News Story by Paul Krill

OCTOBER 20, 2005 (INFOWORLD) - PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) has caught on in enterprise-level Web deployments and is beginning to compete with Java, according to speakers at the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo 2005 event on Wednesday. The open-source scripting language for Web applications was center stage at PHP products-and-services vendor Zend Technologies Inc.'s conference.

"We think PHP is ready for enterprise use," said Ken Jacobs, vice president of product strategy at Oracle Corp.

"Java and PHP compete at some level, and I think it's great," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. This should serve as ....

By Jim Rapoza

More and more, a company's Web site is its primary public face for customers, partners and clients. But eWEEK Labs' daily browsing experiences show that many businesses don't put enough work into the design and structure of their Web site.
Web users can probably rattle off a list of sites they find unfriendly and difficult to use and navigate—as well as a list of sites that are intuitive and easy to browse and that, not surprisingly, keep them coming back. All businesses, especially those that rely on Web visitors for profit, should do everything they can to make ....

By Elsa Wenzel

Adobe is in the process of swallowing Macromedia, but both companies rolled out impressive digital design packages separately this year. Macromedia Studio 8 includes the Web site maker Dreamweaver 8, and the comparable GoLive CS2 comes with the Adobe Creative Suite 2.

These WYSIWYG Web site-editing apps allow you to design sophisticated pages without cobbling together code from scratch. Die-hard coders snub both Dreamweaver and GoLive because they can create "messy" code, but many creative types prefer these drag-and-drop tools to laborious typing.

Some design shops find that they may need elements of both company's rival suites. Only Macromedia ....

Showdown looms over U.S. Internet control
Other countries want an international body to oversee the Internet

News Story by Andy Sullivan

The U.S. is headed for a showdown with much of the rest of the world over control of the Internet.

Countries like China, Brazil and Iran don’t like the fact that the world’s only superpower oversees the system that guides traffic across the global computer network, and they have pushed for an international body to take over that role. But the U.S. believes such a body would slow the pace of online innovation to a crawl, requiring entrepreneurs to win permission from ....

News Story by John Blau

The U.S. government, in an unexpected turn, intends to indefinitely retain control over parts of the Domain Name System (DNS), the system that converts human-readable Internet addresses into computer-readable numerical addresses. Such addresses are used to direct traffic to Web sites or to deliver e-mail to the correct server.

"Given the Internet's importance to the world's economy, it is essential that the underlying DNS of the Internet remain stable and secure," and for this reason the U.S. aims to "maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file," which is ....

By Mark Ward

Back in 1994, Yahoo had only just launched, most websites were text-based and Amazon, Google and eBay had yet to appear.

But, says usability guru Dr Jakob Nielsen, some things have stayed constant in that decade, namely the principles of what makes a site easy to use.

Dr Nielsen has looked back at a decade of work on usability and considered whether the 34 core guidelines drawn up back then are relevant to the web of today.

"Roughly 80% of the things we found 10 years ago are still an issue today," he said.

"Some have gone away because users have ....

By Matthew Hicks

Google Inc. has added customization features to its popular news search site by letting users choose categories and track keywords.

The Mountain View, Calif., company released the feature Thursday as a way for users to rearrange the presentation of news categories and to create their own sections.

Users can select among nine languages, 22 localized editions of Google News ranging from the United States to China, and news categories such as world news or entertainment news. Also, they can choose to create a section for tracking a keyword search of Google's news index.

Marissa Mayer, Google's director of consumer ....

By Clint Boulton

Sun Microsystems is poised to make its Java software play nicely with Microsoft's .NET software.

Sun said today that it is forging open source implementations of the key Web services (define) specifications required to interoperate with Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Microsoft's Web services platform, formerly known as Indigo.

With the implementations, programmers will be able to work with Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) and WCF systems to create Web services software that runs on disparate computing operating systems, including Sun Solaris, Microsoft Windows and Linux.

The idea, said Joe Keller, vice president of marketing for Java Web Services and Tools ....

One in 10 UK websites fail to work properly on the open source Firefox web browser, a study shows.

Some 100 leading consumer sites were assessed by web-testing firm SciVisum.

Websites that proved difficult for Firefox users to navigate included the government website Jobcentreplus.gov.uk and the cinema site Odeon.co.uk.

Firefox is an open source alternative to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and has proved popular since its launch in November last year.

While most people still use Microsoft's browser, Firefox is slowly making inroads.

Its share of the browser market grew to 8% in May, up from 5.59% at the beginning of the year, according to US-based ....

By Tracey Logan

Net users may have to get used to watching TV ads between web pages, if trials currently under way on high profile websites are successful.

The new video ads are being tested on 15 sites over the next five weeks.

They are the result of a collaboration between online ad developers, Unicast, and software giant, Microsoft.

But though users may find them annoying, they could ultimately reduce the overall number of web advertisements in the long term.

Hard to ignore

With the increasing commercialisation of the internet has come an explosion in advertising.

Most people have got used to filtering out the sales ....

News Story by Irwin Arieff

A group set up by the United Nations to devise a global plan for managing the Internet said yesterday that it has been unable to agree on who should do the job or how it should be done.

The Working Group on Internet Governance instead came up with four rival models for overseeing the Web and sorting out technical and public policy questions. In a report to be submitted to the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis in November, the group also proposed creation of a permanent forum to carry on the debate.

To understand ....

News Story by Robert Evans

The United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU) is ready to take over governance of the Internet from the U.S., ITU head Yoshio Utsumi said today.

The U.S. has clashed with the European Union and much of the rest of the world over the future of the Internet. It currently manages the global information system through a partnership with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in Marina Del Rey, Calif.

"We could do it if we were asked to," Utsumi told a news conference. The UN agency's experience in communications, its structure and its cooperation ....

News Story by John Blau

Lawmakers in Washington are speaking out against efforts by several countries participating in United Nations-sponsored talks to force the U.S. to relinquish control over key Internet functions.

The most recent critic is Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.). Earlier this week, Coleman submitted a resolution aimed at protecting control of the Internet, in particular the domain name and addressing system, from being transferred to the UN.

"We cannot stand idly by as some governments seek to make the Internet an instrument of censorship and political suppression," he said in a statement. "We must stand fast against all attempts to alter ....

By Eric Auchard

Google Inc. plans to give away a set of analytic tools allowing Web developers, administrators and advertisers to fine-tune their sites including advertising, the Web search leader said on Sunday.

The tools are intended to address a key aspect of successful Web sites, which is the ability to track user behavior to determine which features keep visitors on the site and which ones make them click away.

Google Analytics can be used by Web site builders to figure out what keywords attract visitors, which promotions hold on to customers and how to design Web pages that draw attention.

Google, which derived ....

By Andy Sullivan and David Lawsky

The United States is headed for a showdown with much of the rest of the world over control of the Internet but few expect a consensus to emerge from a U.N. summit in Tunisia this week.

The very notion of "Internet governance" may seem an oxymoron to the 875 million users of the global computer network, which has proven stubbornly resistant to the efforts of those who wish to rid it of pornography, "spam" e-mail and other objectionable material.

But the United States, which gave birth to the Internet, maintains control of the system that matches easy-to-remember ....

