Cisco said Friday that it had acquired Five Across, a small San-Francisco company that specializes in creating applications that allow companies to easily add social-networking functionality to their Web sites.
The software enables IT administrators to easily add sections to sites that allow for the sharing of content, as well as enable users to post profiles and blogs. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Cisco says it expects the acquisition to close by the end of April.
While the company has traditionally dealt with enterprise applications, Cisco has recently begun to put its name out in front of the consumer. Its latest marketing campaign, "The Human Network," attempts to heighten Cisco's profile as the backbone of the Internet.
Social networking is actually a good fit for the company's overall strategy. Running sites with such capabilities requires a lot of bandwidth, and in turn the purchase of new equipment, which is Cisco's premier business.
Five Across would be integrated into the recently created Media Solutions unit, which is tasked with marketing Cisco products to owners and creators of digital media content. Five Across' technologies would fit in nicely, as these days the best way to get the word out about content is through social networking.
"Cisco believes the network is the platform for organizations to connect with their constituents and for individuals to connect with each other," unit head Dan Scheinman said. "With the acquisition of Five Across, Cisco is taking an important step towards helping its customers evolve their website experience into something more relevant and valuable to the end-user."
Regardless of Cisco's vision to provide an end-to-end solution, it would enter an increasingly crowded marketplace. The big three companies -- Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft -- all either offer technology to integrate social networking into Web sites, or host sites of their own.
However, those solutions have been aimed at the consumer, as no company has offered an option for larger businesses to purchase social networking technologies for their own sites.
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Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 29, 2011
Nokia lays out serious risks in Microsoft deal
In a government filing, Nokia describes the many threats it faces as part of its agreement to use Windows Phone
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Nokia laid out the threats it faces as part of its planned deal with Microsoft.
There are many, according to Nokia. Some have already been identified by critics of the agreement, under which Nokia will phase out use of its Symbian operating system in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone software. Publicly held companies routinely disclose all the possible risks of their businesses to shareholders.
[ iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android? Whatever handheld you use or manage, turn to InfoWorld for the latest developments. Subscribe to InfoWorld's Mobilize newsletter today. ]
The immaturity of that software, just released in phones in November, is one serious risk, Nokia said.
"The Windows Phone platform is a very recent, largely unproven addition to the market focused solely on high-end smartphones with currently very low adoption and consumer awareness relative to the Android and Apple platforms, and the proposed Microsoft partnership may not succeed in developing it into a sufficiently broad competitive smartphone platform," Nokia wrote in the filing.
While the companies have signed a "non-binding term sheet," they still have to negotiate the final contract, a process that might take longer than expected or might not happen at all, Nokia warned.
By choosing Windows Phone, Nokia may forgo more competitive alternatives that would let its phones reach greater and faster acceptance in the market, it said.
Also, the transition to Windows Phone might take too long to allow Nokia to compete, given the ongoing development of other platforms, Nokia said.
In the same filing, Nokia said it expects to take two years to make the transition to Windows Phone as its primary platform. During that time, it will continue to support Symbian in the hopes of transitioning the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners to Nokia Windows phones, Nokia said. It reiterated its hopes of selling an additional 150 million Symbian phones in future years.
Nokia pointed to other threats as well, such as the danger that the deal could erode its brand identity in areas such as China, where it is quite strong, and fail to enhance the brand in areas such as the U.S., where it is currently weak.
Another challenge will be building a profitable business model around a platform like Windows Phone, for which Nokia must pay royalties, Nokia said. While Symbian is a royalty-free operating system, it didn't come without significant costs to Nokia, which spent more than $400 million in 2008 to buy the half of the Symbian company that it didn't already own.
In the filing, Nokia also warned about the challenges it faces internally as it implements the new plan for Windows Mobile. For example, it may not be able to change its mode of working or culture to work effectively with Microsoft, the company said. Because Nokia anticipates laying off a large number of workers, the remaining employees may lose motivation, energy, and focus, thus reducing their productivity, Nokia said.
Because of all of the uncertainty resulting from the proposed deal, the company said it will not provide annual targets for 2011, although it expects its devices business to grow faster than the market.
It did not further elaborate on the precise amount of money that Microsoft will contribute to Nokia. In February, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that Microsoft would pay Nokia billions of dollars as part of the deal over an unspecified time.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, Nokia laid out the threats it faces as part of its planned deal with Microsoft.
There are many, according to Nokia. Some have already been identified by critics of the agreement, under which Nokia will phase out use of its Symbian operating system in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone software. Publicly held companies routinely disclose all the possible risks of their businesses to shareholders.
[ iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android? Whatever handheld you use or manage, turn to InfoWorld for the latest developments. Subscribe to InfoWorld's Mobilize newsletter today. ]
The immaturity of that software, just released in phones in November, is one serious risk, Nokia said.
"The Windows Phone platform is a very recent, largely unproven addition to the market focused solely on high-end smartphones with currently very low adoption and consumer awareness relative to the Android and Apple platforms, and the proposed Microsoft partnership may not succeed in developing it into a sufficiently broad competitive smartphone platform," Nokia wrote in the filing.
While the companies have signed a "non-binding term sheet," they still have to negotiate the final contract, a process that might take longer than expected or might not happen at all, Nokia warned.
By choosing Windows Phone, Nokia may forgo more competitive alternatives that would let its phones reach greater and faster acceptance in the market, it said.
Also, the transition to Windows Phone might take too long to allow Nokia to compete, given the ongoing development of other platforms, Nokia said.
In the same filing, Nokia said it expects to take two years to make the transition to Windows Phone as its primary platform. During that time, it will continue to support Symbian in the hopes of transitioning the installed base of 200 million Symbian owners to Nokia Windows phones, Nokia said. It reiterated its hopes of selling an additional 150 million Symbian phones in future years.
Nokia pointed to other threats as well, such as the danger that the deal could erode its brand identity in areas such as China, where it is quite strong, and fail to enhance the brand in areas such as the U.S., where it is currently weak.
Another challenge will be building a profitable business model around a platform like Windows Phone, for which Nokia must pay royalties, Nokia said. While Symbian is a royalty-free operating system, it didn't come without significant costs to Nokia, which spent more than $400 million in 2008 to buy the half of the Symbian company that it didn't already own.
In the filing, Nokia also warned about the challenges it faces internally as it implements the new plan for Windows Mobile. For example, it may not be able to change its mode of working or culture to work effectively with Microsoft, the company said. Because Nokia anticipates laying off a large number of workers, the remaining employees may lose motivation, energy, and focus, thus reducing their productivity, Nokia said.
Because of all of the uncertainty resulting from the proposed deal, the company said it will not provide annual targets for 2011, although it expects its devices business to grow faster than the market.
It did not further elaborate on the precise amount of money that Microsoft will contribute to Nokia. In February, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said that Microsoft would pay Nokia billions of dollars as part of the deal over an unspecified time.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Microsoft previews Internet Explorer 10 II
The next-generation browser has a heavy emphasis on HTML5 and offers CSS3 capabilities and accelerated graphics
Preaching the mantra of HTML5, Microsoft began offering on Tuesday a preview of its planned Internet Explorer 10 browser, which emphasizes the critical Web specification and its visual effects.
Microsoft also announced the availability this morning of Windows Azure cloud platform capabilities, including services to accelerate application performance and enable secure Web access via popular identity providers like Microsoft, Facebook, and Google. A preview of a traffic management capability for Azure, to balance application performance across different geographies, was made available as well. Additionally, Microsoft unveiled a preview of a Windows Azure content delivery network for media streaming.
Also from Microsoft on Tuesday, version 1.1 of the Orchard project was rolled out, for delivering applications and reusable components based on ASP.Net. Improvements include a Recipes feature for streamlining setup, a new admin panel design, usability and workflow improvements more extensibility and customization. Orchard features a content management system and blogging support out of the box. The company also refreshed of its ASP.Net MVC (Model-View Controller) 3 software, with tools offering HTML5 capabilities.
Preaching the mantra of HTML5, Microsoft began offering on Tuesday a preview of its planned Internet Explorer 10 browser, which emphasizes the critical Web specification and its visual effects.
Microsoft also announced the availability this morning of Windows Azure cloud platform capabilities, including services to accelerate application performance and enable secure Web access via popular identity providers like Microsoft, Facebook, and Google. A preview of a traffic management capability for Azure, to balance application performance across different geographies, was made available as well. Additionally, Microsoft unveiled a preview of a Windows Azure content delivery network for media streaming.
Also from Microsoft on Tuesday, version 1.1 of the Orchard project was rolled out, for delivering applications and reusable components based on ASP.Net. Improvements include a Recipes feature for streamlining setup, a new admin panel design, usability and workflow improvements more extensibility and customization. Orchard features a content management system and blogging support out of the box. The company also refreshed of its ASP.Net MVC (Model-View Controller) 3 software, with tools offering HTML5 capabilities.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Microsoft Office 2010 Puts Word, Excel and PowerPoint on the Web
In an expected and inevitable move, Microsoft has announced that the next version of Office will include Web-based versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint and OneNote.
Not to be confused with Microsoft Live Office Workspaces, which lets users of the desktop Office suite collaborate online, Office Web Apps will be full lightweight versions of the products, allowing users to create, edit, save, and share docs on the Web. And, like obvious competitor Google Docs, Office Web Apps will be available for free.
Like Docs, which requires a Google account, it seems the only requirement to use Office Web Apps will be a Microsoft Windows Live account, with two other options as well:
“Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.”
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything to try out yet – Microsoft says that the new version of Office and its accompanying Web version won’t be available until the first half of next year. For now, the company has launched a preview site and a series of videos, introduced below:
See What’s New in Microsoft Office 2010
Update: The embed from Microsoft seems to be loading sporadically. Here’s an interview that Robert Scoble has with Office 2010 Product Manager Chris Bryant demoing some of the Web features (more on his blog):
Not to be confused with Microsoft Live Office Workspaces, which lets users of the desktop Office suite collaborate online, Office Web Apps will be full lightweight versions of the products, allowing users to create, edit, save, and share docs on the Web. And, like obvious competitor Google Docs, Office Web Apps will be available for free.
Like Docs, which requires a Google account, it seems the only requirement to use Office Web Apps will be a Microsoft Windows Live account, with two other options as well:
“Office Web applications will be available in three ways: through Windows Live, where more than 400 million consumers will have access to Office Web applications at no cost; on-premises for all Office volume licensing customers including more than 90 million Office annuity customers; and via Microsoft Online Services, where customers will be able to purchase a subscription as part of a hosted offering.”
Unfortunately, there isn’t anything to try out yet – Microsoft says that the new version of Office and its accompanying Web version won’t be available until the first half of next year. For now, the company has launched a preview site and a series of videos, introduced below:
See What’s New in Microsoft Office 2010
Update: The embed from Microsoft seems to be loading sporadically. Here’s an interview that Robert Scoble has with Office 2010 Product Manager Chris Bryant demoing some of the Web features (more on his blog):
Monday, April 25, 2011
BlackBerry PlayBook has me excited about the HP TouchPad
The BlackBerry PlayBook is impressing me the longer I use it, primarily due to the nice hardware and the good user interface. The UI in particular is very intuitive and very well implemented. The entire time I have been using it I have come to realize how much of the webOS interface that RIM has incorporated into the PlayBook. Seeing the PlayBook in action has me very excited about the upcoming HP TouchPad tablet.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the RIM interface is very well done and while it uses some of the same methods found in webOS it is unique in many ways. I love how the running tasks show up in a bar that can be swiped left and right, and I love how closing an app is as easy as swiping the “card” up off the screen. I also find it useful to swipe left and right on the screen within an app to switch to the next app. This works well in practice, and it is very similar to the webOS method of representing tasks as cards on the screen.
I spent a couple of hours with the HP TouchPad earlier this year, and the most impressive thing about that session was seeing how HP has converted the webOS interface to fit the bigger tablet screen. Displaying tasks as cards is particularly good on the tablet screen, and the ability to stack tasks together in card view is really handy. This is lacking in the PlayBook interface, and I believe it is a major difference.
BlackBerry PlayBook tasks
The notification system in webOS has been quite good since the launch of the platform, and it is nicely updated for the TouchPad display. It is possible to triage email without going to the app, a very useful method for those of us buried in the inbox all day. I knew when I first saw the HP TouchPad that I would almost certainly like to use one, and having seen the similar methodology in practice on the RIM PlayBook has me convinced that is so.
