Gallery: Wired Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns (Wired)

Geeks really love their jack-o'-lanterns — that much is clear from the dozens of entries and thousands of votes racked up on Wired's Show Us Your Geeky Jack-o'-Lanterns blog post.

Gallery: Our Readers' Coolest Geek-o'-Lanterns

Sprint in talks with Google on mobile apps: source (Reuters)

Sprint Nextel Corp, the No. 3 U.S. mobile service, is in talks to put applications from Web search leader Google Inc on its cell phones, a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

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NBC's Zucker: Apple used us! (Shh, we used Apple too) (Ars Technica)

NBC chief Jeff Zucker made a number of requests of Apple before walking away from the iTunes Store, including raising prices and a cut of iPod sales. When Apple said no, Zucker became bitter.

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BEA or Ellison: Who Will Prevail? (BusinessWeek)

The middleware provider is holding out for a sweeter deal, but Oracle hasn't made another offer and shareholder Carl Icahn is pushing hard for a sale

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EMC acquires network-configuration player (Network World)

The number of pure-play network change and configuration-management vendors decreased again Tuesday as EMC announced it had purchased Voyence for an undisclosed amount.

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Slideshow: 12 Things You Need to Know About Ruby on Rails (eWeek)

Why Ruby on Rails is to application development what Apple is to desktops.

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Web 2.0 Entails 'Sleeping Giant' Security Risk (Campus Technology)

As increasing numbers of enterprises climb aboard the Web 2.0 bandwagon, it's more important than ever for software developers to keep security in mind during the development process. So says Danny Allan, director of security research at Watchfire, the Waltham, MA-based Web-app security company acquired by IBM in July.

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Attack code out for critical Kodak bug in Windows (Network World)

A hacker has released attack code that could be used to exploit a critical bug in some versions of the Windows operating system.

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Comcast to employees: talking about blocking P2P can get you fired (Ars Technica)

As Comcast is peppered with questions from its customers over its practice of blocking some P2P traffic, the company is giving customer service reps a script to work from. Deviating from that script is grounds for termination, Comcast employees tell Ars.

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Virtualization: Agility More Significant Than Cost Cutting (Baseline)

Although much of the excitement about virtualization has focused on the cost-cutting it enables, the real value comes from business agility, according to participants at the Ziff Davis Enterprise 2007 Virtualization Summit.

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Creating power out of thin air (CNET News.com)

Imagine a material that can suck in heat from the environment and power a notebook. A New Jersey company is aiming to do just that.

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Photos: On board the Airbus A380 (ZDNet)

Singapore Airlines, the first carrier to take ownership of the world's largest passenger jet, the Airbus A380, has flown its inaugural commercial flight from Singapore to Sydney. A crew from ZDNet Australia visited Sydney Airport to see what customers can expect from what's been dubbed the "big fella" by air traffic controllers.

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GPS to go against radar in speeding ticket case (TG Daily)

The son of a former sheriff's deputy will fight against a speeding ticket he received, after noticing his GPS log disputed the alleged speeding offense.

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Bang & Olufsen Launch $600 MP3 Player (Digital Trends)

For folks who demand the high style and high quality, the Bang & Olufsen Beosound 6 offers 4 GB of storage, a 1.8-inch LCD screen, and a $600 price tag.

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Comcast's growth slows as pressure from FiOS, U-Verse ratchets up (Ars Technica)

Comcast met expectations for the third quarter and was taken out behind the woodshed for a sound beating. Investors are concerned about the company's future growth prospects in light of increased competition from the likes of AT&T and Verizon.

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In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences (New York Times)

Google plans to announce a partnership with Nielsen to give advertisers a better snapshot of how many people are viewing television commercials on a second-by-second basis.

In Foray Into TV, Google Is to Track Ad Audiences - New York Times

Activision poised to score with Guitar Hero 3 (Reuters)

Activision Inc is set to launch "Guitar Hero 3" amid expectations that the latest installment of its music-themed franchise will be a platinum hit for the second-biggest U.S. video game publisher.

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BEA Systems to Oracle: Let’s Make a Deal (Red Herring)

BEA Systems is willing to talk turkey, the board signaled Thursday.

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A First Tussle With Linux's iPhone Killer: The OpenMoko Neo1973 (Wired)

The Neo1973 is the first physical manifestation of a grand idea -- a new breed of wireless handheld built for the open-source age.

