AOL Readies High-Stakes Social-Media Debut - WSJ.com

Hmm…

In the world of social networking, it's time for AOL's big debut, and there's a lot of money riding on the outcome.

In March, the Time Warner unit said it would plunk down $850 million for Bebo, the No. 3 social-media Web site by unique visitors, which has yet to gain a foothold in the U.S. and has lost share in Britain, its strongest market, to rival Facebook.

[…]

Bebo Chief Executive Joanna Shields has been working with her team on the relaunch of the site since the acquisition closed in May. On Wednesday, Bebo (pronounced BEE-bo) plans to unveil the first of a series of changes.

[…]

Ms. Shields says the market will figure out an advertising model eventually and that Bebo is well-positioned to succeed. "You would have to be stupid," she says. "You would have to trip to not succeed at this at some point."

I guess we’ll soon find out.  In the meantime, also see Social-Networking Ad Dollars Shrink in today’s WSJ.

AOL Readies High-Stakes Social-Media Debut - WSJ.com

Dell Sees Double With Data Center in a Container - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

See the full article for more details

To date, however, the containers have been slow sellers. Sun has mentioned a couple of customers, while Rackable has struggled to move the systems, shipping none last quarter.

So why would a company like Dell, which prides itself on using volume to lower costs, get into the container game?

That’s easy: Microsoft.

Microsoft has been the main advocate of containers, saying they will form the basis of its future data center designs. Some of Dell’s first containers will go to a new Microsoft data center near Chicago, according to Forrest Norrod, the vice president in charge of Dell’s Data Center Solutions business.

And Microsoft’s interest in the container idea should inspire others to take a look at the technology.

Dell Sees Double With Data Center in a Container - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Google tests ActiveX alternative | InfoWorld | News | 2008-12-08 | By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

I wonder if people at Google even take redundant Adobe alternatives into consideration

Native Client looks similar to Microsoft's ActiveX technology but will run on Linux and the Mac OS as well as Windows, Web experts said Monday. It also bears a resemblance to an Adobe technology called Alchemy.

Developers create their code using a version of the GNU C Compiler, so that desktop applications can be compiled to run on the user's PC using a special browser plugin.

"Google is clearly reaching for ways to take more control over the desktop, the Web browser and user content," said Robert Hansen, CEO of security consultancy SecTheory. "Native Client appears to be another way to reach into people's computers and use as many resources as possible. It's not a matter of whether it can be done. It's a question of if it should be done. We haven't even solved yesterday's problems yet, let alone another ActiveX clone."

Google tests ActiveX alternative | InfoWorld | News | 2008-12-08 | By Robert McMillan, IDG News Service

Panel Offers Ways to Strengthen Cyberspace Security - NYTimes.com

Hmm – read the full article for more context-setting

A government and technology industry panel on cyber-security is recommending that the federal government end its reliance on passwords and enforce what the industry describes as “strong authentication.”

Such an approach would probably mean that all government computer users would have to hold a device to gain access to a network computer or online service. The commission is also encouraging all nongovernmental commercial services use such a device.

Panel Offers Ways to Strengthen Cyberspace Security - NYTimes.com

UBS doubts $99 iPhone rumor - The Boston Globe

I could see it happening – e.g., Apple unveils a new high-end iPhone as well as a new low-end model at the same time, attempting to grab more market share before the next wave of competitors can get established.

Wal-Mart would probably serve as an additional source for the $199 iPhone, rather than ushering in a new discount strategy, UBS analyst Maynard Um said yesterday. Still, a $149 stripped-down model may make sense, he said.

"A $99 iPhone would be atypical of Apple's premium brand strategy," the analyst reported. "More likely is a scenario in which select Wal-Mart, and possibly Sam's Clubs, are simply added as further iPhone distribution points."

UBS doubts $99 iPhone rumor - The Boston Globe

Netflix, TiVo Team Up To Stream Video Content (NewsFactor) by NewsFactor: Yahoo! Tech

Relentless…

Netflix and TiVo on Monday took their partnership to the next level. The companies announced that consumers who subscribe to both Netflix and TiVo Series 3, TiVo HD, or TiVo HD XL can access movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs -- at no additional charge.

"With so much talk focusing on the economy these days, this partnership makes more sense than ever because it brings people more movies at home, offering substantially more entertainment options than cable or satellite," said Tara Maitra, general manager and vice president of content services at TiVo.

Netflix, TiVo Team Up To Stream Video Content (NewsFactor) by NewsFactor: Yahoo! Tech

Microsoft to soon sell full range of Web software - Yahoo! News

Hmm…

"What we think is in five years, 50 percent of the use of Exchange and Sharepoint could be serviced from the cloud," Elop told Reuters in an interview.

"Between now and then, a year or two or whatever, if it's going to be tough economic times, that means we expect quite a lot of movement in that direction, a lot of people taking advantage of that," he added. "I think the economy will help it."

[…]

He also said that even the basic, free versions will trump Google Apps in capabilities, and that Microsoft will ensure that users can move Office documents in and out of the Web browser environment without any garbling to the text.

Microsoft to soon sell full range of Web software - Yahoo! News

Wal-Mart to sell $99 iPhone: report (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

A multifaceted sign of the times…

A cheaper version of Apple Inc's iPhone will be sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc for $99 later this month, the New York Post said.

Two models of the popular device will hit shelves at the retail giant, the paper said, citing employees at several stores.

Employees also told San Jose-based Mercury News that the $99 iPhones would be 4-gigabyte models, and that Wal-Mart was attempting a pre-Christmas launch.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Steve Jobs kill the deal, due to the press leak

Wal-Mart to sell $99 iPhone: report (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

New Ridership Record Shows U.S. Still Lured to Mass Transit - washingtonpost.com

An example of getting collectively smarter – I hope the trend persists despite the temporary decline in gas prices.

Americans rode subways, buses and commuter railroads in record numbers in the third quarter of this year, even as gas prices dropped and unemployment rose. The 6.5 percent jump in transit ridership over the same period last year marks the largest quarterly increase in public transportation ridership in 25 years, according to a survey to be released today by the American Public Transportation Association.

New Ridership Record Shows U.S. Still Lured to Mass Transit - washingtonpost.com

Visual Insight Publications: Engelbart & Kay in Conversation about What’s Next

A timely snapshot, via Greg Lloyd; read the full post, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of “the mother of all demos”

Engelbart is still trying to work with adults, speaking with groups ranging from academics to journalists to government organizations, including the National Knowledge Commission of India to help them envision a better approach to improving their systems and thinking toward solving complex problems. His nonprofit Bootstrap Institute is continuing to to pursue Engelbart’s technology and philosophical visions. Engelbart is driven by the belief that “if we don’t get collectively smarter, we’re going to crash.” One recent example he gave of how technology could have worked so much better was Hurricane Katrina. He believes that problems such as global learning could be solved if people were to organize information and themselves into “networked improvement communities” where wisdom would emerge from highly structured cross-discipline research.

A couple books you may want to explore, if you want to understand the contexts for the pioneering work Alan Kay and Doug Engelbart did decades ago:

• Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age
• What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry

Visual Insight Publications

Survey finds over half of adults play video games - Boston.com

See the full article for more stats

More than half of American adults play video games and one in five play just about every day, according to a survey released Sunday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The survey of 2,054 U.S. adults was conducted late last year, with a margin of error of about 2 percent.

People from all walks of life play, though younger adults are far more likely to play than seniors, proof that video games are mainstream entertainment for the generations that grew up with them. In all, 81 percent of respondents between 18 and 29 said they play games, compared with 23 percent of people 65 and older.

Survey finds over half of adults play video games - Boston.com

Facebook Worm Refuses to Die (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

More Facebook fun

A worm program that has been tricking Facebook users into downloading malicious software since July has resurfaced.

