Best and Worst Tech Products: Tech Picks and Pans 2008 - (BusinessWeek)

It may have been the year of the rat on the Chinese calendar, but most everywhere in the world it was the year of the smartphone with Apple, Research in Motion, and Google feeding the frenzy. BusinessWeek's technology writers and editors report on these and 17 other selections for the 20 best tech products of 2008, as well as five highly anticipated products that failed to meet expectations.

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The Top 10 Products of the Year (eWeek)

eWEEK Labs analysts look back on the products they have reviewed and pick the ones that stand out for their innovation and ability to meet the ever-changing —- and increasingly challenging —- needs of the enterprise.

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tor2web brings anonymous Tor sites to the "regular" web (Ars Technica)

The Tor project is known for allowing people to anonymously surf the Internet, but its hidden services allow website owners to publish content anonymously as well. Now, a new tool called tor2web sets those anonymous websites free by allowing regular Internet users to get to them without using Tor.

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Top 10 IT Stories of 2008 (CIO Insight)

The deluge begins. CIO Insight adds their list of the most monumental events of 2008, all of which should influence the IT industry for years to come, to the end of year pundit frenzy!

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Cool Yule Tools: Holiday gift guide 2008 (Network World)

In their annual Holiday Gift Guide, Network World offers their take on the best gift ideas for that special techie-someone on your shopping list.

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Extra Second to Be Added to 2008 (Discovery News)

With a brutal economic slowdown, 2008 may feel as if it will never end. Now the world's timekeepers are making it even longer by adding a leap second to the last day of the year.

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The five most important IT trends of 2008 (TechRepublic)

While 2008 has been a tumultuous year in business, there have also been a series of developing trends that are quietly transforming the traditional strategies and the standard operating procedures of IT. According to Jasin Hiner, here are the five trends that having the biggest impact.

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LinkedIn Etiquette: Five Dos and Don'ts (CIO.com)

Creating a useful LinkedIn profile, and knowing how to interact with your connections on the professional social network, isn't always as straightforward as it seems.

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EU opens digital library to public with over 2 million works (Ars Technica)

The EU has finally launched Europeana, a digital online library that hosts more than 2 million books, maps, recordings, photographs, paintings, and documents from cultural institutions in its 27 member states. The EU hopes to have 8 million more works added by 2010.

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Case Study: Cornell Takes Visual Approach to Data Analysis (Campus Technology)

One of the challenges with business intelligence (BI) software, as many campus IT departments can attest, is the difficulty of implementing and using it. While powerful, BI tools can also be a challenge to master, especially for the non-technical business users who typically need the tools' analytical capabilities most

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The Forces Driving Women Out of Computer Science (New York Times)

Ellen Spertus, a graduate student at M.I.T., wondered why only 20 percent of computer science undergraduates there were female. She published a 124-page paper, “Why Are There So Few Female Computer Scientists?”, cataloging different cultural biases that discouraged girls and women from pursuing careers in the field. The year was 1991.

Computer science has changed considerably since then. Now, there are even fewer women entering the field. Why this is so remains a matter of dispute.

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RIM BlackBerry Storm vs. iPhone 3G: 8 Reasons to Pick the Storm (CIO.com)

With the new BlackBerry Storm set to hit U.S stores, many smartphone enthusiasts looking to go the touch screen route will have to make a decision between RIM's first touch device and the iPhone 3G. In this second installment of a two-part series the editors of CIO offer up eight reasons to embrace the Storm.

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Apple iPhone 3G vs. BlackBerry Storm: 8 Reasons to Pick the iPhone (CIO.com)

With the new BlackBerry Storm hitting U.S shelves next week, many smartphone enthusiasts looking to go the touch screen route will soon have to make a decision between RIM's first touch device and Apple's popular iPhone 3G. In this first installment of a two-part series the editors of CIO offer up eight reasons to pick the iPhone.

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Obama may have to give up e-messaging (CNN.com)

Before he ran for president Barack Obama quit smoking. Now that he's won the job, he may have to break another addiction: Checking his BlackBerry for e-mail.

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Microsoft considers WebKit transplant for Internet Explorer (TG Daily)

According to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the company may consider moving Internet Explorer (IE) to Apple's open-source WebKit browser engine which -- like Mozilla's Gecko and Opera's Presto -- follows web standards more closely than IE. Such a move may have a tremendous impact on web development trends and help IE get back on track.

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Obama Malware Follows Election (Digital Trends)

Barack Obama's election victory has proved to be a popular new lure for malware attackers.

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Apple's iPhone makes headway in corporate market (Reuters)

Apple Inc's new iPhone appears to be making small but steady inroads into the coveted corporate market dominated by RIM's BlackBerry.

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Obama's search for a CTO (CNET News)

By naming some technology executives to his transition team--especially former IAC executive Julius Genachowski--President-elect Barack Obama is signaling that he's likely to follow through with his proposal to appoint a chief technology officer to the White House.

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The First Internet Campaign (CIO Insight)

Barack Obama was elected for many reasons, but it seems clear that his campaign organization played an important role in his victory, and in some places perhaps a decisive one. That campaign organization was enabled to a great degree by its innovative use of technology, including social networking software, mobile phones, and other tools. Behind the net effort was a big IT development project, and all of that was wrapped in an emergent media culture tied together by the internet.

