One Laptop Per Chewbacca writes Nicholas Negroponte, the leader of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, has announced that the organization will be laying off half of its staff, cutting salaries of the remaining employees, and ending its involvement
BDew writes The Presidents of the National Academy of Science and the National Academy of Engineering have commissioned a study on the Rationale and Goals of the U.S. Civil Space Program. In short, the Academies are asking why the nation
A.B. VerHausen writes Even though theres a whole new Web site devoted to understanding and using OpenID, some companies are dropping the login method altogether. OStatic is reporting that the free Web site network Wetpaint announced recently that it will
petehead writes The LA Times reports on regulations expected to pass in 2009 that will not allow energy-inefficient TVs to be sold in the state. State regulators are getting ready to curb the growing power gluttony of TV sets by
christian.einfeldt writes The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an administrative ruling increasing the use of Free Open Source Software products at state agencies, increasing the softwares use both in the back office and on the desktop. According
An anonymous reader writes Theres a new rumor that Google is developing its own router. The company wont comment on the story, but its been in the hardware business for a while and expanded its presence with Android. If Larry
OTL writes Youve heard the talk of Green throughout the whole of 2008, but the way a product affects the environment will be a huge consideration in consumer buying habits, at least when it comes to gadgets. But, the CEA
itif writes This report takes a look at how many jobs you get if you invest $10 billion each in three different IT infrastructure projects--broadband, health IT and the smart grid. It argues that if you are going to be
snydeq writes According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, more than 35 million data records were breached in the U.S. in 2008. Tracking media reports and disclosures companies are required to make by law, the ITRC noted a 47 percent
animusCollards writes Slate ponders a post-Steve Jobs Apple, including possible successors, and the future is... boring. ..its certainly true that Jobs style is central to the companys brand and the fierce connection it forges with its customers. His product announcements
eldavojohn writes Space.com has a blog on Russias Phobos-Grunt project designed to explore the planet further. He voices concerns about part of this exploration that is dubbed LIFE (Living Interplanetary Flight Experiment) and backed by The Planetary Society that involves
An anonymous reader writes Some UK researchers found out that playing Tetris is actually good for people with post-traumatic stress disorder, by interfering with memory. I wonder if playing Minesweeper is effective against boss-inflicted stress.Read more of this
SlappingOysters writes Gameplayer has gone live with their best PC hardware configurations for Q1 2009. Theyve broken it into three tiers depending on the investors budget. And while the prices are regional, it is comparative across the globe. The site
Ars Technica reports that the FTC is getting ready to take a hard look at gaming DRM, setting up a town hall meeting to be held on March 25th. Theyre currently recruiting panelists, and they say the meeting will, in
nandemoari writes Not long after we first heard murmurs Microsoft may be ready to lay off as much as 17 per cent of its workforce, the popular Consumer Electronics Show, held every year in Las Vegas, is rumored to
txmadman writes Like a lot of my colleagues and all of my three children, I have several SD , mini-SD, and micro-SD cards for various purposes: cameras, cell phones, my laptop, etc. These things are handy to have around, offer
I Dont Believe in Imaginary Property writes Oprah Winfrey, or to be more precise, Oprahs Book Club, is being sued by the inventor/patent attorney Scott C. Harris for infringing upon his patent for Enhancing Touch and Feel on the Internet.
The Recording Industry of Americas favorite courtroom lawyer, Tom Perrelli, who has sued individual file swappers in multiple federal courts, is President-elect Barack Obamas choice for the third in line at the Justice Department. CNets Declam McCullagh explores the background
rohitm918 writes A study by Microsoft Research concludes that phishers make very little (PDF): ...low-skill jobs pay like low-skill jobs, whether the activity is legal or not. They also find that the Gartner numbers that everyone quotes ($3.2B/year etc) are
kenblakely writes Weve known for a while that the Department of Homeland Security was collecting travel records on those who cross US borders, but now you can see it for yourself. A Freedom of Information Act request got this blogger
The best new feature in Apples new MacBook Pro is the 8-hour, ultra-durable battery that Apple says it custom-designed. But is it really the advanced powerplant it claims to be?
An independent developer from Wolfire Games has made the case that his peers should be supporting OS X and Linux with cross-platform games for a number of easy to grasp reasons. In the face of heavy competition, this simple strategy
USB 3.0 may promise data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gb/s or 625 MB/s but such levels will not be possible, at least not in initial devices. When USB 3.0 hardware will become available in late 2009 or early
An 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks has admitted to Mondays hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obamas, and the official feed for Fox News.
Many people arent wearing wristwatches anymore because their cell tell time -- so who needs a watch? But a brand-new generation of cell phone wristwatches is threatens to make the cell phone the unnecessary gadget. Look what has been unveiled
A few days we reported on a new service which claimed to offer lifetime anonymous BitTorrent for a $50.00 one-off payment. As the service ‘launched’ we had our doubts, but understandably some people decided to give it a try since
A new Israeli-based company, CTERA Networks, is not only officially launching at CES today, but it is ushering in a brand-new product category: Cloud Attached Storage. Cloud Attached Storage--or at least CTERAs approach to it--takes a seamless approach to providing
We use most of them every day, or nearly every day, and would not be as productive or happy without all of them. Most of these are stuff we all know, love, and appreciate.
