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Tue, 31 Mar 09
Security Sleuths Work Overtime to Confound Conficker
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66666.html
Corporate network administrators can breathe a little easier as the world braces itself for what could be a massive Internet attack courtesy of the Conficker worm on April 1. International non-profit research organization The Honeynet Project, which works on Internet security, has come up with a new scanner to detect the worm on networks. Over the weekend, security vendors worked with the project's Tillmann Werner and Felix Leder, who discovered how to detect Conficker on networks, to create an enterprise-class version of the scanner.

Tue, 31 Mar 09
A Primer on Application Virtualization
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66657.html
Virtualization is a hot topic in today's demanding "get-more-for-less" business environment. Consolidating numerous computer systems so they run efficiently on fewer servers is a standard operating procedure for many IT departments. However, virtualizing entire server banks is not the only way to achieve more efficient deployment of computing resources. Rather than virtualizing everything, another approach for some types of businesses may be a strategy called "application virtualization."

Tue, 31 Mar 09
Skype Scores Shelf Space in iPhone App Store
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66665.html
The top Voice over Internet Protocol service and a major traditional wireless operator become frenemies Tuesday when Skype releases its new application for the iPhone. While Internet phone services have long been seen as a low-cost threat to companies like AT&T, analysts say built-in restrictions and the audience likely to use Skype on an iPhone shouldn't concern Apple's wireless partner. If you already have a Skype account, the new free iPhone app will let you make calls to other Skype users at no charge.

Tue, 31 Mar 09
HP's Z Series Will Dazzle Your Eyes, Bob the Monster Will Steal Your Heart
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66661.html
I spent much of last week attending an event put on by HP, Intel and BMW, which launched HP's new professional workstation line on top of the new Nehalem processors from Intel. This took place at DreamWorks, where we were treated to an early screening of the "Monsters vs. Aliens" movie. This last was a showcase for DreamWorks huge 3-D bet and one that I haven't been a believer in -- until now. Now, I think we are actually at the same kind of inflection point that led to movies, movies with sound, and movies with color.

Tue, 31 Mar 09
Girls in Tech, and Is Linux Doomed on the Desktop?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66659.html
Well it's been a contentious few days on the Linux blogs, what with Ada Lovelace day happening last week and the subsequent emergence of several incendiary topics. Most fiery of all, perhaps, were comments made separately by a few different people suggesting that Linux will never rule the desktop. Of those, the most notable was undoubtedly Red Hat's CEO Jim Whitehurst, who cited financial and other concerns. Putting it plainly, "I don't know how to make money on it," he reportedly said at the InfoWorld Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco last week.

Tue, 31 Mar 09
Mac Security in the Oval Office - or Any Office
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66654.html
President Obama: We hear that your new team is having challenges in getting their Macs integrated into the White House network. Some recent news stories mentioned application compatibility as one of the hassles, but we'd be willing to bet that the bigger challenge is security. In many of the commercial enterprises we see, Macs are often managed individually or by the department expert, sometimes escaping the strict security controls that are usually required.

Tue, 31 Mar 09
Researchers Trace International Cyber-Spy Network to China
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66662.html
A cyber spy network based mainly in China hacked into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan exiles, Canadian researchers said Saturday. The work of the Information Warfare Monitor initially focused on allegations of Chinese cyber espionage against the Tibetan community in exile, and eventually led to a much wider network of compromised machines, the Internet-based research group said.

Mon, 30 Mar 09
Who Needs Radio When You're a Podcast Superstar?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66641.html
Sitting inside his palatial Hollywood Hills mansion, Adam Carolla and his talk show host pal Jimmy Kimmel chat candidly -- in a frenetic, almost stream-of-consciousness way -- about pornography, Siegfried and Roy, the modeling industry, gay rodeos and the children's book "Where the Wild Things Are." The former hosts of Comedy Central's "The Man Show" are comfortably slouched on brown leather chairs inside Carolla's office upstairs, where a pink box overflowing with childrens' toys sits in the corner.

Mon, 30 Mar 09
TuneUp: A Convenient but Quirky Personal iTunes Archivist
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66650.html
I generally like the way Apple's iTunes orchestrates my music collection, but sometimes it hits a wrong chord on the older and more eclectic CDs transferred to my computer. That's why hundreds of songs in my iTunes library are missing the proper album artwork or have been lumped into loosely defined categories that don't truly describe the music genre. For instance, iTunes' automated identification system believes that some songs by the B-52s, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Byrds all belong in the generic rock section. But these birds don't really flock together, do they?

Sun, 29 Mar 09
Gunfire Detection Systems Lead Cops to Criminals
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66600.html
It happened moments after a police sergeant blasted a shot into a sand-filled barrel to test this city's expanded gunfire tracking system. Witnesses suddenly heard "Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!" Those gunshots were real. A flashing red "multiple shots" banner and an address appeared on a nearby laptop, and officers quickly located a 28-year-old man who had been shot by a masked man. He survived. "He's lucky," Capt. Carl Estelle said. East Palo Alto, Calif., is the first U.S. city completely wired with ShotSpotter.

Sat, 28 Mar 09
Tesla Shows Off Family-Friendly Electric Car
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66660.html
Tesla Motors -- a Silicon Valley startup backed by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the South Africa-born cofounder of PayPal -- is making plans to roll out its second electric car. The company has released the details of its Tesla Model S. The Model S is promising a 300-mile range -- this is not just an about-town commuting car -- and the ability to recharge the battery within 45 minutes. The Model S is also much larger than Tesla's earlier Roadster, making it possible for a family to consider it.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Sharing the Load: The Co-Sourced IT Maintenance Operation
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66638.html
An October 2008 DLA Piper Technology Leaders Forecast survey talks about the impact of the financial and economic crisis within IT circles. Overall, the survey found that while industry leaders have a host of concerns, they are fundamentally optimistic about future opportunities within technology. As further validation, during a PSVillage event in Chicago that gathered senior practitioners in technology professional services, several software executives were polled on their current sales pipeline.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
A Week of Memory, Malware, MacBooks and Marble
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66642.html
It's been a relatively quiet week for the Apple-focused blogosphere. Apple did announce the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference, which is set for June 8-12 in San Francisco. WWDC just so happens to the be the venue in which Apple is widely expected to release its next version of Mac OS X -- "Snow Leopard" -- which may be prettier than expected. Meanwhile, Apple quietly added an option to double the memory in its 15-inch MacBook Pros, and a security company caught some nasty OS X malware on video.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
The Driving Force Behind the Open Source Mobile Movement
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66617.html
In a sagging economy, doing business as usual is rarely prudent and usually disastrous. Companies often must change the course of strategies, or in some cases accelerate them. After a spate of business meetings during the marathon that is Mobile World Congress, one takeaway is the acceleration in the mobile handset market of operators moving to open source software-based devices. Two device types are driving the increased adoption of open source software stacks: smartphones and netbooks, with many operators and OxMs also forming plans for Linux-based mobile Internet devices in the coming year.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
World Prepares to Go Dark for Earth Hour '09
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66646.html
The lights are going down from the Great Pyramids to the Acropolis, the Eiffel Tower to the Sears Tower, as more than 2,800 municipalities in 84 countries plan Saturday to mark the second worldwide Earth Hour. McDonald's will even soften the yellow glow from some Golden Arches as part of the time-zone-by-time-zone plan to dim nonessential lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. to highlight global climate change. "Earth Hour makes a powerful statement that the world is going to solve this problem," said Carter Roberts, chief executive of the World Wildlife Fund, which sponsors Earth Hour.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Social Nets Marshal Volunteer Armies to Hold Back River
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66645.html
When Kevin Tobosa got word Thursday that a friend needed help building a sandbag dike, he immediately posted a status update on his Facebook page: "Heading to 2825 Lilac Lane in North Fargo -- needs to be raised another 2 feet." When city officials needed volunteers at other dikes, Tobosa suggested setting up a Facebook group. By Thursday, it had attracted more than 4,550 members and was constantly picking up new ones. "We really need volunteers again today to get the dikes buttoned up and fill the rest of the sandbags," read a message sent to the group Thursday.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
US Lags Behind Denmark, Sweden in IT Readiness Index
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66647.html
Denmark and Sweden are better than the United States in their ability to exploit information and communications technology, according to a survey published Thursday. The United States, which topped the World Economic Forum's "networked readiness index" in 2006 before slipping down the rankings, climbed one place to third in the latest edition of the survey. The study largely blamed poor political and regulatory environments in the United States for offsetting some of the benefits of having the world's most competitive economy.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Dell Dives Deep Into Data Center Market
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66637.html
Dell on Wednesday announced a slew of products and services to underscore its thrust into the data center market. These include servers and workstations, lifecycle and system management software, storage, virtualization, and data center consulting services. It is offering 11th-generation PowerEdge servers and its Precision workstations, both based on the Intel Nehalem chip. The servers have built-in virtualization and offer a single access point to control management through the Dell Lifecycle Controller.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Obama Pitches Economic Plan to Grass Roots in Online Town Hall
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66635.html
If you took part in Thursday's live online presidential town-hall meeting, you had the chance to submit your questions to President Obama via text or video. Then you got to vote on the popularity of the questions, effectively ranking them for the president's staff to consider. So some might think somebody was blowing smoke when it turned out that the four most popular questions under the "financial stability" category had to do with the legalization of marijuana. At least President Obama may have thought so.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Linux Barbies Battle the Command Line
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66623.html
Patents, patents, patents. Ever since Microsoft announced its suit against TomTom a month or so ago, patents have become an increasing focus of conversation on the Linux blogs. We've already discussed some of the rampant speculation about Microsoft's motivation in the case, as well as TomTom's subsequent countersuit. Now, as of Monday, it turns out TomTom has joined the Open Invention Network -- alongside the likes of IBM, Novell and Red Hat.

