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Microsoft Big Brains

Microsoft Big Brains: Terry Crowley: The All About Microsoft "Big Brains" series resumes with a Technical Fellow who also happens to be the Director of Development for Microsoft Office: Terry Crowley.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Oct 14, 2009 11:46 AM; See more coverage of Microsoft Big Brains Subscribe via RSS or Email

Intellectual Property

Six things to know if your Facebook username has been squatted: Mike Arrington couldn't get his name as a Facebook username when registration opened on 6/12/09. Here are six things you should know if you're in the same boat.[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jun 13, 2009 08:34 AM; See more coverage of Intellectual Property Subscribe via RSS or Email

Polls

Napster and the "The more things change" rule: Drew Wilson at Zero Paid points out that Napster celebrates its 10th birthday this month. The Globe and Mail takes a deeper look in its Download Decade series. In the last decade, iTunes, Amazon, and various subscription music services have demonstrated there's a vast audience more than willing to pay for entertainment downloads given the right mix of value and convenience, though pricing and freedom from DRM remain sticking points. At the same time, lawsuits against individual alleged file sharers march forward, and the entertainment industry has not relented in its pursuit of what it perceives as Napster's successors (e.g., Pirate Bay, Real DVD). Which prompts me to wonder: in the ten years since Napster sent the entertainment industry its...[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jun 11, 2009 09:05 AM; See more coverage of Polls Subscribe via RSS or Email

iPhone

Over 1 billion App Store downloads, AppReview helps you sort the 32,000+ apps: Apple iPhone and iPod touch owners have now downloaded applications more than 1 billion times in the nine months that the App Store has been live. Anyway you slice it, that is a fantastic achievement. According to a well written TechCrunch article that works out to an average of about 27 apps per device. I personally have downloaded over a hundred different apps and some more than once so I probably account for at least a couple hundred downloads myself. There are still a few problems with the App Store and with something over 32,000 apps in the App Store it is a daunting task to find apps you need or want to try.[Read More]; Posted By: Matthew Miller in Smartphones and Cell Phones on: Apr 24, 2009 12:06 AM; See more coverage of iPhone Subscribe via RSS or Email

News to know

News to know: Microsoft; Oracle patches; Google; HP; Facebook; Win 7 systems ;: Here are today’s notable headlines. You can get News To Know via email alert and RSS daily. For continuous updates see BNET’s around-the-Web tech coverage. Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft makes it official: Forefront reaches the cloud Ryan Naraine: Microsoft tackles patch management metrics with Project Quant Oracle drops mega critical patch bundle Dancho Danchev: Scareware pops-up at FoxNews Larry Dignan: Google first quarter earnings on deck: What to watch Google search share ticks up in March VentureBeat: Facebook rejects funding at $4 billion valuation, may not raise more Zack Whittaker: Students report late lecturers via text messaging Threat Level: PIN Crackers Nab Holy Grail of Bank Card Security Forrester: Exchange 2010: Tier your workforce, split your domain, save money Next Exchange to include e-mail 'mute' button Microsoft releases Exchange 2010 beta...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Apr 16, 2009 02:00 AM; See more coverage of News to know Subscribe via RSS or Email

Web 2.0 Expo

Web 2.0 Expo exposes Web 2.0 Bust: I think the down economy has finally bled through into tech space. When I attended my first "web conference" in San Francisco's Moscone Center, it was like a day in wonderland. Free coffee, fast wifi, and lecture halls packed with programmers, marketers, and PR people. Well, this year's Web 2.0 Expo isn't nearly as thrilling. There are no new gadgets coming out from Apple, no parties hosted by Digg, no South Park beer crawls, and the expo hall itself is 1/3 the size. Maybe it's the economy, but an expo pass is free. Why aren't there hundreds of companies packing the expo hall with swag, smiles, and synergy? Walking around the expo hall, I only recognized a few big names...[Read More]; Posted By: Andrew Mager in The Web Life on: Apr 2, 2009 04:12 PM; See more coverage of Web 2.0 Expo Subscribe via RSS or Email

Paperless School

Going paperless...Are we really saving money?: I've been continuing to kick around the idea of going paperless in K-12 education, particularly at the elementary level. It's becoming something of a personal crusade as I watch teachers crank out reams of worksheets for their students and find money to buy toner to support their habit. Watching businesses as well turn increasingly to electronic storage and the cloud for their documentation and collaboration needs, I have to wonder if we're educating kids under an old-fashioned and outdated model. I could probably go on about that for a while, particularly as Jason Perlow keeps throwing out cool ideas for hardware that would aid me in my quest for the Holy Grail of Ed Tech (a hardware/software stack that allows...[Read More]; Posted By: Christopher Dawson in ZDNet Education on: Nov 14, 2008 07:09 AM; See more coverage of Paperless School Subscribe via RSS or Email

Microsoft-Novell

Microsoft Hyper-V to VMware: We have you surrounded: Microsoft and Novell had their first virtualization child Thursday. A joint virtualization effort that couples SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell operating with Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. The news itself isn't all that important--part of the Microsoft-Novell pact--dictated that SUSE would use the software giant's virtualization technology. But if you zoom out the Novell move to offer Microsoft virtualization in mixed source environments (statement) is just the latest item this week showing that Microsoft is flexing its distribution muscles. The message is clear: Microsoft's Hyper-V has VMware surrounded and the software giant will beat the virtualization drum forever. Sure, VMware has just as many distribution agreements, but Microsoft's ecosystem can kick into overdrive quickly. It's an old strategy for Microsoft...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Sep 11, 2008 11:20 AM; See more coverage of Microsoft-Novell Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google Chrome

Video: Google Apps adoption rates up: At the Office 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Matthew Glotzbach, product management director of Google Enterprise, discusses the user acceleration of its Google Apps software. Glotzbach also shows a chart on how the company's Google Docs word processing product has surpassed Sun’s OpenOffice in the last year and is slowly gaining on Microsoft Office.[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Sep 5, 2008 04:55 AM; See more coverage of Google Chrome Subscribe via RSS or Email

