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Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the new corporate catch-phrases that many claim reduces a businesses operating costs while increasing its efficiency. The jury is still out on just how effective it is, but you know you a business concept has arrived when it gets its own conference. …

A couple of weeks ago, [URL="http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/07/whos_the_boss.html"]InformationWeek[/URL] ran an interesting piece reporting on a Forrester Research survey. The crux of the survey is that CIOs tend to report to a lot of different people, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs and heads of business units. It’s interesting that the chain of command differs …

According to a survey by [URL="http://www.BroadbandChoices.co.uk"]BroadbandChoices.co.uk[/URL], most parents in the UK are not actively monitoring what their kids are up to when using the Internet. In fact, while 40 percent of kids between the ages of 11 and 16 use Facebook and MySpace, 45 percent make new friends in chatrooms …

If you sent out a Twitter or email message after Tuesday's Southern California earthquake, you had a lot of company. As is typical in technology-heavy California, the moderate earthquake generated a following seismic [URL="http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/29/picture-internet-told-me-there-was-earthquake"]wave of Internet messages[/URL] of people checking in with each other. In fact, [URL="http://www.emsc-csem.org/Doc/EMSC_DOCS/EMSC_RT_activities_2007.pdf"]one study[/URL] indicates that …

First, the not-so-good news, then on to some encouraging revenue numbers for Motorola. Below I’ve condensed today’s big economic news as reported by the Associated Press, with the second quarter gross domestic product numbers coming in less than expected . . . -- Economic growth clocked in at a 1.9 …

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama, swept to the role of presumptive nominee through support from fans on the Internet, is learning that the Internet can just as easily be mobilized against him, even after he has already voted on an issue. The issue is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or …

Information Week has a great piece out on how IT CEO’s are riding out the rough economy. Surely, the 266 hike in the Dow Jones Industrial Average today, thanks to lower oil prices and a report indicating increased consumer sentiment, should soothe the jangled nerves of even the most downcast …

In an example of throwing the bathwater out with the baby, a number of ISPs are dropping the alt.* hierarchy, or Usenet altogether, ostensibly to comply with a demand from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo that they [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2584.html"]rid the Internet of child pornography[/URL]. Some observers, including the [URL="http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9638/EFF+-+Blocking+UseNets+Alt+Hierarchy+Would+Violate+First+Amendment"]Electronic Frontier …

I was going to write that the Q2 quarterly numbers (not just in the tech sector but across the board) were better than most experts predicted. For the most part, that’s true. U.S. companies have performed fairly well for the past quarter, thanks especially to increased sales overseas and a …

Two years after selling off its Xscale operations, Intel is once again turning its attention to building microprocessors for small devices. But rather than designing Xscale-like chips to form the foundation of devices such as the Palm Treo and RIM Blackberry, the strategy announced today will focus instead on system-on-chips, …

The fact that the UK's Internet providers are [URL="http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4387283.ece"]doing something about illegal downloads of music[/URL] is of course to be welcomed in principle. Whenever the subject comes up there are a handful of objections; civil liberties, the Internet should be free, whatever, the objectors seem to come from everywhere. But …

MindTouch [URL="http://wiki.mindtouch.com/Press_Room/Press_Releases/2008-07-23"]announced today[/URL] at the [URL="http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2008/public/content/home"]O'Reilly Open Source Convention[/URL] (OSCON) that a new version of its collaboration app MindTouch Deki "Kilen Woods" is ready for its close-up. Though it seems lately like you can't swing a cat (not that I would) without bumping into a new collaboration tool or suite …

When I first saw animated photos on newspapers in the Harry Potter movies, I thought it looked interesting, but never imagined it could be made cost-effective. It looks like time has once again proven me wrong. (When the 386SX processor came out, I wondered why anyone would ever need a …

Sean Tevis needed 3,000 people willing to donate $8.34 to his campaign for the Kansas state legislature. Instead, he's up to 5,298 -- and still going. He did it with a [URL="http://seantevis.com/kansas/3000/running-for-office-xkcd-style/"]single website[/URL] in the style of [URL="http://xkcd.com/"]XKCD[/URL], the geek comic strip that has replaced Dilbert on many office doors, …

Oh, my - eBay shares dropped 7% in Wednesday trading. That after the company announced in a wide-ranging conference call with analysts that it wouldn’t meet current quarterly sales and revenue projections. That throws cold water on eBay’s reputation as a company that constantly delivers a positive earnings outlook every …

So I get this call. Would I like an exclusive briefing on a new technology that's going to turn text into speech - the first one to do this 'native'. Forgive me, but no I don't. This typifies, in my view, the all-too-common view that a technical advance ought to …

Tamar Weinberg's recently wrote about [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry2287.html"]five good reasons to start using Twitter[/URL], the popular microblogging service. If it convinced you to take the plunge, here's something to consider before you sign up: Will you register under your own name? If so, that means your boss and co-workers can anonymously watch …