I am as excited about the impending launch of the TouchPad more today than ever, and it is in part thanks to the BlackBerry PlayBook. That’s not the intent of RIM, but it does confirm its good move in copying parts of webOS for the PlayBook.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the RIM interface is very well done and while it uses some of the same methods found in webOS it is unique in many ways. I love how the running tasks show up in a bar that can be swiped left and right, and I love how closing an app is as easy as swiping the “card” up off the screen. I also find it useful to swipe left and right on the screen within an app to switch to the next app. This works well in practice, and it is very similar to the webOS method of representing tasks as cards on the screen.
I spent a couple of hours with the HP TouchPad earlier this year, and the most impressive thing about that session was seeing how HP has converted the webOS interface to fit the bigger tablet screen. Displaying tasks as cards is particularly good on the tablet screen, and the ability to stack tasks together in card view is really handy. This is lacking in the PlayBook interface, and I believe it is a major difference.
BlackBerry PlayBook tasks
The notification system in webOS has been quite good since the launch of the platform, and it is nicely updated for the TouchPad display. It is possible to triage email without going to the app, a very useful method for those of us buried in the inbox all day. I knew when I first saw the HP TouchPad that I would almost certainly like to use one, and having seen the similar methodology in practice on the RIM PlayBook has me convinced that is so.
I am as excited about the impending launch of the TouchPad more today than ever, and it is in part thanks to the BlackBerry PlayBook. That’s not the intent of RIM, but it does confirm its good move in copying parts of webOS for the PlayBook.
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Front End Web Developer
Posted: April 18, 2011
Address: Los Angeles, CA 90045
Occu: Development
Type: Full-time
Description:
Creative Services company located in Culver City is searching for a full time creative and talented WEB DEVELOPER to join their creative team. Company creates and designs websites for a multitude of brands in the creative industries such as tech, fashion and entertainment.
75% of the job focus will be front end web development for new sites and 25% will be maintaining updates and changes for existing sites.
This is an immediate fill position with lots of opportunity for growth. Very casual and fun environment, non corporate, health benefits and other perks.
We are looking for a minimum of 2-3 years experience at the junior level with ability to demonstrate samples/portfolio of development work.
As an example of our expectations, please visit a client site at umamiburger.com to preview the web development quality we would be seeking.
Additional portfolio of our work can be found at www.excela.com.
Apply by Email: payroll@excela.com
Address: Los Angeles, CA 90045
Occu: Development
Type: Full-time
Description:
Creative Services company located in Culver City is searching for a full time creative and talented WEB DEVELOPER to join their creative team. Company creates and designs websites for a multitude of brands in the creative industries such as tech, fashion and entertainment.
75% of the job focus will be front end web development for new sites and 25% will be maintaining updates and changes for existing sites.
This is an immediate fill position with lots of opportunity for growth. Very casual and fun environment, non corporate, health benefits and other perks.
We are looking for a minimum of 2-3 years experience at the junior level with ability to demonstrate samples/portfolio of development work.
As an example of our expectations, please visit a client site at umamiburger.com to preview the web development quality we would be seeking.
Additional portfolio of our work can be found at www.excela.com.
Apply by Email: payroll@excela.com
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Eight Tips for Greening Your Home
When it comes to going green, every bit counts. Reducing consumption is not just about saving money and shrinking your carbon footprint. It's also about teaching one another through example to be aware of what and how much we consume. It's about cultivating good habits that express an awareness and gratitude for the things we have.
Being green almost always correlates to saving money, too. You could easily shave a few hundred dollars off your annual costs by making a few simple changes that extend the life of your devices or lower your electricity or fuel bills. While these eight tips for greening your home focus on technology and energy in particular, remember that your whole lifestyle affects global consumption, from the products you use to clean your home to how much meat is in your diet. Start with these simple ideas to raise your awareness and get into greener habits.
Being green almost always correlates to saving money, too. You could easily shave a few hundred dollars off your annual costs by making a few simple changes that extend the life of your devices or lower your electricity or fuel bills. While these eight tips for greening your home focus on technology and energy in particular, remember that your whole lifestyle affects global consumption, from the products you use to clean your home to how much meat is in your diet. Start with these simple ideas to raise your awareness and get into greener habits.
Friday, April 22, 2011
HTC Desire S Deals Latest Innovation With Best Offers
The new HTC Desire S is stronger, slimmer and operates faster than its previous model. Slimmer though it comes, it has 3.7 inch big touch screen. Having 480x800 pixels its screen it quite competent to serve the user clear and easy to to operate User Interface. On its big and docile screen, the experience of browsing seems incomparable when you zoom in and out and look things up at the touch of a button. At the top of it, having been empowered with 1GHz processor, it works wonders.
After the success of HTC Desire deals, now it is the main attraction for buyers in the UK on line market. All the leading operators have deals over this astonishing gadget. But HTC Desire S on Three deals is adorned with the best offers available in the market. If you buy contract with Three network, you will get several offers and incentives that include free minutes of talk time, text messages and discount over monthly rentals. Besides, there are a few networks which have included Internet data so that it would become more entertaining.
Apart from cool and sweet offers, this latest creation from Taiwan based mobile manufacturer comes with 5 mega pixels camera having auto focus and power LED flash. In addition to its camera capabilities it is capable of capturing live moments at 720p HD video recording and VGA color fixed focus front camera to help you do video conferencing with your acquaintances. Imagine if you could watch your snaps and video clips on some big screen like your LCD TV, is quite enthralling. And, if you have HTC Desire S, you are privileged to enjoy this exciting feature.
HTC has been armoring its devices with Google's Android operating system, so it is obviously comes with the same. But cheer up! It comes with the latest Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) that opens the door for thousands of Android application and games for you. Just because of latest Android, there are myriads of ways to customize your phone according you likes and tastes. Whether you want a new game, a book, or a new application everything is at your disposal, if you are the owner of HTC Desires S. In addition to its User Interface, the HTC has recently improved it so that you can simplify your life. So don't think too much and buy HTC Desire S on Three deals to enjoy the boon of latest technology and offers of competitive mobile phone market.
After the success of HTC Desire deals, now it is the main attraction for buyers in the UK on line market. All the leading operators have deals over this astonishing gadget. But HTC Desire S on Three deals is adorned with the best offers available in the market. If you buy contract with Three network, you will get several offers and incentives that include free minutes of talk time, text messages and discount over monthly rentals. Besides, there are a few networks which have included Internet data so that it would become more entertaining.
Apart from cool and sweet offers, this latest creation from Taiwan based mobile manufacturer comes with 5 mega pixels camera having auto focus and power LED flash. In addition to its camera capabilities it is capable of capturing live moments at 720p HD video recording and VGA color fixed focus front camera to help you do video conferencing with your acquaintances. Imagine if you could watch your snaps and video clips on some big screen like your LCD TV, is quite enthralling. And, if you have HTC Desire S, you are privileged to enjoy this exciting feature.
HTC has been armoring its devices with Google's Android operating system, so it is obviously comes with the same. But cheer up! It comes with the latest Android v2.3 (Gingerbread) that opens the door for thousands of Android application and games for you. Just because of latest Android, there are myriads of ways to customize your phone according you likes and tastes. Whether you want a new game, a book, or a new application everything is at your disposal, if you are the owner of HTC Desires S. In addition to its User Interface, the HTC has recently improved it so that you can simplify your life. So don't think too much and buy HTC Desire S on Three deals to enjoy the boon of latest technology and offers of competitive mobile phone market.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
How to Recycle Your Technology
We love our computers and electronics. That is, until they stop working. Then these computers and their peripherals, from printers to monitors, not to mention your handhelds, batteries, and accessories, often become digital garbage.
These things aren't made to last after all. (No computer or phone maker is going to mind if you buy an upgrade every year or two.) Consequently, all of this junk ends up in the back of your closet or stored in your garage, collecting dust, because you aren't sure what to do with the stuff. The best thing to do with this growing accumulation of old electronic equipment is to either donate or recycle it.
Donate your old computers and phones whenever you can to groups that will fix and clean them up and then put them back to good use. Even the oldest computer, something you consider the most obsolete of digital dinosaurs, can probably be used by someone.
There are times, though, when a device is too far gone and there's nothing else that can be done to bring it back to life again. Even a charity doesn't want your unusable junk. That junk—called e-waste—is potentially dangerous. Electronics are filled with "heavy metals" (read: toxic metals) and carcinogenic chemicals that are fine when you're using them, but not so much when sitting in a landfill or, worse, when people try to recycle them incorrectly. Thousands of tons of e-waste is shipped overseas yearly to countries like China and India where it gets dumped and maybe burned, which puts mercury and lead into the air.
So on this 41st Earth Day, we want to point out the places you can take your old or even dead electronics, so they can end up either being used by someone in need or safely recycled.
These things aren't made to last after all. (No computer or phone maker is going to mind if you buy an upgrade every year or two.) Consequently, all of this junk ends up in the back of your closet or stored in your garage, collecting dust, because you aren't sure what to do with the stuff. The best thing to do with this growing accumulation of old electronic equipment is to either donate or recycle it.
Donate your old computers and phones whenever you can to groups that will fix and clean them up and then put them back to good use. Even the oldest computer, something you consider the most obsolete of digital dinosaurs, can probably be used by someone.
There are times, though, when a device is too far gone and there's nothing else that can be done to bring it back to life again. Even a charity doesn't want your unusable junk. That junk—called e-waste—is potentially dangerous. Electronics are filled with "heavy metals" (read: toxic metals) and carcinogenic chemicals that are fine when you're using them, but not so much when sitting in a landfill or, worse, when people try to recycle them incorrectly. Thousands of tons of e-waste is shipped overseas yearly to countries like China and India where it gets dumped and maybe burned, which puts mercury and lead into the air.
So on this 41st Earth Day, we want to point out the places you can take your old or even dead electronics, so they can end up either being used by someone in need or safely recycled.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Practice Administering The Security Log
Hisecws.inf To apply Hisecws.inf to a computer, the following mcitp boot camp requirements must be met:
All of the domain controllers that contain the accounts of all users that will log on to the client must run Windows NT 4 Service Pack 4 or later.
All of the domain controllers for the domain that the client is joined to must run Microsoft Windows 2000 or later.
If a client is configured with Hisecws.inf, the following constraints apply:Clients cannot connect to computers that only run LAN Manager or computers running Windows NT 4 Service Pack 3 or earlier using a local account on the target server.
Clients cannot connect to servers running Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4 Service Pack 4 using a local account defined on the target server unless the clock on the target server is within 30 minutes of the clock on the client.
Clients cannot connect to computers running Windows XP or later using a local account defined on the target computer unless the clock on the target computer is within 20 hours of the clock on the client.
Clients cannot connect to LAN Manager servers operating in windows 7 enterprise desktop support technician share-level security mode.
If a server is configured with Hisecws.inf, the following constraints apply:
A user with a local account on that server cannot connect to the server from a client that does not support NTLM version 2.
A client with a local account on that server cannot connect to the server unless the client computer is configured to send NTLM version 2 responses.
All clients that want to use SMB to connect to that server must enable client-side 8MB packet signing. All computers running Windows 2000 or later enable client-side SMB packet signing by default.
Hisecws.inf uses Restricted Groups settings to remove all members of the Power Users group and ensure that only Domain Admins and the local Administrator account are members of the local Administrators group. Hisecws.inf defines these group restrictions under the assumption that only applications that take part in the Windows Logo Program for Software are deployed. With certified applications in place, neither the insecure Compatible template nor the insecure Power Users group is needed. Instead, users can run certified applications successfully under the secure context of a normal MCITP certification user as defined by the default security settings of the file system and registry.
All of the domain controllers that contain the accounts of all users that will log on to the client must run Windows NT 4 Service Pack 4 or later.
All of the domain controllers for the domain that the client is joined to must run Microsoft Windows 2000 or later.
If a client is configured with Hisecws.inf, the following constraints apply:Clients cannot connect to computers that only run LAN Manager or computers running Windows NT 4 Service Pack 3 or earlier using a local account on the target server.
Clients cannot connect to servers running Windows 2000 or Windows NT 4 Service Pack 4 using a local account defined on the target server unless the clock on the target server is within 30 minutes of the clock on the client.
Clients cannot connect to computers running Windows XP or later using a local account defined on the target computer unless the clock on the target computer is within 20 hours of the clock on the client.
Clients cannot connect to LAN Manager servers operating in windows 7 enterprise desktop support technician share-level security mode.