The new system, which is now in place, monitors the amount of downstream traffic a user consumes and not what that traffic is actually composed of. The system first monitors the traffic on the cable modem termination system (CMTS) ports.
One of the most annoying things about owning a computer is the maintenance. It’s easily neglected. After all you don’t really notice the slow decline of your system’s performance, do you?
Dell needs to look beyond hardware for growth, it could hardly do better than to buy Red Hat, or possibly Sun or Novell, for two reasons. The first is that buying Red Hat might be the least painful option for
If youve ever wanted to dabble into tilt-shift photography without a lens, you should check out Tiltshiftmaker. The tool does a pretty good job at faking it with normal shots.
Embarrassingly, the National Television and Information Administrations fund for subsidizing conversion boxes for next months digital TV transition has run out of money. Oops!
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is the premier event for gadget makers and aficionados alike. Check here for the main CNET News stories from CES, and more.
A group of investors are reportedly turning to Microsoft to play the role of a banker in backing a buyout of Yahoos non-search and marketing businesses, according to a report in TechCrunch.
While India remains popular with the top 50 outsourcing companies, vendors are progressively creating more bases in cities such as Chennai, Noida, Hyderabad, and Pune.
Microsoft is close to announcing it has beat out Yahoo and Google in a coveted deal to be the search provider on Verizon phones, according to a Reuters story.
In its proposal for economic recovery unveiled Wednesday, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce strongly advocated creating incentives for clean energy technology to solve climate change problems.
Macworld attendees this year were cautiously optimistic that Macworld stay on their calendar without Apple, but much depends on whether IDG can still put together an interesting event.
The bellwether chipmaker foresees a 23 percent drop in revenue. Its especially untimely mews as it comes on the eve of the premier consumer electronics event.
Group that aids identity fraud victims says data breaches rose nearly 50 percent in 2008 from 2007 as more laptops were stolen and companies inadvertently exposed sensitive data online, among other methods.
As usual, products on display this week will range from the somewhat wacky to the actually practical-and lots in between. The biggest challenge: Avoiding the endless finger food on the reception lines.
Both US-CERT and security organization F-Secure have issued warnings, urging IT professionals to apply a Microsoft patch. Business systems are being attacked by a worm exploiting a known Microsoft vulnerability, IT security experts have warned. Both US-CERT and security organization
Australian AOL users suffered an email holiday last month as a billing glitch locked them out of their AOL.com email accounts. Australian AOL users suffered an email holiday last month as a Primus billing glitch locked them out of their
Indian outsourcing company Satyam Computer Services announced Wednesday its founder and chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, has resigned, following an admission that he inflated its financial performance. Satyam Computer Services announced Wednesday its founder and chairman, B. Ramalinga Raju, has resigned,
HPs latest low-cost Mini 2140 subnotebook has a few extra features that mark it out as suitable for business use, the manufacturer has claimed. HP on Monday launched the Mini 2140, a netbook the company says is suitable for use
Review: MacHeads is a superb film that will give Apple haters a few cheap laughs, and Apple fans a few cheap thrills. But itll entertain both equally, while educating everybody else. Prominent sex blogger and renowned Apple fangirl Violet Blue
China has cracked down on a global software-counterfeiting syndicate, with 11 ringleaders each facing up to six-and-a-half years in jail. Eleven counterfeiters have been given jail sentences of between one-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years by a Chinese court after being found
Freescale has unveiled an ARM-based, Ubuntu-toting netbook reference design, claiming it will bring cheap internet devices to the younger, more widget-centric generation. Chipset manufacturer Freescale on Monday unveiled an ARM-based blueprint for cheap, low-cost subnotebooks. At the heart of the
According to most accounts, Cox was second only to Linus Torvalds in the early Linux days, working on the kernel from version 0.11, and sorting out the networking. Just as we were all closing down before Christmas, Linux kernel developer
A Microsoft patent application details a business model whereby the user gets a free or heavily subsidized PC but is charged for usage time, application and performance. Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing. US patent application
Yahoo and Intel hope products to be shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in January will mark the beginning of their Internet-fueled expansion to the world of TV. Yahoo and Intel built their success upon widespread use of personal computers,
The end-of-year holidays might be a time of peace on Earth, but CIOs are unlikely to be so relaxed this festive season, with many saying theyll still be on call over the holidays. Christmas may be a time of peace
Chinese networking vendor Huawei has slammed as ludicrous and inaccurate claims that it had links to the Chinese military and government that could cause security problems for the National Broadband Network. Chinese networking vendor Huawei has slammed as ludicrous and
Survey of more than 1,000 Internet activists, journalists, and technologists about tech life in 2020 finds expectations of haptic and voice interfaces. This was originally published in CNET News. Step aside, keyboards, laptops, and 9-to-5 jobs. A survey of more
