- Sun's Schwartz swings the axe
- McAfee's Falcon set to take off
- Pentagon mistakes EA game for terrorist agitprop?
- Author's blog response to criticism of Imagining a day without Microsoft column
- Sun eyes embedded Java, object-aware CPUs
- Microsoft takes aim at JPEG
- 25 worst tech products
- Vista rating tool gets retooled
- Microsoft confirms Ultimate Office
- Informatica helping out with Salesforce.com links
May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Poor Sun. The quality of its products is widely recognized. Solaris is a great OS. Java is an undisputed success. The new Niagara processor is generating a lot of buzz, and Sun's AMD-based x86 servers are top notch. Despite all this, however, the question that remains on everyone's mind is whether Sun will be able to capitalize on all this great R&D. Just how, exactly, does it plan to reverse its financial misfortunes of the last few years?
We may now have one part of the answer. IDG News Service reports that Sun plans to lay off some 5,000 employees, amounting to as much as 13 percent of its workforce. In addition, it will sell three of its U.S. campus facilities.
Sun's board has already approved the moves, as well as new operational goals, including modest revenue growth. But what do you think? Is tightening its belt what it will take to pull Sun out of its slump?
Posted by Neil McAllister on May 31, 2006 02:50 PM
May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
McAfee's Falcon set to take off
McAfee has announced an all-in-one security subscription service code-named Falcon.
Competition in the security software market is heating up: Falcon is targeted at competitors Microsoft, who today shipped its Windows OneCare, and Symantec, whose Genesis product is due this fall.
The Falcon service contains all the usual security suite components as well as PC backup and tune-up tools -- features common to all three rivals' products.
A beta version of Falcon, which has been under development for more than 12 months, is expected within the "next few weeks," according to a McAfee spokesman.
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 31, 2006 07:30 AM
May 31, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Pentagon mistakes EA game for terrorist agitprop?
There are reports that the Pentagon and defense contractor SAIC in early May showed footage from a standard add-on package to the Electronic Arts popular Battlefield 2 video game, claiming it was a clever al Qaeda manipulation of that game that was being used for propaganda.
The bubbling controversy stems from reports about testimony given to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on May 4 by Dan Devlin, described as a DoD public diplomacy specialist, and SAIC executive Eric Michael. The testimony, which is available online, is actually a fascinating read, with experts talking to Congress about the myriad ways that terrorist groups are using technology and the Internet to spread their message, and how woefully prepared the U.S. was and is to counter the efforts of nimble and tech savvy terrorists.
As part of the talk, it appears, House members were shown video footage from terrorist propaganda films as well as a video game that allowed the player to play the part of jihadi's taking shots at U.S. troops. Not surprisingly, it was that latter aspect that the media picked up on in its coverage with headlines like "Islamists using video games in youth appeal."
"Tech-savvy militants from al Qaeda and other groups have modified video war games so that U.S. troops play the role of bad guys in running gunfights against heavily armed Islamic radical heroes, Defense Department official and contractors told Congress," the Reuters article on the testimony reads, in part.
Now it turns out that may not be true. According to a May 11th post on the gamepolitics blog, the footage shown to House members was from an official Battlefield 2 expansion pack called Special Forces ($17.99). Playing rebels and insurgents isn't a dastardly mod by al Qaeda operatives, it's just a feature of the game (dude!). But wait...it gets worse. Gamepolitics readers picked up on another detail from the Reutuers story, which noted that the footage shown to House members included voice over narration about "infidels coming to my village in BlackHawk helicopters." That little bit, it turns out, may have been taken from the intro to the satirical South Park Movie Team America World Police -- a hillarious send up of U.S. miliatrism.
Gamepolitics tracked down the person who they claim married the Team America voice over narration to the Battlefield 2 footage and released it online -- a 25 year old Dutch Morroccan named Samir who uses the online name Sonic Jihad (he got the name from a song by the rapper Paris.)
Here's Samir's dark motivation for creating the video, from the Gamepolitics e-mail interview:
"Yes I am Muslim. But my ethnic background and religion have nothing to do with this video. My political views are like most of the people of Europe. We think that Team America IS the WORLD police ;) I live in the west, I love the west and I do love American culture. Especially rap such as Eazy-E, NWA, Public Enemy, T-KASH and especially.... Paris! Did my views effect my choice? Nah man we were just making videos for fun. Just look at the [BF2] community, there are lots of videos made."
Great.
TechWatch put calls in to SAIC, the House Committee and the Pentagon. As yet, there hasn't been any response on whether House Intelligence Committee members will be updated on the true nature of the "al Qaeda" video game component of their briefing. We would hope they would.
Beyond that, it seems that there are a couple sad things about this episode. First of all, it's more than a little ironic that a presentation about the U.S.'s woeful inability to keep up with the terrorists and understand what they're doing online ends up illustrating exactly how clueless the Pentagon and its private sector partners are about what are and are not online terrorist threats. I mean, could nobody at SAIC or the DoD have loaded up Battlefield 2 to see whether the footage they picked up off an "extremeist" site was evidence of al Qaeda manipulation or standard game functionality? Bin Laden has truly won a victory if even our own military and intelligence specialists are so in awe of him and his network that we uncritically ascribe anything smacking of anti-Americanism to him and his minions-- after all, they get to take credit for a lot of stuff they didn't even do!
I think it's also sad that it was the video game bit (and now, maybe the gaffe over the origin of the game footage) that grabbed the headlines, not the actual content of the presentation, which was a lucid and insightful discussion of what the U.S. must do to counter the influence of jihadists online, with passages like this one:
"In order for U.S. government information operations to become more effective, more specifically focused and better tailored to the variety of audiences we seek to inform and influence, we must obtain a far better understanding of our enemy and the constituencies that our adversaries have already proven effective in reaching and motivating. “If you know the enemy and know yourself,” Sun Tzu famously advised centuries ago, “you need not fear the results of a
hundred battles.” The war on terrorism has now lasted longer than America’s involvement in World War II: yet, even today we cannot claim with any credibility, much less, acuity to have fulfilled Sun Tzu’s timeless admonition.
Posted by Paul Roberts on May 31, 2006 06:24 AM
May 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Author's blog response to criticism of Imagining a day without Microsoft column
To all the emailers who said there was too much space between my ears because I expressed the thought in my column "Imagining a Day Without Microsoft" that it would not be as easy as you think, I posit this question.
Most of the emails ticked off the many alternatives to Microsoft products, but I say, how well has Mozilla really been tested?
Let as many millions or even billion people as use IE, Outlook and Office pound on Firefox, Thunderbird and StarOffice and then tell me how well it holds up, doesn't crash, isn't subject to viruses, pop-ups, etc.
Volume, and I mean big volumes, makes a world of difference. I'm not saying they wouldn't survive such a test but what I am saying is they haven't been tested to that extent.
Ephraim
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on May 30, 2006 09:46 AM
May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Sun eyes embedded Java, object-aware CPUs
Sun Microsystems researchers are working on projects in areas ranging from embedded Java to boosting the ability of microprocessors to handle objects.
In a meeting with InfoWorld at Sun offices in Menlo Park, Calif., on Friday afternoon, Sun researchers discussed several projects:
* Squawk, which places a Java Virtual Machine (JVM) directly on the processor. This project is intended to increase use of Java on embedded devices such as wireless sensors.