Microsoft-Yahoo

Yahoo: Our board a lot less loved today: Yahoo's shareholder meeting last Friday looked like a resounding victory for CEO Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock. The reality was a bit different. The company failed to tabulate the results correctly and was prodded to check the results after investors started griping. Suddenly, Bostock and Yang look a little less popular (statement and Yahoo coverage). To wit: Yahoo's original tally had 85.4 percent of shareholders voting for Yang with only 14.6 percent of shares withheld. The reality is that 66.3 percent voted for Yang and 33.7 percent of shares were withheld. Bostock looked like 79.5 percent of shares were voted for him with only 20.5 percent withheld. The reality: 60.4 percent voted shares for Bostock with 39.6 percent of...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Aug 5, 2008 02:40 PM; See more coverage of Microsoft-Yahoo Subscribe via RSS or Email

OLPC

Microsoft finalizes Windows XP for OLPC laptops: Microsoft has internally released to manufacturing the version of Windows XP that it has tweaked to run on the One Laptop Per Child XO computer.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Jul 25, 2008 07:50 AM; See more coverage of OLPC Subscribe via RSS or Email

Microsoft codenames

More new Microsoft codenames, A to Z: For those, like me, who like keeping track of Microsoft codenames, here are a couple of new ones to add to your file: Austin and Zermatt.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Jul 14, 2008 09:01 AM; See more coverage of Microsoft codenames Subscribe via RSS or Email

Identity

Care to spend your holiday weekend policing directory listings?: I'm not a fan in general of sites that create a listing or profile for you, hoping you'll eventually claim and/or correct it. This tactic, neither user-centric nor user-driven, is insidious for at least three reasons: inaccuracies proliferate, privacy is frequently jeopardized, and users are required to invest considerable time and supply yet more personal data in an effort to remedy 1 and 2. David Lazarus gives examples of these sorts of problems in his Los Angeles Times piece today, Social networking site divulges child's personal information. He tells of a mom who looked up her Reunion.com listing just to see what it might say, and learned it included her toddler son's name and their family's home town: things...[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jul 2, 2008 11:57 AM; See more coverage of Identity Subscribe via RSS or Email

Bill Gates

The lighter side of Bill Gates: As you all probably know, considering the 2 year lead-up to today and the considerable press coverage, it's Bill Gates' last day at Microsoft. I'd like to take a slightly different spin on covering his career and life, by pointing out the stupid stuff, in the hope it will appeal to my target audience: the student. He's been shot by a US Army officer, he had been assassinated for a short while until they realised he hadn't, he had his credit card details stolen by a 19 year old hacker, he's posed provocatively for the cameras, awarded a useless knighthood by the Queen, he has been immortalised as a Simpsons character, been sued an awful lot by an awful lot...[Read More]; Posted By: Zack Whittaker in iGeneration on: Jun 27, 2008 04:56 PM; See more coverage of Bill Gates Subscribe via RSS or Email

attention

Stanford Information Law Symposium: Though it could scarcely be more cumbersomely named — the Transatlantic Information Law Symposium — this upcoming (and free) program at Stanford Law School looks excellent, featuring such big thinkers as Mark Lemley and Stefan Bechtold, and such big topics as privacy, free speech, the future of Internet regulation, and one that looks particularly intriguing from the standpoint of social media and attention: property vs. contract to govern online behavior. I'd like to go, though the timing's not great for me; if you're going, blog the wealth. (Image by Maveric2003, CC Attribution-2.0) [Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: May 21, 2008 10:14 AM; See more coverage of attention Subscribe via RSS or Email

MacBook Air

FirmTek targets MacBook Air owners with hub for FireWire, eSATA: Announced on Monday at the NAB expo in Las Vegas, the forthcoming SeriTek/SpyderHUB storage hub will support FireWire and eSATA drives and provide interesting capabilities including eSATA booting for Mac OS X.[Read More]; Posted By: David Morgenstern in The Apple Core on: Apr 14, 2008 07:27 PM; See more coverage of MacBook Air Subscribe via RSS or Email

Leopard

What is the rate of Mac OS X Leopard adoption?: Back at the Macworld Expo in January, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that some 20 percent of the installed base was running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. But do we have any sense of the current adoption rate for Leopard?[Read More]; Posted By: David Morgenstern in The Apple Core on: Mar 31, 2008 11:19 AM; See more coverage of Leopard Subscribe via RSS or Email

ODF

OOXML vs. ODF: Lessons learned: The votes have been tallied but it's still not 100 percent certain that Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document-format is going to become an ISO standard.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Mar 31, 2008 07:55 AM; See more coverage of ODF Subscribe via RSS or Email

Windows Server 2008

Hyper-V isn't the only Windows Server 2008 virtualization solution that's lagging: On the virtualization front for Windows Server 2008, it's not just Microsoft's own Hyper-V that isn't quite ready for prime-time. Several other Windows-Server-2008-based virtualization products from Microsoft's competitors and partners still aren't 100-percent enterprise-ready at this point.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Feb 27, 2008 12:56 PM; See more coverage of Windows Server 2008 Subscribe via RSS or Email

Mobile World Congress 08

MobileTechRoundup show #124, Thoughts about Mobile World Congress and the Palm Centro: Mobile World Congress 2008 was an amazing event for mobile enthusiasts and I offer some of my thoughts on the event in MobileTechRoundup show #124. Kevin and I both had a chance to use the AT&T Palm Centro and it actually is the first Palm OS smartphone Kevin has used so stay tuned for more of his thoughts with this device. James, Kevin, and I continue to talk about VGA in Windows Mobile, the upcoming HTC Advantage 2, Yahoo! oneConnect, TextOnPhone ebook reading on the iPhone, WiMax and Intel, and Verizon's unlimited calling plan.[Read More]; Posted By: Matthew Miller in The Mobile Gadgeteer on: Feb 20, 2008 05:47 PM; See more coverage of Mobile World Congress 08 Subscribe via RSS or Email

