Monday, September 30, 2002
Top Stories
Studios' Copyright Goal: Total Control
This is a radical agenda, one that overturns tradition and would ultimately wipe out the public domain, without which our culture would be vastly poorer.
News
ICQ Gets Back To Basics
The popular instant messaging service owned by America Online on Monday released a slimmed-down version, called "ICQ Lite," that targets first-time users with its simplicity.
IBM Boosts Hard Drives With "Tag 'N Seek"
IBM is expected to announce on Monday that technology that shortens the time it takes to find information is being extended to its desktop hard drives.
Handhelds Connect With USB On-The-Go
A new technology that allows handheld devices to share files directly, without the need for a PC, could be on store shelves by the end of the year.
Google Launches European Ad Service
European advertisers can now buy up search terms related to their products.
An Online Success For Lands' End
Efforts by Lands' End to sell custom-made pants on its Web site have exceeded the expectations of even the most optimistic executives.
Secrets Of Successful Free Software Businesse3s
The secret of being a successful FSB is to use free software where it's appropriate, and not to use it where it isn't, and to understand the dynamics of the markets it creates.
Sunday, September 29, 2002
News
Consumers See Deals In Internet Calling
Telephone calling via the Internet has come a long way from the days fives year ago of crackling walkie-talkie conversations, and U.S. consumers now have a range of choices that trade higher quality for cost.
Saturday, September 28, 2002
Top Stories
Steal This Column
Critcism won't change the DMCA, but breaking the law will.
Wi-Fi Stretches Its Boundaries
Communications equipment maker Proxim became the latest company to sell high-powered Wi-Fi networks that travel long distances, essentially providing buyers with an "ISP in a box," the company's Chief Executive, Jonathan Zakin, said this week.
News
Will Open Source Kill Off The CMS Money Pit?
Open source gurus comment on content management system enterprise adoption, the effects of OSS, and understanding community goals.
At The Wireless Edge
A previously unnecessary category of network management solution has started to proliferate: the central WLAN controller.
Can I-Mode Go Global?
"The people with pockets aren't often the people who want expensive services. That makes it difficult to do anything."
State Prosecutors Trying To Delete Spam
The attorney general's office hopes to use a 1998 law to save residents from annoying e-mail solicitations.
Lotus Gears Up For Notes/Domino 6 Launch
IBM will take the wraps off version 6 of Lotus Notes and Domino on Tuesday, ushering in the first major upgrade in three years of Lotus' flagship corporate messaging and infrastructure software.
Friday, September 27, 2002
News
Linux Gets A Break
For the first time in years, Microsoftís unassailable lead in computer operating systems is being challenged by manufacturers offering Linux software. Even a puny challenge is better than none.
Linux: It's Growing More Popular, But Can It Do Windows?
Linux is unlikely to dethrone Microsoftís Windows as the ubiquitous operating system on desktop PCs anytime soon. But Wharton faculty and a Linux supporter say that Linux will gradually become more attractive to consumers as more applications are developed for it.
TV Recording Next For PlayStation 2
Now that its blockbuster game console PlayStation 2 is hooked up to the Internet, Sony Corp is ready to upgrade the machine further so it can record television shows.
Sony To Unleash Wi-Fi, Camera Toting Palm OS 5 Clie
It's still only PalmOS 5.0 of course, rather than the Next Big Thing, but from the look of the flagship PEG-NX70V Sony is mounting a serious stab at making the stop-gap intensely desirable, even compelling.
Thursday, September 26, 2002
Top Stories
The World's First AOL Computer?
This computer could turn out to be a very big deal. Not so much because itís the first under-$200 new PC to hit the marketplace or because it runs a version of Linux which can run some Windows programs — but because the idea had been embraced by the number one online service.
Free Mickey
Stanford law professor seeks to overturn the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act.
The Right To Tinker
Playing around with computers helped create the Apple computer. But Hollywood wants to outlaw the practice.
IPv6: Revitalizing The Internet Revolution
This article explains what you need to know in order to put things into perspective. It also discusses some of the myths that exist and explains IPv6's background, so that you can form your own opinion.
News
Open-Source Tug Of War Heats Up
Legislation advocating government use of open-source software is un-American, anticompetitive, bad for business and hell on the economy and taxpayers, according to the Initiative for Software Choice.
Error Hampers Amazon's Free Shipping
Amazon.com over the past week charged thousands of its customers for "free" shipping and neglected to apply discounts they were supposed to receive, the e-commerce giant said Thursday.
The State Of Linux In 2002
Tech giants are pouring money into Linux development because when users buy Linux, they also buy hardware, software and services that the companies can sell at a profit.
User-Centered URL Design
Despite the universality of URLs, we often forget that they're not just a handy way to address network resources.
Privacy Battle Seen As A 'Gathering Storm'
Things are lining up for real legislative battles next year in Congress and in the states, triggered by the impending expiration of a provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that blocks states from imposing their own data privacy rules.
Google News Could Change Online News Industry
Here' what newsapers should consider.
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Top Stories
Technology Vs. Civil Liberties?
Government's use of biometrics security technology worries some privacy activists.