If a server is configured with Hisecws.inf, the following constraints apply:
A user with a local account on that server cannot connect to the server from a client that does not support NTLM version 2.
A client with a local account on that server cannot connect to the server unless the client computer is configured to send NTLM version 2 responses.
All clients that want to use SMB to connect to that server must enable client-side 8MB packet signing. All computers running Windows 2000 or later enable client-side SMB packet signing by default.
Hisecws.inf uses Restricted Groups settings to remove all members of the Power Users group and ensure that only Domain Admins and the local Administrator account are members of the local Administrators group. Hisecws.inf defines these group restrictions under the assumption that only applications that take part in the Windows Logo Program for Software are deployed. With certified applications in place, neither the insecure Compatible template nor the insecure Power Users group is needed. Instead, users can run certified applications successfully under the secure context of a normal MCITP certification user as defined by the default security settings of the file system and registry.
Monday, April 18, 2011
InfoWorld preview: Office 365 beta V
Problems with the Office 365 beta
I found several parts of the beta confusing.
On the Admin side, the Intro for Office 365 Administrators says, "SharePoint Online permissions and user groups are managed separately from Office 365 settings ... new user accounts that you create in Office 365 are not automatically added to your Team Site's user list. You will need to manually add users to the Team Site, so that you can control who in your company has access to the Team Site." While that may be literally true, it's misleading. By default, any new user that you add via the Add New Users link on the Admin Overview page is automatically allowed read-write access to all of the files in the SharePoint Team Site. That's what you want, at least 90 percent of the time, and you don't have to change anything in the Team Sites section to make it so.
On the client side, I had a lot of trouble getting new users connected to the SharePoint Team Site. Working in Word 2010, for example, there isn't any easy way to navigate to the Team Site; when I click on File, Save and Send, Send to SharePoint, the Team Site doesn't initially appear. When I then double-click on Browse for a Location, I'm unceremoniously dumped into the Save As dialog box, without a clue where to go. Clicking on File/Open doesn't bring up the Team Site either, at least at first. Even though my SharePoint Team Site appeared on the Windows 7 Network list -- AskWoody.SharePoint.com was there, along with all of my networked PCs -- I couldn't navigate in or around it.
I discovered a trick, strictly by trial and error. For newly installed users, I went to the Office 365 portal, and from there clicked to the Team Site. I clicked on one of the documents in the Team Site, and clicked Edit. That opened the doc inside the Word Web App. In the upper-left corner, I clicked Open in Word. Word dutifully fired up with the document inside, and voilà : Suddenly I could save the file -- or any other Word doc -- to the Team Site. Open started working, too.
I figure that's one of those Word-is-from-Venus, SharePoint-is-from-Alpha-Centauri problems.
There are lots of navigational problems, too. For example, from the SharePoint Administration Center, there are no links to get out of SharePoint. If you find yourself chasing down that Admin rabbit hole, the only way back out is the browser's Back button.
Other problems I had are inherent with the products themselves.
* The Office Web Apps can't hold a candle to their desktop namesakes, and editing with them is anything but WYSIWYG. Corollary: editing with a phone is incredibly frustrating.
* SharePoint Team Sites document collections can get huge, and there's no way to effectively organize them.
* If there's a way to show filename extensions on the Team Site's Documents page, I can't find it.
* The Web page app inside SharePoint has a cookie-cutter feel with few options but, yes, it does work.
* Collaborating on edits of a single document takes some discipline and patience: You're locked out of any part of a document that's been changed by a collaborator, until the collaborator saves the document.
* I don't like the interface in Lync as much as I like Skype, and Lync doesn't seem to run as fast. Maybe that's just me.
Not all is doom and gloom. These are the same, familiar Office applications and Office servers that you've come to know and love -- only you don't need to run your own servers unless you want to, and you can rent the software.
Consultants who have set up their clients with Small Business Server should be looking hard at the benefits of setting up Office 365. Professionals and SME businesses that would find Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync useful now have a good alternative. And it's cheap.
Corporate IT departments will appreciate the way Office 365 can peacefully co-exist with their current operations. Outsourcing server ops is certainly an inviting possibility. Microsoft has the iron and the experience to make it happen relatively painlessly, but whether your specific installation can be migrated to -- and whether your users can be kept happy with -- a one-size-fits-many solution is a tough call.
Office 365 is a compelling package. Give it a try.
I found several parts of the beta confusing.
On the Admin side, the Intro for Office 365 Administrators says, "SharePoint Online permissions and user groups are managed separately from Office 365 settings ... new user accounts that you create in Office 365 are not automatically added to your Team Site's user list. You will need to manually add users to the Team Site, so that you can control who in your company has access to the Team Site." While that may be literally true, it's misleading. By default, any new user that you add via the Add New Users link on the Admin Overview page is automatically allowed read-write access to all of the files in the SharePoint Team Site. That's what you want, at least 90 percent of the time, and you don't have to change anything in the Team Sites section to make it so.
On the client side, I had a lot of trouble getting new users connected to the SharePoint Team Site. Working in Word 2010, for example, there isn't any easy way to navigate to the Team Site; when I click on File, Save and Send, Send to SharePoint, the Team Site doesn't initially appear. When I then double-click on Browse for a Location, I'm unceremoniously dumped into the Save As dialog box, without a clue where to go. Clicking on File/Open doesn't bring up the Team Site either, at least at first. Even though my SharePoint Team Site appeared on the Windows 7 Network list -- AskWoody.SharePoint.com was there, along with all of my networked PCs -- I couldn't navigate in or around it.
I discovered a trick, strictly by trial and error. For newly installed users, I went to the Office 365 portal, and from there clicked to the Team Site. I clicked on one of the documents in the Team Site, and clicked Edit. That opened the doc inside the Word Web App. In the upper-left corner, I clicked Open in Word. Word dutifully fired up with the document inside, and voilà : Suddenly I could save the file -- or any other Word doc -- to the Team Site. Open started working, too.
I figure that's one of those Word-is-from-Venus, SharePoint-is-from-Alpha-Centauri problems.
There are lots of navigational problems, too. For example, from the SharePoint Administration Center, there are no links to get out of SharePoint. If you find yourself chasing down that Admin rabbit hole, the only way back out is the browser's Back button.
Other problems I had are inherent with the products themselves.
* The Office Web Apps can't hold a candle to their desktop namesakes, and editing with them is anything but WYSIWYG. Corollary: editing with a phone is incredibly frustrating.
* SharePoint Team Sites document collections can get huge, and there's no way to effectively organize them.
* If there's a way to show filename extensions on the Team Site's Documents page, I can't find it.
* The Web page app inside SharePoint has a cookie-cutter feel with few options but, yes, it does work.
* Collaborating on edits of a single document takes some discipline and patience: You're locked out of any part of a document that's been changed by a collaborator, until the collaborator saves the document.
* I don't like the interface in Lync as much as I like Skype, and Lync doesn't seem to run as fast. Maybe that's just me.
Not all is doom and gloom. These are the same, familiar Office applications and Office servers that you've come to know and love -- only you don't need to run your own servers unless you want to, and you can rent the software.
Consultants who have set up their clients with Small Business Server should be looking hard at the benefits of setting up Office 365. Professionals and SME businesses that would find Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync useful now have a good alternative. And it's cheap.
Corporate IT departments will appreciate the way Office 365 can peacefully co-exist with their current operations. Outsourcing server ops is certainly an inviting possibility. Microsoft has the iron and the experience to make it happen relatively painlessly, but whether your specific installation can be migrated to -- and whether your users can be kept happy with -- a one-size-fits-many solution is a tough call.
Office 365 is a compelling package. Give it a try.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
SCO is dead, SCO Unix lives on
SCO, the anti-Linux lawsuit monster is dead. There are still twitches left in the corpse in the bankruptcy court morgue, but when even Groklaw retires from the field, you know SCO’s as dead as a doornail. But, SCO’s Unix operating systems, OpenServer and UnixWare, will live on under the aegis of a new company, UnXis.
This has some people, including Pamela Jones, editor and founder of Groklaw worried that UnXis might follow in SCO’s lawsuit crazy tracks. “Targeting end users? Uh oh. That has a creepy sound, considering the heritage of SCO, if you know what I mean.”
I didn’t think anyone with a lick of sense would try to re-tread SCO’s hopeless lawsuits, but then I’d thought from the very start that SCO taking on IBM, et. al. in the courts was a suicidal move. So, I asked the UnXis’ CEO, Richard A. Bolandz, what his plans were.
Bolandz replied, “UnXis has no intention to pursue any litigation related to the SCO Group assets acquired by the company. We are all about world leadership in technology not litigation.”
“We acquired the intellectual property, the extremely loyal base of marquee customers in 82 countries worldwide a world class engineering team and a rock solid product on which kernel all new systems will be built. There is no place for litigation in our vision or plan,” Bolandz continued.
That sounds great to me, and I know it’s what Ms. Jones wanted to hear as well. But what intellectual property (IP) is that? The Novell/SCO litigation proved once and for all that Novell, and not SCO, owned Unix’s IP .
Bolandz said, “The bankruptcy court has struck down the objections of Novell and awarded UnXis under the asset purchase agreement (APA) the intellectual property and all assets necessary to run the business. As mentioned above we are reaching out to Novell to partner with us as we see our products as complementary rather than competitive and to cross sell products and services for the good of both our customer bases and the entire market.”
OK, that’s not the same thing as Unix’s IP. The SCO bankruptcy court let UnXis sub-license the Unix source code without paying Novell for what SCO owed on it.
Novell, which is the process of being sold to Attachmate, can’t be happy about this judgment. UnXis, which couldn’t sell OpenServer or UnixWare without this decision, must be pleased. On the other hand, in the long run UnXis must arrive at a good working relation with Novell or somewhere down the road. Without an agreement, eventually UnXis won’t be able to sell either Unix operating system.
There’s also the question of the Unix trademark. But, as reported in Groklaw, The Open Group, which owns the Unix trademarks, doesn’t foresee any problems with UnXis using the Unix or UnixWare trademarks.
In an e-mail, Meryl Schlachterman of The Open Group wrote, “Under a Trademark Licensing Agreement with The Open Group, SCO is licensed to use UNIX and UnixWare which are registered trademarks of The Open Group in the U.S. and other countries, a fact acknowledged by SCO on its website.”
“The acquisition of SCO’s operating assets and transfer of its operating systems and software solutions business to UnXis will mean that an assignment and transfer of the TMLA from SCO to UnXis will be required for such rights to pass. We anticipate that this transfer will be successfully concluded in the very near future,” she concluded.
OK, so UnXis isn’t going to pursue SCO’s fruitless legal strategy of the last few years and they seem to be getting their Unix IP ducks in a row, so what are they going to do?
This has some people, including Pamela Jones, editor and founder of Groklaw worried that UnXis might follow in SCO’s lawsuit crazy tracks. “Targeting end users? Uh oh. That has a creepy sound, considering the heritage of SCO, if you know what I mean.”
I didn’t think anyone with a lick of sense would try to re-tread SCO’s hopeless lawsuits, but then I’d thought from the very start that SCO taking on IBM, et. al. in the courts was a suicidal move. So, I asked the UnXis’ CEO, Richard A. Bolandz, what his plans were.
Bolandz replied, “UnXis has no intention to pursue any litigation related to the SCO Group assets acquired by the company. We are all about world leadership in technology not litigation.”
“We acquired the intellectual property, the extremely loyal base of marquee customers in 82 countries worldwide a world class engineering team and a rock solid product on which kernel all new systems will be built. There is no place for litigation in our vision or plan,” Bolandz continued.
That sounds great to me, and I know it’s what Ms. Jones wanted to hear as well. But what intellectual property (IP) is that? The Novell/SCO litigation proved once and for all that Novell, and not SCO, owned Unix’s IP .
Bolandz said, “The bankruptcy court has struck down the objections of Novell and awarded UnXis under the asset purchase agreement (APA) the intellectual property and all assets necessary to run the business. As mentioned above we are reaching out to Novell to partner with us as we see our products as complementary rather than competitive and to cross sell products and services for the good of both our customer bases and the entire market.”
OK, that’s not the same thing as Unix’s IP. The SCO bankruptcy court let UnXis sub-license the Unix source code without paying Novell for what SCO owed on it.
