From The Editor
By Jeff Caruso, Site Editor
- Halloween treats at Network World
- It's a full moon here at Network World, with Halloween stuff bursting forth from every page. Michael Cooney collected a dozen projects that seem to have been inspired by mad scientists. Keith Shaw...
- Where to start Patch Tuesday cleanup?
- I'm not sure there's any such thing as a small Patch Tuesday. Microsoft this week released 13 patches, many of them critical and many of them getting strong reactions among experts.
It's almost...
- Lotus says Microsoft's numbers are 'ridiculous and fabricated'
- Network World's John Fontana writes:
Lotus Software GM Bob Picciano has grown tired of the "hot wind" blowing out of Redmond carrying claims that Exchange is displacing Notes and is singling out...
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Cisco MARS shuts out third-party devices; NYSE puts stock in 10G Listen now!
- Brocade, Oracle partner for database, SAN connectivity
- In a sweeping announcement, Brocade and Oracle last week introduced a variety of solutions designed specifically for use with Oracle database and applications. Based on existing partnerships with NetApp, Sun/StorageTek and EMC, Brocade and Oracle have put together end-to-end networking packages for data warehousing, business applications and virtualization environments.
- Juniper's relationship with Packet Design
- In our Oct. 26 WAN newsletter we discussed the fact that there were a number of rumors circulating about a dramatic move that Juniper would soon announce. On October the 29th Juniper used the New York stock exchange as a backdrop to make a series of announcements. We are doing to use this newsletter to focus on one piece of the Juniper announcements – Juniper's establishment of a close relationship with Packet Design.
- Google Bets on Mobile Advertising with AdMob Purchase
- Google is somewhat new to the mobile operating system and mobile device markets, but one market it understands, arguably better than any other entity, is online advertising. So, there is reason to raise an eyebrow when Google throws down $750 million to purchase a company like AdMob that is focused on mobile advertising.
- Apple posts Wireless Keyboard Update 2.0
- If you're using an Apple Wireless Keyboard with OS X 10.5.8 or later, you'll want to install the Wireless Keyboard Update 2.0 from Apple. Released on Monday, the firmware update allows you, as Apple puts it in the release notes, to "take advantage of your 2009 aluminum Apple Wireless Keyboard's special features." The release notes are less detailed about what those features might be, but a pretty good guess might be the keyboard's function keys, which offer one-touch access to OS X capabilities including Exposé and Dashboard.
- Reliance Life Sciences Launches Info Database
- Reliance Life Sciences (RLS) develops business opportunities in the domains of medical, plant and industrial biotechnology. But with new research happening every day it was getting hard for biologists to keep track of genome sequences like evolutionary history of organisms, their biological function, and their chemical structure, etcetera.
- The Smithsonian's quest for IT's Ruby Slippers
- The National Museum of American History continues its effort to determine what IT devices have played or will play an important role in the flow of history even as the facility still lacks a separate large IT exhibit.
- Charles Cecil working on a Minesweeper adventure for charity
- Broken Sword creator Charles Cecil has revealed his next project, a full-blown point-and-click adventure game based on the freeware game Minesweeper.
- Firefox at 5: What We Love and Hate About You
- Mozilla's Firefox Web browser turned five years old today, and as I took it for a celebratory spin (I'm a recent Chrome convert), it was easy to notice how similar all the major browsers have become in terms of basic functionality. For instance, it's harder to choose one browser over another for the way it treats tabs and windows, as Firefox now lets you drag tabs into separate windows. Nor will privacy nuts find that they can't go incognito in their browser of choice.
- Motorola Droid: Updates Already On the Way?
- Well, that didn't take long: Just three days after the Droid dropped, and we already have our first leaked-document-style rumor. What is this, the iPhone or something?
- Server Consolidation Results in Savings for Rayon
- The Indian Rayon unit of the Aditya Birla Nuvo group is the second largest producer of viscose filament yarn (VFY) in India, in terms of its market share. With the distinction of constituting 50 percent of VFY exports from India, the company has consistently raised the bar.