Automated News
I predict that by New Year's Day, at least one of the Web's top 10 news and information sites will have partnered with Google News and at least another one will have ripped off the Google News strategy by remodeling their portal to crawl thousands of outside sites.
News
Study: Stop Trying To Lock Out Pirates
Media companies have to pull back from protecting content if they hope to beat back pirates, according to a study released Wednesday.
Fifth Release Of Apache 2.0 Available For Download
This newsest release is primarily a bug fix that includes updates to the experimental caching module, the removal of several memory leaks, and fixes for several segfaults, one of which could have been used as a denial-of-service against mod_dav.
A New Way To Read, Not See, Maps
The map-navigation software, dubbed Blind Audio Tactile Mapping System (BATS), takes digital map information and provides nonvisual feedback as a user moves a cursor across the map.
Mobile Breakthrough—Wideband-CDMA
Nokia and Ericsson said Tuesday they've each separately reached milestones for cell phone equipment that uses wideband-CDMA, the cell phone standard expected to dominate its rivals by 2005.
Hutchison To Launch 3G With 'Friendly' Users
The mobile phone operator Hutchison 3G is to launch its long-awaited third generation mobile phone service in the UK next Wednesday to a select group of 1,000 users.
Government Interest In Linux Grows
Government agency CIOs will soon be participating in a Linux briefing, organised amidst growing public sector interest in the open source platform.
Corel Remake Still 'Early Stage'
Burney's difficult work over, impossible work about to begin.
Sun Drives Java Beyond Handsets
Sun hopes to expand its cross platform computer language into new realms such as PDAs, automobile telematics and game consoles.
SMC Networks Offers Dual-Band 802.11a, B Adapter
Internet Films Venture Draws Fire
A joint venture by five movie studios to distribute their films over the Internet has been accused in a lawsuit of conspiring to put a competitor out of business.
Online Fans Start To Pay The Piper
These fans once scoffed at the attempts by the record industry and others to create such subscription services, in which users pay monthly fees for access to large online music libraries. Now they are joining them.
Top Five Open Source Packages For System Administrators
Amanda is a network-based enterprise backup utility that includes features previously available only in expensive commercial packages.
Tuesday, September 24, 2002
Top Stories
XML Complexity As War Of Attrition
The specifications have grown and grown, far outpacing the SGML specifications that XML was designed to replace.
News
MySQL Supports Transactions
The addition of transaction support will help users of the standard version of the popular open-source technology develop and deploy enterprise applications better equipped for commercial e-business environments, officials at the Seattle-based company said.
Burned By CD Burners
My Isla Vista store didn't fail because I had suddenly lost the ability to contend with legitimate competitors. It went out of business because its customers found a way to obtain the product we sold without having to pay for it.
When Having A Meeting Is Like Going To A Movie
For years, companies have been gingerly evaluating various video and Web-based teleconferencing systems both as an extension of, and increasingly as an alternative to, expensive and time-consuming long-distance business travel.
Turning The Play Button Into The Pay Button
In a speech at the Optical Storage Symposium, Consumer Electronics Association President and CEO, Gary Shapiro, appealed to the content community "to work with, not against, the technology industry."
Biometrics Moves To Center Stage
Industry grows, but agencies rely primarily on fingerprinting solutions in the war on terrorism.
Companies Adapt On Electronic Signing
Two years after the federal government legalized electronic signatures, many consumers are relying on mouse clicks and passwords rather than writing their names on a dotted line.
Nokia Exec Sees Little Need For Much-Touted 3G
On the eve of the launch of its long-awaited mobile of the future, a top Nokia official on Monday toned down hopes for a cellphone revolution and said consumers would probably be happy with current technology.
DoCoMo 3G Stumbling One Year On
Far from revolutionize the way Japanese people communicate, everything is pretty much the same.
A New Breed Of Wired Warriors
The Pentagon is racing to ready broadband communications systems for combat. They may prove to be the most potent weapons of all.
802.3af Specification Makes A Lot Of Sense
Power over ethernet, the 802.3af specification, is an impressive standard that will affect everything from IP telephony to wireless LANs.
Reporters Who Blog, Get Scoops
"The weblog has... been an outlet to help those affected by the scandal or covering it..."
Learn For Free Online
People will soon be given access to knowledge from one of the world's foremost technology institutes for free over the internet.
Monday, September 23, 2002
Top Stories
Google Launches News Search Site
Google, the popular Internet search engine, on Monday launched a new site for searching news from 4,000 English-language sources, from The New York Times to small-town newspapers.
Reporters Find New Outlet, And Concerns, In Web Logs
"If I'm a lawyer advising a news organization, the idea of a Web log like this would just make me break out in hives."
The Packaging Of Video On Demand
In the last year, a flourishing digital video-on-demand market has developed, thanks to the least probable of carriers: the United States Postal Service.
Weight Loss For Road Warriors
Think about it. Do you really need a laptop when you leave the office? Smaller and lighter are better.
News
Macromedia Extending Flash To Java, .Net App Servers
Macromedia on Monday will extend Macromedia Flash Remoting MX to .Net and Java application servers, enabling Internet application development for these platforms based on Macromedia's technology.