World-Mobile-Congress

Yahoo!'s oneConnect: who will use it?: Matthew Miller got excited about the preview of Yahoo!'s oneConnect at the World Mobile Congress. In Matthew's words: Yahoo’s new oneConnect is one of the top pieces of software/services I saw in action. The rep was giving a demonstration on a Nokia N95 8GB device and it was running well. I was not allowed to video the service in action, but my buddy Jonathan Greene was able to capture some video of the software working on a PC monitor before anyone said video was not allowed. Yahoo oneConnect solves the problem that many of us social networking fans have and that is to bring all of your social networks into one integrated aggregator where you can view status, view online...[Read More]; Posted By: Dennis Howlett in Irregular Enterprise on: Feb 14, 2008 11:19 AM; See more coverage of World-Mobile-Congress Subscribe via RSS or Email

Vista

More information on the Vista SP1 activation hack: My post on the Vista SP1 activation hack has generated a lot of feedback (especially in the form of questions) from both individuals and other media outlets. I've put together this post in order to answer some of these questions.[Read More]; Posted By: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in Hardware 2.0 on: Feb 11, 2008 04:50 PM; See more coverage of Vista Subscribe via RSS or Email

Software Patents

TiVo judgment is fascinating, yet frightening: Is the word "an" singular or plural? Does having an "object" in your program imply it has to be written in an "object-oriented language"? In today's ruling against EchoStar (Dish Network), the US Court of Appeals had to decide on these and other pressing issues. And you thought your freshman English teacher was picky...[Read More]; Posted By: Ed Burnette in Dev Connection on: Jan 31, 2008 07:08 PM; See more coverage of Software Patents Subscribe via RSS or Email

Web 2.0

Docstoc for law school (a.k.a. today's young whippersnappers don't know how good they have it!): My goodness. Check out the impressive array of law school outlines and other law school and bar exam resources being amassed at Docstoc. Aside from being incredibly useful, my favorite thing about this service is its built in Creative Commons licensing. A perfect place to share form legal (and other) documents — as Marc Canter discussed wishing to do on a recent episode of The Gang. Bonus link: Are Cease-and-Desist Letters Subject to Copyright? P.S. You know you're becoming an elder-blogger when: you're just as apt to think MSM refers to methylsulfonylmethane as mainstream media, and you're just as apt to think Idoru is one of your dozens of daily nutritional supplements as a William Gibson novel. P.P.S. Don't...[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jan 30, 2008 10:38 AM; See more coverage of Web 2.0 Subscribe via RSS or Email

scary tech

Follow-up: Build-A-Bear says it will take privacy suggestions to heart: In response to my earlier post about the way Build-A-Bear entices children and parents to give up personal data, the company says it will take my suggestions to heart and review them with its privacy committee.[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jan 26, 2008 05:00 PM; See more coverage of scary tech Subscribe via RSS or Email

Macworld

Mac developers betting hard on Leopard: One of the nascent trends at the recent Macworld Expo was the arrival of Leopard-only applications. Despite the ballyhooed success of the Leopard rollout, selling your software to a subset of the market is an unusual move, especially so for small developers.[Read More]; Posted By: David Morgenstern in The Apple Core on: Jan 21, 2008 11:18 PM; See more coverage of Macworld Subscribe via RSS or Email

Wireless Networking

Wi-Fi routers vulnerable to UPnP attack from hackers: A couple of weeks ago we discovered that it’s possible for viruses to quickly spread among unsecured or WEP-encrypted Wi-Fi routers in densely populated urban areas. The solution seemed to be simple: Use WPA encryption and strong passwords. Now, based on an article Gnucitizen, there’s another way for hackers to take down your router. In theory, at least. The article describes a process that enables hackers to take control of routers by using UPnP. UPnP is a protocol allows you to automatically perform administrative tasks like obtain network settings and automatically open ports for communication. I have it enabled on my router because, somewhere along the line, I was testing a wireless product and the tech-support rep advised that I...[Read More]; Posted By: Rik Fairlie in SOHO Networking on: Jan 15, 2008 08:28 AM; See more coverage of Wireless Networking Subscribe via RSS or Email

CES

The coolest camera at CES was one you build yourself.: Okay, so CES may be ancient history, but if everyone can still be blogging about Gizmodogate, I can put up one more post about Bug Labs. This company was at CES showing off its open source modular gadget platform, called BUG. For the true gadget geek, this has got to be one of the coolest ideas since sliced bread. Essentially, you pick and choose your electronic modules and snap them together to build your own gadget. [Read More]; Posted By: Janice Chen in Digital Cameras & Camcorders on: Jan 14, 2008 09:28 PM; See more coverage of CES Subscribe via RSS or Email

"Consumer Electronics Show"

A deeper look at surface computing: At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, ZDNet director Josh Taylor looks at the latest iteration of Microsoft's surface computing platform, which includes applications for drawing, interacting with media, and manipulating photos that are instantly taken from a digital camera. It's cool and will be available in the spring. Everyone should have one of these...someday. Watch the video[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Jan 9, 2008 03:15 PM; See more coverage of "Consumer Electronics Show" Subscribe via RSS or Email

Gmail

Google's GMail product manager: 'User data should never be held hostage': Last week, while in California, I made the rounds, capturing on video as many interviews as I could with interesting people that would be fun to hear from. One of those was Google Gmail product manager Keith Coleman who, in the attached video, gives us a status update on where Gmail has been, where it's at, and where it's going (showing us a thing or two in the current user interface along the way). If there were two things that stood out to me in the discussion, it was (1) how a complete rebuild of the Javascript engine was needed (and completed) in order for Gmail to take some of its next evolutionary steps and (2) how strongly Google feels...[Read More]; Posted By: David Berlind in Berlind's Testbed on: Dec 17, 2007 12:22 PM; See more coverage of Gmail Subscribe via RSS or Email

