- CheckPoint won't lay low after SourceFire smackdown
- BEA: Open JPA to go to open source soon
- H-1B visa scandal gets a Congressional hearing
- 'Our iPods only go up to 6'
- You know the Web's broken when....
- IBM readies app server in SOA play
- Apple CSTO stepping down
- Talkback: US keeping the IT throne
- New from iTunes - endoscopy!
- Thumbs down for biometric security
March 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
CheckPoint won't lay low after SourceFire smackdown
You might think that getting a US $225 million acquisition stuffed back in your face by the 7'1" center that is the U.S. government's Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) might prompt one to cool off on the bench for a bit or, hell, at least dust off that fading jump shot.
But not plucky Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. of Ramat Gan, Israel. According to Ken Fitzpatrick, CMO at CheckPoint, the company is asking for the ball and won't be shy about driving the lane again when and if it gets a pass.
"We're developing a lot of technology around internal security," Fitzpatrick told InfoWorld earlier this week, "and that includes IDS and IDP," Fitzpatrick said.
If you remember, Check Point was forced to withdraw its bid to acquire Sourcefire last week after CFIUS -- the same geniuses who gave a thumbs up to the takeover of six U.S. ports by Dubai Ports World, a company owned in part by the United Arab Emirates. That tempest in a teapot subsided after the company offered to transfer management of the U.S. ports to a U.S. company, but the Check Point deal was collateral damage, according to some insiders.
Others told InfoWorld that the "bad timing" argument was wishful thinking, and that the Sourcefire deal was probably doomed to rejection by CFIUS from the getgo.
Sourcefire's SNORT IPS technology was way too important a part of the government's cyber defenses to ever allow it to fall into the hands of an Israeli company. Check Point was to blame itself, according to this logic, because the company never really diversified its development operation, keeping most of the important work in Israel and leaving its U.S. offices to sales and marketing. A more truly global company might not have raised flags with the CFIUS folks -- especially over a product that has its roots in open source, which means that everyone has access to the SNORT source code.
"Hogwash," says Fitzpatrick. Check Point is a totally global company with a major development in the U.S., in the form of its Zone Labs holdings in San Francisco, not to mention a development shop in Belarus. Okay...let's just put that Belarus thing aside for a second, and remember that Check Point paid more than $200 million for Zone back in 2003 and the company's former HQ is now the center of Check Point's work on desktop and endpoint security technology.
Whatever. It's all water under the bridge for the companies now, anyway. And Fitzpatrick says that Check Point is focused on the future. For CP and Sourcefire, that means working on "alternative partnerships" -- a fishy term that could mean anything from reseller agreements to tightly integrating Sourcefire's IPS with Check Point's perimeter, secure remote access and unified security management products to create "smart defenses" that can spot threats both inside and outside a network.
"You have to be quick and nimble," Fitzpatrick said. Foregoing a drawn out CFIUS review and steaming ahead with integration as separate companies (Sourcefire was already a Check Point OPSEC partner) may turn out to be the fastest way to get products in customers' hands, he said.
But Check Point is looking beyond Sourcefire and Snort, as well, and isn't sweathing another trip down CFIUS Lane.
"If we saw another opportunity in the U.S. for a technology company, we would pursue that," Fitzgerald said. "This is all Check Point does," he offered by way of explanation "We do security...(the failure of the Sourcefire deal) is not going to stop us from looking at acquisitions in the U.S."
In the meantime, Check Point has been busy fielding "an abnormal amount" of inquiries from security companies. Like the beautiful girl who's lucky enough to finish second on The Bachelorette, Check Point finds itself with an embarassment of suitors, many of them IPS companies based outside of the U.S., Fitzpatrick said.
"When we announced the Sourcefire deal, we let the industry know that we felt, for our customers, that this technology will be well-suited for what our customers and partners need. Now that we've withdrawn our CFIUS request, other IDS and IPS companies are calling," he said.
Most of those companies, Fitzpatrick noted, were outside the U.S.
pfr
Posted by Paul Roberts on March 31, 2006 12:20 PM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
BEA: Open JPA to go to open source soon
BEA Systems plans soon to announce the release of the Open Java Persistence API (Open JPA) to open source, according to a company official.
Open JPA is Java persistence technology that was derived from the Kodo development and runtime tool for Java Data Objects (JDO) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB). BEA acquired Kodo when it bought SolarMetric in November.
"We're actually hoping eventually [that Open JPA will] get rolled into the JCP (Java Community Process) as well," said the official, BEA Senior Product Marketing Manager Gary McBride, at the BEA Dev2DevDays2006 event in Burlingame, Calif. on Thursday.
BEA is delaying the release of Kodo 4.0 until the EJB 3 (Enterprise JavaBeans) specification is finalized, McBride said. That is expected in the June timeframe. Version 4.0 features support for EJB 3 and JDO 2.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 30, 2006 04:50 PM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
H-1B visa scandal gets a Congressional hearing
The issue of whether or not to increase the number of H-1B visas is being hotly debated in Congress this week.
See the news story on our site now, "IT workers to US Congress: limit H-1B program".
I covered this same topic and talked about H-1B visa abuses back in October.
In both a column,"The H-1B Visa Swindle" and a follow-up blog,"Comparison of programmer wages between U.S. nationals and H-1B visa workers" I quote John Miano, a member of the Programmers Guild board of directors.
It was Miano who testified before the Congressional Committee this week, telling the committee that that the H-1B visa program is being misused by companies to undercut salaries of U.S. programmers.
Miano wasn't just offering his opinion, however. Miano had analyzed government statistics on wages by profession and industry category.
I gave Miano some space in my blog to answer his critics who claimed the study was flawed.
Worth a read I think especially as the issue of increasing the number of H-1B visas is at the top of the news.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 30, 2006 02:40 PM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Apple has introduced music volume capping to its iPods following concerns about its effect on peoples' hearing.
Okay, so the headline is a lame reference to 1984 comedy "This is Spinal Tap's" dialogue where Nigel said the mock band's amps went up to 11, but the message is loud and clear: turn down the music you kids. (Hey, there's even a wiki entry to explain how "up to 11" has become a popular idiom.)
The Independent reports that "parents can set a volume cap on children's iPods and lock them in with a combination code." It follows American iPod user attempting to sue Apple over claims that the MP3 players can cause hearing loss. The Indy said Apple's downloadable "volume control" software works with fifth generation iPods and the slim-line iPod nano.
Attorneys immediately said Apple's volume limit admits flaw. Maybe Spinal Tap should be held accountable?
Posted by Mike Barton on March 30, 2006 11:47 AM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
You know the Web's broken when....
Two recent data points that shed some interesting light on the Web site phishing epidemic: one is a little survey done by the fine folks at F-Secure earlier today of top-level domains (TLDs) that contain the names of common banks or online commerce sights. The results, which include the .com, .net, .org, .biz, .us and .info domains shouldn't be that surprising: more than 8,000 domains with "ebay" in the name, almost 6,500 containing "chase," and more than 1,600 with "paypal."