By Sharon Housley

In order to create consistent sales cycles and a positive growth trend businesses usually engage in both short and long term marketing efforts.

Short-term marketing efforts tend to cause sudden sales spikes which rarely last. These sharp sales increases are usually the result of a targeted marketing campaign or time limited offer. While short-term marketing produces sales, long-term marketing efforts must be mixed in to sustain sales.

Short Term Online Marketing

Mentions

Positive product mentions in forums, newsgroups or within trade organizations can result in a traffic or sales surge. Product endorsements and newsgroup conversations are difficult for marketers to control and ....

The latest versions of Microsoft's enterprise software are now available. Learn all about the new features.

Focusing on usability, performance, and productivity, Microsoft is touting that the new releases of SQL Server, Visual Studio, and BizTalk Server give its users the features they need to handle mission-critical enterprise applications. Microsoft says these new versions focus on better support for a broader set of user roles, including software developers, IT professionals, system architects, software testers, business decision makers, and more. With an emphasis on business process management, Microsoft is trying to make it easier for these different user roles to get their ....

As the United States and Europe prepare to slug it out over the ownership of the Internet at the upcoming United Nations conference on information technology, there is growing concern that the World Wide Web is being excessively politicized, and that might hamper its innovative driving force

The three-day world summit brings together over 10,000 participants not only from governments, but also from the private sector and non-profit organizations, ostensibly to bridge the digital divide between poorer countries and industrialized nations. It kicks off Wednesday in Tunis.

The topic that has most piqued the interest of the richer nations has been whether ....

A tense dispute over US control of the Internet in the run-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) could eventually lead to the break-up of the global network and hamper seamless browsing, officials warned Monday.

The warning came as the United States told EU participants at negotiations on Internet governance that it was determined to maintain its oversight over the technical and administrative infrastructure at the root of the network.

In a letter seen by AFP, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez called on the British presidency of the European Union to drop its ....

The breaking of the Monica Lewinsky scandal and this year's Live 8 concerts were voted among the most influential Internet moments of the past 10 years by organisers of the annual Webby Awards.

The committee that decides the awards -- the self-proclaimed Oscars of the Internet -- chose the dotcom boom and bust as the most eventful episode over the past decade.

Launched by Netscape's IPO in 1995, the boom spurred billions of dollars in private investment in the Internet, new technologies, marketing, and fiber optic cable and led to the development of such landmark sites as Google.

"Though now often synonymous with ....

Legal experts say that despite much caterwauling, the United Nations is unlikely to emerge as the next power broker of the Internet, and U.S. companies, which created cyberspace, are likely to retain their dominant role there.

"The Internet is a private network of private networks," Bill Semich, president and CEO of .NU Domain Ltd (nunames.nu), a domain registry service, told UPI's The Web.

Earlier this month the United Nations and the International Telecommunications Union, a multinational body, began arguing that the United States unfairly "monopolized" cyberspace, especially for domain name service, the registration of Internet site names. These organizations -- joined by ....

By Paul Krill, San Francisco

Although disappointed by product delays, Visual Studio 2005 beta users are nonetheless pleased with the product’s feature set, noting enhancements in areas such as ALM (application lifecycle management) and web development.

“In general, I’m very excited about [VS 2005], especially the improvements in ASP.Net and Visual Studio Team System,” says Joe Homnick, a beta user of Visual Studio 2005 and president of Homnick Systems, a learning solutions partner for Microsoft. He has been involved in three Visual Studio-related user groups in Florida.

But Homnick acknowledged delays with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005. “Of course, I’d like ....

By Stephen Bell, Wellington

Alhough the emphasis in websites is often placed on graphic design, Irish web design expert Gerry McGovern cautions not to forget about the writing — indeed, he says, give primary status to the words.

McGovern gave this warning in the opening keynote to government-sector developers and users assembled at the Govis conference last week.

The major recent trends in information dissemination are the website, the blog, cellphone texting and email, he says. “What connects those up is writing.”

Written language is the dominant feature of the “content” rated as such a crucial factor in government’s digital strategy and, indeed, ....

By Eric Lai, Framingham

The Mozilla Foundation has released a second beta of the Firefox 1.5 web browser that, like the first version released last month, focuses on tackling nagging security issues.

Beta 2 became available last week for download. The release comes just a month after Beta 1 of the browser became available publicly. Version 1.5 is Firefox's first major update since the browser officially debuted last year.

Mozilla notes on its website that the latest beta "does not contain any major new features since Beta 1. Improvements to automated updated system, website rendering and performance, along with several security fixes, are ....

It all began when Thomas Myer overheard a client complain about a boring presentation made by a well-meaning colleague at a company meeting.

"The talk was on XML, a very hot topic in technology," said Thomas Myer. "But the way the material was delivered was pretty much 'death by geek'. So I decided to start a workshop series to explain the power of XML to clients and colleagues, emphasizing practical uses."

Thomas Myer, founder of Triple Dog Dare Media, decided to call the workshop XML for Mere Mortals. It was a one-day workshop that minimized the theory and emphasized hand's on work ....

Packt is pleased to announce the release of its second book on Microsoft Content Management Server; a more advanced guide that takes your MCMS development to a higher level of both power and integration.

Microsoft Content Management Server 2002 is a dynamic web publishing system with which you can build websites quickly and cost-efficiently. MCMS provides the administration, authoring, and data management functionality and you provide the Website interface, logic, and workflow.

Written by four of the leading Microsoft Content Management Server professionals, Advanced Microsoft Content Management Server Development is your gateway to squeezing every penny from your investment in MCMS and ....

La Jolla, CA

iHispanic Marketing Group LLC is proud to announce that Google Analytics (formerly known as Urchin) has chosen our firm as one among other Client Service and Support Consultants to service the global Hispanic market. This strategic alliance will help executives, marketing managers and webmasters receive professional services for training, advanced support, and expert web analytics consulting in Spanish and English.

Nacho Hernandez, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of iHispanic Marketing Group said, “Our loyalty to Urchin, Google and our clients have demonstrated great rewards. Google Analytics will help advertisers, publishers and website owners in the global Hispanic market ....

By AMAN BATHEJA
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

At a tech conference in San Francisco last June, Andrew Muse had an idea that was fresh and redundant.

Wouldn't it be great, he wondered, if you could shorten an overly long Web site link to make it easier to send to others? Tools for that already existed online, he knew, but one could go further by incorporating the latest technologies like RSS and tagging.

The idea drove Muse to his laptop, where he zapped instant messages to colleagues about the project.

Four days later, ElfURL.com was online and free to use. The project cost about $500. It has ....

Microsoft targets Google with developer platform, Microsoft will release new APIs today to allow developers to build applications for MSN services

By Elizabeth Montalbano, San Francisco

Microsoft will try to gain ground on competitors Google and Yahoo by unveiling a new web development platform today on which developers can add new search, mapping and instant-messaging features to online products from the MSN division.

The set of APIs will be announced at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), the vendor's biannual developer gathering, which is scheduled to be held in Los Angeles later today.

Analyst surveys put Microsoft a distant third behind Google and Yahoo ....

