2005-June-30
Google has released Google Earth, a 3D interface to the planet
earth. The program uses satellite images and also lets you see roads,
buildings, and other elements of a locality including restaurants,
bars, coffee houses, hotels and the like.
Some images are more highly detailed than others as Google builds
up the Keyhole application.
Google's technology is free to any Web site that uses it for applications
offered free to consumers. Mountain View-based Google wants the
company's logo included on any maps the developers create, along
with a link back to Google Maps. Google also cautions that it may
show advertisements on the maps in the future.
Not to be outdone, Yahoo said Wednesday that it too will soon offer
outside programmers the same sort of software information about
its mapping service.
2005-June-8
Microsoft annocued that it is developing a Messaging and Security
pack that will incorporate its new Direct Push technology as an
add-on to Exchange Server 2003 via Service Pack 2. The software
pack adds wireless email push technology to Windows Mobile 5.0 users,
similar to Research In Motion’s Blackberry devices.
Microsoft said Outlook information, including e-mail, calendar
and contacts list would be integrated by a direct connection between
Exchange and a Windows Mobile device. This, said Microsoft, would
give users instant access to their information in a central location
without the need of third-party retrieval software. Moreover, users
would be able to access the information from anywhere in the world,
since the information will be stored on a server.
Microsoft is expected to deliver the Messaging and Security pack
in October.
2005-June-7
Apple Computer Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs said that his company
is dropping IBM's PowerPC products because Intel's lineup of forthcoming
chips holds more promise. He said Apple did not know how to build
the products it plans with chips planned by IBM.
He said the transition to Intel-built chips will begin next year
and completed by 2007. Apple has been developing a version of its
operating system that will work on Intel processors ever since the
company was fine-tuning the first version of Mac OS X, its current
operating system, five years ago, he said.
In a written statement, Paul S. Otellini, president and chief executive
of Intel, lauded Apple as "the world's most innovative personal
computer company." IBM did not respond to calls for comment.
2005-June-3
Samsung Electronics will ship its X20 notebook with an embedded
wireless LAN (WLAN) chip from Airgo Networks that allows users to
speed up wireless connections using MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output)
technology. Airgo's True MIMO chip set, which also works with 802.11a/b/g
networks, amplifies the speed and range of wireless networks by
using multiple antennas.
However, the 802.11n wireless standard does not exist. There are
currently two competing proposals for 802.11n, and manufacturers
such as Cisco and DLink have started marketing equipments based
on either of the proposed standards.
Interoperability between the two competing standards is unlikely.
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2005-May-27
Nokia
launched a pocket-sized Web browser prototype for wireless broadband
networks. The Linux-based Nokia 770 measures 5.6 inches in length
and has a 4.1-inch high-resolution display. Users can connect to
the Internet via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, for email, VoIP and instant
messaging.
The device has 128 megabytes of onboard flash memory and a memory
card slot in addition to a USB port to connect with a PC and a Bluetooth
transmitter. The transmitter can be used to connect with a mobile
phone that has cellular online access. The Nokia 770 itself is not
a mobile phone.
The Nokia 770 is expected to lanuched in late-2005, selling for
below USD1500.
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2005-May-26
One of the methods for large scale spreading of unwanted e-mail
messages is to transform every infected system into a spam generator;
these systems, which operate without the user’s
knowledge, are called zombie computers.
Members of the London Action Plan (LAP), the US Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) and government agencies in 18 other countries, have launched
Operation Spam Zombies - a campaign to help fight spam.
In a written appeal to the ISPs on Tuesday, the FTC has urged service
providers to monitor the amount of e-mail sent from a computer and
quarantine them if needed reports News Rating.
The ISPs have been asked to educate their users about how to stop
getting their PCs hijacked.
The Commission will send letters to 3,000 ISPs around the world
encouraging them to take the following zombie-prevention measures:
- block port 25 except for the outbound SMTP requirements of
authenticated users of mail servers designed for client traffic.
Explore implementing Authenticated SMTP on port 587 for clients
who must operate outgoing mail servers.
- apply rate-limiting controls for email relays.
- identify computers that are sending atypical amounts of email,
and take steps to determine if the computer is acting as a spam
zombie. When necessary, quarantine the affected computer until
the source of the problem is removed.
- give your customers plain-language advice on how to prevent
their computers from being infected by worms, trojans, or other
malware that turn PCs into spam zombies, and provide the appropriate
tools and assistance.
