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We've all heard of search engine optimization, or "SEO". That's the online search engine mechanism that allows online businesses to seed their web landing pages with key code words to entice visitors and shoppers. One big SEO term this week is "Black Friday" -- the day-after-Thanksgiving shopfest that launches the …

Kind of a quiet day in the technology stocks world, which might be considered good news considering the drubbing the sector has taken this week. Sun Microsystems was in the news, signing off on a Solaris 10 distribution agreement with Dell to make the Solaris Operating System and Solaris support …

I'm starting to think that technology stocks are at a breaking point. A few more sessions of significant losses and you have to wonder when tech stocks will be back in the black. You can't really blame the bad news on anything tech companies are doing -- unfortunately, it's the …

Investors are in survival mode right now, just trying to hang on in a market that has given away much of this year's gains. Key culprits are the ongoing credit crisis, which has banks and lenders reeling under the weight of billion dollar losses (hello, Wachovia) and from a weak …

Can you find a profit in a techno-slag heap? That’s the promise of an up-and-coming stock I found on Morningstar.com this week. I do some consulting work for a mutual fund firm and this technology company fits the bill – across the board. First some background. The company’s name is …

For a long while, it was easy to pigeonhole cell phones in three categories: those that don’t work, those that break down, and those that get lost. Fortunately, technology has improved cell phone performance in the first two categories (although we’re still losing them -- and at $500 a pop …

You guys know how big I am on video game makers as solid stock plays. But what about video game retailers? One of the big ones -- GameStop -- has seen its share price double to $58 during the past year. One of the big reasons why is the mushrooming …

I've long been a loyal Windows user, even as I've watched people I know (my wife included) switch platforms over to Apple. They talk of happier times with much less crashing and easier to use interfaces. Yet I still grudgingly hold on to Windows like a dog guarding his bone. …

I haven't spent a lot of time -- okay, "any time" -- talking about the fast-growing biometrics market. Part of it was ignorance. I didn't know know much about it. But I'm all amped up on biometrics after reading a new white paper from BCC Research entitled "The Global Biometrics …

It’s back. The dot.com bubble, that is. And with it comes a new wave of venture capitalists that are pouring money not just into Internet companies, but in life sciences companies, as well. And in increasingly larger numbers. An October article in The New York Times says it all. “Internet …

I've been focusing on consumer electronics a great deal in the past few months; partly because that's where so much of the action is and partly because American consumers have ignored the economic naysayers and have continued to shop and buy cell phones, PDA's, HD televisions, and satellite radios, among …

Okay, Halloween is only two weeks away, so what better time to introduce five "weird" internet & media content stocks that might be more treat than trick. The list is culled from the financial web site Barrellomoney.com. The site does warn that a few of the 'weird' selections might be …

I've been the first one to say in recent months that I've fallen hard for my new Blackberry . . . or "Crackberry" as I've taken to calling it. What's not to love? You can do just about anything on a smart phone that you can on a laptop, save …

Has there been a technology "leap" in the semiconductor market? Some people think so. But should investors go along for the ride? Earlier this year, George Scalise, the president of the Semiconductor Industry Association, was issuing talking points to the press over the relative health of the semiconductor sector. Much …

We've been talking about "upside" in the technology stock sector all week. Hand held devices and memory cards were the sectors at the top of that list, and should stay that way. Another side to the upside discussion is who, exactly, will be buying these products? After all, a lot …

I had to shake my head when I read about the latest GDP numbers today. The news is good, maybe even great for the economy – a 3.8% upward spike in gross domestic product for the second quarter (the numbers were revised from the original GDP estimates, and were light …

90% of the game on Wall Street is picking stocks that will rise before they actually do. It's not easy. If everyone could do that, then everyone would be doing that. But stock-picking is not easy. It's akin to shooting an arrow at a moving target that you can't even …

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article out this morning touting a new defensiveness among investors -- and what they plan on doing to protect their portfolios against a possible recession. "With the housing downturn, credit crunch, gloomy employment data and a parade of maudlin financial forecasts have been …

I wrote in an earlier blog about the time I met and interviewed Bill Gates, the brains behind Microsoft. I cornered Gates outside a back door at the Omni in Atlanta in 1991, where he had just delivered a speech at Comdex. Leaning on a bike stand, Gates riffed for …