Criminals have released a new variation of the worm, known as Koobface, Facebook said Friday. The program is spreading via Facebook messages that look as if they're videos. Often they say something like "you look funny." When the user clicks to see the video, he is taken to a new Web site and asked to download special software in order to see the video. That software is malicious.

Facebook Worm Refuses to Die (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

AT&T Hopes for Single Smartphone OS (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

Hmm…

The mobile operator believes smartphones will make up the largest portion of devices connecting to its network by about 2014, and it wants to avoid the fragmentation of platforms that has made it hard to develop mobile applications, said Roger Smith, director of next generation services, data product realization at AT&T. Speaking at the Symbian Partner Event in San Francisco, he said Symbian is "a very credible and likely candidate" to become that one operating system.

AT&T Hopes for Single Smartphone OS (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

A note to all of the people at whom I inadvertently threw a Facebook “snowball”

I find most Facebook apps annoying, especially the ones that take actions on a user’s behalf with no warning – as was the case, apparently, with the lame “snowball” app I encountered yesterday. I received a message about a Facebook friend throwing a virtual snowball at me, clicked on the message to find out what it was all about, and presto! I apparently sent the same stupid message to all of my Facebook friends.

It’s this type of time-wasting junk that may ultimately kill Facebook, along with more serious problems such as the use of Facebook as a malware distribution platform.

In any case: sorry for the annoyance...

Inside the influential new world of econobloggers - The Boston Globe

Excellent example of constructive collaboration – read the full article and also check out the companion “field guide to economics and finance blogs”

So, you want to save the economy?

All you need is a keyboard and a few good ideas. Inside the influential new world of econobloggers.

[…]

Though it's still unclear how much credit the blogs can take for shaping Washington's response to the crisis, it's already evident that policy makers charged with monitoring and fixing the markets are no longer operating alone. A fast-moving, highly informed economics blogosphere now tracks and critiques their every move. The result is that this may be the first national crisis to be hashed out by experts in full public view.

Inside the influential new world of econobloggers - The Boston Globe

A profile of Sergey Brin | Enlightenment man | The Economist

See the full article for a Sergey snapshot

The moment in some ways sums up Mr Brin’s approach to life. Like Mr Page, he has a vision, as Google’s motto puts it, of making all the world’s information “universally accessible and useful”. Very soon after the two cooked up their new engine for web searches, in the late 1990s at Stanford University, they began thinking about information that is today beyond the web. Their vast project to digitise books has been the most controversial so far, prompting a lawsuit from a group of publishers in 2005 that was resolved in October. But Messrs Brin and Page have always taken a special interest in the sort of information that most people hold dearest: that about their health.

A profile of Sergey Brin | Enlightenment man | The Economist

Will video crash the internet? | Surviving the exaflood | The Economist

Another timely topic from The Economist’s latest Technology Quarterly; see the full article for more details

Talk of exafloods is nothing less than scaremongering and has no bearing on reality, even though video traffic is increasing substantially, says Grant van Rooyen of Level 3, a company based in Broomfield, Colorado. It operates network backbones that carry around a quarter of the world’s internet traffic. “We estimate that 50-60% of traffic today is video, but it’s been that way for the last three to four years,” he says. “We really don’t think we’re going to see a massive failing of the infrastructure.”

Level 3 has been regularly upgrading its capacity, and will continue to do so, says Mr van Rooyen. “This isn’t like building a toll-road with an inflexible infrastructure,” he says. “In the network world, we are able to scale infrastructure and capacity in real time.”

Will video crash the internet? | Surviving the exaflood | The Economist

Do cyberattacks count as war? | Marching off to cyberwar | The Economist

A fascinating snapshot – excerpt:

For a cyberattack to qualify as “cyberwar”, some observers argue, it must take place alongside actual military operations. Trying to disrupt enemy communications during conflict is, after all, a practice that goes back to the earliest telecommunications technology, the telegraph. In 1862, for example, during the American Civil War, a landing party from Thomas Freeborn, a Union navy steamer, went ashore to cut the telegraph lines between Fredericksburg and Richmond. The Russian navy pioneered the use of radio jamming in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. On this view, cyberattacks on infrastructure are the next logical step. The attacks on Georgia might qualify as cyberwarfare by this definition, but those on Estonia would not, since there was no accompanying military offensive in the real world. As Mr Schneier puts it: “For it to be cyberwar, it must first be war.”

Do cyberattacks count as war? | Marching off to cyberwar | The Economist

Apple's iPod Problem - BusinessWeek

A timely Apple reality check; also lots of positive trends for Apple outlined in the full article

Strange as it may sound, Apple may have an iPod problem. The iconic music player cemented the company's reputation for innovation and fueled its financial success in recent years. But those days appear to be over. Legions of iPod owners see little reason to upgrade, especially with the rocky economy. As a result, some analysts believe this will be the first quarter since the iPod was introduced in 2001 that sales will decline from the year-earlier quarter. "The reality is there's a limited group of people who want an iPod or any other portable media player," says analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray (PJC). "So the question becomes, what does Apple do about it?"

Apple's iPod Problem - BusinessWeek

Windows on a Mac: Virtually Perfect - BusinessWeek

Virtualization mainstreams – see the full article for how it’s making the Mac viable for business domains.  Also watch for some interesting developments in this context when Windows 7 is released.

The implications of virtual machines may go beyond the traditional Mac-vs.-Windows competition. VMware and Parallels make versions that let you install Windows virtual machines on any Windows PC. It sounds illogical but makes some interesting things possible. You can run two completely separate systems on the same hardware—one for secure corporate use, the other loaded with personal programs the company doesn't want to support. Computers of the not-too-distant future may include virtual machines with dedicated jobs, such as a secure setup used only for online finance and another for Web browsing.

Complicated software and the limitations of earlier microprocessors restricted the use of virtualization. Now, with simpler software and much more powerful computers, the age of virtual machines has arrived.

Windows on a Mac: Virtually Perfect - BusinessWeek

Nokia's service strategy | Ovi go again | The Economist

A timely Nokia snapshot; see the full article 

AT FIRST glance, Nokia, the world’s biggest handset-maker, seems to be lurching about. On November 27th it announced that it would withdraw from the Japanese market because of lack of demand. Five days later the Finnish firm said it would make a big push into two other markets: maps and e-mail on mobile phones. Both moves, although not directly related, show where the firm is heading: it is no longer pursuing growth just in handsets, but also in services delivered on them.

It is easy to see why Nokia wants to move into services. The handset market is maturing. In many rich countries there are more mobile subscriptions than people. Rapid growth is limited to emerging markets. Handsets are becoming a commodity with shrinking margins. Nokia could focus on increasing its market share, which stands at nearly 40% worldwide. The more promising bet, however, is mobile services, a market that is finally taking off.

Nokia's service strategy | Ovi go again | The Economist

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: So much for the Googley Treats

Hmm…

Coming on the heels of Google's announcement last month that it was mothballing its new data plant in Oklahoma, the company's decision to halt work in Lenoir is a clear sign that Google is "moderating the pace of its data center building boom," writes Rich Miller of Data Center Knowledge. "Google spent $452 million on its infrastructure in the third quarter of 2008, which was its lowest investment in capital expenditures since the company began its data center construction effort in early 2007. The third quarter total was well below the record $842 million Google spent on its data centers in the first quarter."

Clouds, it seems, are not recession-proof.

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: So much for the Googley Treats

BBC NEWS | Technology | Wireless turns iPod into a phone

Only a matter of time…

A freeware application for the iPod Touch can turn the music player into a virtual mobile phone.