Boston's Logan Gets ID Authentication Technology
In addition to capturing information off of identity papers, Imaging Automation's technology performs tests on the documents themselves to determine that they are authentic and to determine whether or not the document has been altered.
Servers With A Smile
It will never beat Windows on the desktop, but the Linux operating system has an undeniable charm in the world of corporate computing: It's free.
Lindows 2.0 Has Beautiful Skin, Iffy Personality
Lindows 2.0 looks cool, I have to admit.
New Kazaa Likely To Raise Labels' Ire
An overhauled version of the popular file-swapping software Kazaa was unleashed Monday on the Internet, with features sure to make record and movie studio executives' blood boil.
Who's Letting The Spam In?
Many proxy servers are installed insecurely, and spammers have discovered tricks to tap into them to send junk mail with little trace—an occurrence relatively unseen a year ago, experts say.
Sun Seeks Salvation In Linux
Sun is pursuing a radical new strategy, in an undefined market, in the toughest business climate in recent memory. Is this suicide or a savvy survival ploy?
The Cost Of China's Web Censors
Grid Compting To Spur HK Economy?
The Hong Kong government and private sectors have been called on to back a revolutionary plan to share and access all computing resources in the country as easily as electricity from a wall socket.
Why I Continue To Stand By Bluetooth
"Bluetooth tries to embed much too much application function, despite the fact that those applications are not well understood, and are better served by the Internet's protocols."
Where Art Thou, 802.11g?
Boy, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc. (IEEE) is not happy about reports that significant progress and crucial votes have been taken in the 802.11g standards process. Not happy at all.
Free Software, At Least To A Certain Point
After the Microsoft jokes, after the speaker's disquisition on the moral imperative of free software, after the salad, steak and chocolate raspberry pie, the benefit dinner for the Free Software Foundation in Manhattan finally came down to business last Thursday.
802.11a: Wait Until Next Year!
It's fast, it's hot, but does it have a place in the market? That's what some retailers, resellers and CIOs are asking about 802.11a.
Homepage Usability: Use Your Words Wisely
Don't be a "tag line jeopardy" loser.
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Top Stories
The Cultural Anarchist Vs. The Hollywood Police State
A Stanford professor is one Supreme Court decision away from ending copyrights on thousands of movies, books and songs.
Hollywood Vs. The Internet
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wanted to put computing power into ordinary people's hands, and that's why they founded Apple Computer. If this is your approach, it's hard to adjust to the idea of building in limitations.
Time For An Instant Fix
America Online long ago promised that its popular instant-messaging software would work with other IM programs. Weíre still waiting.
Saturday, September 21, 2002
Top Stories
Writing, Hand To PC
The chasm between the written word and the world of the PC has been a tricky one to bridge.
Swing Is Swinging Java Out Of The Desktop
If you need your faith in Java re-energized, then look to the community and what they are doing. If you are waiting on Sun, then don't, they are too busy fighting Microsoft than to worry about the actual technology they supposedly fighting for!
Fighting The Last War
To quote John and Yoko: "War is over — if you want it."
News
Broadband Price Scares Customers Away
I don't know what world these analysts live in, or what planet their "research subjects" hail from, but the heart of the matter is price.
Friday, September 20, 2002
Top Stories
Being Wireless
Everything you assumed about telecommunications is about to change. Large wired and wireless telephone companies will be replaced by micro-operators, millions of which can be woven into a global fabric of broadband connectivity.
Google News Smarter Than Ever
Deep inside, operators of news Web sites will panic. If you listen closely, you just might start hearing the screams.
News
Web Ads, From Roach To Rich
You might hope that pop-up ads go the way of Pets.com and other doomed dot-coms, six feet under in the Internet graveyard. But, alas, pop-ups appear destined to survive, because some advertisers say the darned things work.
Making The Most Of Wireless
Investec's Adrian Brass talks about his tough-times strategy.
Lucent Roams Between WLAN And 3G
The telecommunications equipment performed a seamless handoff of a wireless data call from a WLAN to a 3G network, it said in a statement.
Unified Linux Desktop: Good, Bad Or Ugly
"Microsoft are evil marketers, definitely not innovators, but they have spent a lot of time and money understanding users. Red Hat are just learning and adapting to the lessons learned."
Toshiba Looks To Cut Gadget Wires
Electronics giant Toshiba announced plans Thursday to bring wireless networking to home entertainment.
Thursday, September 19, 2002
Top Stories
Wireless Web Embraces "Push"
Push technology—a concept that has come to epitomize the bloated promises of the dot-com era—is finding redemption in millions of cell phones.
News
Open-Source Group Gets Sun Security Gift
Sun Microsystems has donated new cryptography technology to an open-source project at the heart of many secure transactions on the Internet.
Warchalking Is Theft, Says Nokia
The practitioners of warchalking are being slammed as bandwidth thieves in an advisory issued by mobile and wireless vendor Nokia.
Intersil May Jumpstart A Price War
Emerging competition could spark a price war in the market for popular 802.11a equipment, industry analysts said Wednesday.
