the importance of preserving the site as a tribute to the men and women who worked there with quiet and tireless dedication during World War Two. Without their dedication, our nation's history might have been a very different one."