Ten tips to Twitter

This Twitter thing has been coming on like gangbusters. The messaging site has been around for a couple of years, but its popularity seems to have exploded just recently.

Everyone from BarackObama to John Cleese to NASA to the consulate of Israel has a Twitter account. Heck, even yours truly does! Do you? Follow me and I'll follow you back.

Twitter is really more of a social commons than a full-blown social network like MySpace or Facebook. It pretty much does one thing: allows people to "tweet" what they're up to (or what they're thinking about) in 140 characters or less.

Call it micro-blogging, if you will, but it's about as close to the "Keep It Simple, Stupid" (K.I.S.S.) ideal as it gets. People can follow your tweets and you can follow theirs -- that's pretty much it.

There are some third-party apps out there that can help you organize and seek out the information flying around out there in the Twittersphere, but it all pretty much stays in the nutshell.

With the overwhelming amount of widgets and gadgets and gizmos and doohickeys and whatnots attached to every other social network out there, isn't it nice to be able to get away with plain ol' simple every now and again?

Since we're sticking with the "less is more" aesthetic, I'm just going to give you 10 Twitter tips instead of the 20 I could have stretched this into. You're welcome!

1. Be yourself, but beware. Say whatever you feel like saying, but remember that whatever you write could exist in the digital universe forever. Proceed with extreme caution.

2. Don't be afraid to interact with others. If you like something they say, reply by clicking the little grey arrow that appears when you hover over one of their tweets. You can also simply type in @username (replacing "username" with whatever their username happens to be on Twitter). This is the formal way to address someone on Twitter. iReport.com: Do you agree with these tips? Share some of yours

3. Follow celebrities. They may never interact with you, but at least you can interact with them. It's no longer a question of who is on Twitter -- but who ISN'T on Twitter.

4. Use Twitter from your desktop. Twitter has something called an API (Application Programming Interface), which allows programmers to create experiences around Twitter for the community. Because of this, there have been an amazing array of applications released that will allow you to manage your Twitter account easily. There's Twitterrific, TweetDeck, and Twhirl -- just to name a few.

5. Find friends fast. If you're looking for new friends, a quick search for some of your favorite things on search.twitter.com will quickly reveal who you should be friending on Twitter. Maybe they'll follow you back?

6. Follow government officials. If your elected official isn't on http://tweetcongress.org, then they're behind the times. Heck, even the Library of Congress is on Twitter!

7. Crowdsource. If you have an idea, or a question, don't hold it in -- let it be known to all! Who knows -- someone just may answer your call for help.

8. Tweetups. Keep your eye out for these things. They're meetups for people on Twitter, and there's likely one happening regularly in your neck of the woods. I've taken to hosting one monthly in the Seattle area, as a matter of fact. Meet Twitter people -- tweeps, tweeple -- in meatspace!

9. Retweet. If you like something that someone else has tweeted, you can "RT" (retweet) it. This gives the original person credit, and also lets your followers know what you like. That's community!

10. Go with the flow. If you think you know better than everybody else, you're wrong -- the same netiquette rules apply on Twitter as well as on the rest of the Internet.

Source: CNN

Linux prepared to fight Microsoft over TomTom lawsuit

The Linux Foundation insists it is equipped to fight Microsoft if the software giant’s lawsuit against TomTom impacts the open source Linux kernel.

In his blog, Executive Director Jim Zemlin advised concerned parties to “calm down” in light of statements by Microsoft’s deputy general counsel that it is targeting TomTom’s GPS mapping software and not Linux.

Yet Zemlin was quick to reassure the community that the foundation and Open Innovation Network has the funds necessary to defend Linux if necessary. TomTom’s GPS mapping software incorporates the Linux kernel. Below is an excerpt of Zemlin’s blog:

Calm Down

Right now the Microsoft claim against Tom Tom is a private dispute between those two entities concerning GPS mapping software. We do not feel assumptions should be made about the scope or facts of this case and its inclusion, if any, of Linux-related technology. Any patent litigator will tell you that the path between asserting a claim under a patent and an actual, final determination that the patent is (1)valid and (2) that the claims of the patent are actually infringed is an extremely long road. If this case is in any way directed at Linux (in fact, Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, has specifically stated that it isn’t), the Linux ecosystem has enormously sophisticated resources available to assist in the defense of any claim that is made against Linux.

Hope for the Best

It is our sincere hope that Microsoft will realize that cases like these only burden the software industry and do not serve their customers’ best interests. Instead of litigating, we believe customers prefer software companies to focus on building innovative products.

Plan for the Worst

The Linux Foundation is working closely with our partner the Open Invention Network, and our members, and is well prepared for any claims against Linux. We have great confidence in the foundation they have laid. Unfortunately, claims like these are a by-product of our business and legal system today. For now, we are closely watching the situation and will remain ready to mount a Linux’s defense, should the need arise.

And it just might arise. In her blog,
Mary Jo Foley cites an online report by TechFlash’s Todd Bishop, which maintains that Microsoft in its lawsuit alleges that TomTom’s products violate eight of its patents, including three related to TomTom’s implementation of the Linux kernel.

Microsoft’s Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Intellectual Property and Licensing, said the case targets GPS mapping software — not Linux per se — but we’ll have to wait and see how the patent claims pan out.

I can think of at least two reasons why Microsoft chose to take on TomTom: TomTom’s new personal navigation devices carry a Go Live and Live Services product naming — the same branding used by Microsoft for its next gen web services. And those devices just hit the U.S. market last month.

Source: ZDNET

Microsoft sues TomTom over Linux patents

Microsoft has filed two separate patent-infringement actions against TomTom, including claims relating to the GPS navigation company's use of the Linux kernel.

In complaints filed on Wednesday before the US District Court in Washington and the International Trade Commission, Microsoft is alleging infringement of eight patents. While five of the patents relate to car-navigation systems specifically, three of the claims pertain to file-management techniques used in the Linux kernel, Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez, told ZDNet UK's sister site CNET News.com.

It is the "TomTom implementation of the Linux kernel that infringes these claims", Gutierrez said on Wednesday. "There are many flavours of Linux [and] many implementations of the Linux kernel. Cases such as these are very fact-specific."

While the software maker has asserted for years that Linux infringes on its patents, this appears to be the first time Microsoft has made the claim in court. Back in 2007, Microsoft made public its claim that Linux violates 235 of Microsoft's patents.

Since then, Microsoft has struck a number of patent licensing deals, most notably with Novell, that provide signing companies with patent protection against Linux claims. Microsoft also announced a year ago that it would not sue individual open-source developers, though it said it retained the right to sue companies over their use of Linux.

In an interview, Gutierrez said the software giant has been trying to start licensing talks with TomTom for more than a year. "They basically never were prepared to have a discussion with us with respect to licensing terms," Gutierrez said.

The court filings come a day after Dutch-based TomTom posted a €989m (£875m) fourth-quarter loss, dragged down by its purchase of Tele Atlas. The company told Reuters on Thursday that it rejected Microsoft's claims and would vigorously defend itself in the lawsuit.

Although Microsoft has been on the receiving end of many patent complaints, this is only the third patent case Microsoft has taken to court. Last year it sued Taiwanese mouse-maker Primax, before subsequently settling. It also had a dispute with Belkin in 2006, which was eventually settled as well.

Microsoft already has deals with several other GPS system makers, including Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood, as part of its efforts to license its technology, a push that began back in 2003. "All of these patents have been licensed before by many other companies," Gutierrez said. "We are asking TomTom to do what other companies have done and take a licence."

The federal lawsuit seeks damages for the past infringement, while the ITC case is aimed at blocking future imports of infringing patents, Microsoft said.

"By filing both actions simultaneously we are seeking to both recoup past losses and stop continued infringing activity, which would thus minimise potential future losses," Microsoft said in a statement. ITC cases typically take about 15 months, Microsoft said, while federal patent suits can take much longer.

Source: ZDNET

Phishing Scam Hits Gmail Users

Gmail users who are logged into the accompanying chat service Google Chat, as most are, have been getting messages that appear to be from friends, urging them to click on a Web address starting with tinyurl.com that takes them to a site called ViddyHo. The site asks for the person’s Gmail log-in information and then hijacks the account, sending out chat messages to all of the user’s contacts and spreading itself further.

The online service Twitter had a steady stream of complaints and warnings about the attack. “To anyone who receives a Viddyho invite from me, please ignore it,” a Twitter user named Zaffi cautioned. “I think I’ve been duped.”