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What Obama presidency means for clean tech (CNET News)

Energy and environmental policy is poised for dramatic change under an Obama administration even with a slumping economy. With the incoming administration and Congress, renewable energy advocates and environmentalists said they anticipate a comprehensive national energy plan focused on fostering clean-energy technologies.

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Obama Urged to Take Immediate Cyber-security Steps (eWeek.com)

President-elect Barack Obama has promised to appoint a national cyber-security adviser. According to a report by the Defense Science Board, the cyber-security czar will inherit a civilian and military information infrastructure that is ill-prepared for advanced cyber-attacks. The United States' vulnerability to cyber-attacks in space presents a particular challenge for the new leaders.

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Nanobama: World's Tiniest Candidate Portrait (Wired Science from Wired.com)

The presidential candidates have been under a microscope for the last year, but today, the focus on Sen. Barack Obama's face reached the nanoscale.

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Top 20 Election Day Web sites and online tools (Computerworld)

Ready for election day? The Web is brimming with interactive tools--everything from widgets to mobile alerts--that can help you stay on top of the presidential vote and keep you informed, no matter where you go.

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The Pitfalls and Vulnerabilities of Electronic Voting (eWeek.com)

When U.S. voters take to the polls today, almost all registered voters will cast their ballots on one of three types of electronic voting machines, each of which comes with its own set of vulnerabilities and countermeasures.

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African Wireless Growth to Continue at More Moderate Pace, Ericsson Exec Says (BusinessWeek)

The president of Ericsson's sub-Saharan Africa operations expects the continent's mobile-phone industry to keep growing despite war and economic woes.

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Verizon tries to stave off cable ISPs, bumps DSL to 7Mbps (Ars Technica)

Verizon has beefed up its DSL offerings in hopes that it can attract customers away from cable in areas where FiOS is not yet available. It's also eliminating a lower-priced data option for pay-as-you-go mobile customers in an attempt to lock them into 3G service.

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Comcastic P4P trial shows 80% speed boost for P2P downloads (Ars Technica)

Comcast releases data on a major trial of P4P technology that directs peer-to-peer users to local sources first. Not only does it boost download speeds, it can save ISPs cash without straining the network.

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Humor: iPhone Left In Hot Car For Three Hours (The Onion)

The normally peaceful suburban town of Winnetka, Illinois is still reeling following the news Monday that a local resident, whose name is being withheld by police pending a full investigation, left an iPhone unattended for more than three hours in a car parked in the hot sun.

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IT hiring to rise, but only slightly, study says (Network World)

A new study of more than 1,400 U.S. CIOs found that 11 percent plan to hire additional staff in the fourth quarter of this year, while 3 percent expect cuts.

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Google on Chrome EULA controversy: our bad, we'll change it (Ars Technica)

The end user license agreement for Google's new browser, Chrome, apparently gives the company the right to all data "submitted" or "displayed" by the browser. But the company now tells Ars it's all a big mistake and that the offending passages are being pulled.

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Travelers' Laptops May Be Detained At Border (Washington Post)

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

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Diary of a deliberately spammed housewife (Network World)

The Global S.P.A.M. Diaries was an experiment by McAfee to find out what would happen if 50 volunteers from around the world put aside common sense and answered every e-mail.

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The Wharton School Beefs Up Data Center with Blade Servers (Campus Technology)

The new data center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania will allow the school to triple both its mailbox quota and the storage capacity available to faculty and students, as well as provide researchers the ability to operate a Linux grid cluster powered by blade servers.

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FCC finally prepares to investigate embedded ads on TV (Ars Technica)

The FCC has, at long last, opened a proceeding on what to do about "paid placement" advertising in TV shows. The FCC Chairman says Americans should know when someone is trying to sell them something, no matter how sly the reference.

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Temple To Deploy Wireless LAN Across 8 Campuses (Campus Technology)

Temple University, with 34,000 students, has begun deploying a new wireless network with equipment from Meru Networks that by the end of 2008 will cover all eight of its campuses in the greater Philadelphia area.

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Wily Teens Find Pools With Google Earth (Digital Trends)

Some British teens are using Goggle Earth to find houses with pools then trespass and hold illegal pool parties.

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Why women quit technology careers (Computerworld)

What if half the men in science, engineering and technology roles dropped out at midcareer? That would surely be perceived as a national crisis. Yet more than half the women in those fields leave -- most of them during their mid- to late 30s.

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X-rated SMS case gives employees some privacy guarantees (Ars Technica)

A ruling by the 9th Circuit Court has provided users of electronic messaging services with extensive privacy guarantees in a ruling that focuses on personal use of a job-related service.

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Verizon expands 50Mbps FiOS footprint (Network World)

Verizon plans to expand its 50Mbps FiOS Internet service to cover all 10 million homes and businesses that are currently within its FiOS network footprint.

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Verizon buys Alltel in $28.1 billion blockbuster (Network World)

Apparently tired of being the second-largest U.S. wireless carrier, Verizon Wireless has finalized a deal that will vault it past AT&T and net it millions of new wireless subscribers.

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They say it got smart: a 2008 review of the PS3 (Ars Technica)

No system has changed more since launch than the PlayStation 3, and it's time to take another look at what Sony's console can do. Ars Technica re-reviews the PlayStation 3.

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EarthLink closing Philadelphia Wi-Fi Network (BusinessWeek)

A few weeks after announcing it will shut down its municipal wireless network in New Orleans, EarthLink Inc. said Tuesday that it has notified its Wi-Fi customers in Philadelphia that it is terminating that network, too.