Truphone uses wi-fi technology in an iPod Touch to allow users to make calls to other iPod Touch owners and Google Talk's messaging service users.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Wireless turns iPod into a phone

Consumers have to wait for Web-based Office | Beyond Binary - CNET News

The next wave of productivity application competition is underway…

Meanwhile, rivals like Google and Zoho already offer editing abilities. Microsoft is staking its claim on being able to offer better compatibility and document fidelity with its products. The company has recently had some big customers consider abandoning Office and move to Google Apps, but has wooed some of them back by sharing their plan for the Office Web apps.

Procter & Gamble, for example, took a long look at moving to Google Apps, but decided to stick with Microsoft after some high-powered lobbying from Redmond. Elop said that Microsoft's pitch included details on its plans for the Web-based versions of the Office programs.

Consumers have to wait for Web-based Office | Beyond Binary - CNET News

Unboxed - For Innovators, There Is Brainpower in Numbers - NYTimes.com

This has interesting implications for collaboration modus operandi; see the full article for context-setting

Brainstorming, Mr. Boyd says, is the most overused and underperforming tool in business today. Traditionally, brainstorming revolves around the false premise that to get good ideas, a group must generate a large list from which to cherry-pick. But researchers have shown repeatedly that individuals working alone generate more ideas than groups acting in concert. Among the problems are these: Throwing in an idea for public consideration generates fear of failure, and workers looking to advance their own interests often keep their best ideas to themselves until a more opportune time.

Unboxed - For Innovators, There Is Brainpower in Numbers - NYTimes.com

Novelties - Zeroing In on Your Favorite Video Clips - NYTimes.com

See the full article for more details, including a screen shot

To help sift through all the choices, companies including VideoSurf and Digitalsmiths have developed search tools. They allow viewers to find quickly a favorite scene from “Entourage,” for example, or a particular video clip of Barack Obama they’ve always wanted to see. They can even locate an exact segment they want to view without having to click “play” and watch the entire video.

Novelties - Zeroing In on Your Favorite Video Clips - NYTimes.com

Macs and Malware: The Straight Dope (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

Check the full article for more details

The oft-repeated mantra that Mac OS X is safer from malware attacks than Windows is actually true. To gain control of your system, viruses and Trojan horse programs typically need to hijack low-level OS functions. Before Vista, this was pretty easy to do on Windows. But Unix-like systems -- including Mac OS X and Linux -- make it hard for malware to muck about with their internals, because software does not run with administrative privilege by default. It's as if there's a firewall in place between your applications and the important parts of the system.

Popular wisdom also says that Macs are not good targets for viruses because Apple's market share is so low. This is also true. Like real-world viruses, computer viruses can't spread very well when they don't encounter other computers to infect. Thus, more viruses are written for Windows -- which has the most market share -- than for Mac OS X.

But that's not to say Mac users should be complacent.

Curious that the author didn’t reiterate/elaborate on the “before Vista” part of the story – I suppose saying potentially negative things about Apple and potentially positive things about Microsoft in the same article would have violated some natural law of the universe…

Macs and Malware: The Straight Dope (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

Personal Technology | BlackBerry Storm not as cool as an iPhone, but a harder worker | Seattle Times Newspaper

A perhaps more balanced review of the Storm; see the full article

So why bother? Actually, many consumers — especially professionals — will find good reasons to opt for the Storm over the iPhone.

For starters, a lot of organizations don't allow use of iPhones because they offer limited enterprise-management tools and they lack the security of full-device encryption. BlackBerries, including the Storm, excel in both categories, making them a more attractive choice for certain professionals.

Second, while many veteran BlackBerry users won't want to give up their physical keyboards in favor of the Storm's touch-screen keyboard, the latter is decidedly easier to use than the touch-screen keyboard offered on the iPhone. The Storm's touch-screen is unique in that it moves perceptibly when you push on it. As a result, when you use the touch-screen keyboard, as well as menus, you get tactile feedback.

Personal Technology | BlackBerry Storm not as cool as an iPhone, but a harder worker | Seattle Times Newspaper

Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe in Your PC - NYTimes.com

Read the full article for a stark reality check

Beyond the billions of dollars lost in theft of money and data is another, deeper impact. Many Internet executives fear that basic trust in what has become the foundation of 21st century commerce is rapidly eroding. “There’s an increasing trend to depend on the Internet for a wide range of applications, many of them having to deal with financial institutions,” said Vinton G. Cerf, one of the original designers of the Internet, who is now Google’s “chief Internet evangelist.”

“The more we depend on these types of systems, the more vulnerable we become,” he said.

Thieves Winning Online War, Maybe in Your PC - NYTimes.com

A Placid North Dakota Asks, What Recession? - NYTimes.com

Lots of jobs available… in North Dakota

North Dakota’s cheery circumstance — which economic analysts are quick to warn is showing clear signs that it, too, may be in jeopardy — can be explained by an odd collection of factors: a recent surge in oil production that catapulted the state to fifth-largest producer in the nation; a mostly strong year for farmers (agriculture is the state’s biggest business); and a conservative, steady, never-fancy culture that has nurtured fewer sudden booms of wealth like those seen elsewhere (“Our banks don’t do those goofy loans,” Mr. Theel said) and also fewer tumultuous slumps.

[…]

“Our problem is that everybody thinks that it’s a cold, miserable place to live,” said Bob Stenehjem, a Republican and the State Senate’s majority leader. “They’re wrong, of course. But North Dakota is a pretty well-kept secret.”

Actually, it is a cold and miserable place to live, in winter; in summer, it’s a hot, humid, and mosquito-infested place to live.  (I grew up there…)

A Placid North Dakota Asks, What Recession? - NYTimes.com

Boston media members hit by 'Koobface' Facebook virus - Massachusetts Biotech and Technology News and New England Local Business News

Oops…

A Facebook virus, called "Koobface," first flagged in August of this year has hit the Boston media. In the past 24 hours, hundreds of Boston journalists, ad execs and public relations professionals who use the popular social networking service have received a Facebook message that purports to link to compromising video of its recipient.

Boston media members hit by 'Koobface' Facebook virus - Massachusetts Biotech and Technology News and New England Local Business News

WinInfo Short Takes: Week of December 5, 2008 [Windows 7 availability projection]

Hmm – interesting speculation from Paul Thurrott

My predictions on the Windows 7 release date
There's been a lot of speculation about when Microsoft would ship Windows 7, its eagerly awaited follow-up to Windows Vista. So far, I've suggested that the company would ship Windows 7 far earlier than most people thought. But now I'm ready to make a number of more specific predictions myself, and add to the speculation. It's pretty widely known that Microsoft will ship a beta release (and a public one at that) of Windows 7 in January. This beta will be the only beta and it will be followed by a single release candidate build, and then the final version, all in quick succession. I expect Windows 7 to be finalized by April 2009 at the latest, and to be completed simultaneously with Windows Vista/Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2), which is also due in April. (Windows 7 and SP2 share more code than people realize as well, by the way.) Windows 7 will be made broadly available to consumers and business customers no later than June 2009. And those, folks, are my predictions for the release of Windows 7.

WinInfo Short Takes: Week of December 5, 2008

Microsoft Appoints Dr. Qi Lu to Run Online Services Group: Yahoo! veteran to oversee Internet offerings for consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Small world…

Microsoft Corp. today announced that Dr. Qi Lu will join the company as president of the Online Services Group. Dr. Lu will lead Microsoft’s efforts in search and online advertising and all the company’s online information and communications services. Dr. Lu will report to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer.

Lu, 47, most recently served as executive vice president of Engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo!, where he was responsible for development efforts around Yahoo!’s Web search and monetization platforms. Dr. Lu left Yahoo! in August 2008 after 10 years of service.