- Microsoft Exchange set; SharePoint, OCS to follow
- Microsoft Monday shipped the final release of Exchange 2010, ushering in not so much the latest version of its messaging server but the first updated piece of its unified communications and collaboration platform.
- Veterans agency looks beyond EMC for multi-million storage deal
- With a 75-year retention requirement and 5 petabytes of data, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs faces major challenges when it comes to storing data in its primary data center in Austin, Texas.
- Handhelds Helped Gati Deliver Real Time Reports
- When Gati launched in 1989, it was a small cargo management company. But over the years it's evolved into a consumer 'superbrand.' But with this growth came challenges to the brand. It sought to be a trusted: if Gati said it would be delivered, it would be. The evidence? A scrap of paper called a POD (proof of delivery).
- Advertising Made Easy with Media Management Portal
- FMCG major Marico boasts of a wide array of products in the hair care, skin care and wellness space. To fight for mind space in such a highly competitive and fragmented market, the company, like all other companies in the sector, resorts to advertising.
- Tethering to iPhone still coming, AT&T says; no date set
- AT&T today reiterated its plans to offer tethering on the iPhone, but again gave no date when that might happen -- more than a year after the carrier first said tethering would be coming "soon."
- Cisco crafting telepresence Rosetta Stone
- At its big collaboration event this week, Cisco is wheeling out what it describes as the Rosetta Stone of high-def videoconferencing to address one of the biggest problems facing the technology – interoperability.
- EU issues objections to Oracle's Sun acquisition
- The European Commission has issued its formal "statement of objections" over Oracle's planned acquisition of Sun Microsystems, Sun said in a regulatory filing Monday.
- Sprint to lay off more than 2,000
- Sprint Nextel expects to lay off as many as 2,500 people by year’s end, on the heels of reporting that it lost 545,000 customers in its third quarter.
- Exchange 2010 Launch: Week Round Up
- Exchange 2010 formally launched today, promising new features that will improve productivity and reduce storage and voicemail costs. But are the new features worth the complexity of upgrading? CIO.com's Shane O'Neill rounds up Exchange 2010 stories from the past week.
- Airtel Gets Consistency With Delivery Platform
- With various services under its fold - from the ubiquitous mobile to the rather new IPTV - Bharti Airtel had to find a way to ensure consistency of its services across platforms. Consistency of user experience in an extremely competitive telecom sector was essential.
- Apple releases Mac OS X 10.6.2
- On Monday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.2, the latest update to its Mac OS X operating system. As you might surmise, it contains a number of fixes and feature enhancements for the newest big cat. Apple, as always, recommends 10.6.2 for all users running Snow Leopard.
- EA acquires casual gaming pro Playfish for $300 million
- EA formally announced the acquisition of social games developer Playfish today for an estimated $300 million, with another $100 million incentive promised if the London-based startup meets certain expectations before 2012.
- Excitebike, Electroplankton on Wii/DSiWare today
- This week's Wii and DSi downloadable lineup brings two excellent Nintendo creations in two extremely different forms. While it's possible that the different distribution methods may work, one of the games may just continue to suffer in anonymity as a result.
- Verizon keeps needling AT&T with three new Christmas ads
- Three new TV ads from Verizon Wireless escalated the battle with AT&T over fast 3G wireless coverage, this time with a sarcastic Christmas theme.
- Microsoft brings Silverlight to Facebook
- The two companies' latest collaboration combines Web, client, and social technologies for building apps and services for the social networking site
- Pre-order MAG and get exclusive beta access
- Game retailer Gamestop is currently running a pre-order offer for Sony's upcoming online 256-player shooter MAG that will allow immediate access to the beta test of the game that is currently running. In order to take advantage of the offer you must have a PlayStation Network account (of course) as the game is online only. Gamestop's pre-order offer also includes an exclusive in-game character skin (pointing to an inevitable downloadable content program for the final release, no doubt.)