Novell, which is the process of being sold to Attachmate, can’t be happy about this judgment. UnXis, which couldn’t sell OpenServer or UnixWare without this decision, must be pleased. On the other hand, in the long run UnXis must arrive at a good working relation with Novell or somewhere down the road. Without an agreement, eventually UnXis won’t be able to sell either Unix operating system.
There’s also the question of the Unix trademark. But, as reported in Groklaw, The Open Group, which owns the Unix trademarks, doesn’t foresee any problems with UnXis using the Unix or UnixWare trademarks.
In an e-mail, Meryl Schlachterman of The Open Group wrote, “Under a Trademark Licensing Agreement with The Open Group, SCO is licensed to use UNIX and UnixWare which are registered trademarks of The Open Group in the U.S. and other countries, a fact acknowledged by SCO on its website.”
“The acquisition of SCO’s operating assets and transfer of its operating systems and software solutions business to UnXis will mean that an assignment and transfer of the TMLA from SCO to UnXis will be required for such rights to pass. We anticipate that this transfer will be successfully concluded in the very near future,” she concluded.
OK, so UnXis isn’t going to pursue SCO’s fruitless legal strategy of the last few years and they seem to be getting their Unix IP ducks in a row, so what are they going to do?
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Adobe Alerts, Patches Latest Flash Zero-Day Hole
Adobe said Friday that it has identified and issued a patch for Adobe Flash Player, just days after issuing a similar patch.
Adobe issued Adobe Flash Player 10.2.159.1 on Friday, for users of Flash version 10.2.153.1, and Adobe Flash Player 10.2.154.25 for those that use Chrome. Adobe also said it recommends users of Adobe AIR 2.6.19120 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux update to Adobe AIR 2.6.19140.
Adobe expects to make available an update for Adobe Flash Player 10.2.156.12 and earlier versions for Android no later than the week of April 25, 2011, the company added.
Why? According to Adobe, there have been reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks via a malicious Web page, or a Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Word (.doc) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) file delivered as an email attachment, targeting the Windows platform. The updates resolve a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution, Adobe said.
That's basically the same vector that a previous vulnerability exploited on Wednesday.. Adobe said then that it was not aware of PDF-related attacks in Reader or Acrobat, and Adobe Reader X Protected Mode mitigations would prevent that type of exploit from happening.
As PCMag's Larry Seltzer points out, this type of vulernability might sound familiar. It's quite similar to another Flash zero-day from several weeks ago that was embedded in an Excel file and used to attack RSA.
Adobe Reader 9.x for UNIX, Adobe Reader for Android, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are not affected by this issue, Seltzer noted.
Adobe issued Adobe Flash Player 10.2.159.1 on Friday, for users of Flash version 10.2.153.1, and Adobe Flash Player 10.2.154.25 for those that use Chrome. Adobe also said it recommends users of Adobe AIR 2.6.19120 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh and Linux update to Adobe AIR 2.6.19140.
Adobe expects to make available an update for Adobe Flash Player 10.2.156.12 and earlier versions for Android no later than the week of April 25, 2011, the company added.
Why? According to Adobe, there have been reports that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild in targeted attacks via a malicious Web page, or a Flash (.swf) file embedded in a Microsoft Word (.doc) or Microsoft Excel (.xls) file delivered as an email attachment, targeting the Windows platform. The updates resolve a memory corruption vulnerability that could lead to code execution, Adobe said.
That's basically the same vector that a previous vulnerability exploited on Wednesday.. Adobe said then that it was not aware of PDF-related attacks in Reader or Acrobat, and Adobe Reader X Protected Mode mitigations would prevent that type of exploit from happening.
As PCMag's Larry Seltzer points out, this type of vulernability might sound familiar. It's quite similar to another Flash zero-day from several weeks ago that was embedded in an Excel file and used to attack RSA.
Adobe Reader 9.x for UNIX, Adobe Reader for Android, and Adobe Reader and Acrobat 8.x are not affected by this issue, Seltzer noted.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Front-Facing Camera Hack Adds 3D Display to iPad 2
No, it's not an iPad 3 rumor. Rather, some innovative people from the Engineering Human-Computer Interaction Research Group have rigged the 2D display of the Apple iPad 2 for a glasses-free 3D perspective.
Using a feed from the front-facing camera coupled with some clever software hacks, the group was able to create what it calls the Head-Coupled Perspective (HCP).
"It is based on [an] efficient head-tracker that uses the front-facing camera of the device," said a description on the group's Web site. "We use an off-axis projection in order to adapt the perspective of the 3D scene according to the head's position of the user. Such spatially-aware mobile display [is able] to improve the possibilities of interaction."
The two-dimensional screen moves when the user moves, maintaining the illusion of 3D perspective. For now, it's just a demo, but it's possible HCP could be included in an app at a later date. It doesn't just work on the iPad 2, either. HCP is also compatible with the iPhone 4. In fact, all the trick requires is a front-facing camera, so it could be used on other Apple devices in the future.
Apple unveiled its second-generation iPad on March 11 in the U.S. On March 25, the device was launched in 25 additional countries. It's been popular worldwide; analysts estimated that roughly 500,000 units flew off store shelves in its first weekend, temporarily driving wait times up to five weeks. The iPad 2 also reportedly sold out overseas within 24 hours.
Digitimes estimates Apple sold around 2.6 million iPad 2s in March. Apple hasn't divulged any official numbers yet, but the company is expected to report sales data in its quarterly earnings call on April 20.
Using a feed from the front-facing camera coupled with some clever software hacks, the group was able to create what it calls the Head-Coupled Perspective (HCP).
"It is based on [an] efficient head-tracker that uses the front-facing camera of the device," said a description on the group's Web site. "We use an off-axis projection in order to adapt the perspective of the 3D scene according to the head's position of the user. Such spatially-aware mobile display [is able] to improve the possibilities of interaction."
The two-dimensional screen moves when the user moves, maintaining the illusion of 3D perspective. For now, it's just a demo, but it's possible HCP could be included in an app at a later date. It doesn't just work on the iPad 2, either. HCP is also compatible with the iPhone 4. In fact, all the trick requires is a front-facing camera, so it could be used on other Apple devices in the future.
Apple unveiled its second-generation iPad on March 11 in the U.S. On March 25, the device was launched in 25 additional countries. It's been popular worldwide; analysts estimated that roughly 500,000 units flew off store shelves in its first weekend, temporarily driving wait times up to five weeks. The iPad 2 also reportedly sold out overseas within 24 hours.
Digitimes estimates Apple sold around 2.6 million iPad 2s in March. Apple hasn't divulged any official numbers yet, but the company is expected to report sales data in its quarterly earnings call on April 20.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Microsoft: Windows 7 Touch Pack for All [Multi-Touch]
Microsoft has released Touch Pack for Windows 7 for anyone with Windows Touch capable devices to download.
The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 was first introduced last May as a series of 6 applications that were designed to showcase Windows Touch in Windows 7 and to help people learn touch gestures. The features were limited to OEMs with devices having multitouch. But now the Touch pack allows users to use it with any 3rd party touchscreens.
The Touch Pack is a set of six multi-touch consists of 3 casual games, and 3 Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.
Download: Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7
What’s Inside Touch Pack
1. Microsoft Surface Globe uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D Earth. Using multi-touch, you can navigate to different regions, get local information, and “pin” your favorite locations. You can even “fly” around 3D models of buildings in some cities.
Microsoft Surface Globe
2. Microsoft Surface Collage: A photo collage app that arranges photos in the way you want.
Microsoft Surface Collage
3. Microsoft Surface LagoonMicrosoft Blackboard is a screensaver that you can interact with using multi-touch.
4. Microsoft Blackboard, A puzzle game of physics that uses nifty machine on a virtual blackboard. Use gestures to rotate and resize gears, fans, seesaws and more to move balloons and balls toward the light bulbs – and victory.
Other Games:
5. Microsoft Rebound
6. Microsoft Garden Pond
Microsoft ReboundMicrosoft Garden Pond
The apps gives you basic multitotuch experience on Windows 7 but clearly shows how immature this platform is as far as Multitouch is concerned when compared to a native device like iPad. This is the reason why HP’s Slate is a bad idea.
But would multitouch apps appear on Windows 7 Marketplace? We’ll have to wait to see it.
The Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7 was first introduced last May as a series of 6 applications that were designed to showcase Windows Touch in Windows 7 and to help people learn touch gestures. The features were limited to OEMs with devices having multitouch. But now the Touch pack allows users to use it with any 3rd party touchscreens.
The Touch Pack is a set of six multi-touch consists of 3 casual games, and 3 Microsoft Surface applications that have been created for Windows 7.
Download: Microsoft Touch Pack for Windows 7
What’s Inside Touch Pack
1. Microsoft Surface Globe uses the Virtual Earth 3D engine to display a 3D Earth. Using multi-touch, you can navigate to different regions, get local information, and “pin” your favorite locations. You can even “fly” around 3D models of buildings in some cities.
Microsoft Surface Globe
2. Microsoft Surface Collage: A photo collage app that arranges photos in the way you want.
Microsoft Surface Collage
3. Microsoft Surface LagoonMicrosoft Blackboard is a screensaver that you can interact with using multi-touch.
4. Microsoft Blackboard, A puzzle game of physics that uses nifty machine on a virtual blackboard. Use gestures to rotate and resize gears, fans, seesaws and more to move balloons and balls toward the light bulbs – and victory.
Other Games:
5. Microsoft Rebound
6. Microsoft Garden Pond
Microsoft ReboundMicrosoft Garden Pond
The apps gives you basic multitotuch experience on Windows 7 but clearly shows how immature this platform is as far as Multitouch is concerned when compared to a native device like iPad. This is the reason why HP’s Slate is a bad idea.
But would multitouch apps appear on Windows 7 Marketplace? We’ll have to wait to see it.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Windows Phone 7 Software updates 2011 Roadmap
Windows Phone 7 so far hasn’t shown any strong adoption, despite its good reviews. The reason is obvious, it’s all new platform that suffers the same stuff which iPhone did 3 years ago in 2007 or Android did a year ago: Premature platform, lack of features, lack of apps.
Sure we need to give it some time to mature, it would grow as long as Microsoft is desperate on its mobile OS.
There are lots of new stuff heading WP7’s way in 2011 which would bring it step nearer to Android, iOS. But yeah, it would take 1 full year.
So what’s coming ?
Update 1. “No Donuts”
The first Windows Phone 7 software update, codenamed “NoDo,” will RTM within January, after CES is over. But, it wont be available to new users until February when they start shipping new devices and OTA for existing.The update is supposed to bring
* “copy and paste”
* support for the Qualcomm 7×30 smart phone chipset, a CDMA location stack
Fun fact: “NoDo” stands for “No Donuts” and could be so named because the a minor Android update was called “Donut.” Wow did they copy thaat name as well?
Update 2: “Mango”
This would be a major update which will:
* Introduce Internet Explorer 9 with with the Trident 5 rendering engine, HTML 5 and Silverlight, and gesture support.
* New enhancements related to “entertainment”.
Microsoft had promised Multitasking in 2011, seems like that might be a part of Mango (Windows phone 7.5) which would ship near Q4 timeframe, if not earlier.
However, it should be noted that there can be number of small updates in between mango and NoDo.
The updates would be available like as ServicePack kind of packages (just like windows), which maynot be OTA as most users might desire for.
More updates soon.
Update: WP7 Updates: Multitasking, IE9, Cross-platform Gaming
Sure we need to give it some time to mature, it would grow as long as Microsoft is desperate on its mobile OS.
There are lots of new stuff heading WP7’s way in 2011 which would bring it step nearer to Android, iOS. But yeah, it would take 1 full year.
So what’s coming ?
Update 1. “No Donuts”
The first Windows Phone 7 software update, codenamed “NoDo,” will RTM within January, after CES is over. But, it wont be available to new users until February when they start shipping new devices and OTA for existing.The update is supposed to bring
* “copy and paste”
* support for the Qualcomm 7×30 smart phone chipset, a CDMA location stack
Fun fact: “NoDo” stands for “No Donuts” and could be so named because the a minor Android update was called “Donut.” Wow did they copy thaat name as well?
Update 2: “Mango”
This would be a major update which will:
* Introduce Internet Explorer 9 with with the Trident 5 rendering engine, HTML 5 and Silverlight, and gesture support.
* New enhancements related to “entertainment”.
Microsoft had promised Multitasking in 2011, seems like that might be a part of Mango (Windows phone 7.5) which would ship near Q4 timeframe, if not earlier.