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Slideshow: 6 Key Skills CIOs Seek in Entry-Level Workers (CIO Insight)

Entry-level IT pros need more than tech savvy; they must possess soft skills to survive in today's business climate.

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VM Security Risks: Phantom or Menace? (eWeek)

Virtual machines are threatening to crack the walls of data centers with a host of potential security threats—nothing that's been publicly exploited yet but a fact that's borne out by a slew of vulnerabilities patched over the past seven months by major virtualization vendors VMware, Microsoft and XenSource.

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Gmail delivers a knockout punch: IMAP changes the "freemail" game (Ars Technica)

Google has sweetened its e-mail offerings by rolling out IMAP capabilities in all Gmail accounts, and for free. While casual users may not look twice, the addition makes Google's software-as-a-service much more attractive to businesses looking for easy e-mail solutions.

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Drexel Puts Course Capture To Work on Desktops (Campus Technology)

Audio and even video capture of lectures is becoming more common on college campuses, which post the material to their Web sites so that students can revisit a lecture after the fact. But Drexel University in Philadelphia, long known as a technology powerhouse, is using the university's academic capture product in another way. There, instructors are far more likely to produce recordings from their desktops, including individual commentaries to a student from a professor.

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EBay: The Place for Microfinance (BusinessWeek)

On the online auction giant's new MicroPlace site, investors can lend as little as $50 to would-be small business owners around the globe

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Cisco Nabs Navini for $330M (Red Herring)

Networking gear giant Cisco Systems on Tuesday said it plans to acquire WiMAX device maker Navini Networks for $330 million in cash and assumed options. The planned acquisition of the seven-year-old Richardson, Texas-based company is Cisco’s entrée into a technology field it has long eschewed in favor of Wi-Fi for wide-area wireless broadband communications.

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Q&A: Could Politics Threaten to Short Out the Power Grid? (eWeek)

Lobbyists have blocked meaningful reform and left the North American power grid vulnerable, Joe Weiss, a cyber-security expert, tells eWEEK's Lisa Vaas.

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T-Pain takes crown as king of ringtones (Reuters)

Enter most any dance club and odds are you'll soon hear "Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin')" by R&B sensation T-Pain before the night is through.

But the hit single gets most of its spins as a 30-second clip.

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Apple Announces Record-Breaking Q4 Earnings (Wired Epicenter)

Apple watchers expected more good news out of Cupertino this afternoon, and they weren't disappointed when Apple released the best fourth quarter results it's ever posted.

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Nigerian Space Program Isn't a 419 Scam (Wired)

Nigeria, a country whose best-known technological export is probably the flowery e-mail output of its "419 scam" artists, is ramping up a scrappy space program that's working wonders with a relatively small investment.

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Evidence mounts that Comcast is targeting BitTorrent traffic (Ars Technica)

The Associated Press claims to have confirmed that Comcast is blocking—or at least seriously slowing down—BitTorrent transfers, regardless of whether the content is legal or not. If true, Comcast's actions have serious implications for sharing information online, and by proxy, Net Neutrality.

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Adobe To Move All Apps to the Web (Digital Trends)

Your office suite might not be the only software you'll eventually use from a browser window. Adobe has plans to move all of its editing software online in the distant future.

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Speed AJAX Development with ATF (Campus Technology)

The new AJAX Toolkit Framework promises a comprehensive open source solution for JavasScript-based development of data-intensive, Web-based business apps.

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Reviews: The Newspaper Killers (PC Magazine)

PC Magazine picked their favorite Web replacements for each newspaper section, from the front page to the funnies to the obituaries. Some come from newspapers themselves, and some aggregate newspaper content, but all add excellent features, broader scope, and more user interaction than their print counterparts.

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Google Health to Debut in 2008 (Digital Trends)

Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Marissa Mayer, leader of Google's search operation, revealed that the long-gestating Google Health initiative will formally debut in early 2008.

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Navigating With Feedback From Fellow Drivers (New York Times)

Dash Navigation's Dash Express does something no other navigation device can currently do. It uses trip records and up-to-the-minute reports to estimate time of arrival, even if the motorist is caught in a traffic jam.

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Oracle ships critical update for database, applications (Computerworld)

Oracle Corp. released its latest critical patch update on Wednesday, fixing 51 vulnerabilities in its flagship database line and a range of other products.The vulnerabilities patched by this critical update have CVSS 2.0 ratings from 4.0 to 6.5.

