Network World

Slideshows

Products of the Week

by Network World Staff

Cool new announcements from Websense, F5, Tandberg, and others.

Spammers in the slammer

by Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Here's our list of the scariest spammers ever put behind bars

If you have any doubt that spammers are criminals, take a look at our list of the Internet's worst spam kings. These bad guys didn't just send out e-mails hawking herbal remedies, mortgages and penny stocks. They were scam artists, who were found guilty of such crimes as identity theft, tax evasion and money laundering. One of these spammers escaped from jail and went on a killing spree! Read on to find out why law enforcement agencies need to keep putting spammers in the slammer.

Famous last words about spam

by Carolyn Duffy Marsan

Five years ago, when the CAN-SPAM Act was signed into law, many hoped the landmark anti-spam legislation would help delete the problem of unwanted e-mail flooding in-boxes. Instead, spam volumes have never been higher, with more than 160 billion spam messages sent daily worldwide. Here's our pick of the best quotes from techies, politicians and others about spam. Read on to find out who was right, who was wrong, and who was plain ole crazy.

Pimp your ride: Cool car technology

by Denise Dubie

Knight Rider has nothing on what's brewing in the labs of leading automotive researchers. Today's technologies range from mobile Internet access to collision-detection systems to automated braking and steering capabilities. Some car manufacturers are even designing their cars to offer a personal touch by pulling up drivers' preferences based on fingerprint and other biometric technologies. Here we detail some of the leading-edge technology embedded in today's cars and what new vehicles are on tap from automotive giants in the near future.

2008 Ignobel winners

by Network World Staff

Lap dancer ovulation, the mental state of plants, and the question of whether Coca-Cola is an effective spermicide highlighted the annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Harvard University Thursday. The parody of the Nobel prize honors "achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think." Read on for the full list of winners.

Airport art? Or asking for it?

by Paul McNamara

Techno-artist Evan Roth has a message for the Transportation Safety Administration -- several messages, actually -- about what he considers excessive airport security "theater" ... and he has chosen an intentionally provocative method of delivery: the TSA's own X-ray screening machines. Let's take a look.

Top 16 Chinese iPhoneys

by Network World Staff

We've covered the Photoshopped iPhoneys and potential iPhone killers before, but nothing holds a candle to the knock-off game of China. Check out our favorite iPhone wannabes found on Actfind.com who claim to be "the best China marketplace for the global retailer." We've included the actual product descriptions for your reading pleasure.

Coolest and craziest products from Japan's CEATEC 2008

by Network World Staff

A unicycling robot, prototype fuel cells and a TV that doesn't need a stand are just some of what visitors to this week's CEATEC electronics fair in Japan will find. The show, now in its ninth year, attracted around 210,000 visitors over its five-day run at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, just east of Tokyo. This year more than 500 companies from 16 nations will be in attendance. Let's take a look at some highlights from the big show.

20 must-follow Twitter feeds

by Linda Leung

You know you're a social network geek when your online friends outnumber your flesh and bones buddies -- and you probably keep in touch with them via Twitter, the microblogging site. Launched in October 2006, its members share their ongoing thoughts in 140 characters or less. Here are 20 Twitter feeds you don't want to miss. 2

Credit card skimming: How thieves can steal your card info without you knowing it

by Jamey Heary

Skimming works by retrofitting a perfectly legitimate card reader (such as an ATM) with a camouflaged counterfeit card reader. The counterfeit reader records all of your card's information as it passes through. Security expert and Cisco Subnet blogger Jamey Heary shows you what to look for before you swipe your card. For the full explanation on skimming read Jamey's blog. 1

Ig Nobel – Where are they now?

by Jon Brodkin

The Ig Nobel award ceremony is Harvard's way of honoring weird science, from the study of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard duck to monitoring the brain activity of locusts forced to watch Star Wars. While the 2008 winners will be announced Thursday, we're taking a look back at some of our favorite past winners and asking the question - where are they now? 1

Products of the Week

by Network World Staff

Cool new announcements from Blue Coat Systems, Cisco, IBM, and others.