* Maxwell, which purports to develop an object-aware memory architecture to enable microprocessors to handle objects, such as Java objects.
* Jedi, providing an environment for exploring proposed modifications to the Java platform.
* Semplice, to enable Visual Basic applications to run on the JVM. This effort was first discussed at the JavaOne 2006 conference in San Francisco last week. Visual Basic developers would be able to leverage their current programming skills but deploy to the JVM.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 26, 2006 05:14 PM
May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft is setting its sights on the JPEG imaging standard with its own Windows Media Photo, reports Microsoft Watcher Mary Jo Foley.
Microsoft introduced the spec at WinHEC this week, touting its ability to "allow users to correct, render and print photos in half the size a comparable JPEG requires."
Prima facie improvement aside, too bad Microsoft did not turn its interest to ODF rather than JPEG. So, could this be ready any other way than a new land grab that will lock people into Microsoft's products at some point?
PC World puts the big question mark out there: "For Windows Media Photo to make sense, it needs to be supported by cameras, printers, photo software, browsers, and an array of other devices and applications that create, edit, manage, or simply display photos. Does Microsoft plan to invest immense amounts of energy in convincing a gazillion third parties to implement it? Does it see Windows Media Photo as replacing JPEG, or providing an alternative? (Right now, you'd be nuts to buy a camera which only captured images in WMP; one that provided it as an option might be intriguing.)
Check out the full spec here and let us know what you think. (And, what ever happened to PNG?)
Posted by Mike Barton on May 26, 2006 03:45 PM
May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
PC World has gathered 25 products so bad that they belong in the high-tech hall of shame. IDG contributer Dan Tynan writes:
At PC World, we spend most of our time talking about products that make your life easier or your work more productive. But it's the lousy ones that linger in our memory long after their shrinkwrap has shriveled, and that make tech editors cry out, "What have I done to deserve this?"
You'll find AOL at the top of the list: "How do we loathe AOL? Let us count the ways."; but RealPlayer and Microsoft take hist for some versions of their core software.
Ahh, it is fun to relish the real duds. Care to share any of your favorite flunkies? Talk back to us below
Posted by Mike Barton on May 26, 2006 09:41 AM
May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Vista rating tool gets retooled
Criticism from hardware makers is leading Microsoft to tune and adjust a rating tool for Windows Vista that is meant to help users determine how well a PC runs software like the upcoming OS.
According to Brad Silverburg, quoted in a cNet report, the current version of the Windows System Performance Rating feature could be "misleading."
And AMD is reported to have noticed that the Microsoft test isn't always in line with industry standard benchmarks.
If you've had a chance to test drive this PC rating tool, let us know what kind of results you got.
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 26, 2006 07:41 AM
May 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft confirms Ultimate Office
Microsoft confirmed this week that it is planning an Ultimate version of Office 2007 that will be similar to the enterprise edition that is available only to large businesses.
According to a cNet story, the new retail package will offer nearly all the components available to large businesses in one $679 product.
A company spokeman told Microsoft Watch that "Microsoft Office Ultimate 2007 will give people working at home access to the full line-up of 2007 Microsoft Office applications so they can create, find, manage and share information across boundaries using the toolset they're familiar with at the office."
The Ultimate Edition was first noted by sharp-eyed folks at Bink.nu who spotted it in a slide during Bill Gates' WinHEC keynote this week.
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 26, 2006 06:15 AM
May 25, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Informatica helping out with Salesforce.com links
Little noticed in the recent flurry of Salesforce.com activity this week was an announcement Wednesday that Informatica will be delivering a new product, PowerCenter Connect for salesforce.com, that is intended to help customers integrate Salesforce with existing, internal data.
Integration is still the Achilles heel of SaaS (software as a service), so this is significant -- particularly for existing customers of Informatica, which specializes in data integration (or "data as a service") solutions. Over the long haul Informatica intends to provide hosted data integration among business partners, which the company predicts will boost BPO (business process outsourcing) efforts.
(By Eric Knorr)
Posted by Paul Krill on May 25, 2006 04:18 PM
May 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Liberty eyes consumers with Web services project
The Liberty Alliance plans to give its Web services framework a consumer-oriented bent, enabling federated social networking.
A version of the new framework is set to be released for public review within a couple of weeks. It will be followed by a review period before a final version is set this fall.
With the upgraded framework, users will be able to share items such as music lists, photos and calendars, with privacy and security issues addressed by the framework, said Brett McDowell director of the Liberty Alliance. "We're solving the identity theft problem with this from an online perspective," McDowell said.
There will be no way, for example, for phishing of identities.
The Liberty Alliance focuses on developing a standard for federated network identity supporting current and emerging network devices. The alliance this week announced the launch of its Global Web Services Deployment Program, featuring a kick-off event in San Francisco on June 12.
The program features workshops focused on identity-enabled Web services. Liberty believes that federation is needed for identity-enabled Web services to advance.
The June 12 event will feature alliance members from Intel, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and Neustar.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 24, 2006 02:42 PM
May 24, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Rumor is building that a Google music store, which could compete with Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store and other download services, is in the works.
"The most recent evidence is adding "/music" to google.com's robots.txt file, meaning that such a subdirectory is expected to be created any time," reports the News.com media blog.We also noticed this odd behavior earlier today. No "google.com/music" Web site exists on the public Internet. But searching Google's index for "google.com/music" yields a different result than the standard "Sorry, no information is available for the URL" error message.
There's also news of job ads for Google Audio in New York. Well this could all be related to yesterday's announcement the Google would start delivering video ads.
But without a music store on the horizon, how do we explain Google's ownership if Googlemusic.com since 2003?
I think this segues into a rant I want to make about Apple and its lock-down approach of iTunes to its iPods. ITunes is good, but not great; same goes for the iPod.
Time has come for some fresh thinking in digital music land and Google is the one that can really break the doors down on this DRM madness with some universality, which Real is trying but is not really up to on its own, in my opinion after trying Rhapsody vs. Napster. Still, at least Real is flipping its nose at Apple by allowing iPod users to use its RealPlayer software and service. Nice.
So, since we are in crystall ball land with this whole post, I predict Google is going to buy Real and run with a universal services that will be able to convert DRM to a universal standard and let iPod and all other media player users use its service.
It will launch this whole shindig a la Napster with a free run of music at lower quality, and undercut on price the others with a hybrid ad-subscriptions service.
Send me your wishlist on digital music. Great start, but what needs to change, and who is up to the job?
Hey, is that a Google employee at WinHEC who is wearing a hazmat suit protesting Microsoft's DRM??
Posted by Mike Barton on May 24, 2006 09:53 AM
May 23, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft on Tuesday made the WinFX Beta 2 release available with a Go Live license, giving the green light for early adopters to deploy applications in production environments using the WinFX managed APIs.
A Go Live license also is featured for the Windows Presentation Foundation presentation subsystem that is part of WinFX.
Microsoft announced the beta at the Windows Hardware and Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Seattle.
WinFX offers a unified programming model that is a superset of the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 combined Windows Presentation Foundation, the Windows Communication Foundation Web services technology and the Windows Workflow Foundation workflow engine. InfoCard identity management technology also is featured.