Citibank had almost fivehundred copycat domains, including the likes of: citibank-america.com, citibank-credicard.com, etc. etc. You get the idea.
The other interesting observation came in a paper published by researchers at Harvard and UC Berkeley. While the study is small (22 participants, 20 Web sites, including real and "phished" sites), the results are interesting -- researchers found no correlation between the ability to detect phishing sites and an individuals age, sex, education level or the time spent using a computer. In fact, the one test subject who did the best job spotting real and fraudulent Web sites (he correctly evaluated 18 out of 19 sites) averaged only 14 hours a week on a computer -- but that won't surprise you when you dig his "method" for safe browsing:
"He opened up another browser window, where he typed in all URLs by hand in order to compare these pages to every website presented in the study. He also occasionally used Yahoo to search for the organization in question. He would click on the top search result and compare it to the website presented in the study. He stated that ever since a fmily member was the victime of a PayPal phishing attack, he now follows these steps in pracitce to protect himself."
As for the other subjects who weren't quite at the "Kleenex boxes for shoes" level as this guy? Well, not surprisingly, they didn't do so well. The mean number of correctly identified Web sites was 11.6 out of 19.
Let's face it, we're all rolling the dice when we surf -- especially when you consider that this study didn't even consider variables like pharming and DNS cache poisoning that can redirect even the savviest folks to the wrong site.
Somehow, I don't think this is what Tim Berners-Lee had in mind.
pfr
Posted by Paul Roberts on March 30, 2006 11:07 AM
March 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
IBM readies app server in SOA play
IBM on Monday will host a teleconference regarding IBM's SOA direction, which will include a new version of IBM WebSphere Application Server, according to a source familiar with the announcement.
Featuring a presentation from IBM Senior Vice President and Software Group Executive Steve Mills, the announcement is intended to build on IBM's strategy to leverage software and services to help customers derive business benefits from SOA.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 30, 2006 09:14 AM
March 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Apple's chief software technology officer, Avadis "Avie" Tevanian, is stepping down at the end of the week to take some time off.
Tevanian is credited with being the brains behind Apple's OS X operating system, and he also oversaw the dawn of the iMac and iPod era along with Jon Rubinstein, senior VP of the iPod division and former hardware chief, who also will be leaving Apple on Friday.
Tevanian was a longtime technical chief for Steve Jobs, and moved into the top software spot soon after Jobs returned to Apple through the acquisition of NeXt.
Some have speculated that with Tevanian's departure, Apple's chances of shipping its Leopard OS ahead of the much-delayed Windows Vista are much less likely.
What are your thoughts?
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 29, 2006 06:43 AM
March 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Talkback: US keeping the IT throne
This is what you've told us so far regarding David L. Margulius' Can the United States stay on the throne of IT? Keep the comments coming on this hot topic.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 29, 2006 06:00 AM
March 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Podcasts and viral videos are all the rage these days, what with the explosion of iPods that can play video and the enduring soul death of cubicles. But let's face it -- watching Piper the Cat survive that 80 foot fall only gets you so far -- and I don't care how long your subway ride is!
But fear not, lonely cubizen. Karl Storz Endoscopy-America is here to help, with full color podcasts of "actual surgeries performed at leading medical centers around the world." Hey man, who needs Piper the Cat falling out of a tree, when you can zone out to the "Imperforate Anus Pull-Through Procedure,"? For real -- check it out.
According to the press release, the company is offering three surgeries in the first series of podcasts: a pediatric laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication, a pediatric video-assisted thoracoscopy lung resection, and the *ahem* aforementioned pull-through procedure. The operations are all performed by Dr. Steven Rothenberg, M.D. Chief of Pediatric Surgery at The mother and Child Hospital at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver -- so pay attention med nerds!!!
Joking aside, this is really a cool idea, and right in line with decisions by universities like Stanford and MIT to offer up their content as podcasts, whether through iTunes or not.
For medical schools that must comply with the miserly 80 hour per week (boo hoo hoo) cap on residents work schedules, the videos offer another way to reach students, according to Eugene Lucas, who's a marketing manager at Karl Storz.
As for the question of whether your seat-mate is up for watching a lung resection on the way to work, well...that's a problem for another day.
pfr
Posted by Paul Roberts on March 28, 2006 01:12 PM
March 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Thumbs down for biometric security
Authenticating users to computer systems via biometric technologies may be the rage with some, but it certainly does not have unanimous backing.
Author and enterprise systems consultant Ted Neward, serving on a panel at TheServerSide Java Symposium in Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon, pointed out that even biometric systems are not foolproof.
Neward said if someone steals his password, he can always get a new password. The same type of functionality is not offered with biometric systems, he pointed out.
"What if somebody gets the digitized representation of my thumb? Do I go out and get a new thumb?" he asked.
USB key-based security is preferable, Neward said.
Also during the session, panelists noted that security is not a glamorous subject for developers.
"Security is bloody boring," said Jeremiah Grossman, founder and CTO of WhiteHat Security.
"Security is just the most boring thing. What happens when something's secure? Nothing," Jeremiah said.
Neward also questioned Microsoft's Passport security system, saying it would have user information stored with the most attacked company in the world. But he applauded Microsoft's focus on security in the development process.
"They've mandated that their developers go through security training," and the company enforces security reviews, Neward said. Open source projects do not have these same requirements, he said.
Panelists also discussed the current phishing issue. As more history and consciousness grows around phishing, these schemes will lose their effect, Neward said.
Panelist Justen Stepka, an author and technologist affiliated with Authentisoft, said the issue of security must be addressed at three levels: the network, code and the social level. All three pieces together comprise a proper solution, he said.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 27, 2006 09:50 AM
March 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The original PalmPilot, which is attributed with kicking off mobile smart devices for the masses, was first introduced 10 years ago Friday. CNET has a video chat on the anniversary.
After some ups and downs, Palm is alive and well in the age of mobile computing. It was reported today that, thanks to strong sales of its Treo smart phone, the company beat analyst expectations for quarterly profits.
Our own David L. Margulius wrote recently that voice is still the killer app.
But the concept of the must-have PIM, integrated with the ubiquitous cell phone, that struck me as the killer gadget. I can still remember the excitement when I was first shown the Handspring VisorPhone (see right) while at PC Computing.
Its form factor reminds me of my new BlackBerry 7290, which makes for an somewhat off-putting phone but a great PIM (personal information manager) with live e-mail and calendar updating.
Having e-mail with you at all times is nice, but have I mentioned how cool Google Talk for BlackBerry is? And Google Local.
Makes you wonder where what Palm started is going and what's next. Faster 3G cellular internet access is great, and playing catch-up with Wi-Fi, but WiMax is going to blanket areas with lightning-fast internet broadcasts, making for true broadband mobile computing.