Microsoft Novell

Novell: Microsoft open source deal has halo effect: Novell reported its fourth quarter results and its Linux business continues to post strong growth. However, the growth characteristics are changing. What used to be Microsoft-fueled growth--courtesy of an interoperability and cross-selling arrangement--is now broadening via other partnerships with companies like SAP, Dell and Lenovo. Putting a hard number on what was dubbed a Microsoft halo effect is difficult. But Novell CEO Ronald Hovsepian touched on it during the company's conference call with analysts Wednesday: It’s very difficult to decipher the overall halo that Microsoft has. I will tell you the other relationships, like the SAP one that I had indicated in our early rollout, we saw some up-tick there and I am tracking the Lenovo and the Dell...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Dec 14, 2007 07:43 AM; See more coverage of Microsoft Novell Subscribe via RSS or Email

Oracle

Oracle offers a peek at social apps and Fusion: Oracle showed how it is bringing a social dimension into its software and offered a peek at Fusion applications this afternoon at Oracle OpenWorld. It demonstrated that Oracle has fully grokked the concepts and technologies of Web 2.0 and that Fusion apps, built on the evolving Fusion Middleware stack, are at least not just slideware. Traditionally, software companies design around hierarchical organizations, but many interactions are more social in nature, said Ed Abbo, senior vice president of applications at Oracle , during his keynote. "If you are trying to close a sales deal, you form communities, finds references in the customers base, go to a business partner and bring them into the opportunity and get product people involved. That social...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Nov 13, 2007 06:12 PM; See more coverage of Oracle Subscribe via RSS or Email

WGA

Microsoft makes refurbished PCs its latest WGA anti-piracy target: In its ongoing quest to make sure that no potential Windows revenue source is left untapped, Microsoft is expanding its tentacles deeper into the refurbished PC marketplace. [Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Nov 9, 2007 06:02 AM; See more coverage of WGA Subscribe via RSS or Email

DRM

Major League Baseball makes news as latest DRM trainwreck: In another story that will go down in history as one of the more severe Digtal Rights Management trainwrecks (and a shining example of why DRM will ultimately do a brand more harm than good), Major League Baseball (MLB) now finds itself in a PR nightmare after a technology adjustment resulted in the deactivation of content that many MLB fans purchased under the assumption that the content would be available to them indefinitely. There are conflicting reports on the Net regarding MLB's response to the snafu. Yesterday, the Download Squad's Grant Robertson wrote: Major League Baseball has deactivated a DRM license server used to verify your worthiness to play back video of games you purchased online......Due to an earlier decision...[Read More]; Posted By: David Berlind in Berlind's Testbed on: Nov 8, 2007 09:44 AM; See more coverage of DRM Subscribe via RSS or Email

Net Neutrality

The governmental-communications complex: net neutrality now!: This isn't about technology George Ou ought to be in marketing: his impassioned apology for Comcast's intrusive "network management" (see A rational debate on Comcast traffic management) almost makes sense. By dragging the discussion down into the details of cable's technical inadequacies he glosses over the important issues. The #1 issue is that if private telecommunications carriers are allowed to pick and choose what packets they carry then we have handed the government a blank check to censor and monitor private communications. Common carriage is settled law In 1845 - over 160 years ago - New York telegraph companies were legally required to provide impartial service on a first-come, first serve basis. It shall be the duty of the owner...[Read More]; Posted By: Robin Harris in Storage Bits on: Nov 7, 2007 12:45 PM; See more coverage of Net Neutrality Subscribe via RSS or Email

OpenSocial

Surprise--OpenSocial is alpha code: The buzz about Google's OpenSocial APIs has died down as Google's Android phone platform took the stage, now eclipsed by Facebook's social ad service. A few companies, such as Plaxo, have readied their containers for OpenSocial applications and widgets only to find problems. Surprise--OpenSocial is alpha code and not yet ready for prime time. Kevin Marks of Google gave a brief presentation at the Defrag conference today and said, "OpenSocial is alpha. We expect it to evolve a lot. It's just beginning to make sense." Last week, Joe Kraus, director of product management at Google, said, “We want reasonable assurance over the next week or two that there are not any other major breaking changes. We want to make it...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Nov 6, 2007 12:47 PM; See more coverage of OpenSocial Subscribe via RSS or Email

Hands on Vista

Vista Hands On #19: Get one-click access to Vista network properties: When people complain about the redesigned user interface in Windows Vista, the poster child for the “it’s too complicated” crowd is the Network and Sharing Center. The most common complaint? It takes too many clicks to access proerties for a network connection. Here's how to set up an efficient alternative interface.[Read More]; Posted By: Ed Bott in Ed Bott's Microsoft Report on: Nov 6, 2007 05:47 AM; See more coverage of Hands on Vista Subscribe via RSS or Email

Facebook

Facebook set to unveil "SocialAd" network?: On November 6th Facebook is set to "unveil a new way of advertising online", according to an invitation sent out to advertising agencies in New York.[Read More]; Posted By: Steve O'Hear in The Social Web on: Oct 24, 2007 07:21 AM; See more coverage of Facebook Subscribe via RSS or Email

MySpace

MySpace to launch online games channel: News Corp.-owned MySpace has announced a partnership with with casual-game maker Oberon Games, part of Oberon Media, to create a dedicated "channel" on the social networking site, featuring of social games.[Read More]; Posted By: Steve O'Hear in The Social Web on: Oct 23, 2007 08:37 AM; See more coverage of MySpace Subscribe via RSS or Email

