Beyond findability: The search for active intelligence

Commentary--It seems as though there is a watershed event in the search industry every ten years or so. Although Lexis-Nexis first commercialized search in the 1970s, it took a decade of indexing advances such as skip lists and index compression to make indexing practical, and another decade of computing advances to give us billions of searchable documents on the Internet.

Cyberattacks target UK national infrastructure

Sustained cyber-espionage attacks are being waged on companies that play a key role in the Britain's national infrastructure, a UK cyber-defense chief has warned.

The computer systems of critical businesses in the UK, such as power companies and large financial institutions, are being repeatedly probed to steal information or uncover weaknesses that could take them down.

That was the warning from Mark Oram, head of the threat and information-security knowledge department at the Center for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), the security service tasked with protecting key government and private organizations in the UK.

Microsoft warns of financial crisis email scams

LONDON--Internet fraudsters will try to exploit the global financial crisis by sending fraudulent emails purporting to offer cash-strapped consumers new mortgages, loans or money from failed banks, a Microsoft executive said on Wednesday.

The 'real' cost of application outages

Application downtime, whether you're measuring intermittent availability or fully downed systems, is too costly to ignore. The best way to avoid trouble is to view the infrastructure through the eyes of your transactions.

Is surfing the Internet altering your brain?

CANBERRA--The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

Apple's iPhone gets Google Earth

Announced on Sunday, the application allows users of Apple's handset--as well as those of the iPod Touch--to zoom in and out of a virtual globe. Google Earth has been available on the desktop for three years, and has been downloaded more than 400 million times, but the iPhone deployment marks its first mobile version.

Symantec to identify safe software by 'reputation'

Symantec will soon introduce a "reputation-based" software-rating technology that it has claimed can accurately differentiate malicious malware from legitimate programs.

"Reputation-based security is the latest and greatest technology in malware detection," said Basant Rajan, chief technology officer of the IT security vendor's India office.

Essentially, this approach involves looking at where a program can be found across the database of Symantec users, categorizing the reputation of those machines and coming to a judgment on whether the application poses any security risks.

EU concerned by airport full-body scanners

STRASBOURG, France--Airport full-body scanners that show people's private parts are a virtual strip search, European Union lawmakers said Thursday, calling for detailed study of the technology before it is used.

Intel apologizes to Apple, ARM for iPhone attack

Chipmaker Intel has released an apology for comments made by its executives this week on the inadequacies of the iPhone and the ARM processor driving it.

At the company's developer forum in Taipei, Shane Wall, Intel's vice president of the mobility group and director of strategic planning, platform architecture and software in the ultramobility group, had remarked on the iPhone's performance.

"Any sort of application that requires any horsepower at all and the iPhone struggles," he said.

Comfortable win for Murray

Wednesday, 22 October 2008

GETTY IMAGES

Murray is the defending champion at the St Petersburg Open

Intel slams ARM for 'slow' iPhone CPU

Any speed shortcomings in Apple's iPhone were the fault of its rival chipset manufacturer ARM, a senior Intel executive said in Taiwan Tuesday.

"The shortcomings of the iPhone are not because of Apple," Intel's director of ecosystems for its ultra-mobility group Pankaj Kedia said at the Intel Developer Forum in Taipei, Taiwan. "The shortcomings of the iPhone have come from ARM."

Chinese surfers see red over Microsoft blackouts

BEIJING--Chinese Internet users have expressed fury at Microsoft's launch of an anti-piracy tool targeting Chinese computer users to ensure they buy genuine software.

Survey shows risky use of mobile e-mail devices

NEW YORK--A California train engineer who was sending and receiving text messages was blamed last month for causing one of the worst railroad crashes in U.S. history that killed 25 people.

Five ways to make meetings bearable

More annoying than even junk mail is the dreaded Outlook meeting invite. Accept it and condemn yourself to hours locked up in an airless room eating biscuits and drinking too much coffee. Send it and condemn others to the same fate.

The average working person spends eight working weeks per year in meetings, with almost a third of those considered unproductive, according to recent research sponsored by tourism body VisitBritain.

So how can we make the most of that time?

Red Hat CEO: Vista marks end of 'planned software'

Big software releases like Windows Vista mark the end of "planned software" for the industry, according to Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst.

