InformationWeek: The Business Value of Technology

NASA, Microsoft Reveal Mars In Pictures

As Earth's closest neighbor and with an atmosphere more similar to Earth's than any other planet in the solar system, Mars has long been a subject of great interest to astronomers and the public. NASA began exploring Mars with unmanned spacecraft in the 1970s, and the space agency hopes to eventually send a human to the Red Planet. In March 2009, NASA and Microsoft partnered under a Space Act Agreement to make images of Mars and other planets available through Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope, an online "virtual telescope." When viewed through Worldwide Telescope, users can study the surface of Mars in detail, while zooming in and out and panning its surface.

How Firesheep Can Hijack Web Sessions

Firesheep is a Firefox extension used to hijack web sessions, usually used over WiFi networks. Firesheep doesn't steal usernames and passwords, instead it copies session cookies used on authenticated websites. These are then used to impersonate the hijacked connection. Session hijacking, or sidejacking is a well known problem, ranking 3rd on OWASP's (Open Web Application Security Project) Top 10 Application Security Risk list. Attackers using Firesheep just need access to network traffic -- such as on an unencrypted WiFi network, or with a man-in-the-middle attack. Here's how it's done.

Zeo Personal Sleep Coach

Technology's pervasiveness doesn't stop at the bedroom. The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach combines wireless, the Web, and an intelligent design to bring sleep data and therapy to the masses.

Samsung Galaxy Tab Teardown

When Apple introduced the iPad, many were probably disappointed to learn that it would run the same operating system found on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices. "Isn't the iPad just a big iPhone?" people wondered. Samsung has a similar problem to overcome with the Galaxy Tab. Isn't the Tab, which runs Google's Android 2.2 Froyo operating system (the same one found on nearly a dozen smartphones), really just a big Android phone? The answer is yes and no. In this slideshow, we take a look under the hood courtesy of UBM TechInsights, which provides a teardown of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, revealing all of the major components, including the processor, the camera module and more.

12 Best Government Websites

Easy access to government online has gone from being nice-to-have to being necessary in the "open government" era, with many government websites taking advantage of modern designs and technologies to help do the trick. All too often, local, state and federal governments and government agencies do far too little to reach out to citizens on the web. Many governments and agencies are stuck in the 1990s era of tacky animated images, an over-abundance of white space, and confusing arrays of links. However, there are also plenty of agencies that stick out, with designs nearly or every bit as modern and enticing as one might expect from top corporations and Web 2.0 companies. These are some of the best.

Best Mobile Apps For Busy Professionals

Today's smartphones have led to the development of hundreds of thousands of mobile apps. Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry and phones based on Google's Android all have access to extensive libraries of apps that you can download and install for our increasingly mobile world. When you're always on the go, having the right smartphone app makes it easy to transition from business to pleasure and back again without skipping a beat so you can get the most out of every minute. Here we pick 17 of the best apps for pros on the go -- steering clear of the silly and the stupid -- to help you manage your mobile lifestyle.

Inside DHS' Classified Cyber Coordination Headquarters

The Department of Homeland Security recently brought its classified National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center down to an unclassified level for one day only, and InformationWeek Government was there to take photos. The facility looks and functions like a state-of-the-art network operations center and much more. The NCCIC, as it's called, is the locus of DHS-led inter-agency cybersecurity work in the federal government. That includes providing an integrated response to cyber threats against government networks, monitoring network sensors across the government and coordinating any requested government aid and response to cyber attacks against private industry networks like power plants or communications networks.

Cisco Umi Takes Telepresence To The Home

Cisco has spent the past four years pounding "telepresence" into the brains of business and IT professionals, and now it has introduced Umi, a full telepresence solution for the home. From Umi, you can have video chats with other Umi users (or, it supports Google Video chat), leave video messages and upload video to share with your Umi contacts.

Best Bluetooth Headsets For Business

Bluetooth headsets eliminate clumsy wires, boost productivity and, with more states requiring hands-free devices in vehicles, have become required equipment for businesspeople on the go. Vendors offer a dizzying array of headsets, differentiated by price, battery-life, weight and clarity. Many of today's headsets are multipoint, allowing use for both desktop and mobile phones. Developers also look to separate themselves from their competition through software or hardware design elements designed to reduce ambient sound and improve sound quality. In addition, Bluetooth headsets must be somewhat rugged to withstand long hours of usage and frequent removal and replacement. We culled through the thicket of features, noise-cancelling technologies and battery-life claims to find 13 of the best models for business.

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15 Budget Busting Technology Projects

Large-scale information technology projects can balloon to inconceivable figures very quickly with endless revisions, change orders and delays pushing budgets into the stratosphere. Sometimes the cost of an IT project can be measured simply in dollars, but just as often these projects costly in other ways -- in reputation, for example. With government projects, it's easy to look at the budget and see how much it costs -- or at least how much it's supposed to cost. In the private sector, it's not as clear cut: often the people working on a specific project are employees of the company anyway, so you can't really measure the cost of the project in just dollars and cents. Many of the projects and products here the $100 million barrier; others are harder to put a figure on yet have to be considered "expensive" by any measure. Regardless of how you quantify it, these 15 projects cost their organizations a bundle.

Top 12 PC Games Of All Time

With a click of the mouse, gamers can transport themselves into futuristic worlds, realistic battle scenes and a virtual life of organized crime. Although there they face extensive competition from console-makers such as Nintendo and Sony, PC software games continue to flourish, as each year hundreds of titles vie for consumers' attention, loyalty and dollars. Here's a dozen of the all time best.

12 Most Disruptive Enterprise IT Vendors

These vendors, large and small, are shaking up the status quo with their new products, approaches and models.

Fuze Takes Meetings To iPad

There are several iPad apps that bring the device into business meetings, but Fuze lets the iPad serve as meeting host.

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19 Gadgets That Changed The World

Every so often, a device comes along that changes the way we live our daily lives and things are never the same again. With today's digital technology, such devices may come more frequently than in the past, but our list revolutionary gadgets extends back two centuries.

IT Hall Of Shame, Part 2

Welcome back to our rogue's gallery of computer industry flops, frauds and foibles. In this installment, we're pleased to present ten more exhibits, from Y2K to the Pentium Bug, that prove the best laid plans of mice and men don't just go awry -- they lead straight to the IT Hall of Shame.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta Revealed

The latest version of Explorer, now available in public beta, is the company's attempt to get back into the web browser race and its success will determine if users look to Microsoft or elsewhere for their window to the web. Peek in on the beta launch event and the new features in this slideshow.