Maybe Microsoft has hit the nail on the head with Origami for the next generation of smart mobile devices.
But the friendly looking, portable, all-in-one factor of the latest Treo is hard to beat.
Take Palm's trip down memory lane and look into the crystal ball and share your thoughts on the future of mobile computing below.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 24, 2006 02:10 PM
March 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Agile programming advice offered
Ten tips on how to make agile programming work were offered at TheServerSide Java Symposium in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Agile programming delivers software in short periods of time and is gaining a lot of attention lately. Although the session, presented by Clinton Begin of ThoughtWorks, provided reasons agile teams fail, I'll summarize the session by listing the 10 nuggets of advice featured.
#10. Don't believe myths such as: agile does not need documentation or is "cowboy coding."
"Agile is some of the most disciplined coding you will ever experience, especially with an XP (extreme programming) project," Begin said.
#9. Don't use scary words to describe agile, such as "extreme."
#8. Don't believe the notion that agile does not have key roles; it needs an iteration manager, analysts and testers.
#7. Don't overdo it. Make sure every document has an audience, don't micromanage and drop anything without value.
#6. Under the category of "cherry picking practices," make sure decisions are made by the most involved people, test every change for at least three iterations and don't be afraid to undo changes.
#5. Have discipline and courage.
#4. Don't use iterations that are too long. Iterations should be one week.
#3. Find a supportive sponsor for your agile project.
#2. Rally the team behind the project.
#1. Ask for help. Have experienced leadership and an experienced team.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 23, 2006 05:49 PM
March 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Scuttlebut on Microsoft's reshuffling of its Platforms & Services division has surfaced on Valleywag, which writes of MS execs dropping like flies: "Now Kevin Johnson, the newest of the Microsoft beast's eight heads, has issued a decree to his entire organization."
The post wincludes what it says is an introductory memo followed by an outline of the reorg. Kevin Johnson's main points:
- Windows Vista + Windows Live = the future.
- Windows Live -- oh, and you too, MSN -- will enjoy a growing online advertising industry.
- "Our software + service approach and the expertise we have built in MSN can support innovation agility as we enable the Live era." In other words, "Thanks for training the next generation. Don't let the door hit you..."
- Jim Allchin is still Johnson's co-president. He'll run the "dining with bloggers" department."
Any insiders at MSN care to share what's really going on?
Posted by Mike Barton on March 23, 2006 04:39 PM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The news that Microsoft's upcoming Vista OS is being pushed out till after the Christmas buying season and into the resolutions-filled (I shall not buy any more tech gear, including software, comes to mind) month of January has created quite a stir through the house.
Hardware vendors were quick to hose down concerns about shipping after Christmas on Wednesday.
But bloggers are having a bit more fun with the latest significant slippage.
In Ed Bott's Microsoft Report he writes: "I am relieved, greatly, that Microsoft decided to push off the release of Windows Vista by approximately three months. First, because it means that we’ll have the time to do a proper job on Windows Vista Inside Out. Second, because it increases the likelihood that Vista will be a solid release instead of a shrink-wrapped final beta."
Our sister publication PC World's Techlog pines: "It's not good news for Microsoft, which would presumably like to sell lots of copies of the new OS sooner rather than later. (On the other hand, most of the PCs that get sold this Christmas will still have a Microsoft OS on them--it'll just be one called Windows XP.) And it's a gigantic issue for the computer industry--possibly a catastrophic one for some vendors. It's not just that a new OS is a huge incentive to buy a new PC; it's also that the lack of a new OS is a strong disincentive to buy, since the simplest way to get a new version of Windows is to buy a system that has it preinstalled."
And The Ponderings of Woodrow blog writes: "I'm sure Microsoft's partners, particularly the PC makers, are thrilled to hear that Vista won't ship until after the key holiday season. And as for we investors? Well, we now get another calendar year of patient waiting for Microsoft's most important growth engine in a half decade."
For most of the comment across the blogosphere, see tech.meme.
Leave us your thoughts below.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 22, 2006 05:07 PM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Playing games at 30,000 feet is a waste of time and technology
It never ceases to amaze me that so many smart people can create wonderful technology and then use it for absolutely worthless endeavors.
The latest example comes from Connexion by Boeing, a Boeing Corp., business unit.
Connexion by Boeing introduced a Wi-Fi service for air travel. It took a great deal of research and design to create the onboard Wi-Fi servers, the outboard antennas and terrestrial data centers that capture the airborne signal.
And what is the news that comes out of all this?
It seems Europe's best video game players will be part of a Global Gaming League AmeriCup vs. EuroCup Competition as they fly SAS from Copenhagen to Newark, New Jersey.
"We believe this is a first, having online video game champions playing live while a mile-high above the earth," said David Friedman, Boeing vice president of Marketing.
I say, "big whoop."
The press release even goes on to call it a "one-of-a-kind in-flight experience."
Well, as long as the pilot doesn't want to play I guess it's okay but really, can't we use technology for better things?
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on March 22, 2006 03:05 PM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Touting developer collaboration, wiki founder Ward Cunningham, director of the developer community at Eclipse, is describing the wiki as a form of public art.
Speaking at the EclipseCon 2006 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Wednesday, Cunningham said wikis foster trust relationships among participants, according to Cunningham.
"I've come to think of wiki as not only solving the problem, but saying something about this trust and so forth and that it [in a sense] serves the role of public art. It is something you can visit and experience and after experiencing it, it will change the way you think," Cunningham said.
Cunningham also discussed the Eclipse Monkey collaboration project he is working on at Eclipse. Eclipse Monkey is a dynamic scripting tool for automation of routine programming tasks. The technology also has been described as a team process automation scripting system.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 22, 2006 02:28 PM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
What on Google Earth is going on?
SMH.com.au reports yet another hovering car sighting in Google Earth.
The report said the sighting, identified on Google Earth by the Flyin' Globe website, was from suburban carpark on the outskirts Australia's westernmost city Perth.
SMH reported the first hovering car sighting from Google's satellite imagery in January.
Website visitors had a range of theories but there must be a real explanation for the apparent tech glitch.
Will pose the issue to Google and see what it says... Back shortly with its answer.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 22, 2006 11:36 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The first iteration of the next generation Firefox, 2.0, is available. Mozilla.org writes of the so-called Bon Echo Alpha 1 Release: "Bon Echo Alpha 1 is a developer preview release of our next generation Firefox browser and it is being made available for testing purposes only. Bon Echo Alpha 1 is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox 1.x should not use Bon Echo Alpha 1."
We'd like to here what people think. Does it have the potential to become an IE7 killer? Although Windows Vista's general release has been pushed out to next year, Microsoft said Internet Explorer 7 would still be available in the second half of this year.
Microsoft this week released Beta 2 of IE7.