- How to snag an early Bayonetta demo on Xbox 360
- If you want to check out the Bayonetta demo before anyone else, here's how to do it. Starting on Monday (11/9) Sega will be giving early download codes to the first 40,000 users to complete a free Sega Pass registration. The offer opens on Monday, and will close next Friday. The codes will be sent out on November 16. Bookmark this page and make sure to log in first thing Monday
- Another World, entirely in Javascript
- Game developer Gil Megidish states that he has "some kind of obsession with this game." Another World, released as Out of This World in North America, was a beautifully animated sci-fi adventure game first released in 1991 for the Commodore Amiga. Over the years Megidish has been a big part of the teams responsible for porting the game to other platforms, and he worked directly on the PC and 3DO versions, as well as the PSP, PS2, and Game Boy Advance iterations. His latest project is a browser-based interpretation of the game written entirely in Javascript. All the game requires to run is a modern web browser such as Safari, Firefox, Opera or Google Chrome. Though the project is not complete (and Megidish currently has no plans of completing it) it serves as an excellent proof of concept for what can be achieved with browser games now.
- Migrate to Windows 7--Slowly, Part 6: iTunes
- In Part 5 of my series on how to migrate to Windows 7 a little bit at a time, you learned a simple way to sync your Firefox and/or Internet Explorer bookmarks.
- Drowning in Passwords: Tips to Stay Safe and Sane
- Another day, another password: Thanks to Web-based apps, we're all acquiring passwords at quite a clip. How do you remember them all while staying secure? Here are some helpful tools and strategies -- that don't involve writing your passwords on sticky notes.
- Security pros seek hacking, forensics skills
- The Computing Technology Industry Association of 1,500 IT workers found that majority intend to pursue security and related certifications in the coming years.
- Firefox flaws account for 44% of all browser bugs
- Firefox accounted for almost half of all browser vulnerabilities in the first six months of 2009, a Web security company claimed today.
- Internet battlefield program marshals NATO forces
- Getting military forces from different nations to work together in Afghanistan is no easy task, but before multinational troops with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrive there, officers and others are often trained through an online Battle Labs computer simulation via the Internet.
- Cisco warns UC users of limited support for Windows 7
- Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is warning customers of its unified communications products that support for Windows 7 won’t be forthcoming until the product’s 8.0 release scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. About a dozen more UC products will not support Windows 7 until version 8.5, in the third quarter of 2010 and at that time, only the 32-bit version of Windows 7 will be supported. http://www.networkworld.com/community/taxonomy/term/7678
- New Epicor program seeks to hold down ERP project costs
- Epicor on Monday announced a new program aimed at containing the cost of ERP (enterprise resource planning) projects, which are notorious for running late and over budget.
- Mobile users get faster WAN links
- Riverbed Technology is upgrading its mobile WAN optimization software so laptops send traffic more efficiently when they tap into branch office Riverbed appliances.
- Business use of Twitter, Facebook exploding
- A survey of 200 companies worldwide found that use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter for business use has exploded in recent months.
- Apple rejects app because of politician caricatures
- You a fan of Mad Libs? Try this one on for size: Apple on [day] rejected an iPhone app devoted to [phrase] for [ridiculous reason].
- Dell, HP customers rage at Windows 7 upgrade delays
- Dell and HP customers are angry that they have not yet received the Windows 7 upgrades promised them when they purchased new PCs earlier this year, according to messages on the companies' support forums.
- Fox News takes on Google
- Will the Internet kill newspapers, and is Google holding the pistol? That's this morning's big theme here in Cringeland. But before I get into that, I'd like to make a modest proposal.
...
- Shazam rolls out paid Encore app, changes free app
- Nothing in life is ever free--or perhaps it's best said that nothing's free forever. Shazam, makers of the free iPhone app that single-handedly ruins song-guessing quiz games, has unveiled a new $5 app for the iPhone: Shazam Encore.
- Google AdMob buyout latest in long line of acquisitions
- In light of Google's announced plan this week to buy mobile advertising provider AdMob for $750 million, it seems like a good time to take a spin back through Google’s more notable buyouts over the years. Wikipedia lists more than 50 of them, and given Google’s sometimes mysterious ways, there are no doubt a few that didn’t make the public list.