Accessibility

Are satellite shows and podcasts accessiblity-equivalent?: Robert Scoble is wondering whether accessibility laws may cripple videocasts (and presumably podcasts). Scott Bourne had an interesting (if inconclusive) post on the subject last year, and the head lemur posits that the touchstone (in the context of the Target case presently in the news) may be whether or not you're doing e-commerce. I'm out of my depth with accessibility law, but the subject has certainly come up and intrigued us for the last two years in the legal session at the Podcast and New Media Expo. My thinking, uninformed as it is, is that Web accessibility and video/podcast accessibility are different animals. Since podcasts aren't going out over any FCC-regulated spectrum, perhaps their accessibility requirements (if any) should be...[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Oct 15, 2007 03:18 PM; See more coverage of Accessibility Subscribe via RSS or Email

SAP

Combining SAP and BusinessObjects: Henning Kagermann, CEO of SAP and John Schwartz, CEO of BusinessObjects today parried questions about SAPs proposed acquisition of BusinessObjects but as always we are left with open questions. The most significant part of the discussion cut across several questions Larry Dignan left hanging in the wind earlier today: Can SAP digest a large acquisition? The short answer is yes - by leaving BusinessObjects as a stand alone unit SAP is less likely to experience some of the digestion issues that are rumored to have plagued Oracle's acquisition of Hyperion. I hear for example that Hyperion folk find Oracle doesn't necessarily understand its business as well as they would like. However, the deal limits the opportunity for cost saving synergies....[Read More]; Posted By: Dennis Howlett in Irregular Enterprise on: Oct 8, 2007 08:29 AM; See more coverage of SAP Subscribe via RSS or Email

Zune

Zune2 is no iPod killer, or even iPod competitor: As colleague Greg Sandoval notes, Microsoft has announced the second-generation Zunes. Each will go on sale in November. There will be a $249.99 Zune 80GB hard-drive model, with a 3.2 inch screen, and two flash models: a Zune 8GB at $199.99 and a 4GB for $149.99. The 8GB and 4GB will come in pink, green, black and glossy red. Microsoft is making a big deal about the the new Zune Pad navigation button, with its touch-sensitive surface. Consumers can flick their thumbs over the pad to fly through lists of songs or albums or to fast-forward through picture slide shows or videos. For those who need to pause, advance or adjust the volume on the device without looking, they...[Read More]; Posted By: Russell Shaw in IP Telephony on: Oct 3, 2007 03:54 AM; See more coverage of Zune Subscribe via RSS or Email

DEMOfall 07

Prolify turns email into an enterprise collaboration hub: While new kinds of collaboration solutions are popping up like dandelions in the summer, most people still collaborate, often poorly, via email. At DEMOfall 07, Prolify introduced a collaboration environment that uses Outlook, as well as Web and mobile email, as a hub to integrate and synch with other applications, such as CRM, ERP, Microsoft Project and salesforce.com. It allows users to assign, coordinate and track activities and projects without leaving email. . Prolify displays visual maps of requests and the status of activities and assigned resources from across different systems. "We are not trying to replace project management applications. We let people work the way they are accustomed to and get more more people to involved," said Prolify CEO...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Sep 26, 2007 09:57 PM; See more coverage of DEMOfall 07 Subscribe via RSS or Email

GPL

GPL will get its day in court: The Software Freedom Law Center says it has filed the first ever U.S. copyright infringement lawsuit based on the GNU General Public License. The Software Freedom Law Center (SLFC) said Thursday it is filing the lawsuit (see complaint, statement and Techmeme) against Monsoon Multimedia on behalf of the two developers behind BusyBox, described as a "lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems and is open source software licensed under GPL version 2." The crux of the case seems to be this: One of the conditions of the GPL is that re-distributors of BusyBox are required to ensure that each downstream recipient is provided access to the source code of the program. On the company's own...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Sep 21, 2007 07:53 AM; See more coverage of GPL Subscribe via RSS or Email

Daylight Saving Time

Microsoft preps customers early in hopes of avoiding DST fallout: November 4 is just around the corner. Now's the time to make sure any Microsoft products that store or use time are updated before Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the U.S. ends for the year, the Softies say.[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Sep 14, 2007 01:27 PM; See more coverage of Daylight Saving Time Subscribe via RSS or Email

Benchmarks

AMD's Barcelona benchmarks: Omissions and disclosure matter: [Update 9/16/2007 - After doing a little more digging, it appears that SPEC's rules require the clear statement of a basis of comparison www.spec.org/fairuse.html rule 3.b. Without a basis of comparison, there's no telling what the marketing department is talking about. Without the basis of comparison, it's like calling someone the best pitcher in baseball without remembering to fully disclose the basis of comparison that: "he is the best at E.R.A., but not strikeouts, during day games that are part of a doubleheader on the home field with temperatures above 90 degrees against one-legged batters whose mothers are named Susan" So if I were to say Michael Jordan was the best basketball player of his time, I do not need...[Read More]; Posted By: George Ou in Real World IT on: Sep 14, 2007 04:27 AM; See more coverage of Benchmarks Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google CapGemini

Google and Capgemini just doesn't add up: Google Apps is part of a fresh, new wave that's going to blow away all those high-cost, consulting-laden IT rollouts. What on earth does Capgemini have to do with it?[Read More]; Posted By: Phil Wainewright in Software as Services on: Sep 12, 2007 05:21 AM; See more coverage of Google CapGemini Subscribe via RSS or Email

Lawgarithms Links

Lawgarithms Links for 8/27/07: iPhone hacking meets the DMCA, new ways to owe money to the RIAA, bad music and its aftermath, and more — now playing in my Google Reader Starred Items: iPhone Unlocked; Legal Battle Looming?, from Ed Felten Unlocking the iPhone could invite a lawsuit, from Computerworld Breaking News Is Unlocking Apple's iPhone Legal?, from Top Tech News Providing legal advice information in a humorous way, from Ernie The Attorney by Ernest Svenson Judge Says That Making Available Is Infringement... RIAA Pounces Immediately, from Techdirt by Mike Masnick Judge says making files available is the same as distributing, from ZDNet Blogs by ZDNet Government You Have To Mean It If You Set It To Music, from FurdLog by Frank Field Nixon...[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Aug 27, 2007 11:20 PM; See more coverage of Lawgarithms Links Subscribe via RSS or Email