Microsoft targets Google with developer platform, Microsoft will release new APIs today to allow developers to build applications for MSN services

By Elizabeth Montalbano, San Francisco

Microsoft will try to gain ground on competitors Google and Yahoo by unveiling a new web development platform today on which developers can add new search, mapping and instant-messaging features to online products from the MSN division.

The set of APIs will be announced at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC), the vendor's biannual developer gathering, which is scheduled to be held in Los Angeles later today.

Analyst surveys put Microsoft a distant third behind Google and Yahoo ....

By Thomas Powell, Auckland

The Google Search Appliance packages up the company's famously accurate technology into an easy-to-use search engine for intranets and public-facing corporate sites. In our Clear Choice test of the GB-1001 model, we found that while the searching and indexing features live up to the Google name, the product lacks polish and advanced management features.

The appliance's honeycomb case caught our eye, but the gloss wore off as we began to notice occasional unevenness in the appliance. For example, the appliance takes a number of minutes to start up and run its various system checks. To alert the ....

Development tool security hole threatens internet apps,Hole has severe implications for Gmail, Flikr and MSN Virtual Earth

By Matthew Broersma, London

A security hole in a popular development tool has severe implications for a number of the internet's most popular applications, including Gmail, Flikr and MSN Virtual Earth.

Tens of thousands of companies including AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are likely to be affected by the flaw in CPAINT — a toolkit used to create applications using an approach known as AJAX — short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Rather than a technology in itself, AJAX is an approach to putting more dynamic ....

Oliver Rist

I poked a few fun fingers at Vista. Sure, I did. After all, I'm a pundit, and making obvious jokes at the expense of large corporate marketing departments is my job. But apparently, Microsoft is inured to name-blame jabs because just a few weeks after announcing that its new OS would be named after a line from White Men Can't Jump, the company actually used e-mail to ensure my full awareness of the name for its new anti-malware research project: The Strider HoneyMonkey project.

Now there are several possible explanations for this name. One: copious amounts of tequila and foreign ....

Website Services, Inc. (http://websiteservices.com), today announced the launch of its flagship publication, Website Services Magazine, a new publication with content specifically developed for those involved in the design, development, management and promotion of websites.

The magazine will be officially launched at Ad:Tech New York on November 7th, 2005 and distributed to an audience of over 25,000 individuals that own, operate and manage Web properties. The content will also be available to the broader Web community at http://websiteservices.com, where visitors (for a limited time) can sign up for a free subscription to the Website Services Magazine publication.

“This is the first offline publication ....

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB)- In a recent article published by OneUpWeb® of the Fortune 100's websites only 13 have “properly optimized” their websites for natural Google placement. Of the remainder, 42 have only done a partial job, while 45 have done little or nothing. Why aren’t the ‘big boys’ participating in the game? “The answer,” says Ron Scott, an Internet publicist, “is really quite simple - they don’t see the need.

“The ’big boys’ have wisely chosen to focus their marketing efforts on branding and brand recognition,” Scott says, “and the logic behind the strategy is certainly understandable when you think ....

Elizabeth Montalbano

Microsoft Corp. is readying changes to its certification programs that are expected to take effect with the release of SQL Server 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 in November.

At the recent Worldwide Partner Conference in Minneapolis, a manager in the Microsoft Learning group outlined tweaks to Microsoft's certification programs for developers and database engineers that will give technologists specific credentials around what have been more general certifications.

"We're responding to customer and partner feedback [about] how the IT landscape has changed and how skills need to differentiate competencies," said Al Valvano, lead product manager for Microsoft Learning. "We want to reflect ....

Studio 8 review,New Macromedia product a mix of old and new

By Chris Reynolds

Macromedia has just released Studio 8 which is a bundle of several of their products for web content producers. This includes several old familiar faces as well as a couple of recent additions.

While waiting for the installation to run in the background, I was working on a Microsoft Powerpoint presentation in the foreground. So the first product in Studio 8 to grab my attention was Macromedia FlashPaper2. This is a combination of a print driver and a Microsoft Office Toolbar add-in. It is visible in Word, Excel and ....

Not-for-profits show how to innovate on a budget, Computerworld Excellence Awards 2005: Excellence in the Use of IT in a Not-for-Profit Organisation

By Paul Brislen, Auckland

While information technology is important to most businesses around the country, non-profit organisations need to have particularly robust, dependable platforms. When making money isn't the focus of your organisation, taking care of the pennies and not squandering them on anything unnecessary is very important.

The two finalists in the Computerworld Excellence Awards Use of IT in the Not-for-Profit Organisation category both understand the need to be innovative when there are major budget constraints.

Te Runanga o Ngai ....

Enterprise monitoring comes to PHP,Once a simple scripting language for newbies, PHP has evolved into something far more sophisticated

By Peter Wayner, Framingham

During the past few years, PHP has grown to be more than just a simple tag-centered scripting language for neophyte web designers who want to do a bit of programming. A quick survey of the breadth and depth of the open-source projects using the language shows that people can and will build enterprise-grade applications with the embedded tags. Now Zend Technologies, the company steering the language, is rolling out more tools to support the enterprise-grade servers that run ....

US requests more info on Adobe's Macromedia acquisition, Merger may not be as straightforward as Adobe hoped

By James Niccolai, Paris

The US Department of Justice has requested more information from Adobe and Macromedia before it will sign off on their planned US$3.4 billion (NZ$5 billion) merger agreement announced in April, the companies say.

In its second request for information, the DOJ has asked for additional documents and materials related to the companies' products for web authoring, web design and vector graphics illustration, the companies said in a statement on Monday.

The DOJ includes the US government's antitrust division, which is responsible for ....

Sun seeks to increase and boost corporate blogging,We have 1500 bloggers and want more, says Sun web director

By Juan Carlos Perez, Miami

About 16 months after officially encouraging employees to take up web logging, Sun now estimates that between 1,500 and 2,000 staffers are engaged in this increasingly popular practice, says the man behind Sun's blogging effort.

Now, Sun is working to boost even further its corporate blogosphere by strengthening the back end infrastructure of its blogging system and facilitating the posting of multimedia content to the journal entries, says Tim Bray, Sun's director of web technologies.

The company also plans to ....

Worm targets Linux systems, Security vendors disagree on seriousness of threat

By Nancy Weil, Boston

A worm that affects Linux systems and spreads by exploiting web server-related vulnerabilities has been reported by antivirus companies, but so far Linux. Plupii, which is also known as Lupper, hasn’t spread much and isn’t seen as much of a threat.

The worm spreads by exploiting web servers hosting vulnerable PHP/CGI programming language scripts, according to antivirus software vendor McAfee. The worm is a derivative of the Linux/Slapper and BSD/Scalper worms from which it has taken its propagation strategy, McAfee says. It attacks web servers by sending ....

Ruby IDE is set to shine,ActiveState to support open source language

By Paul Krill, San Francisco

ActiveState is looking to accommodate the burgeoning interest in the open source Ruby programming language by supporting it in the company’s IDE.

ActiveState’s Komodo 3.5 IDE adds Ruby to a list of other programming languages supported such as Python, PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) and Perl. Version 3.5 also offers support of the Mac OS X platform.

Komodo focuses on “dynamic” languages, says David Ascher, chief technologist at ActiveState. “Dynamic languages are pretty well suited for projects where you have fast-changing requirements,” Ascher says.