A core part of the Windows Vista OS, WinFX enables developers to build modern applications and experiences that are more reliable and secure, according to Microsoft. WinFX also focuses on information management and collaboration.
The beta and the Go Live license are available for download at the Microsoft Download Center, found here.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 23, 2006 01:28 PM
May 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft framework changes get color combo
To assist developers, Microsoft is assigning a traffic light color scheme - red and green - to assess .Net Framework updates. Or, if you prefer, a Christmas tree color combo.
In a blog entry entitled, "Orcas, .Net Framework compatability," Microsoft's S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division, described the company's plan to assign the colors green and red to enhancements and new features.
"The approach we are taking is aimed at minimizing the impact of delivering new features and functionality by servicing existing runtime components in-place and then advancing the platform with new assemblies. Internally we're referring to this as the 'red and green' model," he wrote.
"Red assemblies include things like WPF [Windows Presentation Foundation], WCF [Windows Communication Foundation] and WF [Windows Workflow Foundation], which will ship as part of Windows Vista and .Net Framework 2.0 that shipped with Visual Studio 2005. Our goal for dealing with red items is to deliver service pack-like compatibility. We are going to try very hard to minimize the overall number of changes being done in 'red bits' to help reduce churn and achieve very high levels of compatibility," Somasegar said.
"Green assemblies are where we will be introducing new functionality into the platform. The aim is to have any new feature be additive (for example new controls) rather than a reimplementation of an existing feature (outside of the servicing I mentioned above). Finally we want to ensure that installing any new assembly will not impact an existing application. For example, for [the] C# language in Orcas, we will make a small "red bits" change to allow you to get at the new compiler and the new compiler is then a "green bits" addition.
"If you write a component that depends on a red assembly you can be assured that we're going to do everything we can to ensure binary compatibility for your code even as we update the .Net Framework and WPF, WCF, WF as we move forward. All the major new features you’ll see from us will appear in the green assemblies so you can feel comfortable that both your new and old code will work on the target machine," said Somasegar.
The effort is "about being more defined in how our model for developer components is going to evolve in the future," said Tony Goodhew, Microsoft product planner for Visual Studio, in an interview on Monday morning.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 22, 2006 02:04 PM
May 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
I switched and just switched back and have never been happier.
That's right, three years ago I switched to an Apple iMac, the white one that looked like half a basketball with the monitor growing out of the top.
I absolutely fell in love with the design and had to have one.
But, perhaps I'm a slow learner, or I've spent too many years using a PC. I started on a Televideo with an 8-inch floppy disk drive, then an Osborne, then a Kaypro, went to a Compaq portable and an IBM XT, then a series of plain vanilla desktops and notebooks.
Whatever the reason I never really understood the Mac file structure and that eventually is what led to my switching back. I just never figured why the Mac saves things where it does.
I find it much easier to create files and folders on a PC. And for those that claim it is easier to add peripherals to a Mac, that is no longer true. Plug and play really works, at least for me.
I plugged in a flash card reader, two printers, an external hard drive, and a router without a hiccup. It just knew what everything was, installed the drivers and away I went.
I paid $565 for my 1.5GHz notebook with a 15-inch screen and added enough memory, hard drive capacity and a DVD burner to make it quite usable. The final bill just about doubled the price but that was with an external 17-inch flat panel, keyboard and mouse.
Honestly, I feel like I've come back to an old friend. Even when it crashes, which the Mac did too mind you, I don't panic. I know what to do, control-alt-delete. It's so simple.
Well, I'm bracing for the hate mail. But I do like being a contrarian. I admit that. If there are any other contrarians out there add a comment to this blog.
Maybe there's somebody still using their Amiga or Commodore 64. I'd love to hear from you.
Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on May 22, 2006 10:47 AM
May 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Blue Security: Spam victim, or just a really bad idea?
Much has been made in the technology press this week about the demise of the Israeli antispam firm Blue Security, which was put out of business by an unknown Russian spammer who called himself (herself?) "Pharmamaster."
If you remember, Blue was a company that used a network of software agents, dubbed "Blue Frog," to collect examples of spam and, when necessary, spam the servers of companies selling products advertised in the spam messages with "Opt Out" requests, which companies are mandated by the U.S. CAN SPAM law to comply with. With one Opt out request for each spam message received, the campaigns amounted to denial of service attacks on spam sponsor sites.
According to reports, Blue had become a hassle for After weeks of sustained denial of service attacks from pissed-off spammers, CEO Eran Reshef threw in the towel earlier this week. In a published statements and interviews with InfoWorld, Reshef put the battle in near-cosmic terms, saying that the spammers would "rip apart the Internet" using a bot network that was "a weapon of mass destruction."
Other experts begged to disagree and said that Reshef was just the target of a somewhat larger than average DOS attack -- which he probably should have expected when he decided to start messing with their business.
In fact, maybe the one thing that antispam crusaders and spammers agree on is that Blue wasn't a very good idea -- and wasn't destined to be very effective at stopping spam.
"Most of the people I know from the security community don't think (automated Opt-Out campaigns) are a justified resposne. They're too prone to misdirection and collateral damage," said Todd Underwood, at Renesys in Manchester, NH in an interview with InfoWorld earlier this month.
And that's what happened earlier in May, when Blue tried to shift operations to a Blog hosted by Six Apart. Once the spammers realized the trick, they launched attacks on Six Aparts servers, denying the good users of LiveJournal, Typepad and other blogging services access to their sites.
"People want to hit back," said John Thielens, CTO at antispam firm Tumbleweed in Redwood City, California. "But you don't hit back with the same tools they use to attack you. Because they're a lot better at using them than you will ever be."
That is apparently the conclusion that folks at Blue reached, too.
"After recovering from the attack, we determined that once we reactivated the Blue Community, spammers would resume their attacks. We cannot take the responsibility for an ever-escalating cyber war through our continued operations."
While that "ever-escalating cyber War" would ever spread much beyond the boundaries of Blue Security's domain is unclear.
But spam experts said the demise of Blue Security probably won't make much difference.
"It's not a victory for spammers. It's just business as usual," said Thielens.
Posted by Paul Roberts on May 19, 2006 01:54 PM
May 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Cutting-edge Java technologies in areas such as code refactoring and real-time operations were featured at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on Friday morning.
James Gosling, CTO for the Java enterprise and developer group at Sun, hosted a morning session touting what's going on with Java. Technologies featured included:
* Jackpot, a NetBeans technology that features next-generation code refactoring. It searches for and replaces patterns. Developers can create their own refactorings.
* Java Everywhere technology, which leverages the Sun Java application server, Web services, cell phones and technologies such as RFID for deploying client applications such as checking of orders.
* Java Specification Request 209, for deploying Java Platform, Standard Edition applications on cell phones. Functions such as 2D rendering are enabled. "For my money, the single most amazing thing about JSR 209 is that threading finally works on a cell phone," Gosling said.
* Real-time garbage collection, in which resources are allocated so a set of threads can make progress without being impeded by garbage collection activities. Garbage collection involves dealing with the automatic management of dynamic memory.