IW's Jon Udell has an interesting read on IE7 here.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 22, 2006 10:48 AM
March 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Apple, predictably, has lashed out at France's proposed law that would force online music stores to make their tracks playable on any portable digital device, saying it would result in "state-sponsored piracy" by encouraging French users to seek out illegally copied music.
The French bill, which overwhelmingly passed in the National Assembly yesterday introduces relatively lenient penalties for digital piracy, with proposed fines of $45 to $180.
BusinessWeek calls the legislation "a giant spanner in the works of the nascent online digital music business," although others see it as a boon for music companies, who could gain more sales once consumers are able to play their music anywhere.
Some analysts have speculated that Apple will simply abandon the French market rather than comply - although the company has refused to comment on the possibility of such a move.
Amid all the rhetorical crossfire, what does this really mean to users? According to Reuters, in a recent study consumers said they are prepared to pay twice as much for a song that can freely move between different devices.
So does this bill spell a win for consumers in the form of more flexibility and choice? Or does it actually amount to protectionism for the local French download services struggling against the globally popular iTunes/iPod combo?
Tell us what you think.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 22, 2006 06:40 AM
March 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Adobe eyes Apollo technology for desktop apps
Adobe is working on technology dubbed Apollo, which melds the best of the Internet and desktop client technology.
"It basically is a way to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser," said Mark Anders, Adobe principal scientist. Anders had served as Macromedia vice president of engineering prior to the merger of the two companies. Apollo would allow for use of desktop functionality such as use of multiple windows, Anders said during an interview at the EclipseCon 2006 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Tuesday.
With Apollo, developers employ technologies they would use to write a Web application, such as HTML, Flex or AJAX. But these applications would take more advantage of local resources, Anders said.
Apollo is in an early stage of development, with no timetable yet for any release, Anders said.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 21, 2006 04:56 PM
March 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Is being listed in a Google search a right, not a privilege?
It looks like Google may need to do a search itself soon for the best lawyers money can buy.
Not only is Google being hauled before Congressional committees to defend its reasons for caving in to the Chinese government by restricting access to certain sites, it is also defending itself from other government agencies that want it to cough up details on users who search for porn.
And now Google is being sued by a company called KinderStart.com for allegedly destroying its business by delisting them from their search engine.
The full details are on our site but in a nutshell, Google believes KinderStart was scamming them to gain a higher listing in its search results.
Kinderstart start says no such thing.
The results of getting delisted have been pretty severe for the company that has a Website for parents of young, under seven years of age, children. KinderStart's hits have gone down 70 percent and their ad revenue by 80 percent.
So the bigger question that this lawsuit highlights is, in this information age, is information and the ability to get at it a public right?
Does Google, and Yahoo and all the rest have the right to limit its search results according to whatever rules they create? Or is this a high tech version of the civil rights suits of the 50s and 60s that said a restaurant is a public place and it cannot use race, color or creed as a basis to restrict its service?
High tech has been getting pretty much of a free ride up until now. No Internet sales tax, for example, and in general Congress has been afraid of legislating any restrictions. Is it time for a change?
Plug in your comments after this blog and we'll air it all out.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on March 20, 2006 02:22 PM
March 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Photographs from last week's InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum are now online.
Click below the Flickr badge to see the whole gallery. (Photos are courtesy of The Photo Group.)
View them as a slideshow here.
And see Dave Linthicum's show wrap here.
www.flickr.com
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Posted by Mike Barton on March 20, 2006 11:52 AM
March 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Eclipse AJAX project proposed, MySQL joins Eclipse
A project to enable developers to build AJAX-enabled Web applications using Eclipse technology has been proposed by Innoopract, according to Eclipse, which is holding its annual technical conference, EclipseCon 2006, in Santa Clara, Calif. this week.
The Proposal for Rich AJAX Platform (RAP), currently is in the review stage at Eclipse.
"RAP will offer the ease of development of Eclipse, Eclipse extensibility and user experience by reusing Eclipse technology for distributed applications and by encapsulating AJAX technologies into simple-to-use Java components (as SWT encapsulates native widgets)," Eclipse said.
Also, open source database provider MySQL on Monday announced it has joined Eclipse as an Add-in Provider member. MySQL plans to contribute to the Eclipse Data Tools Platform project
and collaborate with Zend Technologies and others on the proposed Eclipse PHP IDE project.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 20, 2006 09:54 AM
March 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Offshoring facts and figures presented
Offshoring presents salary advantages over hiring U.S. engineers, but America is not out of the game yet, according to a presentation at the SD West 2006 conference in Santa Clara, Calif. on Friday afternoon.
While an American engineer commands a salary of about $80,000, a counterpart in India earns $11,000. In Israel, an engineer earns $38,000 while one in Canada is paid $29,000. Chinese engineers are paid $9,000; in the Philippines, the salary is $7,000, said Vish Mishra, senior venture partner with Clearstone Venture Partners.
China and India, for their part, also produce far more engineers than the United States, he said. Each of those countries produces about 350,000 engineers per year as opposed to 65,000 engineers annually in America, said Mishra.
"What's being offshored? I think the answer is everything. Really," Mishra said. He cited jobs such as quality assurance, IT projects, legacy maintenance and module development.
Still, the United States holds an edge in talent, although the gap is narrowing, Mishra said. Architecture work is done in the United States as is some some design work, he said.
Mishra also said the time difference can present an advantage for offshoring, with overseas engineers able to do testing while Americans are still sleeping. But an audience member challenged this notion.
"In some cases, when you have a question, the earliest time you can get an answer is the next day," the audience member said.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 17, 2006 05:33 PM
March 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The latest to land in my in-box from the McKinsey Quarterly team, "Using IT to boost call-center performance" (registration required), suggests new interactive voice response and voice recognition systems can be a boon for call centres.
Let's hope so. IBM was touting voice-in, text-back information services in 1999. They were to revolutionize information available on smaller devices.
Back to the future in 2006: I'm still left shouting to the new AT&T for small inquiries, unable to have my question understood by IVR. "No, I want to see why my DSL line is not working," I've been heard barking by my small kids as they wonder who I am talking to.
With companies such a Citibank advertising being able to talk to a customer service rep by dialing zero, it's obvious the whole IVR thing and phone maze is getting pretty out of hand. And any benefit to business and home suctomers are not any better - wait times don't seem any shorter.
So, I was happy to find a link in the same McKinsey report arguing: "Telecommunications companies won't be able to afford their expensive call centers much longer, given their shrinking margins. Fortunately, they can cut their customer service bills in half by following the lead of airlines and retailers that have successfully moved many of their transactions to the Web."
At this stage, I'll take the Web any day. But some Web sites, for telecom companies at least, leave people in limbo, unable to get it all done with one method. The dreaded phone call always seems to slip in to the mix. So why not just call from the get-go, one wonders.
Is new IVR and speech recognition technology coming to the rescue of customers seeking support, or is it just aimed at lowering costs?
