Microsoft Introduces Zoom.it

The Microsoft Live Labs has introduced a free new tool called Zoom.it that allows users to take and share high-resolution web-images. The service converts the image to “Deep Zoom” format, which allows users to zoom the image around no matter how large it is. According to Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, Zoom.it runs on “Windows Azure and enhances the experience with Microsoft Silverlight.”
One of the best features of Zoom.it is its ability to take more......

Why Microsoft’s PC-Inspired Cloud Strategy Might Work

I wrote a few weeks ago that “Microsoft taught the world how to succeed in PC and business software, but it might [be] teaching the world how to not succeed in cloud computing” However, that’s a fate it could avoid if it just delivered on a clear vision. As I point out in my weekly column for GigaOM Pro, it looks like Microsoft has decided on that vision: Treat cloud computing like it treated the PC business.

With the announcement of Windows Azure Appliances (WAP), Microsoft is once again looking to server makers to sell its software, but now it has added service providers to the mix too. If it’s to make Windows Azure the Windows operating system of cloud computing, its “OEM” partners will be the key.    more........

Common SSH Commands or Linux Shell Commands

On Linux, you can use chkconfig: shell> chkconfig –add mysql. On some Linux systems, the following command also seems to be necessary to fully enable the … http://downloads.mysql.com/docs/mysql-linuxunix-excerpt-5.1-en.pdf
# pdf
Packaging MySQL on Andrew Linux
This document is a tutorial on how to install MySQL on an Andew Linux system. Assumptions …. Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or g. … http://www.cmu.edu/computing/doc/contributed/mysql.pdf
# pdf
Common SSH Commands or Linux Shell Commands, ls : list files …
Common SSH Commands or Linux Shell Commands, …. MySQL Shell Commands mysqladmin processlist : Shows active mysql connections and queries … http://www.stevenmccullagh.com/code/ssh.pdf
# pdf
How to install/configure MySQL Database   more........

Rackspace goes open source with cloud platform

Data center and cloud infrastructure service provider Rackspace is expected to announce Monday the release of a new open-source offering that will allow users to build and launch their own internal and hosted clouds.
Dubbed OpenStack, the new Apache-licensed project will feature several cloud infrastructure components, including a fully distributed object store based on Rackspace Cloud Files, the company's highly scalable storage engine.
In addition to the initial offering, a scalable compute-provisioning engine based on the NASA Nebula cloud technology and Rackspace Cloud Servers technology is expected to be available later this year.   more......

Ballmer says Microsoft intends to become industry leader in cloud computing

Microsoft got nothing but grief when it killed its Kin smartphone this month, a decision that looked like a misstep for the software giant as it struggles to stay on the cutting edge.
The move could not have come at a more delicate time, with Microsoft's longtime business of selling software in a box rapidly being replaced by the sale of applications over the Web. The company is facing competition from rivals, such as Google, offering word processing and spreadsheets online free of charge, and it recently lost its place as the most valuable tech stock to Apple.
Microsoft is now working to transform itself into a one-stop shop for Web-based software and, as part of that strategy, is betting big on the growing popularity of cloud computing, which takes software off the desktop PC and moves it to networks of data centers accessed via the Web. more.......

Improving product quality the open source way

If we look at the differences between closed and open source software development processes, we can identify aspects that can be generalized and applied to other industries and domains.
Open source development—that combination of transparency, iterative development with early-and-often releases, and open participation—leads to higher quality products. When we're talking about software, people tend to think of quality in terms of bugs. But this is only part of the story of open development.
Defects can be anywhere within the requirements, design, implementation, or delivery processes, and we need to consider all of these areas to assess the full quality picture.   more....

Flex Open Source Project Launch: The Tilde Developer Console

Flex developers rejoice! Once only reserved for advanced games engines, the tilde-activated developer console has finally arrived to empower Flex coders everywhere.

I am proud to announce the long-delayed release of the Tilde Developer Console open source project into the wild. This Flex library makes powerful development tools from the PushButton Games Engine available to all Flex developers.

I do enterprise Flex RIA development for a living and extracted this powerful tool set for my own use a few months ago after attending Nate Beck's presentation on the aforementioned games engine at 360|Flex 2010 in San Jose, California.   more...

Firefox Losing Foothold on Linux Distros?

When you install the Ubuntu Netbook Edition in October, don't look for Firefox on the desktop — it won't be there. Chromium, Chrome's open source cousin, is going to be taking its place. After years of desktop dominance on Linux, is Firefox losing its foothold or is this an anomaly?

Read more at Linux Magazine

How much more malware is lurking in Linux official repositories?

The revelation that the open-source Unreal IRC server download has been infected with malware for some eight months is pretty worrying. But the added discovery that this Trojan horse made its way into the Gentoo distro is real reason for the Linux community to re-examine how trusted repositories are handled.
It’s true that compared to Windows, Linux is pretty safe bet if you want to remain protected from hackers. After all, the 1% or so usage share that the OS enjoys (combined with the fact that many of its users are pretty switched on) just doesn’t make it a worthwhile target to go after.
But there’s a big difference between the OS being a “pretty safe bet” and it being invulnerable. No OS is invulnerable. If someone wants in on your system, and they have the time and resources, they are likely to find a way.
But this is a major blunder. Allowing infected code to make its way into an official distro demonstrates how complacent some in the Linux community have become.
Which leads to the biggest and most important question of all - how can we, as Linux users, be sure that more malware hasn’t infiltrated official channels? more....