* Sun Java Real Time Application Server, providing for functions such as streaming of video on the application server. "The real-time application server isn't for everybody. It's for people who need real-time responses," said Greg Bollella, Distinguished Engineer at Sun.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 19, 2006 01:34 PM
May 19, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Motorola cites Java cell phone opportunities
Java-enabled mobile phones present a great opportunity for Java application developers, Motorola officials stressed at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on Thursday evening.
There are hundreds of millions of Java-enabled devices, said Christy Wyatt, Motorola vice president of ecosystem and market development for mobile devices. "It's a huge market opportunity for developers," she said.
Rob Shaddock, chief technology officer for mobile devices at the company, noted the dramatic size of the cell phone market, with its 2 billion subscribers. "This makes it the largest consumer electronics business on the planet, bar none," Shaddock said.
Mobile phones allow for taking content wherever you go and are displacing devices such as public phones and alarm clocks, said Shaddock. "We’ve replaced the public phones. They keep disappearing everywhere," Shaddock said.
Important trends in mobile phones include: Internet Protocol serving as the common thread; mobile, broadband technologies creating new opportunities and software driving a rich new experience.
"Everything converges around IP. That means that applications can handle all kinds of content the same way," said Shaddock.
Users can roam between Wi-Fi and cellular networks and move content around, Shaddock said. A seamless world is being created in which content can be available anywhere and anytime.
"The mobile phone is actually your identity," said Shaddock. Great opportunities exist for applications, he said, citing peer-to-peer gaming as one example of an application area for cell phones.
Linux and Java becoming critical for cell phones. Java provides portability for applications, Shaddock added.
"The future of mobile is about software and it is about creating the ecosystem," he said.
But cell phone application development is challenged by the rapid acceleration of technology and platform fragmentation, Wyatt said. Motorola is seeking to overcome these obstacles with its Java unification effort for mobile phones and use of open source. The company also seeks to enable a single developer experience through its Motodev effort.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 19, 2006 08:08 AM
May 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Java EE 5 (Java Platform, Enterprise Edition 5), the new version of the platform, supports an alternative Web services technology.
Programming in the REST (Representational State Transfer) style is enabled in Java EE 5, said Joe Keller, Sun vice president of marketing for SOA & Integration Platforms. "The improvement in the Java APIs for Web services included the ability to call in and out of Java using REST," Keller said.
Sometimes seen as an alternative to the more common SOAP and WSDL Web services, REST offers a simpler, albeit not as heavy-duty, method for ad hoc Web services, according to Sun officials at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on Thursday afternoon.
"It simplifies the way in which a developer has to work with calls back and forth between remote systems," said Dan Roberts, Sun director of developer tools marketing.
While SOAP and WSDL can equip a Web service with functionality such as management and security, REST enables a quicker path. "In some cases, you just want to get something [done] very quickly and that's what REST provides," Roberts said.
Also at JavaOne, Keller noted work is under way on a real-time Java application server project, in which the application server would respond to real-time events such as stock feeds and weather information.
In another discussion at the conference, Jean Elliott, director of Java product marketing for the Java Standard Edition Platform, said Sun hears from what appears to be a minority of people in favor of open sourcing of Java.
"However, we hear from an equally vocal majority that say quality, stability and compatability matter," she said.
Sun is forging ahead with plans to offer Java through an open source format. The company has not committed to a timetable for doing so, Elliott noted.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 18, 2006 04:34 PM
May 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Feeds 2.0: Are you hungry for personalized RSS?
Innovate Europe has spit out some interesting players this year, and Feeds 2.0 is one highlighted by Techcrunch.
Techcrunch writes:
The reader is definitely rough and in need of further development, but the personalization engine is rock solid and will be popular with some users. Feeds 2.0 monitors what you like and dislike about individual posts in your feed list and presents posts to you based on what it thinks you will want to read next. Attention information comes in via what you read (clicking on the title or expand buttons), what you mark as good (similar to Rojo’s Mojo feature) and what you mark as uninteresting. All of your feedback is run through their algorithm, along with feedback on those posts from other users, to help determine what order your posts are shown to you.
What sounds cool to me is how feeds can be sliced and diced for presentation by feed by feed basis, or by all content in reverse chronological order, or - if turned on - by personalization.
Descriptive tags for each post are generated by the reader, aiding find content. Social tagging is a no-show just yet.
Sign up for a private beta at the Feed 2.0 Web site and leave your thoughts in feedback here so others can see.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 18, 2006 10:04 AM
May 18, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Open source still raises enterprise eyebrows
Open source still brings with it concerns of exactly what its impacts are, according to two Sun Microsystems customers at the JavaOne conference on Wednesday.
Users of Sun's recently acquired SeeBeyond middleware said they initially had reservations about using open source, but their fears were later allayed.
"We definitely have concerns about open sourcing," said Mary Rich, manager of information technology at CenterPoint Energy in Houston. Sun, though, still will offer commercial support for its open source offerings, she noted.
Sun this week released several technologies to open source, including the Java CAPS BPEL (Composite Application Platform Suite Business Process Execution Language) engine acquired with the SeeBeyond buy.
At The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, management had the same concerns, said Albert Edwards Jr. director of the Office of Clinical Integration & Interfaces in the IT division at the foundation. But the organization has been using open source offerings from MySQL and JBoss and found that they still could get support, he said.
"Open source was a scary and unknown term in IT. Management was pushing away from it," Edwards said. The availability of support eased tensions, he said.
Commenting on the Sun-SeeBeyond merger, Edwards was not encouraged by the lack of feedback right after the deal.
"The first four or five months after the acquisition, there was a lot of silence in the merger." Edwards said.
Edwards said he no idea where Sun or SeeBeyond were going. But since February, there has been a "constant barrage" of communication, including a strategic roadmap, said Edwards.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 18, 2006 08:11 AM
May 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
MacBook: price parity a first?
Apple's new 13-inch widescreen MacBook in black has road warrior written all over it. But perhaps more interesting is that it will, for the first time, put a Mac notebook a near price parity with closely equipped Wintel laptops.
And don't forget Boot Camp means Windows on the new Intel-based MacBooks is but a restart away.
At the full-tilt, and if you want business black, the MacBook is well well equipped (especially if you consider the Mac software bundle) at $1,499. They start at $1099.
Yeah, you can buy some Celeron Dells for about $500, but that's not what these compete with. HP-Compaq's new NC6400, which is pretty close, sells for $1549 online.
I think 14-inch widescreens are the sweetspot for portability and big as needed screen. The new MacBook is 13-inch, which nudges more into ultralight and is probably pretty good for most uses. And, despite having to pony up for a full version of XP if you go dual boot, the ability to do so could be enough to push some now that price parity is there.
Is price parity the big news here? Talk back to us below.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 17, 2006 11:42 AM
May 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Java: It's not just for Java anymore
The JavaOne conference in San Francisco this week puts a spotlight on running dynamic scripting languages and Visual Basic on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).
"The point is, the Java platform is way bigger than the Java language," said Tim Bray, Sun director of Web technologies.
Projects discussed Tuesday in multiple JavaOne sessions included:
* Quercus, which implements PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) on the JVM.
* JRuby, running Ruby on the JVM.
* Project Phobos, for server-side JavaScript.
* Project Semplice, putting Visual Basic on the JVM.