Fri, 27 Mar 09
Pew Study Tags 'Ambivalent Networkers'
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66633.html
They are comfortable with gadgets, yet shudder sometimes as the cell phone rings. This group -- primarily male and in their late 20s -- is called the "Ambivalent Networkers" in a study released Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Pew found this group notable because its members have lived with the Internet and other technologies for much of their lives. In the study, Pew examined American adults' gadgets and services, their activities and their attitudes toward technology.

Thu, 26 Mar 09
A Primer on Virtualization
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66624.html
Virtualization is an essential component for any IT outfit looking to run an efficient, manageable, waste-not-want-not shop. It's not just a tool for large call centers with big server farms. Even small- to medium-sized businesses with growing computer demands can benefit from virtualization. Why? Virtualization reduces costs by lowering hardware needs and repetitive maintenance tasks. Often, scheduled maintenance on multiple servers and patching dozens of workstation computers requires IT staff to work after normal business hours when the hardware can be taken offline.

Thu, 26 Mar 09
Chinese Censors Douse Lights on YouTube
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66621.html
China reportedly has blocked access to YouTube without providing Google, which owns the video-sharing site, with any official explanation -- or even confirmation that it has indeed turned the site dark. It's suspected that the government objected to recently uploaded videos of Chinese police beating Tibetan monks. China has blocked access to YouTube in the past on similar grounds. China's silence on the access blockage is standard operating procedure, according to Usha C. V. Haley, an Asia fellow at Harvard Kennedy School.

Thu, 26 Mar 09
Google Oils Engine With Semantic Search
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66622.html
Google on Tuesday rolled out two enhancements to its search engine that could pave the way for a shift toward more integrated real-time search results. The new technology introduces new algorithms that draw from semantic relevance of search terms. The first enhancement expands the list of useful related searches. The second enhancement lengthens search result descriptions, called "snippets." Both new offerings are designed to help guide users more effectively to the information they need.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Shortcovers E-Reader: An Unfinished Story
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66606.html
Over the past year or so, e-readers have suddenly become a must-have gadget. Amazon's Kindle e-reader was even named one of talk show host Oprah Winfrey's favorite things in 2008. With the recent release of the second iteration of the Kindle, electronic books and their accompanying devices are back in the news. However, in these tough economic times, not everyone has the wherewithal to pony up $350 for the Kindle or any other similarly priced e-reader. That's where the newly launched Shortcovers comes in.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Launching a Linux Startup: No Funny Business
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66601.html
Having recently completed the second issue of "Hackett and Bankwell," I have been taking inventory of my accomplishments and lessons learned. Two years ago, I was working two jobs, writing Web software by day and configuring Linux servers by night. One job was a corporate situation where a lot of the work had been automated, leaving mostly maintenance, and the other was an early-stage Web startup, complete with late night and early morning phone calls, where developing major features overnight had become routine.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
'Monsters vs. Aliens' Tech Brings New Depth to 3-D Filmmaking
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66616.html
"Monsters vs. Aliens" opens with an old 3-D gag: A ball bounces directly into the audience, causing moviegoers to instinctively scoot back in their seats. But the resemblance to old-fashioned 3-D ends there. The film, in theaters Friday, relies on entirely new technology -- much of it developed during production -- to lend depth to an epic battle in outer space and drama to the collapse of the Golden Gate bridge as four modern monsters fight to save Earth from alien invasion.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
T-Mobile Rolls Out 3G Dongle Deal
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66613.html
T-Mobile USA is opening up its new cellular broadband network to laptops for the first time, with Wednesday's launch of a USB "dongle" that lets portable computers get wireless Internet access. The plug-in device costs $50 with a two-year contract, or $100 if the buyer is signing up for one year. From then, service costs $60 per month for up to 5 gigabytes of traffic. The prices are similar to those at the three larger cellular carriers. T-Mobile is playing catch-up to Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint Nextel when it comes to building out a 3G data network.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Billionaire Simonyi Prepares for a Busy Second Space Trip
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66614.html
The first time U.S. billionaire Charles Simonyi peered out from the international space station he was awe-struck. He's vowing to be a little more productive on his second time trip. The Hungarian-born software designer joined U.S. flight engineer Michael Barratt and Russian commander Gennady Padalka for last-minute preparations Wednesday in Kazakhstan as the three counted down the hours to blast off from Russia's Baikonur cosmodrome.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Teen Black Hat Goes Corporate for NZ Telecom
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66611.html
A New Zealand teenager who helped a crime gang hack into more than 1 million computers worldwide and skim millions of dollars from bank accounts has a new job as a security consultant for a telecom company. Owen Thor Walker has the skills that can help senior executives and customers understand the security threats to their computer networks, TelstraClear spokesperson Chris Mirams told National Radio on Wednesday. Walker pleaded guilty last July -- when he was 18 -- to a raft of charges connected to his work for an international network.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
OnLive Promises Hard-Core Gaming Minus the Hardware
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66605.html
The first tech media darling has already blasted its way through the clutter at the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco -- OnLive, the new company to come from longtime serial tech entrepreneur Steve Perlman. Phrases like "game changer" are being tossed about to describe OnLive's technology, which essentially creates the new category of cloud gaming for play on computers and TVs. A new video compression system developed by OnLive means the company's servers can host all the gaming technology like rendering and storage. All the gamer would have to do is log on and start playing.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Eliminating the Mobile Security Blind Spot
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66590.html
Office-bound workers at most companies today have a significant amount of IT security available to them when best practices are followed. Their computers are physically secure; their hard drives are hopefully encrypted; secure Web gateways, intrusion prevention systems and firewalls block dangers from the Internet. Audit trails are in place. Passwords and policies are enforced. Data protection is comprehensive. Take that computer outside of that office, and much of that protection is not available or much less effective -- creating a "mobile blind spot."

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Novell Aims for the Clouds With Suse Enterprise 11
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66604.html
Taking aim at the next generation of computing -- virtualization and the cloud -- Novell on Tuesday unveiled Suse Linux Enterprise 11. Suse Linux Enterprise 11 has been optimized for the major hypervisors -- VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen. It runs on the x86, Itanium, IBM Power and IBM System z platforms, all of which are used in IT infrastructure virtualization. Also, it will be certified and supported in Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. In addition, the operating system offers tighter ties with Microsoft technologies.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
'Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile': Head-Bangin' Good
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66530.html
I'm not what you would call a major gamer, but I've played the console version of "Guitar Hero: World Tour," and I didn't get booed off the stage every time. So that makes me an expert, right? When you're playing "Guitar Hero" on a mobile phone, the most important thing to bear in mind is that you're playing it on your phone. That means, mainly, that you're not going to get the console experience. However, Hands-On Mobile has put forth a respectable effort at replicating the experience in a portable format.

Wed, 25 Mar 09
Web Sites Offer Support for Folks in Foreclosure
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66599.html
Searching for more than advice to navigate the foreclosure process, delinquent homeowners are seeking solace in online support groups. Sites like DailyStrength.org and the recently launched TheSurvivorsClub.org, for example, offer resources and tools, and connect users with others who are going through foreclosure. The portals cater to homeowners looking for more than advice about the financial complexities of losing a home.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
Report: Security Holes Could Wreak Havoc in Proposed Smart Grid
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66587.html
It is supposed to revolutionize the way electricity is delivered and managed. It has $4.5 billion targeted for it in the Obama economic stimulus package. However, the so-called smart grid, as it is being developed today, won't be able to outsmart hackers looking to damage the U.S.'s utility infrastructure, according to a Seattle-based security firm. IOActive issued a report Monday claiming that technologies now being rolled out in several cities throughout the country "are susceptible to common security vulnerabilities," the company said.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
CRM All A-Twitter With New Salesforce.com App
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66589.html
Salesforce.com has introduced Salesforce CRM for Twitter, a new social media application. Twitter, for the uninitiated, is a free platform that lets people send out messages of no more than 140 characters to as broad a community as they can build. The posts, or "tweets," as they're known, can cover any topic area. Tweets initially were prompted by Twitter's question, "What are you doing?" However, they have since morphed. People use Twitter to share articles, talk about their own lives, discuss industry trends -- and, yes, gripe about products and services.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
The Deepest Shade of Green
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66574.html
Talk is cheap when it comes to going green. It's one thing for IT managers to remind a company's workers to throttle back on wasteful energy use now and then and recycle old equipment effectively; it's quite another to implement real energy-saving procedures. More times than not, companies do more talking about being green than actually working to greenify their operations. Running a deeply efficient and non-wasteful IT operation is much more complex than simply being "green" or "not green." It's all a matter of degree.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
IBM + Sun: Bad for FOSS?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66582.html
An assortment of topics made for interesting conversation on the Linux blogs in the past few days, not the least of which was the collection of video contestants that have been posted for the Linux Foundation's "I'm Linux" contest. Close to 100 entries were received in the contest -- now called "We're Linux" -- and all are available for viewing and voting on the contest's official site. Some are wacky, some artistic; if you haven't already, go check them out!

Tue, 24 Mar 09
Hillary Clinton Adds Tech Tools to Diplomacy Arsenal
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66585.html
Her videos aren't quite viral yet and she's not tweeting, but Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is embracing new media, using the Web to promote the agency and her role as the nation's top envoy. In less than three months, Clinton's State Department has embarked on a digital diplomacy drive aimed at spreading the word about American foreign policy and restoring Washington's image. Part of a broader Internet outreach by President Barack Obama's administration, Clinton's Web efforts already have outpaced those of her predecessors.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
Social Networks and the Tricky Business of Transparency
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66584.html
Yelp.com prides itself on being a site where people can write reviews about pretty much anything and connect with similarly critical peers. Yet as the site grows, some of the businesses scrutinized on Yelp are turning the tables and griping about the company itself. The complaints highlight an irony for Web sites that stimulate online communities and let users speak their minds. As the sites make the world more transparent, giving people the power to discuss everything from a great pizza to a bad date, the sites' own transparency is often questionable.