Ruby is particularly successful because of ....

Paul Krill

Power in computing has shifted from proprietary, Microsoft APIs to URLs on the Web and content provision, Google Vice President Adam Bosworth said during the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo.

There has been a shift from 10 years ago, he said. Developers for the most part no longer build applications with the client-server paradigm and database access in mind, with C++ and Visual Basic being the predominant languages, according to Bosworth.

"Mostly, what we see today is people building applications using things like PHP" (Hypertext Preprocessor) and the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) stack, Bosworth said. He said his son is a ....

Web-based software getting more feature rich,Apps delivered over the net are getting more complex, Jon Udell says

By Jon Udell, San Francisco

When Peter Yared, chief executive and founder of LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP/Python) middleware startup ActiveGrid realised he needed project management software to coordinate his company’s development work, he tried Microsoft Project 2003.

The experiment didn’t last long. “2003?” Yared asks incredulously on his blog. “This code hadn’t been touched in three years!” What’s more, the features and functions simply weren’t compelling, he writes. So, Yared switched to Basecamp, a web-based application that also served as the proving ground ....

Robert McMillan

An unpatched bug in a file installed with Microsoft Corp.'s Office and Visual Studio software could lead to some serious problems for Internet Explorer users, security researchers have reported.

An attacker could seize control of a vulnerable system by exploiting the bug, which the FrSIRT (French Security Incident Response Team) reported in an alert published Wednesday. This would be achieved by installing malicious code in a Web page that exploits a memory corruption error in a file that ships with Microsoft Office 2002 and Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 2002 products, the research organization said.

Though the attack would be executed via ....

SMEs deliver big results
Computerworld Excellence Awards 2005: Excellence in the Use of IT in a Small to Medium Enterprise

By Juha Saarinen, Auckland

The vast majority of businesses in New Zealand are counted as SMEs, so recognition in the Excellence of the Use of IT in a Small to Medium Enterprise category of the 2005 Computerworld Excellence Awards marks success in a large and competitive market. The category is open to all organisations with a maximum of 25 employees. Finalists this year include two online stores and a computerised booking system.

Weddings can be famously expensive and complex process, so e-store The ....

Enterprise monitoring comes to PHP,Once a simple scripting language for newbies, PHP has evolved into something far more sophisticated

By Peter Wayner, Framingham

During the past few years, PHP has grown to be more than just a simple tag-centered scripting language for neophyte web designers who want to do a bit of programming. A quick survey of the breadth and depth of the open-source projects using the language shows that people can and will build enterprise-grade applications with the embedded tags. Now Zend Technologies, the company steering the language, is rolling out more tools to support the enterprise-grade servers that run these ....

Eric Lai

Led by small to medium-size businesses, IT spending in the U.S. will increase by 5.5 percent in 2006, although the job market for IT workers will remain "challenging," Gartner Inc. says.

While spending related to security and storage, two IT stars of recent years, is expected to slow next year, outlays for mobile devices such as BlackBerry and Treo handhelds will likely grow, as will investment in software development tools and middleware, according to preliminary results from a summer survey of 1,500 U.S. IT managers by the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm.

"Despite the spending increase, the message to IT managers is ....

Michael Crawford

Chaos will rule the Internet in 2010 as spam, viruses and fraudulent e-mails continue to cause havoc, according to Professor Trevor Barr, user environments program manager at Australia's Swinburne University of Technology.

Delivering the Smart Internet 2010 report, a 50,000 word prediction on what the Internet will be in five years' time, Barr, who is also the leader of the research team that conducted and compiled the report, Smart Internet Technology CRC, outlined the four distinct issues that various schools of thought consider the Internet faces in the near future.

Speaking at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney yesterday, he said the ....

By Clint Boulton

There's a new Semantic Web group in town.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has formed the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) working group with the job of standardizing the rules that propel data across the Web, regardless of format.

Rules are a cornerstone of the Semantic Web, the idea that the Internet can be tapped for information as though it was one, giant database.

W3C said an RIF can trigger the integration and transformation of data from multiple sources.

RIF will provide a way to allow rules written for one application to be published, shared, merged and re-used in other applications and ....

License proliferation in the open source community is a much-debated and hotly contested topic.

Microsoft, a company often reviled in the open source community, has taken dramatic steps to simplify its open source style shared source licenses by paring the number it offers down to three.

Microsoft established its Shared Source Initiative in 2001 and had been offering over 10 licenses under which code could be shared. There are currently more than 80 Microsoft technologies available via shared source and over 600 non-Microsoft technologies released under one of the many shared source licenses.

As of today, Shared Source Initiative technologies will be simplified ....

By Sean Michael Kerner

New versions of both branches of the Apache Software Foundation's (ASF) HTTP Web server are now available.

Apache HTTP Server 1.3.34 and Apache HTTP Server 2.0.55 are both principally security and bug fix releases.

The Apache 1.3.34 release addresses two potential security issues. A TraceEnable per server directive has been added and a change made to the code to remove Content-Length headers when a request includes both Transfer-Encoding and Content-Length headers which could potentially lead to a HTTP Request Splitting/Spoofing attack.

Apache 2.0.55 addresses six security issues, three of which are related to HTTP Request and Response Splitting/Spoofing attacks.

Other ....

By Tim Gray

MovieFlix has brought together two of America's favorite industries with a new bit of self-promotion by offering free gas cards at random to newly registered members.

The Hollywood-based broadband movie provider on the Web, with 500,000 members, says all new MovieFlix members who successfully register for MovieFlix.com memberships, are now eligible to win a $250 gas card.

"With gas prices so high, this is a perfect opportunity for us to give back to our members," Opher Mizrahi, CEO and co-founder of MovieFlix.com, said in a statement.

One free $250 gas card will be given out each month to a MovieFlix ....

By Clint Boulton

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Microsoft is in the advanced stages of building a software application that enables distributed computing among various computing devices.

At VSLive today, company officials generated buzz for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), formerly known as Indigo, by showing how it works for both commercial and enterprise scenarios.

WCF, formerly known as Indigo, is being prepped for a 2006 launch. When it appears, the Redmond, Wash., software giant hopes WCF will provide a viable Web services platform capable of triggering communications between PCs and handheld computers, among other devices.

Richard Turner and Payam Shodjai, product managers for ....

By Jim Wagner

After four months of developer scrutiny, Alfresco is seeing the light of day with the general availability of the open source enterprise content management (ECM) application, officials announced Monday.

Alfresco is the brainchild of John Newton, co-founder of commercial ECM vendor Documentum, and John Powell, former COO at Business Objects. The two delivered a technology preview of the application in June, which prompted more than 25,000 downloads in the first two months, and have been busy getting the software ready for its prime-time launch.

Alfresco builds upon the ECM premise, collating structured and unstructured data on the network, with ....

SEATTLE (AP) - Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday released a business version of software that aims to help people more quickly find documents, e-mail and other data stored on Windows-based computers.

The free new desktop search product comes after years of complaints over how hard it can be to locate Microsoft Word documents, sort through long e-mail lists and find other data people use during the workday.

The software will feel similar to Microsoft's consumer offering for searching files on desktop computers. But the product is designed so corporate technology executives can easily install it on many computers simultaneously, and better control how ....