- provide, or point your customers to, easy-to-use tools to remove
zombie code if their computers have been infected, and provide
the appropriate assistance.
2005-May-19
America Online launched Netscape Browser 8.0. Based on Mozilla
Firefox, this latest release can render pages using either the Gecko
or Internet Explorer layout engines. It displays most sites using
a Firefox engine that's embedded in Netscape's software. But, when
it deems a site relatively safe, it uses the IE software engine
that is built into Windows.
Other new features include Site Controls (per-site security settings),
the MultiBar (a toolbar for personalised content), a new way of
automatically filling in forms and a quick way of clearing private
data like the browsing history. Unlike previous releases, Netscape
Browser 8.0 is just a Web browser (no email application, newsgroups
client or Web page editor), though it does include an integrated
AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ client. As AOL laid off the Netscape
browser development team in 2003, most of the programming work for
version 8.0 was outsourced to Canadian firm Mercurial Communications.
Netscape Browser 8.0 is only available for Microsoft Windows, with
no Mac or Linux versions planned.
UPDATE 2005-05-28 : There is a bug
in Netscape Browser 8.0 that would cause Microsoft Internet Explorer
to fail in rendering certain XML pages. Microsoft is advising users
to uninstall Netscape Browser 8.0.
2005-May-13
Microsoft announced Windows OneCare antivirus package. It is a
consumer subscription service that will provide automated protection,
maintenance and performance tuning as an all-in-one package for
Windows-based PCs.
The plan is to test this service by Microsoft's own 60,000 employees
and later expand to public beta testing. The service is expected
to be launched early next year. The subscription cost has not been
decided at this point.
2005-May-12
Microsoft released Windows Mobile 5.0 today, its latest platform
for mobiles, PDAs and portable devices.
New features include support for mini hard drives, persistent memory
storage and support for a typewriter-style (QWERTY…) keyboard.
Windows Mobile 5.0 will offer network support for higher-bandwidth
3G networks, Wi-Fi for the Smartphone platform and improvements
to existing Bluetooth support.
The release also includes Microsoft Office for Windows Mobile for
viewing, edting and creating Excel and Word files, and for viewing
PowerPoint presentations.
The new Windows Media Player 10 Mobile allows synchronization of
users' playlists, album art and song ratings.
2005-May-10
Google was down on Sunday morning for 15 mins. Access to Gmail,
Google News and other properties were unavailable during that period.
The problem was related to the DNS (Domain Name System) Servers
operated by Google, which were malfunctioning and unable to map
www.google.com to the actual numerical IP (Internet Protocol) addresses.
2005-April-19
Intel announced the immediate availability of its "Rosedale"
chipset that supports long range, wireless high speed Internet capabilities.
Dubbed WiMAX, the system can transmit and receive wireless broadband
signals at speed upto 40 Mbps from several kilometers away.
In contrast, the current 802.11g WiFi standard supports 54 Mbps
at less tnan 0.1km.
WiMAX, or Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, is based
on the IEEE 802.16-2004 standard.
2005-April-7
TMNet upgraded its network overnight by installing new routers
and firewalls, the effect is that all Malaysian Internet that depends
on TMNet backbone is now off-line. ALL Streamyx users and some TMNet
dial-up users are affected.
You may experience intermittent unavailability of network services,
seemingly caused by incorrect configuration of TMNet's security
devices.
The downtime is expected to be between 5:00AM-11:00AM of April
7. Expected rolling blackout of Internet connectivity for the next
few days.
2005-April-6
There have been significant degradation of electricity quality
in the Johor Bahru area. As the JB power grid is connected with
Melaka and KL, you should prepare for some unexpected blackouts
in parts of those areas in the next few days, and possibly some
network, specifically, Internet outages.
2005-April-5
With the release of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack
1, Microsoft is also changing its Windows Update policy for Windows
XP.
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 was made available in September
2004 as a security-bolstering upgrade to Windows XP, but only 7%
of companies accepted SP2, while 40% actually avoided the upgrade.
Starting on April 12th, Windows Update's Automatic Update will
automatically download and install SP2 on systems set up for auto-updating.
Microsoft warns that the deadline could trigger a round of support
calls to IT help desks as end users call with questions about their
upgraded computers or broken applications.