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Philadelphia SecureWorld Expo Discount for BDPA Members

BDPA Members are offered a $50 discount off the $195 two day conference pass which includes access to the Conference Sessions, Keynotes, Lunch, Exhibits, Open Sessions and 12 CPE Certificate of Attendance.

BDPA Members receive a special $200 discount off the $695 SecureWorld+ pass which includes 4+ additional hours of intense training worth 16 CPE credits.

SecureWorld+ Topics Include:

• Rapid Rollout of Risk Assessment Requirements
• Information Risk Leadership Strategy: Putting All the Pieces Together
• Forensics as an Investigative Tool
• Auditing and Securing Data Access
• Creating Profit in Business Continuity Planning
• The Three P's of Security Awareness: People, PC's and Paychecks

BDPA Members also receive complimentary admission to Expert Panels, Vendors Sessions and the Exhibit Floor. BDPA members may send an email to president@bdpaphilly.org to obtain the discount code.

We hope you plan on attending the SecureWorld event.

To register, go to - www.secureworldexpo.com/

Municipal WiFi: Not dead yet (Network World)

As large-scale, for-profit projects falter, innovative new models emerge including municipally owned networks deployed for specific purposes such as public safety, viral nets put up by non-government entities, and imaginative efforts that combine wireline and wireless technologies.

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PA primary will be unauditable; GOP blocks e-voting reform (Ars Technica)

Over 85% of voters in tomorrow's Pennsylvania presidential primary will cast ballots on paperless touchscreen machines that are insecure and impossible to audit. The White House and the GOP have just blocked a federal effort to fix this problem before November.

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Tech Results: So Far So Good, Not Out of Woods Yet (Baseline)

Technology-company earnings have, so far, been holding their own or outperforming. What's to come?

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From Win32 to Cocoa: a Windows user's conversion to Mac OS X (Ars Technica)

A hardcore PC user finally jumps ship and discusses how Windows lost its "wow" and Apple gained a customer.

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IBM Launches Pilot Program for Migrating to Macs (RoughlyDrafted Magazine)

As further evidence of the growing interest in Macs among enterprise customers, IBM’s Research Information Services launched an internal pilot program designed to study the possibility of moving significant numbers of employees to the Mac platform. The study has already found an enthusiastic response from participants and is helping to drive Mac support for IBM’s business applications.


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Building a 5-ton mechanical calculator... from 19th-century plans (Network World)

Starting in May, many will have the opportunity to see for themselves how they did computing the old-fashioned way: with lots of gears, a big crank and some muscle.

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Office Open XML out of Microsoft's hands—officially (Ars Technica)

With Office Open XML approved as an official ISO standard, the format for Microsoft Office is no longer under the software giant's exclusive control. It's going to be a test of Microsoft's newfound commitment to open standards and interoperability.

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Apple's OS Edge Is a Threat to Microsoft (BusinessWeek)

A recent upgrade to the Mac operating system moves Apple closer to challenging Microsoft for overall computing dominance, even in the corporate market.

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PDAs to track Olympic VIPs in Beijing (ZDNet)

Foreign dignitaries, guests of major sponsors, and Olympic officials alike will be given a modified PDA at this year's Beijing Olympics, which will allow organizers to track their movements and make it easier to arrange a cab.

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Voices of Africa honoured by Webby Awards (AfricaNews)

The mobile project Voices of Africa is recognized as an Official Honoree by the Webby Awards 2008, the leading international honor for the Web. Voices of Africa gives African reporters the opportunity to report with mobile phones about events in their country.

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Muni Wireless Is Dead. Here Comes a New Way to Connect (Wired)

U.S. cities that once trumpeted their free public WiFi plans are muting their fanfare, as project after project stumbles. Now nonprofits have a plan to succeed where city governments have failed.

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Symantec: Malware Tops 1 Million (Digital Trends)

In its bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec says the number of malicious programs it knows about now tops 1.1 million...and almost two third of them appeared in 2007.

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Storing data in three dimensions with racetrack memory (Ars Technica)

New work from IBM's Almaden Research Lab published in this week's edition of Science discusses the creation of a single nanowire that functions as a racetrack memory device. The result is memory that extends physical storage into the third dimension.

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Blu-ray players to connect with iPod, iPhone (TG Daily)

Interactive media company Netblender has reportedly created a new program for the iPhone and iPod Touch that allows users to connect to their Blu-ray players via an Internet link.

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First look: Mozilla Fennec takes browser fight to handhelds (Ars Technica)

Mozilla has released a pre-alpha prototype build of its new mobile browser, codenamed Fennec. Ars Technica tests the prototype and interviews Mozilla Mobile director Jay Sullivan.

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Yahoo buddies up with Google in effort to boost value, thwart Microsoft (Network World)

Facing a hostile takeover by Microsoft, Yahoo Wednesday said it will begin a limited test of Google AdSense for Search service in a bid to maximize stockholder value.

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How new technology keeps the flame burning (Reuters)

The tradition of the Olympic flame is rooted in Greek sporting heritage dating back thousands of years but new technology keeps the fire burning whatever the elements -- or modern-day protester -- can throw at it.

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How to Survive Dinner with a Wine-Snob Boss (BNET)

So, you invited your boss over for a big holiday dinner of prime rib. The problem? Your boss is a total oenophile, a cork dork, a wine geek. And everything you know about wine could fit inside a thimble. In summer, you could probably get away with beers and brats, but this is holiday (read: bonus) time and the stakes are high.

