Feeds
81573 items (55858 unread) in 107 feeds
- Dictionary.com Word of the Day (66 unread)
- Yahoo! News: Most Viewed (1505 unread)
ScienceTechnology (100 unread)
washingtonpost.com - Technology
-
Personal Tech
Posted: July 26th, 2008, 2:00pm EDT by Rob Pegoraro
The Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro discusses his recent reviews and answers your personal tech questions.
Yahoo! News: Technology News
-
Microsoft and Yahoo rise on deal talks report (AP)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:28am EDT
AP - Shares of Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. rose Wednesday as The Wall Street Journal reported Microsoft has talked to other media companies about teaming up to buy Yahoo's search business.
Wired: Top Stories
-
Welcome to the Rotten Tech IPO Market
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:20am EDT by Kevin Maney, Portfolio.com
News from Portfolio.com
Also on Portfolio
Microsoft Still Carrying a Flame for Yahoo
Struggling Starbucks to Cut Stores, Jobs
New Morgan Hand-Built and High-Tech
Subscribe to Portfolio magazineThe news about the crummy tech IPO situation seems to worry a lot of people. But some of the best technology gets built in times like these because there is no quick payoff.
In the past quarter, for the first time in 30 years, not a single tech company went public. So far, that's more of a blip than a trend, There's no reason to belive this situation will last forever. Still, you've got folks like Mark Heesen, president of the National Venture Capital Association, calling the news a "crisis for the startup community."
Bah. It's a crisis for the kinds of people who do tech startups mostly to get rich. Let them move back to Greenwich and become hedge fund managers.
When there's no IPO exit, tech startups have to do one of two things: try to get bought by a big company like Cisco or Google, or build an actual, working business with profits and everything. The former is a heck of a risky strategy. The latter tends to push startups to spend more time getting it right. Many of the major tech companies were founded in shaky economic times: Microsoft in 1975; Cisco in 1984; MySpace in 2003.
There's another element, too: The cost of starting a company in bad times plummets. Rent is cheaper, computers ditched by some bankrupt start-up can be picked up used, good people can be hired for less. As it is, the cost of starting most kinds of tech companies is one-tenth what it was 10 years ago, because the technology and tools have gotten so much cheaper and more effective.
So a company that needed $5 million just to get off the ground in 1998 now needs maybe $500,000. More and more, that money is being raised from private investors instead of venture capitalists, and the money is more patient -- not pushing so hard for an IPO payday. Again, that's probably better for the long-term prospects of a start-up.
It wouldn't be good if the IPO situation stays this bad for very long, but it's not the end of the world, and it's no worse than when the IPO market is ridiculously hot and people are starting companies with nothing but dollar signs in their eyes.
Yahoo! News: Technology News
-
India sees no security threat from BlackBerry (Reuters)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:14am EDT
Reuters - India's telecoms ministry does not see any security risk from Research In Motion's popular BlackBerry e-mail service and has no plans to shut the service, a top government official said on Wednesday. -
Forty Percent of Web Browsers Open to Hackers (NewsFactor)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:13am EDT
NewsFactor - Researchers from Google, IBM and the Communications Systems Group in Switzerland released a study Monday that shows only 60 percent of Web users are surfing with patched, updated browsers. -
ACLU, EFF Sue US Gov't Over Mobile Phone Tracking (PC World)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:00am EDT
PC World - The ACLU and EFF sue the U.S. Department of Justice over mobile phone tracking.
CNET News.com
-
Road Trip 2008 hits 3,000 miles at music legend's boyhood home
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 11:00am EDT
By playing a little fast and loose with how directly I drove to Hank Williams Sr. Boyhood Home and Museum, I hit the milestone there.
InfoWorld RSS Feed
-
Update: Yahoo-Google partnership reportedly under DOJ scrutiny
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 10:49am EDT
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened a formal antitrust investigation into the advertising partnership between Yahoo and Google, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
On June 12, Yahoo said it would run advertisements supplied by Google alongside search query results, a four-year deal estimated to bring Yahoo up to $800 million in revenue a year.
"We are continuing to have cooperative discussions with the Department of Justice about this arrangement," Google said in a statement. "We are confident that the arrangement is beneficial to competition, but we are not going to discuss the details of the process."
Yahoo did not have a comment.
The deal with Google, which already dominates text-based search advertising, was widely characterized as a move by Yahoo to deflect Microsoft's acquisition attempts.
[ For the complete saga of Microsoft's unsuccessful bid to take over Yahoo, check out InfoWorld's special report ]
In April, Yahoo, and Google informed the DOJ of a planned two-week test of the advertising program, which was limited to U.S. traffic on yahoo.com and comprised no more than 3 percent of total search queries.
After reaching a larger agreement last month, the two companies said they would delay implementing the program for three and a half months pending a voluntary review by the DOJ, the Post reported. But the newspaper characterized the DOJ as now undertaking a formal investigation of the deal.
