By Mike Elgan
December 24, 2009 — Computerworld —
Some old-and-busted technologies die gracefully of natural causes. Pagers, PDAs, floppy disks — they’re gone, and good riddance.But other obsolete tech lingers on, even though better alternatives abound that are easier, cheaper, higher quality and much more efficient. Read More
Ellen Messmer, Network World
The rise of the Conficker worm and Heartland Payment Systems’ enormous data breach were two defining security events in 2009. What’s in store for 2010?
“It’s going to get worse,” says Patrik Runald, senior manager of security and research at Websense, who argues there has not yet been a year when things got better in terms of security and the wider Internet. Criminals have been mastering botnets, phishing scams and fake antivirus software sales, and 2010 will bring new waves of attacks that exploit fresh targets. Specifically, smartphones such as the Apple iPhone and those based on Google’s Android operating system will be in attackers’ line of sight for 2010, Runald says. (See also “10 Quick Fixes for the Worst Security Nightmares.”) Read More
We’ve all experienced some form of holiday shopping panic: “There’s only of months/days/hours left before Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa! What am I going to do?” Well, Macworld’s here to help with the Mac lover in your life. We’ve polled our staff of contributors to get their ideas for gifts that you can, if necessary, pull out of your festive hat at the last minute with a minimum of fuss (and muss).
Back in the day, when you bought a Mac, Photoshop was one piece of software you absolutely had to get. Problem is, even today it’s a package that can run you hundreds of dollars. Read More
The popular microblogging site Twitter was hacked briefly by a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army, but the site was quickly restored after the incident early Friday. Read More
By Jaikumar Vijayan
Computerworld — The disclosure that Iraqi insurgents were able to intercept live video feeds from U.S. drones has focused the spotlight on a familiar IT security issue: data encryption.
Insurgents Intercept Video Feeds from U.S. Drones Using $26 Software, Report says
In a story that’s receiving widespread attention, the Wall Street Journal yesterday reported that Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Afghanistan were tapping into live feeds from Predator drones using a $26 software tool called SkyGrabber from Russian company SkySoftware. Read More
By: Jeffrey Burt
As part of the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the systems, HP is upgrade its Itanium-based Integrity NonStop servers to enable users to increase capacity, improve performance and integrate with such open-source software as Spring and Apache Axis2. The NonStop systems were first developed by Tandem, which was bought by Compaq. HP bought Com-paq, bringing the NonStops into the HP fold. Read More
By Martin Zimmerman
LOS ANGELES — The 2010 Audi A3 TDI was named Green Car of the Year at the L.A. Auto Show on Thursday, giving the Germans and clean diesel technology back-to-back wins.
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Inc has acquired digital music service Lala, as the dominant online music retailer explores new models for selling songs. Read More
By Brooke Donald
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PALO ALTO, Calif. - Eric Horvitz illustrates the potential dilemmas of living with robots by telling the story of how he once got stuck in an elevator at Stanford Hospital with a droid the size of a washing machine. Read More
by Juan Carlos Perez, IDG News Service
Twitter has built a mobile site from scratch for its social networking and microblogging service, acknowledging that the current one, while reliable, has an unimpressive user interface and a modest feature set.