First, attend the BDPA Philadelphia Wine Tasting Event. Then...

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April 16th Program Meeting

Topic: Financial Management 101-6 Steps to Financial Success
Presenter: Camari Ellis

Camari Ellis is a Senior Associate with the First Genesis Financial Group, an affiliate of Creative Financial Group. Formed in 2005, First Genesis is an African American owned wealth management firm that specializes in building financial freedom for business owners and individuals through a comprehensive suite of financial services expertise, strategies and concepts.

Date: April 16
Time: 6:00
Location: CIGNA, 2 Liberty Place - 16th and Chestnut Streets, Phila. PA 19101
RSVP Now: Click here to register for the April 16 Program Meeting

Web, PHP, MySQL Instructors Needed for SITES Program

We are always looking to increase the number of SITES instructors in our program. This program works hard to expose and inform youth about current computer technology. The program is designed to promote team building, problem solving, self-esteem, leadership, and self-development through structured group activities.

HTML &PHP

• Understand PHP commands and program structure
• Use PHP to process HTML forms
• Read and write files with PHP
• Build database driven applications
• Web Design & Development
• Design simple HTML forms with simple clientside validation
• Recognize the components of an HTML file and create such a file
• Evaluate Web page design and consider design issues that affect web pages

MySQL

• Understand relational databases
• Understand the role of MySQL
• Understand data structure and entities
• Use the MySQL command line
• Understand concepts of data processing
• Know how to initiate and terminate a database connection

To volunteer, contact Hayward West at hscc@bdpaphilly.org.

Book Raffle

This month we'll be raffling off The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook.
Whatever your income, lifestyle, or financial concerns may be, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will help you put more power into every dollar. Like a financial global positioning system, The Motley Fool Personal Finance Workbook will show you exactly where you stand right now and the most direct path to where you want to be.

Everyone who comes to the April 16th meeting will get a raffle ticket for free. You must be present to win! The winner gets to review the book for the
chapter. See you at the meeting, and good luck!

Date: April 16
Time: 6:00
Location: CIGNA, 2 Liberty Place - 16th and Chestnut Streets, Phila. PA 19101
RSVP Now: Click here to register for the April 16 Program Meeting

Wine Tasting, April 19

Many companies recognize soft skills like etiquette and protocol knowledge as a form of business intelligence. They are looking for performers who can "outclass the competition" by handling any business situation, from a business meeting to a cocktail party.

You can discuss the merits of Java and .Net with anyone who asks. But do you know what goes better with grilled salmon, a merlot or a pinot noir?

Knowing which wine to order at a corporate dinner is one skill that can help distinguish you as a top performer and you from social embarrassment. If you're asked to smell the cork, can you do that without looking like a geek? As IT professionals we are not just computer people anymore. We are dealing with other executives and clients. The ability to speak knowledgably about wine demonstrates ones ability to conduct business in a social situation.

To the rescue comes is our April 19 wine tasting event. The course, teaches how to pronounce wine names (try saying vino nobile di montepulciano three times fast), wine and food pairings, and wine etiquette (such as how to send a bottle back if the wine has cork in it). Join us at the Philadelphia Wine School and be a part of this small group of top performers who see rising incomes, rapid promotions and the path to a seat of power.

You should order pinot noir with your grilled salmon. Now if you can figure out which glass is yours, you'll have your social graces mastered.

Time: 6:30 pm
Location:
The Wine School of Philadelphia
2006-2008 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130
BDPA Phone: (215) 844-3235
Cost: $35.00

Tickets may be purchased at:
The April meeting
http://tinyurl.com/3ane5g (BDPA Membership Database registration required)
http://www.eventbrite.com/event/101174616 (Processing fees apply)
By check (send checks to: BDPA P.O. Box 42611, Phila. PA 19101)

Youth Fundraiser

Our young members in the SITES program are raising funds to attend the Regional HSCC Competition on May 31. They are selling Kidstuff Discount Coupon books, from April 1 through May 15.

The cost of the book is only $25 and the kids earn a 50% profit on each book sold! Also, your may earn one FREE book worth $25 for every 5 books you purchase!

Use just a few coupons and save more than the cost of the entire book. You will enjoy great savings on clothing, shoes, toys, sporting goods, electronics, activities, food, and more!

Share the benefits of the KidStuff Coupon Books with family, friends, co-workers, and neighbors. They will appreciate the opportunity to buy a book and save money! KidStuff Coupon Books make great gifts too!

You may order books at the April and May program meetings or contact Hayward West at hscc@bdpaphilly.org or (215) 844-3235.

Thank you in advance for your support!

To the 700MHz victors go the spoils: AT&T, Verizon dish plans (Ars Technica)

To the victors go the spectrum. Verizon, AT&T, Google, and Qualcomm talk about their plans for the spectrum they won in the FCC's 700MHz auction.

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Cellphones carving deep into landline business (TG Daily)

Harris Interactive today published comprehensive survey results on the use of cellphones. For the very first time, more people are using cellphones than landline phones.

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Windows XP Gets Another Stay of Execution (Digital Trends)

Windows XP Home will live until June 30, 2010, thanks to consumer demand generated by the popularity of ultra-low-cost PCs.