CNET News.com
-
Jackson Pollock's hi-fi: A work of art?
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:56am EDT
The Audiophiliac visits Jackson Pollock's house and discovers the abstract expressionist painter had a decent hi-fi. -
Targus USB mouse doubles as VoIP phone, $17.95 (today only)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:46am EDT
Deal-of-the-day site Yugster has this dual-purpose mouse for $17.95 plus shipping. It originally sold for around $45.
Yahoo! News: Technology News
-
Yahoo shares jump on latest Microsoft report (CNET)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:42am EDT
CNET - Yahoo shares shot up nearly 6 percent in earning-morning trading Wednesday, on word that Microsoft may seek partners to make another bid for the company's search business.
CNET News.com
-
Yahoo shares jump on latest Microsoft report
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:42am EDT
The stock price is up in early trading, following a Wall Street Journal report that Microsoft may be seeking partners to make another run at Yahoo's search operations. -
Should troubled start-ups blame the messenger?
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:38am EDT
The hyperactive tech press thrives on "newness," but the real story is often whether last year's next big thing is doing well or falling apart.
Yahoo! News: Technology News
-
Microsoft to Sell Office 'value Pack' for $70 per Year (PC World)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:20am EDT
PC World - Microsoft will charge $69.99 for its new Equipt software package, which includes Office, Live Care and other services.
InfoWorld RSS Feed
-
Update: Report says Microsoft readying new try for Yahoo
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:09am EDT
is Microsoft is seeking partners including Time Warner and News Corp. in a new bid to acquire Yahoo's search business, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Microsoft wants to acquire Yahoo search, with the partner, likely a media company, taking the rest of Yahoo's business. CEO Steve Ballmer called Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and arranged a meeting set for Monday, but that meeting was cancelled, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Microsoft officials contacted in London had no comment Wednesday morning.
In January, Microsoft made an unsolicited bid to buy all of Yahoo, an offer the latter refused. Although Microsoft later raised its offer price, Yahoo continued to decline, and in early May, Microsoft ended the negotiations.
[ For the complete saga of Microsoft's attempt to take over Yahoo, check out InfoWorld's special report ]
On Monday, his final day as Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates stated that he thought any deal between his company and Yahoo was unlikely.
However, the matter has refused to go away with Microsoft indicating it would still be interested in buying part of Yahoo, namely its search business. At the same time, Yahoo investor Carl Icahn has pushed for a deal with Microsoft. He has stated publicly on several occasions that the company's board failed to serve shareholder interests by refusing to sell, and is maneuvering to replace the board at an upcoming investor meeting in August.
On Tuesday, Yahoo gave shareholders with a 32-page presentation that sought to shore up support for the board ahead of that meeting, and defended its decisions in the face of Microsoft and Icahn criticism.
Jeremy Kirk in London contributed to this report.
-
Microsoft to sell Office 'value pack' for $70 per year
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:06am EDT
Microsoft has chosen the name "Equipt" for a forthcoming package of products that includes its Office suite, Internet security software and other services, and will sell it for an annual subscription fee of $69.99.
Equipt, which was formerly known by its code name, Albany, includes Office Home and Student 2007, Windows Live OneCare, Office Live Workspaces, Windows Live Mail, Live Messenger and Live Photo. Microsoft plans to begin selling it in the U.S. on July 15 through Circuit City, with other outlets to follow. It will be offered in other countries at about the same time, though pricing elsewhere was not announced.
The name comes from the idea that the package will help customers "equip their PC with a core set of services," said Bryson Gordon, a group product manager for Microsoft Office. "It resonated well with customers in testing."
Indeed, the name is more succinct than Microsoft has used for some other Office products, including unwieldy names like Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook with Business Contact Manager.
Rumors began circulating in March that Microsoft was devising a new way of packaging Office to help it better compete with Google Docs and other free or low-cost productivity suites. The company sent out invitations to a select few, asking them to test a mysterious new project code-named Albany.
The company asked people to sign nondisclosure agreements just to sign up for the test. In April, Microsoft confirmed the products that would be available in the package.
Gordon played down the effort to compete with Google Docs and other free office suites, such as IBM Symphony. He said Equipt is aimed at people who are interested in purchasing a PC security suite -- such as Windows Live OneCare -- and might forgo buying Office as well in favor of using an older copy they might already have, or that they might pirate. "We're lowering the barrier to entry" for those customers, he said.
Because Equipt is such a "complicated value proposition" to understand, Microsoft is selling it first through Circuit City because the store's staff has been trained to explain it to customers, and because it has successfully handled other Microsoft product campaigns, Gordon said.
Microsoft determined the $69.99 subscription rate by taking into account the pricing for Windows Live OneCare, which costs $49.99 a year, and the pricing for Office Home and Student 2007, which has a one-time license fee of $149.99, Gordon said. It also took input on pricing from the beta testers, he said.