Tue, 24 Mar 09
ISS Swerves to Avoid 4-Inch Bit of Space Junk
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66583.html
Confronted with orbiting junk again, NASA ordered the astronauts aboard the linked space station and shuttle Discovery to move out of the way of a piece of debris Sunday. Discovery's pilots fired their ship's thrusters to reorient the two spacecraft and thereby avoid a small piece from a 10-year-old Chinese satellite rocket motor that was due to pass uncomfortably close during Monday's planned spacewalk. Mission Control said keeping the spacecraft in this position for about three hours would result in a slow, natural drag of about a foot per second, enough to get the complex out of the way.

Mon, 23 Mar 09
Adamo Springs Forth From Dell, Sun Sets in IBM's Backyard
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66580.html
The U.S. stock market had a really happy week last week. The market was on a long rally, and a number of high-profile technology vendors made interesting moves. The first was the release of Dell's Adamo product -- the first laptop offering that really was rethought as more of an art project than a typical laptop. While expensive, it actually feels worth it. The second was the leak that Sun was about to be acquired by IBM for $7 billion, which has to have old time IBMers dancing in the aisles. Sun pounded on IBM a lot in the '90s.

Sun, 22 Mar 09
Wrapping Up an Online Life When Real Life Ends
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66554.html
When Jerald Spangenberg collapsed and died in the middle of a quest in an online game, his daughter embarked on a quest of her own: to let her father's gaming friends know that he hadn't just decided to desert them. It wasn't easy, because she didn't have her father's "World of Warcraft" password and the game's publisher couldn't help her. Eventually, Melissa Allen Spangenberg reached her father's friends by asking around online for the "guild" he belonged to. One of them, Chuck Pagoria in Morgantown, Ky., heard about Spangenberg's death three weeks later.

Sat, 21 Mar 09
Open Sesame: Inside a Data Thief's Treasure Trove
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66556.html
Getting hacked is like having your computer turn traitor on you, spying on everything you do and shipping your secrets to identity thieves. Victims don't see where their stolen data end up. But sometimes security researchers do, stumbling across stolen-data troves that offer a glimpse of what identity theft looks like from criminals' perspective. Researchers from U.K.-based security firm Prevx found one such trove, a Web site used as a stash house for data from 160,000 infected computers before it was shut down this month.

Sat, 21 Mar 09
This Week's Browser Fight: Will Security KO Speed?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66576.html
Speed kills -- ask any cop -- and browser users are going to find that out very soon. The browser wars heated up this week, with Microsoft's launch of Internet Explorer 8, Google's release of a new beta version of Chrome, and the debut of Mozilla's Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox. One of the main talking points for both Google and Mozilla has been JavaScript -- how it makes their browsers faster and boosts Web 2.0 capabilities. Microsoft, on the other hand, is emphasizing security -- which is where the other browsers may run into trouble.

Sat, 21 Mar 09
Online Journalism Experiment Begins in Seattle
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66553.html
This is how a major newspaper dies, and is reborn online, in real-time: Shortly after 10 a.m. Pacific on Monday, I find out the fate of the 146-year-old Seattle Post-Intelligencer on -- where else -- Twitter. P-I "Big Blog" reporter Monica Guzman tweets the breaking news: "Publisher Roger Oglesby just announced in the P-I newsroom: Tomorrow will be our last print edition, but seattlepi.com will live on." Guzman's 21st-century bulletin immediately gets re-tweeted by others in the Seattle media scene.

Sat, 21 Mar 09
No TV Needed to Catch the Madness - Just the Right Phone
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66567.html
March Madness is in the air. To be more specific, it's on airwaves that certain AT&T and Verizon Wireless phones can pick up, letting them show live NCAA basketball tournament games this season. It's the first time the live games will be available through AT&T, which launched live mobile TV service last May though Qualcomm's MediaFLO service. AT&T subscribers with certain phones will be able to view all 63 NCAA tournament games live, the phone company said Wednesday. Customers at Verizon Wireless, which had some games available last year, will be able to see 27.

Sat, 21 Mar 09
Ozone Layer Offers 'Yes We Can' Lesson for Global Warming Response
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66566.html
Here's rare good news about an environmental crisis: We dodged disaster with the ozone layer. A NASA study about ozone-munching chemicals from aerosol sprays and refrigeration used a computer model to play a game of what-if. What if the world 22 years ago didn't agree to cut back on chlorofluorocarbons, which cause a seasonal ozone hole to form near the South Pole? We'd now be living in a "bizarre world," said NASA atmospheric scientist Paul Newman.

Fri, 20 Mar 09
Why It's OK for Newspapers to Die
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66560.html
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ceased print publication this week to focus solely on the Web, a transition that frightened some in the publishing business, coming so shortly after the Rocky Mountain News shut down. However, as many in the tech industry are aware, this is simply a form of "creative destruction" that should boost both choice and economic activity in the longer term. "Creative destruction," a term coined by Joseph Schumpeter in his 1942 book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, means exactly what it says.

Fri, 20 Mar 09
FOSS Debates, Part 3: Mission Control
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66565.html
If the FOSS community is united by its love of passionate debate, it is arguably divided in equal measure by diverging views on the purpose of free and open source software. To some, FOSS means simply software that is intended to be free, or without financial cost; to others, the open availability of its source code is what matters. Then there are those -- perhaps most notably, GNU founder Richard Stallman -- who argue vehemently that Freedom with a capital "F" is what FOSS is all about, with implications that extend into the political, philosophical and ethical realms.

Fri, 20 Mar 09
It's the iPhone, All the Time, on Every Channel
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66563.html
The iPhone sat firmly in the center Apple-focused blog world this week. Apple, of course, delivered an iPhone 3.0 OS sneak peek to the press, which led to a stampede of blog activity. In addition to showing off a lot of new software goodies, Apple briefly tossed the ball into the service provider court in regard to data tethering. Meanwhile, the latest AT&T rumor has the company offering iPhones for sale without massive two-year service contracts -- but without the sizable price subsidy, either.

Fri, 20 Mar 09
Microsoft Debuts IE8, Only to Have It Hacked
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66557.html
Microsoft's unveiling of Internet Explorer 8 on Thursday was marred by news that the browser, touted to be its most secure ever, already has been hacked. The launch has also kicked off a new round of browser wars, with Google unveiling a new beta of its Chrome browser, and Mozilla releasing Fennec, the mobile version of its Firefox browser, in beta. IE8 was cracked at the 10th annual CanSecWest conference in Vancouver, Canada, Wednesday by a hacker who identified himself only as "Nils."

Fri, 20 Mar 09
NBA Player Told to Save the Tweets for After the Game
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66552.html
Milwaukee Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva was back on his Twitter account Wednesday -- safely before tipoff this time. Villanueva's widely publicized experiment with posting to the popular social networking Web site during halftime of a big game has ended at the team's request. But Villanueva still isn't sure he did anything wrong. "I have my own personal opinion on it," Villanueva said after Milwaukee's 106-80 loss to Orlando Wednesday night. "I understand coaches and GMs and I respect them. I'm not going to go against them, but my own personal opinion is we do have time anyways."

Fri, 20 Mar 09
Apps for Touch a Good Antidote for iPhone Envy
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66548.html
I try to keep a stiff upper lip about not having an iPhone. Just couldn't afford it -- not with the $75 a month or so AT&T charges for service on top of the $199 upfront cost for the device. I could, however, afford the $229 iPod touch -- and got it as a gift, as it happened. It has most of the same goodies: a Web browser, email, YouTube. And it stores way more music than the iPhone. Plus, the other day I used it to call China. Yup, a call around the world -- on a device that doesn't have a phone.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
'Oregon Trail' for iPhone: Ancient Game Still Goes the Distance
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66468.html
Before last week, the last time I'd played "The Oregon Trail," I was staring at a green-screened Apple II in an elementary school computer lab. I believe George Bush the Elder still held office. As it turns out, the game has soldiered on through several versions over the years. While more action-oriented gamers were busy turning interdimensional baddies into puddles of goo, families of pioneers have continuously set out from Missouri on months-long, dangerous treks to the West Coast.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
Repaving the Digital Content Delivery Road
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66513.html
As organizations are reducing their budgets due to the current economic climate, they are looking to maximize their return on investment, and a recent Aberdeen Group study shows that technology solutions that would allow these organizations to experience improvements in end-user experience without adding more bandwidth capacity would resonate with their needs. The report, "Three Things to Follow to Optimize Digital Content Delivery," found that the top pressures facing organizations are improving customer satisfaction, creating new business opportunities, and improving.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
Why Use Linux?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66546.html
It's a well-known fact that spring is the season of love, so it should come as no surprise to see geeks' thoughts turning in that direction as the vernal equinox approaches. Yes indeed, Valentine's Day may have come and gone, but the approaching arrival of the birds and the bees seems to have inspired many a Linux fan in the past week or so to contemplate the common object of their enduring affection. Who is the lucky recipient of so much adoration, you might ask? Ask not who, but what, for of course it's none other than our favorite operating system.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
How to Build a Small-Business Web Site, Part 8: Content Management Simplified
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66543.html
You might think of content management as a tuning-up process for your Web site so it's always running in top form. For small-business owners, however, keeping up with the job of content management can be a trying exercise they would just as soon leave at the bottom of the to-do pile. Without change, though, a Web site can languish and simply not do the job it's supposed to. With a possible few exceptions, Web content needs to be looked at on a regular basis and updated to make sure the information is current and that the right messages are getting to the right people.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
Google Launches Chrome Beta for Adventurous Browser Users
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66542.html
Google opened a new channel on Tuesday to distribute its latest beta release of the Chrome browser. The company also began on Tuesday a blog devoted exclusively to the Chrome browser. Google launched Chrome as a beta in September of 2008; a final-release 1.0 version come out in December. By last month, it had grabbed 1.12 percent of the market behind Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari, according to data from Net Applications. Since then, Google has issued 29 updates, each revision finessing Google Chrome's speed, stability and usability, according to the company.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
Instant-On Computing: The Killer OSS-Based PC Feature?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66518.html
In our age of instant gratification, no one likes waiting for anything. That's why the sluggish launch time of a typical personal computer can make a consumer irritable. It's also why instant-on computing has become a sort of Holy Grail for hardware and software makers in the industry. The pursuit of instant-on is a quest that's given Linux traction in an arena that for years it has found a tough nut to crack -- the PC. "There's no question that this is something that people want, particularly as they get to mobile devices," said Directions on Microsoft's Michael Cherry.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
Doc-Sharing Site Scribd Adds Books to the Mix
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66537.html
Scribd is opening a new chapter by adding hundreds of books to its rapidly growing Web site for sharing documents. Random House and Simon & Schuster are among the long-established book publishers embracing Scribd as a new distribution and promotional channel. The partnerships being announced Wednesday will expand the eclectic mix of written material that has turned Scribd -- pronounced "scribbed" as in scribbled -- into one of the Internet's hottest destinations just two years after it started.