Avivah Litan, a security analyst with the research firm Gartner, said phishing attacks luring Web surfers to click on videos have been steadily increasing over the last six months. Consumers have “wised up” to e-mail messages masquerading as notes from banks and credit card companies, Ms. Litan said. Now, she said, phishers are sending video invitations that play on hot topics and news events (in this case, a video starring the comedy troupe The Lonely Island and the singer T-Pain). While the video plays, the site might be downloading so-called malware in the background to infect the victim’s computer.

“These criminals really know how to get people’s attention,” she said. “It’s the modus operandi that’s favored by the crooks, and it’s working pretty well. They laugh all the way to the bank.”

For users who fell victim to ViddyHo, Ms. Litan recommends changing passwords and running a virus scan, although she warns that might not be enough. “In the really sophisticated cases, you could run 40 antivirus programs and it might not find any malware,” she said. “You may need to make a backup, delete everything and start over. That’s the safest thing to do.”

Source: NY Times

Apple Safari 4 Public Beta

Apple on Tuesday announced the release of a public beta Safari 4, promising a much faster browser with improved navigation and searching.

The company said the newest edition of Apple's browser for both Mac OS X and Windows will run JavaScript commands 4.2 times faster than Safari 3, and also claims to deliver better JavaScript and HTML page loading than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 or Mozilla's FireFox 3. Apple also added the Cover Flow interface now found in almost every piece of its software to let users scroll backwards through browsing history as if they were flipping through album covers, and what appears to be Apple's own implementation of FireFox's Smart Location "awesome bar" called Smart Address Field.

The new beta version is available for download at Apple's Safari Web page with both Windows and Mac OS versions ready for testing. Mac users need to be running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.6 and Apple's latest security update or Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11 on an Intel Mac or a G3 or better Mac. Windows users need Windows XP SP 2 or Vista.

Safari is used by about 8 percent of Internet surfers, according to Net Applications, trailing Internet Explorer and FireFox.

Update 6:50 a.m. PST: Apple senior director of system software Brian Croll said the performance improvements are the result of a new JavaScript engine called Nitro. Apple used the SunSpider benchmark to post the JavaScript results, and the iBench benchmark for the HTML numbers, he said.

Croll emphasized Safari 4's support for Web standards like HTML 5, which allows Web applications to work while offline, and CSS 3 for adding graphical effects. Safari 4 has passed the Acid3 test developed by the Web Standards Project, while FireFox 3 and Internet Explorer 7 have yet to do so, he said.

As far as changes that will be more visible to average users, Safari 4 moves the tabs from below the address bar to the very top of the window, and allows you to add a new tab by clicking a "+" sign in the uppermost right-hand corner of the window.

Apple added some new history browsing options, such as the aforementioned Cover Flow interface in the basic history view as well as a new feature called Top Sites, which checks the various Web sites you visit most frequently and arranges them in a grid pattern. If one of your Top Sites has published new content since the last time you visited, a white star on a blue background appears in the upper right-hand corner of the view for that site.

Windows users will notice a new "Windows-native look," according to Croll, that uses the standard Windows font rendering. Safari has been available as a Windows browser since June 2007.

Source: CNET

Microsoft's new online employment resource

Microsoft Corp on Sunday announced the creation of a website, Elevate America, aimed at improving access to job training tools.

The site, here, provides resources to help individuals gain the technical skills needed for acquiring jobs, the world's largest software company said.

The economy has shed 3.6 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 with about half of the decline occurring in the past three months, recent Labor Department data showed.

The website provides access to several Microsoft online training programs, including how to use the Internet, send e-mail and create a resume, as well as more advanced programs on using specific Microsoft applications.

"We are also providing a full range of work force development resources for state and local governments so they can offer specialized training for their workers," said Pamela Passman, corporate vice president of Microsoft Global Corporate Affairs.

Microsoft tapped Washington state as the first state to provide Elevate America to its residents.

Source: Reuters

Everyone Loves Google, untill...

...it's too big.

The popularity of Google's search engine in the United States just grows and grows. In the past three years, its market share gains have even been accelerating, making some people wonder whether the company will eventually obliterate what remains of its competition in search.

Certainly, antitrust scrutiny is a growing worry at the Googleplex. Last year, the company abandoned a proposed advertising pact with Yahoo when the Justice Department said it would file an antitrust lawsuit to block the deal. Last week, a small Web site operator, TradeComet.com, filed an antitrust suit against Google, accusing it of unfairly manipulating its advertising system to harm a potential competitor.

And when I asked to speak with Google's chief economist about why Google's market share gains were accelerating, Google's press office also gave me, unrequested, a second, separate appointment with Dana Wagner, the company's "competition counsel"--that is, its point person on antitrust issues.

Google maintains that its lead in the Web search market is tenuous, saying that with a simple click of a mouse, a user's loyalty could evaporate at any moment.

But consider this: As recently as July 2005, Google was ahead of Yahoo in market share by just six percentage points, at 36.5 percent to 30.5 percent, according to ComScore, the market research company. Today, however, that advantage is much wider, at 63 percent to 21 percent.

"You almost feel sorry for Google," said Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of Search Engine Land. "They're doing a good job and people are turning to them. But when they pass 70 percent share, people are going to be uncomfortable about Google becoming a monopoly."

Google does not register gains every month. The comScore numbers for January reflect a 0.5 percent drop in its share from December and a 0.5 percent gain for Yahoo. But according to Hitwise, another online measurement service, Google has already surpassed the 70 percent benchmark. It estimates that Google has 72 percent of the United States market, versus 17.9 percent for Yahoo. Microsoft's two search services, MSN and Live.com, constitute a distant third, at a combined 5.4 percent.

Sullivan said that while Yahoo's search engine benefits from traffic from Yahoo Mail and other Yahoo sites, its ability to pull in search engine users from outside its own borders is relatively weak.

Many Web site owners who track where their visitors come from report that Google's search engine now refers 80 to 90 percent of their visitors. For instance, almost all visitors sent by search engines to Stack Overflow--a community of software developers raising and answering programming questions--are from Google. In January, Stack Overflow received more than three million visits referred by 22 search engines. Of those, 99.34 percent were from Google.

Jeff Atwood, a co-founder of Stack Overflow, said: "I have no beef with Google. I like Google. But I'm concerned. If you project this trend forward four years, just follow the graph. A world in which there is no competition strikes me as unhealthy."

At Google, Hal Varian, its chief economist, and Wagner said that the public was not blindly loyal to any one search engine. They cited a recent survey by Forrester Research in which 55 percent of the adults polled used more than one search engine every week.

"You buy a car, use it for four years, and then you'll look around at your choices," Varian said. "But for search, we're competing on a click-by-click basis." If more users are going to Google, he said, it's because they are concluding that Google's product is superior.

Sullivan, who has been studying search engines since 1995, said that similar surveys have been done for many years--and that they always fail to reflect that most people have a primary attachment to a single search engine. When users try an alternative, he said, they "don't go into active taste-testing mode"; afterward, they revert to their favorite. "Google is a habit," he said, "and habits are very hard to break."

Both Yahoo and Microsoft contend that their search engines' results have achieved parity in quality with Google's, based on internal statistical measurements that they do not disclose publicly. But that matters little.

"Whether we're slightly ahead or slightly behind Google in core relevance is not a game changer in search," said Prabhakar Raghavan, Yahoo's chief search strategist.

Yahoo's best opportunity, Raghavan said, is to offer radically new ways of presenting information that will help users finish whatever it is they started before the search, like finding a job or buying a plane ticket. "People don't want to search; it's a digression," he said. "They want to complete a task."

What Yahoo and Microsoft haven't been able to attain, however, is parity with the Google brand, which had become a formally recognized verb by 2002. Raghavan said he recognizes that Google is "synonymous with search."

I asked Sullivan if we should deliberately spread our searches across several engines, doing our own small part to help keep competition alive. He said that such a campaign would not be sustainable. "I'm probably going to continue to use the thing that I have a good relationship with, which is Google," he said. "If you suggest that someone should go use Microsoft search, it's like saying 'You should go get a new best friend.'"

Source: CNET

Microsoft readies Windows 7 and Vista releases

New updates for Windows 7 beta and reports of impending Vista SP2 Release Candidate emerge

Microsoft has announced it is to release new updates for PCs running the Windows 7 beta next week, whilst at the same time seeding the Release Candidate build of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 to a select group of testers.

In a posting on The Windows Blog, Windows 7 manager Brandon LeBlanc said the firm would be releasing up to five test updates on February 24, which “will allow us to test and verify our ability to deliver and mange the updating of Windows 7”.