Google is watching you
AS WE SEARCH AWAY, WEB FIRMS GATHER DATA ON OUR HABITS

By John Battelle

Google. Google. Google. It's all we can talk about these days in Silicon Valley, where the 7-year-old company has once again validated our collective belief in the power of technology to change our culture (and make a lot of people rich in the process).

But what are we creating each time we head to Google (or Yahoo, or Ask, or any other search-driven site) and tap our intentions, fears and hopes into their blank boxes and blinking cursors? After all, this is where we first worry ....

By Frank Michael Russell

Thanks, but no thanks. Sunnyvale Internet company Yahoo said today that it has "politely passed" on the chance to bid for a stake in America Online, leaving Microsoft and Google as the leading contenders.

According to an AP report, spokeswoman Joanna Stevens said Yahoo decided to abandon its bid after Chief Executive Terry Semel and Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker met in late October with executives of AOL's parent company, Time Warner.

Citing two people close to the talks, AP said the major obstacle was which company would be the majority owner. One of those people told AP that ....

NEW YORK (AP) - Microsoft Corp. is teaming with The Associated Press to offer an advertising-supported online video news network in the first quarter of 2006, the companies announced Wednesday.

Microsoft will supply the technology, video player and advertising support to the network, while AP's broadcast division will provide the video, which will feature about 50 different stories per day. AP, the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization, originally announced plans to develop the venture after a board meeting in July.

Jim Kathman, the head of strategy for the AP's broadcast division, said the network would be offered free of charge to ....

By Matt Marshall

When the three-person San Jose company Meebo launched in September, venture capitalists smothered it with requests to make an investment.

The company was hot -- or at least venture capitalists thought so. Its technology lets people access their instant messaging programs from America Online, Yahoo, Microsoft and Google from the Meebo Web site without having to download each service's software to their computers. Thousands of people were flocking to use it.

Meebo had become a ``Web 2.0'' company -- a buzz-filled, admittedly vague moniker that many in Silicon Valley are using to describe companies that embody a second era of ....

RECENT PATENT APPLICATION ANOTHER INDICATION

By Michael Bazeley

New evidence that Google intends to leap into the lucrative and competitive classified advertising business has surfaced, this time in the form of a recently filed Google patent application that details a new type of advertising aimed at individuals.

The new technology would let people sell things on Google much as they do on eBay or craigslist. Google's application describes a technology dubbed ``Google Automat'' that would let people create ads in less than a minute. They would enter details about the item they want to sell, and Google's technology would create a small text ....

Microsoft's Web. 2.0 Draws Skepticism
Analysis: Marketing ramps up, but does Microsoft yet 'get' the Web?

Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service

Though the powers that be at Microsoft seem to have finally grasped the impact of the Internet on the future of packaged software, industry observers and a key rival said the company still must prove that its plan to compete in the Web 2.0 marketplace is more than just hype.

Online Emphasis


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Web 2.0 is a name given to the Web's transition from a collection of static Web sites to a computing platform providing Internet-based applications, or services, to end users. Richard MacManus, a ....

Microsoft Hosted Services Expected
Gates, Ozzie may announce Web-based software, built on Groove or featuring Office

Elizabeth Montalbano

SAN FRANCISCO -- Top Microsoft executives speaking here next week are expected to reveal the first in what many observers believe will be a range of hosted services from the software company, analysts said Friday.


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Microsoft Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and Chief Technical Officer Ray Ozzie will hold a press and analyst event in San Francisco on Tuesday where they will, among other things, "preview upcoming technologies from Microsoft," according to an e-mail alert about the event from Microsoft's public relations firm, Waggener Edstrom.

Analysts say ....

Web Site Reborn as Ad Hoc Hurricane Info Center
Web designer who owned Katrina.com site uses tech skills to help victims

Todd R. Weiss, Computerworld

For about seven years, Web designer and PC technician Katrina Blankenship has worked out of her Powhatan, Virginia, home, helping customers with their computing and Web site problems through her company, Computer Connections.


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But on Sunday, as powerful Hurricane Katrina approached Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, worried Internet surfers found Blankenship's Web site, www.katrina.com, and began looking to her for information about the storm. The site was set up in 1998, long before the storm bearing the same name appeared.

"I ....

Google News Adds RSS Feeds
Users will be able to have targeted news content delivered directly to them

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Google plans to enhance its Google News article search service by adding content syndication, according to executives from the Mountain View, California, company.


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The new feature will allow Google News users to set up RSS (Really Simple Syndication) or Atom content syndication feeds for specific Google News sections, such as entertainment, business, or world news, and for specific terms users search for on Google News, such as "George Bush," "diabetes," or "space shuttle."

Users will also be able to set up ....

Microsoft Revamps MSN Blogs
MSN Spaces gets 'PowerToys' with multimedia support, custom design tools, other advanced features

Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service

Microsoft has released new features for its MSN Spaces blogging service to make it more attractive to advanced users, a key MSN Spaces official announced in his Web log late Tuesday.


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The new features, collectively called PowerToys, are the capability to create custom HTML modules, to play audio and video files, and to significantly customize user interfaces, Mike Torres, MSN Spaces lead program manager, wrote in his blog Torres Talking. "PowerToys are special features in MSN Spaces designed specifically for you, ....

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- A quiet revolution is transforming life on the internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers. And that could bode ill for Microsoft and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.

The threat comes in large part from Ajax, a ....

By Antony Savvas

Google is making its hosted web analytics service free to use, to enable more firms to track the effectiveness of their online marketing campaigns.

Though free, Google Analytics will come with a five million per month page view limit. This is more than enough for smaller companies and also for many larger organisations.

This cap is removed if the user is a Google Adwords advertiser, said company said.

Google Analytics was, in the past, called Urchin on Demand, and cost Ł120 a month with a 100,000 monthly page view limit. The decision to make the system free comes after Google acquired ....

Broadcaster ITV is to roll out Microsoft's SQL Server 2005 database, along with advanced reporting and analytics software, to help calculate the profitability of its television programmes.

ITV will work with business intelligence integrator IMGroup, which will implement SQL Server 2005, and link it with a business intelligence platform from ProClarity.

"ITV's data requirements are extremely complex and I am confident that SQL Server 2005 is the best tool with the capability and scalability required by ITV for supporting the level of analytics involved," said Ian Whitfield, director of broadcasting technology at ITV.

By Patrick Tarpey

Without ballyhoo or headlines, open source is eating away at the enterprise computing core and moving steadily outwards.

Open source desktops are here already, but I believe it will be at least three years before we see any real effect on the Microsoft-dominated corporate desktop. So on the surface nothing looks untoward, but a look inside tells a very different story.

A factor in this phenomenon is the steady commoditisation of Intel/AMD-based computers. Supercomputing power is now readily available for commercial and academic use, running on Linux clusters. Oil companies have been keen proponents of these clustered installations to process ....

By Nick Langley

Lamp languages could be lit up as the big suppliers invest in PHP

What is it?

Perl, Python and PHP are the language elements of the Lamp open source development and deployment platform, the others being Linux, Apache and MySQL or Postgres.

In August, research group Evans Data Corporation reported that the use of all three languages had dropped significantly from a peak two years ago, with many sites planning not to evaluate or use them in future developments. Evans felt the decline was due to the languages' failure to penetrate the enterprise.