Perhaps such divergent research reports in the same package have something to do with this incomplete deployment?
Let me know your thoughts on this pressing matter.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 17, 2006 05:06 PM
March 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Giants to simplify Web services
Acknowledging that complexity has stifled Web services standardization, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Intel and Microsoft are launching an effort to converge overlapping standards and make things easier, an HP representative said on Friday.
The companies have published a white paper about the endeavor entitled, "Toward converging Web services standards for resources, events and management."
"HP, IBM, Intel and Microsoft plan to develop a common set of specifications for resources, events, and management that can be broadly supported across multiple platforms," according to the white paper. "The parties will do this by building on existing specifications and defining a set of enhancements that enable this convergence. In many scenarios, vendors and customers building solutions using Web services will find that the existing specifications support their scenarios. Vendors and customers may use the new specifications and functions when needing the common capabilities."
"The result [of the effort] will eventually provide an industry-wide set of standards for resources access and eventing that will be useful for many scenarios in management integration, manageability, and grid computing," the white paper states.
The effort involves converging the WSDM (Web Services Distributed Management) and WS-Management specifications. The result will be the simplifying of platform interoperability, solution development and the process of standardizing a new common set of specifications, HP's representative said.
New specifications are being authored entitled WS-Transfer Addendum and WS-ResourceTransfer (WS-RT) A new version of the WS-MetadataExchange also is being developed.
WS-Transfer Addendum enables changes in WS-MetadataExchange to allow better integration with the WS-Transfer specification. WS-RT (new) defines body elements for Create', Get', and Put' that support creating, retrieving, and updating partial elements of a resource.
Sun Microsystems is not involved in the project, according to HP.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 17, 2006 11:46 AM
March 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
How well does your PC do Vista?
Another item for the fiendishly clever marketing ideas file: Microsoft is apparently building into Vista a tool that will rate your PC based on how well it runs that operating system's capabilities.
According to a cNet report, the "Windows Performance Rating" system evaluates PC components such as the processor, memory, hard drive, and graphics cards to come up with an overall score.
Microsoft is still working on the grading system and declined to provide details, other than noting that "the idea behind the Windows Performance Rating is to help average consumers easily understand their Windows Vista PC's overall performance, and to simplify the process of determining whether certain software applications will run smoothly based on their system components."
While it's not entirely clear much how this will benefit users, retailers will probably be delighted with this new tool for marketing PCs.
Do you think this new rating method will catch on? Tell us what you think.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 16, 2006 07:06 AM
March 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Consilient is pushing for mass adoption of mobile e-mail for consumers with the introduction on Tuesday of its open standard-based Consilient Push.
The product is an open standards-based mobile e-mail platform for carriers and business, which Consilient said would bring costs down for service from $30 to $40 a month to between $3 and $4. Businesses could run it on a Linux box and it was very scalable, Consilient said.
But contrary to an earlier Tech Watch post suggesting it would take on Research in Motion and its BlackBerry device, Consilient chief executive Trevor Adey told InfoWorld it was not going after RIM's market.
He said the company had worked with RIM for four years on integrating other vendors' systems to work with RIM's proprietary system.
Now it was focusing on just making email available on hundred of popular cells phones (any with MIPI-2 MIDP 2.0 support), he said.
RIM was going after the enterprise with smart apps for CRM (customer relationship management), which had 30 million users, while there were 2.5 billion cell phone users worldwide to be tapped.
With e-mail playing a central role at enterprises and the family home, making it mobile seems a natural progression. Adey said if poeple looked at the popularity of SMS, despite typing out on a numeric keypad, affordable mobile email was really going to take off.
"We strongly believe this approach ... will be more successful [than focusing on mobile applications]," Adey said.
The company will deliver a business-focused product, to be called Consilient Push Enterprise, in late Q2 or Q3. It will offer push e-mail to mobile phones and synchronize with Microsoft Exchange calendar information.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 15, 2006 12:22 PM
March 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Research in Motion has taken out eight full-page ads in US newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, urging patent reform.
The move, apparently a twist on announcing it is open for business following its patent showdown for other than the Blackberry device's addicted masses, which it paid $612.5 million to settle early this month.
Before the settlement deal was made, however, Bloomberg reported Treo leads the BlackBerry in a customer-satisfaction survey, and that Palm sold 602,000 Treos last quarter, compared with 645,000 BlackBerrys. In the prior quarter, there was a 150,000-unit gap.
RIM wrote in the full page ad on Tuesday: "You can rest assured that BlackBerry is here to stay."
"As to the lingering question of why the patent system should allow such a bizarre set of circumstances to threaten millions of American customers in the first place, we share your concern. The good news is that this topic is currently receiving much more attention from policymakers and the Supreme Court and we hope the patent system will evolve to close the loopholes and become more balanced."
Surely more patent lawsuits will spring from this, as the $612.5-million paypout has dangled the carrot, so the ads are not without a good point.
But the patent issue and Treo are not RIM's biggest threat...
Updated (and Adeel was right on market focus): The company I spoke to, Consilient, told me on Wednesday it was not even going after RIM.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 14, 2006 04:42 PM
March 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Amazon said Tuesday it was building out beyond the "Earth's biggest selection" of consumer products with a new Web 2.0-aimed storage service to make "web-scale computing easier for developers".
The move puts it ahead of Google, which is said to be developing an infinite online storage offering for consumers.
The mega online retailer wrote: "Amazon S3 is storage for the Internet."
Amazon said its "simple storage service" would offer developers "a highly scalable, reliable, and low-latency data storage infrastructure at very low costs".
Check it out S3 at http://aws.amazon.com/s3.
BusinessWeek has a good read up on it here.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 14, 2006 04:15 PM
March 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
IBM will preview technology for distributed developer collaboration next week at the EclipseCon 2006 conference in Santa Clara, Calif.
"It's really about a distributed platform that will support geographically distributed teams that are working together," Lee Nackman, vice president of Rational Product Development and Customer Support in the IBM Software Group, said at the SD West 2006 show in Santa Clara on Tuesday.
Nackman described the Eclipse-based project as being early technology for governance. Governance was the subject of Nackman's keynote presentation at SD West on Tuesday.
"I think it's quite relevant to our roles as developers and our ability to succeed as developers," Nackman said. Governance is about making IT- and business-related decisions about factors such as architecture, infrastructure, application needs, investment levels and prioritization.
Developers need to be concerned about governance because governance is about enablement and empowerment, Nackman said.
Citing the open source governance model, which involves collaboration, IBM itself has a program called IBM Community Source, an open source-like governance model used for behind-the-firewall development at the company. The program involves making decisions by consensus.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 14, 2006 03:55 PM
March 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Employees are now regarded as a greater danger to workplace cyber security than the gangs of hackers and virus writers outside the firewall, Australia's SMH.com.au reports.