Microsoft Adds Hundreds Of Cloud Sales Reps In Battle Against Google

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) is mounting an all-out cloud sales offensive against rival Google that includes a move to add 300 to 500 direct salespeople to work with partners and customers to sell cloud solutions. "We are incrementing our sales force to go after the cloud," said Vince Menzione, Microsoft general manager, partner strategy for US Public Sector. "We are changing up our message to customers."
"All of our salespeople will be leading with cloud," said Menzione. "The message from (Microsoft CEO) Steve Ballmer is that we are all in with the cloud. Cloud is the way we lead our discussions with our customers."
Menzione detailed the big cloud push and the opportunities for partners in a keynote address on Monday before several hundred public sector solution providers at the Everything Channel XChange Public Sector conference at the Sawgrass Marriott in Jacksonville, Fla.  more.....

Microsoft is the Official Sponsor of E3 Bathrooms

Did you know that Microsoft has a new device called Kinect? Just in case you missed the memo (or one of the main reasons any of us are at E3), Microsoft has elected to remind the enthusiast press in a very odd way: while going to the bathroom.
With such fitting tag lines as "You are the Controller" plastered across bathroom mirrors,  more........

Opera Injects Itself into Adobe/Apple Flash Debate

Opera product analyst Phillip Grønvold inserted his company into the Apple/Flash kerfuffle in an interview this week.

   Asked about the relevance of Adobe's Web publishing platform, Grønvold stressed the importance of Flash, stating, "Today's internet content is dependent on Flash. If you remove Flash you do not have today's Internet."

      In order to offer the best experience for users, Grønvold added, Opera has to embrace Flash, "but Flash as a video container makes very little sense for CPU, WiFi battery usage etcetera - you can cook an egg on [devices] once you start running Flash on them and there's a reason for that."

   If Flash is going to survive, Grønvold explained, Adobe has to make some fundamental changes to the application:

     "For some reason it's not part of the fabric of the Web currently and Flash either needs to include itself in the future of the Web and open web standards or its technology is going to be consistently under attack from all sides as the open web standard movement grows further and further," he said. more.......

Mozilla, HTML5 editor differ with Microsoft

Microsoft has re-engaged with others in the computing industry in the area of Web standards--but its return is not without friction.

A number of allies--notably Mozilla, Opera, Apple, and Google--have been working for years to refashion Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and a host of associated technologies to make the Web a more powerful foundation for applications and more sophisticated sites. Microsoft now has joined in the effort, but it doesn't always see eye to eye when hashing out details of the upcoming HTML5 with Mozilla and a central individual in the standards process.

One point of debate is the fact that two organizations are involved: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group. Another is the process by which new Web technologies move from concept to standardization and support in browsers.

Fundamentally, Microsoft prefers a more formal, buttoned-down process that's somewhat at odds with today's free-wheeling Web standards practice. Existing players and Microsoft are still getting used to each other.

Standardization views
Organizations often jockey for influence through standards groups, and HTML is no exception. Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's general manager of Internet Explorer, didn't call for an end to the WHATWG, but he did make it clear Microsoft believes the W3C's working group is the center of activity.

"The W3C is the HTML5 standards body," Hachamovitch said, pointing to WHATWG's absence from Wikipedia's entry for standards groups as evidence that it's not one.  more........

Microsoft-funded open-source foundation aiming to diversify

Open-source software veteran Paula Hunter has one of the more interesting jobs in the industry, as the executive director of the CodePlex Foundation, a non-profit, open-source organization that was established with Microsoft as its founding sponsor.

On a visit the Seattle region this week, she sat down with us to discuss the CodePlex Foundation and its future, including its efforts to expand beyond that Microsoft investment and diversify the open-source software projects that it supports as part of its portfolio.

Continue reading for excerpts from the conversation.

Q: What's the purpose of the CodePlex Foundation?

We want to make it easier for commercial entities to participate in open-source development. That could be software companies, that could be corporate IT. What we find is that open-source is being used pervasively in both the commercial software sector and corporate IT sector. Being used, being consumed, more.....

Fedora 13 Expands Linux Virtualization

Virtualization technology has long found a home in Red Hat's Fedora community Linux distribution. Ever since Fedora 4 emerged in 2005, virtualization technologies have continued to advance in the distro and that remains the case with the upcoming Fedora 13 release set for later this month.

Unlike Fedora's early virtualization features, which all leveraged the Xen open source technology, more recent Fedora releases have relied on KVM. New KVM performance and scalability features for virtualization will debut in Fedora 13 that will help to push the envelope for large-scale virtualization deployments.

"If you look at Linux virtualization features, Fedora has always been the vanguard for virtualization," Fedora Project Leader Paul Frields told InternetNews. "We were putting out KVM before anyone else and we were interested in KVM as it seemed like a much more upstream-friendly feature. Although Xen was definitely a virtualization focus for a few years, Xen had some drawbacks."