Looking for a “relief rally”? That’s what Wall Street calls a temporary lull in selling that could lead to a more sustainable uptick in broad-based stock prices. Usually, it’s one industry that feeds the bounce-back and Kevin DePew, an analyst and editor at Minyanville.com, which tracks the stock market, says …

A decent day in tech trading, with both the Morgan Stanley “Big 35” tech benchmark and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up from week-long lows. Maybe it’s the first day of the quarter and people are just glad the last one is over, or maybe the July 4th margaritas are going …

OpenMake Software today began shipping [URL=http://www.openmakesoftware.com/download/]Meister 7.2[/URL]. The update to its build management system adds support for cross-platform builds within Microsoft’s Visual Studio, can “mash up” such builds with those performed in Eclipse and other IDEs, and offers features to simplify the processing of continuous integration used in many agile …

So the ICANN people are discussing a major overhaul of the Internet in [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7474889.stm"]Paris today[/URL]. I can't say I'm all that delighted. The thing about the Internet is that it basically works. If you can read this it's because I'm able, from London, to type in [url]www.daniweb.com[/url] and follow the …

The stock market is taking another major hit today after consumer confidence numbers came in well below expectations. The Conference Board, which measures the monthly consumer confidence number, reports that June’s number fell to 50.4%, down from 57% in May. Big investors had been anticipating consumer confidence numbers in the …

As publishers go, O'Reilly has managed to build itself quite a reputation as a forward thinking company. Not only for the way in which it tackles emerging and niche technologies from the developer perspective, but also for being something of a pioneer in making them available in a digital format. …

File under strange but true: an IBM developed supercomputer based on the same processor technology that powers the Sony PlayStation 3 has just been officially ratified as the fastest computer on the planet. According to the [URL="http://www.top500.org/"]Top 500 supercomputing rankings[/URL], published today at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany, …

As portable computing devices advance in power and complexity, development-tool makers must keep up or die. Claiming strides this week are simulation-tools maker Virtutech and chip-maker Freescale Semiconductor, which are showing a version of Virtutech’s Simics virtualized software development environment with hybrid simulation capability. The initial release supports Freescale’s eight-core …

Just weeks after EarthLink pulled out of a project to provide wireless Internet throughout the city of Philadelphia after the city refused to take over management of the network, a group of investors has agreed to run the project. According to the [URL="http://www.philly.com/inquirer/breaking/news_breaking/20080617_Free_WiFi_will_remain_in_Philadelphia.html"]Philadelpha Inquirer[/URL], a group of investors temporarily called …

Nasdaq is up nine points to 2,463 in Monday afternoon trading, with a slew of encouraging news from the technology sector, especially good news on the cell phone front and news that federal regulators will okay the Sirius/XM Satellite merger. Sirius is up five percent, to $2.68 while XM rose …

The story exposing how some TomTom satnav units had been sold complete with no less than three pieces of malware pre-installed which [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1276.html"]broke right here[/URL] in the DaniWeb blogs last year was yesterday named 'Best Information Security News Story' at a prestigious awards ceremony held at the Haymarket Hotel in …

Have you ever wanted to meet Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon? So have I, but we probably never will. However, if you’re free in mid-July and don’t mind traveling to Toronto, you can meet [URL=http://www.geraldmweinberg.com/Site/Home.html] Gerald “Jerry” Weinberg[/URL], the man generally cited as the industry’s first software …

Everybody's touting Intel as being the trigger for a run-up in chip stocks late last week, although I like the numbers that National Semiconductor is showing. What's beyond debate, however, is that the semiconductor market is on the rebound amid signs that the sector's long decline may finally be over. …

Oh boy, just when we thought we were out of the woods, high oil prices are pulling us back in again. Oil prices skyrocketed by $7 a barrel today to $135 a barrel, gathering even more momentum after Thursday's big bump-up, and that, unfortunately, is the good news. A new …

Bill Gates opened [URL= http://www.microsoft.com/events/TechEd2008/default.mspx] Tech-Ed 2008 Developers[/URL], its annual developers conference in Orlando, Fla., today by saying good-bye to a group the Microsoft founder said has been the company’s most important. “The success of Microsoft really is due to our relationship with developers,” he said in his keynote this …

[I]Even on a slow day, I can have a three-way chat with two women at the same time -- Brad Paisley, [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GcVnhNjWV0"]Cooler Online[/URL][/I] But what if you work for the government? Particularly if you're a teacher? A number of [URL="http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-flpfacebook0601pnjun01,0,7309360.story?page=1&track=facebook"]teachers in Palm Beach County[/URL], Fla. -- some of them 20somethings …