An international IBM security survey found that was the perception of 75 per cent of Australian IT managers, the report said.
The study said laptop computers, mobile phones and USB storage devices in the office were creating the weaknesses.
But also today, this time in a reported test of security in some London offices, the lowly free CD became the intruder from within.
While the front of the CD contained a written warning to users to check their company's internal security guidelines before running the CD, as many as 75 of the 100 CDs were played. They were able to trace IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of those computers that tried to access the image and found that employees at two well-known insurance companies and a retail bank were among the duped, the report said.
IT managers: is too much security emphasis, and media hype, on the underworld and not the real-world risks within? Is it time for a full desktop lockdown?
Slashdot readers are carrying on about the enemy within.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 13, 2006 01:29 PM
March 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Has Google blown its orbit with news of the online darling's latest additon, Google Mars?
The Google watching business set, and share owners, might think it has blast off into the far reaches of geekery -- and beyond business reason -- with this one.
Or is it another clever wow-factor service that seems to boost the share price beyond reason a la Web 1.0, allowing Google to cherry pick Web 2.0 start-up greats left and right, such as last week with Writely?
The company introduced Google Mars in commemoration of astronomer Percival Lowell's birthday, writing:
"[We're] pleased to bring you Google Mars.
"Explore the red planet in three different ways: an elevation map shows color-coded peaks and valleys, a visible-imagery map shows what your eyes would actually see, and an infrared-imagery map shows the detail your eyes would miss."
Wow-factor accomplished.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 13, 2006 10:33 AM
March 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
A post on the Official Google Blog confirmed on Thursday some rumour it had purchased the web-based collaborative word processor Writely.
Coupled with the recent news a Google Calendar is in the works the latest revelation makes some think a Google Office suite is near.
Business 2.0's Om Malik, who broke the rumor on his blog, writes: "Now buying Writely is in line with Google thinking of using browser for everything. I mean an online word processor, and online excel spread sheet make a lot more sense than making people switch to OpenOffice."
But Malik notes, and I agree, people are conditioned to use MS Office, but even if Google Writely is free, who wants sensitive business documents living on Google's servers? So forget the enterprise for some time.
I've had people say they didn't want to send me stuff to Gmail because they feared it would threaten their privacy.
Well, at least this time Google is following Microsoft.
Look out Microsoft Office? InfoWorld's Paul Krill says, "maybe in 15 years".
What do you think. Would you jump aboard Google Office?
Posted by Mike Barton on March 9, 2006 03:51 PM
March 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Java pioneer James Gosling, a vice president and Sun Fellow at Sun Microsystems, will be at Columbia University in New York City today to unveil programs for student developers.
He also will talk about a new version of the NetBeans IDE, called NetBeans IDE/BlueJ Edition. Gosling is appearing as part of Sun's Academic Developer World Tour, which provides on-campus training to students on Java, OpenSolaris and Sun developer tools.
Sun is announcing the Sun Student Connection email newsletter, providing an academic focus to members of the Sun Developer Network. Also being unveiled is Sun Student Developer Trivia Sweepstakes. Each student will be presented with a Ki-Bi card, which is a credit card-sized device capable of delivering mobile content and applications to a Java-powered handset. Students can answer trivia questions for a chance at a vareity of prizes, including $1,000 in cash, a Nokia N-Gage Phone or an Apple iPod.
The trivia sweepstakes will be available to students at 25 additional colleges and universities, including Brigham Young, Carnegie Mellon, Harvard, Penn State, Rutgers and the University of Washington.
The NetBeans BlueJ Edition is intended to provide a smooth migration for students learning Java, from the beginning stages to the use of professional development tools. BlueJ is a university-developed programming environment for beginning programmers.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 9, 2006 11:43 AM
March 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Intel displayed prototypes of this year's and next year's Origami mobile device this week at its IDF conference in San Francisco this week.
Of course they would not call it Origami. Instead their name is the UltraMobile PC platform. There are plenty of pictures on the UMPC site.
By now everyone knows about the models that are due out in a few months. They are hefty by handheld standards, 1.7 pounds, with a 7-inch screen and will include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and support for GPS if the manufacturer decides to include it. Most models will have a 40GB or 60GB hard drive and a 900-MHz or 1-GHz processor.
More interesting was the prototype of a model Intel was showing off that can be expected from OEMs next year.
The Intel rep I spoke with said that Intel is developing a new
micro-architecture, silicon, for these smaller devices that will have an 8-hour battery life, equivalent or better performance than this year's model and a 1024 x 1024 display.
It will weigh about half pound, have a 5-inch screen.
Next year's device also has a keyboard that sits flush up against the back of the devices and is swiveled out for use. Once put in position one side has the keyboard, about the size of a RIM keyboard and the other side has multi-media controls, like play, pause, fast forward for listening to music or watching videos.
Marketing issues aside, such as who will want one, the downside is that it will use yet another version of the Windows operating system. According to the rep I spoke to it will also require software makers to redesign their PC applications to run on the
system.
Microsoft is expected to announce Origami at the CeBIT show in Germany this week.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on March 8, 2006 03:30 PM
March 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The Web log TechCrunch reports it has obtained screenshots of Google's new Ajax calendar application, which TechCrunch's Michael Arrington says will be called "CL2".
Blog legend Om Malik has posted some more details of CL2.
Arrington writes: "The closed beta is ongoing with about 200 participants - people involved are not allowed to invite outsiders to see the calendar and are under strict rules not to share any details with outsiders. Based on feedback I am getting, CL2 is a long way away from launch."
With little surprise, CL2 is said to be closely tied in with Gmail.
Here's a link to the login page.
Google says of the "rumor": "We're continually exploring opportunities to expand our offerings, but we don't have anything to announce at this time."
Too late for that.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 8, 2006 01:10 PM
March 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Adobe is introducing open source libraries intended to bridge its Flex technology with AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML).
The intention is to make it easer for developers to harness Adobe Flex, Flash Player and AJAX for building rich Internet applications. The open source libraries enable developers to introduce the capabilities of Flash Player and the Flex framework into rich Internet applications built with Flex. Developers also can blend AJAX with Flex.
The Flex-AJAX Bridge (FABridge) is available in alpha form here. It allows developers to call Flash Player graphics APIs, to dynamically create Flex objects and access the Flex DOM (document object model) directly from JavaScript.
The AJAX Client for Flex Data Services is due later this year. It will allow AJAX applications to connect to Flex Data Services 2.0, enabling use of publish/subscribe messaging, data paging and other functionalities within AJAX applications.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 8, 2006 11:37 AM
March 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Remotely delete files from lost laptops
Corporate espionage has been dealt a setback by a new service that will automatically locate lost or stolen laptops and delete sensitive files.
The service, reported to be coming soon from desktop management company Everdream, consists of a software agent that communicates via the network every 15 minutes to the company's control center. In addition to online backup and patch updates, the automated service would allow Everdream to wipe sensitive corporate info from the drive.