Black Hat

Opera uses Mozilla fuzzer to find, fix severe browser flaw: Using a JavaScript fuzzer released by Mozilla at Black Hat, Opera's security team has found and fix a "highly severe" browser flaw that could be used in code execution attacks.[Read More]; Posted By: Ryan Naraine in Zero Day on: Aug 15, 2007 08:01 AM; See more coverage of Black Hat Subscribe via RSS or Email

Windows to Linux Chronicles

30 things I've learned from using Linux ...: I began My Linux Experience back at the end of February and over the past five months I've managed to spend a fair bit of time dabbling and experimenting with a variety of Linux distros. Over these months I've learned a lot - a lot about Linux, a lot about the Linux community and a lot about myself and how I look at and interact with PCs. [Read More]; Posted By: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in Hardware 2.0 on: Aug 7, 2007 02:38 AM; See more coverage of Windows to Linux Chronicles Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google Security

Google hires browser hacking guru: Google has snapped up one of the sharpest minds in the hacker community, luring Michal Zalewski to help lock down its long list of Internet facing products.[Read More]; Posted By: Ryan Naraine in Zero Day on: Jul 30, 2007 03:01 PM; See more coverage of Google Security Subscribe via RSS or Email

AMD

AMD details roadmap beyond Barcelona: AMD executives are holding court at the company's Sunnyvale, CA headaquarters before an audience of press and analysts. Of late, AMD has been taking some belly punches as arch rival Intel has gained momentum. Last quarter, AMD posted its third quarterly loss in a row, with a loss of $600 million, although revenue increased 13 percent from a year earlier. Shares of AMD have fallen as Intel's have risen. (See Tom Krazit's story on AMD vs. Intel.) AMD's strategy has three vectors, according to Dirk Meyer, president and COO: energy efficient processing, ultimate visual experience and affordable Internet access. The overriding message from AMD, as artciulated by Henri Richard, executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer, was that...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Jul 26, 2007 10:37 AM; See more coverage of AMD Subscribe via RSS or Email

Apple-Cisco

iPhone off the hook: Duke university has announced that the problem with iPhones interoperating on their wireless Cisco network has been solved. The problem was "caused by a Cisco-based network issue", says the university, and since Cisco provided a fix it has not reoccurred. Earlier reports that this was a problem with the iPhone have "proved to be inaccurate." What's interesting about all this is how the mainstream press jumped all over the problem. It probably doesn't hurt that, aside from the social networks themselves, Apple is one of the favorite subjects at popular sites like Digg and Slashdot where Apple fans and detractors often "duke it out".[Read More]; Posted By: Ed Burnette in Dev Connection on: Jul 21, 2007 12:04 PM; See more coverage of Apple-Cisco Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google Office

Im in ur Facebook app, slurpin' up ur feedz: When Google Reader's "Shared Items" enter Mario Romero's Facebook application, what pulses out the other end is the steady flow of what's influencing the influencers.[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jul 20, 2007 01:46 AM; See more coverage of Google Office Subscribe via RSS or Email

salesforce.com

Salesforce.com transitions to platform as a service: Salesforce.com plans to make its Apex Code available in general release next month, completing its transition from an on demand CRM application platform to a more generalized on demand software development platform. In fact, with the forthcoming Summer ‘07 release, salesforce.com now describes itself as a the "world's platform-as-a-service," complete with acronym, PaaS. It would have been more accurate to add the word"programmable." "The vision for the company is around the platform as service," Collins to me. "We delivered applications as a service with CRM, and now people can create own applications as a service. That's the true benchmark and test of a platform." Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff calls it "programming without software," which is an obtuse way of saying...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Jul 16, 2007 06:00 PM; See more coverage of salesforce.com Subscribe via RSS or Email

Yahoo

Jerry Yang to make Yahoo earnings debut amid low expectations: New Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang makes his Wall Street debut Tuesday and the expectations couldn't be lower. In some respects that's good news. If Yang can deliver anything on the earnings conference call--halfway decent results, a glimmer of hope, a few coherent answers and a proper pronunciation of Yahoo--he'll overdeliver. Why? Most Yahoo watchers are expecting little in the way of good news. When Yang took the reins from Terry Semel the company lowered expectations. Now analysts are expecting earnings of 11 cents a share for the second quarter ending June 30. Revenue is projected to be $1.24 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Sure Yahoo has a major Google problem and can't compete on monetization. Yes, Google is entering display...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: Jul 16, 2007 02:12 AM; See more coverage of Yahoo Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google YouTube

Embedding a headache: Just because something is on YouTube doesn't mean you're in the clear from a copyright standpoint if you embed it. (Same goes for Flickr, etc.) Jonathan Bailey picked my brain on this issue for his piece at the Blog Herald.[Read More]; Posted By: Denise Howell in Lawgarithms on: Jul 9, 2007 12:47 PM; See more coverage of Google YouTube Subscribe via RSS or Email

Second Life

Second Life: avatar sued for copyright infringement: When Second Life's makers, Linden Lab, made the decision to allow users to retain all intellectual property rights for virtual items that they created, it was always likely that the virtual world would someday be dragged into court. And that's exactly what's set to happen.[Read More]; Posted By: Steve O'Hear in The Social Web on: Jul 4, 2007 07:32 AM; See more coverage of Second Life Subscribe via RSS or Email

Apple

Safari: "Secure from day one" ... I guess we're not at day one yet: That's it, I've had enough of Safari for Windows beta.[Read More]; Posted By: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in Hardware 2.0 on: Jun 25, 2007 03:36 PM; See more coverage of Apple Subscribe via RSS or Email