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Apple to open iPhone, iPod touch to third-party developers in early 2008 (Ars Technica)

Answering the calls of iPhone users who crave more out of the device, Steve Jobs today announced that Apple is working on a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone and iPod touch. The SDK is on track for a February 2008 release.

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Cisco offices raided, executives arrested in Brazil (Network World)

Senior executives of Cisco were reportedly arrested in Brazil this week in a tax fraud investigation of the company.

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Customized newscasts coming to your computer (CNN.com)

Northwestern University's Intelligent Information Lab will soon launch News At Seven, a system that creates a daily virtual news show based on topics users choose.

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Yahoo: Bringing Geeky Back (BusinessWeek)

Under CEO Jerry Yang's direction, the Web portal is trying to return to its tech roots and shift away from being a media catch-all

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Cisco re-targets wireless for municipal enterprise networks (Network World)

Cisco has bundled together its wireless product offerings with new software partners in a bid to refocus its strategy for municipal wireless networks.

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Apple to release Leopard Oct. 26 (Computerworld)

Apple Inc. confirmed today what rumor sites have been speculating on for days: Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" will hit store shelves at 6 p.m. on Oct. 26. The Leopard Server operating system will be released at the same time.

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IT a Culprit, Savior in Climate Change (CIO.com)

Climate change is both a large-scale crisis and a huge opportunity, and IT has a role in both, industry executives said at a panel discussion Thursday.

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U.S. broadcasters to use prime time for DTV campaign (Reuters)

U.S. broadcasters promised on Monday to air more than $327 million worth of television spots as part of a broad campaign to alert consumers about the approaching switch-over to digital television.

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Verizon Wireless: If you don’t opt out, we get to share your CPNI call data (Ars Technica)

Over the weekend, a small storm erupted over new legal language that Verizon Wireless is passing quietly on to its subscribers. It appears as though the cellular provider is changing its terms of service to give the company the right to share sensitive calling data with third parties.
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Windows Home Server in depth (Ars Technica Operating System Reviews)

When Microsoft announced Windows Home Server earlier this year, it was greeted with a mixture of curious disdain and eagerness. Some questioned what the product offered over existing solutions, while others welcomed it with open arms. It's at once hard to explain and easy to understand what Windows Home Server is, but it's worth getting to know the newest addition to the Windows family.

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2008 IT Outlook: 'Less than Comforting' (BusinessWeek)

As the tech industry girds for third-quarter earnings, analysts are turning their attention to next year. Many don't like what they see.

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Broadcom Rolls Out 3G Phone on a Chip (eWeek)

Claiming a major competitive advantage over rival chip makers, Broadcom said Oct. 15 it has developed a low-power, single-chip processor that integrates all major features of 3G technology.

The BCM21551—code-named Zeus—combines a high-speed third-generation baseband, a multiband radio frequency transceiver, Bluetooth, and an FM radio receiver and transmitter.

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Google, Random House Move Closer to Book Search (CIO Insight)

Random House has held out and not joined the Google-backed publisher partner program, which can help boost book sales, especially of publishers' so-called backlists of older titles.

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WiFi detector t-shirt shows signal strength, locks in your virginity (Ars Technica)

It's 2007 folks, so there's no need to whip out a WiFi detector or boot your laptop just to figure out if there's a WiFi signal in range. These days, you can just look down at your shirt.

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Opinion: How to lose your digital life in 20 minutes (TG Daily)

Even if you diligently backup your precious data, disaster can strike any moment and it doesn’t hurt to have a recovery strategy in place, even if you are not the CIO of a billion dollar corporation.

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Phishing for Mules (Campus Technology)

We all know, or should know, about phishing, a fraudulent attempt, frequently through legitimate looking email requests, to obtain personal information such as a credit card number, a social security number, or a bank account number and PIN. But to take full advantage of stolen information, the crook needs "mules."

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Phantom vibrations shake 'crackberry' addicts (CNN.com)

If your hipbone is connected to your BlackBerry or your thighbone is connected to your cell phone, those vibrations you're feeling in the car, in your pajamas, in the shower, may be coming from your headbone.

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Comcast Starts Rolling Out TiVo Boxes (Digital Trends)

It's been more than two years' coming, but Comcast is finally beginning to deploy set-top cable boxes employing TiVo DVR technology.

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Universal Music Takes on iTunes (BusinessWeek)

Universal chief Doug Morris is enlisting other big music players for a service to challenge the Jobs juggernaut.