Speaking at a forum in Singapore on Friday, Whitehurst said the proprietary, "top-down, planned" software-development model, characteristic of closed-source companies, is coming to an end. Such a model is demonstrated by Vista and the number of bugs within it, he said.

Whitehurst claimed that there are "half the number of bugs in Linux per thousand lines" compared to the Microsoft operating system, because of the open-source, collaborative model.

Sony recalls 'LittleBigplanet' over Koran passages

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has announced that it is recalling the Playstation 3 video game, LittleBigPlanet, from retailers after it learned that the soundtrack featured some Arabic-language lines from the Koran backed with music.

A SCEE representative also confirmed to GameSpot that this recall would be global, and could not confirm when the game would now actually hit shelves with the offending music removed.

Red Hat CEO: Money crisis will boost open source

Sydney, Australia--The global economic crisis will provide a boost for open-source software, Red Hat chief executive Jim Whitehurst claimed during a visit to Sydney.

Whitehurst, who was in Australia as part of a tour of the Asia-Pacific region, said in an interview with ZDNet.com.au on Wednesday that the crisis would cause companies to consolidate their technology infrastructure and reduce spending.

"So the bad news is when things get tight, people stop investing as much in the future," he said. "I would expect to see a slowdown in spending for new functionality." However, the chief executive said this would cause more companies to consider open-source software as an option.

Cern CIO talks about the credit crunch and black holes

Few CIOs could claim to have helped recreate the Big Bang at work.

But as head of IT at Cern, Wolfgang von Rueden plays a key role in the nuclear research lab's quest to unravel the nature of the universe by colliding particles at 99 per cent the speed of light.

Von Rueden and his team provide the computing backbone that supports the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator's hunt for the elusive Higgs Boson - dubbed 'the God particle', invisible 'dark' matter and even evidence of extra dimensions.

Workout for brain just a few clicks away

CHICAGO--Searching the Internet may help middle-aged and older adults keep their memories sharp, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles studied people doing Web searches while their brain activity was recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging scans.

It's not easy being green--Optimizing eco-friendly packaging

Commentary--On every progressive brand managers short list is a sustainability initiative. In just a few short years, the environmental movement has tipped and hit the masses.

Doctors warn of rash from mobile phone use

LONDON--Doctors baffled by an unexplained rash on people's ears or cheeks should be on alert for a skin allergy caused by too much mobile phone use, the British Association of Dermatologists said on Thursday.

Starcraft II splits into trilogy

ANAHEIM, California--For many, this morning's keynote address from Blizzard president Mike Morhaime at Blizzcon 2008 was a bit anticlimactic. After revealing Starcraft II, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and Diablo III at three consecutive events, Blizzard had nothing new to report on a new game from the company. That changed during the Starcraft II panel, as Blizzard's Rob Pardo revealed that rather than a single real-time strategy game,

Opera 10 will be 'prettier'

The next major release of Opera for the desktop will be 'prettier' than the current version of the browser, claims the company.

Opera, a Norwegian firm, makes browsers for devices ranging from the PC to mobile phones and games consoles. It released an incremental version, 9.6, for the desktop last Wednesday, prompting a million downloads in a day. Version 10 will be more significant, according to the company's web evangelist, Bruce Lawson.

Enterprise web 2.0 costs set to plunge

Good news for credit crunch squeezed CIOs: the price of enterprise web 2.0 tools is set to plummet.

According to a new report by Forrester analyst G Oliver Young, the average deal size for web 2.0 tools including blogs, wikis, social networking and enterprise RSS is set to fall over the coming five years, despite an increase in the average number of licenses per business.

The decline in pricing comes on the back of an increasing communization of such software, bundling and subsumption--the inclusion of enterprise 2.0 features into vendors' existing products, negating the need for new standalone offerings.

Enterprise web 2.0 costs set to plunge

Good news for credit crunch squeezed CIOs: the price of enterprise web 2.0 tools is set to plummet.

According to a new report by Forrester analyst G Oliver Young, the average deal size for web 2.0 tools including blogs, wikis, social networking and enterprise RSS is set to fall over the coming five years, despite an increase in the average number of licenses per business.