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Researchers squeeze 20-second clarinet solo into 1KB file (Ars Technica)

A team at the University of Rochester is teaching computers to swing, swing, swing using acoustic analysis and physical modeling.

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Amazon Texts Impulse Buyers (RedHerring)

Online retailer invites consumers to pay for products using their mobile phones, but is America still skittish about payment via mobile phones?

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Intel rolls out Atom chips (Reuters)

Intel Corp is rolling out five new Atom microprocessors and a collection of chips designed for portable gadgets that access the Internet and for other uses, as the world's largest chipmaker uses its marketing muscle to help create a new market.

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Adobe Releases Web-Based Photoshop Express (Campus Technology)

Photoshop Express joins Google's Picasa as a notable Web-based image editor.

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AT&T Adopts Microsoft Surface for Retail (Digital Trends)

The much-crooned-over multitouch wonder is ready to move out of the lab and into a handful of AT&T's major retail stores.

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Microsoft Launches New Mobility Tools (eWeek.com)

New features in the mobile OS and mobile management tools try to keep up with burgeoning demand for mobile devices and applications in the workplace.

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Google Docs pulls head out of the cloud, goes offline (Ars Technica)

Although Google Docs has been steadily gaining features since its launch, one major limitation is that it can't be accessed offline. Actually, make that "couldn't."

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Microsoft wins document format standards battle (Reuters)

Microsoft Corp has won a battle to have a key document format adopted as a global standard, improving its chances of winning government contracts and dealing a blow to supporters of a rival format.

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Microsoft's 'Albany' Project May Take Aim at Google Docs (Campus Technology)

Microsoft appears to be working on a secret project called Albany, and while no one knows for sure exactly what it is yet, clues indicate that the company is looking to develop a stronger competitor to Google's free, online-hosted Google Docs service.

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HTML 5 Support by Browser: Opera Continues to Lead the Pack (Wired.com)

The future of the web is fast approaching. The specifications for HTML 5, the successor to today's HTML 4, are still in the draft phase, but already forward-looking browsers are starting to add limited support for HTML 5 elements.

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Young workers, Web 2.0 technologies pose security challenges (Network World)

How the Millennial workforce plus Web 2.0 technologies equals increased corporate security risks

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iPhone firmware 2.0 hands-on (Engadget)

There have been a couple of videos here and there on the web, but Engadget finally got their own grubby paws on the yet-to-be released iPhone 2.0 beta, which isn't officially due until this June. It isn't exactly awash with changes, but here's what you need to know.

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Rick Rolled to child porn = you're a pedophile, says FBI (Ars Technica)

Click-and-be-(seriously)-owned. The FBI is using a honeypot scheme to lure pedophiles, but all it takes is one click and you could be searched, arrested, and even convicted as a result. Can a single click land you in prison? Apparently, yes.

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Adobe says Flash for iPhone coming soon with firmware 2.0 (Ars Technica)

Adobe is now planning on bringing Flash to the iPhone, though whether that is Apple's plan remains to be seen.

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Comcast: FCC lacks any authority to act on P2P blocking (Ars Technica)

Comcast says the FCC has no jurisdiction over its traffic-shaping practices. Is the company engaging in legal saber rattling, or would it really sue the FCC if the agency moved to protect broadband consumers?

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Five Ways Generation Y May Reinvent IT (Baseline)

They've been called everything from narcissists to "Generation Me," but those wily post-Gen X employees might just show their elders how to revamp an enterprise.

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Apple releases iPhone SDK, announces push e-mail, Exchange support (Ars Technica)

At today's iPhone Software Roadmap event in Cupertino, Apple announced a host of new features for the iPhone, including full Exchange and push e-mail support. Apple is also finally releasing the SDK for third-party developers.

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Wi-Fi fizzles in Philadelphia (Network World)

A year after Philadelphia gave EarthLink the green light to build a citywide Wi-Fi network, the grand plan to deliver ubiquitous broadband to tourists, residents, businesses, government workers and low-income households is in shambles.

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Convert Your HD DVDs to Blu-Ray (Wired How-To Wiki)

Stuck With a Stack of HD DVDs? Convert Them to Blu-Ray

Read (and add) more...

Gamers Eye the iPhone, As SDK Approaches (Wired)

As Apple prepares to release a software development kit that will give programmers greater flexibility in creating applications for the iPhone, some are wondering whether this might be the company's first step into the handheld videogame market.

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Ashes2Art: Modeling the Past in 3D (Camput Technology)

A collaboration between two universities called Ashes2Art has students themselves using three-dimensional modeling software to create exact renderings of ancient structures and study ancient ruins.

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Multifunction Printers: The Forgotten Security Risk

That networked multifunction printer sitting innocently in the corner of your office just might be the most significant entry point for hackers to hijack sensitive data from your business. Are you paying attention?

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Comcast FCC filing shows gap between hype, bandwidth reality (Ars Technica)

In a lengthy FCC filing, Comcast offers its fullest explanation yet of how it "delays" certain P2P traffic. If you thought that your 6Mbps connection entitled you to actually use 6Mbps of bandwidth all the time, Comcast begs to differ.

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Is it time to consider PDF a threat? (Ars Technica)

The 8.12 patch for Adobe Reader that Adobe released last week fixed a number of security holes—but not before malware capable of exploiting them had been on the market for weeks. The end result is tough questions on whether it is time to consider PDF a security threat.