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Internet growing at record pace, Apache losing ground quickly (TG Daily)

The Internet is growing on a faster rate than ever before and is quickly approaching a size of 150 million websites, according to survey results released by Netcraft. Apache remains the most popular software running web servers, but it is surrendering market shares to Microsoft and Google at a dramatic rate.

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Technologies We're Glad Are Dead (CIO.com)

It's easy to cry over the products we loved and lost. But let's take time to appreciate the many ways in which technology really has improved, and the many geeky things we no longer need to worry about.

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Open borders sought for virtual worlds (Reuters)

Interoperability is emerging as a key goal of the nascent virtual world industry, which attracting hundreds of millions of dollars in investment on the hopes that video-game graphics and rich 3-D environments will supplant flat Web pages.

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Adobe Acrobat, Reader vulnerable to hacks (CNET News.com)

Adobe Systems, whose software is used by millions of people to read documents sent over the Internet, said some of its programs contain a flaw that makes personal computers vulnerable to attack.

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AT&T Gobbles Up Spectrum in Preparation for 3-G IPhones and Other Devices (Wired)

Paving the way for the U.S. release of a 3-G iPhone and other next-generation devices, AT&T said on Tuesday it will purchase a substantial chunk of 700-MHz licenses.

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Satire: NASA Announces Plan To Bring Wi-Fi To Its Headquarters By 2017 (The Onion)

NASA administrator Michael Griffin announced during a press conference Tuesday that the space agency is launching an ambitious mission to make Houston's Johnson Space Center wireless-Internet capable within one decade.

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Hi, Jaiku: Google expands communications reach with microblogging service purchase (Ars Technica)

Google has acquired microblogging underdog Jaiku in an attempt to round out its messaging services. It may also result in bringing order to the world of microblogging, including protocol standardization

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100 Gb/s Internet2 completed (TG Daily)

At its Fall 2007 member meeting, the Internet 2 consortium announced that its updated infrastructure is ready to go online and provide an initial capacity of 100 Gb/s to researchers and educators.

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Gartner's top 10 strategic technologies for 2008 (Network World)

Which technologies must any good IT executive examine in 2008? The list includes green power, unified communications, virtualization, mashups and social software, Gartner says.

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Fewer CIOs Are Reporting to CEOs, Survey Finds (Baseline)

Far fewer chief information officers are reporting to their chief executives, according to a survey.

Last year, 45% of those responding to a survey by the Society of Information Management said the CIO in their organization reported to their CEO. This year, that number is 31%.

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Social Networks at Work Promise Bottom-Line Results (CIO Insight)

Some companies discourage their employees from using social networks at work, fearing lost productivity and wasted time. But the nation's fourth largest bank is getting ready to roll out one of its own. Wachovia plans to introduce its social networking service to its 110,000 workers by early 2008.

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RIAA Juror: 'We Wanted to Send a Message' (Wired Threat Level)

It took the jury in Capitol Records v. Thomas only five minutes to find that 30-year-old Jammie Thomas had infringed recording industry copyrights on 24 music tracks, according to the first juror to speak out on the verdict.

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Web 2.0 Tops 'Emerging Cyber Threats' (Campus Technology)

The ever-nebulous "Web 2.0" is emerging as one of the five top security risks to watch for both consumers and the enterprise--this according to the inaugural edition of the "GTISC Emerging Cyber Threats Report for 2008" out of Georgia Tech's Information Security Center. The report, released at the GTISC Security Summit on Emerging Cyber Security Threats and Countermeasures, identifies the key data security threats that are likely to expand and evolve in the coming year.

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Physics of the iPod awarded Nobel Prize (International Herald Tribune)

Two European scientists were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for a discovery that lets computers, iPods and other digital devices store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard disks.

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Hundreds respond to Interpol online appeal for pedophile (Reuters)

Interpol said on Monday it was hopeful of identifying a serial pedophile after posting his picture on the Internet in an unprecedented public appeal that drew hundreds of responses from around the world.

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Microsoft disables Internet Explorer 7 validation process (CNET News.com)

Microsoft will now allow users of Windows XP to download Internet Explorer 7 without having to gain Windows Genuine Advantage authentication.

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5 IT projects that need your attention right now (Network World)

There's always too much to do. If you had an infinite budget and project schedule, or at least more resources than you have now, you could accomplish impressive things for your company. Performing triage means you need to pick IT projects that can deliver the most bang for the buck. Accordingly, we discuss five projects that deserve a CIO's immediate attention. We chose these projects because they have a measurable impact, contain elements with a relatively fast ROI, and enhance both network security and manageability.