Wednesday, September 18, 2002
Top Stories
Project Mad Hatter's Premise Isn't Far-Fetched
I think Linux is ready to make it on the desktop, and that with Red Hat jumping into the mix, more big players will take their chance to test the waters. It wouldn't surprise me if, a couple of years from now, Dell ships its own complete, Linux-based system, with no OS partners to worry about at all.
News
Sun Releases Liberty Alliance Tool
Sun Microsystems on Wednesday unveiled a new open-source software development tool designed to help businesses start testing and building online identification systems using the new Liberty Alliance standard.
UnitedLinux Moves Closer To OS Goal
UnitedLinux, a combined effort to create a uniform version of Linux for businesses, on Wednesday named a top executive and said it will ship a test version of its code later this month.
Red Hat Broadens Desktop Push
Red Hat will try to reach closer toward mainstream computer users with its next version of Linux, Chief Executive Matthew Szulik said Tuesday.
Label To Identify Copy-Protected CDs
A music industry group has proposed a logo to identify CDs that include anti-copying features, saying the feature could help allay consumer concerns over the technology.
UCF Security Goes Digital - Fingertips Are ID For New Age
Some students like the new technology because it simplifies their trips to the gym by allowing them to leave their student IDs at home. But others wonder whether the scanning system violates their privacy.
3G Dismissed As 'Too Little, Too Soon'
The technology behind third-generation (3G) mobile phones is just not good enough, according to the founder and director of the Media lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Where Are All The Incredibly Cool Wireless Gadgets?
Consumers in Japan and Korea have all the cool wireless toys that U.S. customers wish they had, because those countries built their wireless infrastructures on 3G architecture from the beginning.
Rockefeller Center Kicks Up Cell Coverage
A growing number of property owners are taking it upon themselves to improve cellular coverage inside their shops, transit stations and restaurants.
Airport WLANs Lack Safeguard
Wireless LANs continue to be potential IT security problems for some airports, according to an informal audit done earlier this month by an executive at a wireless security firm.
Security Online: Central Control Wins
Congress is so clueless on this stuff that it's likely to pass new laws, in the name of security, that fulfill the control freaks' wish lists. George Orwell would be proud.
Tuesday, September 17, 2002
Top Stories
A Battle Over Software Licensing
A proposed law intended to standardize software licensing from state to state has ignited a battle between its supporters — most notably, the business software industry — and the many forces who have joined to defeat it.
Hit Over The Head With Heavy Blogs
Anything that makes it easy for us to use the networking and community features of the internet will further drive the changes we already see around us.
News
Showdown Over Digital Show Guides
Forget the eternal battle for the remote control. The real power struggle over television starts with electronic programming guides.
PalmSource Ships Web Browser
PalmSource, a subsidiary of Palm, has begun shipping a Web browser to licensees of its operating system, in an effort to distinguish itself from Palm's mostly hardware history.
Broadband Gold Rush Dreams
The broadband race is on.
Monday, September 16, 2002
Top Stories
Red Hat To Simpllify Desktop Environs
Red Hat, the open-source and Linux technology provider, has moved to explain its decision to configure the KDE and GNOME desktop environments to look and behave in similar fashion in the upcoming release of Red Hat Linux.
ISP Dream: We Can Do TV Too
Forget the revolutionary promises of "new media." Internet companies' newest hope is to model themselves after the business successes of cable TV.
The Net: Singing A New Tune?
Debate is on over whether the government should jail people who download copyrighted songs.
Here Comes Internet2
The dot-com implosion has left many managers wary of the promised wonders of information technology, but those who ignore the next phase of the Internet—dubbed Internet2—do so at their peril, HBS professor Richard Nolan says.
Issues That Will Shape The Internet
Let's look at some upcoming decisions that will shape communications for the next 50 years — and ponder the consequences for openness and innovation if we make the wrong choices this time.
News
China Masters Art Of Internet Censorship
Even though the Chinese censors are deploying some very sophisticated technology, their best weapon appears to be what Mulvenon calls "low-tech Leninism" — the shrewd application of traditional government power.
Lotus Ponders KM Future
Seeking to bolster its position in the deflated KM (knowledge management) segment, IBM's Lotus Software is going back to its collaboration roots.
Using Web Services To Keep Corba Apps Relevant
Iona is readying a new release of its Web-services software that supports the Corba object architecture.
Another Take On Swing And Java's Success
If Sun does nothing to address the strengths of Microsoft's Windows Forms/Web Forms model, that model might wind up being a wedge for Microsoft to break Java's server-side dominance.
Sunday, September 15, 2002
News
In Brazil, Blog Is Beautiful
Weblogs certainly have a worldwide audience. Still, no one's quite sure what makes them so hot in Brazil.
Linux Worm Creating P2P Attack Network
A new worm that attacks Linux Web servers has compromised more than 3,500 machines, creating a rogue peer-to-peer network that could be used to attack other computers with a flood of data, security firm Symantec said Saturday.
Security: Why Do I Bother?
Well, the point is this: it was a complete waste of time.
Saturday, September 14, 2002
News
Fighting The Menace Of Unwanted E-Mail
Why not fight spam with spam?