[…]

Before joining Yahoo! in 1998, Dr. Lu was a Research Staff Member at IBM Almaden Research Center. Before IBM, Dr. Lu worked at Carnegie Mellon University as a Research Associate, and at Fudan University in China as a faculty member. Dr. Lu holds 20 U.S. patents, and received his bachelor of science and master of science in computer science from Fudan University and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

Microsoft Appoints Dr. Qi Lu to Run Online Services Group: Yahoo! veteran to oversee Internet offerings for consumers, advertisers and publishers.

Sky Player TV Uses Microsoft Silverlight and PlayReady Technology

We’re going to see very intense competition between Flash Player and Silverlight for the foreseeable future…

Microsoft Corp. and BSkyB announce that Microsoft Silverlight and PlayReady technologies are enabling Sky Player TV, Sky’s online TV service. Launched today, the service offers access to a range of leading pay TV entertainment as part of an online-only subscription. The new version of Sky Player TV, which in addition continues to be offered on a bonus basis to Sky’s DTH (direct-to-home) customers, now delivers live linear channels and video-on-demand content to Windows-based PCs and, for the first time, includes live channel support for Macs.

[…]

Sky is the UK’s leading entertainment and communications company and operates the most comprehensive multi-channel television service in the UK and Ireland. Around 23 million viewers in 9 million households enjoy an unprecedented choice of movies, news, entertainment and sports channels and interactive services on Sky Digital.

Sky Player TV Uses Microsoft Silverlight and PlayReady Technology: Silverlight and PlayReady enable BSkyB to deliver an expanded range of live content to Windows-based PC and Mac users.

Business Technology : Obama ZuneGate, Day Two

Yikes…

But today a spokesman puts the vicious rumor to rest. “Not true, the President-elect uses an iPod,” he says. And the Philadelphia writer, Neal Santos, blogs today: “It could belong to one of the many Secret Service dudes that were at the gym, Michelle, or even one of his daughters.”

That hasn’t stopped the merriment within the community — and yes, there is one — of Zune users, who are drastically outnumbered by iPod fans.

“For now we’re claiming the president-elect one of our own,” writes Adam Krebs on Zune Thoughts. On the site’s forums, Alber1690 writes “I was a staunch Hillary supporter, but this is awesome! I’m excited for the future of this country.”

Business Technology : Obama ZuneGate, Day Two

Technology Review: The Extensible Obama

A timely snapshot – read the full article.  In my experience in this context over the last year, however, there’s a fine line between Internet-enabled representative democracy and email spam (e.g., endless requests for financial donations)…

With about six weeks to go until Obama's inauguration, more Web feedback efforts are in the works, and the Obama team is planning to release a kind of digital campaign yearbook. They are also sketching out the administration's new-media strategy. While the details of that strategy are unknown, the president will have at his disposal databases of unprecedented size and sophistication on his supporters--and voters generally--including their views and their past efforts as pro-Obama volunteers.

Technology Review: The Extensible Obama

Web rant prompts criminal charges - The Boston Globe

Interesting times…

Locked in a visitation dispute with his ex-girlfriend over their young daughter, J.P. Weichel wanted to vent, court records show.

Weichel, 40, allegedly posted comments about the woman on the Craigslist "Rants and Raves" forum, accusing her of child abuse and of welfare fraud and making crude comments about her sex life. The woman said the postings were defamatory. But unlike the vast majority of libel cases, which are tried in civil court, local authorities have taken the unusual step of charging Weichel with the crime of defaming his ex-girlfriend online.

Colorado is one of a dwindling number of states with a criminal law against libel. The statute dates to the 19th century and is rarely used.

Web rant prompts criminal charges - The Boston Globe

From the Desk of David Pogue - Readers React to David Pogue’s Review of the BlackBerry Storm - NYTimes.com

Check the full article – not good news for RIM fans…

It always blows my mind when people tell me that my assessment of some product is wrong -- without ever even having tried the thing themselves. I just can't get over that.

And now for the thing I learned:

For years, tech critics like me have occasionally endured abuse from the Cult of Mac. If you write anything that even hints at a less-than-perfect Apple effort (like my reviews of, for example, the original Apple TV, iMovie '08 or MobileMe), the backlash is swift, vitriolic and heated. We're talking insults, vulgarities and even threats. I've always thought that that vocal sub-population of Mac fans make up the world's most watchful, most hostile grass-roots lobbying arm.

But now I see that I was wrong. There's an even nastier one: the BlackBerry nuts.

From the Desk of David Pogue - Readers React to David Pogue’s Review of the BlackBerry Storm - NYTimes.com

Amazon Starts Renting Out the Human Genome - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Amazon.com continues to innovate…

Forget books, MP3 players or vacuums. Amazon.com wants to offer you a copy of the human genome this holiday season.

Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, has started offering access to large collections of data. Business customers and scientists can take the information, which ranges from census databases to three-dimensional chemical structures and the genome, and use it as the basis for computing jobs. By gathering and storing the information, Amazon says that it can save businesses the step of assembling and managing data on their own.

Amazon Starts Renting Out the Human Genome - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

IBM, Canonical release 'Microsoft-free' virtual Linux desktop bundle

More details on the IBM initiative

According to IBM, the virtual Linux desktop suite could cost, for large companies, as little as $59 per worker. That would include a minimal configuration of $49 for the VERDE desktop virtualization software from a third vendor, Virtual Bridges, $10 for Ubuntu Linux support, and no cost for the Lotus Symphony productivity software.

A full-fledged Linux desktop solution that includes Lotus Notes e-mail, Sametime instant messaging, and other collaboration tools would cost $258 per user, according to IBM.

IBM, Canonical release 'Microsoft-free' virtual Linux desktop bundle

WebWorkerDaily » Archive Time to Think Twice About Free «

See the full post for some useful guidelines

As we covered last week, free services I Want Sandy and Stikkit are closing shortly, joining a growing list of Web 2.0 free-to-consumer startups that have shuttered their sites. It’s not just the little guys that are going out of business, either: Google Lively is set to become the latest failed experiment from the search behemoth later this year.

While just a few data points don’t make up a trend, it does seem likely that we haven’t seen the last closures. Services start up in a burst of optimism, then hit the cold hard wall of needing to pay for servers and bandwidth. The tightening of venture capital and the decline of online advertising have been covered elsewhere: other factors that will make it tough for free eternal-beta Web 2.0 startups to stay in business. But how is the savvy web worker to cope?

It’s clear that “free” doesn’t actually mean “free” when you put it into a larger context of web work.

(Via Greg Lloyd)

WebWorkerDaily » Archive Time to Think Twice About Free «

With JavaFX, Sun seeks new coders, new revenue | Business Tech - CNET News

See the full article for details

"This is the essence of the Hail Mary," said Illuninata analyst Jonathan Eunice. "I would like to think there's a role for Java on the client, but it's very late."

But Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz, despite Sun's dropping revenue, low stock price, and large new layoff, believes JavaFX will overcome its obstacles.

"Don't confuse relevance for stock price," he said, pointing to Java's widespread adoption among developers and students and to Sun's expansion into newer open-source areas such as the MySQL database software. "We're more relevant today than any other software developer on the face of the Earth."

And while Java FX may not be widely discussed today as a rich Internet application foundation, "I promise you that will change in next 60 to 90 days," Schwartz said.

I definitely expect changes at Sun over the next 60 to 90 days…

With JavaFX, Sun seeks new coders, new revenue | Business Tech - CNET News

Scratch the Kindle Off Your List - WSJ.com

A timely reality check

For the second holiday shopping season in a row, Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle e-book reader is out of stock, and more of the devices won't be available until mid-February, at the earliest.

Amazon thought it had plenty in stock, but then the most powerful person in book publishing intervened. In late October, Oprah Winfrey described it as her "favorite new gadget" on her TV show. And just as Ms. Winfrey's reading selections turn no-name books into best sellers, the demand for Kindles soon overwhelmed Amazon.