LeBlanc was keen to emphasise that the updates would not deliver new features or bug fixes and would merely “replace system files with the same version of the file currently on the system”.

Users will need to manually install the updates through Windows Update, he added.

But as Windows 7 took a step closer to a full release, Microsoft has been busy preparing for a Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 release, according to reports.

The Ars Technica site said the Vista SP2 RC, build 6002.16670.090130, was released to Microsoft Connect testers and will soon be made available to a broader range of testers via the Windows Update site.

Vista SP2 will include all previous updates and patches for the operating system, the site reported. There have also been reports of “significant performance improvements” over SP1, although SP2 RC contains 691 hotfixes, said Ars Technica.

It is widely believed that Microsoft’s detailing of its plans for the forthcoming Windows 7 operating system is an admission of its failure with Vista, which has received poor reviews and disappointing take up since its worldwide release in 2007.

Source: VNUnet

Google: Adsense publishers can change fonts of ads

Google finally allows Adsense publishers to change the fonts of ad units. Google stated as follows:

You've been asking for more control over the appearance of the ads on your sites, so we're happy to let you know that you can now change the font face of the text in ad units on pages in Latin-character languages. You can choose between Arial, Times, and Verdana font faces. Please note that while font options will appear in every account, they'll currently only be applied to ad units on pages primarily in Latin-based characters.

There are a few ways to customize the font face of your ad units. If you'd like to quickly change the font settings for every ad unit generated from your account, visit the 'Ad Display Preference' section of your Account Settings page to select a new account-wide font face. This will affect all units you've created in the past, regardless of whether you used the Manage Ads feature. By default, your ads are currently set to 'Standard AdSense font family', which we've found has performed well across browsers and displays

However, you can also select custom font faces for specific ad units that you've created with the Manage Ads feature. When creating new ad units, you'll be prompted to select between the default 'Standard AdSense font family', your new account-wide font face (if you've selected one), or another font face. You can also change the appearance of existing ad units, by visiting the Manage Ads page of your account and updating your font choices for specific ad units. Once you've changed the font face of an ad unit away from the default, those selections will be maintained even if you change your account-wide settings later.

Just as with color and placement optimizations, we encourage you to test these new font options to find the best combination for your sites. For instance, you can try matching the font face of your ads to that of your sites.

So lets get testing!

Source: Google

Linux: Microsoft's biggest threat

I get to hear about the biggest threat to Microsoft's hegemony and
market dominance quite a bit. It often goes something like this

"Linux isn't Microsoft's biggest threat, Google is."

Alternatively, as raised recently by ZDNet blogger Adrian Kingsley-Hughes:

"The biggest threat to Microsoft’s bottom line isn’t Mac or Linux -
it’s netbooks!"

Adrian continues:

"The problem isn’t that netbooks are cannibalizing Windows sales
(they aren’t, especially when you take into account that Windows-powered netbooks out-sell Linux models by a significant margin), the problem is down to the fact that Moore’s Law has finally caught up with Microsoft and the OS is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive components of a new PC. And as hardware prices continue to fall (which they will), this is only going to get worse for Microsoft."

It seems that Microsoft's margins are being squeezed because netbooks
are on the scene, and netbook prices are plummeting, putting further margin pressure on Microsoft.

Now, here are some questions about these supposedly major-domo competitors to Microsoft, and I'm sure, that you can easily guess the answers:

1) What was it that made Google such a serious net platform player, with enough power and flexibility to serve the world's Internet needs?

2) What was it that made netbooks possible in the first place?

3) What gives netbook manufacturers enough leverage to screw Microsoft down on OEM licence costs?

4) What is it that makes products like Amazon's Kindle and hundreds of other e-book, portable media and mobile Internet gadgets possible, all by eschewing Microsoft's embedded OSes?

The answer of course, is Linux.

Without Linux, there would be no Google. No startup could afford to
build a platform on hundreds of thousands of servers which required
either proprietary hardware (ie, Sun servers, circa 1998) or proprietary
system software (ie, Microsoft's Windows Server.) Further, how
comfortable would Google be in competing with Microsoft in the Internet space, if Microsoft 'owned' its server platform, the basis of Google's ongoing business?

Without Linux as a viable desktop play, Asus could never have produced the Eee PC 701. No Linux. No netbook market.

Furthermore, without the presence and ongoing viability of desktop Linux for small form-factor devices (eg, Eeebuntu, Android), there's no way that Microsoft would have done an about-face on scuttling XP in 2008, nor could they have been beaten down on OEM licence costs. In fact, the sheer presence and viability of Linux puts an upper limit on how much Microsoft dares charge for Windows 7 OEM licences for these netbooks.

And once ARM-based netbooks start selling for under US$200, removing any "breathing space" for OEM licences fees at all, watch Microsoft get squeezed out of this market in a big way. As an aside, Microsoft's key OSes and the 'Windows software ecosystem" don't run on non-x86 CPUs like the ARM; the Linux ecosystem does, and has for many years. (I remember being involved in a project to build a Linux-based web-tablet, on an ARM platform, in 2000.)

So, everytime I hear pundits say that something-or-other-besides-Linux
and open source is the "real threat" to Microsoft, I reach for my
clue-bat.

And now you know why.

Source: ZDNet

Microsoft bounty for worm creator

A reward of $250,000 (£172,000) has been offered by Microsoft to find who is behind the Downadup/Conficker virus.

Since it started circulating in October 2008 the Conficker worm has managed to infect millions of Windows computers.

The software giant is offering the cash reward because it views the Conficker worm as a criminal attack.

"People who write this malware have to be held accountable," said George Stathakopulos, of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group.

He told BBC News the company was "not prepared to sit back and let this kind of activity go unchecked".

"Our message is very clear - whoever wrote this caused significant pain to our customers and we are sending a message that we will do everything we can to help with your arrest," said Mr Stathakopulos.

Arbor Networks said as many as 12 million computers could be affected globally by Conficker/Downadup since it began prowling the web looking for vulnerable machines to infect in October.

Malicious payload

The Conficker worm is a self-replicating program that takes advantage of networks or computers that have not kept up to date with Windows security patches.

It can infect machines via a net connection or by hiding on USB memory drives used to ferry data from one computer to another. Once in a computer it digs deep, setting up defences that make it hard to extract.
The worm can also spread via USB flash drives.

The worm slithers through networks by guessing usernames and passwords. Security specialists recommend hardening passwords by mixing in numbers, punctuation marks and capital letters.

The virus reports in to its creators for updates by visiting a web domain. It generates the name of the domain itself using a complicated code which security firms have cracked to track the growth of the worm and block its progress.

Malware such as Downadup can be triggered to steal data or turn control of infected computers over to malicious hackers which pool them into larger armies of so-called botnets.

These networks of compromised machines can be used to send spam, as dead drops for stolen or pirated data and to launch attacks on other machines.

Although Downadup is widespread its creators have yet to activate its payload to steal data or launch other attacks.

It has caused costly headaches for network administrators dealing with users locked out of their accounts when the worm correctly guesses a password.

While Microsoft says it does not know the intention of the worm's creator, it wants to ensure it does not wreak any more havoc.

Experts say users should have up-to-date anti-virus software and install Microsoft's MS08-067 patch - also known as KB958644.

Source: BBC

Linux infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property?

In today's IT Blogwatch, Microsoft's Steve Ballmer claims all your IP's belong to us. Not to mention the IT Crowd DVD's subtitles...

Eric Lai wouldn't let it lay:

In comments confirming the open-source community's suspicions, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Thursday declared his belief that the Linux operating system infringes on Microsoft's intellectual property. In a question-and-answer session after his keynote speech at the Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Ballmer said Microsoft was motivated to sign a deal with SUSE Linux distributor Novell earlier this month because Linux "uses our intellectual property" and Microsoft wanted to "get the appropriate economic return for our shareholders from our innovation."
...
A key element of the agreement now appears to be Novell's US$40 million payment to Microsoft in exchange for the latter company's pledge not to sue SUSE Linux users over possible patent violations.

Todd Bishop has more:

An audience member turned the question around on Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, asking if the Redmond company was selling out by collaborating with a Linux vendor. Ballmer answered the question with a long explanation of the Novell deal, from his perspective ... it will be interesting to see how people react to Ballmer's comments on Microsoft, Linux and intellectual property -- including his view that, because of the Novell deal, "only a (Linux) customer who has Suse Linux actually has paid properly for the use of intellectual property from Microsoft."