Despite the bad times, businesses still require their IT to help them stay ahead of the competition by offering customers attractive and innovative products with the service levels they have come to expect says OpTiers Motti Tal. Commentary--The current turmoil
RadioShack will put an Acer Aspire One 3G Netbook on sale Sunday for $99. But theres a catch. You also have to buy a two-year AT&T DataConnect contract. RadioShack will put an Acer Aspire One 3G Netbook on sale Sunday
PricewaterhouseCoopers and security vendor Finjan expect insider fraud and cybercrime to rise as IT jobs are lost. Desperate IT workers who have been laid off will go rogue in 2009, selling corporate data and using crimeware, reports have predicted. The
Virtualization became a buzz word last year - and since then some things have grown beyond our wildest dreams while others have fallen short. Heres what to expect in 2009. Commentary--At VMWorld 2007, it felt like the dawn of a
Top HP software execs say that, while the computing models represented by the cloud are important, they dont like the name or associated hype. Top HP software executives said on Tuesday that they believe in the ideas behind cloud computing,
IT spending in the Asia-Pacific region will grow at a slower rate in 2009. But Asian economies will fare better during the current economic crisis than those in the West, according to a study. IT spending in the Asia-Pacific region
Industry observers say virtualization will enable staff to use their own devices at work, while keeping corporate data safe. Virtualization promises to usher in a new era of consumer technology in the workplace potentially satisfying the demands of new
The legal and technology scholars at the Freedom to Tinker blog predict an $899 iPhone for 2009, piracy prosecutions and an onslaught of civil lawsuits in the wake of the Lori Drew-MySpace case.
CES begins tomorrow, but Wired.com snagged a peek at some of the coolest gadgets you can expect to see at the big show. Included: an ultralight Windows-based notebook, WowWees latest toy robot, and a keypad-secured USB drive.
Astronomers may have solved a cosmological chicken-and-egg problem with evidence that black holes give birth to galaxies and not vice versa. The evidence is presented at the American Astronomical Society Meeting.
The inauguration of Barack Obama will bring the newest in a long line of Presidential limos.Because the Secret Service keeps details of the limo understandably private, even the most knowledgeable security experts dont really know how much gadgety tech is
About the only thing Meades ETX-LS telescope doesnt do is turn itself on. The new device, on display at CES 2009, automatically aligns itself to major celestial objects and even offers a tour of the night sky based off the
MSI, a company best known for its critically-acclaimed line of netbooks, is showing a thin-and-light notebook CES 2009 that goes head to head with Apples MacBook Air: Its extremely thin, and tapers along the front. It weighs 2.9 pounds. It
Other computer manufacturers might think the Tablet PC is dead, but Asus has its own ideas. AT CES Asus showed a prototype version of the EeePC T91, a notebook with a 8.9-inch swiveling screen that folds up, around and back
On the shore of Lake Isabella, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles, a crowd of flight techs, most of them either pierced or tattooed, swarms around a small white airplane. Its called an Icon A5. Its a collaboration between
Dear Mr. Know-It-All, Im a college student who makes money volunteering for medical experiments. Do I have to accept whatever fee the researchers offer me, or can I negotiate for more?In principle, youre entitled to the same economic rights as
1851: Léon Foucault uses a pendulum to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth. It is the first direct visual evidence not based on watching the stars circle in the sky.Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was born in 1819. His mother wanted
In an interview with Wired.com, an 18-year-old hacker with a history of celebrity pranks admits to Mondays hijacking of multiple high-profile Twitter accounts, including President-Elect Barack Obamas and the official feed for Fox News.
Astronomers have no explanation for a mysterious bright flash in space observed by several telescopes. Suggestions range from a collision between a white dwarf star and a black hole to an exotic star made out of hypothetical mirror matter, but
Steve Jobs and three major labels come to terms on a deal to make music available on iTunes without DRM. Consumers can choose between three price levels instead of the any song for 99 cents model the store implemented on
Entomologists save the day as potato bugs crank up the fear in director David S. Goyers upcoming horror flick. Demons cribbed from Jewish folklore help out some, too.
Since the dawn of time, or so it seems, Steve Jobs and the major labels have been at war on two fronts: digital rights management and pricing. According to CNET, negotiations between Apple and the worlds three largest record labels
We’ve built, overclocked, and tested our $625, $1,250, and $2,500 performance machines. How will these three systems compare in overall performance and value?
As Intel’s Core i7 architecture starts moving down from the high-end, value seekers can build high-performance LGA775 systems cheaply. Low-cost motherboards
The FCC needs either an overhaul or a complete dismantling. At a conference in DC this week, academics and former FCC staff argue that the agency can be fixed. A new website offers their ideas and seeks thoughts from the
The chip giant finally feels the full brunt of the recession, as revenue drops by 20 percent and its investment holdings plummet by over $1 billion. Its investment in WiMAX is also hurting Intels bottom line.Read More...