Frields noted that from Fedora's perspective, Xen had become a drain on resources for developers since it took a lot of work to get Xen to work together with the Linux kernel for a Fedora distribution release. He added that, in his view, the code base for Xen didn't track exactly with the upstream Linux kernel and as a result, there was a mismatch. more.............

New dating site coming up for Apple fan boys and girls

Apple fans are somewhat notorious for being... big fans of Apple products. But does that mean Apple fan girls and boys have a better chance of hitting it off than....

Apple's Website Circa 1993 - apple.com - Gizmodo If you transported Apple's website back to 1993, I have no doubt it would end up looking exactly like this. Especially that beige menubar. HyperCard, anyone?	Chinese Wi-Fi Key-Cracking Kits Provide Free, But Illegal Internet Wi-Fi USB adapters bundled with a Linux operating system, key-breaking software and a detailed instruction book are being sold online and in bustling ...

Exclusive Interview With Adobe CEO

Earlier on Thursday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs published an essay in which he took Adobe to task over its Flash software, which Apple does not support on its mobile products, such as the iPhone and iPad. The squabbling between Apple and Adobe has been getting increasingly personal, with Adobe executives and employees angered in particular by Apple’s decision to block Adobe software that would allow developers to produce programs in Flash that would then be converted to work on the iPhone.

The Journal’s Alan Murray had an exclusive interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen Thursday afternoon, and Digits live-blogged the event. Highlights are below. Excerpts of the video are set to be available on the News Hub live show at 4 p.m., with the full video available on the Journal’s Web site. more......

Microsoft Contributes to Open Source Web CMSs

What it Means

Well, first of all, that code was submitted under the JCA, so it's bound by the same rules as code from any other contributor. As Mark Simpson stated in his response to the announcement, "They've signed the JCA, so they're contributing on *our* terms."

It's also important to remember this key fact: the code they contributed is open source. Don't trust it? Go examine it. more......

24 Extra Hot Free Linux Games

If Linux is going to make significant strides in increasing market desktop share, it needs to be able to compete with Windows in all areas. The average computer user typically just wants a single operating system to use for their work, to surf the net, to keep in contact with family and friends, and to have some fun. Having to reboot between operating systems is frankly too inconvenient for many users, as well as being perceived as too difficult. Whilst you can run many Windows software from Linux (e.g. by using virtualisation software, or Wine), again this simply appears to add to the complexity of using the PC. Furthermore, whilst Wine does allow some of the hottest Windows games to run under Linux, it is inevitable there will always be some incompatibility issues. more

Microsoft Windows 7 Fast Selling OS in History (NASDAQ:MSFT)

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares stood at 30.96 as of 4/23/2010 signifying a -0.43 – -1.37% change over the previous day.

Microsoft, a company in the Application Software industry, has had a number of column inches lately, which has led to a -0.6% change in its stock price over the past 3 months.

Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) fiscal 3rd quarter profits increased by 35% as the tech giant benefited from a solid response from the release of the company’s Windows 7 OS. more.....

Friday’s Feature: Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010

Latest Release Provides Existing Customers Good Reasons To Upgrade
Redmond, WA based Microsoft Corporation announced its Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 (a.k.a. GP 11) product on April 20th, 2010.  Available May 1st 2010 in Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, the Middle East, New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the announcement perfectly coincides with Convergence 2010 in Atlanta, GA.  The latest release delivers on five compelling themes:

• Improvements in the role tailored user experience. Microsoft enhances and adds action panes, business portals, notifications and work flows by role to keep the experience relevant to how people work.  Unlike legacy ERP systems, the design mantra does not force fit a set of best practices on generic users. Point of view (POV):  Users get started right away with familiar Microsoft user experiences (i.e. Windows 7 and Office 2010).  The 33+ pre-defined roles (e.g April, Charlie, Connie, and Vince) will help users in all sizes of organizations improve productivity from the get-go. more.......

Israel lifts ban on imports of Apple iPad

(Reuters) - Israel will begin allowing people to bring Apple iPads into the country starting on Sunday, two weeks after customs began confiscating the tablet computers for fear they would interfere with other wireless devices.

Technology

"Following the completion of intensive technical scrutiny, Israel Minister of Communications Moshe Kakhlon approved the import of (the) iPad to Israel," the Communications Ministry said in a statement.
The ministry had banned importation of the touchscreen devices saying they did not meet European standards, adopted by Israel, more.......

The secret of India’s high-tech success

When India started liberalizing in 1991, many expected it to follow the path of export-oriented low-wage manufacture charted by other Asian countries.

This proved impossible since Indian politicians would not liberalize labour laws, which made labour artificially expensive. But, to everybody’s surprise , India leapfrogged this area and achieved huge success in high-tech areas, ranging from computer software to R&D .

How so? There were many reasons . But one that escaped attention earlier was highlighted by Vivek Wadhwa in 2008 in the Harvard Business Review. In an article titled “A disciple becomes a guru,” he showed how Indian companies had innovated skill training to the point where they now had much to teach the US.

more........

Microsoft Vs. Apple: Does Equal Size Mean Equality?

Microsoft (Nasdaq:MSFT) and Apple (Nasdaq:APPL) are goliaths, two of the largest companies on the planet. Microsoft is a $270 billion company, while Apple is valued at a slightly lower $225 billion, based on their current stock prices. Yet just a decade ago, the thought that Apple's worth could be in even the same ballpark as Microsoft would have been ludicrous. The gap has closed, thanks to an amazing resurgence of Apple over the past 10 years. To say that Apple was teetering over the cliff before catching itself is not hyperbole.

