IT Hot News

Winter woes Salesforce.com customers complained of an intermittent outage Monday

Winter woes
Salesforce.com customers complained of an intermittent outage Monday that lasted for several hours, leaving some customers miffed at these latest developments that they attribute . . .

Analyst: Dell-AMD deal on tap for springIt's been three weeks

Analyst: Dell-AMD deal on tap for spring
It's been three weeks since an analyst published a report claiming AMD chips are about to appear inside Dell boxes, so it was about time for another one to appear. Doug Freedman . . .

Report: 8 Million Born With Birth Defects Annually
About 8 million children worldwide are born every year with serious birth defects, many of them dying before age five in a toll largely hidden from view, the March of Dimes says. Most birth defects occur in poor countries, where babies can languish with problems easily fixed or even prevented in wealthier nations.

Newspapers take aim at Google in copyright dispute (Reuters)

Reuters - A group representing global newspaper publishers has launched a lobbying campaign to challenge search engines like Google that aggregate news content.

Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Fall Short in Online Sales Conversions If you're

Brick-and-Mortar Retailers Fall Short in Online Sales Conversions

If you're a brick-and-mortar or catalog retailer trying to break into the online channel, chances are your online sales conversion rates are below those of your competitiors that are focused on e-commerce, according to a new study released by Nielsen/NetRatings. The study found that among the top 10 online retailers ranked by conversion rates in February, only Coldwater Creek has a significant brick-and-mortar presence. Kudos to Coldwater -- that must be why Sears decided to keep it. While the average sales conversion rate on e-commerce sites is 4.9%, QVC led the pack, converting over 16% of site shoppers into purchasers. Land's End was close behind, and Amazon, Yahoo Shopping and eBay also made the top 10.

Skype, Warner Music Team Up on Ringtones (NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - VoIP provider Skype has inked a deal with Warner Music Group to bring ringtones to its Internet phone service. Skype, which is owned by eBay, will sell song selections in much the same way that other phone providers like T-Mobile do: as replacements for traditional phone sounds that can be downloaded for a per-song charge.

Building SOA Solutions with Service Component Architecture
In the previous article (part 1 in WebSphere Journal vol: 3. iss: 4) we began to build an SCA project in WebSphere Process Server. Here in part 2 we pick up the discussion. To see the associated images, please view the article online at www.ibm.com/developerWorks/websphere.

Five Microsoft .NET Development Tools I Wish I Had
I've been doing a lot of coding lately. This has been a bit of a departure from my usual work as a technology evangelist or a development manager, but - as you might imagine - it has been quite a lot of fun! Having said this, the process of actually sitting down and coding for 12 hours a day over the past few months has left me wishing that Visual Studio .NET shipped with a handful of additional capabilities in the box.

Target Group Chooses .Net Framework for Its 1,400 Retail Stores Throughout the United States
Microsoft Corp. today announced that Target Corp., the nation's second-largest discount general merchandise retailer, will adopt Microsoft .NET Framework-based technologies within its 1,400 stores in 47 U.S. states. Target will migrate its systems within each store to the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0, Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server 2005.

.NET Supporter Macrovision Attains Microsoft Gold Status
Macrovision has worked closely with Microsoft on several initiatives, announcing products that support and extend the latest Microsoft technology, including FLEXnet InstallShield 11.5, which features complete integration with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and support for the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0., FLEXnet AdminStudio SMS edition, and support for Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003. Macrovision is also a Visual Studio Industry Partner, Windows Embedded Partner and High Performance Computing Partner. 'This achievement is a testament to the close relationship we have developed with Microsoft over the last several years,' said Fred Amoroso, Macrovision CEO. 'Reaching Microsoft Gold Partner status underscores our commitment to providing highly functional Software Value Management solutions to customers and partners that easily integrate with and support other market leading products.'

More Evidence of the Death of Film Photography
This just in: Nikon is deep-sixing most of its remaining film camera models, keeping just one high-end SLR and one low-end one. It's also discontinuing its manual lenses. (I don't see any film-based point-and-shoots on Nikon's Web site; looks like...

Cover Story: Google Maps and ASP.NET
I am sure that most of you have heard about or have had a chance to use Google Maps. It's a great service and I was really impressed by the responsiveness of the application and the ease with which users could drag and zoom maps from a Web browser. It has in many ways heralded the arrival of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), which I am sure will revitalize Web development in the days to come.

New Open-Xchange 'OXtender' Enables Replacement of Windows Server
giving customers the option to fully replace Microsoft Exchange as well as Microsoft Windows Server.

Yahoo Backs "Cybergiving Week" Yahoo said that is kicked off

Yahoo Backs "Cybergiving Week"
Yahoo said that is kicked off what it calls 'Cybergiving Week' on Christmas Day. The company said its search engine will work with the Network for Good, an online charitable resource, and launch a site that provides donation links to a number of charities as well as resources about how much and where to donate.