Thu, 19 Mar 09
State Dept. Uses Twitter Diplomacy to Head Off Dangerous Rumors
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66538.html
U.S. diplomats on Thursday "tweeted" down false rumors they feared might lead to a siege on the American Embassy in Madagascar. State Department officials turned to Twitter feeds after dubious claims appeared on the micoblogging network that Madagascar's newly ousted president, Marc Ravalomanana, had sought refuge inside the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, the Indian Ocean island's capital. Web-savvy State officials kicked into gear and within minutes, the agency had posted its own "tweets" denying the false reports.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
Mobile Security: Saying Yes When You Really Should Say No
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66531.html
Do you use a smarthphone to access bank and credit card accounts? How about accessing Web-based applications at your favorite social network or Web mail provider? Do you synchronize your mobile device with your desktop PC or laptop? If you answered yes to any of these questions, your are running the risk for a security breach. What's that you say? You don't have any sensitive information that anybody would want? How about your address book? Or, how about your log-on information, such as user name and password for every Web site you visit.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
Dell Reaches for High End With New Adamo Notebook
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66525.html
Dell has unveiled its version of a high-end ultra-thin portable laptop -- the Adamo. The Adamo, which was derived from the Latin word meaning "to fall in love," will be the flagship product in a line that will focus on design aesthetics and personalization choices. Specs for the product include Intel Core 2 Duo processors with Intel Centrino technology; DDR3 system memory; a 13.4-inch 16:9 HD display; a standard high-performance solid state drive; Bluetooth 2.1; a mobile broadband option; and up to 5 hours of battery life.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
Apple Tricks Out New iPhone OS
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66532.html
The iPhoneophiles spoke and Apple listened; copy-and-paste will finally be heading to an iPhone near you this summer. But the real question many technology analysts are asking: Can Apple copy other features now in use by competing software providers and paste them into the supremely popular iPhone ecosystem? Partial answers were provided Tuesday in Cupertino as a parade of company executives not named Steve Jobs unveiled iPhone OS 3.0, with the newest features and enhancements to its best-selling smartphone operating system.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
HTC Promises at Least 3 More Android Phones in '09
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66526.html
HTC was the first mobile device maker to introduce a smartphone for the Android platform. Now it might be the second, third and fourth as well. Peter Chou, CEO of the Taiwanese handset manufacturer HTC, told the Wall Street Journal that it will bring out at least three new Google Android smartphones this year. They include the HTC Magic, which Vodafone UK will distribute exclusively in the UK, France, Germany and Spain beginning in April. Speculation is still rife as to what the others will be.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
QuickOffice for Android: Fills a Need but Not Worth the Price
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66516.html
If nothing else, you've got to give the people over at QuickOffice credit for being early movers. They are the first to bring us an application that will open Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets on an Android-based phone. They're also the first, to my knowledge, to figure out how to reorient the screen of a G1 using only the accelerometer. More on that later. The Android Market just recently began accepting paid applications, and this was one of the first out of the gate.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
CERN Scientists Toast Web's 20th
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66522.html
Some two decades after the creation of the World Wide Web, its inventor says the work is far from over. Tim Berners-Lee encouraged fellow scientists at his former particle physics laboratory in Switzerland to look to the future. "The rate of development and innovation on the Web is actually getting faster and faster all the time," Berners-Lee said at a ceremony at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as "CERN." "The Web is not all done. It's just the tip of the iceberg."

Wed, 18 Mar 09
Loudcrowd Fuses Social Network Tones With Music Game Rhythms
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66520.html
Music fans who want to mix games and social networking while listening to songs on the Internet now have a site called "Loudcrowd," created in part by developers behind "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero." The site is to make its public debut Tuesday at the South By Southwest Festival, an annual gathering for music, film and new media fans and insiders in Austin, Texas. Dan Ogles, one of its cofounders, hails from Harmonix -- the video game developer behind "Rock Band" as well as "Guitar Hero" before that game's development was transferred to another studio.

Wed, 18 Mar 09
Student Bloggers Shed Constant Light on Environmental Trial
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66524.html
A cadre of journalism and law students from the University of Montana is providing a virtual window on what many are calling the most extensive environmental criminal trial in U.S. history. Paired together in two-hour shifts, a law student and a journalism student provide daily, continuously updated online coverage of the W.R. Grace & Co. trial in U.S. District Court in Missoula through their blog. Communities in Montana and around the country were exposed to asbestos-contaminated ore that W.R. Grace mined and shipped from Libby, Mont.

Tue, 17 Mar 09
Facebook Connect and iPhone: The Makings of a Gaming Surge
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66517.html
Can the social Web get any more social? You and your smartphone-loving-friends are about to find out, thanks to Facebook Connect's new ability to say hello to the iPhone 3G. The top social network's decision to reach out to one of the world's most popular smartphones could be a boon for application development companies, if restaurant info/locator/review app Urbanspoon's experience is any indication. "Before this, we had somewhere on the order of 1,000 new people a day who would sign up," Urbanspoon cofounder Ethan Lowry told MacNewsWorld.

Tue, 17 Mar 09
It's Not as Bad as You Think
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66509.html
Let's face facts: It's a hard economy right now. For those of us in the security business, a down economy hits us harder than most other areas of the business. Not only does our budget wallow in the doldrums just like other areas, but at the same time that we're stuck with less funding, the overall risk increases as well. It works like this: Less funding for security, of course, means that we have less to spend on critical upgrades and new projects to address known gaps, and reduced operating budget to maintain the status quo. However, there's a more insidious impact as well.

Tue, 17 Mar 09
Cisco Wraps Arms Around Enterprise Computing
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66512.html
Networking giant Cisco Systems unveiled a slew of new products and services Monday that promise to simplify, consolidate and lower the cost of running vast computer networks at large businesses. The new products and services fall under an initiative Cisco calls the "Unified Computing System," which unites computing, networking, storage access and virtualization into a scalable, single system. "It's like when Mr. Scott from 'Star Trek' has to move power from the Enterprise's forward shields to the ship's life support systems," said Yankee Group analyst Zeus Kerravala.

Tue, 17 Mar 09
No Quick Path to Harnessing the Power of Stem Cells
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66508.html
For all the past week's headlines about embryonic stem cells' medical promise, there is a sobering reality: The science to prove that promise will take years, probably too long for many of today's seriously ill. On his desk at Children's Hospital Boston, Harvard stem cell researcher George Daley, M.D., Ph.D., keeps a file about 3 inches thick of emails and letters from patients and families who hope his work could help them. They are both inspiration and caution.

Tue, 17 Mar 09
ISS May Have to Dodge Debris as Discovery Approaches
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66507.html
Seven astronauts raced to the international space station aboard space shuttle Discovery on Monday, while NASA debated whether the orbiting outpost will need to move aside to dodge part of an old Soviet satellite. Space station astronauts had a close call last week with a small piece of orbiting junk, and NASA said Monday that debris from a satellite that broke apart in 1981 could come within about half a mile of the station early Tuesday. NASA will decide later Monday whether to fire the space station's engines to nudge the complex out of the path of the debris.

Mon, 16 Mar 09
So You Want to Be a Game Designer, Part 2
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66498.html
It takes a village to make a video game. In the beginning, it is the game designer who develops the concept for the game, and while that designer may receive the lion's share of the glory, a video game would not be come to fruition without the skills and talents of scriptwriters, animator, programmers, sound engineers, musical composers, voiceover artists, producers, etc. For Jesse Schell, assistant professor of Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University, his path into the world of game development began at an early age.

Mon, 16 Mar 09
What Apple and Google Could Teach AMD and FLOSS
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66499.html
Last week, I got into an argument about whether Microsoft was using TomTom to go after Linux. I also attended several events where the massive costs of the AMD vs. Intel litigation were discussed. I got to thinking how both entities -- AMD and FLOSS -- are currently defined by the dominant company in their space. For FLOSS -- the open source software community, not the stuff you clean your teeth with -- it is Microsoft that seems to define them, and they have been largely the anti-Microsoft folks for all of this decade.

Mon, 16 Mar 09
Will IE8 Be Microsoft's Last Explorer?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66504.html
There are few things more exciting to a journalist than being among the first to report important news, and we here at LinuxInsider are no exception. So it was with great glee that we learned of recent rumors that Internet Explorer 8 could be the end of the line. Special thanks to Slashdot blogger hairyfeet for calling them to our attention! Yes, there were several such reports circulating on the virtual grapevine in recent days, including Randall Kennedy's post at InfoWorld, Scott Fulton's post at Beta News, iAurora's post at JCXP and others.