However, IBM, Intel, SAP and Oracle are all investing ....

By Nick Langley

What is it?

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) or, less commonly, Rich Site Summary, is an integral part of Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer 7 web browser and Windows Vista operating system, but it is also widely used for aggregating updates to blogs and news sites. IBM calls it "an XML-based format for syndicated content"
According to the RSS 3.0 homepage, "It is a way to broadcast online content's meta data via the internet, thus letting webmasters inform users who read the RSS feed of changes in their site (updates, news, new links etc) or inform applications of changes in a service."

It ....

Microsoft has launched Sparkle Interactive Designer to compete with existing high-end graphics design tools such as those marketed by Adobe and Macromedia. Sparkle is a vector-based user interface designer that can deliver 2D and 3D objects, which can be used for tasks ranging from Flash-type presentations to designing user interfaces for Windows applications.

Sparkle - which forms part of the Microsoft Expression suite - was unveiled in a pre-release version at Microsoft's recent Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

The Expression suite, which is currently available to developers as a community technology preview, along with Microsoft's .net framework and Windows Presentation Foundation ....

By Antone Gonsalves
Courtesy of TechWeb News

Newspaper Web site traffic grew by 11 percent year-over-year in October to 39.3 million unique visitors, indicating that the traditional media is alive on the Internet, despite declining readership offline, a research firm said Tuesday.

More than 1 in 4 of the active U.S. Internet population visited a newspaper Web site last month, Nielsen/NetRatings said. The New York Times led the pack with 11.4 million visitors to its site, followed by USA Today and The Washington Post, with 10.4 million and 8.1 million, respectively.

Rounding out the top five were the Los Angeles Times and the ....

John Walko
EE Times

LONDON — The global Internet security market is expected to grow at an annual 16 percent over the next five years to reach $58.1 billion by 2010, according to a soon to be published report from Business Communications Co Inc.

The company says the recent spate of serious Internet security threats will continue to be the key market driver.

BCC (Norwalk, CT) estimates that between 2002-2004 the market for Internet security products increased at an average annual growth rate of over 30 percent. This year, BCC estimates it will be worth $27.7 billion.

It suggests that following the huge ....

By Paula Rooney & Barbara Darrow

Courtesy of CRN

With its tight integration between Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006, Microsoft has developed a compelling software stack.

But deployment of that long-awaited platform, which is slated to finally launch this week, could be slowed by still-missing pieces, partners said. Visual Studio 2005 features data access integration into SQL Server 2005 and a new Team System. SQL Server 2005’s business intelligence engine, XML support and Common Language Runtime (CLR) will give developers a consistent programming model across the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft partners said they see opportunity in the combination of the ....

By The Associated Press

Agile, browser-based applications using technology similar to Google Maps could make life tough for Microsoft's flagship Office suite.

A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.

And that could bode ill for Microsoft and its flagship Office suite, which packs together ....

By The Associated Press

A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.

And that could bode ill for Microsoft and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.

The threat comes in large part from Ajax, a set of ....

By Paula Rooney & Barbara Darrow

The next versions of Visual Studio, SQL Server, and BizTalk feature tight integration between components, but deployment could be slowed by still-missing pieces.


With its tight integration between Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006, Microsoft has developed a compelling software stack.

But deployment of that long-awaited platform, which is slated to finally launch this week, could be slowed by still-missing pieces, partners said. Visual Studio 2005 features data access integration into SQL Server 2005 and a new Team System. SQL Server 2005’s business intelligence engine, XML support and Common Language Runtime (CLR) will ....

By Paula Rooney & Barbara Darrow Courtesy of CRN

With its tight integration between Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk 2006, Microsoft has developed a compelling software stack.

But deployment of that long-awaited platform, which is slated to finally launch this week, could be slowed by still-missing pieces, partners said. Visual Studio 2005 features data access integration into SQL Server 2005 and a new Team System. SQL Server 2005’s business intelligence engine, XML support and Common Language Runtime (CLR) will give developers a consistent programming model across the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft partners said they see opportunity in the combination of ....

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) -- A quiet revolution is transforming life on the Internet: New, agile software now lets people quickly check flight options, see stock prices fluctuate and better manage their online photos and e-mail.

Such tools make computing less of a chore because they sit on distant Web servers and run over standard browsers. Users thus don't have to worry about installing software or moving data when they switch computers.

And that could bode ill for Microsoft Corp. and its flagship Office suite, which packs together word processing, spreadsheets and other applications.

The threat comes in large part ....

By W. David Gardner
TechWeb News

Zend sells PHP, a scripting language used for Web development


Internet pioneer Marc Andreessen has joined Zend Technologies as a member of the firm’s board of directors.

Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape and the creator of the pioneering Mosiac browser, was a key player in the origins of Java, giving his support to the then-new programming language when it was launched by Sun Microsystems.

Also joining Zend’s board of directors on Thursday was Gaurav Dhillon, the founder and chief executive officer of jaman.com inc.

PHP, which originally meant Personal Home Page, then PHP Hypertext, is increasingly called just ....

By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb News

Yahoo Inc., trying to deliver more relevant search results faster, is testing an instant-search feature that displays results while the person is typing a query.

The feature displays a "search bubble" while the person is typing a keyword or phrase. A link in the bubble will take the user directly to the web page, or the person can click on "search the web." to get the full list.

Providing users with relevant search results quickly remains a problem for search engines, which still deliver long lists of web pages that possibly contain the information sought. On its search ....

By Aaron Ricadela
Courtesy of InformationWeek

Microsoft on Tuesday said it would bring to market a suite of three Web-development products that could compete directly with software from Adobe Systems Inc. and Macromedia Inc., which are preparing to close a merger this fall.

Software from Microsoft code-named Acrylic Graphic Designer, Sparkle Interactive Designer, and Quartz Web Designer will make up a suite of design and development products for Web sites called Microsoft Expression, said Eric Rudder, a group VP, in a keynote address at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Acrylic, out in test form now, lets programmers and graphics ....

Microsoft Details IE 7 Priorities
Internet Explorer 7 will support cascading style sheets, but other standards will take a backseat to critical bug fixes
By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb
InformationWeek

By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb
InformationWeek

Microsoft plans to add support for cascading style sheets in the upcoming Internet Explorer 7, but other standards will take a back-seat to fixing the worst bugs that Web developers have reported.

The company's intent is to build "a platform that fully complies with the appropriate Web standards, in particular CSS 2," development team leader Chris Wilson said on Microsoft's IEBlog.

But bug fixes and security are the top priorities for ....

Bug Fixes, Security Are Top Priorities In IE 7,Microsoft plans to add support for CSS 2 in the upcoming Internet Explorer 7, but other standards will take a back seat to critical bug fixes.

By Antone Gonsalves
Courtesy of TechWeb News

Microsoft Corp. plans to add support for cascading style sheets in the upcoming Internet Explorer 7, but other standards will take a back seat to fixing the worst bugs reported by web developers.

In Microsoft's IEBlog, development team leader Chris Wilson said the company's intent is to build "a platform that fully complies with the appropriate web standards, in particular CSS 2."

Nevertheless, ....