Browsers

Safari: "Secure from day one" ... I guess we're not at day one yet: That's it, I've had enough of Safari for Windows beta.[Read More]; Posted By: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in Hardware 2.0 on: Jun 25, 2007 03:36 PM; See more coverage of Browsers Subscribe via RSS or Email

Voice 2.0

First Look: TalkPlus Mobile S60 client: There are some very good Voice 2.0 services available to help you be more productive and efficient in your work and one company that I chatted with back at CES in January is TalkPlus. I tried out their TalkPlus Mobile service late last fall and in the winter, primarily using their Java client on my T-Mobile Dash. TalkPlus also offers a long distance calling service with 4 options for those with and without a PC to make calls. TalkPlus Mobile's Java applciation was a good solution, but Java is not as integrated in Windows Mobile (actually it is a separate 3rd party application) so the interface and experience wasn't that great. I was sent some information from Andy Abramson on a new Nokia S60 application that allows you to use TalkPlus on supported 3rd Edition devices.[Read More]; Posted By: Matthew Miller in The Mobile Gadgeteer on: Jun 25, 2007 02:17 PM; See more coverage of Voice 2.0 Subscribe via RSS or Email

Security

Good email can take the ISP fast lane: Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable's Road Runner and Verizon have joined Yahoo and AOL in adopting the CertifiedMail reputation program from Goodmail Systems. Courtesy of Slashdot's "something-to-think-about dept," CmdrTaco asks What Happens If You Don't Pay for Goodmail? (Read CmdrTaco's blog for an objective analysis of both sides of the debate.) [Here's] the Catch 22: If an ISP gives the same deliverability to non-Goodmail-certified messages, then who's going to use it? On the other hand, if an ISP gives better deliverability to Goodmail-certified messages than to other messages (much more likely), then they are to some extent misrepresenting the services they sell to their users, since users expect an ISP to make the best effort to deliver all legitimate e-mails, not just the ones...[Read More]; Posted By: Maurene Caplan Grey in E-Communications & Community on: Jun 22, 2007 10:45 AM; See more coverage of Security Subscribe via RSS or Email

WWDC

Leopard vs. Vista: Take two: Let me try this again. Seeing that so many readers misunderstood my blog post from earlier this week about my take on Apple CEO Steve Jobs' keynote, I'd like to try to clarify what I was trying to say. But first, let me say thanks for the many interesting e-mail messages and comments on the original post. And special thanks for the unsolicited advice, which ranged from "find a new career," to "see a doctor about your time/space problem you seem to have," to "you should be running a car wash in Frezno." I have been trying to respond to all of my e-mail correspondents, but unfortunately many of you seem to be using fake e-mail addresses and names that...[Read More]; Posted By: Mary Jo Foley in All About Microsoft on: Jun 13, 2007 06:12 AM; See more coverage of WWDC Subscribe via RSS or Email

Deputy Tester

I've got a free Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 for the ZDNet reader who....: Nearly four weeks ago, I announced ZDNet’s Deputy Tester of the Week program. That's where ZDNet deputizes its readers into walking in our shoes. We send you the technology. You test it out and let us know what you think. And then, you get to keep the tech. Not a bad deal, eh? In the first week of our program, I offered three free copies of PPTMinimizer 3.0 to the members of ZDNet’s audience who could tell us why they were the most qualified to test it. We had over 175 "contestants" for that giveaway. Two weeks ago, I offered two ID Vaults from GuardID Systems. Then, last week, I threw two Sun Spot Java Development Kits from Sun into...[Read More]; Posted By: David Berlind in Berlind's Testbed on: Jun 11, 2007 07:37 AM; See more coverage of Deputy Tester Subscribe via RSS or Email

Dan and David Show

Podcast: Gates and Jobs, Google Gears, YouTube/Viacom and more..: This week on the Dan & David Show, we talk about the joint interview with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates that took place at the D: All Things Digital conference. It was mostly a reminiscence by the two industry legends (video/transcript), who paved the way for the personal computer revolution. Jobs continues to toil away at Apple, trying to achieve product perfection and to dominate the post-PC market, as Gates has done on the desktop. The super-competitive Gates continues to drive strategy and seek to become number one in categories where Microsoft is behind (such as the Zune going after Apple's iPod market), but is focusing more on putting his great wealth to good use as he winds down his...[Read More]; Posted By: Dan Farber in Between the Lines on: Jun 1, 2007 01:36 PM; See more coverage of Dan and David Show Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google Development

Google Gears: NOT a Microsoft killer: Google Gears: NOT a Microsoft Killer[Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: Jun 1, 2007 07:34 AM; See more coverage of Google Development Subscribe via RSS or Email

Google Gears

Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game time: Google vs. Microsoft Office: Game Time[Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: May 31, 2007 05:40 AM; See more coverage of Google Gears Subscribe via RSS or Email

Apple Security

Apple flaw count for 2007: 111 and counting: Apple has slapped another patch on its QuickTime media player to plug two serious security vulnerabilities.[Read More]; Posted By: Ryan Naraine in Zero Day on: May 29, 2007 01:25 PM; See more coverage of Apple Security Subscribe via RSS or Email

DoubleClick

Google: $3.1 billion DoubleClick date with the FTC?: New York State to Google: Stop Trapping Consumer Data, or No DoubleClick Merger![Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: May 29, 2007 04:55 AM; See more coverage of DoubleClick Subscribe via RSS or Email

Dell

Dell Ubuntu Linux has arrived: Late yesterday Dell opened the floodgates of its grand consumer Linux experiment by offering three systems with Ubuntu Desktop Edition version 7.04 pre-installed. The cheapest systems are a $599 including a 17" flat panel display on the desktop, or 15" wide screen on the laptop. Here's a look at the detailed configurations of each one, plus info on the revamped options they provide for do-it-yourselfers that want to install their own OS.[Read More]; Posted By: Ed Burnette in Dev Connection on: May 25, 2007 06:28 AM; See more coverage of Dell Subscribe via RSS or Email