Read more

Hackers exploit Adobe vulnerability

Hackers have been attempting to exploit an unpatched hole in Adobe Reader's PDF document format using a variant of the infamous Zeus bot.

It comes in the form of a malicious PDF file that embeds the attack code in the document.

"When this PDF is opened In Adobe Reader with JavaScript enabled, the exportDataOject function causes a dialog box to be displayed asking the user to 'specify a file to extract to'," says Gavin Neale of M86 Security.

"The default file is the name of the attachment, Royal_Mail_Delivery_Notice.pdf. This could be somewhat confusing to users, and not really knowing what is happening, they may just click save (It appears as if they are just saving a PDF file after all). Users of Foxit PDF reader will get no warning and the attachment will be saved to the users Documents folder." more......

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Meet the Cisco Nexus 1010, a switch

One of the products that generated a fair number of questions with last week’s announcement was our Nexus 1010. Since I got a number of very similar questions, let me answer them all here at once.

So, lets start with a quick recap. The Nexus 1000 switch architecture is modeled after a modular switch such as our Catalyst 6500 or Nexus 7000—the N1K series does, in fact, run NX-OS like the rest of the Cisco Nexus and Cisco MDS families. Like a modular switch, we have virtualized line cards we call Virtual Ethernet Modules (VEM) which is the software that replaces the vSwitch in a vSphere host. We also have virtualized supervisor modules calledm strangely enough, Virtual Supervisor Modules that provide management and control plane functions (they don’t get involved in packet forwarding). Prior to the Nexus 1010, the VSM software has run as a virtual appliance on a handy server in the data center. more....

Can Facebook or Twitter Spin Off the Next Hadoop?

Like most people, I suspect, I wasn’t too surprised to find out that Hadoop-focused startup Karmasphere has secured a $5 million initial funding round. After all, if Hadoop catches on like the evidence suggests it will, Karmasphere’s desktop-based Hadoop-management tools could pay off investors many times over. In some ways, though, the fact that Hadoop is mature enough to inspire commercial products means it’s yesterday’s news. Now, I’m wondering, which open-source, big-data-inspired product will be the next to launch a wave of startups and drive tens of millions in VC spending?  more........

Google-Adobe Flash partnership could heat up browser competition

Google's partnership this week with Adobe Systems, which has the Flash Player being bundled with the Google Chrome browser, has the potential to take relatively vigorous competition in the browser market to an even more-heated level, an IDC analyst said in a bulletin this week.

The Google-Adobe move  has produced mixed reactions, with some questioning Google's commitment to Web standards like HTML5, since Flash Player is a proprietary plug-in for rich Internet applications. But IDC analyst Al Hilwa sees broader implications and calls the partnership a win for Adobe.
  "The consequences of this announcement may affect how PCs, smartphones, and a slew of next-generation content consumption devices like tablet computers evolve as platforms for applications," Hilwa said. "Browsers are not just gateways to the Internet, but they also present a platform for developing and deploying user applications."  more.............

Google Engineers Recreate Quake II In HTML5

While Apple's decision to exclude Flash technology from its iPad may have content creators fretting about the lack of designer-friendly HTML5 authoring tools, the company's ally-turned-rival, Google, has proven at least that HTML5 Web apps are capable of delivering computationally demanding graphics. In a blog post on Thursday -- one of the few that day from Google that wasn't an April Fool's joke -- developer programs engineer Chris Ramsdale revealed the existence of an HTML5 port of id Software's Quake II engine. It's the product of Google's 20% time policy, which allows Google engineers to spend 1/5 of their work hours on projects outside the scope of their formal job descriptions. more......

Cisco Brings WebEx to the Apple iPad

Cisco is offering a free WebEx online meeting application for the App Store for Apple’s iPad, which goes on sale April 3. Through the WebEx App, users will be able to participate in online meetings created through the Cisco technology.

Cisco Systems is bringing its WebEx collaboration offering to Apple’s iPad.

When Apple’s tablet goes on sale April 3, owners will be able to download Cisco’s WebEx Meeting Center app, enabling them to participate in online meetings.

The move April 2 is the latest by Cisco to enable business people to use its collaboration technology on the device of their choice, according to Debra Chrapaty, senior vice president and general manager of the vendor’s Collaboration Software Group.  more.......

Flash 10.1 vs HTML5 on Nexus One: Adobe still ahead

We can’t say we were that impressed by our experience of Flash 10.1 on the Google Nexus One, but it looks like fettled versions of the code are performing more successfully.  Adobe Flash evangelist Michaël Chaize has been running some comparison benchmarks between Flash 10.1 and HTML5 video on his Nexus One, and it turns out Flash is “much faster”.

    
Chaize’s tests build on previous work by The Man In Blue, who looked at Flash 10.1 versus HTML5 performance when viewed in desktop browsers.  They too found that the Adobe technology was faster.
Still, the end messages is that performance is very dependent on the person doing the programming.  Chaize points out that Flash developers need to be careful with their AS3 optimization, while “knowing HTML doesn’t mean that you’ll become a HTML5 expert. I guess you’ll also have to take care of code optimization.”   more.......

