Syslog by Staff
Turning the verbosity up one debug level, Syslog is where tidbits of information that are usually sent into the bit bucket reside. If it is interesting, a quick snippet or something downright entertaining that fits nowhere else, this is the place for it.
Mar 12
Google launches Apps Marketplace
In a bid to entice businesses to switch to cloud-based applications, Google has launched an app store where customers can purchase third-party programs that complement the Google Apps suite. Mozilla is aiming to make amends to its open-source licence, written over 10 years ago, by October or November this year. One of the changes is to make the Mozilla Public License MPL compatible with the Apache [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Mar 05
Microsoft showcases new NUIs
At its internal TechFest event this week, Microsoft researchers have demonstrated a number of Natural User Interface NUI projects the company is working on, including a mobile version of Surface, Project Gustav for digital painting, and the ability to play Guitar Hero with only a wrist band to capture movement. Google has unleashed Chrome 4.1 beta for Windows with enhanced privacy settings and a [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Feb 26
Google to dump Gears
Google is abandoning Gears in favour of HTML5, but will continue to offer limited support for the technology. Meanwhile, support for Gears in Safari, running on Mac OS X Snow Leopard and later versions, has been dropped altogether. Mac users will need OS X 10.5 or above to run the next main release of Firefox. The next iteration of the Gecko rendering engine will not support Mac OS X 10.4 or below, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Feb 19
Windows Phone 7 makes its debut
At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, Microsoft announced a revamped mobile platform, Windows Phone 7, endowed with a sleeker interface and a bunch of new features. It's unclear exactly when the new mobile operating system will reach Australia. In an attempt to promote Flash, Adobe has joined the LiMo Foundation, which is devoted to developing an open Linux mobile platform, and is [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: mobile world congress, windows, adobe, flash
Feb 12
Microsoft Surface comes to Australia
Australia is finally getting Microsoft Surface, the multi-touch table-top computer, which was unveiled in 2007 in the US, selling for AU$21,000. For photos from the launch event see this gallery. Determined not to be left behind in the social media scene, Google has equipped Gmail with a new functionality named Buzz that lets users interact with contacts by sharing status updates, links, videos [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 1 comment
Tags: buzz, visual studio, google
Feb 05
Facebook gets its groove on with HipHop for PHP
Facebook has revealed a new project, labelled HipHop for PHP that aims to retain PHP's simplicity of development, while improving its performance. It acts as a source code transformer that converts PHP code into C++ code, which can then be compiled with g++. Google is cutting off support for IE6 on 1 March, as well as other older browsers, on Google Docs and Google Sites services. Internet Explorer [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jan 29
Apple raises curtain on iPad
Apple has finally taken the wraps off its much-awaited tablet computer, dubbed, oddly enough, iPad. The Wi-Fi only model (without 3G access) will be available in Australia in March. You can watch the video of Steve Jobs' demonstration of the device here. For a closer look at the features, see this image gallery. Google seems to be getting more serious about social media, by making new hires for [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jan 22
Firefox 3.6 released
Mozilla has introduced Firefox 3.6 overnight with a number of advancements, including a 20 per cent faster TraceMonkey JavaScript engine than that of version 3.5. If you're a fan of Opera, another pre-alpha version of 10.50 has been released, but for Windows only. YouTube has announced yesterday that it's implementing HTML5 video, but surprisingly Firefox and Opera won't be getting the new [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jan 14
Microsoft tries to get kids interested in programming
Weekly Roundup is early this week, because we'll be off on our company offsite tomorrow. So let's take a look at what made news this week. Microsoft has introduced a new programming language for children interested in games development. Kodu was initially built to run on the Xbox, but is now available for PCs. Mozilla is wrapping up work on Firefox 3.6, with the release candidate version now [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jan 08
Google debuts Nexus One
Google has unveiled its next Android phone, Nexus One, but Australia is not on its shipping list yet. If you're keen to get your hands on this new offering from Google, you can buy it on eBay. A secret "GodMode" feature has been uncovered in Windows 7 that lets you access all controls from a single location. According to the head of the Windows division, GodMode is just one of the hidden, undocumented [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Dec 18