However, it should be noted that there can be number of small updates in between mango and NoDo.
The updates would be available like as ServicePack kind of packages (just like windows), which maynot be OTA as most users might desire for.
More updates soon.
Update: WP7 Updates: Multitasking, IE9, Cross-platform Gaming
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Trends In Software Testing II
As the recession grips more economies and enterprises, it's the perfect time to adopt the open source business model. We explain why.
the technology landscape has been undergoing a massive transformation over the past couple of years. In the early 2000s, organisations were going after products and appliances irrationally, investing huge sums without any guarantees of a quantifiable ROI (return on investment). Today, awareness of technology has grown and organisations tend to demand a measurable ROI before adopting a new technology. Open source software has always been a good option to provide effective solutions within relatively low budgets. Not surprisingly, a number of organisations have started adopting open source software solutions. This trend has been boosted by the ongoing recession, with companies looking to cut costs.
Foss1Open source can mean big bucks!
The revenues of Red Hat grew by 14 per cent during the last economic bust in 2001-2002, which then increased to 38 per cent and 58 per cent in 2003 and 2004, respectively, demonstrating the increased usage of open source software during the economic crunch. Novell also showed interest in playing a significant role in the open source software market in November 2003 by acquiring SUSE Linux for $210 million. Last year, Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB, the developer of the world's most popular and fastest growing database, for $1 billion. Writing open source software enables a company to gain access to the open community, which in turn helps in accelerating the pace at which an idea matures.
John Roberts, CEO and founder, SugarCRM, started his company in 2004 with a commercial open source concept. In one of his interviews given to Sramana Mitra, in December 2008, he said, "I convinced two strong engineers at E.piphany to join me. We all resigned together and started SugarCRM without any angel or VC (venture capitalist) money. It was the three of us, each in his house with headphones on, writing and designing code and posting it up on SourceForge.net. We did that for three months. And soon enough, people all over the world started downloading the code." Early this year, SugarCRM joined hands with Tata Communications to make its software accessible to the Indian industry.
A matter of generating revenues
But how do open source software companies make money? There are a variety of business models to generate revenues from open source software:
• Releasing commercial extensions/plug-ins to open source software
• Offering free community-based editions and paid commercial editions with more functionality and features
• Using free and open source to gain media attention, and attract users who might become potential customers for other commercial products
• Offering paid technical support along with free community-based support
• Making the software available via the Internet like on-demand applications, and offering paid subscriptions for online accounts and services
The point about paid technical support is particularly relevant in these times. A recent survey by IDC, a global market intelligence firm, suggests: "The economic slowdown in the United States may actually boost demand for open source services. If organisations adopt more open source software as part of a strategy to reduce software costs, the demand for related services should increase." Many service providers have switched from expensive proprietary system management software to open source software like OpenNMS, Zenoss, Hyperic, Groundworks, Nagios, etc, so that they can cut down the technology cost overheads of their customers.
Zoho_vs_Salesforce
Finally, the SaaS (Software as a Service) business model has proved successful. SaaS delivers non-intrusive and hassle-free cloud-based products via a subscription-based model with no one-time costs involved-an organisation can pay as per software usage. The key to success for a SaaS player is obviously best technology usage, application features, and more importantly, an optimised pricing model. Coming up with a competitive pricing model becomes very difficult if the technology is built over expensive hardware or proprietary software licences. This challenge provides a great opportunity to utilise open source software as SaaS-ready solutions. The success enjoyed by companies like SugarCRM, Zoho (a Chennai-based offshoot of AdventNet) and Zimbra (acquired by Yahoo! in 2007 for $350 million), follows the same concept-enabling organisations to reduce their IT expenditure and increase flexibility by leveraging open source software. Zoho prepared a cost saving chart that compared its services with those offered by its competitor, SalesForce, highlighting the difference in costs between the two (see diagram).
According to Springboard Research, the Indian SaaS market is set to reach $165 million by 2010, due to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77 per cent from 2006 to 2010. We might see greater demand for software available under SaaS model running over private clouds or corporate networks than public clouds due to data security and compliance regulations, but small and medium-sized companies can utilise the software over public clouds to boost their performance at a much lower cost. The increasing demands for such models provides a huge opportunity for service providers to make a shift from traditional delivery models to avant-garde technology models. The economy might be having a tough time, but if they play their cards right, open source companies might never have had it so good.
the technology landscape has been undergoing a massive transformation over the past couple of years. In the early 2000s, organisations were going after products and appliances irrationally, investing huge sums without any guarantees of a quantifiable ROI (return on investment). Today, awareness of technology has grown and organisations tend to demand a measurable ROI before adopting a new technology. Open source software has always been a good option to provide effective solutions within relatively low budgets. Not surprisingly, a number of organisations have started adopting open source software solutions. This trend has been boosted by the ongoing recession, with companies looking to cut costs.
Foss1Open source can mean big bucks!
The revenues of Red Hat grew by 14 per cent during the last economic bust in 2001-2002, which then increased to 38 per cent and 58 per cent in 2003 and 2004, respectively, demonstrating the increased usage of open source software during the economic crunch. Novell also showed interest in playing a significant role in the open source software market in November 2003 by acquiring SUSE Linux for $210 million. Last year, Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB, the developer of the world's most popular and fastest growing database, for $1 billion. Writing open source software enables a company to gain access to the open community, which in turn helps in accelerating the pace at which an idea matures.
John Roberts, CEO and founder, SugarCRM, started his company in 2004 with a commercial open source concept. In one of his interviews given to Sramana Mitra, in December 2008, he said, "I convinced two strong engineers at E.piphany to join me. We all resigned together and started SugarCRM without any angel or VC (venture capitalist) money. It was the three of us, each in his house with headphones on, writing and designing code and posting it up on SourceForge.net. We did that for three months. And soon enough, people all over the world started downloading the code." Early this year, SugarCRM joined hands with Tata Communications to make its software accessible to the Indian industry.
A matter of generating revenues
But how do open source software companies make money? There are a variety of business models to generate revenues from open source software:
• Releasing commercial extensions/plug-ins to open source software
• Offering free community-based editions and paid commercial editions with more functionality and features
• Using free and open source to gain media attention, and attract users who might become potential customers for other commercial products
• Offering paid technical support along with free community-based support
• Making the software available via the Internet like on-demand applications, and offering paid subscriptions for online accounts and services
The point about paid technical support is particularly relevant in these times. A recent survey by IDC, a global market intelligence firm, suggests: "The economic slowdown in the United States may actually boost demand for open source services. If organisations adopt more open source software as part of a strategy to reduce software costs, the demand for related services should increase." Many service providers have switched from expensive proprietary system management software to open source software like OpenNMS, Zenoss, Hyperic, Groundworks, Nagios, etc, so that they can cut down the technology cost overheads of their customers.
Zoho_vs_Salesforce
Finally, the SaaS (Software as a Service) business model has proved successful. SaaS delivers non-intrusive and hassle-free cloud-based products via a subscription-based model with no one-time costs involved-an organisation can pay as per software usage. The key to success for a SaaS player is obviously best technology usage, application features, and more importantly, an optimised pricing model. Coming up with a competitive pricing model becomes very difficult if the technology is built over expensive hardware or proprietary software licences. This challenge provides a great opportunity to utilise open source software as SaaS-ready solutions. The success enjoyed by companies like SugarCRM, Zoho (a Chennai-based offshoot of AdventNet) and Zimbra (acquired by Yahoo! in 2007 for $350 million), follows the same concept-enabling organisations to reduce their IT expenditure and increase flexibility by leveraging open source software. Zoho prepared a cost saving chart that compared its services with those offered by its competitor, SalesForce, highlighting the difference in costs between the two (see diagram).
According to Springboard Research, the Indian SaaS market is set to reach $165 million by 2010, due to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77 per cent from 2006 to 2010. We might see greater demand for software available under SaaS model running over private clouds or corporate networks than public clouds due to data security and compliance regulations, but small and medium-sized companies can utilise the software over public clouds to boost their performance at a much lower cost. The increasing demands for such models provides a huge opportunity for service providers to make a shift from traditional delivery models to avant-garde technology models. The economy might be having a tough time, but if they play their cards right, open source companies might never have had it so good.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
What does the Google-ITA deal mean for consumers?
Many consumer advocates and more than a few industry groups opposed Google’s acquisition of airline flight data company ITA. ITA provides commercial flight and ticketing data to most existing travel sites; if Google acquired them, then it wouldn’t be much of a stretch to see something like the following:
How cool would it be if you could type “flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May” into Google and get not just a set of links but also flight times, fares and a link to sites where you can actually buy tickets quickly and easily?
This is from Google’s own blog today, announcing that the US Department of Justice had finally approved the ITA deal. What they fail to mention in this cool bit of search integration/Web 3.0 goodness is that since that information will begin surfacing at the top of your search results, you aren’t going to bother clicking the link to Kayak.com halfway down the page. Instead, you’re going to click through Google’s ITA-powered results and purchase your tickets through whatever Google company or partnership exists and Google will take a cut instead of Travelocity or Expedia.
As Larry Dignan pointed out earlier when he first reported on the DOJ approval,
The DOJ said that [its] settlement with Google will “protect competition for airfare comparison and booking websites” and allow ITA to “power their websites to compete against any airfare website Google may introduce.”…Google is also prohibited from entering into agreements with airlines that would restrict information flow to competitors.
It feels to me like Google’s vision of how the ITA deal will play out and the DOJ’s conditions for letting it happen don’t quite align.
And yet…Back to the title of this post. What does it mean for us as consumers?
As with all things Google, it means convenience, first and foremost. This isn’t a bad thing. I rarely bother going to Weather Underground anymore, unless I want to read the detailed forecaster notes from NOAA that they conveniently provide. I just start typing weather in Google and Google Instant surfaces the weather for my location. Via weather.com. Wunderground obviously isn’t happy about this; weather.com is. So am I, because it’s easier, especially from a mobile device, and I didn’t like the new design that Weather Underground recently rolled out anyway.
We can probably expect the same from Google’s ITA acquisition. There will be winners and losers and it will simply be easier for us to find air travel information. I would argue, in fact, that this will also benefit users in terms of competition, not because it won’t crush Kayak (it probably will…poor guys, they were just getting started), but because the travel sites that want to survive are going to have to start getting creative. We’re going to see more value adds to draw us to Expedia rather than simply Googling our next air travel requirements.
Amazon has done this very successfully. Most of us now just head to Amazon if we want to buy something online rather than Googling the product and finding it online somewhere. Smaller sites with really smart, creative people are going to figure out ways to use the ITA data to make our lives better too, perhaps with mobile apps or new partnerships with specific carriers or by catering to particular frequent flyer mile alliances.
Any way it goes, we come out of this on top and, not surprisingly, so does Google.
How cool would it be if you could type “flights to somewhere sunny for under $500 in May” into Google and get not just a set of links but also flight times, fares and a link to sites where you can actually buy tickets quickly and easily?
This is from Google’s own blog today, announcing that the US Department of Justice had finally approved the ITA deal. What they fail to mention in this cool bit of search integration/Web 3.0 goodness is that since that information will begin surfacing at the top of your search results, you aren’t going to bother clicking the link to Kayak.com halfway down the page. Instead, you’re going to click through Google’s ITA-powered results and purchase your tickets through whatever Google company or partnership exists and Google will take a cut instead of Travelocity or Expedia.
As Larry Dignan pointed out earlier when he first reported on the DOJ approval,
The DOJ said that [its] settlement with Google will “protect competition for airfare comparison and booking websites” and allow ITA to “power their websites to compete against any airfare website Google may introduce.”…Google is also prohibited from entering into agreements with airlines that would restrict information flow to competitors.
It feels to me like Google’s vision of how the ITA deal will play out and the DOJ’s conditions for letting it happen don’t quite align.
And yet…Back to the title of this post. What does it mean for us as consumers?
As with all things Google, it means convenience, first and foremost. This isn’t a bad thing. I rarely bother going to Weather Underground anymore, unless I want to read the detailed forecaster notes from NOAA that they conveniently provide. I just start typing weather in Google and Google Instant surfaces the weather for my location. Via weather.com. Wunderground obviously isn’t happy about this; weather.com is. So am I, because it’s easier, especially from a mobile device, and I didn’t like the new design that Weather Underground recently rolled out anyway.