Microsoft Bing nabs more Web searches in February

SEATTLE — Researchers say Microsoft's Bing search engine is gaining market share in the U.S.
The software maker has worked for years to improve its search technology. It launched Bing, a redesigned search site, last June.
Bing's share of searches has crept up since then, but Microsoft remains in third place behind Yahoo and Google.
So far, most of Bing's gains have come at Yahoo's expense, researchers say. But now there's a small sign that Bing may also be tempting some Googlers. Analysts at The Nielsen Co. say Bing's share of U.S. searches rose to 12.5 percent in February, while Yahoo's and Google's shares both edged down.
It's not a clear trend, though. By comScore Inc.'s measure, Google's February share still gained a tenth of a percent.

Microsoft: Windows 7 Fastest-Selling OS Ever

Microsoft has sold 90 million copies of Windows 7 to date, making it the fastest-selling operating system in history, according to Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer. Klein made the comments earlier this week while speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference. While most of what Klein had to say dealt with the Microsoft's financial expectations, the company's top number cruncher did discuss a few interesting things about Microsoft's product outlook for the coming year.  more..........

Buzz backfire: How Google pushed me to Facebook

I use and enjoy Google Buzz. But here's the funny thing: because of it, I've begun using Facebook more.

Buzz backfired for me for one simple reason. I wanted a mechanism for social networking with my personal contacts, but Facebook is where those ties are active.

Although I have plenty of close contacts in my Gmail address book, not all of them use Gmail and therefore Buzz. Buzz has a good framework but the wrong faces.

Of course, Google infamously pre-populated Buzz with everybody's follower lists. Leaving the privacy repercussions aside, that move did serve to jump-start Buzz so trying it wasn't like talking to yourself in an empty room, as with Wave.

But for whatever reasons relating to contact lists, algorithms, and activity, Google filled my Buzz follower and followee lists chiefly with professional contacts.  more.........

Microsoft to Double Down on HTML5 With Internet Explorer 9

With the latest releases of Opera, Google Chrome and Firefox continuing to push the boundaries of the web, the once-dominant Internet Explorer is looking less and less relevant every day. But we should expect Microsoft to go on the offensive at its upcoming MIX 2010 developer conference in Las Vegas, where, it has been speculated, the company will demonstrate the first beta builds of Internet Explorer 9 and possibly offer a preview release of the browser to developers more..........

Microsoft to turn , Outlook a Social Networking !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday was a good day for Google’s enterprise software business as competitor Microsoft announced plans to incorporate Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn updates within its flagship enterprise product, Outlook.

The move could get Outlook banned in offices around the world by buttoned-down IT folks bound by corporate policy, who now have reason turn their school-marm firewall rules on Microsoft Outlook. And those who love their e-mail pure of distracting Web 2.0 noise might be tempted to turn to Gmail’s enterprise edition — which as yet has no Buzz inside.

Microsoft dominates the market for enterprise office productivity tools, but has come under increasing pressure from online innovators like Google and Zoho that offer businesses decent alternatives at significant discounts.

Read More....

What Google needs to learn from Buzz backlash

G oogle may have reached the limits of what it can learn from dog food.

Ask almost any technology company what products and services they use within their own organizations, and most will enthusiastically admit to "dog-fooding" their own products. It's both a show of support for their own technology and an opportunity to test those products for flaws that won't make the light of day before they are fixed.

Google is no different. But something went wrong with the dog-fooding process for Google Buzz, forcing company engineers to scramble over a holiday weekend to calm the outcry over privacy violations with tweaks to the settings and set-up process.  more.........

Cisco patches multiple holes in its security products

The bad news is that Cisco today warned customers of multiple holes in its security products. The good news is that it has released patches for all of them. Affected products include he Cisco Firewall Services Module (FWSM) for the Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches and Cisco 7600 routers, Cisco ASA 5500 security appliance and Cisco Security Agent releases 5.1, 5.2 and 6.0 and the Cisco PIX 500.
The FWSM vulnerability may cause a denial of service. The Cisco FWSM may be forced to reload after processing an evil Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP) message. The vulnerability exists when SCCP inspection is enabled. It is only triggered by transit traffic not by traffic destined for the device. more........

Microsoft to Talk Open Source at OSBC

Microsoft will be active at the Open Source Business Conference, acting as a sponsor and providing a keynote speaker. The software giant is continuing its drive to position itself as an ally of open source and to support open-source projects on Windows.

Microsoft plans to make a substantial showing at the upcoming Open Source Business Conference, in a continuation of the software giant's campaign to make nice with open source and support open-source projects on Windows.

In a blog post, Peter Galli, open-source community manager at Microsoft, laid out some of what the company will do at the OSBC event that runs March 17 to 18 in San Francisco.

For starters, Microsoft will be a Platinum sponsor of the event and will call on one of its emerging stars to keynote. Stuart McKee, Microsoft's national technology officer for the United States, will deliver a keynote on March 18. more........

Open Source MySQL Backup Application: Sypex Dumper

Sypex Dumper is an open source web application for creating instant or automated backups of MySQL databases.
It is built with PHP, has an Ajaxed interface & can restore databases as well.
The application can work with gb-level huge databases as it easily bypasses the timeout limits of PHP by pausing/starting backup jobs.