Five Microsoft .NET Development Tools I Wish I Had I've

Five Microsoft .NET Development Tools I Wish I Had
I've been doing a lot of coding lately. This has been a bit of a departure from my usual work as a technology evangelist or a development manager, but - as you might imagine - it has been quite a lot of fun! Having said this, the process of actually sitting down and coding for 12 hours a day over the past few months has left me wishing that Visual Studio .NET shipped with a handful of additional capabilities in the box.

"Mobile Web 2.0" – How Web 2.0 Impacts Mobility & Digital Convergence
This is a series of three articles - the first (this one) outlining the significance of Web 2.0 technologies, the second article discussing the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on mobility, and the final article on the impact of Web 2.0 technologies on digital convergence. If you are already familiar with Web 2.0, my goal, in a nutshell (no pun intended!) is to extend Tim O Reilly's seven principles to mobility and digital convergence.

Google Googles AOL, Microsoft Goes to Sidelines
A detailed agreement between Google and AOL hinges on Google acquiring 5% of the Time Warner subsidiary for $1 billion. Early analysis shows Google the winner in this round of its battle with Microsoft over search leadership. But the story appears to be more complex than that.

Firefox Auto-Upgrade Users Become Surprise Beta Testers (TechWeb)
TechWeb - Some Firefox users may be wondering why they are using a version of the popular open-source browser that has yet to be released.

Dion Hinchcliffe's SOA Blog: "Trust and Privacy in Web 2.0: Microsoft, Search, and the DOJ"
As I write this I'm sitting here in the front row next to Robert Scoble at Microsoft Search Champs listening to a great talk by Microsoft Fellow Gary Flake about the Internet Singularity and today's announcement of Live Labs (a fascinating development which I'll dedicate an article to shortly complete with a podcast of Gary's overview.) Read the brand new Live Labs manifesto here.

Broadcom Becomes First Chipset Manufacturer to Piggyback on IEEE 802.11n Draft Spec
Broadcom Corporation announced the availability of its new 'Intensi-fi' family of wireless LAN chipsets, the first solutions designed to comply with the IEEE 802.11n draft specification.

The Internet As the New Local Newspaper?

According to a new study by The Kelsey Group and ConStat, Inc., 70 percent of U.S. households now use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services -- an increase of 16 percent since October 2003. This puts the Internet on par with newspapers as a local shopping information resource, with the Internet
likely to surpass the impact of newspapers in the very near future. Most of the Internet s growth for shopping research can be attributed to large search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Ask Jeeves, the usage of which increased significantly, from 47 percent in 2003 to 55 percent in
2005, said Tim Trickett, vice president of business development at ConStat. Further, the research shows that the increase in usage of the major search engines has been powered by broadband users exclusively.

IBM to bring Mac Notes up-to-date
IBM is expected to get its Notes client software up to speed on the latest Mac OS next week at its annual Lotusphere conference. The company released Notes version 7 in September . . .

Why Yahoo! News and MSN News Can't Compete With Google

Why Yahoo! News and MSN News Can't Compete With Google News
Where would YOU go to get your news? Google News? MSN News? Or Yahoo! News? I think the answer is clear (it's Google), and this reflects the success and failure of these three players. And I don't want to hear from the MSN News people that they almost got it right, but they lost Dr. Kai-Fu Lee to Google in the last minute. You guys can certainly do better than that!

Report: 8 Million Born With Birth Defects Annually About 8

Report: 8 Million Born With Birth Defects Annually
About 8 million children worldwide are born every year with serious birth defects, many of them dying before age five in a toll largely hidden from view, the March of Dimes says. Most birth defects occur in poor countries, where babies can languish with problems easily fixed or even prevented in wealthier nations.

NASA Puts Stardust Craft Into Hibernation Mode
NASA has deactivated most of the Stardust spacecraft that collected the first comet dust ever gathered in space, two weeks after the probe jettisoned samples to Earth from its seven-year voyage through the heavens.

Will Google Subvert Microsoft's Dominant Paradigm?
Speculation about the announcement of a $200 PC from Google that won't be running Windows is setting technology industry speculation into the highest gear it's seen since, uh, Google's IPO. One analyst has emerged from the pack to make a bubblesque prediction of Google's stock going to $600 on the anticipated announcement, which could be made by company co-founder Larry Page at the CES show in Las Vegas.

SOA Antipatterns Explore different Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) antipatterns, which are

SOA Antipatterns
Explore different Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) antipatterns, which are descriptions of commonly occurring situations or solutions that generate decidedly negative consequences. With more businesses taking major steps to move from Web services to SOA, barriers to the introduction, adoption, and successful implementations of SOA are becoming more evident. Some of these barriers are similar to those that caused past essential initiatives to fail; others are specific to SOA.