Customers can load Equipt on up to three PCs for the yearly subscription fee.
CNET News.com
-
Writing 'bass ackwards' to defeat censorship in China
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:01am EDT
Some people whose posts may otherwise have been deleted by censors in China have taken to writing backwards in an effort to defeat keyword-searching authorities. -
Office subscription service ready to go
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 9:00am EDT
Circuit City will be the first to offer the $69 per-year service, which bundles Office Home and Student and Microsoft's OneCare antivirus software.
Wired: Top Stories
-
Bosses Delete Outspoken Army Blog
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 8:17am EDT by Danger Room
An soldier who wrote one of the most brutally honest blogs chronicling life in the Iraq war zone has been forced to shut down his site after criticizing his superior officers once too often. The pseudonymous "LT [Lieutenant] G" had written "Kaboom: A Soldier's War Journal" since December 2007.
CNET News.com
-
Will iPhones via China Mobile be unlocked?
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 8:06am EDT
Unlocked, semi-legal iPhones have proliferated in China since Apple failed to make a deal with a Chinese carrier. What will happen next?
InfoWorld RSS Feed
-
Hands on with the Cloudbook Max netbook
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 8:03am EDT
Taiwan's First International Computer (FIC) showed off several new low-cost laptops, or netbooks , at Computex last month, and many of them will hit U.S. stores through affiliate Everex Systems.
I had a chance to try out the upcoming version of the Cloudbook with an 8.9-inch screen at FIC's offices in Taipei. One build, the Cloudbook Max , is able to connect to WiMax wireless networks and will be out in the U.S. in September.
The 8.9-inch screen netbooks will also be sold in other parts of the world, but may not carry the Everex name.
The device they had ready for me to try held a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor, 512MB of DRAM, and a 40GB HDD (hard disk drive). It was running Windows XP.
One nice thing was the keypad, which is important because none of the netbooks use a standard size keypad. On netbooks with a 10-inch screen size, some of the keypads are 80 percent to 90 percent the size of a mainstream laptop keypad, but on smaller devices such as 8.9-inch ones, they're much smaller.
Some companies have even designed unique keypads that are flat with little space between keys. That may make the device look nicer, which I'm told is the reason for such a design, but without space between the keys, it's easy to hit the wrong letters. Maybe it takes some time getting used to typing on a smaller keypad, but for anyone buying a device like this, the secondary application -- after surfing the Internet -- will likely be typing: e-mail, homework, work, journal or blog entries, etc. Comfortable typing is important.
These mini-laptops, or netbooks, are designed to be portable and offer easy access to the Web. That's why they weigh around 1 kilogram each and are about half to two-thirds the size of a mainstream laptop computer, with batteries that can last up to 8 hours.
They aren't really supposed to have the same functionality as a mainstream laptop and FIC's 8.9-inch laptop didn't. Battery-life, performance on simple software tasks, screen size and the size of the keypad were my biggest concerns.
It took about 35 seconds to boot Windows XP on the FIC device, and launching programs took about the same time as other devices I've had a look at, including Asustek Computer's Eee PC and Micro-Star International's Wind . Since most of the components are the same, similar performance isn't surprising.
One part of the FIC device that did set it apart was an express card slot for 3G (third-generation) or WiMax cards and options for built-in WiMax, 3G, and Bluetooth technology. Wi-Fi connectivity with 802.11 b/g is standard on the devices.
The mousepad worked well, and was easy to navigate on despite its small size.
The picture quality on the screen of the device was also nice. The company used WSVGA (wide super video graphics array) LCD screens with LED (light-emitting diodes) backlights with 1,024x600 resolution. Pictures on the screen looked crisp, as did a picture slideshow.
FIC has developed two main configurations of the model with an 8.9-inch screen. The CE2A1, with a 1.2GHz Via C7-M microprocessor, 1GB of DRAM, and an HDD with 60GB of storage and the CW0A1, which is similar but comes with a 1.6GHz Intel Atom microprocessor.
Solid State Drives (SSDs) are optional on the devices.
They come with either 4-cell or 6-cell lithium-ion batteries. The 6-cell batteries can run for seven to eight hours before needing a recharge.
They will be available in Taiwan and Japan by the end of August, the FIC representative said. In Taiwan, an 8.9-inch FIC netbook with an Atom microprocessor will cost around NT$15,000 (US$493), while one with a Via processor will sell for around NT$14,000.
-
AMD gains ground on Intel in chip wars
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 7:42am EDT
Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) gained some ground on rival Intel in the lucrative microprocessor market during the first quarter, market research iSuppli said late Tuesday.