[I]All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don't. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.[/I] ~Robert Kennedy Bobby Kennedy undoubtedly wasn’t thinking about global warming when he made this statement all …

I know that, technically speaking, airline stocks aren't technology stocks (although I can't think of a more amazing technology that one which enables a 10-ton tube of metal to become airborne in New York and drop you safely in Chicago two hours later) but hear me out. This could be …

The city of Santa Fe, N.M., is finding itself [URL="http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/allergic-to-wif.html"]fighting a group [/URL]that wants the city to ban wireless Internet signals from public buildings, claiming the signals are making them sick. The group, calling themselves "electro-sensitive," say they are allergic to the waves generated, and say that Santa Fe's attempt …

Today marks the one-year anniversary of Facebook Platform, which has had a rough childhood and now bears the pimples of adolescence. On the eve of the platform’s birthday, the company gave developers a [URL= http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php]sandbox [/URL]in which to apply the Clearasil of its redesigned profile. Before entering the sandbox, be …

Taxes, inflation, oil prices – even the price of corn are dominating the economic headlines these days. But should they overshadow the story of the (briefly resurgent) U.S. dollar? I don't think so - and I don't think anyone in the tech sector should sell the dollar story short, either. …

MySpace Tuesday announced some changes to its developer program, fine-tuning its policies about the way member applications are allowed to communicate with users. It also leaked news of enhancements to its messaging API set to be available in June. The [URL=http://developer.myspace.com/Community/blogs/devteam/archive/2008/05/20/new-app-guidelines-must-read.aspx]new guidelines[/URL] were outlined in a blog post by the …

Is the Tel-Com industry going the way of the dinosaur? If worldwide trends in 2008 are any indication, that very well could be the case. Speaking of case, the tech industry research and analytical firm Heavy Reading is on it. In a study released this week entitled “Reinventing the Telco: …

Among the obstacles to building mobile software is gaining access to the devices for testing. Removing some of those road blocks is [URL=http://www.deviceanywhere.com]DeviceAnywhere[/URL], which today launched the [URL=https://www.deviceanywhere.com/palm/welcome.htm]Palm Virtual Developer Lab[/URL], adding the new Treo 755p, Centro and other units from Palm Inc. to its list of more than 1,000 …

It had such promise -- a wifi network, treated like a city utility such as water or sewer, providing broadband Internet to everyone in the city, anywhere in the city, for a low monthly price. Yet vendors in cities such as [URL="http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/05/12/daily55.html"]Portland[/URL], and even the municipal wireless flagship [URL="http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/tech/20080513-0914-wirelessphiladelphia.html"]Philadelphia[/URL] are …

Call it a kind of bigotry for the new millennium. The packets of peer-to-peer applications such as BitTorrent have become the target of throttling—even complete blockage—by Internet service providers on their networks. Do they have the right? The revelation comes from [URL=http://broadband.mpi-sws.mpg.de/transparency/results/]study results [/URL] published yesterday by Germany’s [URL=http://www.mpi-sws.org/]Max Plunk …

I'm going on the radio (BBC London) in a few days because in the UK we have a 'National Work from Home Day' this coming Thursday (be sure and quote that to anyone who ever tells you Americans are perceived as vulgar and ostentatious over here). One of the things …

ORLANDO, Florida—Thousands of software developers and testers converged here this week for the Software Testing Analysis and Review conference, better known as [URL=http://sqe.com/stareast/]STAR[I]EAST[/I][/URL]. It’s one of just a few must-attend learning events for people in our field, and if you haven’t been to one of these events, you’re truly missing …

Walking around the Digital Summer event in London last week a number of things became obvious. First, everyone wants the sound to come off their iPod and into the world of speakers. Second, people are starting to focus on how to get sounds that aren't prerecorded onto an iPod in …

Here's a good one, [URL="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/01/italy"]according to The Guardian newspaper[/URL] in the UK, the incomes of each and every single Italian citizen were published for each and every other Italian citizen to see on the web. Rather than being some terrible data breach, or the work of some sinister hacker, it …

Despite insisting that its proposed acquisition of Yahoo! "made sense for Microsoft, Yahoo! and the market as a whole" Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, has admitted defeat and withdrawn its proposal to purchase the Yahoo! business. "Yahoo! has not moved toward accepting our offer. After careful consideration, we believe the economics …

A federal court today ruled in favor of people using file-sharing applications such as Napster and Kazaa, notorious for illegal distribution of music files. The ruling was a blow to the [URL= http://www.riaa.org/]Recording Industry Association of America[/URL], which has been combating users and developers of this software because of its …

Samsung Electronics had good news for the world equity markets, telling investors that it would post a 37% increasing earnings over the first quarter of 2008. The news wasn't so hot at consumer electronics competitor Toshiba Corp., which announced a 95% drop in profits. So why the disparity? Let's tackle …