The decline in pricing comes on the back of an increasing communization of such software, bundling and subsumption--the inclusion of enterprise 2.0 features into vendors' existing products, negating the need for new standalone offerings.

Enterprise web 2.0 costs set to plunge

Good news for credit crunch squeezed CIOs: the price of enterprise web 2.0 tools is set to plummet.

According to a new report by Forrester analyst G Oliver Young, the average deal size for web 2.0 tools including blogs, wikis, social networking and enterprise RSS is set to fall over the coming five years, despite an increase in the average number of licenses per business.

The decline in pricing comes on the back of an increasing communization of such software, bundling and subsumption--the inclusion of enterprise 2.0 features into vendors' existing products, negating the need for new standalone offerings.

Step-on scanner lets air passengers keep shoes on

LOD, Israel--Israel has introduced a step-on scanner that spares airline travelers the nuisance of having to remove their shoes so they can be X-rayed for hidden weapons, though the new device cannot yet sniff out explosives.

Step-on scanner lets air passengers keep shoes on

LOD, Israel--Israel has introduced a step-on scanner that spares airline travelers the nuisance of having to remove their shoes so they can be X-rayed for hidden weapons, though the new device cannot yet sniff out explosives.

BlackBerry Bold sales halted in UK

Orange has temporarily stopped selling the BlackBerry Bold while it tries to figure out a solution to unspecified 3G-related problems on the handset.

The operator halted sales of the popular handset on Friday. According to a spokesperson, sales will resume when a software fix becomes available, although no date was given.

"Orange UK is committed to providing the BlackBerry Bold to its customers in the UK; however, Orange UK and [BlackBerry manufacturers] Research in Motion (RIM) are currently working on providing a maintenance release of software to address some reported 3G-related concerns," a statement from Orange on Monday read.

Microsoft: How we'll take on VMware

Microsoft has a three-pronged strategy to beat VMware in the virtualization market, according to the company's senior director for virtualization product management, Zane Adam.

A key part of that strategy is Hyper-V Server 2008, the hypervisor, which Microsoft made available for download last week. In any virtualization strategy, the hypervisor is the core, and Microsoft sees it as so important that it is giving it away free to attract more customers.

Netbook returns blamed on Linux 'teething problems'

The return rate on Linux-powered netbooks may be higher than that for Windows netbooks, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing for Linux, according to Canonical.

Canonical, which sponsors the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, was responding to figures released last week by MSI, the maker of the Wind netbook.

In an interview with Laptop Magazine, MSI said its studies showed its Suse Linux-based ultraportables were returned at a rate four times higher than Windows-based Wind machines.

The five products Apple must make

Apple made its latest big move into new territories last year with the launch of the now ubiquitous iPhone, expanding beyond the desktop and into the choppy waters of mobile. What ought to be Apple's next leap of faith? Here are a few ideas for where Apple should go next.

Handheld gaming console
Now Apple's an established mobile phone brand, why not go the whole hog by taking the games-and-mobile functionality of the iPhone into the world of gaming proper with a dedicated Apple branded console, la DS Lite or PSP with an N-Gage type device that people might actually buy?

Start-up looks to extend battery life

Intel-backed start-up ZPower may be the first to introduce an alternative to the ubiquitous lithium-ion laptop battery, with a silver-zinc technology the company says will make its debut with a large laptop maker in 2009.

The company promises up to 40 percent more run time than current lithium-ion batteries, and says its batteries are 95 percent recyclable.

ZPower made the announcement ahead of the Batteries 2008 conference in Nice, France, which began on Wednesday, and where ZPower's chief executive and president, Dr Ross E Dueber, will be presenting ZPower's take on silver-zinc technology, also known as silver-oxide.

Dell speeds backup with disk-to-disk system

Dell has introduced the Dell PowerVault DL2000, a disk-to-disk system that places backup and recovery alongside the main data storage within one unit, with the aim of speeding up data processes.

By offering both data capabilities in one unit, the system can cut backup times by up to 52 percent and restore times by up to 77 percent compared with tape, Dell said in a statement on Wednesday. The claims are based on information supplied by data-storage specialist CommVault, which provides an integrated software option for the system.