By Aaron Ricadela
Courtesy of InformationWeek

Back in 1998, when the Web was just starting to upend retail, publishing, software development, and other fields, the chief technology officers at IBM and BEA Systems were hashing out the details for a new version of Java for business software development. The Java computer language changed the way PC software, emergent Web sites, and the back-room systems that powered them were written. And the Java 2 Enterprise Edition technology that IBM's Rod Smith and BEA's Scott Dietzen created with their counterparts at Sun Microsystems, which created Java, became a standard in business computing.

Today what ....

By Aaron Ricadela
InformationWeek


IBM, historically one of the computer industry's biggest supporters of Java, is starting to put some weight behind the competitive PHP language. So far, IBM's investment is just a trickle. Yet the company already is walking a fine line between building a business on PHP and protecting its customers'--and its own--investments in Java.

Why the interest in PHP, a scripting language that lacks Java's nuance and power? For one, PHP's role in life is to negotiate the transfer of data between Web users' PCs and the big database systems on the other end of their Internet connection without ....

By Jacques Surveyer
Courtesy of Intelligent Enterprise

MySQL can no longer be viewed as a limited, departmental database. With the release of version 5.0 in mid-November, the popular open-source database is a serious contender for enterprise-level use. Triggers, stored procedures, cursors, views and beefed-up transaction processing have shortened the list of missing ingredients needed for large-scale projects. A few rough spots might put off developers in demanding online transaction processing (OLTP) environments, but MySQL 5.0 offers a few innovations and cost advantages that will win more enterprise converts.

MySQL executives argue that the database stepped over the enterprise threshold long ago, pointing ....

PHP Scripting Language Going Mainstream With Move Inside Eclipse Workbench, Scripting languages such as PHP are driving high-powered, high-speed Web content such as Google Maps, raising their profile and credibility

By Charles Babcock
InformationWeek

PHP, the popular Web site scripting language, will soon be used in conjunction with mainstream programming languages, now that its parent firm, Zend Technologies Inc., joined the Eclipse Foundation as a strategic developer.

Zend will lend its expertise to an Eclipse "dynamic language" project that will let developers using integrated tools for scripting languages plug them into the Eclipse programmer's workbench. Eclipse plug-ins are development tools that follow Eclipse ....

By Larry Greenemeier
Courtesy of InformationWeek

Lower cost and greater flexibility continue to prove their value, especially among small and midsize companies

It takes a lot of horsepower to create the 3-D virtual world known as Second Life, where users can build digital avatars to their likenesses, participate in a virtual economy that lets them purchase real estate and construct buildings, and fly through pixelated blue skies over a 100-square-kilometer computer-generated campus. In the past, the sticker shock of buying and managing the 1,400 CPUs and associated software needed to power this rapidly expanding massive multiplayer online game would have been enough ....

Jaha Nababan, Jakarta

The 'e' in front of e-learning can limit learning potential. Though many experts agree that technology is only a tool to help learning, the word 'electronic' in e-learning refers only to computer technology. William Horton wrote that e-learning was rooted in correspondence education started by Sir Isaac Pitman in 1840. Though he listed many forms of technology in the history of distance education, he refuses to call it e-learning, rather terming it web-based training.

Meanwhile, Ruth C. Clark and Richard E. Mayer defined e-learning or electronic learning as training delivered via a computer -- including CDROM, Internet and intranet ....

By Charles Arthur

A few years ago, you knew where you were in computing.

Microsoft made the software that powered pretty much everything computer-y you’d come into direct contact with, such as PCs. Palm did handhelds. Mobile phones were just phones. And Google did a web search engine.

Now? Well, where to start… Google does maps, satellite photos, e-mail, instant messaging, voice-over-internet phone calls, a free program to analyse web-site traffic (Google Analytics, launched this week), news searching, a shopping service and free blogging software (through blogger.com).

Palm is vanishing into a rump, and Microsoft is becoming dominant in handhelds. Mobile phones are getting ....

Clint Witchalls outsources his home page – and is surprised at the results

Computers defeated me. After 15 years of frustration and boredom, I finally abandoned my IT career in March 2002. I had lost. The machines had won. I vowed never to attempt to program one ever again, not even a two-line macro. I took to writing about them instead. The only applications I’d use would be a word processor, e-mail and occasionally a spreadsheet – just to please my accountant – but that was all. No more monkeying about with code. But then people started asking me what ....

By CALVIN ROSS

This past week a memo leaked from the halls of Microsoft that provided us with a rare glimpse into the strategic planning for the endless battles that protect Microsoft's dominance in software.

In the memo, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates urged his senior executives to prepare Microsoft to meet the growing challenges from Internet-based software and services. Gates called this enormous, world-altering shift a "sea change" in information technology and urged his charges to respond swiftly.

Yes, we've been here before. Microsoft has fought a number of wars to prevent losing its dominant position. Sometimes it enters into strategic partnerships. At ....

By Roger Cheng
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- In an effort to make surfing the Web easier, Cingular Wireless will unveil a new Internet interface for its cell phones.

On Thursday, Cingular subscribers who access Media Net, which is the carrier's Web browser, will immediately be upgraded to the new service. Cingular hopes the easier service will drive more usage, leading to higher data revenue.

Overall, the wireless industry has seen declines in the core voice business, as competition and programs such as family pricing plans have eaten into revenue. As such, the carriers are focusing more on data services such ....

Edited by Riva Richmond
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Here's a roundup of news about the world of technology from the Web.





Can Yahoo Sign On to Hollywood?

Yahoo's (YHOO) year-long effort to marry the worlds of Internet geeks and media sophisticates has been a bit rocky, but the company's success hinges on making it work, the Los Angeles Times reports. The Hollywood types housed in the company's Santa Monica offices grouse about the sizes of their offices and the location of their parking spaces, while Internet executives in Sunnyvale live in a "cubicle society" and eat with the rank-and-file in the cafeteria. ....

By Chris Reiter
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) plans to move fast, integrating employees and pushing out new bundled offerings, once its deal to acquire Macromedia Inc. (MACR) closes in the coming weeks, Chief Executive Bruce Chizen said Wednesday.

Because of a lengthy regulatory-review process, Adobe and Macromedia have had plenty of time to prepare for their $3.4 billion merger, which was announced in April. The U.S. Department of Justice cleared the deal in October, but the companies are still awaiting the go-ahead from certain European regulators.

In an interview with Dow Jones Newswires, Chizen said the ....

NEW YORK (AP)--An anti-spyware initiative backed by Internet portals Yahoo (YHOO) and AOL would certify downloadable software as consumer-friendly and non-invasive.

Under the program, which was to be formally announced Wednesday, developers that want to obtain certification for their downloads would also have to prove their products can be easily removed from computers once installed.

TRUSTe, an organization that already certifies and monitors Web site privacy and e-mail practices for businesses, will rely on testing by two outside labs for the vetting. It would not name the labs.

Developers earning TRUSTe's certification will not be permitted to promote that fact, said its executive ....

TUNIS -(Dow Jones)- A compromise agreement on oversight of the Internet is expected to be agreed later Tuesday in advance of a U.N summit in Tunis, diplomats said Tuesday.