This is inconvenient for shoppers who wanted a Kindle for Christmas. But it also supports a realization that is slowly creeping through the industry: E-book readers are for real.

I have a hunch the Kindle that shows up in mid-Feb (“at the earliest”) will be the 2.0 model.

Scratch the Kindle Off Your List - WSJ.com

Business Technology : A Zune Obama Can Believe In

Best Zune PR of the year…

In the past, President Elect Barack Obama has declared himself, like President George W. Bush, an iPod user. It makes sense: the commander-in-chief, and all who aspire to the position, naturally should want to enjoy music on the MP3 player with the most commanding market share.

So what was Obama doing working out at the Philadelphia Sports Club earlier this week listening to a….Zune? Neal Santos, an associate Web editor with the Philadelphia City Paper, posted an item Tuesday on the news weekly’s site about how he recently found himself running on a treadmill next to the president elect as Obama read a copy of USA Today and listened to a Zune.

[…]

Given Obama’s past statements to Rolling Stone magazine, the Zune sighting suggests the president elect is an owner of both an iPod and a Zune, which would be a bold demonstration of bipartisan unity. There’s also the more troubling (for Microsoft) possibility that Obama thought he had an iPod, when he actually had a Zune.

Microsoft isn’t second guessing the Zune sighting. “Clearly the president elect has great taste,” a spokeswoman for the company said.

Business Technology : A Zune Obama Can Believe In

IBM Creates 'Microsoft-Free' Desktop - WSJ.com

Interesting times

International Business Machines Corp. is hoping to convince corporate customers that they no longer need Microsoft Corp.

IBM says it has created a "Microsoft-free" virtual desktop -- a complete suite of applications that run on a backroom server and don't require Microsoft software or costly desktop hardware.

The software package, available immediately, uses the Linux operating system and a set of IBM office applications that can be displayed on so-called thin clients, which don't have processing units or hard drives.

IBM, based in Armonk, N.Y., says pricing for the Virtual Linux Desktop would range from $59 to $289 per user, depending on what software and service level the customer chose.

IBM Creates 'Microsoft-Free' Desktop - WSJ.com

Hackers' posting forces Tweeter to shut down website - The Boston Globe

Sign of the times…

Hackers apparently broke into Tweeter's website yesterday morning and posted a picture of President Bush on the home page with a message about the bankrupt chain's owner and chief restructuring officer. "Don't trust either of them!!!"

The website was taken down shortly after and did not function for most of the day. The incident comes hours after the electronics chain abruptly shut its 60 stores and fired 600 people nationwide just days before a going-out-of business sale was supposed to end. Workers are owed salary, vacation time, and bonuses.

Hackers' posting forces Tweeter to shut down website - The Boston Globe

Technology Review: China Internet cafes switching to Chinese OS

Piracy = bad; privacy + security = good…  See the full article for details

Requirements that Internet cafes in a southern Chinese city install Chinese-developed operating systems are raising new concerns over cyber snooping by authorities, a U.S. government-funded radio station reported Wednesday.
The new rules that went into effect Nov. 5 are aimed at cracking down on the use of pirated software, said Hu Shenghua, a spokesman for the Culture Bureau in the city of Nanchang.
Internet cafe operators are required to remove unlicensed software and replace it with legitimate copies of either Microsoft Windows or China's homegrown Red Flag Linux operating system while paying a fee, he said.
However, Radio Free Asia said cafes were being required to install Red Flag Linux even if they were using authorized copies of Windows. It quoted Xiao Qiang, director of the California-based China Internet Project, as saying the new rules would help authorities regulate Internet cafes that now operate on the margins of the law, and allow them to undertake heightened surveillance.

Technology Review: China Internet cafes switching to Chinese OS

Document Interoperability Initiative Demonstrates Momentum and Results

More Open XML and ODF evolution; see the full press release for more details

Through the Document Interoperability Initiative (DII) global forums, technology leaders have been working together to promote interoperability between different document format implementations to provide greater value and choice to customers, and the events — including one held in Belgium this week — are yielding practical results.

Interoperability solutions announced today translate Open XML documents to a Web page (HTML) allowing readability on Web-friendly browsers such as Firefox, improve translations between different formats through optimized templates, and enable features that provide greater choice for customers and opportunities for independent software developers as they create and use business applications built on Java that manipulate business documents. At the DII events, discussions were also held about developing document test libraries and schema validators, and vendors had the opportunity to test their implementations of document formats in a lab environment to identify potential issues to be addressed.

Document Interoperability Initiative Demonstrates Momentum and Results: Industry collaboration leads to new interoperability solutions that deliver customer choice by improving how documents work across platforms.

The next version of Windows Live has shipped! - Windows Live

Major updates to the service side of Windows Live; the software part of this “software + services” offering will follow

The updates to Spaces, SkyDrive, and Events, as well as the brand new Profile, Groups, and Photos experiences have just been released. We can’t wait for you to try them out!

We’ll be talking in more depth about all of the cool new stuff in the coming weeks, and we’ll be answering a list of frequently asked questions later this week. But if you want more info about the release, you can check out these blog posts:

• The pre-release announcement on the Windows Live team blog and our announcement here on The Space Craft
• The web release post on the Windows Live team blog, which provides details about the new header, the Home page, the new Photos experience, the new Profile, Groups, Events, and SkyDrive
• Our in-depth post about the updates to Spaces
• Details about “what’s new” and “web activities,” which help you keep in touch and up-to-date with what your friends are up to
• The full scoop on the new Profile page
• A breakdown of all the cool new stuff in SkyDrive over on the SkyDrive team blog

The next version of Windows Live has shipped! - Windows Live

Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion | Security - CNET News

The Apple ministry of truth strikes again…

Apple removed an old item from its support site late Tuesday that urged Mac customers to use multiple antivirus utilities and now says the Mac is safe "out of the box."

"We have removed the KnowledgeBase article because it was old and inaccurate," Apple spokesperson Bill Evans said.

"The Mac is designed with built-in technologies that provide protection against malicious software and security threats right out of the box," he said. "However, since no system can be 100 percent immune from every threat, running antivirus software may offer additional protection."

Apple deletes Mac antivirus suggestion | Security - CNET News

MySQL Founder Urges Cautious Approach to MySQL 5.1

A candidate for the PR nightmare of the week award…

MySQL founder Monty Widenius criticized Version 5.1 of the MySQL open-source database in a blog post [titled “Oops, we did it again (MySQL 5.1 released as GA with crashing bugs)”] stating numerous bugs have not been fixed despite the fact that the database is now GA. Officials at Sun Microsystems responded that Widenius' opinion does not represent the entire user community and that enterprises should test any piece of software - MySQL or otherwise - before deploying it.

MySQL Founder Urges Cautious Approach to MySQL 5.1

Zoho releases SQL-based data-access service | InfoWorld | News | 2008-12-02 | By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service

SQL still rules data-land; see the full article for more details

Initially, Zoho Reports, a BI and reporting service, will support CloudSQL. Other products, such as Zoho CRM, will support it down the road.

Zoho's announcement represents an attempt to win over IT specialists who haven't been quite ready to embrace the cloud-computing model, one observer suggested Tuesday.

"CloudSQL simply represents an incremental move that will enable Zoho to grow, extending a comfort blanket to nervous DBAs seeking reasons to resist relinquishing control over their data," wrote Paul Miller, a blogger who tracks trends in cloud computing and the semantic Web.