Sun, 15 Mar 09
Social Networking's Silver Streak
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66451.html
When your 88-year-old grandfather sends a request to be your "friend" on Facebook, you have two choices: Either confirm it, then quickly take down all those party pictures you thought were so funny, or plan on never coming home for the holidays. As someone who lists pinot grigio as a hobby, I was seriously concerned about my grandfather joining Facebook. I was worried my grandfather would get the wrong idea about me. Or worse yet, he'd find out exactly who I was -- not the teetotaling granddaughter I try to portray twice a year when I go home.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Addressing Climate Change: Breaking Old Models
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66493.html
Despite years of study and analysis, the world is unprepared for climate change and needs to rethink basic assumptions that govern things as varied as choosing cars and building bridges, the National Research Council reports. Current building, land use and planning practices assume a continuation of climate as it has been known in the past. "That assumption, fundamental to the ways people and organizations make their choices, is no longer valid," the Council, the working arm of the National Academy of Sciences, said in a report released Thursday.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
IBM Dives Into Clean Water Management
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66497.html
IBM is dropping anchor in the water management industry with the development of several new technologies and the launch of a new consulting service targeting utilities. This is not an entirely new focus for IBM, although it is clearly a deviation from its pure IT heritage. Big Blue has been mulling so-called smart water technologies since at least 2006, when it kicked off its Big Green Innovations initiative with a $100 million investment. This latest series of offerings represents a tangible commercialization of the company's research in this area.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Hulu Hops on the Social Bandwagon
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66495.html
Television network, meet social network. Hulu, the online video lovechild of Fox and NBC, announced Thursday the addition of Hulu Friends, which gives users the opportunity to set up profiles, share favorite episodes of hit shows like "24" or "The Office" and leave Facebook-style updates on each other's pages. In fact, Hulu Friends allows integration with Facebook, MySpace, Digg and Del.icio.us, along with Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Hotmail, as the major media content providers working with Hulu look to pull more community-building opportunities within its own borders.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Twitter: Brought to You by [Insert News Outlet Here]
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66485.html
After sifting through a long list of stories, headlines, podcasts and, yes, tweets about Twitter over the past week -- only one week, mind you -- I have just one question on my microblog-addled mind: Would the news media shut up already about Twitter and just buy the damn thing? I first floated the idea of a media company that owns a news organization buying Twitter a couple of months ago, when the short-message service had vaulted its way to the top of the technosphere because of the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Apple Chatter: A Rumor, a Release and a Rare Sneak Peak
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66484.html
Three items of note burned particularly brightly this week in the Apple blogosphere this week: a crescendo in rumors of an Apple netbook/tablet/something coming, and an upcoming sneak peak of iPhone 3.0 software, and the release of a brand-new iPod shuffle. The most recent iteration of the diminutive iPod shuffle was already almost too small for its buttons, so Apple got rid of them altogether. At 1.8 by 0.3 inches, new shuffle is smaller than the previous model.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
FOSS Debates, Part 2: Standard Deviations
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66486.html
When Microsoft won its bid to make Office Open XML an international standard last year, it was a pivotal moment for many in the FOSS community and beyond. The process had been a highly contentious one, with protests from nations and corporations around the globe, and the International Organization for Standardization's final decision was met with considerable shock, disbelief and even outrage on the part of some. Cynicism on the topic persists to this day, and debates can still be heard on the question of whether the standardization process is fundamentally broken.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
McCain Gets His Tech On
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66490.html
George Stephanopoulos and John McCain plan to be "tweeting" Tuesday in an interview hosted on the Twitter Web site. The Arizona senator and the ABC News correspondent will come together online for a "Twitterview" to be conducted at 12 noon EDT on Tuesday. However, they can't get too wordy. The microblogging platform restricts each entry to just 140 characters. "We're going to attempt to conduct a full interview exclusively on Twitter -- complete with the 140-character limit," Stephanopoulos said.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Crew Hunkers Down as Space Junk Buzzes ISS
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66488.html
The near-hit of space junk Thursday was a warning shot fired across the bow of the international space station, experts said. There's likely more to come in the future. With less than an hour's notice, the three astronauts were told they'd have to seek shelter in a Russian capsule parked at the space station in case a speeding piece of space junk hit Thursday. If it hit and they were in the main part of the station, they'd have only 10 minutes of safety, Mission Control told them. A hole in the space station could mean loss of air, loss of pressure and eventual loss of life.

Sat, 14 Mar 09
Obama's CIO Takes Leave After FBI Raids Former Office
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66489.html
An aide to President Barack Obama is on leave from his White House job after the FBI raided his old District of Columbia government office Thursday, arresting a city employee and a technology consultant on corruption charges, a White House official said. The charges were lodged against the two men at a federal court hearing as the FBI finished searching the city's technology office, which was led until recently by Obama's new computer chief, Vivek Kundra. Kundra is on leave from his White House job until further details of the case become known, according to a White House official.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Super-Fast Rechargeable Battery Slurps Up Power
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66481.html
Massachusetts Institute of Technology has electrifying news, if you'll pardon the pun -- engineers at the institute have come up with a way to speed up the charging and discharging of lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion, or Li-Ion, batteries are the ones you'll see in your laptop, cell phone and other electronic devices, as well as electric cars. They take a long time to charge, and Gerbrand Ceder, the Richard P. Simmons Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the institute, found out why.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Has Google Got Your Tongue?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66479.html
Example No. 2,351 that it's a Google world and we're all just living in it: The search giant announced late Wednesday a slow rollout of Google Voice, the company's first attempt at unified communications. But Google Voice could also serve as a clarion call that a different kind of competitor may have arrived for UC providers such as Microsoft and Cisco Systems. "The new application improves the way you use your phone," wrote product managers Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet and Wesley Chan on the Official Google Blog.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Mobile Connectivity at 30,000 Feet: More Than Fun and Games
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66465.html
Mobile communications on an aircraft are more than air-to-ground interactions that take place in the cockpit. Today, passengers can use their mobile devices at cruising altitude in an aircraft to call, text and email colleagues, friends and family, just as if they were on the ground. In the future, real-time connectivity will offer passengers the opportunity to plan their travels en-route, and give airlines a way to improve their customer service while increasing ancillary revenues and reducing costs.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Hot Tempers and Cool Tips for Linux Geeks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66466.html
It seems a fair statement to say that we here in the FOSS community are well-accustomed to ridicule. That, after all, is a cross one must often bear when walking a righteous path outside the mainstream -- as has been aptly demonstrated, we might add, in countless examples throughout the annals of time. But for one of us to get assaulted simply because he is a Linux advocate? That is far beyond the bounds of what we can be expected to endure. Sure enough, though, that's just what happened not long ago to none other than the Helios Project's own Ken Starks.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Spy Tracking Device: There They Are, but Why Did I Give Them My Phone?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66433.html
Let's start out by getting one thing straight: I have no desire or need to covertly track anyone. I'm not a stalker, secret agent, snoop, mole, private eye, suspicious husband, creep or Jack Bauer wannabe. But any time I see an iPhone app that offers to turn my phone into some kind of James Bond gear, curiosity compels me to try it out. A search for "spy" in the App Store yielded an application called "Spy Tracking Device" from Scoutic. Basically, it turns your iPhone into a tracker that reports its movements to Google Maps.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Feds Promise More Transparency in Reporting Neighborhood Toxins
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66477.html
The head of the federal agency responsible for warning people about health effects of toxic pollution in their neighborhoods responded to complaints Thursday at a hearing in Washington by saying he's improving the agency's approach to investigating hazards and how the risks are explained. Under criticism from Congress and the public, the director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry says he is taking advantage of advances in chemical science and technology and reviewing the agency's mission and problems with its performance.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
Valve Vexation Halts Discovery Launch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66473.html
Hit by more valve trouble, NASA postponed the launch of space shuttle Discovery just hours before it was to head to the international space station Wednesday because of a hydrogen gas leak. The potentially catastrophic leak was in a different part of the system that already had caused a vexing one-month delay. Shuttle managers put off the launch until at least Sunday and indicated that Monday might be more likely. The latest delay means Discovery's two-week flight must be shortened and some spacewalks cut out of the mission.

Fri, 13 Mar 09
N. Korea Satellite Launch Announcement Spurs Debate Over Motives
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66472.html
North Korea, long known to obscure its ballistic missile tests behind claims of space rocket launches, may well try to fire a satellite into orbit later this month, according to top U.S. intelligence officials. "The North Koreans announced that they were going to do a space launch, and I believe that that's what they intend," National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this week. "I could be wrong, but that would be my estimate."