U.S. officials said the text would be vague, meaning that the status quo would prevail A California-based organization called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, overseen by the U.S. Commerce Department, sets present Internet standards.

"We're waiting until they pass something we can accept," said U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce Michael Gallagher.

Diplomats want to get an agreement before the official opening of the three day summit on Wednesday.

European Union officials say ....

By David B. Wilkerson

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Two Time Warner Inc. units plan to counter TV networks' video on demand by offering vintage television programs such as "Welcome Back, Kotter" free over the Internet, the company said.

Beginning in January, In2TV plans to offer 300 episodes per month and about 100 shows in the first year on six channels ranging from comedy to drama, and Warner Bros. has cleared 300 series, or about 14,000 individual episodes, for use on the service, including a diverse range of programs including "The FBI," Eight Is Enough," "Growing Pains," "Chico and the Man," "V" ....

By Riva Richmond
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Google Inc. (GOOG) is considering testing print advertisements in Chicago newspapers, in a sign that the Internet giant, to date seen primarily as a threat to traditional media, could also become an ally.

The company is considering the newspaper tests following positive reactions from advertisers and publishers to its tests of print ads in two technology magazines, Google spokesman Michael Mayzel said. Google will "continue exploring ads in print media," he said.

The Mountain View, Calif., company bought ad pages in the September and October issues of PC Magazine and Maximum PC and ....

By Riva Richmond
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- A group of 25 investors, foundations and other organizations allied with a press freedom group plan to step up the pressure on Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) and other Internet companies to support freedom of expression in China and other repressive countries.

Reporters Without Borders said Friday that the investor group, which together manages $21 billion, will release a joint statement at a press conference in New York on Monday committing themselves to freedom of expression on the Internet and agreeing to "monitor" Internet companies' practices in repressive countries.

Yahoo came under fire in September ....

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--Yahoo Inc. and TiVo Inc. are teaming up to blend some of their services, a move that further fades the lines between offices and living rooms, TVs and PCs.

Under a partnership to be announced Monday, the two will collaborate to offer Yahoo's Internet-based content and services through TiVo's digital video recording devices.

Users of Yahoo's TV page will be able to click on a record-to-TiVo button directly from a television program listing to remotely schedule recordings.

And in the coming months, possibly before the end of the year, Yahoo's traffic and weather content, as well as its users' photos ....

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft (MSFT) Thursday announced a "strategic partnership" with the British Library that will allow the software group to digitise 25 million pages of content - the equivalent of 100,000 books, according to an article on the FT.com Web site.

The deal with one of the world's great libraries will be seen as an attempt to make up lost ground in its battle with Google (GOOG), which only Thursday unveiled its first digital book collection, the article said.

The agreement will allow the U.S. software company to scan some of the library's collection and to make digital copies of ....

BERLIN -(Dow Jones)- Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) has agreed to buy privately-owned Swiss company Media Streams.com AG, thereby gaining a developer whose software is used to provide Internet-based telephone services, the company said in a statement Thursday.

The U.S. company - the world's largest software-maker - didn't disclose terms of the transaction.

Media Streams.com is headquartered in Zurich and develops communications applications based on voice over Internet protocol, or VOIP, technology.

The software effectively converts employees' e-mail system into a telephone, by integrating voice communication into the e-mail system. The software can be used with Microsoft's Outlook e-mail system.

Media Streams.com, founded in 2000, had ....

SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP)--Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) has redesigned its online maps to make it easier to get driving directions to multiple destinations and find local merchants - the latest move in the company's duel with Internet powerhouse, Google Inc. (GOOG).

The company planned to unveil its latest mapping improvements Wednesday, less than a month after Google upgraded its maps service. Yahoo's service will be available on a test basis at http://maps.yahoo.com/beta.

Yahoo is matching some of Google's features, such as the ability to scroll across a map without reloading a Web page, as well as introducing tools that haven't been available previously on ....

NEW YORK, New York (Reuters) -- Entries from Wikipedia, the popular free online encyclopedia written and edited by Internet users, may soon be available in print for readers in the developing world, founder Jimmy Wales said on Monday.

He said content from the Web site may also be burned onto CDs and DVDs so computer users in places like Africa, who lack access to high-speed Internet, could consult parts of the reference work offline.

Wales also described as incorrect reports, one of them from Reuters, that certain pages of the Wikipedia could be subject to tightened controls or "frozen" for good to ....

LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones) -- Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday unveiled Web-based versions of its flagship Windows and Office products as part of its strategy to deliver software over the Internet and push into a fast-growing market that's been staked out by smaller rivals.

But the software giant didn't roll out new offerings that would threaten Salesforce.com Inc. and the other companies that have pioneered online business software, as some had anticipated.

At an invitation-only gathering for analysts and media in San Francisco, Microsoft (MSFT) Chairman Bill Gates outlined what he called "live software" that aims to make software a service, linking all ....

By Riva Richmond
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Internet search engines are riding a monster wave of online-advertising dollars. But last week it became clear one company - Google Inc. (GOOG) - is catching it more expertly than others.

Blockbuster third-quarter financial results from Google showed the search leader is growing much faster than its top rivals Yahoo Inc. (YHOO). Google's revenue rose 96% to $1.6 billion, while Yahoo's advertising revenue rose 46% to $1.2 billion. Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) MSN unit, which posted $564 million in revenue, had 20% advertising growth.

One reason for the disparity is Google's growing share of ....

SEATTLE (AP)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is widely expected to announce Tuesday further forays into software and services that can be accessed over the Internet - a growing competitive arena that some say could eventually threaten Microsoft's biggest cash cows.

The software behemoth is facing increasing competition from companies such as Google Inc. (GOOG) and Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), which offer an array of free consumer services, and Salesforce.com (CRM), which has had success with Web-based business offerings.

The concern is that applications including free email and Web-based business products could eventually grow so broad and easy to use that people will begin to question ....

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- The U.S. Supreme Court Monday refused to hear an appeal from Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) challenging the methodology under which damages were calculated in a patent lawsuit filed by Eolas Technologies Inc. and the University of California over features in the software giant's Web browser.

Rejection of the appeal leaves the fate of the lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Illinois, which was earlier this year ordered by a federal appeals court to hold new proceedings on the disputed patent technologies in Microsoft's Internet Explorer. That March ruling threw out portions of the ruling against Microsoft, which included ....

NEW YORK (AP)--NBC News said Monday said that it would begin making its "NBC Nightly News" broadcast available for free on the Internet starting next week.

Past broadcasts will also be archived at the www.nightlynews.msnbc.com Web site, the network said.

It's not necessarily news on demand, though. The newscast, aired at 6:30 p.m. on many NBC stations on the East Coast, won't be available on the Web until after 10 p.m. ET.

"Many of our viewers tell me they often miss the broadcast because they're not at home or tending to their busy lives and families," anchor Brian Williams said. "This new service ....

SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- An ambitious new Google Inc. service lets anyone upload almost anything to a publicly searchable database, potentially laying the groundwork for a foray by the Internet juggernaut into classified advertising.

The venture, Google Base, could lead to a vast expansion of its content and signal grander ambitions for the king of online search-related advertising. Google's stated mission is, after all, nothing less than organizing the world's information.

Launched as a "beta test" early Wednesday, Google Base has the poten