We can probably expect the same from Google’s ITA acquisition. There will be winners and losers and it will simply be easier for us to find air travel information. I would argue, in fact, that this will also benefit users in terms of competition, not because it won’t crush Kayak (it probably will…poor guys, they were just getting started), but because the travel sites that want to survive are going to have to start getting creative. We’re going to see more value adds to draw us to Expedia rather than simply Googling our next air travel requirements.
Amazon has done this very successfully. Most of us now just head to Amazon if we want to buy something online rather than Googling the product and finding it online somewhere. Smaller sites with really smart, creative people are going to figure out ways to use the ITA data to make our lives better too, perhaps with mobile apps or new partnerships with specific carriers or by catering to particular frequent flyer mile alliances.
Any way it goes, we come out of this on top and, not surprisingly, so does Google.
Friday, April 8, 2011
TheStartupBuzz VC Showcase
The first of its kind event in India will bring venture capitalists, angel investors, start-up founders and entrepreneurs under one roof.
TheStartupBuzz VC Showcase is going to be held at Capitol Hotel, Rajbhavan Road, Bengaluru on 31 October 2009. VC Showcase is the first of its kind event in India where venture capitalists and angel investors showcase about their firms, explaining about their expectations from entrepreneurs. Each VC/investor will have their own table set-up only for meeting great companies and entrepreneurs.
The event will be attended by VC/investor, start-up founders and entrepreneurs. It will bring together start-up founders to share experiences and interact with other start-ups. Three start-up founders will share their experiences of starting a venture, sustaining it and taking it to the next level.
Around 20 VC/investors will showcase their firms and 200 start-up CEOs and aspiring CEOs will meet and discuss during the event. In addition, there will be a wide range of sessions focussing on building successful start up, best practices, funding theory etc.
TheStartupBuzz VC Showcase is going to be held at Capitol Hotel, Rajbhavan Road, Bengaluru on 31 October 2009. VC Showcase is the first of its kind event in India where venture capitalists and angel investors showcase about their firms, explaining about their expectations from entrepreneurs. Each VC/investor will have their own table set-up only for meeting great companies and entrepreneurs.
The event will be attended by VC/investor, start-up founders and entrepreneurs. It will bring together start-up founders to share experiences and interact with other start-ups. Three start-up founders will share their experiences of starting a venture, sustaining it and taking it to the next level.
Around 20 VC/investors will showcase their firms and 200 start-up CEOs and aspiring CEOs will meet and discuss during the event. In addition, there will be a wide range of sessions focussing on building successful start up, best practices, funding theory etc.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Dells new servers come preloaded with hundreds of virtual machines
Dell on Thursday served up a new choice for buying its servers: plug-and-play configurations that include up to 200 VMware virtual machines along with the networking and storage needed to run them.
Dell is also offering a ready-made virtual desktop infrastructure in the same fashion, letting users buy servers pre-configured with hundreds to thousands virtual desktops in two flavors: VMware or Citrix XenDesktop.
CLOUD NEWS: Rackspace, Dell push OpenStack cloud OS
But wait, there's more. The company tossed in an announcement about a new e-mail backup and archiving service and expanded partnership with Microsoft, then promised to build 10 new data centers worldwide in the next 24 months - three in the U.S. -- to support what it hopes will be a massive move to its cloud. In addition to hosting virtual storage, desktops and e-mail backups, Dell says these data centers will serve up VMware, OpenStack and Azure clouds. All told, the company says it is spending $1 billion on the cloud.
Dell executives explained that despite what virtualization has done for hardware efficiency, it isn't easy to manage. "Customers are more interested in buying VMs than in buying the physical hardware they have to assemble," said Stephen Schuckenbrock, president of Dell Services, during a telephone press conference this week. He adds that research reports predict that soon "virtually half the workloads will be running on virtual machines ... but it's not that easy to do, to optimize those virtual machines."
Enter the new vStart line of servers. These are built with the Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge, VMware hypervisors, Dell EqualLogic storage and Dell PowerConnect switches (which Dell OEMs from Juniper) and includes essential virtualization management extensions. The infrastructure is pre-assembled by Dell, and delivered to the enterprise's site as a single unit, racked and cabled. Customers can own these units, though Dell is also willing to set them up as managed servers, promised Schuckenbrock.
The vStart 100 is a unit preconfigured with 100 VMs and priced at $99,000 while the vStart 200 is configured with 200 VMs and is priced at $169,000. The vStart family will eventually include configurations that offer more and less VMs, said Schuckenbrock, but these two standard configurations are available now.
MORE ON DELL: Dell servers preloaded with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud software
Not wanting to completely tick off the mighty Microsoft, Dell also announced a vague three-year agreement with Redmond that will let virtualized systems be managed by Microsoft System Center. This agreement will one-day also allow Dell to offer Hyper-V as a VM choice. When the Hyper-V option materializes, it will be a less expensive choice, hinted Praveen Asthana, vice president, Enterprise Solutions & Strategy. "Microsoft System Center and Hyper-V will give customers more choice and radically change the economics of virtualization," he said. However configurations available today star VMware.
Plus, Dell is encouraging enterprises to take the plunge with VDI by similarly offering plug-and-play servers bundled with hundreds or thousands of Citrix XenDesktop or VMware virtual desktops. Customers can choose the number of desktops according to their needs. Dell technically announced its Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DDVS) offering in March but on Thursday reiterated that the VDI bundle can be had anyway the customer wants it: as an owned piece of gear, as a managed service, a cloud service, or some kind of custom package in between, with Dell doing all the integration work to ensure customers' apps work with it. It, too, is based on Dell PowerEdge servers, EqualLogic storage and PowerConnect networking.
Dell is also offering a ready-made virtual desktop infrastructure in the same fashion, letting users buy servers pre-configured with hundreds to thousands virtual desktops in two flavors: VMware or Citrix XenDesktop.
CLOUD NEWS: Rackspace, Dell push OpenStack cloud OS
But wait, there's more. The company tossed in an announcement about a new e-mail backup and archiving service and expanded partnership with Microsoft, then promised to build 10 new data centers worldwide in the next 24 months - three in the U.S. -- to support what it hopes will be a massive move to its cloud. In addition to hosting virtual storage, desktops and e-mail backups, Dell says these data centers will serve up VMware, OpenStack and Azure clouds. All told, the company says it is spending $1 billion on the cloud.
Dell executives explained that despite what virtualization has done for hardware efficiency, it isn't easy to manage. "Customers are more interested in buying VMs than in buying the physical hardware they have to assemble," said Stephen Schuckenbrock, president of Dell Services, during a telephone press conference this week. He adds that research reports predict that soon "virtually half the workloads will be running on virtual machines ... but it's not that easy to do, to optimize those virtual machines."
Enter the new vStart line of servers. These are built with the Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge, VMware hypervisors, Dell EqualLogic storage and Dell PowerConnect switches (which Dell OEMs from Juniper) and includes essential virtualization management extensions. The infrastructure is pre-assembled by Dell, and delivered to the enterprise's site as a single unit, racked and cabled. Customers can own these units, though Dell is also willing to set them up as managed servers, promised Schuckenbrock.
The vStart 100 is a unit preconfigured with 100 VMs and priced at $99,000 while the vStart 200 is configured with 200 VMs and is priced at $169,000. The vStart family will eventually include configurations that offer more and less VMs, said Schuckenbrock, but these two standard configurations are available now.
MORE ON DELL: Dell servers preloaded with Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud software
Not wanting to completely tick off the mighty Microsoft, Dell also announced a vague three-year agreement with Redmond that will let virtualized systems be managed by Microsoft System Center. This agreement will one-day also allow Dell to offer Hyper-V as a VM choice. When the Hyper-V option materializes, it will be a less expensive choice, hinted Praveen Asthana, vice president, Enterprise Solutions & Strategy. "Microsoft System Center and Hyper-V will give customers more choice and radically change the economics of virtualization," he said. However configurations available today star VMware.
Plus, Dell is encouraging enterprises to take the plunge with VDI by similarly offering plug-and-play servers bundled with hundreds or thousands of Citrix XenDesktop or VMware virtual desktops. Customers can choose the number of desktops according to their needs. Dell technically announced its Desktop Virtualization Solutions (DDVS) offering in March but on Thursday reiterated that the VDI bundle can be had anyway the customer wants it: as an owned piece of gear, as a managed service, a cloud service, or some kind of custom package in between, with Dell doing all the integration work to ensure customers' apps work with it. It, too, is based on Dell PowerEdge servers, EqualLogic storage and PowerConnect networking.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Microsoft to Develop Telematics Platform for Toyota Hybrids
Microsoft and Toyota said Wednesday that the companies will co-develop Toyota's next-generation telematics platform around Microsoft's Azure platform.
The two companies said that they plan to deliver the platform to Toyota's electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, most likely including the Prius, by 2012. "TMC's goal is to establish a complete global cloud platform by 2015 that will provide affordable and advanced telematics services to Toyota automotive customers around the world," Toyota said in a statement.
As part of the deal, the two companies said that they would co-invest $12 million, or 1 billion yen, into Toyota Media Service Co., a Toyota subsidiary that provides digital information services to Toyota customers.
The collaboration by the two companies on a telematics platform came as no surprise; the two announced a press conference on Tuesday for 1 PM PT today. Microsoft also has designed a telematics platform for Ford, called Sync, which debuted its version 3.0 in 2009. However, the Sync technology was provided to Ford by Microsoft, and Ford owns the trademark, a spokeswoman said - leaving Microsoft the ability to design a similar platform for other carmakers.
"Today's announcement of our partnership with TMC is a great example of how we continue to invest in the automotive industry and of our commitment to power the services that are important to consumers," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, in a statement. "It further validates the power of the cloud, as the Windows Azure platform will provide the enterprise-grade, scalable platform that TMC needs to deliver telematics in its automobiles worldwide."
It remains to be seen what Toyota will do with Entune, its own Sync-like car entertainment system, Entune, which it announced at CES. Toyota did not identify which vehicles would receive EnTune; Toyota launched Enform, a similar telematics platform, for Lexus in January 2009.
Toyota Entune, like Ford's Sync Destinations app, lets a driver interface their cars with their smartphones. At launch later this year, Entune will include access to Microsoft Bing, iheartradio, Pandora, MovieTickets.com, OpenTable and other personal trackers for real-time stock and sports information, Toyota announced in January. Users can also send directions to their vehicle's navigation system.
It also appears that Microsoft will leverage some of the work it performed in its Microsoft Hohm app to the new telematics platform as a means to manage the home charging of the Toyota electric vehicles. At the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference on Tuesday, Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, said Microsoft is repurposing Hohm to work with Ford's all-electric Focus to manage electric-vehicle charging at home, according to CNET. Microsoft launched Hohm in 2009 as a way to help homeowners manage their energy consumption and save money.
"This new partnership between Microsoft and Toyota is an important step in developing greater future mobility and energy management for consumers around the world," Akio Toyoda, president of TMC, said in a statement. "Creating these more efficient, more environmentally advanced products will be our contribution to society. To achieve this, it is important to develop a new link between vehicles, people and smart center energy-management systems."
The two companies said that they plan to deliver the platform to Toyota's electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, most likely including the Prius, by 2012. "TMC's goal is to establish a complete global cloud platform by 2015 that will provide affordable and advanced telematics services to Toyota automotive customers around the world," Toyota said in a statement.
As part of the deal, the two companies said that they would co-invest $12 million, or 1 billion yen, into Toyota Media Service Co., a Toyota subsidiary that provides digital information services to Toyota customers.
The collaboration by the two companies on a telematics platform came as no surprise; the two announced a press conference on Tuesday for 1 PM PT today. Microsoft also has designed a telematics platform for Ford, called Sync, which debuted its version 3.0 in 2009. However, the Sync technology was provided to Ford by Microsoft, and Ford owns the trademark, a spokeswoman said - leaving Microsoft the ability to design a similar platform for other carmakers.
"Today's announcement of our partnership with TMC is a great example of how we continue to invest in the automotive industry and of our commitment to power the services that are important to consumers," said Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, in a statement. "It further validates the power of the cloud, as the Windows Azure platform will provide the enterprise-grade, scalable platform that TMC needs to deliver telematics in its automobiles worldwide."
It remains to be seen what Toyota will do with Entune, its own Sync-like car entertainment system, Entune, which it announced at CES. Toyota did not identify which vehicles would receive EnTune; Toyota launched Enform, a similar telematics platform, for Lexus in January 2009.