Running scripting languages on the JVM provides several benefits, Bray said. Java developers can take advantage of these scripting languages and non-Java developers can avail themselves to the JVM. Meanwhile, scripting languages get performance boosts.
"One of the things all these dynamic languages tend to have is really lousy threading and concurrency," Bray said. The JVM makes them run faster, he said.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 17, 2006 08:12 AM
May 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
New: Google Web Toolkit. Build AJAX apps in Java!
I'm not a developer and even I think Google's new Web Toolkit (GWT) is cool. Basically, this is a Java development framework for AJAX (Asynchronus Java and XML). That means now you, too, can make gnarly AJAX applications like maps.google.com, gmail, etc. using your favorite Java development tools. Google released the new toolkit yesterday (in beta, of course) and is demoing it at the Sun JavaOne conference today.
From the FAQ: "With GWT, you can develop and debug AJAX applications in the Java language using the Java development tools of your choice. When you deploy your application to production, the GWT compiler translates your Java application to browser-compliant JavaScript and HTML.
GWT includes a Java-to-JavaScript compiler and a special web browser that helps you debug your GWT applications.
Google's also got a nice online developer guide here.
The examples of GWT in action are pretty cool -- I'm especially impressed with the pop-up stuff, including a draggable dialog a la Google Maps, and even a mock-up Gmail-style desktop mail application. Let a million Outlooks bloom.
;-)
Enjoy.
Posted by Paul Roberts on May 17, 2006 06:16 AM
May 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft introduced its interactive map masher-upper MapCrunch.
Microsoft says:
MapCruncher enables a user to take existing road maps and aerial imagery and overlay particular, specialized maps to create unique mash-ups tailored to the user’s specific interests.MapCruncher consists of two panes and a left-side control panel. The right-hand pane provides Virtual Earth aerial imagery from Windows Live Local. The center pane is where you navigate to a map you want to mash up with Virtual Earth. Once that map is in place, you zoom to an appropriate level, set a superimposed pair of crosshairs on a specific site on the right-hand pane, set the crosshairs on the center pane at the corresponding point, and click Add.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 16, 2006 04:43 PM
May 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
AOL will take on Hollywood darling YouTube with AOL UnCut, reports say.
Techcrunch writes:
Videos of up to 5 minutes can be uploaded to the service, and they are then converted to the Flash 8 format (same as YouTube). Like YouTube, videos are rated, commented and shareable. Also, any video may be embedded into another website via a code snippet. The only significant difference between AOL UnCut and YouTube is that YouTube supports tagging, whereas UnCut doesnt.
Crunch notes the move follows AOL's recent push into MySpace's space with AIM Pages.
Will any small guys be able to survive with AOL, Yahoo and Google hot on any heels of innovation with the search/portal pressure cooker of late?
Posted by Mike Barton on May 16, 2006 04:33 PM
May 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Windows Media Player 11 leaked
Windows Media Player 11 has been leaked two days before the beta was due to go out to the general public, reports Daily Tech.
For this go-round at challenging the tight grip that Apple's iTunes and iPod have on the music market, Microsoft is trying a swarm approach, choosing to partner with powers inside the music industry--aiming to offer a hipper alternative than it has in the past--as well as with hardware manufacturers. The software company has teamed with music icon MTV and its new subscription online music service, called Urge, to help attract fans. Urge was available on Monday, but it won't make an official debut until Wednesday.
Give it a whirl and let other know what you think below. I'll be giving Vista a whirl over the coming months and sharing thoughts on the very-late next version of Windows here in Tech Watch so keep an eye open for those posts.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 15, 2006 02:55 PM
May 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
In a closely watched move, Snap has unveiled its pay-to-play search.
The Associated Press report sums up the move for consumers: "Snap will lump together search results financed by advertisers in the same column as Web links drawn from algorithms programmed to disregard financial incentives and find the most relevant response to a user's request."
The Merc reports that marketers are drooling at the idea, from the entrepreneur who first showed Google how to spin cyberspace searches into real-world gold, Bill Gross. It "sounds like a dream come true," said Jinenne Sutherland, a manager at Organic.
That's because the $16 billion market for online advertising has a secret. The small text-based ads that made Google a Wall Street superstar do not seem to be working as well as they used to.
Gross said he thinks his new company can be as powerful an idea.
With Snap, advertisers decide how much they are willing to pay if a customer completes a certain action -- like buying a product or filling out a form. Advertisers submit their bids and create a keyword campaign.
If a Snap user visits an advertiser's site and completes the desired action, the advertiser pays Snap. Otherwise, the only cost is a $50 non-refundable sign-up deposit.
"For the advertiser, it's the ultimate," said Snap Chief Executive Tom McGovern. "They only pay when they ring the register."
Snap originally intended to place a light gray "sponsored result" disclaimer next to the Web addresses of all the ads that crop up. Just hours before the new site's debut, Snap decided to make the disclaimers even more prominent by changing the coloring to bright orange and increasing the size of the type. The light gray label wasn't prominent enough to satisfy Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Ralph Nader-based watchdog group behind a 2001 complaint that prompted the FTC to issue its search engine advertising guidelines.
I think the whole online advertising market's click-centrism is leading to more than blurred lines in advertising. Web site that make editorial decisions obsessed with clicks are getting downright blurry editorially.
CNET's News.com, which used to be pretty tight and reliable, has become one I can't grasp. Sure there is not as much tech news compared to the late 1990s, but general science stories such as global warming on an IT Web site? And how many fluffy blog posts can we handle?
The job of responsible journalism is to filter all the garbage to present news that matters. Now that News.com has dropped its "News of change" branding does that mean we'll get even more from anything under the sun with the hope of clicks.
The big question is this: Why are online publishers being held to a different standard than print media? You can't click on a page of printed paper, but a full-page ad may affect your purchasing decisions. Same goes online for me. I hardly ever click other than by mistake. But I do remember ads and brands and associate them with Web sites.
And how does a click differentiate between a CEO and a teenager? That question highlights how the current ad thinking hasn't even evolved to modern publishing practices. Magazines, which are getting ever more vertical, simply cannot work under this model with becoming blurry.
Talk back to us on the big blur -- ads and editorial -- below.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 15, 2006 11:34 AM
May 12, 2006 | Comments: (0)
This one is sure to impress the office colleagues, if one can procure one from Japan apparently.
Enter Sony's MouseTalk, an optical mouse that flips open to act as a VOIP or Skype phone.
Don't say we never break out of the business IT space here at Tech Watch. Count on a bit of frivolity and cool factor every Friday.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 12, 2006 03:53 PM
May 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)
There are a number of reasons a site can be banned from Google's increasingly make-or-break indexing.
The worst thing is not knowing why? SEOJunkie.com has made freely available its web crawl/analysis tool Google Ban Checker, of which author Sufyan writes:
While modding over at SEOChat, I posted a tool Is Banned By Google? Much to my surprise, it became quite popular and I received tons of emails / IMs from people requesting me to improve it some more and to add a couple of features that were not present then. Also, I read many threads at numerous forums people discussing about this tool and asking for an update.So I continued working on this tool whenever I had time to. Now, it is finished up and ready to be used. Since it is quite simple to use, I’m not bothering writing a documentation or how-to.