Additionally, he reiterated Microsoft's interest in striking a similar patent deal with Red Hat, something Red Hat says it won't do.

Read on for the complete text. (Here's an MP3, as well: 6:01, 6.9 mb.)

Aaron, for one, welcomes his new Redmond overlords:

Just finished the keynote with Ballmer... a few observations.

1. He must've researched the question about Microsoft partnering with Novell on Suse Linux. That was too well done.
2. Steve Ballmer is a funny looking man, and his voice does weird things as he talks.
3. He didn't really do a dance, though he almost did. Sort of a weird flex/body contortion. He's like the Jim Carrey of Microsoft.

Shane Coyle calls Novell an "Open source turncoat":
I thought Novell said there were no Infractions. Or so it was stated in their FAQ on the MS Deal. Of course, as always with any story, there is Mr Ballmer’s take on the deal ... And so it begins, the gauntlet is down - who draws the first MS lawsuit? Red Hat? Oracle? EDU-Nix? Let us all remember who it is that is complicit in this FUD campaign, Novell’s self-serving deal legitimizes Microsoft’s assault on Linux.

If successful, Microsoft will create a landscape in the Operating System market that consists of themselves and MS-approved ‘competitors’ which pay royalties to MS in perpetuity, all others are sued into oblivion. Regardless of the technical wording of the deal, and whether it can be established that Novell is violating the letter of the GPL 2, they are certainly violating its spirit, Novell must not be supported.

Pamela Jones is still glad to talk about something other than SCO:

Unfortunately, Microsoft has misunderstood how the GPL works, and where it stands on the issue of patents, if one gives Microsoft every benefit of every doubt. The folks they need to speak to are the Software Freedom Law Center. Like they're not already. But here's my suggestion anyway: stop trying to kill or sidestep the GPL. And stop trying to put a patent tax on Linux, so you or some surrogate gets a cut. Monopolies don't get to do just whatever enters their pretty little head, you know. Make your money on your own code, fair and square. There. I've said it
...
The execution was outstanding, in a jujitsu kind of terrible way. The problem is the idea. You're trying to put new wine into old wineskins, as the saying goes, and it won't work. It can't. There will be no way to divide GPL developers into paid and not paid. Won't fly. Ever. There are other issues too. You can't restrict redistribution on GPL code. Period. You can't ask for royalties on GPL code. You can't add any restrictions to the GPL license. Seriously, you need to read the GPL and abide by it in all particulars, just like we have to respect your terms on your software. It's a matter of respecting what you call intellectual property. Explain that to your shareholders.

Microsoft's Jason Matusow responds:
I know many of you are skeptical about this process, and a few are even outright hostile ... I will continue to have an ongoing dialogue with a few key community members and these comments will inform those discussions. I will make sure your voices are heard as we go through our decision making. One thing that jumped out at me about many of these postings is the sense that a lack of trust in our motivations is a key factor for you all. I am unclear as to why then it is a problem for us to clarify something so that motivations are not an issue.

Jeff Licquia tries to help:
The big problem, if you ask me, is the distinction between “commercial” and “non-commercial” that Matusow (and everyone else I hear from Microsoft) is making. In our world, that distinction is a lot less important than the distinction between “proprietary” and “open”. For us, “commercial” is just another way software can be used, and restrictions on commercial use are like restrictions on use by women, or by people in Illinois, or by people who have ever picked their nose in public. Why are businessmen any less deserving of our software as a class than housewives, or Haitians, or other free software developers?

Matusow claims not to be interested in any of this

Kyle Shank puts it succinctly:
Ballmer can go f*** himself ... Sure Steve, all innovation had to originate from Microsoft. That’s like saying you don’t have a chronic sweating condition.

Source: Computer World

iPhone card counting app worries casinos

The AP has a very short story about an iPhone card counting application that apparently has casinos worried.

Top blackjack players keep track of what cards have been played in order to change their betting and play and get an edge on the game.

This technique -- known as card counting -- is perfectly legal in most of the world's casinos. In Nevada, however, gaming interests are powerful enough to secure the right to eject counters from casinos.

Counters who want to play must learn not only to keep track of the cards on the table -- and all the cards played in previous hands -- but also to look like they aren't paying attention at all.

It's actually harder to learn to look nonchalant than it is to count -- which is why I simply cannot imagine how anyone could use an iPhone app to count cards without it being amazingly obvious and -- thus -- no threat at all to the casino and its bankroll.

You certainly couldn't take constant pictures of the table or punch number after number into the screen. I mean, how would you explain that? "Oops. I dialed the wrong number again. I'll just have to keep punching numbers till I get through."

Oddly, some counters do use devices, even though mechanical aids transform counting from something that gets you ejected from the casino to something that brings a felony charge. (Even places that let you count mentally don't allow counting machines.)

How can people think they'll get away with it?

Source: Dallas News

New Compaq Presario CQ60 212 Specifications

Notebook Compaq Presario CQ60 212 - Compaq just launched a new Presario series. The notebook namely Compaq Presario CQ60 212 or Compaq CQ60 212. Here is the detail specification of this notebook:

Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
Processor: AMD Sempron™ Processor for Notebook PCs SI-42 2.10 GHz, Level 2 cache 512 KB
Memory: 2048 MB (2 x 1024 MB). Supports up to 4 GB DDR2 memory
Storage: 160 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 5400 rpm up to 9 GB partition for system recovery
Communication: High speed 56K modem, Ethernet 10/100BT integrated network interface, 802.11b/g WLAN
Display: Webcam with integrated microphone, 15.6″ Single channel LVDS HD BrightView, Resolution: 1366 x 768
Video: NVIDIA GeForce 8200M, Up to 895 MB Total Available Graphics Memory

With all these features, will the Compaq Presario CQ60 212 be a success like previous Presario series? This is yet to be determined.

Microsoft stores to duplicate Apple’s retail success

It’s enough to make you rub your eyes, blink and squint to make sure you’re not hallucinating.

But it’s true. Microsoft plans to open its own chain of retail stores. On Thursday the Redmond company announced it had hired former Wal-Mart executive David Porter to make it happen.

Microsoft seems to think it can duplicate Apple’s retail success, using a chain of stores to improve the “Microsoft retail purchase experience” and to combat the stereotypes – artfully reinforced by Apple’s “I’m a Mac” TV ads – that owning a Windows PC is fraught with difficulties.

I hardly know where to begin, so let’s start with the first thing many people will think when they hear of a Microsoft Store: “Oh, just like Apple.”

Contrary to the goal of improving public perceptions, the announcement of a Microsoft-branded chain of stores screams “copycat” – historically one of the worst knocks against it. Not the best way to start rehabilitating your image, guys.

Next: how will the stores pay for themselves? Big profits would not be necessary, but the last thing Microsoft needs is another money-losing division.

Apple’s retail chain does exceptionally well – in fact its $4,700 of revenue per square foot is the highest of any retail chain in the nation – but that’s because Apple’s products have high profit margins, particularly its hardware.

Microsoft’s hardware? Well, it makes the Zune MP3 player. According to the company’s December earnings report, Zune revenue fell $100 million, or 54 percent. Uh-oh.

The Xbox 360 finally is showing a profit, but that’s mostly from the games, not the console.

And let’s not forget all those fine keyboards and mice. But will that be enough to keep the lights on?

A thornier issue comes with the decision over whether to sell PCs built by such Microsoft “partners” as Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Acer. Microsoft needs some PCs in the store to show off the wonderful world of Windows. But will they be for sale?

People certainly will expect it. Can you imagine the reaction of a customer if told, “No, sorry, these PCs are for demo purposes only. You can’t buy them here.”

But if the Microsoft Store sells PCs, which manufacturer(s) gets the nod? Who gets the best display? Who can guess the reaction of a PC maker that believes Microsoft is favoring a competitor’s wares?

And what of netbooks -- those smallish, cheap, underpowered PC laptops that generally run Windows XP, not Vista? Microsoft wouldn’t want any of those in the house.

Apple, as the sole legitimate maker of Macs, need not worry about displeasing any hardware “partners” or managing the difficulties of selling cheap PC boxes with hair-thin profit margins.

Which brings us to software. Of course, Windows and Office make tons of money for Microsoft -- but the bulk of those sales are to businesses, not consumers. Besides, most people get Windows with their PC and never bother buying a retail boxed version of Windows.

At best, the Microsoft stores would lose money for years before turning a profit. At best.

Assuming Microsoft doesn’t care about that – it’s stuck by plenty of other losing ventures for long periods – does its goal of improving the shopping experience for Windows users make sense?