New Open-Xchange 'OXtender' Enables Replacement of Windows Server giving customers

New Open-Xchange 'OXtender' Enables Replacement of Windows Server
giving customers the option to fully replace Microsoft Exchange as well as Microsoft Windows Server.

Comprehensive AJAX Platform Released As Open Source
Developers now have a fast, efficient and cost-effective way to create AJAX-enabled rich Internet applications with the release of ClearNova's, ThinkCAP JX --the first rapid application development (RAD) platform to be offered as open source, and the first visual development environment for building rich Internet applications. ThinkCAP JX combines the power of AJAX, Java EE and open source to enable organizations and their developers to build the web-based applications that run their businesses.

IBM to bring Mac Notes up-to-date
IBM is expected to get its Notes client software up to speed on the latest Mac OS next week at its annual Lotusphere conference. The company released Notes version 7 in September . . .

File-Sharers Face Jail Time in the UK (NewsFactor)
NewsFactor - Ten UK Internet service providers (ISPs), including NTL, Tivoli, and BT have been ordered by Britain's High Court to hand over customer details for 150 individuals illegally sharing software.

India-based Wipro Technologies Expands its Remote Infrastructure Services Center
Wipro Technologies, the India based IT Service company, has announced that it revamped and expanded its remote managed services center located in Bangalore, India. The center has some $5 million worth of new generation technology and tool sets, giving customers a technology agnostic, secure managed services environment, the company says.

Microsoft sets timing for Vista betaMicrosoft said Tuesday it is

Microsoft sets timing for Vista beta
Microsoft said Tuesday it is aiming to have all of the features that will ship in Vista, the next edition of Windows, completed by end of this year. A feature-complete beta will . . .

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Wireless Company RIM's Motion
Blackberry developer RIM was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in its attempt to get a lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that it delivers its service outside of the U.S. from a main transmitter in Canada. The company is being sued by a small company in northern Virginia that claims to hold patent technology that Blackberry has used to launch its highly successful business.

More Than Half of Americans Now File Taxes Online

It's tax time again, and those of you who are filling out paper forms and licking stamps are in the minority for the first time ever. When all returns are in, the IRS expects to have surpassed the 50 percent mark for electronic returns, reports CNET. Why the rush to the Net? Why the promise of quicker returns, of course. And here's something I didn't know: The IRS actually requires CPAs to file returns electronically these days. One possible roadblock to mass adoption, however, is that the IRS doesn't let people file taxes directly through its Web site, but instead offers its "Free File" program that lets taxpayers file electronically through tax preparation software and service providers with whom the IRS has partnerships.

Samsung Showcases Most Advanced Slim Phones
Samsung Electronics, Co., Ltd., (Samsung) today unveiled an uncompromising product portfolio for 2006, led by the most diverse and advanced slim phone line up for North America and Europe. Samsung's six new slim phones average slightly less than half-inch thick and deliver unprecedented design and multimedia innovations. The aggressive slim phone rollout emphasizes the company's heritage as a global design and technology powerhouse and addresses consumers' desire for thinner handset designs without sacrificing advanced multimedia features.

Consumers Offered Spy Tech to Protect Property
They were a staple of cloak-and-dagger drama, both fictional and real, during the Cold War and now they're being offered to consumers as a passive means of protecting their personal property. They're microdots.

Google, tech companies back StopBadware.org coalition
Google, Lenovo and Sun are funding the StopBadware.org, a new organization that aims to help consumers fight malicious software.

Winamp Users Exposed to Zero-Day Exploit
Winamp has published a security update to fix a critical vulnerability in its media player. The move came after a security researcher known only as "Kozan" discovered a flaw in Winamp 5.12 that could be exploited to compromise users' systems. Proof of concept code was published on Sunday.

SOA Web Services: "Ruling Out Services"
Ask 10 people the question: What is SOA? You will most likely get 10 different answers. Chances are that in more than 50 percent of the cases, the word 'Web services' will be a part of the answer. Another 20 percent will talk about process orchestration, XML, integration, and so on. All of these answers definitely describe either the elements of SOA or the components used for the implementation of SOA. One of the technology paradigms that does not instantly come to mind though is 'business rules.'

Sex.com Acquired by Escom, LLC
Escom, LLC, today announced the acquisition of the domain name Sex.com, from entrepreneur and Internet personality Gary Kremen, the CEO of Grant Media, LLC and founder of Match.com. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. It is believed to be among the most significant domain sale transactions in history. Financing for the acquisition was provided in part by Domain Capital LLC, a leader in the financing of Domain Names and Intellectual Property.

IBM To Open Source Unstructerd Information Management Architecture (UIMA)
IBM has announced the hand over of code for the Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) technology to Sourceforge.net, with plans to move it to a full open-source community development model later in the year. The company predicts the release to have a similar impact as that of its release of SQL 30 years ago.