So you think SMS is dying? Think again.

Commentary--In a world where technology is obsolete almost the moment it hits the shelves, we as consumers are always looking for the next best thing. We muse about HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray, wonder if well soon be able to do everything but wash the dishes with our computers, buy a new cell phone every six months, and reflect with fondness on the old technology we used to find so fascinating (just ask anyone in my generation about Oregon Trail).

Is VoIP a good idea for small business?

Commentary--If you are like most small businesses, you are considering investing in a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phone system for your business, but are unsure of the costs and reliability.

OOXML backwards compatibility led Microsoft to ODF

Microsoft's decision to add support to Office 2007 for the Open Document Format instead of its own OOXML office file format is due to backwards compatibility issues with OOXML, it has emerged.

Microsoft announced on Wednesday it will support ODF version 1.1 in the release of Office 2007 Service Pack 2 (SP2), scheduled for the first half of 2009. The company will also support PDF and XPS in Office 2007 SP2. OOXML is partially supported in the current version of Microsoft's office productivity suite and, according to Microsoft's announcement, will not be fully supported in Office until the release of "Office 14", which as yet has no confirmed release date.

RIM's Lazaridis on why Qwerty's still working

BlackBerry maker RIM has been very busy this week hosting the Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando, Fla. One of the announcements causing the biggest stir was the BlackBerry Bold--touted by some as the device to rival the iPhone.

At the conference, co-CEO Mike Lazaridis caught up with Silicon.com reporter Natasha Lomas to tell us why he believes smartphones are the future, why Qwerty is so exciting, and why the Bold has nothing to do with the iPhone.

UK warned of China, India software threat

UK warned of China, India software threat
UK software sales are on course to lag almost $60 billion behind China this year, fuelling high-level calls for Britain to abandon the low-cost end of market.

Revenues in the Chinese software product and services sector are forecast to reach $140 billion (70 billion) by 2010, and already hit $21bn during the first quarter of 2008 alone, close to the sector's $27.5bn revenue predictions for the entire year in the UK.

Free software great and small

Free software great and small

[The opinions expressed here are mine alone, and not those of Google, Inc. my current employer.]

Commentary--The OOXML document format war is over, and the good guys lost. The world will be a worse place because of it, for a long time to come. After being a lobbyist for many months, it was a great relief to get back to being a Samba coder. At least that's something I feel I have some competence in. The jury is still out on my lobbying career.

Common misconceptions about database security

Common misconceptions about database security
Commentary--You would think that enterprises realize by now that databases, which hold the crown jewels of sensitive information, need protecting. Unfortunately, there seems to be a serious disconnect and knowledge gap between IT security professionals and DBAs that are entrusted with the task of safeguarding databases.

Database-specific knowledge is crucial for successfully enforcing security policy as it relates to databases and that knowledge is most readily available with database administrators. Only serious dialog between IT security and the DBA department would create the knowledge necessary to develop and enforce an effective security policy for databases and prioritize it correctly among the other IT security items.

HP develops new type of memory circuit

HP develops new type of memory circuit
CHICAGO--It took about 40 years to find it, but scientists at Hewlett-Packard said on Wednesday they discovered a fourth basic type of electrical circuit that could lead to a computer you never have to boot up.

Forums aflame over 'Grand Theft Auto IV' freeze

Forums aflame over 'Grand Theft Auto IV' freeze
Last month, the launch of Rockstar Games' Bully on the Xbox 360 was marred by a bevy of crash bugs and other glitches. With this yesterday's heavily anticipated release of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, Rockstar finds itself dealing with still more troubleshooting trouble, as online forums are buzzing with reports of crashes.

SCO chief testifies: 'Linux is a copy of Unix'

SCO chief testifies: 'Linux is a copy of Unix'
Troubled software maker SCO's chief executive has claimed the Linux operating system includes Unix source code, during a court case in which Novell is suing SCO for royalties on Unix.

In the hearing, which concludes on Friday, SCO chief executive Darl McBride made claims--including that "Linux is a copy of Unix"--which are directly contradicted by the open-source community and apparently run counter to other SCO testimony, according to trial watchers, including Ars Technica.

Watchdog wants global drive against online child abuse

Watchdog wants global drive against online child abuse
Hundreds of child abuse Web sites around the world could be shut down if countries worked together to tackle the problem, an Internet watchdog said in a report on Thursday.

The Internet Watch Foundation said it had made the first attempt to find out how many sites peddle abusive images and videos of children.

Its researchers found about 3,000 sites, with more than three-quarters run as commercial operations, typically by criminal gangs trying to make money out of the images.

Mozilla warns of Flash and Silverlight 'agenda'

Mozilla warns of Flash and Silverlight 'agenda'
Companies building websites should beware of proprietary rich-media technologies like Adobe's Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight, the founder of Mozilla Europe has warned.

Speaking at the Internet World conference in London on Tuesday, Tristan Nitot claimed such applications threaten the open nature of the internet because the companies behind them could "have an agenda". While he conceded that Flash was currently necessary for consistently displaying content such as video, he suggested that the upcoming revision of the HTML specification would make it unnecessary to use proprietary technology.

The Long Tail of Services

The Long Tail of Services
Commentary--The "Long Tail" moniker has been used extensively (some would say overused) in marketing and mass media over the last couple years. Now, as different use cases for SOA evolve, the metaphor seems appropriate to explain the growing use of services outside of the core domains of SOA, business process implementation and integration.

Sophos: One Web page infected every five seconds

Sophos: One Web page infected every five seconds
Web threats have risen significantly in the first quarter of 2008, with one Web page being infected every five seconds, according to a new report from security vendor Sophos.

Released Wednesday, Sophos said in its Security Threat Report that an average of over 15,000 Web pages were compromised daily between January and March.

In contrast, the daily average for the entire 2007 was about 6,000, or one infected Web page every 14 seconds.

Indian techies snubbing US jobs to stay home

Indian techies snubbing US jobs to stay home
Indian tech graduates are increasingly turning their back on western countries in favor of finding work at home.

Graduates from the Indian Institutes of Technology so called 'IITians' told Evalueserve that India was fast catching up with the US for the range and quality of career prospects.

Between 1964 and 2001 the number of IITians staying in India was 65 per cent but this jumped to 84 per cent between 2002 and 2008.

Grand Theft Auto IV hits the streets--it's a '10'

Grand Theft Auto IV hits the streets--it's a '10'
Expectations were high when Microsoft and Bungie released Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 on September 25. It was only mildly surprising, then, when Microsoft proclaimed a day after launch that the final installment in Halo's story arc, begun in 2001 on the original Xbox, had set North American entertainment sales records, selling some $170 million in product within 24 hours. Not a bad tally, considering it had unseated summer box-office spectacle

Cheap Mac clone draws angry response

Cheap Mac clone draws angry response
Update: A Florida-based firm advertising cheap, Mac-compatible systems running on standardized hardware has created a swirl of controversy this week--and drawn an angry response from one of the principal hackers involved in developing the software involved.

Aside from the legal ramifications of selling "white-box" systems running Apple's Mac OS X, questions have arisen over the exact nature of Psystar, the firm advertising the systems; and even whether it exists.

Silverlight to star in NBC's online Olympics coverage

Silverlight to star in NBC's online Olympics coverage
Perkins Miller is counting down the days to the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing this year.

NBC's senior vice president of digital media for Sports and Olympics has been saddled with the task of making NBCOlympics.com a success. And he gets no second chances--once the Olympics launches, the site's live Web cast coverage of the event will be watched by millions.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Miller's eye on the timeline was apparent. "We have 106 days to go," he said Wednesday.