Let’s go back to the Apple model again for a minute. The Apple of 2001 launched its retail chain for several reasons the Microsoft of 2009 does not share.

First, Apple believed its products were lost among Windows-oriented offerings in stores at the time. Heck, few retailers even carried Macs. Apple needed a place where people could see and touch its products.

Second, Apple wanted to reach out to disgruntled Windows users. Apple Store staff not only can answer questions and concerns about switching to a Mac from a PC, they can help you do it. Apple often cites statistics indicating that half of the customers at its stores are “new to the platform” – former Windows users.

Third, Apple wanted to show how the Mac was better suited than a Windows PC to serve as a “digital hub,” thanks to the integrated iLife apps such as iPhoto and iMovie included on every Mac.

None of which applies to Microsoft.

Microsoft products are everywhere. The company has tremendous visibility. And there are few disaffected Mac users wondering if it makes sense to switch to Windows. Most Mac users have used Windows and actively dislike it.

As for the digital hub, Windows can do it adequately. But the PC experience doesn’t equal Apple’s well-tuned integration of hardware, apps and operating system.

I’m not sure how much a chain of Microsoft Stores can budge the needle in regard to helping sell more Microsoft products. If it’s a defensive move against rivals like Apple and Google, then the money could be better spent elsewhere – such on genuine innovation.

Maybe Microsoft can make a retail strategy work, but it faces nasty odds. And launching such a venture amid one of the worst economic downturns in decades seems particularly ill advised.

Though Microsoft may dream of an Apple Store-style success, in all probability this retail experiment will end like Gateway’s – drowned in a sea of red ink.

Source: Baltimore Sun

Satellite Collision: Iridium technology not at fault

The collision of two satellites on Tuesday is not the result of a failure on the part of the Iridium satellite or its technology, Liz DeCastro, spokeswoman for the Maryland-based Iridium Satellite LLC, said on Thursday in an email to Xinhua.

According to information shared with the company by various U.S. government organizations that monitor satellites and other space objects (such as debris), it appears that the satellite's loss was the result of a collision with a non-operational Russian satellite, DeCastro said.

This event has only minimal impact on Iridium's service and the Iridium constellation is healthy, she said.

Iridium Satellite LLC operates a constellation of 66 low Earth orbiting satellites that provide voice and data services for areas not served by ground-based communication networks.

The 560-kg Iridium 33, which collided with the defunct 900-kg Russian satellite nearly 790 km over Siberia, was launched in 1997.

Source: Xinhuanet

New Google Power Meter

Google is testing a system that tracks a household's electricity consumption, allowing users of the iGoogle personalized homepage service to monitor their consumption in real time and perhaps reduce it by as much as 15 percent. The service, called Google PowerMeter, takes data from so-called "smart meters," or advanced electricity meters and other electricity management devices. Google says the electricity usage data will be stored securely, and no personal information will be exchanged with the power companies providing the data. Google is making a strong push for agreements with utilities on how to standardize the data that's available from smart meters.

A highly disruptive Internet worm has claimed a new victim: the French navy. The worm, known as Conficker, forced the navy to cut network connectivity to stop the worm from spreading on its Intramar network last month. Web browsing and email messaging on the network were disrupted, and some users were forced to rely on more conventional means of communication such as the telephone, fax or postal system, a navy spokesman told the Ouest-France newspaper. Reports indicate that the worm was probably introduced when an infected USB drive was plugged into a computer on the network.

IBM and Juniper on Monday provided a sneak peek at technology that lets enterprise IT managers easily reallocate computing resources between a private and a public cloud. Using cloud management software from IBM's Tivoli division and a Juniper network, the companies demonstrated a drag-and-drop interface for managing a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Cloud computing, along with virtualization, can give IT departments more flexibility by letting them separate applications or data from particular sites and equipment.

Intel's yearly Intel Developer Forum in Taipei is the latest victim of the economic downturn. The company has cancelled the Taipei event, and shortened a similar event in Beijing to just one day. The last time Intel cancelled a developer forum in Asia was in 2003, at the height of the scare over the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome or SARS virus.

Personal data belonging to more than 45,000 employees and retirees of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration was stolen after hackers broke into a computer server, the agency said Monday. Two of the 48 files on the server contained personal data for those on the agency's employee rolls for the first week of February 2006, the FAA said. The breach didn't affect air traffic control or other operational systems.

And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Peter Sayer in Paris. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.

Source: ComputerWorld

Virtual Desktop Fragmentation Looms

While virtual desktop infrastructure offers a lot of potential in terms of lowering IT costs, one of the more troubling aspects about it is the simple fact that it introduces more fragmentation on the desktop.

Instead of having a corporate desktop environment dominated for better or worse by one vendor, we're on a path where any number of vendors, including VMware, Citrix and Microsoft, has the potential to own the corporate desktop.

That scenario raises the prospect of interoperability issues because each of these vendors is creating on some level proprietary technology within their virtual desktop infrastructure environment. And in so doing, they threaten to undo the benefits of having a de facto set of standards on the desktop.

Whether you think Microsoft is a force for good or evil, the fact that fragmentation of the desktop seems inevitable creates a potential for some real integration headaches. One company that is stepping into the middle of this developing fracas is called Neocleus.

Neocleus has desktop virtualization technology that can be slipstreamed on to existing systems. It runs at the hardware level, known as Type 1 virtualization, rather than being dependent on the reliability of the operating system, which is something that Type 2 virtualization offerings are dependent on.

Why that is significant is that Neocleus supports a distributed client framework that can be leveraged to create some level of interoperability between operating system running on top of its virtual client. That means that a client operating system residing on top of Neocleus could exchange information with another operating system environment. More importantly, IT managers could then use the systems management tools they are familiar with to manage any operating system environment running on top of the Neocleus virtual client.

It's way too early to say who will win the virtual desktop infrastructure wars. But IT manager should be watching developments in this space carefully. Without some general movement towards interoperability standards, all the potential savings of a virtual desktop infrastructure could easily be outweighed by higher systems management costs.

This may mean that the best thing an IT organization can do today is take a step back to assess how they how going to survive and thrive in a new world of virtual desktops where operating systems are disposable and the standards are less than stable.

Source: Eweek

Microsoft among software vendors providing sustainability tools

With businesses scrambling to reduce their energy use -- both to save costs and limit their carbon footprint -- Microsoft and other software vendors are building tools that make tracking environmental data easier.

Today, Microsoft is releasing a free add-on to its enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for midsized businesses.


"ERP systems are really good at giving you the financial numbers, but where they fall short is with the environment or social issues," said Jennifer Pollard, a senior Microsoft product manager.

The Environmental Sustainability Dashboard is designed for use by a facilities manager, environmental- compliance officer or anyone in the company with the responsibility of tracking energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.

It displays graphs of direct energy usage, such as coal, oil or natural gas burned on site, and indirect usage -- energy purchased from a utility. The information can be used to track efficiency programs or evaluate improvements, such as shifting from oil heat to electric.

Sole Technology, a Lake Forest, Calif., sports apparel and footwear company, has a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2020.

George Bock, vice president of IT, said the company already uses Microsoft's Dynamics ERP software, and the addition of the environmental dashboard is "a perfect blend for us."

The dashboard allows the company to compile data it's already collecting and keep track of specific efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

While the company's carbon-neutral mandate is driven by its environmentally conscious chief executive and founder, Pierre Andre Senizergues, it is also seeing cost savings through the effort.

"Just purely on the IT side, there's a huge opportunity for companies to be very environmentally conscious and reduce cost and overhead," Bock said. "... The payback on it is incredibly fast."

Dwight Klappich, a Gartner analyst who follows supply-chain applications, said there's a major trend toward adding environmental measurement capabilities to business applications.

Some applications are very sophisticated while others are "putting a green spin on stuff they might have already been doing," he said.

For companies to begin adopting these technologies, however, there generally has to be a clear economic benefit.
"I don't see a lot of demand driven exclusively by being green," Klappich said.


IBM's "Stop Talking" commercials illustrate a perception in corporate America that "going green" has to be a business decision first. "Where is the business value in tree-hugging," asks a board member from central casting.

Network design software, for example, helps companies plan where to build factories and distribution centers to minimize transportation costs. "Now I could add a carbon footprint" to that analysis, Klappich said.

Other software that schedules efficient routes for delivery drivers can be tuned to find routes that minimize carbon emissions, too, he said.

Microsoft's application, Klappich said, may not provide direct solutions for reducing emissions, but it will provide information to managers tackling the problem.

