Blue Coat Identifies Halloween Trick
Blue Coat has identified a new malware trick just in time for Halloween. Unsuspecting victims are redirected to one of two malware sites after searching for Halloween related sites. These distribution sites are typically used for hosting of warez, pirated digital content, but have been switched to malware distribution in the past 12 hours.
WhiteHouse.gov Drupal Detractors Get Buggy
The news that WhiteHouse.gov relaunched this week running open source Drupal software raised eyebrows and hackles among knee-jerk anti-Obama types and a small cadre of ignorant bloggers.
The Internet At 40: A Promise Deciphered
The Internet turned 40 yesterday, and it got me thinking about its relationship to the time and place in which it was invented. The happenstance of its first message belies why it wasn't just an innovation or improvement, but a truly disruptive technology.
Nokia Dis-N-Gages
Nokia has decided to shut down its N-Gage gaming service in September 2010. This is a rare public admission of defeat for Nokia, which launched the N-Gage gaming platform to much fanfare several years ago. Ever since Nokia transitioned the service to an online gaming portal, it has failed to find users.
Windows 7 First 'Self-Healing' OS
Microsoft baked a number of support technologies directly into its new operating system so it can self-diagnose and repair problems.
Backup & Recovery: Practice Makes Perfect!
When it comes to recovering data from a backup source, practice makes perfect. And failing to practice can leave your small business in a terrible mess at the worst possible time.
Users Reporting BlackBerry Storm2 Wi-Fi Goof
Covered by the tidal wave of Motorola Droid news this week was the launch of the BlackBerry Storm2 on Verizon's network. In all respects, the device is a major update to the original that is seriously worth considering. Although, there appears to be an issue with the Storm2's Wi-Fi radio.
Amazon Serves Up MySQL
Amazon's newest cloud offering: MySQL 5.1 in the cloud, also known as Amazon RDS. And there's worry that it'll turn out to be a bad thing for MySQL in the long run, although that might not hold true for other open source repurposed in the same way.
iTunes 9.0.2 Breaks Palm Pre Sync Again
The cat-and-mouse game between Apple and Palm continues. Apple offered up iTunes 9.0.2 yesterday. The main reason for the update was to bring new compatibility with Apple TV 3.0 software. Apple was sure to take the time to nix the Palm Pre's ability to sync with iTunes, too.
Records and the Threat of Cloud Computing
I recently hosted a panel for ARMA that proved to be one of the most thought-provoking sessions I have been involved in for a long time. What became abundantly clear early on was that records managers and compliance officers really need to get their head around cloud computing, and fast.
Does The World Need A Twitter Device?
Twitter has become a very popular service and to make the most of it, Peek has released a new device called the TwitterPeek that does just one thing - Twitter. Really?
Benioff Discloses All In 'Behind the Cloud' Except...
Five copies of "Behind the Cloud" have arrived at my desk, two intended for fellow IW staffers and three for me, an embarrassment of riches. It's Marc Benioff's book on how Salesforce.com was created and built into a successful company. I am reading it avidly… but some disclosures will apparently have to wait for the sequel.
A Public Broadband Option?
Having looked over Google's explanation of its Google Voice call blocking practices to the Federal Communications Commission, it's clear to me that U.S. telecommunications regulations need to be thrown out and re-written from the ground up.
Social Media Influence Elections, Not Laws
We've seen how social media like Twitter and Facebook can be used as part of a winning election strategy, but the same tools don't seem to influence elected officials or public policy.
Sprint: No More Tethering
Here's an interesting move. Today, a Sprint spokesperson said that moving forward it will not allow its smartphone customers to tether their devices to their laptops. You want mobile Internet on your laptop? Buy a Sprint dongle and data plan.
The State Of The Mobile Web
Opera has released a report on the state of the mobile web and it shows, as expected, growth in the number of people viewing the web on their mobile phones, the number of pages each person views and the amount of data they each consume.
An Android App For The Military
Raytheon's mobile application for Android-based smartphones employs GPS, camera, and other real-time capabilities for use in the field.
Does Driving Electric Need To Mimic Combustion?
I've read that most of the plug-in electric vehicles under development have been designed to mimic the "feel" of driving a combustion engine car. I'm not sure that's even possible, and I don't know why they'd try.
Is The Desktop PC Doomed?
The rise of Web-based apps, virtualization, and a crop of powerful mobile devices have the traditional PC desktop on the run.
Motorola Posts 3Q Profit
The handset maker is looking to its Google Android-based smartphones, like the Verizon Droid, to regain market share.
Sprint Continues To Bleed Customers
Sprint reported its third quarter earnings today, and the news wasn't so good. Though Sprint lost customers at a slower pace than the previous two quarters, it still saw overall subscriber numbers drop. So much for that whole "Palm Pre to the Rescue" notion, eh?
Down To Business: How Do You Define Prosperity?
In its measure of the "wealth and well being" of 104 countries, a U.K. think tank provides ample food for thought as we consider the attributes that truly matter in this connected global economy.
IBM Takes $150M From Sun And HP Accounts In Q3
IBM says its Migration Factory service had a busy third quarter as it displaced Sun and Hewlett-Packard Unix servers and storage systems for 235 separate customers, accounting for $150 million in revenue for IBM. For the first nine months of the year, IBM said, the corresponding revenue total is $400 million.
SAP Upgrades BusinessObjects Explorer
Last May I complained that the SAP BusinessObjects Explorer release announced at Sapphire wasn't everything I expected from the big, splashy product launch. As of November, however, the missing ingredients -- namely the combination of system-agnostic data integration and acceleration -- will finally be in place. Here's the scoop.
HTC Bringing Android 2.0 To Hero
It's no secret that the Motorola Droid's ace-in-the-hole is the Android 2.0 "Eclair" operating system that's on board. The big question on everyone's mind is, will existing Android devices be able to upgrade? The answer is yes. Sort of.
Verizon: Our Network Can Handle The Droid
Verizon Wireless and Motorola announced the Droid smartphone yesterday with much hoopla. Neither company spared the competition, and Verizon took a direct shot at AT&T when it said, "We're not anticipating the network will take a hit on this."
Ksplice: No More Reboots?
How'd you like to never have to reboot a Linux box again -- no, not even if you have to apply a kernel-level patch? That's the promise of Ksplice, a software technology for Linux (and maybe soon other platforms) designed to allow a system to be patched from the kernel level on up without having to be restarted. It's available right now for Ubuntu, and from what I can see, it's not digital snake oil.
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