- Eighth person charged with passport snooping
- An eighth person who has worked for the U.S. Department of State has pleaded guilty to illegally accessing numerous electronic passport files that are supposed to be confidential, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
- Evony Girls on Film, Porn Style
- Oh Evony, you're such a tease, what with brazenly ripping off Civilization luminary Sid Meier, then wrapping his respected oeuvre in your tinsel-tawdry images of fake or stripping or occasionally flat-out stolen females. I'd ask "Have you no shame?" but even that's a rhetorical question wrapped in a riddle inside an utter redundancy.
- Firefox: Five Years In The Open Source Hen House
- On its fifth birthday, Firefox must be considered both an incredible success and somewhat of a failure. The open source Web browser is a great product and quite an achievement, but has not tremendously advanced the cause of "free" software.
- iPhone Worm Rickrolls Jailbroken Phones
- A mischievous iPhone worm that targets Australian jailbroken phones is changing the phone's wallpaper to an image of Rick Astley.
- LinkedIn for BlackBerry Smartphones: Details
- It's about time.
- Speed-up iMovie clips
- Andy Milder (aka Dean Hodes on Showtime's Weeds), sends this question:
- Google, plaintiffs blow book search settlement deadline
- Google, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) need more time to revise the proposed settlement of the copyright infringement lawsuits the author and publisher organizations brought against Google over its Book Search program.
- Nook eReader Demand Delays Shipments
- Christmas has come early for Barnes and Noble. The book store's Nook eReader is in such hot demand that Barnes and Noble is already announcing production delays before it has even shipped the first device. The eReader market has gotten crowded lately, but it is the Nook that seems to pose the biggest threat so far to the dominance of Amazon's Kindle.
- Murdoch's Web Sites May Block Google Searches
- Once News Corps' Web Sites go behind a paywall, chief executive Rupert Murdoch suggested that they'll disappear from searches on Google and other engines.
- IBM launches cloud academy
- IBM has announced a global forum for educators, researchers and information technology (IT) personnel from the education industry. The new IBM Cloud Academy will help these professionals to pursue cloud computing initiatives, develop skills and share best practices. These efforts will help them to reduce operating costs while improving quality and access to education.
- Robert Walters: Banks create new IT vacancies in Hong Kong
- IT pros are in higher demand as banks in particular begin implementing new systems and trading platform, said recruitment firm Robert Walters Monday.
- Nortel wins government deals in Asia Pacific
- Nortel has recently won public sector deals in several countries across Asia Pacific that cover a range of emerging networking technologies including UC, Ether routing switches, contact centers, and virtual collaborations, the vendor said Friday.
- Cisco extends Tandberg deal deadline
- Cisco this week said is extending the acceptance period for its $3 billion cash offer to acquire Tandberg to Nov. 18. The initial acceptance deadline was Nov. 9.
- How to Compare Patch Management Software
- Patch management software helps organizations acquire, test and install code to fix known vulnerabilities in operating systems and applications. It also helps them assess exposure and prioritize patches (given your specific environment), identify missing patches that need to be remediated and produce real-time reports for compliance and other auditing needs.
- Verizon vs. AT&T: The Ad Wars Shift
- Getting into the spirit of the season, Verizon is enlisting the aid of elves, Elvis, and stop-motion puppets in its holiday offensive against AT&T. In a new set of ads, Verizon continues to highlight its superior nationwide 3G coverage as an argument for going with the carrier and its handset lineup, including HTC's Imagio and Droid Eris, instead of Apple's iPhone on AT&T. The new ads are stirring a lot of debate online, and may also be fodder for a rumor that never really goes away.
- RIM Brings Development, Admin Courses to Universities
- BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) kicked off its second annual BlackBerry Developer Conference with a bang this morning, announcing its new BlackBerry Academic Program, which brings BlackBerry application development and administration courses to colleges and universities throughout North America, as well as a new alliance with Adobe Systems.
- BlackBerry Developers to Get New Tools in Adobe's CS5
- Research In Motion (RIM) along with Adobe Systems today announced an expanded partnership in which the two companies will bring new software development tools to BlackBerry mobile application developers as part of Adobe's Creative Suite 5 (CS5).