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Symantec Bungle Unleashes Torrent of Spam, Confusion
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66463.html
Like cats and mice, security product vendors and cyber-criminals do not care much for each other. Over the past 24 hours, however, cyber-criminals may have just about fallen in love with Symantec, which made a mistake that let crooks launch a flood of malware on the Internet. It all began when Symantec issued a diagnostic patch, PIFTS.exe, that was not digitally signed. This triggered firewall alerts and queries from puzzled and frightened users to the Symantec forum. Symantec began deleting posts on the forum, and users began accusing it of censorship and coming up with conspiracy theories.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Easeus Partition Master: A Steady Tool for a Shaky Job
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66443.html
Messing around with the hard drive's structure is high on my list of the most unpleasant things to do with a computer. However, my basic do-it-myself credo is to never pay a computer shop guy to do what I can handle myself. My corollary to that philosophy is to never pay for software you can get for free. With hard drive partitioning, the issue is less a question of paid versus free. It really comes down to the quality of the tools. But beware, drive partitioning tools -- paid or free-- run the gamut from good to terrible.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
iPod Shuffle Now Available in Pill Form
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66462.html
Apple has introduced a new, tinier version of its iPod shuffle -- the lowest-end product in its popular music player line. Previous versions have been bare bones in terms of features and capacity, but their form factors have always been unmistakable Apple designs. The latest shuffle is tricked out with a 4-gigabyte capacity that accommodates up to 1,000 songs. That's twice as large as previous generations of the shuffle, although this model is just half its size.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
MIT Prof. Nabs Turing Award for Computer Language Innovations
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66457.html
A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor won the $250,000 Turing Award, one of the most prestigious honors in computing, for helping to make computer programs more reliable, secure and easy to use. Only the second woman to win the prize, Barbara Liskov was honored Tuesday for pioneering new designs in computer languages that gird everyday digital applications. "Her exceptional achievements have leapt from the halls of academia to transform daily life around the world," MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif said.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Filmmaker to Pop Camera Into Eye Socket for Documentary Project
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66453.html
A one-eyed documentary filmmaker is preparing to work with a video camera concealed inside a prosthetic eye, hoping to secretly record people for a project commenting on the global spread of surveillance cameras. Canadian Rob Spence's eye was damaged in a childhood shooting accident and it was removed three years ago. Now he is in the final stages of developing a camera to turn the handicap into an advantage. A fan of the 1970s televsion series "The Six Million Dollar Man," Spence said he had an epiphany when looking at his cell phone camera.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Teaching Robot Scolds Unruly Students
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66458.html
Japan's robot teacher calls roll, smiles and scolds, drawing laughter from students with her eerily lifelike face. But the developer says it's not about to replace human instructors. Unlike more mechanical-looking robots like Honda's Asimo, the robot teacher, called "Saya," can express six basic emotions -- surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, sadness -- because its rubber skin is being pulled from the back with motors and wiring around the eyes and the mouth. In a demonstration, the robot's mouth popped open, its eyes widened and eyebrows arched to appear surprised.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Phoenix Report Spurs Debate Over Water Splashing on Mars
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66454.html
Did NASA's Phoenix Mars lander find evidence of liquid water before it froze to death? Some scientists think so. In a provocative new paper, 22 members of the mission argue that droplets seen on Phoenix's leg were from liquid water that splashed during landing. Scientists propose that the perchlorate salts near the landing site acted as an antifreeze by lowering the freezing point of ice, causing it to melt into a salty liquid. When Phoenix landed in the arctic plains, some of that liquid splashed onto its leg, they said.

Thu, 12 Mar 09
Band Turns to MySpace to Block Parole for Guitarist's Killer
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66455.html
A Cleveland heavy-metal band has turned to an online audience to fight the parole of the man who killed one of its guitarists in 1988, the latest use of Internet petitions to attempt to influence parole boards. The Ohio parole board said Tuesday it would consider online petitions filed in the case of Robert Bedzyk, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing Destructor guitarist Dave Iannicca. But one Internet expert said such drives can overstate the backing for an issue because of easy accessibility.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Social Networking Leaves Email in the Dust - Sort Of
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66446.html
Social networking and blogging are now more popular online activities than using email, according to a new report by the Nielsen Co. The member community category -- which includes both social networks and blogs -- is growing as fast as the four other online sectors in the top five: search, portals, PC software and email. Visitors to these communities comprise two-thirds of the global online population, Nielsen said. One of the reasons for the medium's popularity is its efficiency in communication.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Dell Rolls Out Laptop for the Hard-Hat Set
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66447.html
It certainly meets the Tom Clancy High-Tech Battlefield Seal of Approval, but it also hopes to take advantage of new stimulus-package spending that should result in new construction projects nationwide. These are the potential markets Dell is targeting with its new XFR E6400 Latitude rugged laptop computer. "It is engineered to meet the needs of even the most demanding customers in the harshest environments such as the military, first responders, field service technicians and those who require systems that meet 13 military specifications.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Kindle on iPhone: A Great Read Despite the Missing Pieces
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66426.html
Amazon.com has received a lot of attention and respectable sales for its Kindle e-book reader, but it's hardly made a dent in the hardcover armor of the old-fashioned paper book. Last Wednesday, the Internet company revealed another prong of its strategy in making its gigantic e-book library available on a device already in millions of hands: the iPhone. This is a big step for e-books, which have lingered outside the mainstream for nearly two decades even as digital media have conquered music and film distribution.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Zooming In on the Right Digital SLR Camera
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66432.html
You are ready to purchase your dream SLR digital camera, and like most people, you are unsure where to start. If you want to maximize your fun and creativity, capturing images that will make your family, your friends, and yourself proud, it is crucial you conduct the proper research before making the investment. You are thinking about comparing hundreds of online product reviews, but you know that may very well become tiring and ultimately be unhelpful. You must first have a good understanding of how your hobbies or profession relate to your photography needs.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Where's Got Everything You Need Right There
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66425.html
Where aggregates content from a variety of content providers, and they're all location-based. Need a fill-up, or a cup of coffee, or maybe a quick dozen roses? No problem. The main page is a grid of icons. There's one for Yelp, which brings up a list of Yelp categories such as restaurants, home services and shopping. You can select a category to browse the listings of nearby businesses or search via the search bar at the top. The main page also has a weather icon, which offers weather-related content from AccuWeather.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
House Cuts Emissions but Drops 'Carbon Neutral' Promise
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66442.html
It was a bold promise: The House would "lead by example" to fight global warming, becoming the first legislative body in the world to zero out its carbon impact on the planet. Too bold, perhaps. The House quietly shelved the idea late last month, the word delivered in an email to a couple of reporters. It turned out that the House's goal to become carbon neutral -- by removing as much carbon dioxide from the air as it releases -- could not be guaranteed.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
NASA Sees Clear Skies for Wednesday's Discovery Launch
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66439.html
After suffering through a month's delay, NASA enjoyed a trouble-free countdown for space shuttle Discovery, all set to blast off on a space station construction mission Wednesday night. Launch director Mike Leinbach said Monday that the countdown was going smoothly, and forecasters put the odds of good launching weather at 90 percent. "The team is anxious to go," he said. Shuttle managers had so little to discuss at Monday morning's launch review at that they wrapped up in under an hour.

Wed, 11 Mar 09
Electronic Health Record Stimulus Funds May Fall Short
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66438.html
Billions of stimulus dollars meant to spur doctors to switch to electronic record-keeping may not be enough to do the job, a private consulting firm said Monday. The stimulus bill that President Barack Obama signed last month contained S$19 billion for health information technology, including $17 billion for incentives and penalties to encourage doctors and hospitals to abandon paper record-keeping and go high-tech beginning in 2011. However, the high cost of installing electronic records systems could outweigh the incentives and penalties for failing to comply.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
Political Turf Wars Drive Out US Cybersecurity Chief
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66431.html
The revolving door at the Department of Homeland Security's National Cybersecurity Center continues to spin at warp speed, with the announcement late last week that yet another U.S. cybersecurity czar is leaving the agency. Rod Beckstrom, who became NCC director a year ago, complained in his resignation letter about interference with his duties coming from the National Security Agency. Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, also said his agency suffered from a lack of funding as it tried to coordinate efforts to protect the nation's information infrastructure.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
So You Want to Be a Game Designer, Part 1
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66418.html
In the tech industry, there are few careers with a cool factor equal to the title "game developer." For a whole host of gamers, making a living out of creating video games is akin to finding the holy grail, winning the lottery or becoming a renowned actor or musician. For their legions of fans, the best game designers are nothing short of rock stars. While very few attain the personal success and following of someone like Will Wright, creator of "The Sims" and "Spore," the career offers opportunities to help create something that could possibly be played by millions of people.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
What Amazon and HP Are Now Learning From Apple
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66417.html
One of the things that fascinates me is how large companies, when given an "in your face" example from a competitor, more often than not ignore it. For instance, Apple is one of the few companies that designs marketing into their products, out-executes the industry in marketing, and enjoys the highest segment margins and generally the highest growth rates, yet few seem to make the connection. Amazon and HP are two of the few companies that are taking a page directly out of Apple's book -- Palm with the Palm Pre is another -- and benefiting from it.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
FileMaker: Databases Done Apple Style
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66419.html
In today's world of slick smartphones and information on the go, the database business just isn't that sexy. It doesn't have to be that way, though, and FileMaker, a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple, has created an application that allows users to create Web pages easily viewable on the popular iPhone. The application, which is built into FileMaker Server -- the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company's enterprise database product -- is ideal for mobile workers.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
The Mystery Deepens: Sinister Views on the TomTom Case
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66420.html
When we wrote about the Microsoft-TomTom lawsuit a week ago, we thought we had pretty much covered the spectrum of perspectives flying around the blogosphere. But then Jeremy Allison, a leader of the Samba project, posted a comment on Glyn Moody's original Open... post that seems to have changed everything. "What people are missing about this is the either/or choice that Microsoft is giving TomTom," Allison began. "It isn't a case of cross-license and everything is ok."

Tue, 10 Mar 09
Accused Palin Email Hacker Fights 3 New Criminal Charges
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66434.html
A University of Tennessee student charged with hacking into the personal e-mail account of Sarah Palin, the Alaska governor and former Republican vice presidential nominee, pleaded not guilty Monday to three more charges in the case. A magistrate agreed to push back the trial of David Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee legislator, from May to October. Kernell allegedly gained access to Palin's account in September by correctly answering a series of personal security questions.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
Obama Reverses Bush Direction on Stem Cell Funding
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66424.html
President Barack Obama is allowing federal taxpayer dollars to fund embryonic stem cell research, the latest reversal of his predecessor's policies. The president, who plans to sign an order later Monday, will be fulfilling a campaign promise that could set in motion a broad push on research to find better treatment for ailments from diabetes to paralysis. Proponents such as former first lady Nancy Reagan and the late actor Christopher Reeve had called for ending restrictions on research spending.

Tue, 10 Mar 09
Microsoft Installs IE Shut-Off Valve in Windows 7
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66423.html
A single check box deep in the guts of the next version of Windows is giving Microsoft watchers a peek at how the software maker plans to keep European antitrust regulators from marring a crucial software launch. Windows 7, the successor to the much-maligned Vista, isn't expected to reach consumers until next year, but more than a million people are already testing early versions. A pair of bloggers tinkering with settings stumbled upon one they hadn't seen before: The ability to "turn off" Microsoft's own Internet Explorer browser.