Ever had a laptop lost or stolen and spent sleepless nights worrying about whose hands your information might have fallen into? Tell us what you think.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 8, 2006 06:55 AM
March 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Easy and fun software modeling vowed
Altova has upgraded its UML (Unified Modeling Language) tool, touting its support for UML 2.1, XMI (XML Metadata Interchange) 2.1 and C# code generation.
Altova UModel 2006 features a visual interface and is intended to make software modeling easy and fun, according to the company.
XMI support enables users to share models back and forth between platforms. Other product features include sequence diagrams, reverse engineering and round trip engineering and advanced messaging.
Altova UModel 2006 is available now with single-user licenses starting at $129.
Also in the development tools arena, Genuitec at EclipseCon 2006 in Santa Clara, Calif., on March 20 plans to preview MyEclipse 5.0, the company's enhanced IDE built on top of the Eclipse platform. Version 5.0 features support for Genuitec's Matisse4MyEclipse, which integrates Eclipse with the Matisse Swing user interface designer from the NetBeans open source project.
"[Matisse is] actually the crown jewel for NetBeans," said Maher Masri, president of Genuitec. Matisse4MyEclipse is a separate plug-in for MyEclipse 5.0.
MyEclipse 5.0 features support for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript plus XML), UML, Linux, Mac OS/X, JavaServer Faces (JSF) and Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB).
Both MyEclipse 5.0 and Matisse4MyEclipse are to be available in April. MyEclipse 5.0 costs $49.95 for an annual subscription to the Professional Edition of the product.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 7, 2006 04:32 PM
March 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Google infinite storage plan leaked
Reuters is reporting that Google is preparing to offer online storage to web users, creating a mirror image of data stored on consumer hard drives, according to company documents that were mistakenly released on the web.
The news was first leaked at the Geeking with Greg Web log.
Greg reveals from an analyst presentation (which has been pulled from the Google Web site) the following, which seems to confirm the Gdrive plan:
"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including: emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc). We already have efforts in this direction in terms of GDrive, GDS, Lighthouse, but all of them face bandwidth and storage constraints today." — excerpt from 2006 Analyst Day presentation notes.
However, Greg notes a PDF alternative of the slideshow has been posted.
The blogosphere is rightfully buzzing.
Question is: where does this fit into the grand plan for world domination? Comments anyone?
Posted by Mike Barton on March 7, 2006 04:18 PM
March 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Word is that that a Origami-like device has been unveiled by Intel at Cebit.
The report said the device, called a Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC), has a 7-inch touch screen, standard Intel processors, and runs full versions of desktop OSes including Linux and a Windows XP variant, which apparently is the heart of the real Origami.
The device will cost under $1000. The next generation is set to shrink to pocket size, operate all day on a charge, and will sell for $500.
Other online reports have also pieced the hype puzzle together, and offer some more pics. IGN writes: "The fact that Intel is apparently going to announce it's product before Microsoft has lead many to suspect that the Origami Project is likely little more than Microsoft's spin on Intel's well known plans to launch this new form factor. Rather than a piece of real Microsoft hardware like the Xbox, UMPC devices will be manufactured by a variety of companies and will be united by a common operating system."
So, all the buzz is over and Origami is just software, with hardware to come from Intel and to be built by a number of makers including Samsung.
Well, if it ushers in a new generation of mobile computing, who cares. Many people, such as students and mobile pros, will benefit from more choice in form factor and features.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 7, 2006 12:03 PM
March 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Symantec's latest Internet Security Threat Report for the last six months of 2005 has reworked how it counts browser bugs, apparently aiming to please both sides, with one that finds IE has the most vulnerabilities, and a second that reports Firefox as the bug-leader, IDG News reports.
Firefox had the highest number of "vendor-confirmed" vulnerabilities, with 13 compared to IE's 12, said Symantec's Dave Cole. But the report also includes a count of bugs found by security researchers that have not been confirmed by Microsoft or Mozilla.
By that count, IE had the most security issues: 24, compared to Firefox's 17.
So, what's going on here? Are the browser wars back? Tech Watch welcomes the latest competition, coming soon in the form of IE7.
But beside universal access, browsers seem so old-school, and overworked for richer applications.
As interface guru Jakob Nielsen told me, imagine if iTunes was all web-based rather than being software that pulls in web resources? It would not be the same, and we should not expect that of the web.
Adobe's Flash 8 and Flex system is being used to develop some much more rich web interfaces. See Jon Udell's screencast on Flex 2.0. Update: Paul Krill writes Adobe is introducing open source libraries intended to bridge its Flex technology with AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). The intention is to make it easer for developers to harness Adobe Flex, Flash Player and AJAX for building rich Internet applications, he wrote.
Bring it on, I say. Why has it taken so long? Eight years ago Macromeda was showing me whole e-commerce websites in a flash interface and under 150 kilobytes.
With broadband as widespread as it is and with WiMax and ADSL2+ speeds coming for mad mainstream download speeds, I believe the time is now to move beyond the browser for many richer media applications.
Where do we go from here? I'd love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment.
Posted by Mike Barton on March 7, 2006 10:36 AM
March 07, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft denies Vista back door rumors
Microsoft has denied persistent reports that it is considering adding a back door to Windows Vista's encryption system at the request of law enforcement agencies.
A report this morning in PC Advisor quotes a cryptographer working for Microsoft, who recently blogged that "the official line from high up is we do not create back doors. ... Back doors are simply not acceptable."
The rumors apparently started flying based on a BBC News report last month that the British Home Office was in talks with Microsoft over its fears that the new version of Windows could make it harder for police to read suspects' computer files.
According to BetaNews.com, cryptographer Niels Ferguson did not deny talking with the British government, but said law enforcement officials were actually asking about the BitLocker technology. Microsoft says BitLocker is intended to preserve system security and "ensures that data stored on a computer running Windows Vista is not revealed if the machine is tampered with when the installed operating system is offline."
InformationWeek reports that Ferguson has promised Microsoft will post a more detailed document on BitLocker to its Knowledgebase database when Vista ships.
Are the rumors of a Vista back door just more FUD, or do you believe when Microsoft's concerned where there's smoke there's fire? Tell us what you think.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 7, 2006 06:12 AM
March 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Seeking to extend Java to new devices, Sun Microsystems on Monday rolled out its Smart Programmable Object Technology (SPOT), featuring wireless sensors.
"It's a project that's been going on within Sun Labs and it is focused on small, battery-operated devices, in particular on the software for that," said Roger Meike, senior director of in Sun Labs.
SPOT features a Java virtual machine running on metal, with developers able to write device drivers and other software. Using NetBeans open source tools or standard development tools, SPOT technology could be applied to devices ranging from toys to MP3 players to traditional sensor applications such as environmental monitoring systems and package-tracking systems, Meike said. Another possibility is gesture recognition, where interfaces would be interacted with via gestures, for purposes such as transferring data on cell phones, Meike said.