Toyota Entune, like Ford's Sync Destinations app, lets a driver interface their cars with their smartphones. At launch later this year, Entune will include access to Microsoft Bing, iheartradio, Pandora, MovieTickets.com, OpenTable and other personal trackers for real-time stock and sports information, Toyota announced in January. Users can also send directions to their vehicle's navigation system.
It also appears that Microsoft will leverage some of the work it performed in its Microsoft Hohm app to the new telematics platform as a means to manage the home charging of the Toyota electric vehicles. At the Fortune Brainstorm Green conference on Tuesday, Rob Bernard, Microsoft's chief environmental strategist, said Microsoft is repurposing Hohm to work with Ford's all-electric Focus to manage electric-vehicle charging at home, according to CNET. Microsoft launched Hohm in 2009 as a way to help homeowners manage their energy consumption and save money.
"This new partnership between Microsoft and Toyota is an important step in developing greater future mobility and energy management for consumers around the world," Akio Toyoda, president of TMC, said in a statement. "Creating these more efficient, more environmentally advanced products will be our contribution to society. To achieve this, it is important to develop a new link between vehicles, people and smart center energy-management systems."
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
The real security issue behind the Comodo hack II
Ninety-nine percent of the world has no idea what a digital certificate is, how PKI works, or more important, what a digital certificate error means for their immediate computer security. I've been in many businesses that wholesale ignored or weren't bothered by digital certificate errors. I remember working with one very large client when Internet Explorer 7 came out along with Windows Vista; the company got mad at Microsoft (my full-time employer) for flagging "all these revoked certificates." The client had tens of thousands of them.
Within a few minutes, I was able to tell the client that its certificates had been revoked for months; it's just that early versions of Windows and Internet Explorer didn't check or warn as much about revoked certificates. Instead of reissuing certificates, which was what I expected, the client (I'm not making this up) decided to switch to Firefox, because Firefox had no problem with those certificates.
In the middle of my complaining about the inappropriate solution, Firefox underwent a major upgrade -- and the new version also alerted the client to the revoked certificates. The client's solution was still not to fix the problem but instead to disable revocation checking in Internet Explorer. When I explained that a revoked certificate was to be treated the same as a malicious certificate, they patted me on the head and sent me on my way.
Traveling, I watch people in airports and in hotels, where almost every site causes some sort of digital certificate error. Today, most browsers unequivocally spell out what accepting the invalid certificate means, saying something like, "Accepting this digital certificate could allow other to see your information or send you to a fraudulent Web site." I've never seen a person who didn't bypass the error and continue using the bad digital certificate.
I love PKI, crypto, and the absolute safety built into the math. PKI and digital certificates work, for the most part, the way the designers envisioned. In almost two decades of use, I can count the number of fraudulently issued certificates on two hands -- out of hundreds of millions or billions issued. PKI succeeds, but overall, when you factor in human behavior, it fails miserably. That's been a tough lesson to learn and a hard truth to swallow.
Although it's not good that Comodo was involved in issuing fraudulent certificates, the hack is nowhere near my list of top 10 things I'm worried about on a daily basis. So far, these fraudulent certs have been used only a handful of times, but tens of thousands of people are compromised by a fake antivirus program warning every day. I wish the big problems that affect the most people got the headlines and emotional concern that Comodo has garnered. It's sort of like how we don't pay our top scientists nearly as much as our top rock bands and movie stars.
Within a few minutes, I was able to tell the client that its certificates had been revoked for months; it's just that early versions of Windows and Internet Explorer didn't check or warn as much about revoked certificates. Instead of reissuing certificates, which was what I expected, the client (I'm not making this up) decided to switch to Firefox, because Firefox had no problem with those certificates.
In the middle of my complaining about the inappropriate solution, Firefox underwent a major upgrade -- and the new version also alerted the client to the revoked certificates. The client's solution was still not to fix the problem but instead to disable revocation checking in Internet Explorer. When I explained that a revoked certificate was to be treated the same as a malicious certificate, they patted me on the head and sent me on my way.
Traveling, I watch people in airports and in hotels, where almost every site causes some sort of digital certificate error. Today, most browsers unequivocally spell out what accepting the invalid certificate means, saying something like, "Accepting this digital certificate could allow other to see your information or send you to a fraudulent Web site." I've never seen a person who didn't bypass the error and continue using the bad digital certificate.
I love PKI, crypto, and the absolute safety built into the math. PKI and digital certificates work, for the most part, the way the designers envisioned. In almost two decades of use, I can count the number of fraudulently issued certificates on two hands -- out of hundreds of millions or billions issued. PKI succeeds, but overall, when you factor in human behavior, it fails miserably. That's been a tough lesson to learn and a hard truth to swallow.
Although it's not good that Comodo was involved in issuing fraudulent certificates, the hack is nowhere near my list of top 10 things I'm worried about on a daily basis. So far, these fraudulent certs have been used only a handful of times, but tens of thousands of people are compromised by a fake antivirus program warning every day. I wish the big problems that affect the most people got the headlines and emotional concern that Comodo has garnered. It's sort of like how we don't pay our top scientists nearly as much as our top rock bands and movie stars.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Millions of websites hit with mass-injection cyberattack
Hundreds of thousands -- and possibly millions -- of websites have been hit with a cyberattack that some are calling "one of the biggest mass-injection attacks we've ever seen."
The attack was discovered on March 29 by security firm WebSense, and the injected domain was called lizamoon.com -- thus, the name of the mass-injection is "LizaMoon." According to WebSense, LizaMoon uses SQL Injection to add malicious script to compromised sites. While the first injected domain was lizamoon.com, additional URLs have since been injected in the attack (WebSense has a full list here).
[ Master your security with InfoWorld's interactive Security iGuide. | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. ]
The method of using an injected script redirects users to a rogue AV site, which tries to get people to install a fake anti-virus program called Windows Stability Center.
When WebSecurity discovered the attack on March 29, 28,000 URLs had been compromised. The number quickly grew to 226,000, including many iTunes URLs (though the malicious code is neutralized by Apple).
"The good thing is that iTunes encodes the script tags, which means that the script doesn't execute on the user's computer," WebSense security blogger Patrik Runald wrote on Tuesday, "So good job, Apple."
The number of infected sites now appears to be over 1.5 million (at the time of this blog post, a quick Google Search shows 1.53 million infected URLs) -- but WebSense is quick to point out that a Google Search is an inaccurate metric. Google search spits back unique URLs, not unique hosts. Thus, there are likely less than 1.5 million infected sites, but WebSense says it's safe to say that the number is in the hundreds of thousands.
The attack continues to rampage across the Internet, and currently doesn't show any signs of slowing down. So don't install any Web-based anti-virus software that claims your computer is full of bugs.
Follow Sarah on Twitter (@geeklil) or at sarahpurewal.wordpress.com and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter.
The attack was discovered on March 29 by security firm WebSense, and the injected domain was called lizamoon.com -- thus, the name of the mass-injection is "LizaMoon." According to WebSense, LizaMoon uses SQL Injection to add malicious script to compromised sites. While the first injected domain was lizamoon.com, additional URLs have since been injected in the attack (WebSense has a full list here).
[ Master your security with InfoWorld's interactive Security iGuide. | Stay up to date on the latest security developments with InfoWorld's Security Central newsletter. ]
The method of using an injected script redirects users to a rogue AV site, which tries to get people to install a fake anti-virus program called Windows Stability Center.
When WebSecurity discovered the attack on March 29, 28,000 URLs had been compromised. The number quickly grew to 226,000, including many iTunes URLs (though the malicious code is neutralized by Apple).
"The good thing is that iTunes encodes the script tags, which means that the script doesn't execute on the user's computer," WebSense security blogger Patrik Runald wrote on Tuesday, "So good job, Apple."
The number of infected sites now appears to be over 1.5 million (at the time of this blog post, a quick Google Search shows 1.53 million infected URLs) -- but WebSense is quick to point out that a Google Search is an inaccurate metric. Google search spits back unique URLs, not unique hosts. Thus, there are likely less than 1.5 million infected sites, but WebSense says it's safe to say that the number is in the hundreds of thousands.
The attack continues to rampage across the Internet, and currently doesn't show any signs of slowing down. So don't install any Web-based anti-virus software that claims your computer is full of bugs.
Follow Sarah on Twitter (@geeklil) or at sarahpurewal.wordpress.com and Today @ PCWorld on Twitter.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Managing Start-ups
Tapping the enormous potential of rebels, and other insider tips on managing a tech business.
First off, for those who claim that management is not necessary in a technical environment - I respect your opinion. And this column is not going to interest you. You might as well go to Slashdot, or MetaFilter, or CodingHorror, or ....
(Disclaimer: The fact that I believe that management is necessary in a technical environment does not mean I do not visit the above sites - I am still a geek at 32.)
Managing a start-up environment is different from managing a mature software business. There are several things that work in a start-up that may not in a mature set-up, and vice versa. You'll notice that I have emphasised the ‘may not'. There are several companies that I know of that work in start-up mode. Some of the points below may work in such firms, if it is part of the culture of the company.
1. Avoid meetings - have discussions: Though it may seem like I've given different names for the same thing, it really is not so. There are several significant differences, such as:
* In a discussion, there is significantly more participation from the grass roots engineers, than in a meeting.
* There is no agenda. There are points of discussion. The key here is that meetings are over when the points on the agenda are done. Discussions are over, when everyone is convinced.
* A lot of learning takes place in a discussion. People can ask for clarifications and elaborations. There is no, "Let's take this discussion offline." This is the discussion.
* Action points are taken up by the ‘actioners' themselves. There is more accountability this way.
2. Avoid status meetings: Status can be covered either by discussions like the above, or by just walking over to the cubicle of the developer. I sometimes write down the action points, etc, on the white board in the cube.
3. Give more freedom to developers: They are more creative this way. They are more accountable, and they feel good about it. Developers who feel good about code they develop are just more productive.
4. Break stereotypes: Get Wi-Fi to the coffee room/pantry. Who says the pantry is only for relaxing. If the developers are most productive at night and make requests for coffee or tea, get it to them. Do they require dinner? Order in. Do not worry about what others will think- or whether it has ever been implemented before. Just do it.
5. Buffer your technical team from the management: As far as possible, you, the technical manager, should be the one who oversees the development. Try and avoid interference from higher management. They do a very important job of bringing business to the company. Let them do so in peace. If possible, prevent them giving advice, suggestions or recommendations on what should go into the product, or comment on how easy or difficult it is to develop something. You, the technical manager, should be the buffer between the developers and the upper level of management.
6. Reward rebels: There are programmers, and there are rebel programmers. These are the bearded ones, who get maximum work done between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. If you encourage them through whatever appropriate means and align them with the higher objectives of the company, you have a winner here. Reward the rebel handsomely. One must understand that rebels do not consider money as the only reward. They can be rewarded with better machines, dual monitors, leave-with-no-questions-asked... These things are equally exciting to the maverick. Go on, encourage the rebel in your team, then sit back and watch the fun.
7. Infuse energy: Have you ever walked into a start-up office--one that is doing well, and is also managed well? Can you feel the energy? There are heated technical arguments in the hallway. There are those with headphones, listening to some loud music and bobbing their heads, even as their hands furiously program. You can see people coding with feet up in the table. You may catch someone who, having just finished coding a module, throws up his hands in accomplishment, and drags a few of his mates for a coffee. That's the energy. Encourage it. You, the technical manager, should be part of this energy. Go and high-five the guy who just finished the module. Participate in the hallway argument. Sit back and have a cup of coffee with the so-called junior developers and share some history. You will not only be considered the cool guy, you will be the one who gets credited for all the energy (and hence the productivity).
First off, for those who claim that management is not necessary in a technical environment - I respect your opinion. And this column is not going to interest you. You might as well go to Slashdot, or MetaFilter, or CodingHorror, or ....
(Disclaimer: The fact that I believe that management is necessary in a technical environment does not mean I do not visit the above sites - I am still a geek at 32.)
Managing a start-up environment is different from managing a mature software business. There are several things that work in a start-up that may not in a mature set-up, and vice versa. You'll notice that I have emphasised the ‘may not'. There are several companies that I know of that work in start-up mode. Some of the points below may work in such firms, if it is part of the culture of the company.
1. Avoid meetings - have discussions: Though it may seem like I've given different names for the same thing, it really is not so. There are several significant differences, such as:
* In a discussion, there is significantly more participation from the grass roots engineers, than in a meeting.