AMD's share of global microprocessor market revenue in the first quarter rose by 2.2 percentage points compared to the same time last year to 13 percent, iSuppli said. Meanwhile, Intel's microprocessor sales dropped by 0.7 percentage points to a 79.7 percent share of the market.
The figures show that AMD is growing its market share at the expense of Intel, iSuppli said.
"AMD's PC microprocessor product portfolio has become much stronger during the last year, particularly on the desktop side," said Matthew Wilkins, principal analyst and iSuppli, in a report.
The market research company also noted that microprocessor prices appear to have stabilized, a sign that price wars between AMD and Intel have abated.
A portion of AMD's first quarter market share increase came from smaller microprocessor suppliers, iSuppli said. The report results included all kinds of microprocessors, not just the x86 processors AMD and Intel make for computers.
In fact, Intel and AMD accounted for 92.7 percent of total microprocessor revenue in the first quarter, up 1.4 percentage points from the same time last year, iSuppli reported.
-
Trojan lurks, waiting to steal admin passwords
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 7:23am EDT
Writers of a password-stealing Trojan horse program have found that a little patience can lead to a lot of infections.
They have managed to infect hundreds of thousands of computers -- including more than 14,000 within one unnamed global hotel chain -- by waiting for system administrators to log onto infected PCs and then using a Microsoft administration tool to spread their malicious software throughout the network.
The criminals behind the Coreflood Trojan are using the software to steal banking and brokerage account usernames and passwords. They've amassed a 50GB database of this information from the machines they've infected, according to Joe Stewart, director of malware research with security vendor SecureWorks.
"They've been able to spread throughout entire enterprises," he said. "That's something you rarely see these days."
Since Microsoft shipped its Windows XP Service Pack 2 software with its locked-down security features, hackers have had a hard time finding ways to spread malicious software throughout corporate networks. Widespread worm or virus outbreaks soon dropped off after the software's August 2004 release.
But the Coreflood hackers have been successful, thanks in part to a Microsoft program called PsExec , which was written to help system administrators run legitimate software on computers across their networks.
For a widespread infection, attackers must first compromise a system on the network by tricking the user into downloading their program. Then, when a system administrator logs onto that desktop machine -- to perform routine maintenance, for example -- the malicious software tries to run PsExec and install malware on all other systems on the network.
Often the technique succeeds.
Over the past 16 months, Coreflood's authors have infected more than 378,000 computers. SecureWorks has counted thousands of infections in university networks and has found financial companies, hospitals, law firms, and even a U.S. state police agency that have had hundreds of infections. "It's kind of insane how often they are getting on hundreds or thousands of computers at a single company," Stewart said. "They've probably stolen far more accounts than they can use."
The SANS Internet Storm Center reported one of the infections, which affected 600 machines on a 3,000 PC network, on June 25.
Malicious programs have used PsExec for more than five years, said the software's creator, Mark Russinovich, a Microsoft technical fellow. However, this is the first time he had heard of it being used in this fashion. "PsExec doesn't expose anything that a malware author can't code themselves or even accomplish with alternate mechanisms," he said in an e-mail interview. "Once you have credentials that give you local admin rights via remote access, you own that system."
Coreflood, which is also known as the AFcore Trojan, has been around for about six years. It has been used in the past for such things as launching denial-of-service attacks, but not to steal passwords, Stewart said.
-
Can Google Apps move up market?
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 6:00am EDT
Although Google always seems to be up to something, the past few months have seen a flurry of activity in a space long associated with IT: Google has driven its cloud computing applications -- Google Apps -- into businesses.
Now Google wants to move up market and become an enterprise player. For example, it has announced enterprise editions of its Google Apps, and has 600 employees across sales, support, engineering, marketing and product management dedicated to enterprise products at Google.
But the road to the enterprise is fraught with pitfalls. Big companies are infamous for long software sales cycles and averse to newfangled technology such as cloud computing. Requirements run the gamut, from security to compliance, manageability to support. And, of course, Google is on a collision course with Microsoft in the cloud.
The one sure bet: Despite Google's recent rush to bring new products and functionality up market, "Google Apps has a long way to go," says Phil Shih, analyst with Tier 1 Research. "I don?t see them being anywhere near enterprise-ready."
[ Learn more about the new breed of utility computing and platform-as-a-service offerings. ]
Google Apps is a bunch of free software with very limited functionality hosted at Google's datacenters and accessible over the Internet. The suite includes Gmail, which receives revenue from advertising; Google Calendar, which lets users share a calendar; Google Talk, for free text and voice calling; and Google Docs, for document creation and collaboration.
Many consider Web-based Google Apps to be a challenge to Microsoft Office on the desktop, although market comparisons today are hardly fair. Google claims more than 500,000 companies have signed up for Google Apps, but Gartner analyst Tom Austin figures only a handful of employees at each company uses the tools. Given Microsoft Office's 500 million users, he says, "it's a raindrop."