"The range of applications is pretty wide," he said.
Sun likes to boast that Java is already on a 1.5 billion cell phones. "We're looking at making sure Java technology is on whatever comes next," Meike said.
The SPOT device, which is about one-half inch by 2.5 inches by one inch tall, is powered by a 180-MHz ARM processor.
To support SPOT, Sun has set up a Web site at SunSPOTWorld.com.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 6, 2006 02:26 PM
March 06, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Piggybacking, or tapping into someone else's wireless Internet connection without authorization, is increasingly an issue for people who live in densely populated areas, according to an article in Sunday's New York Times.
While piggybacking once was primarily the domain of computer geeks or hackers cruising for unguarded networks, increasingly just ordinary folk are guilty of tapping in. And many who piggyback say the practice does not feel like theft to them, according to the Times' report.
Aiding and abetting the piggybackers, some users interviewed by the Times even admit they have decided to keep their networks open as a protest against what they consider the exorbitant cost of Internet access - a practice that makers of security software strongly caution against, as an open wireless network is also an invitation to savvy users peering into unprotected computer files containing sensitive financial and personal information.
While many home network owners say they are oblivious to piggybackers, others have experienced the frustration of having their high-speed Internet connection slow to a crawl with the additional online traffic from neighbors tapping into their systems.
Have you had a similar experience of being choked out of your Internet access by piggybackers? Or are you, perhaps, one of those who view piggybacking as akin to "reading the newspaper over someone's shoulder." Tell us where you stand on this issue.
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 6, 2006 06:20 AM
March 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The real story behind the RIM, NTP patent battle
With the RIM suit finally settled, and addicts assured that their supply of e-mail will not be cut off and they will not have to quit cold turkey, you might be interested in how it all started.
For the full story read Blackberry Blues by Kim Isaac Eisler in Washingtonian Magazine.
The tale is about two groups of earnest people each defending their own turf. An inventor Thomas Campana with an idea on how to send text transmissions over wireless and his patent lawyer, Don Stout, on one side and Mike Lazaridi, a college senior and his partners who started Research in Motion.
Campana and Stout formed NTP whose sole assets were Campana's wireless patents stowed away in a file cabinet. Both men were busy doing other things.
As Eilser reports RIM mostly did software development for other companies but spent 10 years doing its own research on wireless paging technology before introducing a wireless device with a small, thumb-driven keyboard.
When Stout heard of the RIM device he thought it sounded awfully familiar and he went back to that file cabinet.
The rest is history along with a check for $612.5 million to NTP.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on March 3, 2006 03:57 PM
March 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Pet projects geared toward new technologies such as RSS are under way at Microsoft and IBM.
At Microsoft, development manager Dmitry Robsman has developed an ASP.Net RSS Toolkit to enable consumption and publishing of RSS feeds in ASP.Net applications. Although not officially a Microsoft project, developers can use the free toolkit with applications built in Visual Studio 2005. It is accessible from Robsman's blog.
At IBM, Rod Smith, vice president of the company's Emerging Technology group, will use the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference in San Diego next week as an opportunity to tout "mashup maker" technology developed at Blue Blue.
Mashup applications are Web applications quickly assembled for a specific audience, using technologies such as wikis, RSS feeds and AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). These applications use components such as Google maps and public data. An example of such an application would be one that provides local weather information for a particular store.
IBM describes the effort as the "5-minute application."
Although a planned demonstration will be similar to one IBM did at the Zend PHP Conference & Expo last year, the company has added drag-and-drop functionality. "We've made it so you can assemble these very quickly," using AJAX, Smith said.
Still classified as emerging technology, IBM has no specific product plans for its mashup tool right now. The software may be used to leverage sales of IBM's middleware and DB2 database.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 3, 2006 03:55 PM
March 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Telecommuters are less security conscious
People who work remotely are not only more productive, they are more likely to be naked. Don't take my word for it - that's according to a survey by Insight Express and SonicWall as reported in EE Times.
While 76 percent of employees surveyed believe they are more productive toiling from home (and 61 percent even think their managers would agree with them), the survey also found that security does not rate highly with home workers. Fully 88 percent of those surveyed confessed to storing passwords in easily discovered locations, and only 12 percent were encrypting files to store and manage log-in data.
So for all you readers out there working from home, how do you rate on the productivity/security scale? Are you among those listening to music (35 percent), watching TV (28 percent), or sneaking afternoon naps (21 percent)? We'd rather not know if you are one of those working naked (12 percent of males and 7 percent of females).
Posted by Caroline Craig on March 3, 2006 06:02 AM
March 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Compuware plans EclipseCon splash
The EclipseCon 2006 conference is happening the week of March 20 in Santa Clara, Calif., and it looks like Compuware has big plans for this event.
Compuware and Eclipse representatives are being mostly tightlipped about Compuware's plans. But an email from Compuware and information on the Eclipse Web site provides some details.
"Be one of the first to see the universal glow of digital collaboration as Compuware unveils its Corona Project, the latest result of the Eclipse community working to extend the vision of application life-cycle integration and tool interoperability," Compuware said.
"See firsthand how Corona can integrate with other key Eclipse projects. Join us for a hands-on demonstration of the Corona project at work in a real-life production scenario to understand the exchange of information between operations, testing and development," the company said.
Also known as the Tools Services Framework, Corona is intended to provide frameworks for collaboration among instances of Eclipse-based clients and clients that exist outside the Workbench, according to information from Eclipse. It will feature a service plug-in model based on OSGi (Open Services Gateway initiative) and hosted within a generic enterprise service bus container.
Compuware in October detailed plans to help Eclipse serve as an integration framework for Java tools.
Also at EclipseCon, Instantiations plans to launch RCP Developer (Rich Client Platform), which is a tool for building Java-based client applications. It leverages the Eclipse RCP.
Posted by Paul Krill on March 2, 2006 03:10 PM
March 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
There is a bit more from Microsoft today on its rumored design for a mini-tablet, Origami. Okay, it will run Windows XP. But the picture is far from clear what will make it stand out.
Let's say for a moment that Origami is what people say it is: an $800-$500 mini-tablet, running Microsoft applications with a 5-inch to 7-inch screen, and weighing about one pound with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi built in.
For more details see the Forbes site.
The question is if there is a market for it?
Perhaps as vertical solutions, such as in health care where doctors and nurses can use a small mobile device with Wi-Fi to access and read patient records, enter notes from a patient visit and order up meds, but in the great race to capture the mass market I don't see it being successful, unless there are a few surprises in store.
On the minus side.
Handheld sales were down for the last two years and will continue to decline as cell phones gain in power and performance.
But you can't run and you wouldn't want to run a major application on a cell phone or on a handheld for that matter. For quick in and out queries they are ideal but beyond that is a tablet a bett