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Trustworthy Computing: Examining Trust

3/11/2008

When Richard Kemmerer first joined the board of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Academic Advisory initiative as one of its inaugural members, he had a caveat for the software giant. "One of the things I told (Microsoft) was that if you're looking for a yes man, you're barking up the wrong tree, looking in the wrong place, you got the wrong guy. I'm going to call it like I see it."

Mobile Broadband Internet Use Growing Dramatically

3/11/2008

The number of computers using mobile broadband technology to access the Internet grew by 154 percent in the 4th quarter of 2007 versus the same period in 2006, according to comScore, a research firm. comScore, which measures online behavior, said the total number of computers going online through mobile broadband technology grew to 2.1 million from 854,000.

Document Interoperability Initiative Unveiled by Microsoft

3/10/2008

Microsoft Thursday kicked off its plan to set up labs around the world to test the interoperability of various document formats, including Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format as well as the Open Document Format (ODF) originally developed by Sun Microsystems.

Oxford Scholarship Online Expands Reach through ebrary

3/10/2008

Oxford Scholarship Online (OSO) is making its digital collection of 3,000 Oxford titles available through ebrary, a California-based company that offers an online content management platform for libraries and publishers. OSO is a subscription service providing digital versions of books published through Oxford University Press, the publishing arm of the University of Oxford.

U Texas Streams Athletic Events

3/10/2008

The University of Texas has taken its Longhorns athletic events online to broaden the reach of its collegiate sporting programs to a much larger audience.

Florida Institute of Tech Offers Degrees Online through University Alliance

3/10/2008

The Florida Institute of Technology has introduced 11 undergraduate degree programs that will be delivered through University Alliance, a division of Bisk Education, a provider of online degree and certificate programs. The online program will go by the name of Florida Tech University Online.

VMware Supports BEA's Effort To Virtualize Java Apps

3/10/2008

At last week's VMworld, BEA and VMware announced their partnership on a project to allow BEA's Java applications to work within virtual environments created with VMware's tools.

German University Installs Research Supercomputer Powered by 2,048 Processors

3/7/2008

Technische Universitat Dresden has gone public with its installation of an SGI supercomputer, which is being used by German researchers in the campus' Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing. TU Dresden installed an SGI Altix 4700 system powered by 2,048 Intel Itanium 2 processors and 6.5 terabytes of main memory.

Apple To Add Exchange Support to iPhones

3/7/2008

Is Apple acknowledging the power and ubiquity of Microsoft's messaging platform? That might be a stretch, but the company has announced a forthcoming update to its iPhone 2.0 software, which will include built-in support for Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync.

Report: Further Declines in Computer Science, but Turnaround May Be on the Horizon

3/7/2008

A computing research organization said that enrollments and degrees at United States-based computer science departments dropped further in 2006 and 2007. The non-profit Computing Research Association, which is composed of academic and private industry members, has done survey work on computer science degrees since 1974, tracking enrollment trends among 170 Ph.D.-granting schools.

Microsoft Creates IT Job Portal for Students

3/7/2008

Microsoft has just put the finishing touches on its Students to Business (S2B) portal, an initiative aimed at pairing American college students working toward IT careers with companies who are looking to fill entry-level IT positions.

MIX08 Kicks Off with First IE 8 and Silverlight 2 Betas

3/6/2008

Microsoft Wednesday ushered in two highly anticipated betas for developers at its MIX08 conference in Las Vegas: the first public downloads of Internet Explorer 8 and Silverlight 2. The company also released a slew of technology previews, including the Visual Studio 2008 tooling for Silverlight 2, Expression Studio 2 beta (which supports Silverlight 2) and an ASP.NET MVC Preview 2.

University of Tokyo, Sun Collaborate on Research

3/6/2008

The University of Tokyo and Sun Microsystems announced two joint research projects that will focus on high-performance computing and Web-based programming languages. These research projects will be the first international collaboration that comes out of the Proprius21 initiative advocated by U-Tokyo for producing visible results from research collaborations with private enterprises.