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SAP Touts Synergies in Business Objects Deal (eWeek)

CEO Henning Kagermann says the $6.78 billion acquisition of Business Objects will bolster SAP's BI efforts, and denies the deal is a reaction to Oracle.

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Fall Reading for I.T. Managers (Baseline)

New books on strategy, leadership and practical expertise for the CIO's bookshelf.

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A day on the Surface: a hands-on look at Microsoft's new computing platform (Ars Technica)

Ars Technica staff spent some quality time with Microsoft's new multitouch computer to get below the "Surface" and find out if there's more to this beast than sexy animations. They shot some impromptu video, too.

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Halo 3 rakes in more than $300 million (TG Daily)

Halo 3 proves to be the cash cow Microsoft has claimed it to be. The game brought in $300 million in game sales within one week, and apparently contributed to doubling Xbox 360 console sales.

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Science stumbles on with Ig Nobel awards (Network World)

Research into the mystery of wrinkles on bed sheets, the bottomless bowl of soup and the effect of Viagra on hamster jet lag dominated the awards Thursday night at the annual Ig Nobel awards at Harvard University. [How this wound up in NW's "Security" section is a bit baffling--Ed.]

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The AudioFile: Understanding MP3 compression (Ars Technica)

It's one of the most popular and controversial file types in the world, but most explanations of its workings are either blindingly simplistic or overwhelmingly technical. Learn about the workings of MP3 without a second Ph.D. in this guide.

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Opinion: Waste Paper: Communications and the Decline of Print (Campus Technology)

For years universities have been reducing their print output in an effort to reach the elusive paperless ideal. But they aren't there yet. Maybe it's time to go and do the equivalent of dumpster-diving: Spend an hour or two on your campus looking into the content of the paper recycling baskets that are all over the place. It's almost certain that an analysis of what you find in there will give your some ideas about where your institution is spending money printing stuff that needn't be.

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UC Berkeley Puts Free Lectures on YouTube (Digital Trends)

A new alternative to paying $28,000 per year for an education: going to class online for free. Just don't expect to print out a degree when you're done.

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Microsoft revamps Zune in time for holidays (CNNMoney)

Microsoft took the wraps off its second-generation Zune digital media players late Tuesday, showing three models that bring the software maker's offerings more in line with Apple's market-leading iPod.

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Judge allows class action against Target Web site (Reuters)

A federal judge in California certified a class action lawsuit against Target Corp brought by plaintiffs claiming the discount retailer's Web site is inaccessible to the blind, according to court documents.

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This year's '25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries' (NetworkWorld Buzzblog)

Paul McNamara compiles a ist of 2007's geekiest silver anniversaries. Which ones would you add?

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Q&A: Herbie Hancock Talks Math, Music and Mastering the Tech Toolbox (Wired)

Musician and composer Herbie Hancock's career has careened from straight jazz to experimental electronic music over the decades, with his surprise 1983 break-dancing hit, "Rockit," helping set the stage for hip-hop.

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America's techiest cities: Silicon Valley No. 1, but who's No. 2? (Computerworld)

The highest concentration of IT professionals in the U.S. is -- you guessed it -- in Silicon Valley. But naming the No 2 spot isn't as easy, and the answer might surprise you.

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AT&T clarifies vague service-termination rule (Network World)

Relax, AT&T subscribers: The company says it won’t cut off your Internet service if you criticize it.

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Sony to launch world's first OLED ultra-thin TV (Reuters)

Sony Corp said it will launch an ultra-thin flat TV in December, the world's first television based on organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology into an $82 billion market dominated by LCD and plasma models.

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New RFID Technologies Announced at RFID World Boston (Design News)

RFID technologists, distributors and thinkers from around the world joined together last week at RFID World in Boston, MA. Sessions and the show floor focused on the real-world relevance of RFID and how to safely, securely and successfully apply the technology.

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AT&T threatens to disconnect subscribers who criticize the company (ars technica)

AT&T has rolled out new Terms of Service for its DSL service that leave plenty of room for interpretation. From our reading of it, in concert with several others, what we see is a ToS that attempts to give AT&T the right to disconnect its own customers who criticize the company on blogs or in other online settings.

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Microsoft Office heads to the Web (CNET News.com)

In another clear sign that Microsoft sees the threat posed by its traditional business moving online, the company is readying a rival to Google Docs. The software maker is announcing Office Live Workspace, a free online tool for viewing, sharing and storing--but not editing--Office documents online.

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