As a reference, Windows Server 2003 SP1 is 330MB in size, Windows
XP SP2 is 270MB. If your computer seems to slow down on or after
April 12th, chances are it is attempting to download one of the
service packs.
2005-April-5
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies says it has discovered new
method of magnetizing particles on the hard drives. The technology
is called Perpendicular Recording where the magnetically charged
particles will be perpendicular instead of longitudinal, allowing
more particles into a smaller disk area.
The company demonstrated the “industry’s highest data
density” hard drive at 230 Gbits per square inch using perpendicular
recording. Hitachi plan to start selling 1TB (1,000 Gigabytes) hard
drives and 20GB microdrives by 2007.
2005-April-2
Goggle Inc. annonced that it is doubling its Gmail storage limit
to two gigabytes as it competes for users with Yahoo Inc. Yahoo
said last week that it would quadruple the amount of e-mail storage
it offers, to one gigabyte.
Yahoo's e-mail service was the Web's most popular in February,
with an estimated 40.5 million visitors. America Online e-mail was
second, with 34.6 million, and MSN from Microsoft was third, with
28.4 million.
Google's Gmail is currently at the forth place. The company said
it will beat the storage limit of any of its competitors by one
gigabyte.
However, Karen Mahon, a Yahoo spokeswoman, said, "For many
e-mail users, anything beyond one gigabyte is just a number."
2005-March-31
Intel officially launched its 64-bit Xeon microprocessor. Codenamed
"Truland", the processor requires a new chipset, E8500,
that supports a 667MHz dual, independent system bus with theoretical
10.6GBs of system bandwidth.
The new architecture will also support Intel Extended Memory 64,
PCI Express, DDR2-400 DDR2 memory, and enhanced Intel SpeedStep
technology.
Dell, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, Hitachi, IBM, NEC, Toshiba and Unisys
said new servers based on the new chips will be available in 2006.
2005-March-29
In March 2004 Microsoft was found guilty of anti-competitive behavior
in the European Union, and was ordered to provide versions of its
operating systems without Microsoft's Windows Media Player.
Yesterday Microsoft announced that it would call those versions
Windows XP Edition N, or Windows XP N for short.
2005-March-24
Yahoo annouced that it will give users of its free Web e-mail
service 1 gigabyte of storage starting from mid-April. The current
limit is 250 megabytes.
Yahoo also said it is beefing up antivirus protection for free
e-mail users to clean viruses detected in attachments.
2005-March-8
Google has officially launched its Google Desktop Search Version
1.0, allowing users to search their entire computers, including
information found in emails, PDF files, instant messages, and multimedia
files.
The program can search through web pages that have already been
visited, and through chat logs from AOL instant messenger. A plug-in
will allow users to search through other communication devices like
MSN IM as well.
Companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft are expected to launch similar
programs.
2005-March-8
Samsung Electronics unveiled the world's largest at a Seoul hotel.
The new 82" panel will be manufactured in Samsung’s 7th
generation fabrication facility. Most of the 45,000 items expected
to be produced at the facility will be LCD panels for television
sets.
The company has announced its plans to spend more than US$2 billion
to develop a new production line for liquid crystal display technology
under a collaborative deal between Sony and Samsung where consumers
LCD products will be produced by a new joint venture, S-LCD Corp.
2005-February-23
Intel releases the immediate availability of its newest line of
Pentium 4 Extreme Edition processors. The new processors support
64-bit memory, double the cache to 2MB, and raise the speed to 3.6GHz.
Intel said that its Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T) boost
performance for rich media, real-time video conferencing, gaming
and high-definition video.
To take full advantage of the new processors, you will need a true
64-bit operating system, such as the new Microsoft Windows XP Professional
x64 edition.
Intel has also begun production of dual-core Pentium 4 chips, and
will roll them out once it has sufficient stockpile before mid-2005.
AMD, on the other hand, demonstrated its 64-bit Athlon Dual Core
processor today and promised to ship them in the second half of
2005.
2005-February-17
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has announced that his company will
release a new, more secure version of Microsoft Internet Explorer,
in response to general public dissatisfaction with holes in the
browser and perhaps to counter the open source Firefox browser which
is emerging as a strong alternative.
Microsoft originally planned to include new version of the browser
in the next version of Windows "Longhorn" in 2006, but
decided to release IE 7 as a stand-alone download. IE 7 will be
for users of Windows XP with Service Pack 2.