Microsoft's environmental dashboard allows data to be entered into the system along with normal business processes. For example, a clerk paying a utility bill in the ERP software can click on an "environment" tab to gather additional data, such as the type, amount and location of energy consumption. The bill's dollar amount used to be the only number related to energy consumption in the system, Microsoft's Pollard said.

The dashboard also accepts data through a purchase-order process, meter readings and manual entry. It also automatically calculates greenhouse-gas emissions based on energy consumption and information from utilities. (That information has to be entered manually, however.)

Warren Wilson, research director with London-based market researcher Ovum, said other major ERP vendors, including SAP and Oracle, as well as smaller players are building a range of tools to measure carbon emissions.

"There's growing awareness, but we think there's a lot bigger market to be tapped," Wilson said.

One of the many challenges ahead is knowing how much of a company's supply chain to measure.

Sole Tech, for one, is emphasizing factors within the company -- "things that we can control," Bock said. It's also working with its factories in China, "understanding where they're getting their power from," Bock said. "But it's a little harder once you get into the supply chain."

Klappich, the Gartner analyst, said the industry is still five to 10 years away from being able to do "true carbon accounting," which measures at "a very low-level of detail ... every source of carbon" and assigns it to the appropriate place within a supply chain. But there's still much that can be done short of that full accounting.

Planet Metrics of San Bruno, Calif., makes a software tool that aims at a much broader range of environmental factors, and takes into account a company's supply chain. The tool uses data from internal and external sources to measure raw materials, energy used in production and transportation and more.

Craig Ramini, sales director for Planet Metrics, says this broader view of a company's carbon footprint helps executives make better decisions about trade-offs -- whether to use new, environmentally friendly packaging or shift to a different supplier.

He applauded Microsoft's dashboard as a good first step.

"Companies need to develop a competence around collecting data about their energy and environmental impact," he said.

Source: Seattle Times

Standard for mobile Linux widgets set

The LiMo Foundation, a major mobile industry consortium devoted to spreading Linux across handsets, has agreed on a common standard for developing mini web applications, or widgets, for phones.

LiMo announced its endorsement of the Bondi specification on Monday. Bondi draws on web standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which makes it easier for developers already coding for the web to write widgets for mobile phones. The strategy is similar to one recently adopted by Palm.

The idea behind Bondi was to "create a common standard for mobile handsets, which web apps or widgets can use in order to access the handsets and interact with the data locally held on the handset", LiMo executive director Morgan Gillis told ZDNet UK last week.

"The area of widget development in the mobile industry has thus far been proprietary and fragmented," Gillis said. "Apple and Nokia have their own widget standards. In LiMo, we saw the need to identify and stand behind a common web app standard which will be independent of handset vendors, models and operators. This is quite a big deal — all the LiMo membership are endorsing the Bondi standard [which will be] deployed to mobile handsets [in the future]."

The LiMo approach to mobile Linux involves a standardised middleware layer that operators and manufacturers build into handsets. By contrast, Google's Android platform is an entire stack that incorporates the operating system, middleware and applications. Compared with Android, LiMo's approach means that owners will be less likely to be aware that they are using a "LiMo phone". However, it does give operators greater control over the user interfaces and applications that they want to put on top of the middleware layer.

LiMo, which brings together many operators, manufacturers and application development companies, made several other announcements on Monday. Crucially, the organisation's board now includes O2-owner Telefonica and the South Korean SK Telecom; the board already counts operators Vodafone, DoCoMo, Verizon and Orange as members. This leaves T-Mobile, the only operator to have released an Android phone, as the only major UK phone company missing from the board.

All six operator members of the board have confirmed plans to "bring LiMo handsets to market within 2009", Gillis said.

Asked whether there was a chance of Bondi-compliant widgets making their way onto other types of mobile devices, Gillis said: "Yes, there absolutely is." He would not, however, be drawn as to what types of devices he meant. Rival mobile platforms such as Android have been unofficially ported across to other portable machines, such as netbooks and mobile internet devices (MIDs).

Gillis said it would be "terrific" if rival initiatives such as Android supported the common Bondi standard, but said this was unlikely to happen in the near term. He pointed out that the Dalvik programming environment used in Android was specific to that platform, and stressed that while Android relied almost entirely on Google's contributions, LiMo was created through a "truly collaborative effort" across the industry.

"This is more than just an engineering difference," Gillis said. "It is inevitable that, where a single company owns the platform, that that will impinge on platform roadmapping decisions and potentially impinge on the struggle for control of the mobile user experience."

Source: ZDNet

Choosing the Right Tax Software

IN an ideal world, tax software would complete my returns and ease my angst — filling in all the numbers while playing soothing background music as I sip tea.

The desktop versions of TurboTax and TaxCut for the 2008 tax year don’t measure up to that standard, but I was surprised by how efficient and user-friendly both of these widely used programs were. (TurboTax is downright chummy.)

While I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them, they seem designed to suit taxpayers with different skills.

If you are already comfortable navigating your taxes, and fluent in concepts like tax-exempt dividends and unraveling the cost basis of your vehicle before depreciation, TaxCut, from H & R Block, is probably the way to go.

If you prefer a little more hand-holding, nicely designed icons, pop-up text boxes that explain tax issues in very plain English — and a sequence of steps that is so well organized you wish you could turn it loose in your garage — go with TurboTax, from Intuit.

TaxCut also includes links to pop-up windows that explain basic tax terms, but TurboTax offers explanations that I found much clearer and easier to understand.

That said, with the version of TaxCut that I test-drove — TaxCut Premium Federal + State + E-file ($49.95) — you can get a free phone or e-mail consultation with a tax adviser on a single topic. More consultations are available for $19.95 a topic.

What ultimately sold me on TurboTax was the intuitive way that tax questions were grouped under relevant topics. Just when I was wondering where to deduct my office phone expenses, for example, the program gave me directions. The version I used was TurboTax Deluxe ($59.95).

TurboTax says this version, as well as more expensive ones, walks taxpayers through about 350 possible deductions and credits. Like TaxCut, it uses an “interview” format, asking questions as you click through the program. I didn’t count them all, but I ended up with the reassuring feeling that I had covered my bases.

TaxCut seems equally thorough; I just found it harder to navigate, often pressing the back button and edit buttons to fix things that became clear a couple of pages after I thought I was done with that topic. In many ways, the programs are similar. While they do not fill in all the numbers for you, it is possible to import your personal data from other financial programs like Quicken — or even from the rival company’s software program, if that’s what you used the previous year.

But if you weren’t keeping electronic records during the tax year, or are new to tax software, both programs offer two D.I.Y. options.

One path allows experienced filers to click on tabbed topics and fill out just the information relevant to their returns. The other route is more of a guided tour. Both programs offer a choice that says “Guide Me,” at various junctures, which gives users a more detailed walk-through of a certain tax topic.

A new and wonderful addition to TurboTax this year is the bookmark function, in the Mac version. While TaxCut has F.A.Q.’s in the right margin — and these often do answer user queries or illuminate key points — TurboTax allows you to add your own questions and bookmark them in a box in the left margin — a neat way to round up pesky tax concerns so you don’t forget to address them later.

Speaking of pesky tax questions: If you log onto these companies’ Web sites to buy the software, as I did, the difference between the online and desktop editions is puzzling, to say the least.

Each company offers various editions of its products, from basic to premium to a combined personal and business version. You can buy the program you want as a CD or download it to your desktop. Or, for a lower price — $20 to $30 less, depending on the version you choose — you can prepare and file your return online, at the TurboTax or TaxCut Web site.

Tobie Stanger, a senior editor at Consumer Reports, the nonprofit publication of Consumers Union, says that she is comfortable with the security of using these services to file electronically with the I.R.S.

“While nothing is 100 percent,” Ms. Stanger said, “in order to do business with the I.R.S., software companies have to demonstrate that they have certain firewalls and certain security measures in place.”

The electronic filing system is used by all e-filers — about 90 million people last year, or 58 percent of taxpayers, according to the I.R.S. — whether they use software or other services, like those of a preparer who files electronically.

If you need to file only one return, using the online software can be a money-saving option. The more expensive desktop versions of both TurboTax and TaxCut allow you to file as many as five federal returns, at no additional cost. Ms. Stanger notes that the desktop versions can be found at discount prices. (Try different retailers.)

BE warned that while you can electronically file your federal returns free with these programs — e-filing, as it’s called — you are charged a fee to submit your state return electronically as well. For both programs I tried, state e-files cost $19.95 each.