InfoWorld is having some trouble with Google News picking up our news stories from our main news page, while Tech Watch is picked up apparently as our primary news source.
The biggest problem is we cannot get a straight answer from Google what the problem is, and we cannot find a contact within Google News to resolve the issue.
I don't think this app addresses our Google News problem, what we understand to be a human judgement issue: someone choosing which part of our site to crawl for Google News. But there is no human at Google who will talk to us.
With word from the Google Ban Checker author that it has been popular, one can assume there are a number of people being banned.
Talk back to us and tell if you've been snubbed by the almighty Google. (And if you know anything that might help with our Google News, do share.)
Posted by Mike Barton on May 11, 2006 11:32 AM
May 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Kiwi (New Zealand) Web analyst and consultant Richard McManus' Read/WriteWeb has mapped a rich trove of Web 2.0 resources.
Well, because I am covering the end-user side of Web/Media 2.0 for InfoWorld, I thought I'd add to it here my homework on this mysterious new catch-all term (plus I wanted to revice my earlier post What is Web 2.0? ):
-- Wikipedia on Web 2.0 (start here)
-- Open BC's "The List" on Web 2.0
(Hey, this is from a Google of the topic.)
Posted by Mike Barton on May 11, 2006 10:47 AM
May 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Webcast - Live now; watch later
Google Inc. Press Day - Agenda
9:30 am Welcome
Elliot Schrage
9:40 am How We’re Doing and Where We’re Going
Eric Schmidt
10:10 am A Search Technology Overview
Alan Eustace
10:30 am Be Global, Act Local
Omid Kordestani
11:00 am Break
11:25 am Innovation: Many Shapes, Many Sizes
Jonathan Rosenberg
Marissa Mayer
12:15 pm Executive Q&A
1:00 pm Lunch
Posted by Mike Barton on May 10, 2006 09:56 AM
May 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The FCC today will begin auctioning off frequencies for in-flight Internet service.
As reported by the New York Times, nine companies are expected to bid on the two licenses available, including Verizon Airfone, which pioneered in-flight pay phones.
The winner of the auction will then have to persuade carriers to install their equipment, which will make it possible for passengers to use laptops in-flight to surf the Web or make VoIP calls.
If you are one of those fliers who look forward to boarding planes so you can get away from the demands of phones and e-mail, take heart in one last bastion of peace: The auction will not affect the use of cellphones, which use other frequencies and are (so far) still prohibited in air.
The travel site Tripso conducted a poll that found 83.75 percent of respondents are against the idea of allowing the use of cellphones in-flight, even if they do not interfere with cockpit duties.
The FAA is studying the matter, and last month Air New Zealand customers were granted "limited" use of cellphones by the NZ Civil Aviation Authority. So tell us what you think -- would you welcome the use of cellphones in-flight?
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 10, 2006 06:33 AM
May 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Alienware released two gamer-aimed laptops with built-in Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) Wi-Fi, reports say.
Alienware said the laptops allow users to play complex and interactive games without being tethered to a network by Ethernet cables. It said it is using Airgo's MIMO technology.
MIMO, developed by Airgo, uses multiple antennas to send and receive wireless signals, which, in turn, increases both wireless speed and range.
The will be an intrinsic the forthcoming 802.11n specification, which is expected to receive final ratification by the IEEE within a year, the TechWeb report said.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 9, 2006 10:38 AM
May 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
As we all know, the U.S. is first in a lot of things... World's largest economy, largest military, birthplace of the Blues, and Jazz, Easy Cheese... the list goes on and on.
Up until recently, we were also the World's leader in spyware. No longer. According to the latest statistics from anti-spyware firm Webroot and shared with TechWatch, China is now home to around 42 percent of the Web sites hosting spyware, more than double that of the U.S., at 17 percent.
The statistics come from Webroot's Phileas automated spyware reconnaisance technology and is a marked departure from just a few months ago. In Q4, 2005, the U.S. was home to the most so-called "exploit sites" that distribute spyware, albeit just barely, with 30.54 percent compared with China's 30.31 percent. But no longer.
That's a pretty big about-turn. One possibility is that Phileas is on the fritz. But Webroot's CTO, Gerhard Eschelbeck, the "new World order" is the product of the steady growth in loosely managed and unpatched Web servers in China, which have obviously caught the attention of online criminal gangs.
According to Eschelbeck, Webroot has also seen a surge in overall adware and spyware infections: from 72 percent of all the systems they survey to 87 percent, with a 5 percent jump in malicious code infections, which now turn up on 29 percent of the systems scanned by Webroot's products.
Why? Look no further than the spate of unpatched (0day) Web browser holes in the last six months, including the Windows WFM hole.
Posted by Paul Roberts on May 8, 2006 06:19 PM
May 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Google media day in San Francisco on Wednesday will be flooded by, well, media, so of course expectations are running high for product announcements.
RedHerring.com reports:
Some of the speculation has pointed to a new health vertical from the company, which remained tight-lipped on Monday. "Health has been an area of interest at Google for some time. We have been doing a variety of research in the health area, including how to improve the quality of health-related search results. We have nothing new to announce at this time," said Google spokeswoman Jennifer Hakes.Dan Schatt, an analyst at the consultant firm Celent, said he will be looking for more products along the lines of the calendar Google released in April.
Not good enough, I say.
I want some answers on all the rumor of recent years on dark fiber-free national broadband, GoogleOS, and Google Office.
And I don't expect any tough questions for the Web darling. In a new low for CNET's News.com, one of its reporters is gushing on today about Google's new calendar, which does not even sync with Outlook or others yet.
Seems we're all too happy to have a company that simply gives us what we want in a simple package. Enough already.
And just what to make of Google's latest, the free 3D tool SketchUp? Why?
With the huge talent pool at the Googleplex and free time for each to come up with great ideas I hope the wheels are turning on the next big thing.
Or is Google getting comfortable with having no other competitors it can't just buy and Microsoft following its every move on the pedestrian stuff it could have ticked off years ago?
What should Google be doing for the benefit of Webkind? Send your thoughts along and if I can make the media day I'll see if I can get some answers what is really up its sleeve and put forth your wishlist.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 8, 2006 04:41 PM
May 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
News of Australia-based Zookoda joining the free RSS-to-e-mail service provider's list with sits 2.0 version takes this next wave in push news to a critical mass in my mind.
Techcrunch, which now offers subscription to its RSS via Feedburner's RSS-to-e-mail service, writes: "It competes with Feedburner’s new email product, and while it doesn’t have the benefit of Feedburner’s massive customer base, it does offer a very robust feature set that will be attractive to many bloggers."
I have been trying Squeet for a while now, and while I love it I have to admit I've gone back to getting my RSS in Outlook (via Attensa), mainly because I do all of my blogging at and for work.
But the power of blog-by-e-mail service spells trouble for the trusty newsletter. People can customize the look and fee of their feeds and subscribe to only which RSS they want, and quit subscriptions more easily than compared with complicated subscription centers, within logins and all.
But publishers seem likely to become the winners if this catches on in a big way as I predict. Especially with the trashing of the in-box by spam, a welcomed RSS subscription gets prime placement in the very personal in-box.