OpenMoko CEO Sean Moss-Pultz recently used a message to the project mailing list to share his views about openness, community-driven product development, and the future of OpenMoko.Read More...
A pair of security researchers claim to have cracked Intels trusted execution technology (TXT), a critical part of the vPro platform. Few details on the attack are available, so its hard to suss out what, if anything, this means for
Clearwire opens its second WiMax market in Portland, Ore., but future deployment plans are murky. Clearwires service competes on price and speed with wireless and wireline sevices.Read More...
An independent developer from Wolfire Games has made the case that his peers should be supporting OS X and Linux with cross-platform games for a number of easy to grasp reasons. In the face of heavy competition, this simple strategy
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, which aims to build low-cost mobile computing devices for students in developing countries, has announced major layoffs.Read More...
Ever wonder how your mobile phone can find your location quickly, even on a cloudy day where a satellite signal is hard to come by? The answer is that many of these devices use assisted GPS (AGPS). Ars brings you
Bloggers that wish to retain their anonymity may be watching an otherwise farcical case thats been filed in New York, where a model has claimed that a blog has defamed her and is suing Google in an attempt to discover
Two controversial provisions of a New Zealand copyright law, slated to take effect next month, are stirring opposition. Artists and ISPs say the law will result in the disconnection of users and deletion of content on the basis of mere
Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I-IV topped Amazons digital download charts in 2008, despite being offered to fans free of charge. Creative Commons touts the project as a new model for music.Read More...
DRM has become a contentious issue in the gaming world, and now the Federal Trade Commission may be stepping in. The agency will hold a town hall meeting on March 25. Ars explores why the government may need to get
While the RIAA has dropped long-time P2P investigator MediaSentry, the music industry actually needs such services now more than ever. Denmark-based DtecNet will be handling the P2P identification chores in future.Read More...
The developers behind the Debian Linux distribution have voted to proceed with the release of the next major version despite ongoing controversy over the inclusion of binary firmware in the kernel.Read More...
A recent study suggests that viewing natural scenery—even if only a photograph of it—can help restore some advanced cognitive functions. Unfortunately, its not clear that the theory behind this makes any sense.Read More...
reader gdonovan sent me a link to this hilarious parody video yesterday and I had to post it so you guys can see it too. The video is very well made, so good in fact that you’d think it
LG showed off its new touch screen “Dick Tracy” video phone wristwatch today. The only real problem with launching a device like this isn’t the phone or the technology around it…the hardest part is explaining who “Dick Tracy” was. Several
While we are expecting a ton of Blu-ray news once CES is in full swing, Pioneer drew first blood today with the announcement of a new sub-$300 Blu-ray player. The company is also launching a couple higher-end Blu-ray players this
Wired claims that some kid is taking credit for hacking celebrity Twitter accounts and that a weak password made the attacks extremely easy. If true, someone needs to smack around their admin for having a password like “happiness.” The hacker,
50 Cent: Blood on the Sand Trailer #5 @ FileShackBioshock Could Get Five Sequels @ Kotaku Rumor: New Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six This Year @ Jpystiq Saints Row 2 PC Hits Steam, Gets European Date @ ShacknewsUK Videogame Sales Up
Despite a tough economy, the gaming industry held strong in 2008 and Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system recorded the biggest year in Xbox history, with more consoles, games and online entertainment experiences sold than any previous
Intel released a statement today warning that its fourth quarter revenue will fall short of its original forecast by twenty three percent. The company will officially report fourth quarter earnings on January 15.The stock declined as much as 6.7 percent
Welcome to the Wednesday edition of members get $15 off instantly, final price is only $44.99 with free shipping. Finally, we still have a deal going on new RatPadz GS or RatPadz XT are still $5 off + free shipping
I did not vandalize your apartment and you can’t prove a thing. Wait, except for that picture on my MySpace page of your apartment after it was vandalized….I have no idea how that got there. A scorned 21-year-old told her
Just a reminder to all of you that have not have seen this yet, the fine folks at Thermaltake want your opinions to help shape/mold their upcoming products to better suit your needs. Taking the survey also puts you in
The Harvard professor and his students that are defending a family against the RIAA are back in court. The professor is arguing that his client should not have to turn over his parent’s home computer because it is an invasion
ASUS, worldwide leader in component and notebook design and manufacturing, will unveil its extensive lineup of products showcasing at CES 2009. Focusing on the main theme of “Access Life with ASUS”, the rich assortment of products that will be exhibited
Another lawsuit has been filed over negative comments made on the internet. Yesterday it was a model suing Google, today it is a chiropractor against Yelp. Im almost scared to see what other lawsuits pop up by the end of
Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when the EU comes for you? I like how raids are considered “preliminary steps” in an investigation. In a press release from Wednesday (January 7), the European Commission acknowledges that
Broadening its storage solutions for Mac, WD, the world leader in external storage solutions, today introduced two new external hard drives -- the My Passport™ for Mac portable drive and the My Book® Mac Edition external hard drive. Pre-formatted for
Uh oh, this can’t be good. Picking the RIAA’s favorite lawyer for a top justice post? Raise your hand if you think this is going to go well. As president-elect, one of Obamas first tech-related decisions has been to select
Seagate today announced that Business Solutions Magazine, a leading channel publication focused on U.S. value added resellers (VARs) and integrators, has named Seagate as the Best Channel Vendor in the storage category. “This great recognition underscores Seagate’s unwavering commitment to
Touch enabled Eee PCs, an Eee Keyboard with built in computer, glass touchpad and wireless HDMI, and a new Atom based notebook with a 512GB SSD - standard. ASUS kicked off CES 2009 right with a huge expansion to its
What did you think was the most interesting, innovative and exciting developments we talked about in 2008?If I had to pick something that actually shipped this year, it would be Intels SSD drives. Those things are the new hotness. Still
NVIDIA and AMD have been moving toward GPU Computing for a long time with CUDA and what became ATI Stream. How do things change with an API that runs on all hardware?...