Mon, 9 Mar 09
Afghanistan's Tech Boom
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66381.html
Mullah Abdul Salaam Zaeef is a former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan. He spent almost four years in Guantanamo. He wears a black turban, has a thick beard -- and is never without his Apple iPhone. The ultra-conservative Taliban banned modern technology like the Internet and TV during its harsh 1996-2001 rule, but those items have boomed in Afghanistan since the regime's 2001 ouster, helping to bring the country into the 21st century. Zaeef says he uses his iPhone to surf the Internet and find difficult locations.

Sun, 8 Mar 09
The Worm Returns: Protecting Yourself From Conficker
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66403.html
In 2008, researchers were touting the defeat of the Storm worm -- the most notorious example of the malware category that self-propagates through remote exploits, email, network shares, removable drives, file-sharing or instant messaging applications. Some would argue that despite the name, Storm was not a traditional worm at all, since it required a human-computer interaction to spread. Last year saw only two worms in the 20 most prevalent malware families, with trojans becoming the outright leader of malware categories.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
Report: Firefox Security Superiority a Myth
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66416.html
Secunia has debunked a myth held dear by Linux devotees and anti-Microsoft grousers: that Firefox is safer than Internet Explorer. There were 115 reported security vulnerabilities in Firefox last year -- almost twice as many as Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari browser combined, according to a new report by the security researcher. Firefox did surpass IE in one respect, though. Mozilla was much faster at repairing bugs once they were reported or discovered than Microsoft was.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
Digitally Fueled Rants Kill Objectivity, User Trust
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66396.html
Reuters reports that one in five U.S. mortgages are underwater; the people paying them owe more than their house is worth. The real flood, however, is swamping the Internet, where gloomy financial news headlines and the antics of TV-based business reporters threaten to inundate your typical Web surfer. Financial news that now travels at the speed of fright, thanks to the Web, was much easier to digest and much happier during my time at CNBC. Ten years ago this month, I was a tech reporter at the network's Fort Lee, N.J., headquarters, watching the Dow smash through the 10,000 mark.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
Can the Obama Administration Spare Some Real Change?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66387.html
The Obama administration is ushering in a new era of big government, higher taxes and more spending, to an extent that even supporters are worried. The tech-savvy president should consider recent suggestions from the technology and science sector, such as the idea that not all problems can be solved by simply throwing money at them. The National Cancer Institute is poised to receive a windfall of cash from the $10 billion being directed to the National Institutes of Health.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
Mac Bloggers Mentally Dissect Latest Desktops
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66402.html
Apple's desktop Mac update dominated the conversation in the Apple blogosphere this week. The company put out two press releases and updated its online store with little fanfare, but it was enough to spark posts galore. Meanwhile, might Apple's iPhone Safari mobile browser share be slipping? With its new desktop Macs, Apple basically kept the form factors for its iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro the same. All systems picked up new processors, and most units got updated graphics, frontside bus boosts, and more RAM, along with bigger hard drives and/or upgrade options.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
FOSS Debates, Part 1: Kernel Truths
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66401.html
The free and open source software community is known for many things, but perhaps none more than its propensity for passionate debate. No topic is too small for the community's spirited analysis, so it should come as no surprise that the Linux kernel -- one of the most central elements of the FOSS world -- figures so frequently and so prominently. Indeed, ever since Linux inventor Linus Torvalds released the first version of the Linux kernel back in 1991, it has been the topic of regular discussion, debate and downright dispute.

Sat, 7 Mar 09
NASA Set to Launch Kepler Planet Hunter
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66404.html
NASA will soon be on the lookout for possible Earths in one faraway corner of the galaxy. A planet-hunting spacecraft, named "Kepler" after the German 17th-century astrophysicist, is scheduled to rocket away from Cape Canaveral, Fla., late Friday night. Excellent launch weather is forecast. The telescope will spend 3 1/2 years staring at roughly 100,000 stars, measuring their brightness and any winks in the light that might signify orbiting planets.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Windows Opens Vista SP2 Release Candidate to the Masses
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66400.html
Microsoft announced on Wednesday the availability of the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Release Candidate for the general public. The software was initially put on limited release a week ago to the company's TechNet and MSDN subscribers. The announcement means that anyone interested in testing the penultimate version before the final release of the service pack can download it now. "If they want to do some testing, that's fine, especially if they're doing app development," Michael Silver, an analyst at Gartner told TechNewsWorld.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Facebook Redesigns to Steal Twitter's Tweet Heat
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66399.html
Facebook is revamping its Web site with several new features that give users more information about their networks in real time. The changes have been widely compared to the updates people send and get via microblogging site Twitter, which Facebook apparently now views as one of its competitors. The new site allows friends' posts to be streamed in real time. Changes you make are updated instantly on friends' home pages as well, which are now called "profiles." Other changes gives users more control over what they see.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
How to Build a Small-Business Web Site, Part 7: Analyze to Optimize
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66369.html
With budgets getting tighter than ever, small-business owners have to make the best use of every penny they can to stay ahead of the game. While you might think you have a first-class Web site that seems to be attracting lots of visitors, how do you really know if it's working? Is it delivering the results you want -- or is it just window dressing? Is it generating qualified leads or sales, or attracting curiosity seekers with no serious interest in your service or product? Even the best-looking Web sites could use a little help.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Clamping Down on Enterprise Wireless Expenses
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66348.html
As mobile services become increasingly complicated and businesses look to find extra money, there is a technological solution that can offer companies peace-of-mind. The solution is known simply as wireless expense management, which has allowed some companies to save upwards of $5 million in their yearly wireless expenses by making wireless bills less cumbersome. WEM solutions take the enigma that exists through a corporate wireless program and tries to make sense of it all.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
'My First Time' Posts and Other Linux Marketing Problems
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66386.html
In our ongoing quest to bring readers all the FOSS news that's fit to print -- with the occasional addition, perhaps, of some that isn't -- we here at LinuxInsider are always suckers for a good contest. And so we're delighted to spread the word about a contest that recently made the news on Slashdot -- involving $200,000 in cash prizes, no less! The contest comes from Ubiquiti Networks, and it's to design "the most impressive User Interface/Firmware for Ubiquiti's newly released open-source embedded wireless platform, the RouterStation."

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Memory Stick Gets Files Here to There, but Don't Dump the Thumb Drive
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66371.html
An iPhone puts up to 16 GB of storage in your pocket, but you can't exactly use that space to store whatever data you want straight out of the box. Want to load it with photos? Fine, but they'll have to be properly formatted. Videos? Again, a format issue. But what if you just want to dump a bunch of junk in the trunk? What if you just want to use the iPhone's space to store your data so you can transfer it to another computer, regardless of what kind of weird, off-the-wall formats that data is captured in? An app called Memory Stick aims to do just that.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Investigation Raises Concern About Train Crew Cell Phone Use
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66395.html
The numerous safety violations that contributed to a deadly train crash in California last year have some federal officials asking whether the crash was an isolated incident or part of a more widespread problem, particularly with cell phone use by crew members. A National Transportation Safety Board panel held a second day of hearings Wednesday concerning the crash that killed 25 people and injured at least 130. The crash occurred when a Metrolink passenger train failed to heed a red traffic signal and ended up on the same shared track with a Union Pacific freight train, officials said.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Beatles, MTV Work It Out, Plan 'Rock Band' Game
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66393.html
"Rock Band" is getting the perhaps greatest rock group of all time: The Beatles. The Beatles' management said Thursday that a Beatles version of the "Rock Band" video game will debut Sept. 9. In addition, they'll sell accompanying instruments modeled after the ones used by the band. This is the first time "Rock Band" has based a game on one group, according to MTV Games. It has not yet been determined what Beatles songs will be included in the edition, available for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Wii video game consoles.

Fri, 6 Mar 09
Wallop-Packing Asteroid Buzzes Earth at 49,000 Miles
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66391.html
An asteroid about the size of one that leveled more than 800 square miles of forest in Siberia a century ago just buzzed the Earth. The asteroid named "2009 DD45" was about 48,800 miles from Earth when it zipped past early Monday, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported. That is just twice as high as the orbits of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon. "This was pretty darn close," astronomer Timothy Spahr of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said Wednesday.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
Social Disease: Worm Writhes Its Way Through Facebook
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66384.html
Facebook has apparently become a choice distribution channel for several malicious applications and a new variant of a pernicious piece of malware originally detected in 2008. The popular social networking site has been hit by at least three separate security issues in the last week -- two phony applications and the latest variety of the Koobface worm, according to a report issued Monday by security research firm Trend Micro. Rik Ferguson, a security researcher at Trend Micro, first noticed the Koobface threat after he received a message via Facebook from a friend.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
Virtualization Can Bulletproof Disaster Recovery Plans
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66365.html
When it comes to disasters, companies have two choices: Be prepared, or be prepared to fail. Unfortunately, disasters are not a matter of if. They're a matter of when. Many people think of major disasters that hit the national news, but there are other types of events that can result in a Total Building Loss disaster such as fires, floods, tornadoes and robberies. According to a study by McGladrey and Pullen, every year, one out of 500 data centers will experience a severe disaster. That same study reveals that a full 43 percent of companies who experience a significant disaster never re-open.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
Cleaning Out the Closet: What to Do With Those Worn-Out Legacy Systems
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66355.html
Many large enterprises still run critical applications on legacy Linux and Unix platforms. Much like the fabled Energizer Bunny, these old computing OSes keep going and going and going. Some of these are not even in production any more. Upgrading these systems is no simple matter, partly because the organizations using them cannot simply turn off servers containing customer or financial data. Still, ever-increasing regulatory agency edicts to safeguard customer data often require some level of retrofitting to remain compliant.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
Textual Harassment: Cell Phones Open New Avenues for Stalkers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66380.html
The college student had endured months of online and cell phone harassment from her ex-boyfriend. She ignored the barrage of e-mails, changed her phone number and dismantled online profiles to cut him off. Then one evening, her cell phone signaled a new text message. It was him again. "You should keep to yourself and stay away from other people," the message said, according to the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared for her safety. Her ex had found her photo online and attached it.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
DirecTV Joins Push for Premium Online TV
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66376.html
DirecTV said Tuesday that it's open to giving subscribers exclusive online access to television shows such as HBO's "Entourage" that are normally not available for free over the Internet, agreeing with a growing consortium of cable companies and networks. Web content should be an extension of a customer's satellite TV viewing experience, not a competing platform, Chief Executive Chase Carey said at the Deutsche Bank Securities Media and Telecommunications Conference. The rising popularity of online video should be embraced instead of rejected, he said.

