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Google

Submission + - Google may face legal action over Chinese IME tool

Submitted by
Turtlewind
Turtlewind writes: "Google's Chinese subsidiary ran into more trouble this week as the company's new pinyin input method editor (IME) (link in Chinese), which helps users to enter Chinese characters, was accused of "sharing striking similarities" with a similar service launched by rival Sogou last June. Soon after the software was made available Chinese bloggers discovered that a number of errors in Sogou's tool were replicated in Google's program, and Sogou is considering legal action."
Software

Submission + - Flash UI that might be better than Outlook

Submitted by
marsaro
marsaro writes: "A lot of companies have tried for years to develop so called Exchange replacements, none have done well at all. The success of Exchange is not because that product is a great mail server, but because it is codeed to work with Office, more specifically Outlook. Love it or hate it, the client became quickly adopted and very hard to replace. We have seen recently a lot of companies using AJAX in client offerings that are more rich, and fluid, but few have used Flash, until now. Flash has lot's of benefits, security, multi-media, but also wide support for OS and browsers. CommuniGate Pro has always been known to be a rock solid server, but just recently released their new UI called Pronto! which is based on Flash. You can see it here http://www.communigate.com/demoFlash/demo_10.html Best part is the server and Pronto! is free for five users."
Security

Submission + - Twitter & Jott vulnerable to sms/callerid spoo

Submitted by
loothoot
loothoot writes: "According to Nitesh Dhanjani, Twitter is vulnerable to SMS spoofing allowing anyone who knows a Twitter user's cell phone number to post a Twitter message as that person. The Jott application is also vulnerable to caller ID spoofing allowing someone to send a Jott message as another Jott user. Dhanjani steps through details on how he tested these vulnerabilities. He writes: "Because it is so easy to spoof Caller ID, it is clear that Caller ID information should never be trusted to authenticate users, and many financial institutions have learnt this the hard way.... Given the popularity of Twitter, similar phone+IM+email mash-up services are likely to be created in the very near future. I sincerely hope these services realize the implications of authenticating users based on incoming SMS headers and Caller ID information.""
Microsoft

Submission + - Ray Ozzie on cross platform apps

Submitted by
twofish
twofish writes: "Knowldege@Wharton magazine has a long but interview with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's new technology Spokesman.

Among other things, Ozzie said the company has developed guidance patterns to help the development community as it works with MS tools to create native platform and cross-platform apps: "The guidance that we are giving the development community — and the guidance that we use in-house — is to look at applications through the following lens: When the business model behind that app means that you have to get it everywhere, we call that the "universal web application pattern." When the most important thing is the experience that the user has with that application and you might be willing to trade off the breadth of the web for the richness of that experience, we call that an "experience first pattern."

On "Software as a Service": "If anybody has a software and services model, it's Adobe, because of that rich [Flash Player] applet that they extend the browser with.""
Media

Submission + - Top forecaster blasts Gore for "alarmism"

Submitted by
wattsup
wattsup writes: "America's top hurricane forecaster called Al Gore "a gross alarmist" Friday for his activism on global warming.

"He's one of these guys that preaches the end of the world type of things. I think he's doing a great disservice and he doesn't know what he's talking about," Dr. William Gray said in an interview with The Associated Press at the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans, where he delivered the closing speech.

His comments came the same day as the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change approved a report that concludes the world will face dire consequences due to climate change.

After a quiet year in 2006, Gray has predicted a very active hurricane season for 2007, but maintains that there is no connection between hurricane activity and recent temperature trends. Oddly, while many are hailing his hurricane predictions as gospel, many are also ignoring his views on climate change."
Security

Submission + - Open Source within DoD & Intelligence Systems

Submitted by
jmwci1
jmwci1 writes: "http://newsvac.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=07/04/ 07/0517238

Brigadier General Nick Justice, the Deputy Program Officer for the Army's Program Executive Office, Command, Control and Communications Tactical (PEO C3T) said that open source software currently plays a critical role in his command's activities.

"Our job is to provide accurate and timely information to the soldier in the field so they can perform their mission," said General Justice. "Open source software is part of the integrated network fabric which connects and enables our command and control system to work effectively, as people's lives depend on it.

"When we rolled into Baghdad, we did it using open source," General Justice continued. "It may come as a surprise to many of you, but the U.S. Army is "the" single largest install base for Red Hat Linux. I'm their largest customer.""
Privacy

Submission + - RIAA & MPAA seek exemption from pre-texting la

Submitted by msblack
msblack writes: The RIAA and MPAA are lobbying California legislators for an exemption to proposed legislation which would outlaw pretexting. Pretexting is the practice of pretending to be someone else in order to obtain personal information on that person, such as telephone or banking records. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, the RIAA and MPAA sometimes need to lie in their pursuit of bootleggers. They would like the legislation to exempt anyone who owns a copyright from restrictions against pretexting. The recording industry says that sometimes their employees need to pose as someone else as they gather evidence to bring legal actions against criminals who counterfit or steal motion pictures. An interesting line from the article is, "[RIAA's Brad] Buckles said the recording industry would never, nor would it ever, assume someone's identity to access that person's phone or bank records." Fortunately, Senator Corbert, the bill's author, is unlikely to accept these hostile changes.
Java

Submission + - Sun begins shipping Java based sensor platform

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Word is creeping out that Sun has started shipping (apparently US only at the moment), their SunSPOT — "Small Programmable Object Technology". It is a sensor development platform that can be programmed entirely in Java. They claim it runs Java on the metal and has an ARM9 core. It looks like it has a variety of sensors included in addition to I/O pins and a 802.15.4 radio for communication.

Looks like a cool little platform. It's nice to see a Java based alternative in this space. Their community site has some discussion on what some people have already started doing with them. So, how long before someone gets Linux running on this little puppy?

The SunSPOT availablity announcement is at http://www.sunspotworld.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t =355

Technical details can be found at their developer community site at http://www.sunspotworld.com/forums
It's funny. Laugh.

Submission + - An Easter Egg Archive hunt

Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "The Easter Egg Archive is to developers and amateur egg sleuths what the IMDB is to movie buffs: priceless. It's been an Internet fixture since 1995, a living, breathing collection of those little nuggets designed to amuse or confound. Where else are you going to learn how to win instantly at solitaire on Windows XP? ... Here's a little tour.

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/1356 6"

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