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Hands on With the GooglePhone, aka Android Phone (Wired Gadget Lab)

Several companies at GSMA are showing prototypes running the Google-backed open-source Android operating system (aka the "GooglePhone"), and judging by the crowd reaction, these "phones" are the hit of the show.

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EarthLink's citywide Wi-Fi biz for sale (CNET News.com)

EarthLink is selling off its municipal Wi-Fi business, the company's CEO said Thursday night during its fourth-quarter 2007 conference call. The move won't make it any easier to finish Philly's big wireless project, but don't write off muni Wi-Fi altogether just yet.

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Mobile Phones Help Developing Nations (Digital Trends)

The mobile phone, along with Net access, is helping to narrow the digital divide between rich and poor countries, according to a report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

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Flash Ads Serving up Malware on Popular Sites (Campus Technology)

Malicious Flash banner ads have been surfacing on major web sites including Expedia.com, Rhapsody.com, and MayoClinic.com in the last month, according to media reports. Users who click on the banners are redirected to Web sites that proceed to install malware on their PCs.

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Apple patches Quicktime flaw for Vista, Mac OS X (TG Daily)

Apple has released an update for Quicktime to fix a potentially dangerous flaw that affects most versions of Mac OS X and Windows Vista, as well as Windows XP Service Pack 2.

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Comcast tweaks Terms of Service in wake of throttling uproar (Ars Technica)

Comcast has changed its ToS to mirror the FCC's Internet Policy Statement. The newly-revised ToS spells out what its users figured out several months ago: that the cable ISP actively manages traffic on its network.

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ARM to show off Android platform at trade show next week (Computerworld)

ARM Ltd. will demonstrate Google Inc.'s Android on an early prototype device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week, one of several demonstrations of the mobile platform that will occur at the conference, Google said today.

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Google Apps adds work group features for businesses (Reuters)

Network administrators, the custodians of an organization's passwords and privileges, may want to find another job as Google Inc helps business users set up and manage their own work groups.

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ICANN turns on next-gen IP addresses (ZDNet)

The great migration from Internet Protocol version 4 to IPv6 has officially begun, after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers added the first addresses to its root servers that conform to the new version.

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LinkedIn Set to Become Financial Research Broker (eWEEK)

Looking to leverage its base of millions of professionals, LinkedIn this year will launch a primary research service to help financial services employees tap experts for advice on the social site's network of 18 million-plus users.

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Apple unveils iPhone, iPod touch with more memory (Reuters)

Apple Inc on Tuesday introduced models of its iPhone and iPod touch devices with double the memory available in previous versions. The products come on the heels of Apple's launch last month of a service that lets iPhone and iPod users rent and download movies to watch on their devices.

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2008 CPU forecast: Quad-cores for everyone! (Computerworld)

Penryn. Nehalem. Phenom. Fusion. Inside these four cryptic code names lies the future of computer desktop processing for 2008. Ultimately, however, it's all about the epic, age-old battle between chip giant Intel Corp. and underdog Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for desktop dominance.

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Windows Server 2008, Vista SP1 Released to Manufacturing (Campus Technology)

Microsoft today announced that Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 were released to manufacturing (RTM), marking a dual milestone in the history of both products. It also means that Windows 2008 will be officially shipping by the "Global Launch Wave" of enterprise products on Feb. 27.

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Wireless whiz weighs in on pervasive computing, muni Wi-Fi, RFID and 802.11n (Network World)

Dipankar "Ray" Raychaudhuri, a professor at Rutgers University and director of its Wireless Information Network Laboratory, is excited about cognitive radio, and frustrated by too many buzzwords.

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Microsoft-Yahoo Faces an Approval Gauntlet (BusinessWeek)

U.S. and EU authorities will inspect the proposed acquisition, but thanks to Google's dominance, the merger should get a green light.

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Abracadabra! Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish (Wired)

The Bush administration has failed to nominate any candidates to a newly empowered privacy and civil-liberties commission. This leaves the board without any members, even as Congress prepares to give the Bush administration extraordinary powers to wiretap without warrants inside the United States.

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First and 10: the technology behind the Super Bowl broadcast (Ars Technica)

The iconic images of pro football are low-tech, but technology dominates the sport and its broadcast. Here's a reprint of a classic article looking at the tech behind the most-watched television broadcast in the US.

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Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion (Reuters)

Microsoft Corp said on Friday it has offered to buy Yahoo Inc, the popular Web portal, for $44.6 billion in cash and stock, seeking to join forces against Google Inc in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger.

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Making the Switch to iSCSI Storage (Campus Technology)

Client by client, iSCSI is claiming ground against fibre channel in the external storage wars. For Queensborough Community College in Bayside, NY, that day of reckoning came a week or so before Thanksgiving 2006 when the school's fibre channel storage system went down.

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Review: Autonet Mobile: Your Own Personal Hot Spot, Everywhere You Go (Wired)

Sure, on the outside it looks like a standard-fare, late-model Pontiac Grand Am rented from Avis. But in actuality, it’s your very own personal rolling WiFi hot spot: no wires, no weird antennas, no voodoo witchcraft. As long as you're within 100 feet of this candy-apple-red vehicle, connecting and surfing the net is easier than drifting into a power slide on wet pavement. The device that does it is the Autonet Mobile WiFi router.

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Apple, AT&T, 31 others sued for infringing on smart phone patent (Network World)

Last week, the United States Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Minerva Industries, a Los Angeles-based patent-holding firm. On the same day it received the patent, Minerva proceeded to sue 33 companies for patent infringement.