* There is no agenda. There are points of discussion. The key here is that meetings are over when the points on the agenda are done. Discussions are over, when everyone is convinced.
* A lot of learning takes place in a discussion. People can ask for clarifications and elaborations. There is no, "Let's take this discussion offline." This is the discussion.
* Action points are taken up by the ‘actioners' themselves. There is more accountability this way.
2. Avoid status meetings: Status can be covered either by discussions like the above, or by just walking over to the cubicle of the developer. I sometimes write down the action points, etc, on the white board in the cube.
3. Give more freedom to developers: They are more creative this way. They are more accountable, and they feel good about it. Developers who feel good about code they develop are just more productive.
4. Break stereotypes: Get Wi-Fi to the coffee room/pantry. Who says the pantry is only for relaxing. If the developers are most productive at night and make requests for coffee or tea, get it to them. Do they require dinner? Order in. Do not worry about what others will think- or whether it has ever been implemented before. Just do it.
5. Buffer your technical team from the management: As far as possible, you, the technical manager, should be the one who oversees the development. Try and avoid interference from higher management. They do a very important job of bringing business to the company. Let them do so in peace. If possible, prevent them giving advice, suggestions or recommendations on what should go into the product, or comment on how easy or difficult it is to develop something. You, the technical manager, should be the buffer between the developers and the upper level of management.
6. Reward rebels: There are programmers, and there are rebel programmers. These are the bearded ones, who get maximum work done between 11:00 pm and 1:00 am. If you encourage them through whatever appropriate means and align them with the higher objectives of the company, you have a winner here. Reward the rebel handsomely. One must understand that rebels do not consider money as the only reward. They can be rewarded with better machines, dual monitors, leave-with-no-questions-asked... These things are equally exciting to the maverick. Go on, encourage the rebel in your team, then sit back and watch the fun.
7. Infuse energy: Have you ever walked into a start-up office--one that is doing well, and is also managed well? Can you feel the energy? There are heated technical arguments in the hallway. There are those with headphones, listening to some loud music and bobbing their heads, even as their hands furiously program. You can see people coding with feet up in the table. You may catch someone who, having just finished coding a module, throws up his hands in accomplishment, and drags a few of his mates for a coffee. That's the energy. Encourage it. You, the technical manager, should be part of this energy. Go and high-five the guy who just finished the module. Participate in the hallway argument. Sit back and have a cup of coffee with the so-called junior developers and share some history. You will not only be considered the cool guy, you will be the one who gets credited for all the energy (and hence the productivity).
SIIC Nurturing Innovation!
Incubation centres often are like nests that transform caterpillars into butterflies. SIIC is one such incubation centre, which fosters several innovative projects, nurturing start-ups till they learn to fly and are ready to flourish on their own.
The SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) was established at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), in collaboration with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in 2000. Its mission is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the major objectives of the centre is to promote technology-based start-ups by providing them the necessary infrastructure and mentoring.
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SIDBI provides the corpus funding to the SIIC, wherein the interest on the principal amount is used for re-funding. The other funding bodies are the government of UP and IITK.
Initial hiccups
Entrepreneurship and incubation were relatively new concepts in India when SIIC was being conceptualised. These occurred at very few places and at a very low scale. SIIC was an initiative of Prof S G Dhande, director, IITK, who was then the dean, R&D. He visualised the need for such an organisation and was instrumental in implementing the concept of incubation at IITK.
"Initially, the going was tough as students were not much interested in entrepreneurship or incubation, as lucrative jobs enticed them more. The first to take advantage of the facility was a group of students who dropped out of college. They joined SIIC in 2001, but quit after three years of graduation from SIIC, due to personality problems between the promoters. A rigorous entrepreneurship awareness campaign was launched on the campus, which included talks by successful alumni entrepreneurs, business plan competitions, innovative idea contests and contests among school children," says B.V. Phani, coordinator, SIIC.
As a result, the number of incubating companies went up and currently there are 10 incubatees with SIIC (full capacity), while another five have already graduated from SIIC. Currently, SIIC has a waiting list of companies, which have already got approval for admission but are awaiting space allocation. It has also launched new initiatives like the formulation of the faculty entrepreneurship policy of the institute, fund raising from various sources, national and international collaborations, technology commercialisation, and creating a student e-cell. The faculty entrepreneurship policy enables faculty members to start a company of their own without quitting their current jobs. The policy has been implemented very recently and there are already 4-5 projects that are being reviewed by the institute. The student e-cell is a programme that involves counselling, workshops and competitions, organised on a weekly/monthly basis to encourage students to innovate.
Getting in: The selection criteria
Hexo Labs, Simmortal, EI Devices, Aurora Integrated Systems, and IAITO Infotech are some of the firms that are currently being incubated at SIIC. The criteria for selecting these projects were: value addition, enrichment of state-of-the-art technology, import substitution and scalability of the market.
Generally, a committee comprising experts from the relevant field evaluates a project and the business plan submitted by a company on the following criteria:
* The need/relevance of the proposal
* Technological feasibility of the project
* The innovativeness of the technology
* Applicability of the project in the industry
* Commercial viability
* Team strength
A firm situated at a remote place too can be incubated at SIIC. The firm can approach SIIC through its website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/siic/ and apply for virtual incubation, which means the firm need not be located at IITK but can have access to all the facilities on campus as and when it needs them. SIIC does not charge any initial fees but holds 1 per cent equity in the company. The selection criteria for such firms are the same as mentioned above.
The SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Centre (SIIC) was established at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK), in collaboration with the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in 2000. Its mission is to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. One of the major objectives of the centre is to promote technology-based start-ups by providing them the necessary infrastructure and mentoring.
Best Microsoft MCTS Training – Microsoft MCITP Training at Certkingdom.com
SIDBI provides the corpus funding to the SIIC, wherein the interest on the principal amount is used for re-funding. The other funding bodies are the government of UP and IITK.
Initial hiccups
Entrepreneurship and incubation were relatively new concepts in India when SIIC was being conceptualised. These occurred at very few places and at a very low scale. SIIC was an initiative of Prof S G Dhande, director, IITK, who was then the dean, R&D. He visualised the need for such an organisation and was instrumental in implementing the concept of incubation at IITK.
"Initially, the going was tough as students were not much interested in entrepreneurship or incubation, as lucrative jobs enticed them more. The first to take advantage of the facility was a group of students who dropped out of college. They joined SIIC in 2001, but quit after three years of graduation from SIIC, due to personality problems between the promoters. A rigorous entrepreneurship awareness campaign was launched on the campus, which included talks by successful alumni entrepreneurs, business plan competitions, innovative idea contests and contests among school children," says B.V. Phani, coordinator, SIIC.
As a result, the number of incubating companies went up and currently there are 10 incubatees with SIIC (full capacity), while another five have already graduated from SIIC. Currently, SIIC has a waiting list of companies, which have already got approval for admission but are awaiting space allocation. It has also launched new initiatives like the formulation of the faculty entrepreneurship policy of the institute, fund raising from various sources, national and international collaborations, technology commercialisation, and creating a student e-cell. The faculty entrepreneurship policy enables faculty members to start a company of their own without quitting their current jobs. The policy has been implemented very recently and there are already 4-5 projects that are being reviewed by the institute. The student e-cell is a programme that involves counselling, workshops and competitions, organised on a weekly/monthly basis to encourage students to innovate.
Getting in: The selection criteria
Hexo Labs, Simmortal, EI Devices, Aurora Integrated Systems, and IAITO Infotech are some of the firms that are currently being incubated at SIIC. The criteria for selecting these projects were: value addition, enrichment of state-of-the-art technology, import substitution and scalability of the market.
Generally, a committee comprising experts from the relevant field evaluates a project and the business plan submitted by a company on the following criteria:
* The need/relevance of the proposal
* Technological feasibility of the project
* The innovativeness of the technology
* Applicability of the project in the industry
* Commercial viability
* Team strength
A firm situated at a remote place too can be incubated at SIIC. The firm can approach SIIC through its website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/siic/ and apply for virtual incubation, which means the firm need not be located at IITK but can have access to all the facilities on campus as and when it needs them. SIIC does not charge any initial fees but holds 1 per cent equity in the company. The selection criteria for such firms are the same as mentioned above.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
How to Fix Your Wireless Internet Connection Problems
Without question, your router is one of the most useful and convenient tech devices you own. But many of you probably view it as one of the biggest sources of frustration, anxiety, and downright anger. The fact is, setting up a home router—and keeping it running—is still more complicated and demanding of tech knowledge than the average user would like it to be.
Part of the problem is that routers do so much more than average user can understand. A router performs two primary functions. First, it routes data packets between networks. Second, it serves as a wireless access point, sharing the inbound Internet connection with all devices on a home network. A router is the central figure in a home network, connecting the vast Internet with our comparatively, tiny (yet increasingly sophisticated) private networks. That's a complex set of responsibilities for a small, inexpensive device to perform. Most routers manage to do all these job reasonably well for the vast majority of the time. But, because all of these functions are critical to a router's network, when your router begins to act up, you're likely to forget the fact that it functioned flawless for weeks, or even months, at a time.
And your router will act up, from time to time. Unfortunately, these bridges between the wilds of the Web and a home user's local area network, or LAN, are the perfect breeding grounds for a host of problems. Not being able to browse the Internet, intermittent connections drops, and dead spots in wireless coverage, are just a small sample from the endless litany of migraine-inducing Wi-Fi weirdness on those rare occasions when routers fail at their tasks.
You have the power to remediate many of these issues, even if you cringe at the thought of troubleshooting your wireless network. I've covered many specific problems related to wireless networking: How to Boost Your Wireless Signal, How to Cast Out Intruders on a Wireless Network, and even How to Troubleshoot iPad Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues. However, some problems that crop up are common to all wireless routers, and we at PCMag want you to be able to solve them. Here are the eight most common wireless questions I get from readers and corresponding down-and-dirty troubleshooting tricks you can try before you call technical support.
Part of the problem is that routers do so much more than average user can understand. A router performs two primary functions. First, it routes data packets between networks. Second, it serves as a wireless access point, sharing the inbound Internet connection with all devices on a home network. A router is the central figure in a home network, connecting the vast Internet with our comparatively, tiny (yet increasingly sophisticated) private networks. That's a complex set of responsibilities for a small, inexpensive device to perform. Most routers manage to do all these job reasonably well for the vast majority of the time. But, because all of these functions are critical to a router's network, when your router begins to act up, you're likely to forget the fact that it functioned flawless for weeks, or even months, at a time.
And your router will act up, from time to time. Unfortunately, these bridges between the wilds of the Web and a home user's local area network, or LAN, are the perfect breeding grounds for a host of problems. Not being able to browse the Internet, intermittent connections drops, and dead spots in wireless coverage, are just a small sample from the endless litany of migraine-inducing Wi-Fi weirdness on those rare occasions when routers fail at their tasks.
You have the power to remediate many of these issues, even if you cringe at the thought of troubleshooting your wireless network. I've covered many specific problems related to wireless networking: How to Boost Your Wireless Signal, How to Cast Out Intruders on a Wireless Network, and even How to Troubleshoot iPad Wi-Fi Connectivity Issues. However, some problems that crop up are common to all wireless routers, and we at PCMag want you to be able to solve them. Here are the eight most common wireless questions I get from readers and corresponding down-and-dirty troubleshooting tricks you can try before you call technical support.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Tech Heavyweight Showdown
We have an electronic scale in the PC Labs. We also have a lot of consumer electronics. Honestly, this whole thing was bound to happen, sooner or later. We asked the PCMag staff to bring in those pieces of obsolete technology that they just can’t let go of—for one reason or other (sometimes it pays to work with a bunch of tech hoarders)—to see how they stack up against today’s electronics.
Sure, the trend in the industry seems to be perpetually headed in the direction of lighter and more portable gadgets, but the results of our extensive testing (i.e. sticking gadgets on an electronic scale and then reading the numbers) were sometimes surprising.
The game itself is fairly simple—we’ve got seven rounds, each pitting one gadget against another. The heaviest wins (this is the heavyweight championship, after all).
Sure, the trend in the industry seems to be perpetually headed in the direction of lighter and more portable gadgets, but the results of our extensive testing (i.e. sticking gadgets on an electronic scale and then reading the numbers) were sometimes surprising.
The game itself is fairly simple—we’ve got seven rounds, each pitting one gadget against another. The heaviest wins (this is the heavyweight championship, after all).
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