Techcrunch says that "based on some stats that Fred Wilson (an investor in FeedBurner) published last year, we can expect about 1 email subscriber for every 5 RSS subscribers."
Not bad. How likely would non-techie people welcome a form window to subscrive rather than the silly orange XML images we still see. What does XML mean to an end user? Extremely Meaningless Lingo (for tech geeks). This could be the way to bring RSS to the masses.
And more advanced, corporate RSS subscribers can benefit from reduced clutter and Web browser real estate with tools for Outlook such as Attensa and inclue.
Question now is, when will Google, Yahoo or Microsoft buy one of these guys and get the ball rolling with the some serious media muscle? (More integration with Gmail would be good too, Google.)
Posted by Mike Barton on May 8, 2006 01:47 PM
May 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
ODF getting cold shoulder from EC
The OpenDocument Format (ODF) may have gotten the ISO's approval last week, but according to a cNet story the European Commission is reluctant to recommend the file format.
Sources say it's Microsoft's drive to obtain standardization for its OpenXML format that may be deterring the EC from backing ODF.
ODF is supported by many applications but not currently by Microsoft Office. However the OpenDocument Foundation says it will release a plug-in for Office to access and save in ODF.
Last October the IDABC -- an EC body that promotes the use of open document formats in public administrations -- said it would recommend OpenDocument, if approved as an ISO standard. But since then Microsoft has stepped up the promotion of Office Open XML.
IDABC is unlikely to specifically recommend OpenDocument now, according to ZDNet UK sources, as it is concerned that a second ISO document standard will emerge later.
That's the "great" thing about standards isn't it? We have so many to choose from. Tell us who you think will -- or should -- prevail in this battle of document formats.
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 8, 2006 07:31 AM
May 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The formal ISO approval of the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard this week is a big step that has all eyes on Microsoft Office.
Now the OpenDocument Foundation's Gary Edwards says it will release a plug-in for Microsoft Office to access and save in OpenDocument Format (ODF), reports Groklaw.
The plugin is being offered to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in response to the its request for information on any plugin for Office that can "easily open, render, and save to ODF files, and also allow translation of documents between Microsoft's binary (.doc, .xls, .ppt) or XML formats and ODF."
Groklaw wrote that the foundation said it has tested the plug-in and it is ready to go. However, a News.com report says it is not ready yet. I've placed a call with Edwards for when it may be available. (Will updte when I hear back.)
But News.com did report this much: "The ODF Plug-in installs on the file menu as a natural and transparent part of the 'open,' 'save,' and 'save as' sequences. As far as end users and other application add-ons are concerned, ODF Plugin renders ODF documents as if (they) were native to MS Office," according to Edwards.
Groklaw writes: "So, to Microsoft: never mind. You don't need to lift a finger."
Posted by Mike Barton on May 5, 2006 03:34 PM
May 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Google a child porn profiteer?
updated | A Nassau County, New York, legislator has sued Google for "putting Child Pornography profits ahead of the well-being of children and community members," reports Chron.com.
Highlights from the report:
"This case is about a multibillion-dollar company that promotes and profits from Child Pornography," the complaint states, adding that Child Pornography "has become an obscenely profitable and integral part" of Google's business model, according to the report.The complaint states that Google's search capability "is so simple and easy that even a child can use it. "Unfortunately," the suit continues, "this is the unabated injury and harm that [Google] has, in fact, facilitated, aided and abetted, in dereliction of its legal duties."
Simple searches on Google not only turn up results that provide easy access to Child Pornography that is readily available for minors to view but also, alarmingly, reveal "sponsored links" that are obscene and illegal from which Google generates sponsorship revenue.
Porn is obviously the Web's dirty little non-secret. (Nielsen//NetRatings says hardcore adult websites regularly rank in the top five for men aged 25-54 in its competition index, which reveals standout trends in web use, I have reported for The Sydney Morning Herald.) But child porn is a far differentt matter, in most states and countries.
China is one thing when it comes to PR disasters for the do-no-evil web giant. Child porn is an entirely more difficult matter when it comes to staunch family groups.
Clearly parents have a duty to tame the Web for their kids.
A Google spokesman said: "Child pornography is vile and illegal and Google prohibits it in our products. When we find or are made aware of any child pornography, we remove it from our products, including our search engine. We also report it to the appropriate law enforcement officials and fully cooperate with the law enforcement community to combat child pornography. In addition, Google offers a service called SafeSearch for our search engine that works to filter out adult content."
He said the company's advertising policy, "which is online, says specifically: Advertising is not permitted for the promotion of child pornography or other non-consensual material."
More information about SafeSearch can be found on its Web site.
Is Google, and the others, doing enough to cleanse the Web of child porn? Talk back to us below.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 5, 2006 11:10 AM
May 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Botmaster pleads guilty to govt., hospital hacks
When building a botnet, please take pains to avoid herding machines used to care for the sick or, say, conduct top secret weapons research for the military, okay?
That's the lesson in the latest news from Washington State where 20 year old botherder Christopher Maxwell pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of "Conspiracy to Intentionally Cause Damage to a Protected Computer" and Commit Computer Fraud, and Intentionally Causing or Intending to Cause Damage to a Protected Computer." Phew! That's a mouthful. The long and short of it is that Maxwell, of Vacaville, California, created a “botnet” that included computers from sensitive military networks and those belonging to Seattle’s Northwest Hospital, where his online activities caused a major computer disruption last year: doors to the operating rooms didn't open, pagers used by physicians did not work and computers in the intensive care unit shut down. Nice.
Maxwell and his buddies also managed to rope in 400 systems belonging to the U.S. Department of Defense computer systems at the Headquarters 5th Signal Command in Manheim, Germany and the Directorate of Information Management in Fort Carson, Colorado.
According to the DOJ, Maxwell and two unnamed co-conspirators created their botnet to distribute adware and rake in the dollars. The scheme earned them $100,000 in fraudulent payments from adware companies that had their software installed.
Maxwell will be sentenced in August and could face up to ten years in prison and a quarter million dollar fine. That's in addition to the $390,000 in damages he owes Northwest Hospital and the government to clean up their computers.
Posted by Paul Roberts on May 5, 2006 10:56 AM
May 05, 2006 | Comments: (0)
AOL adds free phone service to AIM
AOL this month will begin offering its instant messaging users a phone number that lets them receive free incoming calls from regular phones while they are online. The AOL Phoneline service will compete with popular Internet telephone provider Skype.
AOL will also offer an upgrade to the Phoneline service that allows users to make an unlimited number of outgoing calls for $14.90 per month, or an introductory price of $9.95 a month.
In another sign that AOL is going on the offensive, the company also plans to introduce a blogging service, AIM Pages, in an attempt to compete with News Corp.'s popular MySpace.com social networking service. According to a New York Times report, a preview version of the service will be available to AIM users by the end of next week.
The moves are clearly aimed at revitalizing AOL, which still holds the lead in the messaging market. As Jupiter Research VP David Card says in today's New York Times article, "There's life in the old dog yet."
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 5, 2006 05:38 AM
May 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)
As had been anticipated, the Java Community Process (JCP) has approved the Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) 5 specification, Sun Microsystems said on Thursday.