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Spectrum auction starts, draws over $2.7 billion in first-day bids (Ars Technica)

Bidding is finally under way for the 700MHz spectrum being vacated by analog television broadcasts. Bids have totaled nearly $2.8 billion, but the reserve prices on the C and D Blocks are far from being met.

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Inside The Exclusive Diamond Lounge Social Network (AppScout)

Are you a CEO? A celebrity? Maybe just a poor tech journalist? If you're the latter, you can get a trial membership to the Diamond Lounge, where richer, cooler people than you can add you to your friends list. It's the velvet rope, Web 2.0 style.

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Team Aquaduct wins Innovate or Die competition (Google)

The contest said to "Innovate or Die" – and Team Aquaduct lives! The quintet was declared the winner out of 102 entries by building a unique and functional solution to provide rural communities with access to clean water.

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XM/Sirius merger could be finalized soon: report (TG Daily)

After months of government probing and questions of antitrust violations, the merger between the two satellite radio services may be coming to a close, according to a news report.

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OLPC Delays Angering Donors (Digital Trends)

The OLPC's Give One, Get One program launched to an enthusiastic response...now production delays and delivery problems are raising ire amongst some donors.

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Tesla Roadster to enter production on March 17 (TG Daily)

Tesla Motors announced that it has received all regulatory approvals to import the first production Tesla roadster, code-named P1, for sale. Series production of the car is scheduled to begin on March 17 of this year.

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Obama: I'm Not a Muslim! Forward This to Everyone You Know (Wired)

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama launched an online viral counteroffensive Tuesday against persistent e-mail chain letters that lie about his religious and political background. But history suggests that the effort might backfire, according to experts in urban myths and folklore.

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ICANN makes case for freedom from US oversight (Ars Technica)

ICANN, the group charged with overseeing the Internet's addressing system, says it's time to cut the cords tying the organization to the US Department of Commerce, arguing that it has met the criteria for operating independently.

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Techspin: Capitalism and Its Discontents (RedHerring)

Bill Gates feels the poor's pain at Davos, Belgian officials face a tough choice, and other imperfections of the free market.

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Music Sales Slipped by 10 Percent in 2007 (Digital Trends)

It wasn't a good year for the music industry in dollars and cents, but the rapid growth of legal download services holds promise for the future.

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Last.fm debuts free music service (BBC NEWS)

Social music site Last.fm has launched what it describes as the world's biggest free music service. It is promising to pay unsigned artists royalties every time a user streams a track to their computer, and has done deals with the four major record companies as well as more than 150,000 independent labels to offer access to their catalogues.

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Airwaves Sale Is Payoff for Digital Move (Wired News)

So far, the decade-long transition to digital broadcasting has mostly been about pain. Beginning Thursday, the public will start to see the gain. That's when the government will begin auctioning off the airwaves that are being made available thanks to the transition, raising billions for the U.S. Treasury and freeing up badly needed space for emergency communications.

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WSO2 Releases Web Services Framework for Ruby (Application Development Trends )

Web developers who use the increasingly popular combo of the Ruby programming language with the Rails framework, better known as Ruby on Rails, now have an open source framework for providing and/or consuming Web services: WSO2's newly released Web Services Framework for Ruby (WSF/Ruby), the first Ruby extension to support the WS-* specifications.

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Sold at Auction: One Mainframe (Campus Technology)

Time to unplug the mainframe? Just what do you do with that big black box with all of its gear and software--especially if it's only three years old and still running in the data center? Why, if you have nerves of steel, you auction it off on eBay, of course.

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Parents crashing online party (CNN.com)

Chicago teen Scott Seigal gets text messages from his girlfriend's mother, his friends' parents leave greetings on his MySpace page and his grandmother instant messages him every day.Increasingly, however, he and other young people are feeling uncomfortable about their elders encroaching on what many young adults and teens consider their technological turf.

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Oops: MPAA admits college piracy numbers grossly inflated (Ars Technica)

The MPAA has admitted that a key 2005 report it commissioned overstated the "losses" from collegiate file-sharing—by a factor of three.

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Olympus Unveils Nine New Cameras for 2008 (PC Magazine)

Olympus' 2008 lineup includes four entry-level cameras, two water- and shock-proof shooters, and a 10MP enthusiast camera with 20X optical zoom.

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AT&T unveils iPhone business rate plans (Computerworld)

AT&T Inc. on Monday unveiled business plans for Apple Inc.'s iPhone, the first time that the mobile carrier has courted corporate customers of the smart phone. But the lowest-cost data plan is still two and a half times higher than a comparable consumer plan.

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Microsoft Revives Virtualization Push (BusinessWeek)

The software maker wants to tap the demand boom for the money-saving technology. So why isn't VMware shaking in its boots?

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Halo 3 Meets Second Life (Baseline)

The U.S. Army enlists new virtual world video game to teach soldiers interpersonal skills and cultural awareness for combat environments like Iraq and Afganistan.

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8 Hot Technologies for 2008 (Network World)

The editors of Network World identify eight technologies that you should watch in 2008...and give you the opportunity to vote on your own choices.

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Intel's Classmate scheme could be "checkmate" for OLPC (Ars Technica)

While OLPC only toys with the idea of going commercial, Intel is licensing its designs for local markets and manufacturers. It's a strategy that can only boost the Classmate PC.