You asked and we delivered: 20 lower wattage power supplies tested and reviewed. Those of you looking for a good PSU for a moderate system need look no further....
In to every geeks life a little rain must fall. This month, that rain fell on my wife, Laura. Laura is a sort of right brained artist. She has a bachelors degree in applied mathematics from NCSU, and shes also a
The competition in the X58 market is finally heating up and that is good news for enthusiasts and buyers alike. The retail introduction of the Foxconn BloodRage and DFI LP X58-T3eHS at the $299.99 price range is significant in this
Yes, netbooks are inexpensive and can handle basic computing tasks, but many people would like a little bit more oomph -- and perhaps a larger package. The ASUS N10JC gives users exactly that, and may just be the netbook youve
This article is different from the previous ones, as we have changed the methodology we use to evaluate a server CPU. Read on, and find out why we feel this is a better and more realistic approach to compare the
Silverstone has just released a new video about the positive air pressure they are using in the previously tested Fortress FT01 case. Silverstones engineers used smoke to show the air circulation within the chassis which looks very impressive. We have
There are a huge number of PC suppliers out there, and everyone has different needs when it comes to a desktop system. In this guide, provide our recommendations for several systems at various price points....
We dont have any performance details, but we do have hardware specifications. This part looks lean, mean, and poised to take the single card multi-GPU crown from AMD....
Has your CRT finally given its last gasp of electrons? Perhaps you just upgraded to an HD 4870X2 and now need a display with a resolution that can justify such hardware. Either way, we have recommendations to keep your eyes
The past 30 days have seen significant price cuts on GPUs from both AMD and NVIDIA. If youre still looking to upgrade your video card, now may be the time to buy....
Take Intels Atom processor and pair it with NVIDIAs GeForce 9400M chipset and youve got the Ion platform. The latest bold move from NVIDIA offers an alternative to the anemic 945G chipset in current Atom based PC designs, with a
Many of you have commented that our NewsVac section hasnt been refreshed since the middle of last month. Others have noticed that our story volume has dropped off. Changes are coming to Linux.com, and until they arrive, you wont see
The free and open source software community has been waiting for the G1 cell phone since it was first announced in July. Source code for Googles Android mobile platform has been available, but the G1 marks its commercial debut. Its
Many public administrations already use open source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to let citizens look at public geographic data trough dedicated Web sites. Others use the same software to partially open the data gathering process: they let citizens directly add
The Interclue extension is supposed to give you a preview of links in Firefox before you visit them, saving you mouse-clicks and, with a little luck, allowing you to move quickly between multiple links on the same page. Unfortunately, the
Shell programming is heavily dependent on string processing. The term string is used generically to refer to any sequence of characters; typical examples of strings might be a line of input or a single argument to a command. Users enter
Many religions have some sort of holiday during this season, where we look back at the joyful moments of the year thats coming to a close, and look ahead with anticipation and hope to the year to come. We hope
Google Maps gives you a quick and easy way to add maps to your Web site, but when youre using Googles API, your ability to display other data is limited. If you have your own data you want to display,
At a time when new and buggy features cloud basic computer functions, its refreshing to see a new release of a distro like Slackware that stays true to its core philosophy. Slackware has an unfair reputation of being a distro
Documentation is one area in which free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) is weakest. A project called FLOSS Manuals is trying to remedy this situation. The idea behind project is to create quality, free documentation for free software.
A next-generation package manager called Nix provides a simple distribution-independent method for deploying a binary or source package on different flavours of Linux, including Ubuntu, Debian, SUSE, Fedora, and Red Hat. Even better, Nix does not interfere with existing package
Managing buddies on a few online social networks isnt too much of a hassle, but throw in your contact list from instant messaging platforms and online apps and services like Flickr, Digg, and Twitter, and you have a contact list
As a regular browser of the Firefox Add-ons site, Im troubled by the apparent proliferation of proprietary extensions in the last year. Maybe Ive simply exhausted the free-licensed extensions that interest me, but recently every interesting-looking extension seems to be
The past couple of years have seen an explosion of open source programming languages and utilities that are geared toward children. Many of these efforts are based around the idea that, since the days of BASIC, programming environments have become
Its that time of the year again. No, not Christmas -- its the time of the year we get the latest versions of our favorite Linux distributions. Version 11.1 of openSUSE is being released today. Designated as a point release,
Lets take a look at three projects that are aimed at showing calendar information through a Web interface: WebCalendar, VCalendar, and CaLogic. These projects run on a LAMP server and provide a Web interface to calendar events.