Top security concerns

by Beth Schultz

Since the beginning of the year, we have posed a series of security-related questions to IT professionals participating in the Network World Technology Opinion Panel. Here's a look at how they weigh in on everything from access control to security event management. 1

12 managed security-services providers you should know

by Beth Schultz Dawn Bushaus

Cost-savings, compliance and off-loading busy-work are three big reasons an increasing number of enterprises are turning to managed security-services providers

9 wickedly helpful Web sites for Windows administrators

by Ron Barrett

Blogger Ron Barrett has compiled a list of Windows Web sites guaranteed to save you hours of effort. Also check out Barrett's longer write-up of each site in his A Better Windows World blog. Have you got a favorite Windows Web site? Post a comment and let us know. 1

The changing face of biometrics

by Ellen Messmer

They can check your fingerprint, palm, face, iris, and even the veins of your hand. The Biometrics Consortium Conference and Technology Expo 2008, held at the Tampa Convention Center, was the place to see the very latest -- and strangest -- in products designed to find out if you are really you. Binocular iris scans, anyone? 1

The G1 vs. the iPhone

by Brad Reed

While the wireless market has been inundated with iPhone-like smartphones over the past year, T-Mobile's latest smartphone has generated a significant amount of buzz because it will be the first to use Google's open-source Android mobile platform as its operating system. As Google has conceived it, Android is supposed to help break down the so-called "walled garden" on the mobile Web by letting developers create open-source third-party applications, and by giving users the option of switching networks while keeping their devices. In this slideshow, we'll evaluate both the iPhone and the new G1 in terms of cost, network quality, enterprise features and more. 8

First look: G1

by Nancy Gohring and Network World Staff

The first Android phone looks a lot like the fuzzy pictures that have surfaced online for months, with a touch screen similar to the iPhone and a full slide-out keyboard. T-Mobile, Google and HTC unveiled the long-awaited Android phone at an event in New York on Tuesday, revealing pricing, availability and some of the initial applications and emphasizing that the software is open source.

The phone will first become available in the U.S. but a U.K. launch will follow shortly after. Starting Oct. 22, U.S. consumers will be able to buy the G1 for US$179. Users can subscribe to a limited data plan for $25 a month or $35 for unlimited data access. The G1 will go on sale in the U.K. in early November and other T-Mobile European markets in the first quarter next year.

Click next to see more pictures of the G1.

Products of the Week

by Network World Staff

Cool new announcements from Microsoft, Cisco, Dell, HP, Sony, LG, and others.

What $700 billion could buy your company

by Brad Reed

Late last week, the Bush administration unveiled a staggering plan to bail out the financial industry by having the federal government purchase $700 billion in unwanted mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. For those of you keeping score at home, this means the government could soon spend nearly $1 trillion on what amounts to a large pile of trash. To give you some perspective on just how large this sum of money is, we've broken down what sort of assets your company could purchase with $700 billion, including wireless communications devices, data centers and even new CEOs.

If you'd like to view this content as a regular story, click here.

Big bad robot warriors

by Michael Cooney

The RoboGames Texas Cup set for October 18th and 19th at the second annual Austin Maker Faire features over 27 bots, weighing 30 to 340 pounds scrapping in featherweight, lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight, and super heavyweight divisions. With over 25 fights per day, audiences will be treated to all manner of robotic pugilism from giant pneumatic flippers, flame throwers and "spinning blades of death" to body slammers and nasty spikes. Here we take a look at the top 5 big boys -- the super heavyweight battle robots.

Wall Street is burning, but these fat cats will be just fine

by Carolyn Duffy Marsan and Denise Dubie

With the failures of Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this month, reams of Wall Street IT executives are out of work or soon will be. While financial services CIOs and their staff polish their resumes and ponder what's left of their retirement savings, we thought it might be interesting to look at how much money their bosses made last year. Read on to find out what 9 Wall Street chiefs cost their companies in 2007, once their salaries, bonuses, stock awards and more are added together. 20

Biggest IT layoffs of 2008

by Nancy Weil and Network World staff

HP was expected to announce layoffs as it integrates Electronic Data Systems into its corporate fold, but the size of announced job cuts on Sept. 15 (24,600 employees over the next three years) was a shocker. The layoffs will amount to about 7.5% of HP employees during those three years, with almost half of the cuts from the U.S. workforce. Although the job cuts are among the biggest in recent memory in IT, by comparison IBM shed 150,000 jobs over five years in the early 1990s.