Microsoft in hot water over stolen code
Microsoft has been accused of stealing code this week, by a microblogging start-up called Plurk. According to the company, most of its code (including the visual design) has been used in Microsoft China's Juku service. Microsoft has apologised and removed the website, which it claims has been developed by a third party. The apology wasn't enough to deter Plurk from considering legal action. The [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: w3c, google wave, microsoft
Dec 11
The real-time search race
Google has implemented real-time search this week, integrating information from Twitter, Facebook and MySpace into its search results. Following in its competitor's footsteps, Yahoo has also announced that it is launching its own version of real-time search with Twitter integration, but the method used differs to that of Google. Formerly available as developer previews, Chrome for Mac and Linux [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Dec 04
Bing Maps gets a makeover
Microsoft has enriched Bing Maps with 3D street-view, based on its Photosynth and Silverlight technology. The new beta also takes advantage of Twitter's geolocation API, plotting tweets onto the maps. Furthermore, developers can build apps on top of Bing Maps Beta for added functionality. Although impressive, we thought it was no match for Google Maps. After claims that its November security updates [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Nov 27
LinkedIn platform opens up to developers
LinkedIn has opened up its platform to developers wishing to integrate the professional networking site's features with their own site, but a key needs to be obtained before accessing the API. A new W3C draft is striving to improve the way browsers handle files. One of the enhancements would be the ability to select multiple files via HTML forms. Firefox 3.6 will support most of this proposal. According [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Nov 20
Chrome OS source code unveiled
Google has open sourced the code of its web-based Chrome operating system, which is to be launched in a year's time. The new OS will only run on netbooks that meet Google's specifications, but pricing details are not available yet. Microsoft staged its Professional Developer Conference in Los Angeles this week, making a number of announcements. The anticipated Office 2010 beta was released [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: office 2010, chrome os, pdc, air, oracle, silverlight, firefox, flash
Nov 13
Aussie creates iPhone virus
An Aussie hacker has created a worm that places a background picture of Rick Astley on jailbroken iPhones that have SSH enabled, and released its source code. Google took the wraps off an open source, experimental programming language dubbed Go. The search giant boasts the code compiles at high speeds and the subsequent programs run nearly as fast as C or C++ code. Google is also working on enabling [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: go, blackberry, chrome, openbsd, iphone, gpl, firefox, gnome, google
Nov 06
Google releases new JavaScript tools
Google has open-sourced Closure Tools -- a tool set designed to speed up the development of JavaScript apps and make them run more efficiently. If you are concerned about the privacy of your Google account data, the search giant has introduced Google Dashboard, which is a snapshot of all your data stored on its servers. The service will give you the option of deleting the data or changing the privacy [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: red hat, windows 7, chrome, javascript, firefox, google
Oct 30
Ubuntu Karmic Koala released
Ubuntu 9.10, Karmic Koala, was released overnight. Take a look at this photo gallery for new features and enhancements to the popular Linux distribution. With the help of Adobe Flash Builder for Force.com, developers can now build cloud RIAs on the Force.com platform. The new tool is a result of a partnership between Adobe and Salesforce. Microsoft intends to open up its Outlook PST format, letting [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: facebook, ubuntu, microsoft, firefox, salesforce, adobe
Oct 23
Windows 7 in the spotlight
After months of hype, Windows 7 was finally released early yesterday morning. You can watch the recorded stream from the Sydney launch here. We also brought you a live Twitter feed and a photo gallery from the event. Both Microsoft and Google have entered into a partnership with Twitter that will allow them to integrate public real-time tweets into their search results. Microsoft has also scored [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: office 2010, windows 7, twitter, visual studio, facebook
Oct 16
News from Oracle OpenWorld 2009
Oracle held its OpenWorld 2009 conference in San Francisco this week, during which its CEO Larry Ellison announced the Exadata 2 computer, and bragged that the Oracle/Sun technology was more efficient than that of its main competitor IBM. Watch these videos for some Aussie reactions from the event. After a series of shocking ads, Microsoft is doing something creative for a change to promote Windows [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Oct 09