China Still Blocking Some Google Links
China is once again allowing its citizens to use the popular search engine Google, but is still blocking Internet users from content it deems politically taboo as part of a media crackdown ahead of November's pivotal Communist Party congress.
Wireless Rebel Offers Drive-By Wi-Fi
Public hot-spot operators have a weapon in their protest against the growth of commercial Wi-Fi networks: Michael Oh's "war car."
Wireless Web Gives Villages Free Net
People could soon be sending e-mail from the hillsides, roadsides and rooftops of the south Wales valleys with the expansion of Europe's densest wireless internet network.
Proposal To Unify Web Services Standards Gets Backing
A proposal by Oracle that could help unify emerging specifications for orchestrating Web services met with a mostly positive reaction Thursday at a meeting of the World Wide Web Consortium.
Friday, September 13, 2002
Top Stories
Report: Nations Need Open Source
Developing countries should look at open-source software and should avoid legislation designed to stop anti-copying measures being circumvented, a government-backed group of influential experts will warn on Monday.
The Success Of Java
Any opportunities to make mistakes and not pay for it are long since gone. From here on in, it's a knife fight. Sun needs to keep their focus tight.
Implementing Cluetrain
Connected conferences give everybody a lot more to talk about because their context enlarges to maximum dimensions.
News
Web Services With AppleScript And Perl
IM Giants Told To Work It Out
As Wall Street begins to embrace instant messaging, some financial giants are putting a squeeze on the technology's famously fractious service providers.
Neilsen, TiVo Try Ratings Game
In an effort to devise new ways to gauge yet another new, hard-to-measure television audience, Neilsen Media Research launched an experiment this summer to collect viewership data on the TiVo personal recorder from 20 homes scattered across the United States.
The Secret World Of 4G Wireless
Industry planners and researchers are looking ahead to the day, perhaps in eight to 10 years, when fourth-generation (4G) technology begins to make its mark.
Grid Expectations
IBM plans Singapore facility to showcase grid computing, which is expected to take off in three to four years' time.
UnitedLinux Plans Under-$1,000 Release
The first release of a version of the open-source Linux operating system, developed by a quartet of companies known as UnitedLinux, will be globally available in November at a price of less than $1,000 per server including maintenance, support, and upgrades.
What's Wrong With WEP?
Wired equivalent privacy (WEP), the privacy protocol specified in IEEE 802.11 to protect wireless LAN users, has attracted much flak for its weaknesses. We look at where, and why, WEP falls short of security expectations.
Beyond The XML Mirage
XML is powerful stuff, but developers need to take information seriously rather than expecting XML to solve their problems if they want to get worthwhile results.
Don't Hide Your Multimedia Content!
Help users find your interactive packages.
Bringing Linux To Third World Communities
In a broader way, we are trying to find working models that allow us to turn the Bay Area's leftover junk — in this case, old PCs, monitors, peripherals, and so on — into valuable resources for people in less economically advantaged regions.
Thursday, September 12, 2002
Top Stories
Crashing The Blog Party
Academics, journalists move the Web's raucous alternative newsletters toward the mainstream.
Wireless Spec No Security Elixir
802.1x is meant to serve as a framework on which enterprises can layer authentication methods such as smart cards or certificate-based systems. But security experts say it has limitations.
Digital Rights Outlook: Squishy
It's a whole new way of thinking about digital rights management — which still limits what you can do with content on your computer.
Spam Hits Some Anti-Spammers, Who Think They Have A Culprit
Tens of thousands of readers of e-mail newsletters have recently been inundated with unsolicited overtures from pornography Web sites and get-rich-quick schemes, the newsletter publishers say, and they are blaming the company that manages and distributes the newsletters for them.
Hollywood And Technology Duke It Out
The odd couple looks to the future.
News
Working Toward A Lead-Free pC
Getting the lead out of personal computers is possible, but it won't likely be commonplace until the middle of the decade as technical details get smoothed out.
Google Searching Again In China
As mysteriously as it began, blocking by Chinese authorities of the Internet search engine Google has suddenly been lifted.
AOL's Taking Wrong Direction On IM
AOL must lead with open, forward-looking software development instead of merely incarcerating its users and spouting empty commitments.
Conducting Class Via Wireless Communication
Pico Communications, Palm Inc. and Stanford University School of Medicine today announced the successful trial of a new wireless interactive learning system for medical students.
Wi-Fi Brings Cheer To Networld+Interop
Developments in the Wi-Fi sector have served to counter the pervasive gloom of the Networld+Interop show that also reflects the state of the enterprise communications sector.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
Top Stories
Is Wi-Fi Ready To Roam?
Networking groups around the globe are working on ways for Web surfers to roam on any number of wireless networks—just as mobile phone users roam on cellular networks.
Brave New Cyberworld
Computers, networks, and policy one year after the 9/11 attacks.
News
Instant Messaging Takes Aim At Security
In an ongoing effort to prove instant messaging technology can live up to strict corporate communication standards, vendors of IM technology unveiled a slew of offerings designed to bolster IM security here at the IM Planet Conference and Expo.