For many years Spamhaus has been top dog in the anti-spam world of DNSBL (Domain Name System Block List; also known as Realtime Blackhole Lists or RBLs). But Spamhaus is no longer a 100% free service. Even small nonprofits are
If Parkinsons Law for computers holds true, then no matter how much disk space you have, it will get used up. If youre already feeling a pinch, consider using a disk space analyzer tool to see whats eating your space.
The week-long Ubuntu Developer Summit (UDS) meets every six months at changing locations to discuss what will be in the next release of Ubuntu. The mostly unpublicized FOSScamp always meets the weekend before. The FOSScamp un-conference has no program, no
Pulse is a build server that can monitor your source repository and trigger a build and test cycle every time somebody does a commit. With Pulse you will always know if the most recent sources in your revision control system
Properly speaking, Nadav Rotems Open Text Summarizer (OTS) is not a summarizer at all. True summaries generally involve rewording contents at a higher level of generality while preserving the meaning, not just producing a condensed version of the original the
For the most part, new EXQuery functions would simply represent wrappers around existing XQuery extension functionality in order to provide a consistent interface between databases. It would also set a bar that determines the minimal expectation of such databases and
I enjoyed this interview with Richard Jefferson (caution: PDF) from Com Cincia No. 102, October 05, 2008. Richard runs CAMBIA, a group that fights for open innovation in biological sciences. Hes particularly cautionary about the potential for patents to greatly
Reading Om Maliks Nightmare on Tech Street piece, I wonder if were actually just waking up from the nightmare. Yes, the abrupt collapse of demand for consumer electronics and their ilk will hurt tech companies--Im bracing my own for the
In the recent round of Yahoo! layoffs was someone Id just met, George Oates. She started the Flickr Commons, where galleries, libraries, archives, and museums can post photos and the community can tag them. She was a tireless ambassador, as
Draw closer around the flickering firescreen, and hear four tales of brains, words, medical improvement, and the sharp ache of the wisdom teeth of the future poking through the soft gum of the 21st century as diagnosed by Dr Sterling.
Its nice to be back after the holidays. I just watched a series of short videos from the Wall Street Journals Digital Network. The series is called the End of Wall Street. It is a short oral history of the
Since Bernie Madoff has put Ponzi schemes back onto the front pages, its worth considering whether we are all complicit in the biggest Ponzi scheme of them all, the idea that the global economy can grow indefinitely. I grew up
Four thought-provoking links from the worlds of disaster tech, multicore, bioengineering, and 17th century French nobility. Techies: Volunteering to Save the World - article on NGO work being the new black for technology. In particular, this caught my eye: Earlier
Regular Radar contributor Linda Stone sent this in to be posted today. What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see? The Internet, television, antibiotics, automobiles, electricity, nuclear power, space travel, and cloning - these inventions
In this interview Mike Mathieu, founder of Frontseat.org, discusses how he is helping to build “software for civic life”. Using publicly available data and web services (many of their applications use S3 and EC2) Frontseat creates simple, highly functional tools
Laurel Ruma (@laurelatoreilly) just did a quick census of the number of OReilly employees on twitter. She came up with 74 twitter accounts out of about 300 employees worldwide, plus five people who were controlling departmental or project-based OReilly twitter
Im just reading a Wendell Berry essay from 2000, entitled In Distrust of Movements, reprinted on a blog with the inspired name The Irresistible Fleet of Bicycles. I was going to just tweet the link, but realized that more people
Hahlo - a very sweet-looking mobile (iPhone in the particular) optimised Twitter interface. Although, as I said, every time a Twitter API-consuming web site makes me type in my username and password, a little piece of my soul dies. Thanks
2009 marks another year when Macworld and CES are scheduled for the same week. Itll be a great week for product announcements, but itll also be a week of information overload. RSS feeds will overflow with gadget coverage. For those
What do Google, WalMart, and MyBarackObama.com have in common, besides their extraordinary success? They are organizations that are infused with IT in such a way that it leads to a qualitative change in their entire business. I get frustrated when
Dare I say this on OReilly Radar? I admire Bill Gates. If I had a vote for Person of the Year, Gates would get mine. Let me explain why. This year, Gates made an important and potentially difficult transition at
Wow, CNETs Rafe Needleman sure raised a ruckus with his Mac switchers lament article. If you are thinking about moving from a Windows PC to a Mac and want to avoid the feeling of lament, read on, I have some
The Macworld keynote today focused on three basic new products: iLife 09, iWork 09, and an updated MacBook Pro 17. Within the iLife suite resides the new iPhoto. It has some refreshing technologies, such as Faces and Places, and has
Draw closer around the flickering firescreen, and hear four tales of brains, words, medical improvement, and the sharp ache of the wisdom teeth of the future poking through the soft gum of the 21st century as diagnosed by Dr Sterling.