"In a two-year planning horizon, I don't think anybody is going to confuse Google Apps with Microsoft Office," Austin says. "Google is trying to outflank Microsoft Office, not undercut it." Basically, Google's plan is to exploit Microsoft's weaknesses in the cloud by offering simple, collaborative Web applications (and related files) that are used alongside feature-rich, somewhat restricted Microsoft Office applications (and related files) on the individual desktop.
Google enters the business world
Four years ago, Google began riding the cloud computing wave into the backwaters of businesses by offering a piece of its heralded search-engine technology for corporate Web sites. The success of that product showed Google that it could make a splash in businesses, and thus Google rapidly expanded a business line of plain-Jane software services.?Google Apps has held a kind of grassroots appeal for workers fed up with their IT department's sluggish responses to their requests. These workers wanted to tap free collaboration applications over the Internet, while skirting draconian IT policies. Indeed, employees across the board have been taking control of IT.
Thus, Google has enjoyed a surge, mostly within small and midsized companies. As Google Apps took hold inside cubicles, CTOs had to find ways to support the software or else ban it. Gartner's Austin says last year he fielded a rising tide of telephone calls from clients wanting to know more about Google Apps. According to TechCrunch, Google Apps earned about $400 million in 2007.
Google, too, saw the signs and ramped up efforts to make Google Apps more business-friendly. In summer 2007, Google bought Postini for $625 million -- the company's third-largest acquisition. Postini brings policy, security, and compliance rules to e-mail and the Web, a critical feature for large companies looking to leverage cloud-based computing applications. "We've taken a lot of [Postini's] functionality and integrated it with Google Apps over the last six months," says Rajen Sheth, senior product manager for Google Apps.
Earlier this year, Google's pitch hit a crescendo. It came out with a host of new products: Google Web Security for Enterprise, which uses Postini technology, and Google Sites for people to create a "team" Web site. Most notably, in late February, Google announced Google Apps Team Edition, which aims to give administrators visibility into Google Apps usage at their companies, as well as the ability to exert some control -- a sure sign that Google wanted to court big companies.
Microsoft chills out the cloud noise
The reaction from Redmond was swift. Less than a week after the Google Apps Team Edition announcement, Microsoft announced the public availability of Microsoft Office Live Workspace beta. Microsoft describes this as a Web-based extension of Microsoft Office that lets people access their documents online and share their work with others.Unlike Google Apps that actually run in the cloud, Microsoft Office Live Workspace requires Microsoft Office applications to run on a person's computer in order to create documents and make changes to them in the online workspaces. Randall Kennedy, an InfoWorld Test Center contributor and long-time Windows performance expert, panned Microsoft Office Live Workspaces in a December review, citing its lackluster document-sharing features and its tardiness to the cloud computing party.
In addition to the Microsoft Office Live Workspace announcement, Microsoft revealed plans to release Microsoft SharePoint Online and Exchange Online in the coming months as a paid subscription service. Basically, companies can choose to have Microsoft host SharePoint and Exchange instead of hosting it themselves on their own servers. Much like Google Apps' online collaboration draw, Microsoft's new services will let business users access e-mail, calendars, contacts, shared workspaces, and video conferencing over the Web.
The Microsoft announcement was a tactical move. "Microsoft is telling companies that they're coming to market, so wait before making decisions about cloud-computing services," Austin says. "This is a great market freezer."
Microsoft believes the hosted services model will eventually play a major role at large corporations. "In five years, we think closer to 50 percent of Microsoft Office users will be using Microsoft [online] services, likely in conjunction with Microsoft software," says Alex Payne, director of product management in the Microsoft Office group. The difference: Microsoft is looking to add online capabilities to Office, not move Office online. Google wants to cut into Office with online services of its own.
InfoWorld?s Kennedy predicted Microsoft's embrace of cloud computing nearly two years ago. That's when Microsoft acquired application virtualization platform product SoftGrid. Kennedy says the renamed Microsoft Application Virtualization will stream Microsoft Office and other bulky client-server software to users over the Internet. That eliminates the current choice that Google's strategy seems to want to force between installed Office versus Web-delivered Google Apps.
Earlier this year, Kennedy made another bold prediction: A streaming Microsoft Office will clobber Google Apps in the cloud. He cites Microsoft Office's key strengths, such as full-fledged functionality and offline operation, as eventually winning the day.
The long road to the enterprise
Google claims its efforts to crack large enterprises, including forging a partnership with Salesforce.com in April, are paying off. "We are working with three to four dozen large-size enterprises in various stages of deployment right now of Google Apps," Google's Sheth says. "Some of them, such as Genentech, have announced they'll be doing larger deployments."In a single week in June, Gartner analyst Austin had three inquiries from companies -- "each with tens of thousands or more users," he says -- asking about using Google Apps in the next year or two. The timing is somewhat surprising since most large companies upgrade e-mail and collaboration applications on a minimum 10-year cycle. "That argues against any quick success for Google," Austin says.