Sypex Dumper can optionally check, optimize & repair tables or automatically delete older backups to save space.
It has support for file compression (Gzip and Bzip2) & offers a multilingual interface more.........

Oops! Google Says 'We're Very Sorry' for the Big Buzz Blunder

Google (GOOG) moved to stem the growing privacy furor over its new Buzz social networking product on Saturday, announcing that new users would no longer automatically follow and be followed by the email contacts in their Gmail accounts.

Google integrated Buzz, introduced on Feb. 9, into its Gmail service, and many users were shocked to discover that their private contacts were broadcast publicly. The episode is an embarrassment for Google, which many privacy advocates already view skeptically.

The central issue in the Buzz case is that new users were automatically set up with a publicly displayed social network culled from their contact lists. Incredibly, Google saw no problem with turning personal email correspondents into the basis of a public social network.  more........

Iran Goes to War ... With Google

A war is brewing between Iran and Google, culminating in the complete shutdown of the Internet behemoth's Gmail service -- and the country's announcement of plans to create a first-of-its-kind national e-mail service, a local journalist says.

A war is brewing between Iran and Google, culminating in the complete shutdown of the Internet behemoth's Gmail service -- and the country's announcement of plans to create a first-of-its-kind national e-mail service, a local journalist says.

The Gmail shutdown -- and a clampdown on Internet access overall -- comes amid widespread demonstrations against the Iranian government surrounding Thursday's 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Iran blocked access to the Internet in December ahead of protests on National Students Day, as well.

A local journalist, whose identity is being withheld for his protection, told FoxNews.com that the Iranian government has been angrily eyeing Google for the eight months, since the company's June 18 launch of Google Farsi -- a site that translates Web pages from English into Persian, making the entire Internet available to Iranians.  read more....

IBM announces massive NAS array for the cloud

IBM announced an enterprise -class network attached storage (NAS) array today that is capable of scaling to 14 petabytes under a single name space.           

The array, called SONAS (Scale Out Network Attached Storage), is targeted at mid- and large-size enterprises. The rack-sized array is built in part on hardware and software developed for IBM's supercomputing systems.

IBM said the system can offer enterprises access to billions of files in support of cloud computing architectures. "IBM SONAS addresses one of the key promises of Cloud computing, which is to provide access to information anywhere at any time," the company said in a statement.

"SONAS will allow an organization to snap-in resources seamlessly as information requirements increase, but it also provides the capability to scan up to a billion files of data in a matter a matter of minutes," the company said.

Terri McClure, an analyst with market research firm Enterprise Strategy Group, said there has been continued interest in commodity-based scale-out platforms in the data center that is driven by the long-term aftershocks of  more........

Microsoft gives a glimpse of Windows 8

The Google-cached version of a January 31 blog on MSDN, entitled, "What's in store for the next Windows?" provided a limited glimpse of what to expect. The OS also was referred to as Windows.next.

[ InfoWorld columnist Randall C. Kennedy offered up predictions on Windows 8 last year. ]

"The minimum that folks can take for granted is that the next version will be something completely different from what folks usually expect of Windows -- I am simply impressed with the process that Steven [Sinofsky, president of the Microsoft Windows and Windows Live Division] has set up to listen to our customers needs and wants and get a team together than can make it happen," the post, from a member of the Windows update team, said.  more.......

Microsoft Bing Grabs Search Share from Google, Yahoo

Microsoft in January nabbed 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo. comScore claimed Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from 65.7 percent through December 2009. Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December. Each month that Yahoo slides in search places greater importance on the company's deal to let Bing power its search results on the back end. In this arrangement, Microsoft will take ownership of Yahoo's search and boost Bing's search share to 28 percent of the market.

Microsoft recorded 11.3 percent of the searches in the United States for January, grabbing market share from market leader Google and sinking search rival Yahoo, according to comScore.

Google notched 65.4 percent of U.S. searches, down from an all-time high of 65.7 percent through December 2009, the researcher found. No. 2 search provider Yahoo claimed an even 17 percent of the market, down from its 17.3 percent share from December.

Taking the broader view, Microsoft gained 330 basis points of search since it launched Bing in June, an "impressive accomplishment," according to BroadPoint AmTech analyst Ben Schachter.   

"Overall, the trends continue to be very strong for Bing, and remain very bad for Yahoo," Schachter wrote in a Feb. 9 research note. "Investors hoping that tonight's data would show stabilization for Yahoo will be disappointed...Unfortunately for Yahoo, we still do not see a bottom for its potential share loss."

January marked the twelfth consecutive month of share loss for the struggling search engine, which commanded 17.5 percent in November 2009, 18 percent in October and as much as 20.4 percent in November 2008.

Schachter added that while the impact to Yahoo's net revenue and earnings per share may be mitigated by the idea that the declines are coming from less profitable distribution queries, the downslide will continue to impinge the perception of the company.  more..........

Facebook Must Tell Google to Buzz-Off (Or Else)

To protect itself from Google, Facebook content must never appear in any form as part of any Google product. Not ever, and Facebook should make the announcement today. (You can see our visual tour of Google Buzz here).

