IBM Turns to Open Source Development
INTERVIEW Is open source changing the way that software is made? It is at IBM. BetaNews sat down with Doug Heintzman, IBM Software Group's VP of Strategy and Technology, to discuss the adoption of a hybrid development model called Community Source that combines the best elements of the open source model with decades of IBM programming practice.
This componentization, says IBM, will liberate the creativity of programmers, drive efficiency, and bring products to the marketplace at a faster rate then was previously possible - avoiding a top down approach that IBM says could make Microsoft's Longhorn obsolete upon arrival.
IBM Builds Second Fastest Computer
Big Blue has once again set a record for building one of the world's fastest super computers. IBM's Watson Blue Gene system will be second only to its own Blue Gene/L supercomputer installed at Lawrence Livermore National Labs (LLNL) that became the world's fastest system in March.
The Watson Blue Gene (BGW) system will achieve a processing speed of 91.29 trillion floating point operations per second (teraflops), nearly matching BlueGene/L, which has reached 135.3 teraflops.
Sun Donates StarOffice to Non-Profits
Sun is giving the gift of StarOffice to nonprofit and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the United States and internationally. The software will be distributed through a partnership with Gifts In Kind International.
StarOffice is a productivity suite that is an alternative to Microsoft Office, which provides database, drawing, presentation, spreadsheet and word processing capabilities at comparatively inexpensive price.
Award Claim Sparks Firefox, Opera Clash
The watchful eye of bloggers has once again stirred controversy. A press release issued by Opera Software claimed that Opera 8 won PC World's 2005 World Class Award for best Web browser only to be harshly refuted by the Mozilla Foundation's Asa Dotzler who is recognized as the Firefox and Thunderbird product manager.
The press release, which has since been corrected, prompted Dotzler to say with an acid pen, "Opera is simply lying. They were one of 100 products to be labeled as "World Class" but they did not win any "best Web browser" anything. They were last in the ranking of three web browsers. They got beat by both Maxthon and Firefox."
Low-Rights IE Only for Longhorn Users
Rob Franco, Lead Program Manager for Internet Explorer Security at Microsoft posted a missive to the IEBlog hoping to dissolve the confusion surrounding a planned security future that will be found in IE7. IE7 will run in a reduced privilege mode called "Low-Rights IE" that will limit the actions of malware.
But the safeguard will not be available to everyone - only users that upgrade to Longhorn will be protected. And even Longhorn users may be vulnerable at another well known exposure point: Microsoft will not modify the default security settings for ActiveX and scripting, which account for a large number of known vulnerabilities.
Sweeping U.S. Patent Reform Proposed
Thursday, Congressman Lamar Smith introduced the Patent Reform Act of 2005 to the floor of the House. The bill modifies how patent owners are identified, how patents are awarded, disclosed, disputed and what damages patent holders are entitled to from infringement.
If the legislation is signed into law it would be the most sweeping reform made to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office since the 1952 Patent Act.
AOL Adds Video Clips to Media Search
America Online is feeding its Singingfish audio and video (AV) search engine with content from leading media companies on the Web. Over ten content providers will begin providing AOL with high quality video feeds, pitting the company against recently launched video search engines from rivals Google and Yahoo.
Singingfish is a horizontal search engine specializing in returning results only related to media. This is a niche technology: Traditional search engines are not well equipped to search for streaming media.
IE6 Gets Pseudo Tabbed Browsing
Users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser will not have to wait until IE7 to experience tabbed browsing. MSN has shipped a new build of its MSN Search Toolbar that adds basic tabbed browsing support to IE6. But the feature is not fully integrated into the browser, instead relying on the toolbar to create tabs.
Tabbed browsing capabilities first appeared in beta releases of the MSN Search Toolbar, but were stricken from the final 2.0 build that was released last month.
Symantec Sues Hotbar Over Adware
In what could become a pivotal courtroom battle against malware, Symantec has filed suit against Hotbar.com, asserting its right to detect and remove components of the software that it considers to be adware. Under the suit, Symantec is not seeking any damages; rather, it is asking the court for a declaratory judgment classifying certain Hotbar program files as adware that should be treated as a security risk.
"By asking the court for clarification on this issue in our favor, we hope to continue alerting our customers about the presence of these program files, protecting them against possible security risks," said Joy Cartun, senior director of legal affairs for Symantec. The case will be heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division. A representative from Hotbar.com could not be reached by press time.
OpenSolaris to be Delivered Next Week
According to reports, Sun is expected to make OpenSolaris broadly available next week, making good on a promise to open source its flagship operating system. The project began in late January when Sun shared its DTrace optimizing utility. Once released Sun will have contributed more than 1,600 patents associated with Solaris to the open source community.
The rest of Solaris will be offered up by Sun throughout the second quarter. This includes containers, predictive self-healing technologies, "hardened" Solaris security features derived from Trusted Solaris, IP networking stack, and the Zetabyte File System. The source will be licensed to developers under the Community Development and Distribution License.
Microsoft to Pay $8.9m in Patent Suit
Despite the fact that Microsoft holds an extensive patent portfolio containing in excess of 10,000 issued and pending United States patents, a court found that it did not have the right to link Access and Excel using a method invented by Brazilian programmer Carlos Armando Amado.
Amando devised a way to connect Excel with Access using a specially crafted spreadsheet during his tenure as a graduate student at Stanford University. After applying for a patent in 1990, Mr. Amando approached Microsoft to license the software, but was denied.
Supreme Court Refuses Lexmark Case
The Supreme Court has denied a petition for a writ of certiorari requested by Lemark International against Static Control Components (SCC) to have the court review alleged violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
The case is centered on Lexmark's control of aftermarket supplies for its products and Static Control's desire to provide customer with low-price Lexmark compatible chips. Lexmark adheres to the notion that the practice violates its intellectual property rights and customer agreements for cartridge return.
Microsoft Outlines RFID Based on .NET
Tuesday at Tech Ed 2005, Microsoft Senior Vice President of Server Applications Paul Flessner publicly unveiled the company's RFID software strategy. The Microsoft RFID infrastructure combines the .NET Framework with SQL Server and Visual Studio.NET, allowing third party developers to build customized solutions. It can also be used by itself to capture and interpret data for business processes.
Microsoft says RFID is a complex proposition for most businesses due to what it sees as a lack of standards, complex device management, as well as the reality very few solutions exist to manage the integration of RFID into business applications.
Earthlink Testing VoIP Phone Service
Following the lead of competing Internet service providers, Earthlink is test marketing a trial of a voice over IP (VoIP) phone service with Covad, a purveyor of business communications services. Earthlink will begin the trial in October in three markets: Dallas, San Francisco and San Jose, and Seattle.
The service will be powered by Covad's Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM) technology over existing "last mile" copper phone lines. It will include familiar call waiting, caller ID and voicemail capabilities associated with traditional telephone services. To address some of the safety concerns associated with IP-telephony, the service will offer e911 and will operate during power outages.
VMware Launches Developer Network
VMware introduced the VMware Technology Network (VMTN) on Monday. The company called VMTN a "virtual infrastructure resource center" intended for developers and other IT professionals and is positioned as an alternative to traditional means of developing, distributing and deploying software.
VMTN capitalizes on VMware's virtual machine expertise to offer software developers pre-build application environments that contain ready-to-run applications packaged within virtual machines. Software vendors including BEA Systems, MySQL AB, Novell, Oracle and Red Hat are among the first to participate and make their software available within pre-built virtual machines.
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