Andrea-Marie Vassou, Computeract!ve, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:01:00 NHS trusts should allow patients to use mobile phones in wards, Government suggests The Department of Health has published guidelines which it hopes will encourage
David Neal, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:57:00 Redmond veteran named president of Server and Tools business Bob Muglia, a 21-year veteran at Microsoft, has been named president of the software giants Server
Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:51:00 Average pay has reduced for IT staff based in the north while London salaries rise IT professionals in the north of England have seen their
Judith Tydd, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:51:00 The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced a new chief accountant in the latest in a series of top-level changes James Kroeker has been appointed as acting chief accountant for
Angelica Mari, Computing, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:46:00 Im on the subway... - commuters can make calls using their mobile phone while travelling The rollout of a mobile network that allows Glasgow commuters
Dinah Greek, Computeract!ve, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 16:41:00 Web crime advice organisation warns 2009 will see cyber-criminals out in force Rising unemployment and the global recession will fuel a huge increase in online
James Murray, BusinessGreen, Wednesday 7 January 2009 at 00:15:00 New bonds to fund emission reduction projects in developing world while offering investors competitive returns The World Bank has this week announced that it has
Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 00:15:00 Canadian province on track to phase out coal-fired power plants by 2014, replacing them with a mix of nuclear, gas and renewables Ontario is on
Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 21:00:00 Collaboration suite beefs up Mac support and cuts email storage requirements IBM has released version 8.5 of its Lotus Notes/Domino collaboration software, bringing updated support
Shaun Nichols in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 20:04:00 Fake profiles bait for attack sites A rash of fake profiles on business networking site LinkedIn could put users in danger of
Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 19:53:00 Outside the US at least The burgeoning netbook market is helping drive Linux adoption around the world according to a new report
Iain Thomson in San Francisco, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 19:25:00 Tax breaks too good to be true Internet monitoring firm Websense is warning of a phishing attack against HM Revenue & Customs
Rosalie Marshall, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 18:04:00 Skype 2.8 Beta for Mac readied for launch at Macworld Apple Mac users will be able to enhance their Skype functionality from Wednesday with pay-per-minute
Ian Williams, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:52:00 Microsoft in front, followed by Intel and IBM Tech firms are leading the way in innovation if patent applications are any indication, according to the
Sara Yirrell, CRN, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:43:00 Distributor appoints two key roles to oversee value add software and solutions push Azlan, the networking division of Tech Data, has shuffled its management team
Tom Young, Computing, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:33:00 Slow rate of repayment leads EDS to pay lump sum of £26.5m A long-running dispute between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and EDS over the
Tom Young, BusinessGreen, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:24:00 Friends of the Earth latest group to question estimates used in technology feasibility study Friends of the Earth has added its voice to calls for
Judith Tydd, Accountancy Age, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:21:00 Legal agreement between the taxman and former IT supplier over faulty tax credit system HM Revenue and Customs has settled a long-running legal dispute with IT supplier EDS over problems
David Neal, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:07:00 Recession bites at peripherals giant Peripherals manufacturer Logitech has this week revised its 2009 sales targets and announced job cuts, blaming the deepening global recession....
Phil Muncaster, vnunet.com, Tuesday 6 January 2009 at 17:04:00 FLEXnet Manager 12 expands supported software types Acresso Software today launched the latest version of its flagship FLEXnet Manager product designed to provide broader support
2008 is over, and its been quite a year. There are plenty of metaphors to go around. Some refer to the Black Swans (which couldnt possibly exist). Another author writes about the tipping point. I like to think of the
For the last 10 years or so we (my wife and I) have been advocating for a change in how our respective families celebrate the Christmas holiday. This year, with the help of circumstance, we decided to cease observation of
In the last few weeks of every year, most of the western world will be celebrating holidays. It is one of the few times if not the only time of year that family and friends get together and share happiness,
When I get into work, I usually put on a CD. Strictly to annoy the broads in the typing pool. I pipe the music through a speaker I set up one night that vents directly into their cess pit of
It is not the responsibility of non-Muslims to look past barbaric evil attack after barbaric evil attack and recognize that moderate Islam still exists. It is the responsibility of moderate Islam to rein in and destroy the madmen emanating from
This is a rewrite of this diary. People were encouraging towards making it a story. Citations will be provided for images since that jew bastard who runs the place hasnt enabled image tags yet. Making beer is pretty easy, and
I had been running QNX 6.3 on my trusty old 1.4 GHz Pentium III system with two gigs of memory for the last couple years and it was alright. Never quite fast enough despite decent hardware (P3 chips were 2x
The fridge in the kitchen nearest to me at my place of work has a bunch of those dictionary fridge magnets on it. Over the last few months the face of the fridge has been the subject of a fascinating