For now, CloudSQL is available at no cost. Zoho, which is a division of the Pleasanton, Calif., company AdventNet, will monitor usage and decide whether it needs to begin charging for it, according to a representative

Zoho releases SQL-based data-access service | InfoWorld | News | 2008-12-02 | By Chris Kanaracus, IDG News Service

Google Gears Down for Tougher Times - WSJ.com

See the full article (wsj.com subscription required) for a detailed Google reality check

But revenue growth has slowed dramatically over the past year. Products such as Google Checkout, a Web payment service, and Google TV Ads, which sells television advertising time, haven't generated significant revenue, leaving online ads still accounting for 97% of revenue. Google's share price has fallen to $275.11 in trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, less than half its record close of $741.79 in November 2007.

So with the U.S. economy in a recession, Google is ratcheting back spending and cutting new projects. "We have to behave as though we don't know" what's going to happen, says Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt. The company will curtail the "dark matter," he says, projects that "haven't really caught on" and "aren't really that exciting." He says the company is "not going to give" an engineer 20 people to work with on certain experimental projects anymore. "When the cycle comes back," he says, "we will be able to fund his brilliant vision."

Google Gears Down for Tougher Times - WSJ.com

Blogs bridge Iran-US gulf - The Boston Globe

Interesting times…

Three decades after the United States cut off diplomatic ties with Iran, blogs and e-mail have become crucial conduits for communication between the countries - and for often-lively debates among officials of both countries and average citizens.

"The Internet is our most significant ally," Goli Ameri, assistant secretary of state for Educational and Cultural Affairs, told Congress earlier this year in highlighting efforts to reach out to average Iranians.

With an estimated 60,000 active Farsi-speaking blogs, Iran has one of the most vibrant blogospheres in the world, outstripping the rest of the Middle East. In 2006 and 2007, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad used a blog to address the American people, even as the Bush administration shunned him and American news outlets portrayed him as dangerous and unstable.

Blogs bridge Iran-US gulf - The Boston Globe

Netbooks Dominate Cyber Monday on Amazon (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

The OLPC XO was in 5th place – hmm…

The mini-laptops, with 7-inch to 10-inch screens, are popular because they're about half the size of a normal laptop and much lighter, usually less than 1.5 kilograms (3.3 lbs). They also cost less, but allow people to surf the Internet wirelessly and work on full, if downsized, keyboards.

Netbooks took seven of the top 10 spots on Amazon.com's computer bestseller list by the end of the day Monday, with a few high-definition LCD monitors from Samsung and an Apple MacBook taking the remaining three spots.

Netbooks Dominate Cyber Monday on Amazon (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

PayPal Brings Allowances Into the 21st Century - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times…

PayPal, the online payment division of eBay, wants to help parents put a financial leash on their teenage children.

Last month, the company quietly began testing a new system called PayPal Student Account, a flexible way for parents to give children age 13 and older a measured amount of financial independence. The feature, currently in an invite-only beta period, allows parents to create up to four sub-accounts tied to their primary PayPal account. They can then allocate a single chunk of money or create a recurring allowance, which children can spend on any Web site that accepts PayPal. If parents want to extend that buying power into the real world, they can also give their offspring a MasterCard debit card tied to their sub-accounts.

PayPal Brings Allowances Into the 21st Century - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com

Amazon's database service enters public testing | Business Tech - CNET News

Cloud database evolution continues; see the full article for more details

"We've made the business decision to go with SimpleDB even simpler than it was before. You can now get started for free. For at least the next six months, you can consume up to 500MB of storage, and you can use up to 25 machine-hours each month. You can transfer 1GB of data in, and another 1GB out," said AWS evangelist Jeff Barr in a blog posting Monday.

Among those using SimpleDB are Pluribo, Issuu, and MyMiniLife.com, Amazon said.

To make SimpleDB easier to use, Amazon said it plans to release a new interface similar to the SQL (Structured Query Language) widely used in databases today. It also plans a mechanism to let people more easily upload multiple items.

Amazon's database service enters public testing | Business Tech - CNET News

Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software | Security - CNET News

Looks like Mac OS has sufficient market share to be a major target

In what appears to be a first, Apple is recommending that Mac users install antivirus software.

But don't read this as an admission that the Mac operating system is suddenly insecure. It's more a recognition that Mac users are vulnerable to Web application exploits, which have replaced operating system vulnerabilities as the bigger threat to computer users.

Apple suggests Mac users install antivirus software | Security - CNET News

Palm warns on 2Q revenue, shares drop aftermarket - Boston.com

Uh oh…

Palm Inc. said late Monday it expects revenue for its fiscal second quarter to come in below Wall Street expectations and plans to cut quarterly expenses by $20 million.

The maker of the Treo smart phone forecast revenue of $190 million to $195 million, compared with analyst estimates of $330.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

That would mean a revenue decline of at least 46 percent from first-quarter revenue of $366.90 million and about a 44 percent decline from the same period a year ago when revenue came in at $349.63.

Palm warns on 2Q revenue, shares drop aftermarket - Boston.com

Toward a 21st century government | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Sign of the times

President-elect Obama has championed the creation of a more open, transparent, and participatory government. To that end, Change.gov adopted a new copyright policy this weekend. In an effort to create a vibrant and open public conversation about the Obama-Biden Transition Project, all website content now falls under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

[…]

Change.gov has incorporated additional features designed to make the Transition more accessible and its content more open and re-useable. For every video posted – from the weekly addresses, to press conferences, to speeches, to “Inside the Transition” pieces – there are links to high-resolution QuickTime video files beneath embedded videos (these are also available via the Transition’s podcast), so that the video can be saved to a computer and edited at will. The Obama-Biden Transition Team is continuing to explore ways to use new media to create a more transparent Transition. This is part of an ongoing planning process to create a 21st century government that is more transparent, participatory, and effective

Toward a 21st century government | Change.gov: The Obama-Biden Transition Team

Big Microsoft-Yahoo story debunked - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

A timely case study in information quality and information literacy

Tech bloggers in the U.S. are roundly dismissing a Sunday Times of London story that has Microsoft in talks to acquire Yahoo's search business for $20 billion.
Problem No. 1: That would be a wacky price -- more than Yahoo's entire market value. Problem No. 2: One of the people purported to be involved in the deal, former Fox Interactive President Ross Levinsohn, says it's simply not true.

Big Microsoft-Yahoo story debunked - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web - NYTimes.com

Interesting times

Facebook Connect is representative of some surprising new thinking in Silicon Valley. Instead of trying to hoard information about their users, the Internet giants have all announced plans to share at least some of that data so people do not have to enter the same identifying information again and again on different sites.

Supporters of this idea say such programs will help with the emergence of a new “social Web,” because chatter among friends will infiltrate even sites that have been entirely unsociable thus far.

Facebook Aims to Extend Its Reach Across the Web - NYTimes.com

The Space Craft: Connect with your real world friends and family with the new Windows Live profile

Windows Live evolution continues – see the full post for screen shots and more details

Profiles will be the center of Windows Live

Your profile will be the place for people to see what is going on with you, to communicate with you, and to see the content you are sharing. It’s also your way to express yourself. You can choose from a variety of themes, share what you’re doing online (both on Windows Live and on other websites) in your what’s new feed, and get to all of of the things you’ve posted on Windows Live – your photos, files, space, and profile details. If you want to add someone to your network or communicate with them, either through private messages or by posting a note for everyone to see, the profile will be the best place to do it.

An interesting twist:

Under the profile details will be the list of web activities you’ve added to your profile. If you use another website, like Flickr, Pandora, or Twitter, you can add it to your Windows Live profile. Every time you make an update on one of those other sites it’ll show up in your what’s new feed. It’s a great way to share all of the things you do online in one place.

The Space Craft: Connect with your real world friends and family with the new Windows Live profile

You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy? - NYTimes.com

A timely reality check

For the last 50 years, Americans have worried about the privacy of the individual in the computer age. But new technologies have become so powerful that protecting individual privacy may no longer be the only issue. Now, with the Internet, wireless sensors, and the capability to analyze an avalanche of data, a person’s profile can be drawn without monitoring him or her directly.