- HP's new architecture tackles IT sprawl
- Hewlett-Packard Co. Wednesday unveiled new offerings to help customers address IT sprawl and build IT infrastructures that can quickly scale as the need arises.
- New iMacs get touchscreens, courtesy of Troll Touch
- Troll Touch, the makers of fine touchscreen versions of Macs, have now announced prices for adding finger-friendliness to Apple's latest range of iMacs.
- Jailbreaking puts iPhone owners at risk, says researcher
- Jailbroken iPhones are much easier to hijack, security researcher Charlie Miller said today, and the proof is in the ikee worm that has infected some Australian phones.
- Beyond Nokia chargers: A brief history of recent technology recalls
- While there are plenty of products customers probably wish had been recalled (OK, it's time to stop piling on Windows Vista), Nokia's recall Monday of millions of faulty cell phone chargers got us thinking about other recent technology recalls.
- Lawsuit claims iPhone games stole phone numbers
- Browse the App Store for developer Storm8's many popular iPhone games, and you'll encounter the same message over and over again: "The item you've requested is not currently available in the US store."
- iPhone Hints: Take self-portraits easier
- Ever tried to take a self-portrait with the iPhone's camera? It's not what you might call "super-easy." Because there's no physical button to press, you can't find the camera shutter control just by feeling around (well, without marking the glass over the shutter button by, say, scratching it, which we don't recommend). So you end up flailing around, holding that smile fixed on your face and hoping that sooner or later you'll take a picture and you won't look completely ridiculous.
- Inside ERP Budgets: Slicing, Dicing the Corporate Pie
- AMR Research survey data shows how companies are spending their ERP operating budget dollars and why many are struggling to achieve the right mix.
- Why is My Computer Slowing Down?
- A41202813 asked the Answer Line forum why his once quick PC is slowing down
- Happy Birthday Firefox! Firefox Turns 5
- On November 9, 2004, Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 debuted and quickly became a serious contender in the ongoing browser wars. At the time, Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominated the market with a 99 percent market share. Five years later, Internet Explorer still reigns at 65 percent, but Firefox comes in second with an impressive 23 percent.
- First USB 3.0 flash drive has 10X the speed of previous drives
- Super Talent today announced the industry's first USB 3.0 compliant flash drive with data transfer speeds of up to 5Gbit/sec -- 10 times faster than USB 2.0 products and about six times faster than FireWire.
- Google to buy mobile ad company
- Google plans to buy mobile advertising provider AdMob for US$750 million stock, the search giant said on Monday.
- UK to push for law to retain all communications data
- The U.K. government said Monday it plans to push for a law requiring service providers such as ISPs to retain data about instant messages, e-mail and other electronic communications.
- Domain auction site faces shill bidding lawsuit
- A Miami lawyer has filed a class-action lawsuit against domain name auction site SnapNames.com, after the company announced that a former employee was bidding against potential customers in domain name auctions.
- PC chip sales skyrocket, signaling a market on the mend
- IDC said that third quarter microprocessor sales unexpectedly grew by 23% in the third quarter, thanks to strong sales of netbook computers based on Intel's Atom processor in China.
- Customers can gain from being a vendor reference
- No IT vendor's news announcement is truly complete without a couple of glowing quotes from customers; nor is any vendor conference really a success unless the company has lined up a few satisfied CIOs to talk up their strategy and products.
- Apple Plans for 'World-Mode iPhone' Bad News for AT&T
- The Apple rumor mill claims that work is underway todevelop a 'world-mode' iPhone capable of operating on both CDMA and GSM/UMTS networks. World mode. Rumors also persist that Verizon will begin to carry the iPhone in 2010. All of these rumors suggest that the AT&T honeymoon with the iPhone is nearing an end.
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- RIM BlackBerry Developer Conference Kicks Off
- Research In Motion (RIM) today kicks off its second annual BlackBerry Developer Conference at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco. The BlackBerry Developer Conference is a yearly event aimed at BlackBerry application creators, wireless industry experts and all-around "CrackBerry addicts" who want to learn more about the platform, mingle with like-minded folks, collaborate and discover how to improve and eventually market their applications.
