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Google

Submission + - Google Wave: 'Like Real-Time E-Mail. On Crack.' (bnet.com) 1

Submitted by
Michael_Curator
Michael_Curator writes: "Developers are finally getting their hands on the developer preview of Google's Wave, which means we can finally get some first-hand accounts of what it's really like to use, unfiltered by Google's own programmers. Ben Rometsch, a developer with U.K. Web development firm Solid State, blogged that, it's "probably the most advanced 'application in a browser' that I've seen." Wave is like giant Web page onto which users can drag and drop any kind of object, including instant messaging and IRC [Internet Relay Client] clients, e-mail, and wikis, as well as gadgets like maps and video. All conversations, work product and applications are stored on remote servers — presumably forever. "It's like real time email. On crack," he wrote. And unlike the typically minimalist Google UI, "It feels a lot more like a desktop application that just so happens to live in your browser.""
Microsoft

Submission + - The Hidden Costs of Microsoft's Free Office Online (bnet.com)

Submitted by
Michael_Curator
Michael_Curator writes: "Despite what you've heard, the online version of Office 2010 announced by Microsoft earlier this week won't be free to corporate users. Business customers will either have to pay a subscription fee or purchase corporate access licenses (CALs) for Office in order to be given access to the online application suite (Microsoft already does this with email — the infamous Outlook Web Access — or OWA, pronounced ow!-wah! because of the painful user experience). But wait — there's more! A Microsoft spokesperson told me that customers will need to buy a SharePoint server, which ranges from $4,400 plus CALs, or $41,000, all CALs included, if they want to share documents created using the online version of Office 2010."

Comment Volunteers not such a bad idea (Score 1) 123

by eweekhickins (#28642143) Attached to: US Seeks Volunteers To Review Broadband Grant Applications
There are two issues here that argue in favor of the government's approach: who says hiring people will be any better or quicker, and whatever happened to the idea of open source? No one gets paid for committing code to an open source project, and no one should suggest that those who do are "losers." You'd need to implement the same kind of safeguards against cronyism with paid people as with volunteers, you'd still have to train them, and they'd still have a nearly impossible task. The issue isn't money (Congress actually allocated money to hire people); it's where and how do you recruit the best people. I'm not so sure asking for volunteers is the worst way of going about this, as I argue further here.
Security

Submission + - Murdoch Reporters Hacked Celebrity Phones (bnet.com)

Submitted by
Michael_Curator
Michael_Curator writes: "Change the default, ya'll. Executives at Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.-owned papers (including current Tory spokesman Andy Coulson) allowed reporters to hack into phone conversations of celebrities and then paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover it up. How did famously technologically-challenged reporters manage the feat without BT catching on? Voicemail."
Handhelds

Submission + - Smartphones Get Killer App (bnet.com)

Submitted by
Michael_Curator
Michael_Curator writes: "A killer application has finally emerged that should allow smartphones to overtake conventional PCs and laptops as the computing device of choice: it's called augmented reality, and as absurd as that sounds, that's exactly what it is. Mobile device consultant Tomi Ahonen wrote on his mobile developer forum that, "this is one of those game-changer types of innovations." Using location based services on smartphones that include a camera, GPS and a compass, the technology allows customers to augment their surroundings with metadata layered over what their smartphones capture through their viewfinders."
Supercomputing

Submission + - Computers Key To Air France Crash (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
Michael_Curator
Michael_Curator writes: "It's no secret that commercial airplanes are heavily computerized, but as the mystery of Air France Flight 447 unfolds, we need to come to grips with the fact that in many cases, airline pilots' hands are tied when it comes to responding effectively to an emergency situation. Boeing planes allow pilots to take over from computers during emergency situations, Airbus planes do not. It's not a design flaw--it's a philosophical divide. It's essentially a question of what do you trust most-- a human being's ingenuity or a computer's infinitely faster access and reaction to information. It's not surprising that an American company errs on the side of individual freedom while a European company is more inclined to favor an approach that relies on systems. As passengers, we should have the right to ask whether we're putting our lives in the hands of a computer rather than the battle-tested pilot sitting up front, and we should have right to deplane if we don't like the answer."
Social Networks

Submission + - The Trojan Social Open-Source Dropdown (eweek.com)

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "The "country" drop-down menu on one organization's donations pages omits Israel as a country and includes "Palestine." Among other things, this means that Israelis can't donate to the organization from these pages. The upshot? Basic Web 2.0 technologies are proving to be both incredibly powerful and productive, but they can also lead to disastrous results for an organization that isn't paying close enough attention."
Government

Submission + - FCC to Investigate D-Block Auction (eweek.com)

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "Feds and public interest groups are taking seriously accusations that someone tampered with the wireless spectrum auction process. The block of spectrum that was supposed to go to emergency responders failed to get close to the reserve price, raising suspicions that someone was trying to make money off the Sept. 11 national tragedy. But that would never happen, right?"
Government

Submission + - Spectrum Auction Fraud Alleged (eweek.com) 1

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "A public interest group is saying that a consulting firm hired to help the government hand over the D-block spectrum may have acted improperly and discouraged potential bidders by suggesting that any winning bid would have to pay $50 million in annual fees, in addition to the auction price. Any wonder the D-block didn't meet the reserve price?"
Security

Submission + - Google: Spam, Virus Attacks to Get More Clever (eweek.com)

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "Google's Postini team says new attacks will take the form of sneaky viruses that will blend with spam, leveraging specific current events, such as the Super Bowl or the Summer Olympic Games. Better yet, virus attacks will target executives at companies whose intellectual property is deemed valuable on the black market. A lot of these attacks will masquerade as legitimate business agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service, the Better Business Bureau and the SEC."
Security

Submission + - Multifunction Printers: The Forgotten Security Ris (eweek.com)

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "That networked multifunction printer sitting innocently in the corner of your office just might be the most significant entry point for hackers to hijack sensitive data from your business. Even worse, security researchers warn, they are a forgotten risk in every enterprise, featuring hardware that combines several functions in a single unit — fax, copier, printer and scanner."
Social Networks

Submission + - Who Owns Your Social Data? You Do, Sort of (eweek.com)

Submitted by
eweekhickins
eweekhickins writes: "Mad about Facebook's treatment of Robert Scoble? "The idea for people to move their social graph from one service to other is a fabulous benefit," Wikia co-founder Jimmy Wales told eWEEK. "To me, it's a benefit to customers. People should be very wary about services that are uptight about that kind of thing in an effort to lock you out of the customer." The problem is that while the profile data may be yours and yours alone, your address book contains the names and e-mail addresses of your friends, family and business contacts. So who owns whose data?"

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