Last week I went and did something I swore I’d never do – save 15% or more on my car insurance with Geico.com. Yep, I know all about the annoying lizard and the perpetually ticked off cavemen. I went ahead and did it anyway. The trigger point was a letter …

Boffins from the [URL="http://www.ucsd.edu/"]University of California, San Diego[/URL] have succeeded in developing new algorithms to map the Internet. While mapping any network topology can be complex and demanding, mapping the Internet takes the task to a whole new level. Yet Priya Mahadevan and Amin Vahdat think they have accomplished it …

Cell phone agreements have long been the bane of many subscriber's lives. Cloudy language, hidden fees, legalese traps, and contract terms that lean heavily in the favor of cell phone companies. Anyone who's been roped into a lousy cell phone contract can relate. It turns out that Congress relates, too. …

Taiwan-based computer manufacturer Acer has some big plans to storm the top tiers of global PC companies with its announced acquisition plans of Gateway. Gateway, for those who don't remember, is based in Irvine, California, but started out on a farm in the Midwest. The acquisition plans call for Acer …

Maybe the guy on those Biz Hubs commercials is right. Those nefarious multi-function business machines just might be out to get us. That's the position taken by a North Carolina compuer science professor who says those all-in-one multifunction business machines – the ones that print/ fax/ scan/ and copy -- …

Allow me one last word on the credit crisis of last week. I hope by now I've demonstrated that credit and debt aren't the sole domain of green eye-shaded numbers crunchers on Wall Street. As the green-eye shaded numbers cruncher in your own company's finance department can tell you, bad …

Okay, you have to admit, I called that one. In our last blog, I pointed out that a tight money supply could prevent companies, especially smaller ones, from getting money to grow their businesses, make new hires, do more research -- that sort of thing. I said that if companies …

August 9, 2007 was a tough day on Wall Street, with stocks falling 400 points on increased credit concerns over the struggling mortgage lending market. On the same day insurance giant AIG released a report showing that borrowers in the category just above sub-prime were showing increased residential mortgage delinquencies. …

Only a few weeks ago, things were rosy on Wall Street . . . well, as rosy as things can get in the money maelstrom of Manhattan. The Dow Jones Industrial Index (DJIA) -- the chief benchmark for the U.S. stock market -- had surpassed the magic 14,000 mark. Most …

[URL="http://www.legality.biz"]Legality[/URL] prides itself as being the first virtual law firm in the UK, having set up in business some five years ago now. So it seems fitting that it should be providing advice to those businesses looking to set up shop in the daddy of virtual worlds, Second Life. Now …

Everyone is familiar with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, or virtual world environments like Second Life, but the chances are you have not heard of [URL="http://www.clubpenguin.com"]Club Penguin[/URL] With the acquisition of this virtual world for kids today by the Walt Disney Company, that is all about to …

According to a press release I have received from [URL="http://www.windriver.com"]Wind River[/URL], a Device Software Optimisation (DSO) company, a Linux platform has been selected by Honeywell Aerospace for a space mission for the first time. Wind River Platform for Network Equipment, Linux Edition, will be the underlying OS supporting the processing …

[FONT=&quot]Today, a very surprising announcement was made by Blizzard Entertainment. [url=http://www.starcraft2.com]Starcraft II[/url], which is the sequel to the very popular 'Starcraft' series, has been announced. This game has been a rumor in a lot of people's minds for a very long time. The original game was developed 9 years ago, …

The constant worry of soldiers leaking top-secret information onto the internet via blogs had forced the commanders to approve every blog entry that a soldier wrote before they could post it onto the world wide web. Fortunately for them it's called off, at least for now. Just 3 days ago, …

If you like listening to Pandora but are not living in the United States at the moment, you may want to enjoy it while you can, because Pandora has announced that they're going to block non-US visitors in short order. Why? You guessed it: licensing problems. Previously, Pandora had only …

Since I began reading science-fiction, my dream was that we would enter the era of [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse"]complete connectivity[/URL], where web access would be plentiful and robust. Being able to be online anywhere would lead us to a greater sense of community and understanding. When mobile broadband became widely available in the …