- Report: Apple readies smaller iPhone on Verizon
- Apple Inc. will launch a smaller "worldmode" iPhone next year that will be ready for Verizon Wireless to sell in the third quarter of 2010, according to an analyst report citing unnamed handset maker sources.
- iPhone 'Rickroll' Worm Is No Threat To Most Users
- The first worm to infect the iPhone will not affect most users of Apple's smartphone, despite worrying reports. The ikee worm only affects jailbroken iPhones, representing a minority percentage of iPhones on the market.
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- Nokia Announces Charger Recall: What You Need To Know
- Nokia says it will replace for free millions of faulty cellphone chargers that pose a shock hazard to its users. Nokia announced the recall program Monday reporting the Nokia-branded chargers were manufactured by a third-party supplier BYD Electronic Company of China. Nokia says the plastic casing surrounding the chargers in question could separate, exposing the unit's internal components, posing a shock hazard for users.
- Integrate your iWeb site with Facebook
- Your iWeb site and Facebook profile represent you and your interests to the world. Wouldn't it be great if they worked together? Fortunately, it's easy to go beyond the basic Facebook integration in the latest version of iWeb ( Macworld rated 4.5 out of 5 mice ) to boost your site's visibility to friends, family, and associates. Here's how.
- Windows 7 For Less: Where to Find Discounts
- If you're still thinking about stepping to Windows 7, but are appalled by the usual pricing, you might want to check out some special deals now available from Microsoft and some of its retail partners. Each of these offers comes with some catches, though.
- NYSE puts stock in 10G Ethernet
- Force10 Networks has been selected by NYSE Euronext to supply a 10G Ethernet network to manage the exchange's data centers in New Jersey and London.
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- CDC offering big iron pod service
- Canberra Data Centres (CDC) has launched a big iron modular pod service on non-raised flooring as it rolls out the set up before Christmas for Federal Government agency Centrelink.
- Finding Your Photos Online
- Recently, a friend of mine congratulated me for selling one of my wildlife photos. When I asked him what he meant, he sent me a link to a site that was prominently using a shot I had taken of some wolves. The problem? I had never given the site owners permission to use my photo, which they had "borrowed" from my Flickr page. I asked them to remove the photo, and they did--but not everyone out there is so reasonable. You can watermark your photos to prevent this sort of thing from happening. But is there any way to find your photos online to see they're being used inappropriately?
- My First Weekend With the Moto Droid
- At 6:58 A.M. on Friday, I pulled into the parking lot of my local Verizon store. Exactly 30 minutes later, I was back in my car, with a splashy new Motorola Droid in hand. Now, after spending three days with the device, I feel prepared to offer my own take on the latest, and clearly greatest, Android phone.
- Play.com leaks customer names and addresses
- The names and addresses of Play.com customers have been leaked to other users of the online retailer.
- Crazy tech support stories
- An IT support specialist remembers the calls that made him push the mute button while he pulled himself together
- Beatles-BlueBeat Brouhaha: 3 Things We've Learned
- It appears that audacious online retailer BlueBeat won't be selling Beatles tunes anytime soon. The little-known website had been hawking Fab Four tracks for 25 cents apiece until a federal court in Los Angeles slapped the site with a temporary restraining order this week.
- Apple TV 3.0.1 update addresses disappearing content issue
- Apple TV users running the recently released Apple TV 3.0 update need to update again, according to Apple. The new Apple TV 3.0.1 update prevents content from temporarily disappearing from the set-top box until it's resynced.
- Windows 7 Planning Tools Ease the Upgrade Process
- Businesses planning a move to Windows 7 need a more rigorous planning and assessment tool than the consumer-grade Upgrade Advisor. The early success of the operating system notwithstanding, you need to do some due diligence up front to determine if the existing hardware and software you rely on will work with the new operating system. If you only have a handful of systems to assess the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor should do the trick. For larger deployments, the more appropriate tool is the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit 4.0--or MAP.
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