Here's why: If Google Buzz is ever connected to Facebook, it will be the beginning of the end for today's #1 social network.

As a Facebook user, the last thing I need in my life is another social networking service. I have lots of friends--business and personal--on Facebook. It plays an important role in my home and work life. What I don't need is for my friends to start dividing themselves into Facebook users and Buzz users.

I want all my friends on just one service.

Just as Google, Amazon, and eBay have become dominant in their markets, almost to the exclusion of all competitors, Facebook has become America's social network. We do not need another one and Google will someday regret trying.

Google is simply too late to the game and given its failed history in social networks--Orkut, anyone?--there is little reason to predict success beyond the power of Google's name.

For Buzz to succeed, it needs Facebook content. By denying it, Facebook can help secure its future and help wall off Google.

Given Google's modus operandi, Buzz will manage to somehow strip revenue from any social network that it allows it to connect. Eventually there will be just Google. Don't believe me? Sit back and watch.  more.....

Avatar sequel, DVD release ignite Rupert Murdoch's cash-flow dreams

VANCOUVER — While Aussie-American magnate Rupert Murdoch bemoans how the Internet allows surfers to plunder his newspapers' content for free, he's absolutely giddy about the stunning success of James Cameron's Avatar.

The News Corp. chairman owns Fox, the prime force behind the movie, which has the biggest gross (unadjusted) of all time, at more than $2 billion US. When adjusted for inflation, Avatar falls far behind the box office champ, Gone With The Wind.

Still, it's good news for Murdoch, who's made no secret he's smarting over technological challenges to his print properties, which include the Wall Street Journal and the Times of London.

And the press baron says he's looking forward to future Avatar revenue streams through a DVD release.

"We certainly plan to release the DVD as soon as possible," he told analysts during a conference call. "But it is continuing, for a great period it seems, in the cinemas."  more..........

Shuttle Blasts Off for Space Station

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — The space shuttle Endeavour thundered into orbit before dawn Monday morning, briefly turning darkness into daylight.

It was the second effort to get the Endeavour off the ground, 24 hours after clouds over the launching pad scrubbed Sunday’s attempt.

Clouds again encroached, but there were enough holes to allow the Endeavour to lift off on schedule at 4:14 a.m., a bright streak rising to the northeast along the East Coast. It was the 130th launching of a shuttle and probably the final night launching as the program winds down and ends after four more flights.

“What a beautiful launch we had this morning,” William H. Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, said in a news conference.

The Endeavour is carrying the last major piece of the International Space Station. Two of the shuttle’s crew members, Nicholas J. M. Patrick and Lt. Col. Robert L. Behnken of the Air Force, will conduct three spacewalks to install a 23-foot-long, 15-foot-wide Tranquility module.

The module includes a seven-windowed dome, or cupola, that will offer panoramic views of Earth and space. The viewing area, large enough for two astronauts, will be used to control the station’s 60-foot-long robotic arm and to observe other activities outside the station.  more.....

IBM's 100GHz Transisitor !!!!

IBM might have fallen from the spotlight of  the computer world, but it remains an integral figure in its innovation.  And to prove this, behold: IBM has announced it successfully developed a graphene transistor that is clocked at an insanely fast 100 GHz.  Needless to say, this is the fastest transistor ever made and silicon might just have lost its spot as the number one semiconductor.

     The best silicon transistors have only managed to make to 40 GHz, and it is becoming exceedingly difficult to continue down the current path without some sort of breakthrough.  It looks like graphene will be IBM’s answer to this dilemma and with good cause. Not only is it much faster, but IBM used the same silicon fabrication techniques in order to make it.  This removes a major hurdle to transitioning to graphene.

Still, this is only the early stages of the process. As with all technological breakthroughs, it will be some time before it trickles its way down to personal computing. Nevertheless, it has been a good week for technological breakthroughs.

Amazon rethinking Kindle in the wake of Apple iPad

Amazon is being forced to rethink many of the design decisions of its Kindle e-book reader after the introduction of Apple's iPad.

The New York Times reported that Amazon assimilated multitouch screen maker Touchco into its Kindle engineering team last week; since then, it reports the Kindle group has posted over 50 job openings for positions related to hardware design.

Among the job postings is a Hardware Display Manager position, which asks that applicants "know the LCD business and key players in the market." Up to this point, Amazon has touted the Kindle's quirky e-ink screen as a major feature, promoting its readability and power savings that enable the device to coast for days without charging it.

If the next Kindle moves to conventional LCD screen technology, it will enable Amazon to keep up with the iPad in terms of displaying color, animation, and video. An LCD would also be required to support a touch interface, as e-ink isn't responsive enough to respond to touch gestures; the display lags even with the existing button controls.   more....

US publishers smile again as Kindle rivals emerge

NEW YORK — US book publishers are smiling again, after years of watching digital versions of their titles sell for below what they thought they were worth.

Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. stable includes publisher Harper-Collins, could hardly contain his glee during an earnings call last week."Without content, the ever larger and flatter screens, the tablets, the e-readers and the increasingly sophisticated mobile phones would be lifeless," Murdoch said. "Without content these ingenious and wonderful devices would be unloved and unsold."
One new arrival in particular has Murdoch and other publishers excited -- Apple's iPad tablet computer, which doubles as a full-color e-reader of books, newspapers and magazines.

