Web/Portals
- Adobe Throttles Up Flash Media Server
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1/25/2008
Adobe has released two new full version upgrades in its Flash Media Server line: Flash Media Streaming Server 3 and Flash Media Interactive Server 3. The latest versions, released Jan. 25, both include "major" performance gains and additional security enhancements for content delivery. They also add MPEG-4 support in the form of H.264 video and High-Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio.
- iTunes U--Educators Do 'Cool Stuff' with Technology
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1/24/2008
Speaking to a standing-room only crowd at FETC 2008 in Orlando, FL Thursday, presenters Ann Barron, James Welsh, James Takacs and Luis Perez--all from the University of South Florida (USF)--shared their insights on planning, producing, and administering the university's educational podcasts, hosted through Apple's service, iTunes U.
- Macs Vulnerable to Malware? Say It Ain't So!
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1/24/2008
IT security firm Sophos this week let the cat out of the bag, spilled the beans, and otherwise debunked the widely treasured myth that Macs are invulnerable to malware in its "Security Threat Report 2008," released Tuesday. The report said that, among other things, "in 2007 [organized] criminal gangs for the first time arrived at Apple's doorstep with the intention of stealing money." Proof, the firm said, that "hackers are extending their efforts beyond Windows."
- Zend Rolls Out PHP App Server and Dev Tools
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1/24/2008
Zend Technologies Wednesday launched its PHP-based Web application server, Zend Platform 3.6, as a general-availability product, while simultaneously announcing the immediate availability of Zend Studio for Eclipse, its IDE plug-in for PHP development.
- WSO2 Releases Web Services Framework for Ruby
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1/23/2008
Web developers who use the increasingly popular combo of the Ruby programming language with the Rails framework, better known as Ruby on Rails, now have an open source framework for providing and/or consuming Web services. WSO2's newly released Web Services Framework for Ruby (WSF/Ruby) is the first Ruby extension to support the WS-* specifications, which include the SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM), WS-Addressing, WS-Security, WS-SecurityPolicy, and WS-Reliable Messaging.
- Digitization and DRM at Ball State
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1/23/2008
A years-long project at Ball State University to digitize a huge range of content is using advanced encoding technology and digital rights management (DRM) to help manage and make available thousands of hours of content stored in its libraries. The university has also recently expanded its digital offerings to include high-definition TV.
- Sold at Auction: One Mainframe
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1/23/2008
Time to unplug the mainframe? Just what do you do with that big black box with all of its gear and software--especially if it's only three years old and still running in the data center? That was the dilemma faced by Palm Beach Community College in Lake Worth, FL when it outgrew its IBM z890 mainframe. Why, if you have nerves of steel, you auction it off on eBay, of course.
- Early Look: Acid3
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1/22/2008
In December, I wrote about Internet Explorer 8's ability to properly render the Acid2 test. Many current or upcoming browser releases are able to successfully process Acid2. However, the bar is about to be raised again. Since April 2007, the Web Standards Project has been designing Acid3 to be the next rendering milestone for modern browsers.
- Strongspace's 10-Day Crash Highlights Web Storage Risks
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1/21/2008
For the last 10 days, Sausalito, CA-based online document and storage hosting company Joyent struggled to get its online secure document collaboration service, Strongspace, back online.
- SANS Flags Browsers, Botnets as Top Security 'Menaces'
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1/17/2008
Research and education organization the SANS Institute this week revealed its list of the top menaces facing IT in the coming year. Echoing earlier reports from security watchdog organizations, the group's "Top-10 Cyber Security Menaces for 2008" cited Web 2.0 technologies, converged devices, botnets, and browser addons among the worst, with a heavy emphasis on consumerized technologies and the vulnerabilities they present.
- Podcasting and Education
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1/16/2008
Is podcasting spreading like wildfire across campuses, or does it just seem like it? Can good podcasts on your school's site boost enrollment? How can educators get started in podcasting on a budget? What's the first rule to follow in considering whether or not to create a podcast?
- Xignite Unveils Web Service Mashup Platform
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1/16/2008
Xignite is offering subscribers an on-demand service that lets users create custom business applications via a Web services mashup platform. The platform, called Xignite Splice, enables composite Web services applications to be built using a visual development environment.
- Newsgator Declares RSS Readers Free
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1/16/2008
Newsgator, one of the earliest entrants into the RSS and aggregated content reader business, has decided to offer its latest generation of client tools for free. That includes NetNewsWire 3.1, a Mac reader; FeedDemon 2.6, a PC reader; and NewsGator Go! for Windows Mobile 2.0, a mobile reader. The company is also offering a free version of NewsGator Inbox, which delivers RSS feeds to Microsoft Outlook folders.