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Software Morphs Rapper Prodigy Into Global Cipher (Wired)

When Prodigy's next album drops, it could debut in nearly 1,500 different languages without the rapper having to so much as crack a translation dictionary.

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UltraBattery promises more power, less cost for HEVs (TG Daily)

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has developed a new battery for hybrid electric vehicles that could deliver a 50% increase in power, a 70% decrease in cost and a 300% improvement in life expectancy.

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Surprise: The Wii Ruled 2007 Console Sales - Video Game News (Digital Trends)

The video game industry's sales in 2007 were higher than any other year at almost $18 billion...and, surprise surprise, the NIntendo Wii took honors as top-selling console.

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Apple giveth: Firmware 1.1.3 un-bricks iPhones (Ars Technica)

Unlocked iPhones that were bricked after firmware updates can now get restored to original, working condition.

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Mozilla browser interface to get 'humanized' (InfoWorld)

UI developers from startup Humanized join Mozilla and will use technology from the Enso project to add more human interaction to the Firefox browser and other products.

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MySpace Bug Leaks 'Private' Teen Photos to Voyeurs (Wired)

A backdoor in MySpace's architecture allows anyone who's interested to see the photographs of some users with private profiles -- including those under 16 -- despite assurances from MySpace that those pictures can only be seen by people on a user's friends list. Info about the backdoor has been circulating on message boards for months.

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Theo Jansens’s Mechanical Pneumatic Beasts (Design News: Spatial Engineering and Aesthetics)

Imagine beaches across the world populated by inorganic autonomous mindless beasts, dependant only on the earth’s wind for their mobility. No I am not talking of the army of plastic bags currently populating our city streets; I am referring to the Strandbeests, the kinetic sculptures created by artist Theo Jansen.

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SANS Flags Browsers, Botnets as Top Security 'Menaces' (Campus Technology)

Research and education organization the SANS Institute this week revealed its list of the top menaces facing IT in the coming year. Echoing earlier reports from security watchdog organizations, the group's "Top-10 Cyber Security Menaces for 2008" cited Web 2.0 technologies, converged devices, botnets, and browser addons among the worst, with a heavy emphasis on consumerized technologies and the vulnerabilities they present.

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US intel chief wants carte blanche to peep all 'Net traffic' (Ars Technica)

In a new New Yorker profile, top spy Mike McConnell says he needs broad new powers to save our data. "He's got the whole 'Net, in his hands..."

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Satire: Failure Now An Option (The Onion)

In a stunning reversal of more than 200 years of conventional wisdom, failure—traditionally believed to be an unacceptable outcome for a wide range of tasks and goals—is now increasingly seen as a viable alternative to success, sources confirmed Tuesday.

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Apple Looking Less Shiny? Look Again (BusinessWeek)

Investors were underwhelmed by Apple's lineup at this year's Macworld conference. Give it time, says BusinessWeek.

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Google, Clearwire Forge Portal Deal (Red Herring)

Google continued its headlong dive into the wireless communications market with a joint announcement on Tuesday that it is teaming with WiMAX operator Clearwire to promote its suite of applications among Clearwire's 350,000 subscribers.

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Better than nothing: crippled network DVR alive at Comcast (Ars Technica)

Comcast will offer a limited network DVR service called "Start Over." You can jump back to the beginning of a show in progress, but forget about skipping commercials. Ars Technica sheds a tear for what might have been.

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A Web 2.0 Dashboard for Buzz (BusinessWeek)

StrategyEye is mixing Web search services with in-house analysis to provide companies with business info in easy-to-digest, interactive formats

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Apple announces MacBook Air, HD movie rentals, Apple TV 2.0 at Macworld keynote (Ars Technica)

Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld San Francisco this morning, announcing the rumored MacBook Air, the expected movie rental feature on the iTunes Store (in high-definition), and a new Apple TV 2.0. The iPhone and iPod touch are also getting some new features.

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Gibson’s Robot Guitar Tunes Itself (Design News)

Not so long ago, a self-tuning guitar was simply one you tuned yourself. Gibson’s latest electric guitar, however, really does take tuning out of the guitarist’s hands and tunes itself with servo mechanisms and control algorithms that dynamically adjust string tension.

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Gates Bids Farewell to CES (eWeek)

In what might have been his final keynote address at an International CES event, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates opened the 2008 expo with talk about entering a new "digital decade," where his company plans to play a major role. Gates acknowledged Apple's iPhone and signaled the importance of new content deals with NBC and others.

Back from the dead: CompUSA assets snapped up by TigerDirect (Ars Technica)

CompUSA's brand, trademarks, e-commerce business, and several retail locations are being saved from the ashes by Systemax, parent company of TigerDirect. Through the acquisition, TigerDirect plans to more than double its retail presence.

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Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba launch tech recycling company (CNET News.com)

Three of the biggest makers of TVs have formed a company to help manage the wave of electronics waste set to swell with the onset of digital television. Panasonic, Sharp, and Toshiba have launched the Manufacturers Recycling Management Co. in Minnesota.

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Intel Drops From One Laptop Per Child (Red Herring)

Intel said on Thursday it will drop out of the One Laptop Per Child project and resign from the board after the project's board demanded the chip maker stop supporting other efforts in emerging markets.

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The IT department is dead, author argues (Network World)

New Nicholas Carr book predicts utility computing will replace internal IT shops.

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