The three companies were not seeking full deployments, either. "They wanted to know about segmented strategies for a certain class of employee, such as a highly mobile person who doesn't really need a laptop but has to access e-mail and corporate information," Austin says. "They asked, 'What about cloud computing? What about Google?'"
And herein lies the rub. Although Google Apps may carve out niches, it's unlikely that basic applications in the cloud will play a major role in the way giants of industry conduct business. Imagine sensitive business documents being shared in the cloud without comprehensive enterprise controls.
Not only is Google Apps not ready, says Tier 1's Shih, companies aren't either. "The general trend toward more applications, more collaboration being done online in the work environment, is pretty irreversible," he says. "But enterprises making the leap from the desktop to the cloud is still a bit of a stretch right now."
Yahoo! News: Technology News
-
Calif's hands-free cell law for drivers in effect (AP)
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 4:26am EDT
AP - Millions of California motorists have had to put down their cell phones or risk a ticket as a new law takes effect requiring hands-free devices for those behind the wheel.
CNET News.com
-
Free utility lets you defrag files solo or in bunches
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 3:01am EDT
WinContig brings selective file and folder defragmentation to Vista. -
Microsoft said seeking partners for new Yahoo bid
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:19am EDT
According to the Wall Street Journal, the software maker is looking for a partner to help it renew a bid for Yahoo's search business. But a canceled meeting with Yahoo's chairman could mean that no one is ready to join forces. -
Mandatory employee blogs: one way to boost knowledge
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:16am EDT
I have a piece of advice for those who bemoan the lack of knowledge-sharing in their organizations: Make tacit knowledge explicit. -
Blockbuster abandons Circuit City bid
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 1:10am EDT
Movie-rental chain's CEO cites "market conditions" in withdrawal of its $1 billion bid for the consumer electronics chain. -
Reports suggest China may have blocked access to Facebook
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:45am EDT
While nothing has been confirmed, Twitter messages and blog posts suggest that problems accessing Facebook in China may be more than just Internet service provider issues. -
Linspire getting swallowed by Xandros
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:05am EDT
Linspire, the company that once raised Microsoft's ire with its Linux-based Lindows operating system, is being swallowed by Xandros, another Linux company. -
IBM supercomputer to aid osteoporosis treatment
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:01am EDT
Using a Blue Gene Supercomputer, IBM and ETH Zurich labs say they have come up a new way to diagnose the widespread bone disease.
washingtonpost.com - Technology
-
Google Ad Deal Is Under Scrutiny
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Peter Whoriskey
The Justice Department has opened a formal antitrust investigation into a deal struck last month that would allow Internet titan Google to provide some search advertising for Yahoo, according to sources familiar with the inquiry. -
Groups Sue U.S. for Data On Tracking By Cellphone
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Ellen Nakashima
Two civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government yesterday, seeking records related to the government's use of cellphones as tracking devices.
Wired: Top Stories
-
Scott Brown's Nostalgorithm for Pop-Culture Sensations
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Scott Brown
Oh, X-Files sequel. Like your subtitle says: I want to believe. I really do. But above all, I want to want. And I don't. What gives? I hearted you monstrously in the '90s. And I like knowing a sequel is out there, the same way I like knowing my AOL account is out there: comforting, but I feel no special urge to visit. I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Why is that? Why do some beloved pop fantasies evolve into mini-religions, while others fade like an old pair of Jams? Hollywood doesn't have the answer. They'll green-light just about anything, from a live-action He-Man movie to The Smurfs in 3-D. Our only hope here is science.
So I turn to a scientist — my former college roommate Noah Helman. Back in the '90s, he was our dorm's brainy, not-quite-as-hot Scully; I, its stubby Mulder, the believer. We used to watch The X-Files together, in real time, then debate it over warm Squirt. (These were the heady days before Television Without Pity.) Now he's a busy molecular biologist, but he agreed, for the sake of science, to help me determine the perfect "nostalgorithm" — a differential equation that will determine a pop object's nostalgic potential while explaining why a Thundercats movie intrigues, but the X-Files sequel leaves me cold. Let's begin with the simplest factor: Time (t). As any former Giga Pet owner knows, stuff peaks, then gets old. Thus:
Popular velocity (ΔPopularity/Δt) = -L x t
where L = probability of lameness.Off its peak, we see exponential decay in Popular Velocity over time:
Popularity(t) = exp(-L x t) = e-LxtTranslated crudely from the calculus, this simply means pop properties have expiration dates, like Lunchables or Tom Cruise. Or The X-Files, which has been off the air for six years now and was in steep decline four years prior to cancellation. And fan love doesn't steadily decline — it plummets as exposure (E) reaches an unhealthy level:
Popular velocity =
(-L x t) - L2 x (Popularity - E)3Ergo: even worse news for The X-Files, one of the '90s more overexposed phenomena. But as Noah points out, non-awesome pop objects are primed to become awesome again. The X-Files is solidly non-awesome — so perhaps a popular re-awesomeness awaits it, è la Grunge, Trump, and Steel? Perhaps — but probably not this month. While what's old is eventually new again, it takes about a generation (tgen = 20 years) for kids to pick up what their parents discarded. And so:
Which gives us a swooping, hilly graph (see figure, above) and strands The X-Files movie in that sad little valley: 10 years off its peak popularity in 1998 — when the first film opened and attempted, unsuccessfully, to convince us that bees are scary. According to our formula, the proper release date for this X-Files movie is 2018 — not 2008. (That date satisfies the math but also halves David Duchovny's smolder-quotient.)