Amtrak To Offer Internet Access
In a test planned for next month, riders in a cafe car on an Amtrak line with stops in Harrisburg, Philadelphia and New York will be able to watch movies and television shows, check e-mail or shop online using interactive touch screens.
Post-9/11, 'Sanitized' Sites Aim To Shield Data
What remains clear from all parties involved is that a delicate balance must be struck between public access and safety.
File-Sharing Networks Relying On VCR Ruling
As entertainment companies struggle in court to defend their music and movies against a new generation of digital pirates, one of their biggest challenges is an 18-year-old Supreme Court ruling on a defunct technology.
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Top Stories
Hot Spots
Free and for-profit Net zones pop up everywhere.
Study Details Impact Of Web Ads On Business Execs
Internet now preferred medium for reaching decision makers.
News
President's Exit Does Not Spark Liberty Alliance Worries
Although the Liberty Alliance's president stepped down last week, members of the organization said that the group is still on track to deliver the next set of specifications early next year.
Cleaner Living Through Nanotech
For scientists who study it, nanotechnology is considered a clean technology, perhaps even the key to solving some current environmental ills.
Chinese Google Users Take A Forced Detour
First the search engine was blocked, and now many Chinese users are finding themselves rerouted to local alternatives. A media clampdown may be imminen.
Ericsson Warns Of Overcrowded 3G Market - Paper
The world's top wireless networks maker Ericsson thinks the third-generation market is overcrowded and no more can four operators can succeed even in big countries, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Users Fail To See Benefits Of 3G
One third don't understand, or don't need, the technology.
Seybold: XML, Weblogs Make Mark On Publishing Industry
The publishing industry is in a state of flux as new technologies emerge for managing content and delivering it to end users, a panel of industry pundits said Monday at the opening of the Seybold publishing industry conference here.
Faster Wi-Fi Standard Gets Nod
IEEE said Monday that a draft of the standard 802.11g passed the first of several votes needed before it's ultimately approved.
As 2003 Nears, Where Is Online Newspaper Biz?
So it's almost 2003. Weren't our newspapers supposed to have cancelled all those newsprint orders by now?
The Recording Industry Is Trying To Kill The Goose That Lays THe Golden Egg
Given the slight dip in CD sales despite so many reasons for there to be a much larger drop, it seems that the effect of downloading, burning, and sharing is one of the few bright lights helping the music industry with their most loyal customers.
802.11g Moves Closer To Adoption
IEEE 802.11 Task Group G has passed its first letter ballot, on its way to May 2003 final ratification.
Monday, September 9, 2002
Top Stories
Corporate Paws Grab For Desktop
More and more, big media companies control what consumers do with digital content on their PCs. But open-source developers are programming like mad to swing the balance of power back to the public.
Life In The Grid
As the Net evolves, all machines and people will become nodes on one network, and any one computer will be able to tap the power of all. Itís scary.
A Swarm Of Little Notes
Is instant messaging creating a work style that's breezily efficient — or one that's more oppressive?
News
HP Uses Nanotechnology For New Circuit
Researchers at HP Labs announced Monday that they have created a new kind of extremely minute circuit for computer chips using nanotechnology, the science of building devices out of parts measuring 100 nanometers or less. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter.
Macromedia Joins J2EE Big League
Macromedia Inc joins the Java big league today, with the expected launch of its runtime environment and scripting language for IBM's WebSphere and Sun ONE Application Server.
BEA Releases 'World's Fastest' JVM
BEA Systems on Monday will release JRockit 7.0 for Intel hardware, which one company official termed the "world's fastest" Java Virtual Machine.
Sunday, September 8, 2002
Top Stories
10 Choices That Were Critical To The Net's Success
How did technologists, government officials and a host of other early players turn something with no obvious business model into a system that has become so intrinsic to the new century?
To WiFi Or Not To WiFi?
Mobile operators are starting to worry that WiFi could become a 3G substitute.
News
Speed Demons
New Internet-enabled cellphones are pokey, bu that will change.
Businesses Gird For Grid Computing Breakthroughs
Ability to tap into power of a virtual supercomputer could be windfall for firms.
J-Phone, Hutchison Unfazed By DoCoMo's 3G Outlook
Japan's J-Phone and Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa said on Friday they would stand by plans to launch 3G mobile services this year, despite a sluggish start to the high-speed service by industry leader NTT DoCoMo.
Saturday, September 7, 2002
News
There's More To Dell's Cluster Success Than Meets The Eye
When a company maker better known for its business model than its R&D scores a major victory in the clustering arena, that's big news- but not for the reasons you might think.
The Race Is On
Frankly, I'm excited for both platforms. This is why competition is good.
Friday, September 6, 2002
Top Stories
Filters, Schools Like Oil, Water
The government says that if schools want funding for Net access, they must use filtering software. But critics say the filters still block legitimate sites and give schools a false sense of security.
Web May Put Smarter Computers Within Reach
SmarterChild, a computer program, is part of a new species of "chatterbots" that are renewing debate about the extent to which computers can achieve intelligence.
Understanding Weblogs
Weblogs have solved the publishing problem, and done a great job of it. Now let's get to work on knowledge management, and see if these things really do boost our collective IQ.