Colorado State Achieves 90% Student Participation in Emergency Notification System

3/6/2008

Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, CO, said that 90 percent of its 25,000 student population has enrolled in its emergency text notification system. The campus implemented the system from Rave Wireless school-wide in September 2007. The program enables CSU to send text messages to subscribers in the event of an emergency.

PA Medical School Implements Handheld Network

3/6/2008

Thomas Jefferson University, an academic health center in Philadelphia, has deployed a wireless system that includes voice coverage and mobile broadband access. In a statement, Provider AT&T said it is supplying 150 Palm Treos, 30 Blackberry devices, and more than 150 Push to Talk handsets, which operate on the in-building wireless system and AT&T's third-generation (3G) BroadbandConnect network, to physicians and staff members.

Open Source Vendor rSmart Collaborates with Sun on Kuali Programs

3/5/2008

rSmart, which makes open source software for education, said it is collaborating with Sun Microsystems to develop Kuali-based programs certified to run on Sun's collection of systems and open source infrastructure software, including Solaris, MySQL, GlassFish, OpenSSO and OpenESB. The first application will be the Kuali Financial System.

Report: Microsoft Readying New SaaS Push

3/5/2008

According to blogger Nicholas Carr, Microsoft may be preparing to make a major Software-as-as-Service (SaaS) announcement soon, possibly at its MIX08 conference this week in Las Vegas.

Stoneware Integrates Virtual Desktop with iTunes U

3/5/2008

Stoneware announced the integration of Apple's iTunes U with its virtualized Web desktop solution, WebOS. iTunes U allows colleges and universities a way to let students search, download and play education content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows. With the integration of iTunes U into the user's virtualized WebOS desktop, students can access applications, files, documents, educational podcasts and other content from a Web desktop that is accessible from anywhere.

Microsoft Expands Office Live Workspace Beta Worldwide

3/4/2008

After nearly three months of private beta testing involving about 100,000 users, Microsoft Office Live Workspace (OLW) is being rolled out worldwide as a full public beta. Previously, participants had to be qualified by Microsoft for the beta; now, as of today, it's open to all comers who wish to create workspaces. Coinciding with the public beta, Microsoft has also revved OLW with new features and enhancements and has kicked off a sweepstakes to build awareness for the service.

Wimba Unveils New Collaborative Messaging Tool

3/4/2008

At the inaugural Wimba Connect 2008 user conference Tuesday, Wimba unveiled its new Wimba Pronto, a collaborative instant messaging tool geared specifically toward education.

Sybase Updates Encryption Software for Windows Mobile Data

3/4/2008

One of the biggest risks enterprises face in rolling out PDAs and smart phones is data getting into the wrong hands if a device is lost or stolen. Sybase Inc.'s iAnywhere business unit today is rolling out software it said will help developers address that threat.

Vista Pricing Cut Worldwide

3/4/2008

Microsoft last week announced that it would cut the price on Windows Vista. The timing of the price cut would coincide with the retail availability of Vista Service Pack 1.

Study: The Year's Top-10 Web Application Vulnerabilities

3/3/2008

Web applications, by far, dominate the list of application security vulnerabilities facing IT organizations. While 29 percent of vulnerabilities are attributable to network and infrastructure weaknesses, a full 71 percent are attributable to both open source and commercial Web applications, according to a report released recently by security firm Cenzic Inc., "Application Security Trend Report for Q4 2007."

Marine Research School Implements Virtual Storage Solution

3/3/2008

The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science at the University of Miami said it has implemented an ONStor network attached storage (NAS) solution in its two data centers. The school, comprising 100 faculty members, 190 graduate students, and 250 research support staff, is using the ONStor Bobcat NAS gateway to gain a single view into storage resources.

Microsoft Takes SharePoint and Exchange Servers Online

3/3/2008

Microsoft has announced a new step forward for one of its Software as a Service (SaaS) initiatives, Microsoft Online Services, with online betas of Exchange Server 2007 and Office SharePoint Server 2007.