But time and generational reclamation aren't the only factors. (If so, where's that big-budget Airwolf movie?) There's also niche: Paranormal procedurals like Medium are milking the X meme, along with Lost, which regularly pits science against faith, but without the smoky will-they-or-won't-they (all due respect to authors of Jack/Locke yaoi fan-fic). What about the resurgence of Star Trek less than a decade after its cancellation? Space westerns must be the exception.
I ask Noah about these additional factors, and he asks me for a grant. Who needs him? I can blitz my way through this:
The graph for this one looks, well, kind of like Airwolf barebacking KITT. And I'm not sure it explains anything. But it has left me strangely, counterintuitively jazzed for this upcoming X-Files movie — all this reminiscing makes me want to catch up with Mulder and Scully and, hell, even Flukeman. This is the point where Noah throws his TI-73 at my head and pronounces me hopeless. Maybe no amount of ratiocination can capture the messy heuristics of true devotion. Maybe bees are scary. Is $10 really too much to pay to find out? Probably, but I'm doing it anyway. What can I say? I want to believe.
Email scott_brown@wired.com.
-
Race for Reservations Turns New York's Momofuku Ko Into Net Obsession
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Brendan Spiegel
NEW YORK -- A hotshot restaurateur's playful menu and populist booking policy have cooked up an online obsession for Manhattan food freaks.
David Chang's latest restaurant, Momofuku Ko, opened in March with an egalitarian concept: There's a strict no-VIP policy, and the 12 seats in the tiny eatery can be booked only through an online reservation system.
"We wanted to try something different," says Chang. "We didn't want to make it for the elite."
But Momofuku Ko's online system has made trying to get a seat at the restaurant a frenzied morning ritual for thousands of obsessive fans. Hopeful diners log on to the restaurant's website each day when the system opens at 10 a.m. They see a series of time slots for that evening's seatings, with green check marks and red x's. If they click fast, they might get a reservation. More likely, they'll get a message reading: "Sorry, someone just grabbed that spot." After about two seconds, that day's reservations are gone.
"You have a combination of a white-hot chef opening a new restaurant with very few seats, and a reservation system that no one has tried before," says Ben Leventhal, editor-in-chief of restaurant blog Eater. "It created a lot of excitement."
New York is famous for its trendy restaurant scene and the bragging rights that accompany a meal at the latest, greatest eatery. Momofuku Ko's simple booking system short-circuits the common methods used to secure a seat at Manhattan's A-list restaurants -- waiting lists, sweet spots for celebs and good old-fashioned grease for the maitre d's palm. As maddening as it is egalitarian, Momofuku Ko's system appears to be the only one of its kind.
With its modest décor and eight-course tasting menu priced at $100, the East Village restaurant might seem an unlikely fixation for New York foodies, who have thousands of fabulous dining options. But Chang, 31, has already won two James Beard awards -- the restaurant equivalent of an Oscar -- and his unique Asian cuisine has drawn near-universal praise since his first two restaurants, Momofuku Noodle Bar and Momofuku Ssam, opened in 2004 and 2006.
Momofuku Ko's upscale twist on comfort food features creative dishes like snail-and-ricotta lasagna. The concepts are often so playful that one wonders if Chang isn't making fun: The panna cotta is made from "cereal milk." Yes, that's milk that's been steeped overnight in corn flakes.
Whisk it all together, and you've got a flawless frittata of fixation: When Chang recently offered a reservation at a charity auction, the winner bid $2,870.
Chang's so hot that would-be diners tried to hack the system before Momofuku Ko opened. Commenters on Eater began guessing at likely URL names and found the restaurant's website while it was still in development.
Soon, food blogs and forums started to fill with ideas on how to beat the system. Some realized the odds were better on Sundays, when fewer people logged on. Others figured that cancellations were entered into the system at random times, and began obsessively checking all day long. Others realized the site's clock changes by a few seconds each day, and reset their own clocks daily. Of course, as each strategy was shared online, it lost effectiveness, and nabbing a reservation got even more difficult.