Flash comes to iPhone
Adobe staged its Max 2009 conference in LA this week. A number of announcements were made during the keynote, including that Flash is finally coming to the iPhone. Although iPhone's Safari browser is not getting Flash support, applications built with Adobe Flash Professional CS5 will be able to run on the iPhone as stand-alone applications. Another conference -- Web Directions South -- is also [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 3 comments
Tags: web directions, iphone, max, adobe, flash
Oct 02
Pirate Party Hits Australia
The Pirate Party has caused quite a stir this week as it battles to become an official party in Australia. The controversial group, which already has success in Sweden and Germany, plans to tackle issues relating to intellectual property. Google is opening up testing of Google Wave to a further 100,000 users who have registered to preview the product. Both Ribbit and 6 Rounds have created widgets [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: pirate party, intellectual property, google wave, microsoft
Sep 25
Chrome in IE
Google has come up with a plug-in that runs Chrome inside Internet Explorer versions 6, 7 or 8. Dubbed Google Chrome Frame, it lets you take advantage of Chrome's speed and features within the IE interface. Undeniably a sneaky move by Google, but what's the point of having a browser inside a browser? Naturally, Microsoft has fought back, marking the plug-in as a potential security threat. The [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Sep 18
TechCrunch50 Rundown
TechCrunch50 hit San Francisco this week with a number of big players announcing new products and features. Facebook introduced its own version of Google Labs called Prototypes, a collection of experimental features, available as applications on the developer platform. Google also had a new product to share at the conference --Fast Flip -- designed to simulate the experience of flipping through [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: bing, techcrunch50, android, facebook, google
Sep 11
Hackers attack government websites
A hackers' alliance known as "Anonymous" has carried out its threat, staging a denial-of-service attack on websites of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and ACMA on Wednesday night, as a protest to government's planned internet censorship. The Defence Department has been asked to help out in the matter. Salesforce has launched version 2 of its Cloud Service, letting customers take advantage of social [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: denial-of-service, windows 7, chrome, symantec, hacking, firefox, salesforce
Sep 04
Mobile devices get app virtualisation
At its annual conference in San Francisco, VMware announced plans to bring virtualisation to smartphones, which will allow users to run applications including those that are designed for different platforms. And over at the Red Hat Summit in Chicago, the leading open source company revealed a greater focus on cloud technology. Red Hat announced the release of a new Java platform -- JBoss Enterprise [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: windows mobile, red hat, cloud, vmware, virtualisation
Aug 28
Wolfram Alpha and Bing shake hands
Wolfram Alpha and Microsoft's Bing have reached an agreement that will allow Bing to feature some of Wolfram Alpha's specialised content. After receiving criticism, Microsoft has apologised for editing a photo on the website of its Polish subsidiary to change the race of a person. The Free Software Foundation had organised a demonstration in Boston this week to boycott Windows in order to convince [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: google docs, facebook, microsoft
Aug 27
Share your #songincode
We noticed this amusing trend on Twitter last week, where people are converting song lyrics (or anything else really) into code. Here are some of the best examples we've seen: if (lovingYou == "wrong") i != "right" LeeDumond oh.yes! ; mr_postman.wait(1.minute) pcalado room=self.location(); assert room.color() = Color.WHITE and room.curtains().color()=Color.BLACK and Place.isNear(room,station); lifeisnphard If [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 3 comments
Aug 21
Symantec's dirtiest websites
Symantec has issued a list of 100 "Dirtiest Websites of Summer 2009", which have an average of 18,000 threats. As expected, adult content websites dominate the list. A new type of virus is circulating, oddly targeting applications written in Delphi. Due to this, developers are under the risk of spreading malware onto the applications they build. IEEE has formed a new group -- Industry Connections [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 1 comment
Aug 19
Chrome gets bookmark sync with version 4.x
Google has issued the first developer preview version of its Chrome browser to reach the version 4.x milestone, a phase that should bring some advanced features in the forthcoming HTML 5 specification for web pages but that for now just sports a cloud-based bookmark synchronisation tool. Google's Chrome browser is getting a bookmark sync tool.Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) "Once you [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 2 comments