2005-February-14
Microsoft Corp. announced a partnership with Singapore-based Flextronics
International Ltd. on Monday to market a new range of high-specification
phones, running Windows Mobile, to handset makers and network operators
worldwide. Microsoft and Flextronics said the new "Peabody"
phone platform - a blueprint from which any number of new models
can be designed to order - would cut costs and production time.
The Peabody platform runs on GSM and GPRS. Flextronics also said
it is working on a new range of devices based on the next generation
of Windows Mobile software to run on EDGE, the prevalent third-generation
or "3G" standard in North America.
Microsoft also unveiled a new software package designed to smooth
wireless service delivery, overcoming interoperability problems
between different network operators, service providers and handset
types. The new "Connected Services Framework" will be
launched by three mobile operators: Bell Canada, Celcom Malaysia
and Britain's BT.
2005-February-8
Sony, IBM and Toshiba announceed details of their newest microprocessor
design. Called the "Cell" microprocessor, it is a multicore,
multithreaded supercomputer-on-chip that is 10 times faster than
current PC processors. The chip is based on IBM's Power PC architecture,
and is expected to be available in 2006.
The Cell comprised of one 64-bit Power PC processor core and eight
separate processing cores that the companies call "synergistic
processing elements," or SPEs. The cores can support multiple
operating systems and programming models through the use of virtualization
technologies.
Sony plans to use the new microprocessor in its PlayStation 3,
IBM said it will release a new line of workstation with the chip,
while Toshiba will look to use the chip in advanced high-definition
televisions.
2005-January-27
Microsoft Corp. will fight Piracy of Windows by using the Windows
Genuine Advantage scheme to verify every OS that accesses the main
Windows update site. This comes after last year's pilot scheme to
see if the system would be accepted by their legitimate customers:
by offering free software such as the anti-spyware program and access
to updates, many customers accepted the inconvenience of typing
in their unique Windows serial number.
Authentication will become necessary in mid-2005 for all users
who want to access software updates. The trails for the Authentication
of Copy of Windows is already going on.
Still Microsoft has taken a generous view about pirates. Some Critical
Updates and Security Patches will still be available to Users of
pirated copies of Windows. But they will not be given add-ons.
2005-January-26
Following the release of Solaris 10 source code, Sun Microsystems
released 1,670 patents to the open source community in what it called
a "significant shift in the way Sun positions its intellectual
property portfolio". The release covers all aspects of Solaris
operating system technologies, ranging from kernel technology and
file systems to network management.
Open source developers are given free access to OpenSolaris-related
patents under the Common Development and Distribution License.
Sun had been steadily losing market shares as it clinged to Solaris
and the SPARC hardware architecture while Linux, Windows and the
Intel CPU platform have become de facto industry standards.
2005-January-19
Google releases an update to its Picasa software, acquired in
July 2004 from the software company Picasa. Google calls the new
update Picasa 2, and it is available for download from Google's
Picasa website for free.
Picasa 2 scans stored images and sorts them by date, allows users
to add labels and star ratings to favorites, and lets them keep
pictures in multiple albums.
It also allows photographers to edit photographs easily. Picasa
2 comes with filter effects, colors and lighting adjustments, red-eye
removal, cropping and straightening tools. Photos can be burned
onto a CD or DVD or saved to an external drive. They can be printed
on home printers in standard sizes or uploaded to photo sites such
as Ofoto, Shutterfly, Snapfish and Walmart.com, where they can be
printed in many sizes and formats.
2005-January-13
Apple
Computer Inc.'s stock prices went up by more than 11% after it posted
strong earnings due to strong demand for its iPod players and iBook
notebooks. It has also released a series of new products within
the past one month, including new server, new storage device, new
low-price Mac mini, and flash-based iPod Shuffle.
Two of the devices were lanuched by Apple's chief executive Steve
Jobs at MacWorld in San Francisco. »
Smaller than even some standalone external computer drives, the
Mac mini lacks a monitor, mouse and keyboard. The 40-gigabyte Mac
mini will cost $499, an 80-gigabyte model $599.
They ship with Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X Panther,
as well as the newest version of its iLife suite of digital media
software programs, also unveiled Tuesday.
Foxconn Electronics (the registered trade name of Hon Hai Precision
Industry) is the contract manufacturer for Apple’s Mac mini
computers, while Asustek Computer is contracted to manufacture the
iPod shuffle, in addition to Apple's iBook and iBook G5 notebook
computers.
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