“Some have argued that with new technology there is a diminished expectation of privacy,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy rights group in Washington. “But the opposite may also be true. New techniques may require us to expand our understanding of privacy and to address the impact that data collection has on groups of individuals and not simply a single person.”

You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy? - NYTimes.com

In-Flight Wi-Fi Aboard the Virgin Party Plane (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

Sign of the times; read the full article for more details

Virgin America isn't the first airline to offer in-flight Wi-Fi, but it will be the first airline to offer the service on its entire fleet of planes. Gogo Wi-Fi is already available on American Airlines, Delta is rolling out wireless networking systemwide this fall, while Alaska Airlines, Continental, Southwest Airlines, Jet Blue, and Virgin America are testing Wi-Fi or have limited trials in operation.

There was a first during this event, however: YouTube hosted its first live streaming event in San Francisco during the flight, which featured video streamed from the plane. While that was being filmed and streamed, the in-flight crew told all the passengers to disconnect from the Wi-Fi service to maximize the bandwidth for video being streamed from the plane.

In-Flight Wi-Fi Aboard the Virgin Party Plane (PC World) by PC World: Yahoo! Tech

State of the Art - No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry? - NYTimes.com

Harshest Storm review I’ve seen so far…

There’s even GPS, with turn-by-turn directions as you drive ($10 a month extra). The Storm can show voice mail in an Inbox-like list, like the iPhone does ($3 a month extra). The screen (480 x 360 pixels) is bright and beautiful.

Honestly, though, you’ll probably never get that far. When you look at your typing, slow and typo-ridden, and you repair the dents you’ve made banging your head against the wall, you’ll be grateful that Verizon offers a 30-day return period.

How did this thing ever reach the market? Was everyone involved just too terrified to pull the emergency brake on this train?

State of the Art - No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry? - NYTimes.com

Grandma’s on the Computer Screen - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times – read the full article 

 

Video calling, long anticipated by science fiction, is filtering into everyday use. And two demographic groups not particularly known for being high-tech are among the earliest adopters.

In a way that even e-mailed photos never could, the Web cam promises to transcend both distance and the inability of toddlers to hold up their end of a phone conversation.

Grandma’s on the Computer Screen - NYTimes.com

H.P. Unit Sheds Stepchild Status to Take on Cisco - NYTimes.com

An interesting co-opetition shift; see the full article for more details

Now H.P. is directly attacking Cisco in a bid to capture a larger chunk of the $20 billion market for local area network and wireless switches. “H.P. has declared war,” said Mark Fabbi, a networking analyst at the research firm Gartner. “H.P. has the potential to completely change the dynamics of the networking industry.”

Hewlett-Packard’s strategy with ProCurve — expand revenue and profit by biting into a leader’s lucrative franchise — is vintage Mark Hurd. And it offers some insights into how the company has outperformed its peers financially even as the technology industry faces a global slowdown.

H.P. Unit Sheds Stepchild Status to Take on Cisco - NYTimes.com

Should Microsoft make Zune phone? - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

Read the full post for more context; the final post paragraphs:

In other words, Microsoft may or may not be developing its own mobile phone, perhaps under the Zune brand. Maybe we'll find out at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Maybe we won't.
But here's the interesting question: Should the company come out with its own mobile phone? Should Microsoft's long and mostly unsuccessful struggle against the iPod keep the company from attempting to take on the iPhone? If it came with the right features, and partnered with the right wireless provider, would you consider buying a Microsoft-branded phone?

Should Microsoft make Zune phone? - TechFlash: Seattle's Technology News Source

Atlantic Records Says Digital Sales Surpass CDs - NYTimes.com

A significant milestone

Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group, says it has reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit: more than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones.

But, later in the article:

With the milestone comes a sobering reality already familiar to newspapers and television producers. While digital delivery is becoming a bigger slice of the pie, the overall pie is shrinking fast. Analysts at Forrester Research estimate that music sales in the United States will decline to $9.2 billion in 2013, from $10.1 billion this year. That compares with $14.6 billion in 1999, according to the Recording Industry Association of America.

As a result, the hope that digital revenue will eventually compensate for declining sales of CDs — and usher in overall growth — have largely been dashed.

Atlantic Records Says Digital Sales Surpass CDs - NYTimes.com

Microsoft is hugely profitable - just not where Google rules - Nov. 26, 2008

An attention-grabbing first paragraph, but read the full article and check the closing paragraphs on the second page for a more optimistic projection.

Struggle? You don't normally think of that word applying to the company Bill Gates founded. But there it is: Microsoft, one of the most aggressively competitive, brainiac-attracting, technologically superior, and oh, yes, cash-gushingly profitable companies of all time, can't for the life of it make a dime on the Internet.

Microsoft is hugely profitable - just not where Google rules - Nov. 26, 2008

Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode

Lengthy Microsoft/Ray Ozzie snapshot in Wired – read the full article.  An excerpt:

To Ozzie, software's soul does not lie in the accumulation of features. Instead, it lies in his dream of connectivity. "Live Mesh is very Ray," Mitch Kapor says. "It's the son of Groove, which is the son of Notes." Which was, of course, the son of Ozzie's beloved Plato. Thirty-three years later, Ozzie is still trying to build on what he saw in sophomore year. But it's no longer the Ray Ozzie vision. It's Microsoft's.

Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode

Facebook targeted Web 2.0 start-up Twitter: report - Yahoo! News

Interesting times

Social networking company Facebook recently held acquisition talks with Twitter, the micro-blogging company, the Financial Times said.

The negotiations, put a valuation of as much as $500 million on Twitter, which has become one of Silicon Valley's most closely watched start-ups, the paper said.

Facebook targeted Web 2.0 start-up Twitter: report - Yahoo! News

Details On Silverlight 3 | Sarah In Tampa | Channel 10

Hmm – see the full post for more details

According to Scott, Silverlight 3 is going to be shipped next year and will include several additional features, only some of which he could reveal now. With the new version of Silverlight, there will be major media enhancements, (including support for H.264/AAC video), major graphics enhancements (including 3D support and GPU hardware acceleration), and major application development enhancements (including richer data-binding support and additional controls). Also next year, Visual Studio and Visual Web Developer Express will support a fully editable and interactive designer for Silverlight and will add tool support for data-binding

Details On Silverlight 3 Sarah In Tampa Channel 10

Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ - NYTimes.com

Check the full article for more details

If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.

On Monday, Microsoft researchers published the results of a study of health-related Web searches on popular search engines as well as a survey of the company’s employees.

The study suggests that self-diagnosis by search engine frequently leads Web searchers to conclude the worst about what ails them.

I did some quick web research on this and learned that my blogging routine stems from a combination of obsessive-compulsive and attention deficit disorders.  Who knew?…

Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ - NYTimes.com

Symantec says Internet underground economy is organized and rich (CNET) by CNET: Yahoo! Tech

Read the full article for more details

Did you know that you can buy a keystroke logger for $23 or pay $10 to have someone host your phishing scam? Having a botnet at your fingertips will cost you $225, and a tool that exploits a vulnerability on a banking site averages $740 and runs as high as $3,000.

That's according to the Symantec Report on the Internet Underground Economy due to be released Monday.

Symantec researchers spent a year observing the chat among cybercriminals on IRC channels and forums on the Internet between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008 and were able to piece together a veritable menu of malicious code, as well as dig up detailed information on the exchange of highly prized financial information.

Symantec says Internet underground economy is organized and rich (CNET) by CNET: Yahoo! Tech

The Media Equation - Google Seduces With Utility - NYTimes.com

Read the full article for an example of how Google can win customer loyalty

But with video chat now enabled in my Gmail, how likely am I to click away? Some people worry that Google will take over the world. Through the sins of competence and innovation, the company has quietly and efficiently surrounded me.