Aug 14
Google gets a Caffeine Boost
Google is experimenting with a new search algorithm, labelled Caffeine, in an effort to improve the performance of its search engine. Users are invited to test it and provide feedback. After its acquisition of FriendFeed this week, Facebook revealed it's working on a new "lite" version of its site, which has opened up for testing to a small pool of users. Is Microsoft finally becoming interested [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Aug 07
Twitter brought down by DoS attack
Twitter suffered an outage yesterday as a result of a denial-of-service (DoS) attack, but the microblogging site has not commented further on the issue. A new, faster version of Chrome has been released, featuring support for HTML 5 video tags and web workers, along with a collection of themes. Firefox has surpassed a significant 1 billion downloads, excluding automatic updates. Speaking of updates, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Aug 06
Google launches Chrome theme gallery
Google now offers a gallery of themes for its Chrome browser.(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET) Google on Tuesday launched a gallery of 29 themes for Google Chrome (requires Google Chrome 3.0 beta for Windows). But Mozilla, while refraining from sniggering, boasted it's now up to 20,000. Cosmetic changes are, well, cosmetic, but a lot of people like them as a way to add some [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jul 31
Microsoft and Yahoo join forces
Microsoft and Yahoo have united this week to jointly battle Google. The deal will see Microsoft's Bing take over search, while Yahoo will be in charge of advertising for both companies. Neither Yahoo7 or ninemsn would comment on how this will affect their operations. After the release of Cupcake in May, Donut is next on the menu for the Google Android team. The next version of the Android mobile [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jul 24
Microsoft's altruism just an illusion
For a while there it seemed that Microsoft had finally "got it", with news that the Redmond giant was releasing the source code for Hyper-V drivers under the GPL. But alas, this was not some 180-degree turn on thinking, it was merely a compliance issue to resolve a violation of the GPL. Adobe continues its bad run with security flaws, as researchers found a PDF flaw that exploited a vulnerability [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 10 comments
Tags: windows 7, oracle, pdf, gpl, microsoft, security, adobe, flash, linux
Jul 21
Microsoft adopts GPL for Hyper-V Linux components
Mark this day in your diary: Microsoft has decided to use the GPL for some of its software. This is according to Matt Asay over on our American sister site CNet News, who reports that the Hyper-V Linux Integration Components, which are low-level software components that integrate tightly with the Linux kernel to make it work better with Hyper-V, are being released under GPL 2.0. GPL 2 has the relevant [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jul 17
Apple can give but can't take
Apple is very proud of its advertisements. So much so that the ads are often played during keynote speeches given from the company, and they aren't shy in attacking Microsoft in terms of security or not being "fun" enough. Yet Microsoft comes out with a decent set of ads, dealing with laptop pricing, and Apple immediately wants the ads pulled because they lowered the price. With a single phone [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 1 comment
Tags: hacker, os, ballmer, chrome, laptop, apple, mozilla, microsoft, firefox
Jul 13
Browsers and operating systems
Google is planning to enter the operating system market with Chrome OS. The search giant announced on its blog that it aims to build a Linux-based OS to be used on netbooks in the second half of 2010. Meanwhile, Microsoft believes that the web browser should start acting more like an operating system. Chris Duckett put his fingers to the keyboard and madly blogged about Google's Chrome operating [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 1 comment
Tags: os, paypal, chrome, browser, xhtml, mozilla, microsoft, google
Jul 03
Aussies to pay more for Win 7
If you are looking to make some money in these troubled times, perhaps importing copies of Windows 7 could be for you. Microsoft has revealed that Australians will have to pay between $50 to $150 more than US residents for a copy of the upcoming Windows release. And vendors wonder why piracy is so prevalent when they slug customers with these pricing structures. Now if the cost of Windows 7 is small [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: middleware, unix, html5, c++, windows 7, oracle, microsoft, firefox
Jun 26
Firefox: Greens want it, 3.5rc2 not up to par
I have to admit that I still do not understand the motivation to line up in the middle of a winter's night for an updated iPhone. Nevertheless the iPhone faithful turned out last night to get their hands on the device. During the week Victorian Premier John Brumby announced that the state will hire 200 computer technicians for its schools as computers for the Federal government's Digital Education [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Tags: john brumby, smartphone, greens, act, victoria, outlook, agile, iphone, open source, microsoft, firefox