Scientists make ultrathin superconducting films

CHICAGO--U.S. researchers have developed ultrathin films that when sandwiched together form a superconductor, an advance that could lead to a new class of fast, power-saving electronics.

Large Hadron Collider gets fresh power supply

The lab cracking data from the Cern Large Hadron Collider experiment needs a new computing hub because its existing one is sucking the power grid dry.

It's a move that's been prompted by the energy demands of the computer center at Cern's servers: the facility can draw a maximum of 2.5 megawatts of energy, yet the task of powering and cooling its massive server racks is already taking it close to that ceiling.

The center's 8,000 servers--which house about 40,000 processor cores--now consume the same amount of power and generate the same amount of heat as about 2,500 hairdressers' shops.

Ask revamps for faster Web search, more relevance

NEW YORK--IAC Corp's Ask.com is overhauling its Web search engine to deliver faster results and improved relevance as it bids to win share from market leader Google.

Large Hadron Collider computing grid launched

One of the world's largest computing grids, capable of streaming the equivalent of three million DVDs a year, was officially launched on Friday.

The Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid can draw on the computing power of more than 100,000 processors.

It will allow 7,000 scientists in 33 countries to process the 15 petabytes of data that will be produced each year at the particle accelerator at the Cern laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland.

Two Europeans indicted for US cyberattacks

Two Europeans, one of whom is English, have been indicted by a US federal grand jury in connection with a 2003 distributed denial-of-service attack that is the focus of a major FBI investigation.

The two men, who are not in custody, were indicted as part of the FBI's Operation Cyberslam, initiated in 2003 following a series of crippling distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks on a large Los Angeles vendor of digital recorders. The attacks effectively knocked that business offline, along with other private and government bodies, for two weeks, resulting in losses ranging from $200,000 (114,000) to more than $1 million, according to the FBI.

Ballmer previews 'Windows Cloud'

Microsoft will launch an operating system for the 'cloud' in four weeks, chief executive Steve Ballmer told delegates at a Microsoft-sponsored developer conference in London.

Tentatively entitled 'Windows Cloud', although Ballmer suggested it would have a "snazzier name" at launch, the product is designed to make it possible to "just write an application and push it to the cloud", Ballmer said.

'Cloud computing' is a term used to describe a situation where applications are based on web servers and accessed through internet connections, rather than being installed on clients.

Ballmer previews 'Windows Cloud'

Microsoft will launch an operating system for the 'cloud' in four weeks, chief executive Steve Ballmer told delegates at a Microsoft-sponsored developer conference in London.

Tentatively entitled 'Windows Cloud', although Ballmer suggested it would have a "snazzier name" at launch, the product is designed to make it possible to "just write an application and push it to the cloud", Ballmer said.

'Cloud computing' is a term used to describe a situation where applications are based on web servers and accessed through internet connections, rather than being installed on clients.

Microsoft launches software for cheap Portuguese laptop

LISBON--Microsoft launched on Friday a software package for a Portuguese ultra-cheap laptop for school children that the government hopes will boost the country's technological edge in education.

Microsoft launches software for cheap Portuguese laptop

LISBON--Microsoft launched on Friday a software package for a Portuguese ultra-cheap laptop for school children that the government hopes will boost the country's technological edge in education.

Microsoft launches software for cheap Portuguese laptop

LISBON--Microsoft launched on Friday a software package for a Portuguese ultra-cheap laptop for school children that the government hopes will boost the country's technological edge in education.

Microsoft launches software for cheap Portuguese laptop

LISBON--Microsoft launched on Friday a software package for a Portuguese ultra-cheap laptop for school children that the government hopes will boost the country's technological edge in education.

Fans to build own radio as Slacker takes on iPod

NEW YORK--Is it an iPod? Is it an old-fashioned transistor radio? These are the questions the Slacker portable digital music player will have to answer when it hits U.S. stores this month in time for the lucrative holiday season.

Businesses focus on Windows 7, XP over Vista

Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system is still playing second fiddle to XP among business users, with more enterprises investigating the unreleased Windows 7 than its predecessor.

More than half (58 percent) of businesses using Microsoft technology are "exploiting" Windows XP, compared to just four percent for Vista, according to research by the Corporate IT Forum (Tif).