“That’s our business model,” Mr. Schmidt said.

The Media Equation - Google Seduces With Utility - NYTimes.com

For Laid-Off Journalists, Free Blog Accounts - NYTimes.com

Sign of the times

The TypePad Journalist Bailout Program offers recently terminated bloggers and journalists a free pro account (worth $150 annually) on the company’s popular blogging platform. In addition to the free yearly membership, the 20 to 30 journalists who are accepted will receive professional tech support, placement on the company’s blog aggregation site, Blogs.com, and automatic enrollment in the company’s advertising revenue-sharing program.

For Laid-Off Journalists, Free Blog Accounts - NYTimes.com

The BlackBerry Storm Challenges the iPhone - BusinessWeek

More positive than most of the other Storm reviews I’ve seen recently; see the full article

The new touchscreen BlackBerry Storm looks a little like an iPhone and behaves a bit like one, too. So its release is sure to spark a furious debate over which is better. That's the wrong question. Each is an outstanding product—and distinct, despite a few similar design flourishes. The correct question is, which is right for you?

It closes with what might become an interesting pattern

What's my choice? I'm an e-mail guy, working in an environment that supports BlackBerry but not corporate mail on an iPhone, so it's a no-brainer. But to get the best of both worlds, I also have an iPod touch, which isn't a phone but runs most of those cool iPhone programs.

The BlackBerry Storm Challenges the iPhone - BusinessWeek

Facebook's Land Grab in the Face of a Downturn - BusinessWeek

See the full article for a timely Facebook profile

As gloom descends on Silicon Valley, most startups and giants are growing cautious and cutting back. But not Facebook. The social-networking Web site sees a bleak economy as all the more reason to press ahead with aggressive plans for growth. "This is not the time for tech companies to be cutting back; this is the time to be hitting the accelerator," says Peter Thiel, a Facebook board member and investor.

Facebook's Land Grab in the Face of a Downturn - BusinessWeek

Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus quip | Reuters

Strange days indeed (more details)

"The remark by John Lennon, which triggered deep indignation mainly in the United States, after many years sounds only like a 'boast' by a young working-class Englishman faced with unexpected success, after growing up in the legend of Elvis and rock and roll," Vatican daily Osservatore Romano said.

The article, marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' "The White Album," went on to praise the pop band.

Vatican forgives John Lennon for Jesus quip Reuters

Windows Live FolderShare Team Blog: Windows Live Sync replacing FolderShare: What you need to know

I’m glad to see FolderShare will continue, although I’m curious about the positioning, relative to Live Mesh.  See the full post for more details.  (Via LiveSide.net)

In December, we will release a new product called Windows Live Sync. You can think of it as FolderShare 2.0. It's going to look familiar and offer the same great features, plus:

• More folders and files - sync up to 20 folders with 20,000 files each.
• Integration with Windows Live ID - no more extra sign-in stuff to remember.
• Integration with the Recyle Bin - no more separate Trash folder to fiddle with.
• New client versions for both Windows and Mac. 
• Unicode support - sync files in other languages.

Windows Live FolderShare Team Blog: Windows Live Sync replacing FolderShare: What you need to know

Novelties - The Online Search Party - A Way to Share the Load - NYTimes.com

Another form of collaboration

Now tools are being developed by Microsoft and other companies that let people at different computers search as a team, dividing responsibilities and pooling results and recommendations in a shared Web space on the browser display as they plan a family vacation, for instance, or research a medical problem.

Meredith Ringel Morris, a computer scientist at Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., has created one of these collaborative tools, SearchTogether, now available in a test version as a free download at http://research.microsoft.com/searchtogether. The program is designed to work within the Internet Explorer 7 browser.

Novelties - The Online Search Party - A Way to Share the Load - NYTimes.com

OOXML standards finally published and available free! - O'Reilly Broadcast

Excerpt from a snapshot by Rick Jelliffe:

These standards are useful for several reasons:

1) They provide very detailed, public and usable information about the information exchanged by Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) including information that was discovered and disclosed during the process. For example, the exact conversion factors used in Excel for fluid measures. Public information needs to be free, and no tied up in mysterious or encumbered formats.

2) It will be the format used for the next generation of Office software. Trivial changes from the ECMA 376 specification (which is, excluding any minor SNAFUs, the native format of Office 2007) that were required by the ISO review process (changes I regard as completely bizarre) means that Office 2007 does not currently generate conformant IS29500 in a couple of trivial areas (e.g. "yes" must be "true" or "1".)

See the full post for more reasons and analysis.

OOXML standards finally published and available free! - O'Reilly Broadcast

Even Google scales back on holiday fun (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

I guess we really are in a recession…

Google has fared better than most tech companies, but departments at the Internet company will have smaller events this year to encourage camaraderie between employees and celebrate more economically, said the source. Team holiday activities will include spending an afternoon volunteering followed by evening social activities such as dinner parties and museum outings in San Francisco.

This is a striking difference from previous years, when Google holiday parties included ice sculptures of the company's logo, virtual reality video game stations, karaoke booths, sushi buffets and burlesque dancers.

Even Google scales back on holiday fun (Reuters) by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

Five reasons Sun won't be acquired | Business Tech - CNET News

Read the full article to review the five reasons

Sun Microsystems last week launched its second major restructuring for the year--with good reason.

The company posted a sizable $1.68 billion net loss in its fiscal first quarter last month, amid a 7 percent decline in revenue, as its traditional business of high- to midrange servers running on Sparc processors took a hit. Add to that a steep sell-off of its stock over the past 12 months, falling from about $25 a share earlier in the year to close at $3.02 a share on Friday.

For the embattled tech titan that's lost its allure over the years, a dramatic restructuring is virtually the only option to make good for Sun's investors--given prospective buyers aren't around, say some investment bankers and private equity players.

Here are five reasons why Sun won't be acquired, even if its stock is trading at dramatically low prices […]

One of my favorite Larry Ellison lines is “Every ecosystem needs a scavenger”; he said it in response to a reporter’s question about Computer Associates, when it was gobbling up second- and third-tier DBMS vendors many years ago (see this classic charlesf post for more context).  The CNet author isn’t thinking like a scavenger, and I think Sun’s days as an independent company are about to come to an end.

Back to the five reasons: Sun parts are worth more than its current market cap at this point, especially when the competitive potential, e.g., of IBM or Oracle (or Microsoft…) controlling Java, is factored into the analysis.  In a net-present-value equation, Sun’s patent portfolio alone is probably worth $Bs.

At its current stock price, Sun is worth $2.23B.  That’s about $1B more than Sun paid for MySQL AB at the end of February 2008.  Maybe Sun exists at this point primarily so Jerry Yang can have something to point to and say “It could be worse!”

Five reasons Sun won't be acquired | Business Tech - CNET News

The Screens Issue - If You Liked This, Sure to Love That - Winning the Netflix Prize - NYTimes.com

An extensive and fascinating snapshot of collaborative filtering

In one sense, collaborative filtering is less personalized than a store clerk. The clerk, in theory anyway, knows a lot about you, like your age and profession and what sort of things you enjoy; she can even read your current mood. (Are you feeling lousy? Maybe it’s not the day for “Apocalypse Now.”) A collaborative-filtering program, in contrast, knows very little about you — only what you’ve bought at a Web site and whether you rated it highly or not. But the computer has numbers on its side. It may know only a little bit about you, but it also knows a little bit about a huge number of other people. This lets it detect patterns we often cannot see on our own. For example, Maes’s music-recommendation system discovered that people who like classical music also like the Beatles. It is an epiphany that perhaps make sense when you think about it for a second, but it isn’t immediately obvious.

The Screens Issue - If You Liked This, Sure to Love That - Winning the Netflix Prize - NYTimes.com