If you earned $56,000 or less in 2008 — about 70 percent of taxpayers did — you are eligible to use the Free File service of the I.R.S. It gives qualified taxpayers access to tax software and e-filing at no cost, and Spanish versions are available. Some states participate in the Free File service, permitting e-filing of a state return at no cost. For more information, go to www.irs.gov.

If your income doesn’t qualify you for the Free File program, the I.R.S. has introduced Free File Fillable Forms, a service that allows most taxpayers, even those with incomes exceeding $56,000, to fill out and file tax forms electronically, according to the agency. But this service does not include an “interview” process like the other Free File offerings (and TurboTax and TaxCut) — so you need to know your way around your taxes.

Source: NY Times

Windows Mobile Online Storage Beta

Microsoft has revealed some details of a forthcoming service that will allow Windows Mobile users to synchronize information between their phone and the Web.

The service, called My Phone, will provide a place to store data such as photos, videos, text messages and calendar items. Users will then be able to share that data with others or use the service as a way to back up information on their phone.

A description of My Phone appeared earlier Friday at getskybox.com, but Microsoft pulled the site after several blogs wrote stories about it. Getskybox.com now redirects to a new URL that has much of the same description.

Getskybox.com went live earlier than planned, and Microsoft will offer more details about My Phone at the Mobile World Congress trade show in mid-February, said a Microsoft spokesman. The service will be available at that time as a limited, invitation-only beta, he said.

Microsoft already has a service that does something similar to My Phone. Live Mesh lets people upload photos and other information to a Web page and access the data from a mobile phone.

But My Phone may be different because it will automatically synch a wide array of information from phones. In addition, while anyone with a phone and a browser can use Live Mesh, My Phone will be limited to people using phones with Windows Mobile 6.

Source: PC World

Microsoft to tweak Windows 7 security feature

In a reversal, Microsoft said on Thursday that it will make changes to the way a controversial security feature works in Windows 7.

After getting lots of feedback that Windows Vista too often prompted users to approve changes, Microsoft had decided in Windows 7 to prompt users less frequently. However, in recent days, some enthusiasts and security experts warned that the specific changes Microsoft planned to make with Windows 7 could put users at risk.

Microsoft initially downplayed the risks and defended its choices around the User Account Control feature. On Thursday, though, the company's two top Windows engineers said the company will make some modifications in response to the outcry.

Microsoft won't change the default setting--which is to notify users only when a program is making changes to their system--it will add an exception when changes are being made to the UAC itself. Starting with the upcoming "release candidate" version of Windows 7, changes to the UAC settings will require user approval, senior vice presidents Jon DeVaan and Steven Sinofsky said in a blog posting.

"With this feedback and a lot more we are going to deliver two changes to the Release Candidate that we'll all see," the pair wrote. "First, the UAC control panel will run in a high integrity process, which requires elevation. That was already in the works before this discussion...Second, changing the level of the UAC will also prompt for confirmation."


For Windows 7, Microsoft won't change the User Account Control default setting--which is to notify users only when a program is making changes to their system--it will add an exception when changes are being made to the UAC itself. (Credit: CNET News)

When the issue was first raised last week, Microsoft issued a terse statement that basically said the feature was working as it was supposed to.

"This is not a vulnerability," Microsoft said. "The intent of the default configuration of UAC is that users don't get prompted when making changes to Windows settings. This includes changing the UAC prompting level."

However, the criticism around the setting continued to build.

In an interview on Wednesday, DeVaan told CNET News that the company would consider changes, but he also said that it believed that the discussion had lost sight of the fact that the issues being discussed only applied if a system was already compromised by malware.

Rafael Rivera, who along with blogger Long Zheng was among the first to write about the UAC issue, praised Microsoft for its eventual action on the issue.

"I'm happy to hear of the changes upcoming in the public Windows 7 Release Candidate build," Rivera said in an email. "Regardless of the reasons (behind the changes), the increase in security is a win for all Microsoft Windows users."

Zheng also praised Microsoft's move in a blog posting late Thursday.

In their post, DeVaan and Sinofsky acknowledged their communication on the issue had been less than ideal.

"Our dialog is at that point where many do not feel listened to and also many feel various viewpoints are not well-informed," the pair wrote.


Sinofsky and DeVaan said they expected a breakdown in communication to happen at some point, but said that they hoped the dialogue around Windows 7 would continue.

"We don't want the discussion to stop being so lively or the viewpoints to stop being expressed, but we do want the chance to learn and to be honest about what we learned and hope for the same in return," they wrote. "This blog has almost been like building an extra product for us, and we're having a fantastic experience. Let's all get back to work and to the dialog about Engineering Windows 7. And of course most importantly, we will continue to hear all points of view and share our point of view and work together to deliver a Windows 7 product that we can all feel good about."

Reviews of the beta version of the product, which came out last month, have been largely positive, particularly around the performance and reliability of the product. The company has seen the first significant criticisms about Windows 7 this week, both in regard to the UAC feature as well as some dismay that the company will again offer at least six different versions of the product when Windows 7 is released.

Officially the product is due out before the end of January 2010, although Microsoft is still believed to be aiming to have Windows 7 out in time to be on computers sold during this year's holiday shopping season.

Source: CNET

HP ditches Linux option for netbooks in UK

HP has dropped Linux as an operating-system option for its latest netbooks in the UK market.

An HP spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Thursday that it will not offer the Linux version of the new HP Mini 1000 in "quite a few of the European markets", including the UK. The netbook, which was launched in October, was planned to go on sale in all versions this month. In fact, British customers cannot buy any version of the Mini 1000 other than the designer, premium-priced Vivienne Tam edition. That version, which comes only with Windows XP, is already on sale for about £450.

HP is selling the Mini 1000 Mobile Internet Experience (MIE) edition, which uses a customised version of Ubuntu Linux and is aimed at home-entertainment use, in the US.

The Compaq Mini 700, which is HP's cheaper but similarly specified alternative to the Mini 1000, will be available in the UK. However, it too will come in an XP flavour. British customers can also buy HP's business-oriented Mini 2140, which comes with a choice between XP and Vista.

The manufacturer does offer UK buyers a cheap subnotebook that uses Linux — the Mini 2133 — but that model has been out for almost a year. The 2133 belongs to the previous generation of netbooks and has been superseded by the Mini 1000, which uses Intel's Atom processor rather than the less powerful Via C7-M processor found in the 2133.

HP's spokesperson said the decision to drop Linux from netbooks aimed at the UK market had been taken "a month ago", but declined to comment on the reason. After ZDNet UK asked for clarification, HP sent a statement in which it said it had "assessed the current EMEA market and believes that the Compaq 700 and HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition better address the market and consumer needs".

The statement concluded: "As a result, the HP Mini 1000 with Mobile Internet Experience will not be introduced in EMEA."

The fast-growing netbook market, which only got going in 2007, kicked off with the launch of Asus's Linux-only Eee PC 701. In early 2008, Microsoft announced a partnership with Asus to put Windows XP onto the next generation of the Eee, and since then XP has become a standard option on netbooks.

Microsoft has been offering XP to netbook manufacturers at a reduced price, as long as they agreed to certain specification limitations.

There have been reports that retailers have had more Linux-based netbooks returned to them by customers than their XP-based counterparts, because buyers struggled to use the unfamilar operating system. However, the top-selling netbook in Europe has been Acer's Aspire One netbook, which usually uses the Linpus Linux distribution.

Source: CDNet

New Google software to track mobile users

Google Inc released software on Wednesday that allows users of mobile phones and other wireless devices to automatically share their whereabouts with family and friends.

Users in 27 countries will be able to broadcast their location to others constantly, using Google Latitude. Controls allow users to select who receives the information or to go offline at any time, Google said on its Web site.

"Fun aside, we recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we've built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application," Google said in a blog post announcing the service.

"You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see."

Friends' whereabouts can be tracked on a Google map, either from a handset or from a personal computer.

Google's new service is similar to the service offered by privately-held Loopt.

Companies including Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, already offer Loopt's service, which also works on iPhone from Apple Inc.

Latitude will work on Research In Motion Ltd's Blackberry and devices running on Symbian S60 devices or Microsoft Corp's Windows Mobile and some T-1 Mobile phones running on Google's Android software.

The software will eventually run on Apple's iPhone and iTouch and many Sony Ericsson devices.

In 2005, Google acquired, but subsequently shut down, a location-finding service that used text messaging to keep mobile phone users aware of their friends' proximity.