Tif also found that 35 percent of organizations described themselves as "not yet interested" in Vista.

Pirates plunder Adobe Creative Suite 4

Little more than a week after its global launch, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 has shown up on popular BitTorrent tracking sites in large numbers.

The software represents updates to Adobe's flagship Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat and InDesign products, among others, with the full Master Collection edition, which includes the entire range, selling in the UK for around 1,969 (ex VAT).

However, several casual searches conducted by ZDNet.com.au revealed what appeared to be copies of CS4 and its various included products littered across most of the popular BitTorrent tracking sites--although the files were not downloaded to verify if they were genuine.

Pirates plunder Adobe Creative Suite 4

Little more than a week after its global launch, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 has shown up on popular BitTorrent tracking sites in large numbers.

The software represents updates to Adobe's flagship Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat and InDesign products, among others, with the full Master Collection edition, which includes the entire range, selling in the UK for around 1,969 (ex VAT).

However, several casual searches conducted by ZDNet.com.au revealed what appeared to be copies of CS4 and its various included products littered across most of the popular BitTorrent tracking sites--although the files were not downloaded to verify if they were genuine.

Pirates plunder Adobe Creative Suite 4

Little more than a week after its global launch, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 has shown up on popular BitTorrent tracking sites in large numbers.

The software represents updates to Adobe's flagship Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Acrobat and InDesign products, among others, with the full Master Collection edition, which includes the entire range, selling in the UK for around 1,969 (ex VAT).

However, several casual searches conducted by ZDNet.com.au revealed what appeared to be copies of CS4 and its various included products littered across most of the popular BitTorrent tracking sites--although the files were not downloaded to verify if they were genuine.

Microsoft steps up online search R&D in Europe

LONDON--Microsoft is stepping up efforts to improve online search, where it considerably lags market leader Google, by establishing a three-center research facility in Europe, it said on Thursday.

India's outsourcing bubble is bursting

Bangalore, India--Once a high-flying tech hub, Bangalore is seeing more sober days in the wake of the credit crisis.

It looks like the global economic turmoil and the dramatic Wall Street meltdown is beginning to hit Bangalore.

Until recently, in India's outsourcing hub it used to be one big Googlefest, with all the pampering and cosseting that employees enjoy at the company's Googleplex headquarters in Silicon Valley. I don't know what the latest from Googleplex is. But in Bangalore, it sure looks like the party is slowing down.

Job alert: SAP, COBOL, PowerBuilder??

Commentary--Was anybody else not surprised by the recent Foote Partners finding that the ongoing demand for workers skilled in SAP technologies grew dramatically stronger in recent months? In an economy governed by the principles of supply and demand, we can expect to see heightened interest and opportunities in what is viewed as more traditional application knowledge such as SAP, Oracle and PowerBuilder along with--dare I predict it--COBOL.

Full encryption stops Amazon Web video leak: Adobe

SEATTLE--Amazon.com has fixed a glitch in its video streaming service by adopting Adobe Systems encryption on all television shows and movies found on its site, software maker Adobe said on Monday.

Full encryption stops Amazon Web video leak: Adobe

SEATTLE--Amazon.com has fixed a glitch in its video streaming service by adopting Adobe Systems encryption on all television shows and movies found on its site, software maker Adobe said on Monday.

Full encryption stops Amazon Web video leak: Adobe

SEATTLE--Amazon.com has fixed a glitch in its video streaming service by adopting Adobe Systems encryption on all television shows and movies found on its site, software maker Adobe said on Monday.

CIOs not taking a shine to Chrome

In silicon.com's latest exclusive CIO Jury poll, the respondents revealed they were still steering clear of the application, with 10 out of 12 saying their IT teams are not testing it.

Many in the 'no' camp attributed their lack of Chrome testing to their IT infrastructures being set up to run with Internet Explorer as the default browser.

Nic Evans, European IT director, Key Equipment Finance said: "Too many business applications are only certified for Internet Explorer to consider any alternatives so soon."

Ballmer: No one immune to global crisis

OSLO--Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Tuesday no company was immune to the global financial crisis, which he expects to sap both consumer and business spending.