Internet Goes Into Space
by Brian TurnerIf you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thank you for visiting!Space - the Final Frontier - these are the continuing voyages of the…internet.
Yep, apparently JPL have developed a system for maintaining a network through the solar system.
The problem isn’t simply signal delay - but the loss of signal […]
November 14, 2008
Microsoft Office Web: For Windows, Mac and Linux
by Brian TurnerAccording to a report at Computer Weekly, Microsoft’s up and coming Office Web will be available for users of Macs and Linux machines, as well as ordinary Windows users.
Office Web is Microsoft’s big foray into internet-based services, providing a virtual desktop and storage online.
This is not least in response to other online services, such as […]
September 6, 2008
Android gets cold reception
by Brian TurnerThe FT are reporting that the mobile industry is giving Google’s Android a pretty cold reception:
Critics leave Google’s Android phone on hold
If the iPhone has been a text-book case of how to develop and market a new consumer electronics product, Android is the opposite, according to industry experts.
The key objections appear to hinge on the […]
September 2, 2008
Cuil crawlers crashing websites
by Brian TurnerRecent search engine start-up Cuil has been accused of running a rogue crawler that crashes websites.
Twiceler, the software crawler which is supposed to search the internet and index pages, is alleged to ignore robots.txt protocols - and additionally, of generating random URLs to locate pages, rather than follow links as other crawlers do.
According to James […]
August 16, 2008
Dell’s new business laptops for Digital Nomads
by Brian TurnerDell are pushing a new line of laptops aimed at business users who need to be mobile most of the time: Digital nomad drives laptop sales.
According to the BBC coverage, these laptops comes with a standard 10 hour battery life, which can be extended to 19 hours if required.
Additionally, they come equipped with fingerprint […]
July 7, 2008
Google Street View: the cars, the unfortunate pics
by Brian TurnerGoogle Street View is coming under a lot of fire, forcing Google on the defensive again, about privacy issues - again.
Not sure why? Here’s a couple of pics Google have taken recently.
You can’t even pee or lay naked in your own garden without Google taking a pic, it seems.
It appears privacy in the US is […]
November 23, 2007
M2E Power uses motion to charge mobile devices
by Jan HarrisWith the help of a major venture capital investment, M2E Power of the USA has developed a mini-generator for mobile devices, which turns kinetic energy into electricity through the process of induction.
The mini-generator has a chargeable battery, and can be integrated into mobile devices.
When the device is in normal use, hand movements […]
November 22, 2007
Government boosts Information Commissioner’s powers
by Jan HarrisFollowing HM Revenue & Customs’ loss of personal data belonging to the 25 million recipients of child benefit in the UK, the government has given the Information Commissioner the power to conduct spot checks on data security.
The Information Commissioner will be able to carry out security checks across all Government departments and agencies, which […]
November 20, 2007
Mozilla releases Firefox 3 beta 1
by Jan HarrisMozilla has released the first beta version of its upgraded Firefox Internet browser.
The new version of the browser is designed to be easier to use than the earlier version and features enhanced security, including the ability to integrate antivirus software with downloads.
Other security features include the verification of Web site identities with […]
November 19, 2007
Paglo launches ‘Google for IT’
by Jan HarrisPaglo has launched a public public beta of a search engine designed to help IT administrators manage their networks.
The search engine, which was launched today, allows users to easily find information about the network - how many iPhones are being used, for example, or whether a machine’s security is up to date.
It helps […]
November 16, 2007
Microsoft releases Vista service pack
by Jan HarrisMicrosoft has released Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate Preview to around 15,000 private beta testers, and plans to extend this to a broader group of testers.
The company is on schedule to release the service pack for commercial use in the first quarter of 2008.
So far, testers seem positive about the upgrade, which is […]
November 15, 2007
IBM to announce ‘cloud computing’ strategy
by Jan HarrisIBM is set to announce a new strategy to exploit the concept of ‘cloud computing’ - the use of Web-based applications and information stored in the ‘cloud’ of the Internet.
IBM hopes to develop this concept for mainstream corporate customers, through large data centres equipped with IBM technology, which can be searched and programmed from […]
November 14, 2007
Credativ offers open-source support in UK
by Jan HarrisRugby-based software consultancy, Credativ Ltd, has launched a UK Open Source Support Centre (OSSC), which will provide support for all major open source distributions, including Debian, Ubuntu, SUSE, Red Hat, Xandros, Gnome and KDE, PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kolab Groupware, eGroupware, Asterisk, Apache, Samba, Nagios and Xen.
The company will also provide support for free software that […]
November 13, 2007
Microsoft offers security tool for Office 2007
by Jan HarrisMicrosoft is planning to release a tool which will help business users improve the security of Office 2007.
The Office 2007 Security Guide will be launched today, at the Microsoft TechEd conference in Barcelona.
It will provide a detailed description of the security settings available in Office 2007 together with Group Policy Object Accelerator - a […]
IBM ‘Roadrunner’ will offer petaflop computing
by Jan HarrisIBM’s Blue Gene/L supercomputer heads the Top500 Supercomputer Sites list, and the company is developing a computer that is twice as powerful as Blue Gene/L - the ‘Roadrunner’.
The Top500 Supercomputer Sites list was released at the SC07 conference in Reno, US. It uses the Linpack measurement to assess a computer’s performance. This requires each […]
November 12, 2007
Microsoft unveils Dynamic IT tools
by Jan HarrisMicrosoft revealed new Dynamic IT products and tools at the TechEd IT Forum 2007 in Barcelona.
The products, which are designed to help companies manage their physical and virtual IT systems are based on Hyper-V, a virtualisation technology within Windows Server 2008 originally code-named Viridian.
At the event, Bob Kelly of Microsoft’s Server and Tools […]
Intel releases Penryn chips
by Jan HarrisIntel has released 16 servers and high-end PC processors featuring its latest Penryn chip technology. The semiconductors are sold under the Intel Core 2 Extreme and Xeon brands.
The new transistor is energy-efficient and greener than its predecessors as lead and halogen materials have been eliminated from the design. It also offers improved performance.
It uses a […]
November 8, 2007
Yahoo! focuses on mobile advertising
by Jan HarrisYahoo!’s Connected Life division has secured major phone distribution deals in a strategy to expand its mobile advertising market.
The company expects advertising on mobile phones to become as important as web advertising, and is entering partnerships with device makers and network operators.
Yahoo! already offers a mobile search service, and hopes partnerships with handset […]
AMD to demo FireStream processor
by Jan HarrisAMD will demonstrate its FireStream 9170 processor at the SC07 supercomputing show in Reno, Nevada, November 10–16, 2007.
The 9170 is based on the concept of ’stream computing’ and provides the ‘parallel’ performance more usually associated with a graphics chip.
Parallelism allows data to flow down multiple outlets, rather than being channelled through a single path. […]
November 7, 2007
Adobe to revamp Photoshop
by Jan HarrisDetails of a planned transformation of Adobe’s Photoshop software were revealed this week, by Photoshop product manager John Nack, writing on his blog.
The company is looking at significant changes to the user interface, customising it to the task in hand.
This should make it easier for users to see the options available for a […]