Source: Reuters

Rambus Claims Technology Can Speed Up Mobile Phones

Chip designer Rambus, which so far has focused on PCs and video game systems, says it has developed technology that can speed up the time in which microprocessors in a mobile phone retrieves data from memory chips. The result? Phones that could be just as good as high-end computers in letting consumers view high definition video or playing complex games. The WSJ.com reports that Rambus claims its technology is five times faster that the most advanced solution on the market now, and 16 times faster than the typical connections in chips currently used. More specifically, the company says its MMI, or mobile memory initiative as the new technology is called, can deliver 4.3 gigabits of data per second on a single connection between chips versus the more typical 266 megabits of data per second.

But the big question, as the WSJ notes, is whether or not Rambus can gets its technology used by makers of memory chips and microprocessors for cell phones. Though the technology, according to In-Stat analyst Jim McGregor, should appeal to cellphone makers, if Rambus' foray into PC chip technology is anything to go by, it won't be smooth sailing. The company was unable to get memory chip makers to use their technology and is now bogged down in on-going legal battles over patents around it. The other big question is how much will they charge chip makers to license their technology. A high price would bump up the cost of mobile phones at a time when consumer demand for them is waning. Rambus hasn't set any prices, and chips using their technology is still apparently at least a year away. The company itself has said, however, that their new technology can actually make the cost of building handsets cheaper, since chip makers could bypass some of the data links they use now.

Source: Washington Post

Linux and Open Source: 10 predictions for 2009

The year holds a great deal of promise for the Linux OS and open source software--from an explosion in the mobile arena to widespread adoption of OpenOffice 3, says industry watcher.

I don't like to look back; I like to look ahead. So I offer you this list of what I see in the year to come for the Linux operating system and open source software.

#1: Android
I think 2009 is going to see the Android mobile operating system finally showing Apple and the iPhone that there is, indeed, another game in town.

So far, we really only have the T-Mobile G1. But waiting in the wings are the Motorola Android phone, the Asus Eee Phone, the OpenMoko GTA02, and an LG Android phone. These are all rumored to be arriving some time in 2009. When they do hit the shelves, things are going to be interesting for the iPhone.

Think about it--an iPhone-like piece of hardware with open source software that anyone can develop for. No more App Store headaches. No more wondering if anyone might ever develop that killer app you need (or waiting for Apple to approve that killer app you need).

Add to that the fact that the operating system itself is open, which means when problems arise they will be fixed. Oh, and need I say "copy/paste"? I didn't think so. 2009 will bring an end to the idea that the iPhone is the only smart phone to own.

#2: GNOME vs. KDE
I think 2009 will finally see GNOME rise above KDE as the better Linux desktop. For a long time, GNOME has been suffocated by the presence of KDE 3.x and with good reason--KDE 3.x was an outstanding desktop. KDE 3.x had everything a good Linux desktop should have: user friendliness, stability, flexibility, eye candy. GNOME was trying too hard to be a bad copy of OS X.

With the advent of KDE 4 the tables have turned.

This is not just a situation where KDE 4.x is so bad that GNOME, as bad as it is, is better. GNOME 2.24 is good, really good. GNOME has gone a little ways to restoring its roots and allowing a bit more flexibility with the desktop. But more important, GNOME 2.24 has finally found some solid footing. GNOME is now as stable as KDE 3.x ever was. And now that KDE has obviously decided to go down a much less popular route with KDE 4, it is going to have a hard year. More and more people and distributions will drop KDE in favor of GNOME. I realize there is no going back for KDE, but going forward better bring much more promise than this Linux desktop has shown thus far.

#3: Pre-installed
This has come and this has gone, I know. But HP is now promising to get into the "preinstalling Linux game" and that bodes well for the open source operating system.

Add to this the ever-rising tide of netbook sales, and preinstalled Linux sales will begin to show improvement and continue to improve throughout the year. This will not be a flash-in-the pan like we saw with Wal-mart selling desktops preinstalled to unaware consumers. This time around, people will continue to purchase netbooks with a Linux operating system perfectly matched for the purpose.

And look out Microsoft--Canonical (the founders/supporters of Ubuntu) is collaborating with AMD on a version of Ubuntu perfectly matched with the ARM processor (the processor common in netbooks.)

#4: Brtfs
Brtfs is the new copy on write file system that is focused on fault tolerance, repair, and administration. This file system offers Linux something that other file systems lack: the ability to scale to the level of larger enterprises.

Version 1 of this file system should arrive in 2009, which could mean that by the end of the year, distributions could be shipping with a large-scale, enterprise-ready kernel. This is big news for Linux because it will finally have the tools to overcome the biggest hurdle for enterprise adoption.

#5: OpenGL for the masses
This has been a long time coming. In 2008, NVidia released a version of OpenGL 3.0 driver for FLOSS OpenGL. But Mesa didn't. Mesa, however, is back and working on a 3.0-compatible release. I am confident that other chip makers will follow suit. This will bring OpenGL to the Linux community in both proprietary and free sources.

Along with this, I can see far easier installations of such 3D desktops as Compiz-Fusion. Can you imagine Compiz-Fusion out of the box? On top of that, Linux will have a much easier time working with the newest video technology. Add to this the new drive to move video subsystems to the kernel level using GEM (Graphics Execution Manager) and KMS (Kernel Mode Setting).

#6: The cloud
I am going to preface this with a big "if". IF cloud computing does finally gain any solid ground, Linux will lead the way.

Be it on the server end or the client end, Linux already has the tools it needs to create solid cloud environments. (It has for a long time.) Linux has always been ahead of Microsoft in this respect. And if the cloud actually develops into the storm the media has been predicting, Linux will reap many benefits. I, for one, am a little hesitant to say that the cloud has arrived. Amazon already has a Linux cloud out of beta.

#7: OpenOffice 3
2009 will see far more deployments, taking a chunk out of the Microsoft Office pie. OpenOffice 3 offers a host of new features that are just right for enterprise adoption. But that is not the real kicker. With the economy as it is, companies are doing everything they can to cut costs. One area of quick and painless cost cutting is office suites.

And when the typical end user starts to see how little difference there is between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice, the fire will spread rapidly. One of the issues keeping OpenOffice from the top of the charts is visibility. When people know there is a free alternative to Microsoft Office they will use it.

#8: Enlightenment
This one is a bit niche-y, but I have to address it. I believe that 2009 will see the developers of the Enlightenment desktop finally endorse E17 as stable. If you have followed the Enlightenment window manager (my favorite, by the way), you know that E16 has been the default forever and E17 has been the unstable development branch forever.

2009 will see E17 be listed as stable. However, I hope that E16 goes nowhere. The E16 version of Enlightenment is one of the best holdovers from Linux' romantic period. I can still say, "This desktop I am using now is the same as it was when I was using back in the day." So even when E17 becomes stable in 2009, I hope E16 is always around.

#9: Ubuntu
I see two things happening with Ubuntu. The first is that Ubuntu server will finally be adopted as a viable solution for enterprise server needs. The second is that Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) will find its way to the desktop and become the de facto standard of the user-friendly level of Linux operating systems.

Ubuntu already has a strong hold on entry-level user installs. With 9.04, Ubuntu will probably deliver the best benchmarking of any desktop Linux ever, as well as the best hardware support. With the possible adoption of EXA acceleration, ATI video cards will see vastly improved support, and wireless/Bluetooth will include a powering-down feature.

Ubuntu 9.04 will give Linux a much-needed push onto the desktop in 2009.

#10: Firefox
This one is quickly becoming a no-brainer. Firefox will, in 2009, finally usurp Internet Explorer as king of browsers. It's been a long time coming, but the problems Internet Explorer has faced in 2008 will show Firefox reaping the benefits. And I think this time around, it will go well beyond Firefox seeing a jump in usage.

Firefox will take the lion's share of the user base away from Microsoft. Because of this, the Net will become a safer place and fewer bugs will be reported. But by the end of the year, Google will release a mass-appeal-ready version of Chrome, which will chip into both Firefox' and Internet Explorer's pies. The browser wars will be renewed.

Bright future
I think the trends in 2009 are sure to bring a smile to the faces of the Linux and open source communities. What do you think? Is 2009 going to finally be the year of Linux? If so, why?

Jack Wallen was a key player in the introduction of Linux to the original TechRepublic. Beginning with Red Hat 4.2 and a mighty soap box, Jack had found his escape from Windows. It was around Red Hat 6.0 that Jack landed in the hallowed halls of TechRepublic.

Source: ZDNET Asia