Sun called Java EE 5 the most significant update of the programming model for enterprise Java development since the launch of J2EE 1.2 in December 1999. The Java EE 5 Software Development Kit and Compatability Test Suite are due to be available during the JavaOne conference in two weeks.
"Java EE 5 accelerates and radically simplifies enterprise Java development by removing boilerplate code, relying upon reasonable defaults whenever possible, and providing a broader set of commonly used utility classes," said Bill Shannon, distinguished engineer and JSR (Java Specification Request) 244 Spec Lead, Sun Microsystems, in a prepared statement released by Sun. "The new ease-of-development features in Java EE 5 are designed to allow developers to get more accomplished in less time and to reduce the complexity of the code they produce."
New features include support for Enterprise JavaBeans 3.0, to simplify programming, as well as backing for the Java Persistence APIs and JavaServer Faces 1.2. Web services support has been enhnanced as well.
Companies such as BEA Systems, JBoss, IBM, Oracle and SAP are backing Java EE 5.
Posted by Paul Krill on May 4, 2006 09:28 AM
May 04, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft takes AdCenter stage
The arms race between Microsoft and Google moves to a new level today with Microsoft's splashy launch of its AdCenter platform for search engine advertising.
The rivalry between the companies has been heating up rapidly this week, what with Amazon dumping Google for Windows Live, Google complaining to the EC about the anti-competitive nature of IE7's search link, and speculation swirling about Microsoft mulling a deal with Yahoo to fight Google
Microsoft is taking very seriously its mission to make inroads into Internet services and software, where Google is a leader. As an analyst quoted in the New York Times said: "Microsoft doesn't have to kill Google, but it has to narrow the gap."
AdCenter is Microsoft's most determined effort yet to catch Google. As Steve Ballmer spelled out in a memo last week, "Further growth of AdCenter is key" to taking on the search giant.
Speaking to MSN advertisers on Wednesday, Bill Gates addressed the issue of the companies' rivalry and pledged that his company would "keep Google honest."
I'm tempted to say "Physician heal thyself." What do you say?
Posted by Caroline Craig on May 4, 2006 07:46 AM
May 03, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft evangelist Robert Scoble has weighed in on Gartner's report that says Vista will ship even later than told, in Q2 2007, with a mostly a no comment.
He writes in his Scobleizer blog:
"I'm staying out of this one cause I've learned over and over that I can't accurately predict shipping dates in the software industry. I will say that I'm enjoying the latest builds of Windows Vista and things are looking good, so I have no reason to doubt Microsoft's spokespeople on this one."Again, I'd rather pressure the Windows team to get it right, and don't ship unless it's ready. Dana Epp, security expert, says the same thing."
But Scoble did not hesitate to plug Ed Bott's Microsoft Report, which questions Gartner's own track record on predictions:
"I've lost count of the number of times Gartner has been off with similar predictions. This is the same company that called Windows XP "a minor service release for Windows 2000" and predicted that Microsoft would deliver an interim release of Windows (XP Reloaded) in the second half of 2005 (they weren't the only ones to blow that call, of course). Gartner's crack analysts, working hand in hand with Microsoft also were the first to report that Microsoft's enterprise server products would be released in late 2001 under the name Windows 2002. Oops. They got that right except for the name and the date."
Microsofts chief Steve Ballmer is a betting man. Care to place your bet on when Vista will hit store shelves?
Posted by Mike Barton on May 3, 2006 09:29 AM
May 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft's chief executive officer, Steve Ballmer, defending company spending plans that have triggered a 12 percent stock price drop since last Thursday, wrote to employees in an e-mail: "Throughout our history, Microsoft has won by making big, bold bets."
"I believe that now is not the time to scale back the scope of our ambition or the scale of our investment," Ballmer wrote. "While our opportunities are greater than ever, we also face new competitors, faster-moving markets and new customer demands."
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran excerpts on of the e-mail on its Web site.
Core in his appeal that spending was on target, Ballmer said Google was the reason behind some of the spending, taking aim at Google's revolutionary AdSense. "Further development of [our response] adCenter is key -- our goal is to create the Web's largest advertising network, giving us an engine that will enable us to monetize our services and compete against Google."
Where's the big, bold bet? Google is betting on its talent pool, and backing it with generous time to innovate. Question is, when will Microsoft stop chasing Google and start innovating? (See PC World's Full Disclosure: Microsoft Innovation--An Oxymoron). Let's hope after it catches up...
Posted by Mike Barton on May 2, 2006 02:51 PM
May 02, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Pluck formally introduced its syndication network promo service BlogBurst today.
"Several major newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News and the Austin American-Statesman, are now syndicating and displaying blog content from Pluck Corpration's BlogBurst network," Editor & Publisher reports.
The service is said to be ithe industry's first blog syndication network, using a blog-powered newswire service.
In a second blast, Techcrunch reports the world of blogs just got smaller with Sphere, a new blog search.
Sphere follows in the footsteps of Feedster, Technorati and IceRocket, and Google and Yahoo, but is said to be "doing things quite a bit differently than its predecessors".
Techcrunch writes Sphere's "relevance" is based on: links in/out of blog; meta data around the blog (average length of posts, post frequency, etc; and a semantic analysis of the posts themselves).
See the Techcrunch post for the full skinny, and a podcast interview with Sphere CEO Tony Conrad and advisor Toni Schneider.
Posted by Mike Barton on May 2, 2006 01:15 PM
May 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Typos worth millions to Google
The Washington Post reports that Google is making millions of dollars a year by filling otherwise unused Web sites with ads, many times designed to come up when someone mistypes an Internet address, such as BistBuy.com.
Google bans Web addresses that infringe on trademarks from using its ad network, but a review of placeholder Web sites that result from misspelled domain names of well-known companies found many of the ads on those pages come directly from Google, the report said.
Google was awarded in July last year the rights to several website addresses that relied on typographical errors to exploit its popularity so computer viruses and other malicious software could be unleashed on unsuspecting visitors.
The Post said it "generated roughly 100 random misspellings of "www.earthlink.net" and found 38 sites using variations of the Earthlink name "parked" at a Google-owned service called Oingo.com. All 38, which includes "dearthlink.net" and "rearthlink.net," serve Google ads.
As TechDirt notes, the trademark claim in The Post story "is pretty silly, since it's pretty hard to imagine many people being confused into thinking a typosquatting site like hmoedepot.com is the actual homedepot.com site it's aping."
TD says the space is "attracting a lot of attention from companies who say the sites can function as additions to search engines."
"There's no doubt that these companies are grabbing low-hanging fruit, but the bigger issue, particularly for typosquatters, is that their business could get stamped out, either by misguided trademark lawsuits, or by technology," TD writes.
Is Google not acting fast to stamp out typosquatting to avoid any more bad PR?
Posted by Mike Barton on May 1, 2006 03:08 PM
May 01, 2006 | Comments: (0)
WyaWorks' new WyaCracker "aims to do for web development what blogging has done for publishing."
Power to the people for Web app development? Hooray.
Their first application is called WyaCracker, a form builder. The site is in private beta, but the beta access code can be requested by email from the "try the beta" link on the left sidebar.Wyacracker allows users to build simple web forms and publish them on websites or via email. Resulting data can be viewed on the site or exported to Excel.
Squash