Two essays from Ayn Rands The Virtue of Selfishness are reprinted in Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal as the ethical basis for her moral defense of capitalism. Mans Rights and The Nature of Government are pedestrian defenses of a natural law
A recent episode of Boston Legal featured a courtroom drama where a farmer filed suit in order to be able to test all of her herd for BSE1/vCJD, the agent which causes mad cow disease (otherwise known a bovine spongioform
First, they say that between 160,000 and 3 million manufacturing jobs are on the line, but then turn around and blame the unions (the organization that represents those workers). In fact, foreign (mainly Japanese) automakers employ almost as many Americans
The other day, while booting my eight-core 3.2 GHz Mac Pro with 32 GB RAM, I watched my system startup messages (nvram boot-args=-v) and thought of Darwins origins at NeXT as a pastiche of academic research and hacker hobby. Darwin
First off, I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. So much for predictions of a year and a half ago. Looking back its easy to see what happened. There is a collective sigh of relief throughout the U.S. and most of the world
On election day, Californians narrowly approved Proposition 8, an initiative to amend the state constitution to include only marriage between a man and a woman is valid. Undoubtedly this vote was a setback for gay rights throughout the country, but
Warren Buffets famous quote is that Its only when the tide goes out that you learn whos been swimming naked. Over the past few months, the tide has been going out with a vengeance, and were certainly discovering plenty of
Were so used to hearing the government fall for the industry propaganda about the need for DRM that its almost... shocking, to hear that the FTC is even willing to consider the question of whether or not it should be
Weve been chronicling just how badly both Hasbro and Mattel screwed up in responding to the massive success of Scrabulous on Facebook. The ridiculously popular application was attracting over 500,000 users every day and (amazingly) making Scrabble cool again, pumping
Were seeing plenty of stories of old school journalists pining for the good old days (that never really existed), and thats exactly what the Wall Street Journal recently published with a ridiculously vapid opinion piece by a columnist for the
Way back in 2002, Wal-Mart decided to enter the online DVD rental business, launching an almost exact replica of Netflix. Of course, Wal-Mart quickly discovered what almost every other player in that marker discovered: just offering a competing service to
Damon calls our attention to a rather novel (and potentially far reaching) claim of copyright infringement by a real estate information company called CoStar. CoStar provides subscription-based real estate information, which companies pay hundreds of dollars a month for in
Well, it looks like after years and years of articles highlighting what an incredible trademark bully Monster Cable has been, the company has finally realized that maybe (sorta) it needs to reconsider its strategy (maybe). At least thats what I
In the initial news about Apple going DRM-free, I saw it reported that Apple would let you convert your existing files to DRM-free. However, what was left out of the reports I saw (though, people in our comments pointed it
I still havent quite figured out why people think that its illegal to be a jerk, but theres just some part of peoples brains that makes them believe that if they dont like something, it simply must be illegal. A
Weve covered how and why many patent infringement lawsuits are filed in East Texas, but in March of last year, courts were given more leeway in transferring those cases out of East Texas to somewhere more convenient. Of course, that
Earlier today, I attended the rather enjoyable lunchtime salon on Privacy 2009: The Year Ahead, put together by Tech Policy Central and held at Facebooks headquarters. The discussion, moderated by Kara Swisher, involved Facebooks chief privacy officer, Chris Kelly, along
There are plenty of reports going around about how the federal governments program to supply coupons for TV digital converter boxes has run out of money while plenty of folks who need them still havent converted (meaning their TVs wont
theodp writes "Astronaut Dave Bowman may have found the HAL-9000 more believable had the Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer been equipped with the technology described in IBMs new patent for Generating paralinguistic phenomena via markup in text-to-speech synthesis. In the patent,
Theres a moral panic style study being released that claims that many teens display risky behavior on MySpace. Of course, when you look at the details, its not quite so fear-inducing at all. Basically, some kids talk about drinking, drugs
Reader Darren sent in a link to an opinion piece in the UKs Independent by Stephen Garrett, a managing director of a TV production house that apparently makes some popular UK TV shows (he names Spooks, with which I am
Joe Mullin is back to let us know about the latest patent insanity, starting with a post about a whole bunch of patent infringement lawsuits based on patents held by Scott Harris. You may recall Harris because he was a
As was rumored last night by Greg Sandoval at News.com, it appears that Apple has worked out a deal with the major record labels (being confirmed as I type) where they will give up DRM (which is the direction theyve
Last year, we wrote about the absolutely ridiculous limitations placed on the lawyers pushing forward on behalf of the Al-Harmain Islamic Foundation to sue the federal government for warrantless wiretapping. As discussed, courts have thrown out most legal challenges by
As some of you may know, in a week and a half Im giving a presentation at the music industry MidemNet conference, focusing on how Trent Reznors various business model experiments highlight the future of the music industry. Ill be
Amidst a number of high profile appointments today was the position of associate attorney general. The high-ranking position has been awarded to Tom Perrelli of the prominent law firm Jenner & Block. By all accounts, Perrelli has led an impressive
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