"In the first two weeks, if you logged in exactly at 10 a.m., and were quick enough, you were pretty sure to get a reservation," says Steven A. Shaw, executive director of The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, an online portal for restaurant industry professionals. "Now, it's virtually impossible to get in."
As the reservations game fueled the hype, enthusiasm turned to frustration. Critics at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times all published rants about the hardships of getting a reservation.
Then came the Craigslist ads. "Hire my services for $40, and I will get you seats for 1, 2 or 4 at Momofuku Ko," read one. Food blogs went crazy with speculation that someone had created an automated bot to beat the system.
But mercenary reservation bookers work manually, and for one customer at a time. They have aspiring diners send them their login info (after they've already entered their credit card information into the system), and then secure a reservation on their behalf.
If this sounds like a massive waste of time, Chang is the first to agree. "I can't imagine why people would spend the time to do this," he says. "It's certainly the most over-hyped restaurant I've seen in a long time."
-
July 2, 1937: Earhart Vanishes Over the Pacific
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Tony Long
1937: At 8:43 a.m. local time, the Coast Guard cutter Itasca, steaming off Howland Island, receives this faint transmission from Amelia Earhart: "KHAQQ calling Itasca. We must be on you but cannot see you -- but gas is running low…."
She vanishes along with her navigator, Fred Noonan, into the Central Pacific, and they're never heard from again.
The disappearance of the celebrated flier remains perhaps the most tantalizing unsolved mystery in aviation history. In the age of Charles Lindbergh and other daredevil fliers, Amelia Earhart became a household name in 1928, after becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. True, it was as a passenger with a male pilot and copilot, but she soloed across the Atlantic in 1932.
Although fellow pilots rated her as no better than competent, Earhart parlayed her sex and her absolute devotion to flying into a celebrity that few of her contemporaries enjoyed. And it's not like she wasn't legit: Earhart was the first pilot of either sex to successfully fly solo from Honolulu to the U.S. mainland, reaching Oakland, California, on Jan. 11, 1935. She wrote voluminously about her experiences and worked hard to promote aviation, both to women and to the public at large.
By 1937, though, the 39-year-old Earhart was weary of both the celebrity and the flying. Saying she had one last good flight in her, she was determined to make it a doozy: She would fly her specially modified Lockheed L-10E Electra completely around the world.
A first attempt, flying westward from Oakland in March, ended either with a blown tire or pilot error as she was taking off from Honolulu. The plane was badly damaged and shipped back to Lockheed in Los Angeles for repairs.
For the second attempt, Earhart was joined by Noonan. They altered the flight plan for an eastward journey to compensate for shifting weather patterns, and left Oakland on May 21. From Miami, their route took them south along the eastern seaboard of South America, then a hop across the Atlantic Narrows to Africa. They skirted the southern coast of Asia, crossing the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia before arriving in Lae, New Guinea, June 29. They had flown roughly 22,000 miles at this stage and had another 7,000 to go, all of it over the Pacific Ocean.
As they left Lae on July 2, the cutter Itasca was already on station off Howland Island, Earhart's next destination, to help guide the plane in. Ship-to-plane radio contact was established, but something -- possibly problems with the radio directional finder aboard the Electra -- undermined communications.
Whatever the reason, Noonan was unable to pick up the Itasca's homing signals. Itasca even raised steam for a possible visual sighting, but the aviators were unable to locate either the cutter or Howland Island. Seventy-five minutes after receiving Earhart's last transmission, which included the line, "We are on the line 157/337," the Itasca began searching for the plane.
Such was Earhart's stature that President Franklin Roosevelt dispatched nine U.S. Navy ships and 66 aircraft to help in a search that proved fruitless.
Nevertheless, various stations around the Pacific reported receiving unidentified signals, leading to the hope that Earhart and Noonan had somehow managed to find land somewhere. None of these reports amounted to anything.
Over the years the mystery only deepened, leading to some pretty fanciful theories concerning Earhart's fate, including the possibility that she was captured by the Japanese during World War II and forced to broadcast propaganda to American GIs as Tokyo Rose. Iva Toguri and all the others who broadcast as Rose should have been so lucky.
The likeliest explanation for what became of Earhart and Noonan is that they ran out of fuel, ditched at sea and drowned, but there are other theories out there still being pursued. In any case, they were officially declared dead Jan. 5, 1939.
As for Earhart herself, she knew she was taking a big risk for high stakes:
"Please know I am quite aware of the hazards.... I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others."
Source: Various
-
Drive the World's Fastest Roads
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am EDT by Mike Spinelli
You've got a sports car that can zoom up to 200 miles per hour, but where can you actually tap into that extra speed? We map the fastest stretches of blacktop across the globe.
-
DNA Technology Posts Exponential Speed Increases
Posted: July 2nd, 2008, 12:00am E