Jun 19
iPhone OS 3.0 makes an entrance
Apple has unveiled iPhone OS 3.0, introducing a number of essential features, including voice recording and cut, copy and paste. Are you hoping to cash in on the iPhone rage? Aussie developers say you shouldn't quit your day job to develop iPhone apps. Linux fans will be happy to know version 2.6.30 of the Linux kernel has been released, promising faster boot time, storage improvements and [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jun 12
Google goes Native
Google's Native Client has exited the research stage with plans to integrate it into Chrome. Google has also released Chrome versions for Mac and Linux, but the company warns it is still unstable and only suitable for developers. Microsoft's search engine share increased by 2 per cent since it introduced Bing, but Google's CEO doesn't see the revamped search engine as a threat to Google's own [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
Jun 05
Adobe releases new Flash tools
This week Adobe released new beta Flash tools; Flash Catalyst, Flash Builder 4 and Flex 4 framework. For a demonstration of Flash Catalyst beta take a look at this video. For a limited time, a preview version of Adobe's BrowserLab, a service that lets web developers compare how their site displays in different browsers will be available for free. Microsoft is planning to launch its widely-anticipated [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 29
Highlights from Google I/O 2009
Google I/O developer conference took place in San Francisco this week. During the keynote, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt emphasised that the browser is becoming more like an operating system. The company presented Google Native Client, which gives the browser the ability to execute code natively on an x86 processor, making web apps run faster than with JavaScript, for instance. The demonstration [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 22
Wolfram Alpha makes an entrance
Wolfram Alpha, a new search engine has received much hype after its recent release. Labelled as the "computational knowledge engine", it attempts to provide answers to your questions. Watch this video for a demonstration. After Google announced changes to its search engine last week, Yahoo also revealed future plans for its search technology during a "Search Chalk Talk" in the US. Microsoft [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 15
Adobe develops Strobe
Adobe is planning to release a free, open framework based on Flash that will allow users to build custom video players easily. The framework, named Strobe will be available later in the year. Mozilla's Prism, the tool for converting web apps to desktop apps, has advanced to version 1.0. It's available as both a Firefox extension and a stand-alone desktop app. Google has unveiled three new features [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 08
Windows 7 RC gets released
The hype over Windows 7 continues after the release candidate was unveiled to the public this week. The last test instalment introduces some nifty features, including Remote Media Streaming for the Media Player. However, the software giant is staying silent about the final release date. Google revealed more details about the upcoming Android 1.5, dubbed Cupcake. Amongst the new features coming out [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 0 comments
May 06
Yahoo's Outlook alternative: Zimbra Desktop
If you could collect your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail, and corporate messages into a single inbox, would you switch? The convenience of a universal email inbox is what gives Yahoo's offline, open source, cross-platform Zimbra Desktop its appeal. Then there are the other tools to tag and search messages that elevate the Webmail experience beyond what your POP and IMAP services may offer on their own. [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 1 comment
May 01
Open Facebook
Facebook is opening its activity stream to third-party developers via the Open Stream API. Now, in addition to status updates, developers will have access to other newsfeed content such as notes, photos and videos. Seesmic Desktop has already revealed plans for implementing the increasingly popular Open Stream API, which is set to provide a more holistic desktop facebooking experience. In the world [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 3 comments
Apr 24
Oracle buys Sun
The big news this week was the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle for US$7.4 billion, spurring both positive and negative reactions. According to an Australian MySQL expert, the popular open source database won't suffer as a result of the buyout, but will complement Oracle as a company. Ubuntu version 9.04, dubbed Jaunty Jackalope has been released, bringing, amongst other enhancements, [...] Read more »
-- posted by Staff | 2 comments
Tags: sun microsystems, windows 7, oracle, mysql, ubuntu
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