99.9% Of Websites Are Obsolete
Cunning and insidious, the disease goes largely unrecognized because it is based on industry norms. Though their owners and managers may not know it yet, 99.9% of all websites are obsolete.
Will Home Networks Be Permitted?
The question is whether the draw of home and small-office networking will prove so strong that providers relax their restrictions in order to gain customers.
News
HP To Unveil Nanotech Breakthrough
HP researchers will unveil a major breakthrough in the field of nanotechnology on Monday in Europe, a milestone in the company's goal to build future generations of smaller, faster and cheaper chips based on "molecular grids."
Philips, Sony "Talk" New Wireless Tech
Philips Electronics and Sony announced Thursday that they plan to work together on new wireless technology that will allow consumer devices to "talk" to each other.
New Storage Tech "iSCSI" Moves Closer
A technology that promises to bridge the worlds of data storage and networking has passed a key point on its path to becoming a usable standard.
OASIS Serves Up Messaging Standard
Closing out what shaped up as a summer of standards proliferation, OASIS on Tuesday conferred official status on yet another specification aimed at enabling companies to conduct business over the Internet.
Web Services To Drive Outsourcing
Businesses will increasingly hand control of their IT departments to large suppliers, with web services as a key driver, according to Butler Group's annual technology review.
Pak Govt May Choose Linux As Platform Instead Of Windows
While the government continues to engage Microsoft in dialogue to seek exceptional discounts for making its software as platform for official operating systems, a recent notification suggest that the stage is being set to adopt Linux instead.
More Americans Go Wireless Only
Growing number of people are living without a land line phone.
Wireless Access Doesn't Have To Be A Risk
Funk Software Inc. next week is expected to reveal enhanced versions of its Odyssey Server and Steel-Belted Radius Enterprise Edition wireless-authentication applications.
3G Hits Consumer Wall
Storm clouds continue to gather over third-generation mobile phone technology following a report that Australians are not keen to upgrade to the service.
W3C Publishes Plan For Mixing XML Markup Languages
The W3C this week released a plan for mixing XML markup languages through use of a schema.
Reading The Newspaper While Driving
A subscriber specifies how long their commute typically takes. Then overnight, the software will burn a CD with the audio versions requested.
Thursday, September 5, 2002
Top Stories
U.S. Privacy Officer: Listen Up!
The appointment of a national chief privacy officer makes public sense. But we need a system of checks and balances to ensure that issues of confidentiality, data collection and the secure handling of personal information always weigh heavily in the office's decision-making.
Shops Reveal Plans To Replace Barcodes
So-called 'smart tags' could mean the end of long waits in checkout queues.
News
W3C Members: Do As We Say, Not As We Do
In a test of whether members of the Web's premier standards group are willing to eat their own dog food, companies and organizations from Microsoft to the United States Environmental Protection Agency were found to be picky eaters.
Heard Of Drive-By Hacking? Meeting Drive-By Spamming
'Warspammers' are taking advantage of unprotected wireless LANs to send out millions of junk emails.
Games Push Limits Of PC Hardware
Your new PC has the latest operating system, a speedy processor and lots of cool software. But can it handle the latest PC games?
Red Hat Founder Joins The Circus
Known for sporting a crimson fedora at trade shows, the founder and one-time chairman of Linux software maker Red Hat now plans to don the duds of a ringmaster when he kicks off his latest venture, Lulu Tech Circus, at the end of this month.
Is Linux Poised To Topple Microsoft?
Linux is starting to gain momentum with computer companies as an alternative to Microsoft. Unlike the penguin, Linux seems to be taking flight.
Proxim Ships Dual-Band Wireless Equipment
Wi-Fi equipment maker Proxim on Wednesday began shipping a dual-band wireless access point capable of creating 300-foot wireless zones using both the 802.11b and 802.11a technologies.
Warflying For Wi-Fi
Wireless Internet access node seekers take to the air in their search for open connections.
BlackBerry Attracting Third Party Improvements
Despite a market share that pales in comparison to Palm OS and Pocket PC handheld devices, Research in Motion's BlackBerry handheld is still attracting major cell phone vendors as well as enterprise-level infrastructure providers.
'Turn Down That Blog!'
"What about having his or her real voice come through?"
New Media Delivers To The Old
Some alternative media, such as FIRE, are realizing that there are many creative ways to deliver their news to a truly international audience.
Internet
Hey Buddy, PayPal Me A Quarter?
Proving that P.T. Barnum's theory holds true, a growing number of tech-savvy debtors are taking their sob stories to the Web — and it's working.
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
Top Stories
Feeling The Heat
Within three to five years, researchers at Intel, HP, and IBM predict, computer makers will have to move beyond fans and adopt cooling systems such as radiators and micro-refrigerators within systems to avoid potential meltdowns.
No Standard For Migrating To Web Standards
Why should web teams invest the effort to learn new coding techniques and convert all their legacy sites over to standards-compliant sites? Time and Money, that's why.
BBC News Site Offers Syndication Feeds
This is a smart move on the BBC's part. It means increased traffic and increased visibility for news.bbc.co.uk, because users are able to syndicate BBC headlines to their own sites and read syndicated content via an RSS reader.
