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Google

Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech? 250

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the but-you-can-never-leave dept.
Prolific blogger and open source enthusiast Matt Asay ponders whether cloud computing may be the Hotel California of tech. It seems that data repositories in the form of Googles and Facebooks are very easy to dump data into, but can be quite difficult to move data between. "I say this because even for companies, like Google, that articulate open-data policies, the cloud is still largely a one-way road into Web services, with closed data networks making it difficult to impossible to move data into competing services. Ever tried getting your Facebook data into, say, MySpace? Good luck with that. Social networks aren't very social with one other, as recently noted on the Atonomo.us mailing list. For the freedom-inclined among us, this is cause for concern. For the capitalists, it's just like Software 1.0 all over again, with fat profits waiting to be had. The great irony, of course, is that it's all built with open source."

Comment Re:Article title seems stupid to me (Score 1) 309

by gordyf (#29302225) Attached to: All Humans Are Mutants, Say Scientists

Wikipedia disagrees:

In biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a process that can culminate in the emergence of new species.

Genetic variation comes from random mutations that occur in the genomes of organisms. Mutations are changes in the DNA sequence of a cell's genome and are caused by radiation, viruses, transposons and mutagenic chemicals, as well as errors that occur during meiosis or DNA replication.

You may want to clarify your position.

Comment Re:Not just privacy concerns (Score 1) 411

If Zipcar has coverage in a city, then the cars are scattered around the city, so you don't have to go to very far to get one. For example, there is a car within walking distance of my apartment, and one near my workplace. You choose and schedule the car online, then walk to it and unlock it with your RFID card. The system is completely automated. You don't pay extra for fuel, mileage or insurance, and you can rent a car for any increment of time rather than entire days. Those are the advantages of Zipcar over a traditional rental company.

On the other hand, the prices that they list are slightly misleading because they don't include taxes. If you're getting a car for more than one day, it's probably cheaper to use a traditional rental company. Going to Costco makes far more sense with a Zipcar, though, so it satisfies my needs.
Google

Google Claims They "Just Aren't That Big" 283

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the please-send-a-check-that-is-just-as-not-big dept.
The New York Times is reporting that Google is making the case that they just aren't that big, especially from an anti-trust point of view. While they certainly corner the market in search, advertising, and online video, Dana Wagner, Google's "senior competition counsel," is working hard to convince the public that "competition is a click away." "None of the investigations take aim at Google's core advertising business. And unlike other technology giants in years past, Google has not been accused of anticompetitive tactics. But the investigations and carping from competitors and critics have Google fighting to dispel the notion that it has a lock on its market, even as it increases its share of search and online advertising. Eyes are rolling, especially in reaction to the idea that Google is a relatively small player in a giant market. 'They describe where they are in a market under a kind of a fairy-tale spun gloss that doesn't reflect their dominance of key sectors,' said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy. 'Google search is an absolute must-have for every marketer in the world.'"
The Internet

BIND 10 Development Now Fully Underway 76

Posted by timothy from the ten-is-such-a-nice-round-number dept.
darthcamaro writes "A decade after work first began on version 9 of BIND, the widely deployed open source DNS server, work is now fully underway on its successor, BIND 10. '"One of the goals for BIND 10 is to allow people to customize and extend without too much trouble," Shane Kerr, BIND 10's program manager at the Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), told InternetNews.com.' Sounds good right? Only problem is that it's going to take a bit of time until BIND 10 is actually ready for production — potentially as long as five years!"
Data Storage

Forensics Tool Finds Headerless Encrypted Files 374

Posted by timothy from the sir-there's-an-anomaly-here dept.
gurps_npc writes "Forensics Innovations claims to have for sale a product that detects headerless encrypted files, such as TrueCrypt Dynamic files. It does not decrypt the file, just tells you that it is in fact an encrypted file. It works by detecting hidden patterns that don't exist in a random file. It does not mention steganography, but if their claim is true, it seems that it should be capable of detecting stenographic information as well."

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