Best of the blogs: Microsoft's Windows Live QnA service is now available, so what better time to take a hard look into whether Windows Live is the real deal or not. In his TechWatch post Mike Barton cuts through the hype surrounding the Windows Live juggernaut.

Columnists' corner: Jon Udell is wowed by Amazon's just-announced metered virtual server farm called EC2. In this week's Strategic Developer he takes the rent-a-grid for a test whirl and explains why online application hosting just can't be beat.

The news beat: It may have taken longer than expected to get here, but DDR2 is finally crowned DRAM king and takes its place as the most popular memory chip used in PCs. HP and Cisco are teaming up to plan and build wireless LANs that can support applications such as advanced security, location-based services, voice, and LAN access for visiting contractors. And Google has expanded its controversial book search service to let people download entire copies of books in PDF format.

Posted by Caroline Craig on August 30, 2006 05:52 AM