September, 2005 Issue

AUTHORS struggle, mostly in vain, against their fated obscurity. According to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks sales from major booksellers, only 2 percent of the 1.2 million unique titles sold in 2004 had sales of more than 5,000 copies. Against this backdrop, the recent Authors Guild suit against the Google Library Project is poignantly wrongheaded.

Firefox's once-strong surge against Microsoft Internet Explorer is showing signs of losing momentum, a Web metrics firm said Wednesday.

(CBS) TV on the internet just took one big step. A network and an internet giant are giving web surfers a new way to watch a sitcom.

It has emerged that Microsoft was forced to pull the first incarnation of Windows Vista because a senior executive warned chairman Bill Gates that it was just too hard to work with. Jim Allchin, group VP in charge of Windows, says he told Gates last summer that the Longhorn of the time was quite simply "not going to work" because it was so complex that Microsoft's developers would never be able to make it run properly.

BitTorrent, the peer-to-peer technology that has become one of the most popular methods for sharing files, has landed $8.75 million in funding, according to reports. Venture capitalist firm DCM-Doll provided the cash infusion and intends to bring BitTorrent to Hollywood's doorstep.

I am an engineering washout. I left a chemical engineering major in shame and disgust to pursue the softer pleasures of a liberal arts education. No, do not pity me, gentle reader; do not assuage your horror and dismay at my degradation by flinging a filthy quarter into my shiny tin cup. Instead, hear my story, and learn why the United States lacks engineers.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the number-two third-party publisher offered the developer $105 million; Adrian Carmack forced out.

Google's one-of-a-kind computer network gives it a chance to surpass Microsoft to become the most dominant company in tech, according to the author of a recently published book on the search giant.

The Authors Guild on Tuesday filed suit against Google, charging that the Google Print Library program constitutes massive copyright infringement.

BetaNews has learned that MSN plans to remove mature and adult rated communities from its MSN Groups service in late November. The groups would be moved to a third-party site, WorldGroups, who will handle mature and adult categorized groups for the service after the transition.

When Steve Ballmer yelled at a departing Microsoft employee that he would “kill Google” we had no idea just how direct a method he had in mind. Buying all or part of AOL may be the first part of the master plan, as Google relies heavily on the advertising pages that come from Yahoo!, since it now syndicates its search to Google.

Using satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth, an Italian computer programmer has stumbled upon the remains of an ancient villa. Luca Mori was studying maps of the region around his town of Sorbolo, near Parma, when he noticed a prominent, oval, shaded form more than 500 metres long. It was the meander of an ancient river, visible because former watercourses absorb different amounts of moisture from the air than their surroundings do.

A flaw has been discovered in Internet Explorer that could enable a remote attack on systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2, eEye Digital Security has warned.

Microsoft's upcoming Windows Vista will allow users to add memory to the operating system through the use of USB memory keys, the company revealed at its Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles.

The Mozilla Foundation plans to "shortly" release new versions of its Firefox and Mozilla Web browsers to address a recently disclosed serious security bug as well as several additional flaws, a representative said Wednesday.

A battle is brewing between Internet giants, and it's all over how much they can give away.

Bitter rivals Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada have agreed to jointly build and manage a wireless high-speed Internet network that is expected to reach more than two-thirds of Canadians in less than three years.

Microsoft is banning certain cryptographic functions from new computer code, citing increasingly sophisticated attacks that make them less secure, according to a company executive.

When Lego executives recently discovered that adult fans of the iconic plastic bricks had hacked one of the company's new development tools for digital designers, they did a surprising thing: They cheered.

The Internet Explorer development team has revealed details of upcoming key features that will land in the next beta of IE 7.

Search giant now offers way to search online journals.

New Microsoft Expression suite positioned as alternative to Adobe, Macromedia software.

LOS ANGELES--With Windows Vista, Microsoft is considering a product lineup that would include several new high-end editions of the operating system.

Summer is a time for vacation, for introspection and for summer student internships. In 1967, it was about love. And in 2005, it was about code –- for Google, that is.

Microsoft Corp. late Friday cancelled plans to roll out a solitary bulletin with patches for a Windows flaw, citing an unknown "quality issue."

It is natural when people trying to make their lives easier. It seems that all our life aims at an eternal peace. In our information technology age some people create tools and devices to spare common users from difficulties and others make those tools and devices better to help, in the final analysis, the same users. So that spinning of improving and perfection of the world is never tired.

Jagged Alliance spin-off gets cancelled, "all the sources" to be used in upcoming 3D installment of turn-based strategy series.

Responding to the disclosure of a serious Web browser flaw, the Mozilla Foundation offered on Friday a temporary fix to protect Firefox and Mozilla users.

Mozilla kicked off the weekend with a bang on Friday, announcing Deer Park, the first beta release of the next version of its Firefox Web browser. The updated browser is expected to feature faster navigation, better usability, updated security features and better integration with Macs, and many developers couldn't wait to get their paws on it. Early reports from blogs are positive about 1.5 Beta 1, though of course there is no shortage of constructive criticism and hope for added features.

What the fuss!

An Ohio computer hacker who served as a digital button man for a shady internet hosting company faces prison time after admitting he carried out one of a series of crippling denial-of-service attacks ordered by a wealthy businessman against his competitors.

A security flaw has been found in the default installation process for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Outlook and Outlook Express, according to eEye Digital Security.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to "kill" Google in an expletive-laced, chair-throwing tirade when a senior engineer told him he was leaving the company to go work for Google, the engineer claimed in court documents made public on Friday.

Sept. 12, 2005 - If Bill Gates ever had reason to doubt that the brash young billionaires of Google were out to get him, the time for such uncertainty is now officially over. Last month's dramatically revised version of its program Google Desktop is a glove slap across the face of Microsoft's fabled chief software architect. Ostensibly Google's update to a previous tool that searched people's hard drives in addition to the usual lightning-quick survey of the entire World Wide Web, Google Desktop 2 turns out to be a not-so-stealthy attempt to hijack the desktop from Microsoft. And in a move that must be particularly galling to Gates, the program does it in a way that directly steals thunder from Microsoft's upcoming Windows update, Vista.

Last Friday, September 2 (2005), proved to be a busy day for beta testers and some Microsoft employees. On that day, Microsoft scheduled an Internet Explorer 7 chat for Windows Vista and Internet Explorer 7 beta testers. It was a chaotic scene. In a matter of fifteen (15) minutes the chat room was filled with more than 400 beta testers, MVPs (Most Valuable Professional), Microsoft experts and Microsoft moderators!

SYDNEY--An Australian court on Monday ruled that the managers of peer-to-peer software Kazaa had authorized users to infringe on music copyrights and directed them to modify the application to reduce the practice.

It's not only the "World's Most Expensive Donut," it's likely one of the sweetest and most satisfying.

According to very recent internal Microsoft documentation, the software giant is planning an aggressive release schedule for several products over the next year or so. I've come across the release schedules for Windows Vista (codenamed "Longhorn"), WinFS, and SQL Server 2005 (codenamed "Yukon"). Here's what I found out.

The presence of the Hiberfil.sys file will prevent Disk Defragmenter from performing a thorough defragmenting operation. Follow these steps to remove the Hiberfil.sys file from the hard disk.

Mazda has created a concept car that uses a USB drive as its ignition key.

Those who prefer difficulties and problems and those who prone to make its lives complicated could be disappointed with what will be introduced soon. There is the only reason for it: a tool developed by Lauyan Software is nothing else than a straight way to a serene simplicity and endless pleasure in the web development.