A newly published study by web audience measurement outfit [URL="http://www.hitwise.com/"]Hitwise[/URL] has revealed that despite the media frenzy surrounding Web 2.0 sites and services, when it comes to the actual public only a minuscule number actually participate in the social networking and information sharing revolution when they visit. For example, how …

China has officially declared war on Internet porn, and set a target of purging the web of sexually-explicit images, stories and AV clips within a six month timescale. According to the [URL="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english"]China View[/URL] official online news agency the Vice Minister of MPS, Zhang Xinfeng, is quoted as stating “the boom …

Starting May 2007, Yahoo is going to offer unlimited inbox storage. That's right, to celebrate their 10th anniversary, [URL="http://yodel.yahoo.com/2007/03/27/yahoo-mail-goes-to-infinity-and-beyond"]there will be absolutely no limit on the number of messages you can hold in your mailbox[/URL]. This is obviously to compete with Google's Gmail and other similar providers, which are offering …

The DVD format war continues, with neither side determined to give up. So who seems to be winning now? Well, this article [URL="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2104850,00.asp"]seems to claim that Blu-ray is winning[/URL], and will soon displace HD-DVD, as were a number of other articles I read in the last few days on the …

Like many other geeks I have lost the ability to read a map, so used am I to having a posh if slightly robotic lady telling me where to turn during a road trip. SatNav is a wonderful thing, in the right hands, such as Eva Ericsson and the boffins …

[URL="http://torrentfreak.com/mpaa-caught-uploading-fake-torrents/"]TorrentFreak has reported[/URL] that the anti-piracy watchdog group MPAA has been uploading false torrents in the hopes of logging IP addresses of pirates to bring them to court. They do claim to have methods of detecting the fake torrents, but don't give away all the hints, saying, "we wont reveal …

The International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies (IAVRT) is planning an alternative Internet, the [URL="http://www.iavrt.org/neuronet.html"]Neuronet[/URL], designed to meet the needs of Virtual Reality applications. Which begs the dual questions of what those needs might be and what does Virtual Reality actually mean these days? Indeed, I spent quite a time …

Finnish mobile phone giants [URL="http://www.nokia.com"]Nokia [/URL]are claiming to have organized the biggest 2006 New Year’s Eve celebration in the world, with more than 2 million people in 5 locations joined by 150 million television and Internet viewers. Fittingly enough, Nokia was delivering on its promise to connect the world through …

Who needs the Wiimote? ...when there's laptops. But, you say, you can't wave laptops around to control your videogame! Actually you can. Many laptops manufactured now come with motion sensors to suddenly freeze the hard disk when it gets bumped around. These sensors can be read by software, which you …

A report published by the Social Issues Research Centre, combining data from a YouGov poll with the results of physiological tests on separate study group of Internet users, suggests that there is a link between badly designed websites and negative effects on human health. Specifically, the reports links five key …

According to an in-depth study by the [URL="http://www.socialfuturesobservatory.co.uk"]Social Futures Observatory[/URL], anti-bank feeling is running so high in the UK that 74% of Brits would consider borrowing or lending money through a social lending community in preference to their high street bank. In the ultimate case of old concept finds new …

The latest issue that has really been upsetting me lately is how corporations are no longer taking liability for their mistakes. One of the cases in particular is the new Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX that I purchased recently. Nvidia recently released their GeForce 8800 series graphics cards, which, most techies …

Hello blog readers. So I was thinking, "how can I seriously depress the lovely Daniweb visitors today?". Then it hit me: The End of All Life (EAL). I was reading an article in Physics World a few years ago about some predictions on the long term survival prospects of life, …

For those who may not have heard, former network leader Novell (who owns SuSE Linux) made a deal with Microsoft exchanging some intellectual property rights. Those in the business-end of IT know that Microsoft is busy applying for thousands of patents concerning Intellectual Property -- have a look at Network …

You know when you are invited to the [URL="http://www.stjohns.co.uk/"]St John’s Innovation Centre[/URL], part of the Cambridge Enterprise Hub in the UK that supports early-stage knowledge-based businesses and research institutes, that you are going to be in for an interesting day. When it is a press day with a focus on …