Thu, 5 Mar 09
Italian Bishops Call for Tech Lent
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66375.html
Roman Catholic bishops in Italy are urging the faithful to go on a high-tech fast for Lent, switching off modern appliances from cars to MP3 players and abstaining from surfing the Web or text messaging until Easter. The suggestion gives a modern twist to traditional forms of abstinence in the period Christians set aside for fasting and prayer ahead of Easter. And it shows the Church's increasing focus on the use of technology as well as its perceived abuses.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Will Microsoft's Kumo Bring New Visual Dimension to Search?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66366.html
Microsoft has tipped its hand, perhaps intentionally, with the leak of screenshots revealing Kumo -- the renamed, revamped version of its Live Search. The screenshots were accompanied by a memo penned by search executive Satya Nadella, asking Microsoft employees for feedback. The new search engine appears to be slated for release in the second part of this year. The layout of the Kumo page is simple: ads relating to the search on the right, images on top and search results dominating the page. The search results are organized into categories.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
How to Use the Web to Track Government Goings-On
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66357.html
The expression, "Inside the Beltway" is often used in a pejorative sense -- as a vague insult referring to an amorphous group of politicians, policy wonks, nonprofits and think tanks. Given what's currently happening on Capitol Hill and Pennsylvania Ave. -- the still-smoking $787 billion stimulus law; the brewing controversy over an upcoming healthcare initiative; an outright war between Democrats and Republicans over the Obama administration's budget proposal -- it's not just the usual political hacks who are interested in what is happening in D.C.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Startup's Shape-Shifting Linux Netbook Boasts 15 Hours of Run Time
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66349.html
There appears to be a new netbook maker on the block. Always Innovating has announced a new touchscreen netbook that purports to offer users four devices in one. The new Touch Book from the Menlo Park, Calif.-based startup weighs in at less than two pounds with an 8.9-inch screen and has a battery life roughly three times longer than most netbooks, according to the company. The device features a tablet screen with a 3-D touchscreen interface as well as an optional detachable keyboard. It comes preloaded with a customized Linux operating system.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Apple Re-Guts Desktops Large and Small
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66364.html
Apple has updated its online store and announced new desktop Macs, including a refreshed all-in-one iMac, a new Mac mini, and a revamped professional-grade Mac Pro. Overall, the updates include faster processors, more RAM, bigger hard drives and new graphics processors. The new iMac line starts with the 20-inch desktop for $1,199 with a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2 GB of 1,066 MHz DDR3 memory, a 320 GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7,200 rpm, and Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated graphics, which is the base graphics processor that has already been available in the MacBook.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
iPhone Apps You Won't Find on Apple's Store Shelves
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66356.html
Let's say you want to trick out your iPhone skin with some really cool new icons, but you can't find anything that interests you at the iPhone App Store. Are you out of luck? You might be. That is, unless you're willing to go a few extra steps and take a few risks, one of which might be destroying what -- in this economy -- is a fairly expensive piece of communications equipment. Ever heard of jailbreaking your iPhone? It's not very difficult these days.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
TeeDroid Caddy Does Everything but Carry Your Clubs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66342.html
There are as many dedicated gadgets out there for golf range finding as there are gadget makers. Since I only play golf a couple of times a year, it doesn't really make sense for me to buy a $200 range finder. TeeDroid Caddy, which costs less than 20 bucks for an annual subscription and resides on my phone -- which I carry with me anyway -- is just a better bargain. As noted above, there are versions for BlackBerry and iPhone as well. If they both work as well as the Android version, this application should do very well.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Digital Switch a Step Back for Some TV Viewers
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66363.html
Harry Vanderpool, a beekeeper, lives on a hill nearly 1,000 feet above the Willamette River, outside Salem, Ore. It should be a good spot for TV reception, and it used to be. But now that analog signals are disappearing, leaving only digital ones, he may be losing all his channels. "When you listen to the advertisements, it's 'Oh, all you have to do is get this little digital converter box and hook it up,'" Vanderpool said. "Well, we get nothing. Zero signal strength."

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Presidential Helicopter Specs End Up in Iran via P2P
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66359.html
The Navy is investigating how an unauthorized user in Iran gained online access to blueprints and other information about a helicopter in President Barack Obama's fleet. Employees at data monitoring firm Tiversa last week discovered that potentially sensitive information about the helicopter had been viewed by a "malicious" source in Iran, company spokesperson Scott Harrer said Monday. Tiversa late last year notified a Bethesda, Md.-based defense contractor that there was an "open window" in their network leaking information about the helicopter.

Wed, 4 Mar 09
Musicians Tune Up for 1st YouTube Symphony Orchestra
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66358.html
The auditions are over. The first YouTube Symphony Orchestra -- selected by viewers of the Web site -- will consist of more than 90 musicians from some 30 countries. More than 3,000 videos were submitted by amateur and professional musicians from 70-plus countries. Musicians from professional orchestras including the London and San Francisco symphonies and the Berlin, Hong Kong and New York philharmonic orchestras picked 200 finalists. The winners were then selected by voters on YouTube.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
Samsung Crams SLR Soul Into Little Camera Body
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66346.html
Getting a head start on the PMA '09 photography conference, which officially kicks off in Las Vegas Tuesday, Samsung has announced a new so-called hybrid digital camera. The new camera, the NX Series, is designed to provide the photo quality of large pro and prosumer DSLR cameras in the body of a small point-and-shoot. It seems simple enough, but there's more to it than just attaching a big lens on a small camera body. Like conventional DSLRs, NX Series cameras use an APS-C sized image sensor, which provides a large surface area for gathering light, according to Samsung.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
The CIO's Place in the Cloud
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66337.html
Occasionally when some new and disruptive technology comes on the market, my friends and colleagues phone me up to ask, "How is this new technology going to change your world?" They know I will feign indifference and my comeback will be that CIO means "career is over!" The secret answer is, innovation is what makes this role fun, and new and disruptive technologies do not really change the CIO role, they just alter your planning. The fact is that the role of the CIO is really about being an effective executive and a sound investment manager for technology choices made for the company.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
What Tech Firms Could Teach Obama
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66321.html
A few weeks ago I compared the Obama Stimulus package to what Intel was doing to prepare for the future, and I didn't find out until later that the people at Intel were following advice that Andy Grove, their most famous CEO, had given years ago. That advice was that companies that try to save out of a recession generally fail; you have to invest in your future if you want to survive. Looking at Obama's future, I think assuring he is successful is in all our best interests at the moment.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
Microsoft vs. TomTom: Low-Level Hum or Drums of War?
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66338.html
Those in the Linux community tend to pay fairly close attention to any news relating to Microsoft, but when that news includes a lawsuit involving our favorite operating system, all eyes, ears and keyboards become trained on Redmond. Yes indeed, traveling across the blogosphere in the past few days since Microsoft announced its suit against TomTom, it was almost difficult to find discussion of anything else. "Has Microsoft's patent war against Linux begun?" was the title of the Open... post that kicked off the conversation on Slashdot.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
Health Officials Cool to Trendy New E-Cigs
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66345.html
With its slim white body and glowing amber tip, it can easily pass as a regular cigarette. It even emits what look like curlicues of white smoke. The Ruyan V8, which produces a nicotine-infused mist absorbed directly into the lungs, is just one of a rapidly growing array of electronic cigarettes attracting the scrutiny of world health officials. Marketed as a healthier alternative to smoking and a potential way to kick the habit, the smokeless smokes have been distributed in swag bags at the British film awards and hawked at an international trade show.

Tue, 3 Mar 09
IT Report: World Going Wireless, Digital Divide Persists
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66344.html
Six in ten people around the world now have cell phone subscriptions, signaling that mobile phones are the communications technology of choice, particularly in poor countries, according to a U.N. report published Monday. By the end of last year there were an estimated 4.1 billion subscriptions globally, compared with about 1 billion in 2002, the International Telecommunication Union said. Fixed line subscriptions increased at a much slower pace to 1.27 billion from about 1 billion over the same period.

Mon, 2 Mar 09
The Future Visits Redmond
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66331.html
When Microsoft researchers think about the consumer technologies of the future, some of the physical touchstones of today, like sticky notes and souvenirs, take on digital form. Researchers from all over the world converged on Microsoft's main campus Tuesday to show off their latest projects in a hall set up like a school science fair. All the programs and gadgets on display were works in progress, and only some will make it into real-world technology. But even as the software maker tightens its belt, it has pledged to continue spending money on research that doesn't neatly translate into profits.

Sun, 1 Mar 09
The Thief and the Sidekick: A Hot Phone for Crooks
http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/66340.html
Nisha Taylor was just about to put her beloved T-Mobile Sidekick in her bag. She thought the cell phone would be safer there than in her pocket. In the few seconds it took for the 18-year-old to unwind the string loop that held the Sidekick to her wrist, someone else eyed the device and made off with it. "He just runs and he hits the phone," Taylor said. "The string pops. The phone goes up in the air. He catches it and he runs." Although the Sidekicks aren't among the country's best-selling phones, they might be the most stolen ones.

 

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