- Wireless Grids Software Goes into Beta
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1/15/2008
A Syracuse University associate professor introduced a new program that gives people a simple way to do file sharing among digital devices. Syracuse University School of Information Studies Associate Professor Lee McKnight debuted Innovaticus during the International Consumer Electronics Show last week. The software lets users set up a grid of devices--computers, cell phones, printers, and even MP3 players--to collaborate and share files and hardware using devices across multiple networks, wired and wireless. Users with access to that grid could drag and drop files from one device to another, whether it was local or around the world.
- New Free Platform Aims To Ease Sharing of Digital Collections
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1/15/2008
A new Web platform for publishing collections and exhibitions online got a nod of fame last week when it was referenced in The Washington Times profile of George Mason University's Center for History and New Media, which the paper called "at the forefront of the new wave of collecting history." The free, open-source platform is named Omeka, a Swahili word meaning "to display or lay out goods or wares; to speak out; to spread out; to unpack."
- Creating Life-Size Molecules in Second Life
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1/9/2008
The debate continues over just how useful virtual worlds like Second Life are for educational purposes. We spoke with Drexel University's Jean-Claude Bradley, who is e-learning coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences, and an associate professor of chemistry. Despite his initial skepticism, in 2007 Bradley helped establish Drexel's presence in Second Life, Drexel Island, and used Second Life last semester to augment portions of his Introduction to Organic Chemistry course. He has blogged extensively about his use of the medium. Here, he discusses the benefits--and drawbacks--of the much-discussed virtual world.
- SpringSource Offers Spring.NET 1.1
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1/9/2008
SpringSource is offering the final release of Spring.NET 1.1. The framework, which apparently was released early last month, lets .NET developers use some of the features that are currently available in the open source Java-based Spring Framework.
- First Look: Project Zero
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1/4/2008
Project Zero (an IBM incubator project) is an extension of the Eclipse open source Java programming IDE. It allows Java programmers to use a familiar development environment to create dynamic Web applications. While the project is supported by a "community," much like open source efforts, the aim of Project Zero is commercial, with IBM counting on getting feedback from developers in the mean time.
- Component Assembly Service Has Its Head in the Cloud
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1/4/2008
Eclipse and Java coders are being offered a helping hand with their component assembly challenges from a new company with a fledgling free service. The Web-based Cloudsmith service, from the company of the same name, is designed to streamline component assembly across multiple sources. It helps developers cobble components directly from the Internet, or "the cloud"--that global pool of connected computers drawn as lump on countless whiteboards.
- GWT: Advanced AJAX Security
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1/3/2008
Billy Hoffman gave a talk on advanced AJAX security at the recent Google Web Toolkit (GWT) conference in San Francisco. Hoffman manages HP Security Labs, which was SPIDynamics until HP acquired it this year, along with Hoffman. He focuses on automated discovery of Web application vulnerabilities and Web crawling technologies.
- WaveMaker Unveils Visual Web Dev Tool and Framework
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1/2/2008
WaveMaker Software unveiled two new developer solutions this week: WaveMaker Visual Assembly Studio and WaveMaker Rapid Deployment Framework for Enterprise Web 2.0. The former is designed to provide enterprise departmental developers with a visual dev tool for building data-driven Web apps. The latter enables those apps to be deployed to industry-standard Java app servers.
- IBM alphaWorks Expands Web Services
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12/12/2007
IBM has added two new Web services to its alphaWorks Web site, which provides "sneak previews" of the kind of technologies that are being contemplated at IBM research and development labs. The new Web services include IBM Sharable Code, a platform for managing Web 2.0-type mashup applications, and IBM Web Highlights.
- Red Hat Bundles Tooling and Runtime in New JBoss IDE
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12/11/2007
Red Hat today began shipping a new application integrated development environment (IDE) that combines both tooling and runtime. JBoss Developer Studio Eclipse is an Eclipse-based IDE bundled with the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Network. It also includes tooling for Java EE, the JBoss Seam app framework, AJAX, Hibernate, Persistence, JBoss jPBM, Struts and the Spring IDE.
- Roxbury CC Looks To Boost Enrollment with Portal Solution
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12/11/2007
Roxbury Community College is beefing up its enrollment and constituent relationship management efforts. The college, located in Roxbury Crossing, near Boston, has signed on to use portal and CRM solutions from Jenzabar, as well as the Informz Text Messaging solution.
- Snapshot: Firefox, IE Vie for Popularity Among College Students
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12/10/2007
To better understand the views, attitudes, and usage of various technologies and brands among college students, Eduventures conducted research of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled full-time at a four-year college or university via a Web survey.