Interop

Canon's FSO laser beam uplink: Canon showed off its latest line of FSO (Free Space Optics) CANOBEAM products. These devices offer 156 to 1250 mbps of actual throughput under good atmospheric conditions and aren't susceptible to RF (Radio Frequency) interference. The downside to FSO devices is that they must have an unobstructed line-of-sight in non-foggy conditions and they're relatively expensive. 802.11 based wireless bridges on the other hand offer 15 to 25 mbps of actual throughput and are susceptible to RF interference. The plus side of 802.11 based bridges is that they don't necessarily need a clear line of sight and they're cheaper. For the low-end CANOBEAM model DT-110 (156 mbps), you end up paying about 6 times more money with 6 times more performance...[Read More]; Posted By: George Ou in Real World IT on: May 23, 2007 02:38 PM; See more coverage of Interop Subscribe via RSS or Email

Local Advertising

Facebook vs. Craigslist? NO magic formula in online classifieds: Facebook vs. Craigslist? NO Magic Formula In Online Classifieds[Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: May 19, 2007 04:34 PM; See more coverage of Local Advertising Subscribe via RSS or Email

HP

HP lays out component pricing landscape: Much of Hewlett-Packard's earnings were a done deal due to the company's preannouncement, but there were a host of little nuggets from the conference call that are notable. For starters, HP CEO Mark Hurd gave his outlook on component pricing, which can be a window to PC pricing, and addressed Dell's potential entry to the retail market. Overall, HP reported fiscal second quarter earnings of 65 cents a share on revenue of $25.5 billion. Excluding items, HP reported earnings of 70 cents a share. HP also upped its outlook, projected fiscal 2007 earnings of $2.75 to $2.77 a share, up from its previous projection of $2.50 to $2.55. Those earnings exclude charges and other items. Revenue for the year...[Read More]; Posted By: Larry Dignan in Between the Lines on: May 17, 2007 04:39 AM; See more coverage of HP Subscribe via RSS or Email

Digital Politics

Hillary is the new Bill: Clintons plot White House coup, again: Digital Markets Blog presidential campaign 2008 special series on what I am calling “User Generated Politics” “Governor Spitzer, thousands turn out to support campaign,” Hillary for President proudly proclaims. And, pictures say a thousand words! Looking closely at the photograph below, Hillary has literally replaced Bill in pressing the flesh of the adoring throngs (only missing piece, of course, a Lewinsky style nod). Below the showcase shot of Hillary in action for campaign 2008 at the campaign’s Website is a duet of photos: portraits of Hillary and Bill side by side, or rather, portraits of President Clinton and former First Lady, Senator Clinton. Surreal or only in America? Clinton is firmly behind Clinton; HE is looking forward to returning to the...[Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: May 15, 2007 08:01 PM; See more coverage of Digital Politics Subscribe via RSS or Email

Video

YouTube to video artists: Wolf in sheep's clothing?: YouTube to Video Artists: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing?[Read More]; Posted By: Donna Bogatin in Digital Markets on: May 15, 2007 07:57 AM; See more coverage of Video Subscribe via RSS or Email

JavaOne

Sun Execs Unplugged: Java best-positioned to capitalize on 'converged' developers: While it may be one of the oldest buzzwords in the book, convergence is very much on the minds of Sun executives here at JavaOne 2007, particularly as both Microsoft and Adobe are gunning and gunning hard for one of Sun's most competitive strongholds: that of Java in the market of cross-platform runtime environments. Overall, when it comes to cross-platform runtimes -- translation technologies that make it possible for developers to target multiple platforms and devices (Windows, Linux, handsets, desktops, etc.) with a single "tree of source code" (the concept is often called write once, run anywhere), Sun's Java probably has the biggest global footprint (if you don't count HTML). Not only is there a Java Runtime (JRE) for virtually...[Read More]; Posted By: David Berlind in Berlind's Testbed on: May 8, 2007 01:49 PM; See more coverage of JavaOne Subscribe via RSS or Email

Mix07

At Mix07, is Microsoft's bottom-trolling for developers with weak knees?: The deal will not be so sweet for the best of the mashup and Web 2.0 development crowd because they only thing Microsoft can bring to them that they can't already get is the large, ready-made audience. They can already get cheap, easy tools; cheap hosting; mashup APIs that work well and mostly free, and integration if they are decent developers thanks to open source and open standards. But, as we know, getting a large web audience quickly -- if you're good, early and lucky -- has never been easier ... or cheaper. Just ask Digg, YouTube, and Twitter. But it is still hard and risky.[Read More]; Posted By: Dana Gardner in BriefingsDirect on: Apr 30, 2007 09:33 AM; See more coverage of Mix07 Subscribe via RSS or Email

Intel

Can Intel-based Macs really save your university money?: According to Wilkes University, they can -- but I'm not so sure. [Read More]; Posted By: Marc Wagner in ZDNet Education on: Mar 28, 2007 08:26 AM; See more coverage of Intel Subscribe via RSS or Email

IPv6

Robert Cringely shows blatant ignorance of networking: Normally I don't get too worked up when someone makes a complete fool out of himself on networking issues but when a well known pundit like Robert Cringely of PBS writes an article that's filled with errors from beginning to finish about IPv6, I have to call it like I see it. Here are some of the more blatant errors. Robert Cringely: As things stand right now, something over 30 percent of Internet packet traffic is illicit, either spam email or attacks of various sorts. As such, a passive unprotected Windows system on the net can be infected with some kind of pathological code in a median time of minutes. Converting to IPv6 addressing would be a chance to at...[Read More]; Posted By: George Ou in Real World IT on: Nov 6, 2006 01:49 AM; See more coverage of IPv6 Subscribe via RSS or Email