Today, Microsoft announced that it will release its largest-ever number of security updates this Tuesday in order to fix flaws in all versions of Windows. With the addition of updates for Internet Explorer, SQL Server, Office, other important developer tools and the enterprise-grade Forefront Security client software, it's going to be a busy Tuesday. The…
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Google’s Neglected Library
In light of Google's recent push for a book settlement, their past is being considered and it's true to say that it's surprisingly unmarred. In this specific market however, Google has made mistakes. The worst of these is known as Usenet A massive internet and dial-up-based message board system brought to life in 1980. For…
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PC/Mac Divide is Crossed
According to new research by NPD, more than eight out of ten Mac owners also own a PC. The survey revealed that 12% of North American households with computers own a Mac. But out of these, 85% also own a Windows PC. This confirms a long standing suspicion that thdivide between Mac and PC users is nowhere near as…
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Windows Vista Takes a Dive
Last month, Microsoft's Windows Vista lost market share for the first time in about 20 months, an indicator of users already abandoning the much ridiculed operating system in favor of the new Windows 7. According to Net Applications, Vista dropped a whole 0.2 percentage points during September, ending the month with an 18.6% presence in…
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Recovery.gov Still Not Accessible
Recovery.gov, a heavily advertised government-run transparency site that relaunched on Monday after criticisms about it's actual content, still fails to meet the federal government's accessibility standards or and practices. The non-compliance issues relate mostly to display of data tables -- an essential point given the site's motto of "Data, Data & More Data." This is…
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Google’s Chrome Frame Gains Enemies
Just released last week, Google's browser plug-in Chrome Frame is already causing a stir. The plug- in allows IE6, IE7 and IE8 users to utilize Chrome browser's WebKit rendering engine, as well as its high-performance V8 JavaScript engine. Google originally pitched it as a way to instantly improve the performance of the always unsatisfactory Internet…
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Can Micropayments Save Internet News?
No matter how many times people collect information and research micropayments, trying to pop the bubble of faith around them as a cure for what ails the newspaper industry, they consistently maintain some level of support. Newspapers have spent the past century with a monopoly on tools of mass publishing as well as the means…
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Performance Rights Groups May Cause Price Hike
Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are all preparing to eventually collect "performance fees" from e-tailers like Apple for traditional music downloads and the music included in downloads of television episodes and movies. This group even wants compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples. iTunes customers aren't even over the recent and first ever download price hikes,…
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Google Acquires reCAPTCHA
On Wednesday, Google took a major step in accelerating its efforts to scan tens of millions of books and periodicals. ReCAPTCHA, a well-known provider of CAPTCHA technology, is used to prevent spammers from using computers to automatically register for online services. By requiring users to type randomly chosen words that appear as images, the "Completely…
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Whatever Happened to Widespread Wi-Fi?
A few years back, a whole host of commercial and community schemes were underway which promised to blanket towns in free - or very cheap - wireless connectivity. But now, it's extremely rare to find wi-fi that is both easily accessible as well as affordable. It's far more likely to use the internet while on…
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