Don't Fence Me In
Today the Internet is under attack not from terrorists but from well-meaning governmental officials and their lobbyists.
Interaction Design And Agile Methods
Ethnographic research is one way to access that tacit knowledge. Working software is another. Are these strategies mutually exclusive? Let's hope not.
News
Pop-Up Ads Few And Far Between?
Pop-up ads may seem like they're everywhere, but they account for only a small portion of online advertisements, according to a new study.
Government Moves Goalposts In Broadband Licence Debacle
'Use it or lose it' becomes 'Don't use it, and get away with it' as 28GHz licence-holders get another 18 months to make wireless broadband available to just 10 percent of potential users.
DoCoMo Erects I-Mode Anti-Spam Defences
Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo Inc is the first operator in the world to launch anti-spam protection for its mobile users.
That Was The Day That Was
A year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, researchers are building digital archives to capture snapshots of what some are calling the "first major event of the Internet age."
Nanotech By The Numbers
It's virtual reality, writ small: atom-by-atom simulations of new materials could usher in the nanotech future sooner than anybody imagined.
Napster Says It Is Likely To Be LIquidated
The move appears to be the final chapter in the story of an Internet business that allowed millions of people to exchange music free online but was undone by lawsuits by the recording industry.
Labels Put Brakes On CD Copy Blocks
Though the labels are slowing their drive for the technological locks, their desire for them has not diminished.
Trpped By The Web!
If all you have is a hammer then everything is a nail.
ICANN Threatens To Revoke VeriSign's Right To Sell Dot-Com Names
The world's largest retailer of top-level Internet addresses could lose its right to sell "dot-com" domain names if it fails to address accusations that it violated its contract with global Internet addressing authorities.
Tuesday, September 3, 2002
Top Stories
Google Inaccessible In China
China appears to have blocked leading search engine Google, sparking speculation of a crackdown on Internet content viewed as subversive ahead of a Communist Party congress in November.
Subscription Online Music Sites Face Uphill Road
Online subscription music sites have finally arrived. But there's been little fanfare, and so far almost no one is buying.
News
Giving Up On The Web
Bertelsmann, a big European media group, is scaling back its Internet ambitions. Other companies are struggling to make money on the web. Yet e-commerce thrives for those who have got it right.
Of PowerPoint And Pointlessness
The number of teachers using PowerPoint presentations in class is on the rise. This raises a question among education theorists: What is the point?
Safter Surfing For Kids
A site that promotes safer use of the internet has been launched by education groups across Europe.
UnitedLinux Falls Apart
Three months down the line and things are still moving forward but it's not plain sailing for the new team on the block.
EC Acts To Lower 3G Costs
3G mobile services may appear more quickly and at lower cost in the UK and Europe, following moves by the European Commission to allow carriers to pool resources when building and operating 3G networks.
E-Signature May Take Years Before People Are Comfortable With It
The much-lauded e-signature law will do little to change prevailing business practices and would take many months, if not years, before companies and consumers warm up to the technology, according to banking professionals.
Monday, September 2, 2002
Top Stories
Scientifically Priced Retail Goods
Using sophisticated systems from a handful of small but fast-growing technology companies, retailers are making price decisions more scientifically and less by gut instinct.
The Holy Grail Of Remote Controls
It's the one remote contro lyou wouldn't want to lose. That's because it's the only remote you'd have.
AOL Capitulates, Gives Up Struggle For 'Open Access'
We're on the verge of the much-touted Information Age, and corporate interests now override the public interest.
News
Watchdogs Rap RIAA's File-Trade Assault
A federal law that the recording industry is using to unmask a suspected Kazaa music-trader is unconstituional, a coalition of nonprofit groups said late Friday.
CAA Mulls Ban On Laptops Which Don't Exist
Ultra-wideband devices "knocked out" collision-avoidance systems and imparired instrument landing systems.
Online Schools Won't Get Easy 'A'
As virtual primary schools steadily attract more students, traditional school districts complain that the online campuses siphon public money from dwindling budgets.
Google Hires Financial Wizard
After three and a half years, the popular search engine hires a chief financial officer. A public offering may be on the way.
Magazine Renewal?
After thriving for years by dispensing advice on how to work smarter and faster, Inc and Fast Company, both Boston-based, are now facing difficulties that would be natural features in their own pages.
U.S. Cellphone Users Don't Seem To Get Message About Messaging
It is now possible for U.S. cellphone users to send one another short text messages, but most customers still have no idea that the service exists.
As Tracking Technologies Improve, We're Ever More Constantly Watched
What if computers become smart enough to link all those government and commercial resources and discern patterns from people's electronic traces? Could they help predict behavior? Prevent terrorist attacks?
Computer Grids Promise Leap In Computing Power
If the next big thing in computers, the grid, comes true, war will know no boundaries.
The Strange Story Of Tara Sue
If she can cause Coble a few moment's worry, then I think everyone in Congress will worry.
Sunday, September 1, 2002
News
MP3 Royalty Scare Over - Not Many Dead
Thomson Multimedia, who license the MP3 format have confirmed that software players are not under threat, and can remain free.