This year so far has seen a spate of job cuts across IT sectors. Some of the most notable are documented in the following slides.

Happy 50th Birthday Integrated Circuit

by Network World Staff

The technology breakthrough paved the way for ever-more powerful, ever-smaller computers that are increasingly embedded in our daily lives 2

Photo Essay: VMworld 2008

by Network World Staff

WMworld is the larget annual (and only) industry conference dedicated to virtualization, and Network World has it covered. The event is attended by IT professionals and executives, technology providers, industry experts, researchers and analysts from around the world. VMworld, in its fifth year, is expected to draw more than 12,000 attendees. What follows is a series of pictures straight from the big show.

Network World's Products of the Week

by Network World Staff

Cool new announcements from HP, Fuji, Symantec, OpTier, Sailpoint, and others.

The RFID revolution

by John S. Webster

Pacific Coast Producers, which sells canned fruit, has embraced RFID technology in its Lodi, Calif, manufacturing and distribution facility. 1

The 10 best Google Android apps

by Brad Reed

Late last year, Google announced that it would give $10 million worth in prizes to software development companies to develop innovative and useful applications for its open source mobile Android platform. Roughly nine months later, Google has announced the winners, and the applications they've selected help users do everything from calling their nearest taxi cabs to comparing sale prices at different stores to calculating their carbon footprint. This slideshow will detail what the applications do, how they work and how they can hopefully make your life easier.

If you'd prefer to consume this as a regular story item, click here.

DEMOfall08 consumer and enterprise technology preview

by Jon Brodkin

Some of the technology industry's most innovative and successful companies make their debuts at DEMO, a launchpad for emerging technology. Here are 15 cool consumer and business technologies being unveiled at the event this week.

Virtualization tool box

by Network World Staff

Optimizing performance and availability across virtual servers is bound to challenge enterprise IT managers broadening their deployments from staging to production environments. Vendors are looking to tap into IT executives' need to put in place tight controls and augment manual efforts with search, security, management and automation capabilities that can handle numerous virtual machines while also ensuring the health of their physical hosts. Read on for details about the latest virtualization tools, and check back often. We'll be adding to the slide show as more vendors unveil virtualization wares.

Network World's Products of the Week

by Network World Staff

Cool new announcements from Google, HP, Fortisphere, Embotics, Panda Software, Novell, BMC, and others.

Six common complaints about the iPhone 3G

by Brad Reed

The iPhone's 3G incarnation generated lots of hype at its launch, but it's quickly gaining a reputation for having slow data speeds and inconsistent voice service. Indeed, the iPhone 3G was such a disappointment to one user that he even sued the company for allegedly producing misleading advertisements that promised data speeds at twice the rate of the original iPhone. In this slideshow, we'll examine the six most common gripes that users have had about the iPhone 3G, from dropped calls to problems with mobile iTunes to lack of enterprise functionality.

If you'd rather view this slideshow as a story, click here 7

Technology's 10 Most Annoying Fictional Characters

by Brad Reed

Since the dawn of time (or at least since the 1980s), tech companies' marketing departments have concocted a slew of catchphrase-wielding characters whose overriding goal is to create affectionate bonds between consumers and their companies' products. But while the average tech company employs advertising whizzes who are significantly smarter than those employed by the local furniture chain, their efforts are still doomed to eventually fail. Why is this, you ask? Well, because the nature of advertising is to repeat things over and over again until people hate hearing them. Thus any long-running advert campaign, no matter how cleverly executed, is bound to stir up resentment if it's played often enough.

In this slideshow, we'll examine the very worst fictional characters that marketing departments have unleashed on the general public over the years, ranging from smarmy wireless salesmen to dotcom-promoting sock puppets to annoying graphics of paperclips that SIMPLY REFUSE TO GO AWAY no matte

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