"We're at a happy point, not just with Apple, but with Barnes & Noble and the 'Nook,' the 23 devices that have been launched, and Google Books seems to be just around the corner," a source in the publishing industry said.

"Now we have that many more distribution outlets coming," said the source, who requested anonymity out of fear of antagonizing Amazon, which may be facing competition but remains the undisputed e-book leader.  more

Rupert Murdoch vs. the Internet

Sixteen years ago, an eternity in Internet years, media mogul Rupert Murdoch became one of the first newspaper publishers to venture online. In a now-forgotten deal, his sprawling News Corp. empire snapped up Delphi Internet Services, one of America’s first dial-up providers, with a plan to meld it with his newspaper and TV content. Analysts were ecstatic at the prospects. “Rupert Murdoch has bought an electronic engine for his media empire,”........ more

Facebook joins Apache Foundation

The company, whose Web site is built on technologies including Linux, Apache, memcached, MySQL, and PHP, plunked down $40,000 for the Gold sponsor status. Facebook has three infrastructure projects currently active in the Apache Software Foundation (ASF): Thrift, Hive and Cassandra...... more

Microsoft strikes back at Google on new cloud storage limits

A couple of quick hits today from around the Microsoft-related sites and blogs:
Microsoft strikes back against Google: In a very uncharacteristic move, Microsoft is sending out notes to reporters and bloggers on January 12, reminding them that Google’s...... more

Google Pulling Out of China? Don't Bet On It

Google on Tuesday took a very bold stand by saying it would no longer censor search results on its Chinese site, and may even consider closing operations in that country. The search giant made this decision after the company revealed it, as well as 20 other large companies, were the targets of cyberattacks that Google says can be traced back to China........ more

Nanosys nanotechnology to improve LED lighting

In this struggling economy, businesses as well as the general populace are all struggling to do more with less. In the case of LED and nanotechnology, however, that may not be necessarily a bad thing.
Take for example the work showcased at CES by Nanosys, a company that has developed a method to add nanomaterials to blue LEDs that improves the appearance of LED lighting. Their efforts have created an LED light that combines the energy...... more

Riding The Nexus One Wave, Google Releases The Android 2.1 SDK

One of the key features of the Nexus One has nothing to do with its hardware. The latest and greatest Android phone also is the first device to come with the new Android 2.1 OS. And while other phones, like the Droid, are going to get it too (likely later this month), for now, if you want to play around with it, you'll need a Nexus One. Or, starting today, you can also download the Android 2.1 SDK....... more

Open Source Meets Cloud Computing

The U.S. government is increasingly using open source software in its IT infrastructure. Separately, the feds are adopting cloud computing. Those two trends are about to merge, putting federal IT pros on the forefront of what will likely become an industry-wide phenomenon.

There's no rule that says cloud computing environments must be based on open source code or otherwise be "open." Microsoft's just launched Windows Azure cloud...... more

Apple Releases Remote Desktop 3.3.2 Update

Apple rolled out Apple Remote Desktop 3.3.2 on Monday, improving the overall stability and performance of the remote-management tools as well as fixing a number of specific issues..... more

Your Passwords Aren't As Secure As You Think; Here's How to Fix That

If you allow applications to save your passwords, anyone with physical access to your PC can decode them unless you're properly encrypting them—and chances are pretty good you're not. Let's walk through the right and wrong ways to store your passwords. For the purpose of this article, we'll assume that the...... more

Intel, Microsoft Offer Smart-Sign Technology

Intel Corp. and Microsoft Corp. are promoting the idea of advanced digital signs in stores that aren't just for shoppers to look at. These look back.

The two technology giants said Monday that they will collaborate to help companies create and use new forms of digital signs. By exploiting Intel chips and Microsoft software..... more

How Nexus One Will Change The Apple, Linux Game

Google has coined a new term for its 'own' phones - Superphone. Google has been around with it Android through partners. But, nothing seems to be coming close to outdoing Apple's iPhone. Most companies have been attempting to offer something 'similar' to the iPhone. It is surprising that many companies are trying to imitate the iPhone. Why don't they innovate something new and improved?....... more

Writing iPhone apps using open-source software

When the iPhone first launched there were no third-party applications for it, which was hardly surprising – Apple needed time to create and document the infrastructure for developers. Instead there were “web apps”: websites targeted at the iPhone version of Safari, tailored to its small screen size and rotatable display.. . . more

CES 2010: Sixense system bringing motion to PCs

When we visited Razer to check out their new Xbox 360 controller and headset, there was another little surprise waiting for us. Above is the Sixense TrueMotion device, a motion control system for PC users. Using a magnetic field with a diameter of twelve feet to track position, it offers precision within 1 mm.

The first use of the device we were shown was a simple 3D modeling environment.. . more

Molecular capture with protein nanotechnology

(Nanowerk Spotlight) The layer-by-layer (LbL) deposition technique for the preparation of protein nanotubes has attracted considerable attention because of their potential nanotechnology applications in enzymatic nanocatalysts, bioseparation nanofilters, and targeting nanocarriers. A drawback is that in template synthesis the extraction process often results in physical deformation of the nanotubes. Researchers in Japan have now developed a new procedure using specific solvent and freeze-drying technique. . . .more