News (1264)

Silverlight 2.0 due today

Microsoft has scheduled a conference call today in the US to announce, among other things, that it has completed version 2.0 of Silverlight, its rival to Adobe's Flash. Read more »

Australian ICT industry worth $123 billion

Australia's ICT industry for the year to 30 June 2007 made $123 billion and employed just under 300,000 people, paying $21 billion in wages, according to numbers released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Read more »

Yahoo tool helps Web programmers shrink images

Yahoo, which has considerable expertise in maximising Web site performance, has long offered advice on how to speed up sites up by minimising photo size. Now it's released a tool to help Web programmers automate the process. Read more »

IBM joins the 'cloud computing' bandwagon

IBM on Monday launched a major initiative into 'cloud computing', a current term for internet-based services, in an effort it hopes will challenge the early lead of cloud pioneers such as Amazon and Google. Read more »

Why CIOs aren't nuts for Chrome

Google's recently launched web browser, Chrome, will have to overcome a number of major obstacles before it can break the business ubiquity of Internet Explorer and counter the rise of Firefox. Read more »

Adobe defends CS4 pricing

Adobe has responded to criticism regarding the high international prices of its Creative Suite 4 software by saying that the difference was due to many factors, and particularly the "economies of scale of doing business in the US". Read more »

Python 2.6 released, marches towards 3.0

The Python Software Foundation today released version 2.6 of the popular language, a release that lays the groundwork for the language-changing Python 3.0 release. Read more »

Adobe CS4 hits BitTorrent

Little more than a week after its global launch, Adobe's Creative Suite 4 has shown up on popular BitTorrent tracking sites in large numbers. Read more »

Ballmer hints at 'Windows Cloud'

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told a crowd in London this week that Microsoft this month will show off its new development environment for internet-based applications, dubbed "Windows Cloud". Read more »

Ballmer calls for finance crisis resolution

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer expressed hope yesterday that the US Congress would take action to address a deepening financial crisis, which he warned could ripple across spending on all levels of the economy. Read more »

Features (1213)

Build an AIR application for your website

Adobe AIR brings web technologies to the desktop through the integration of the Webkit rendering engine in a Flash-style desktop-based runtime. AIR applications running on HTML, CSS and Javascript can interact with the local file system, manipulate local SQL databases and even use AJAX on any domain. Read more »

More New SQL Server 2008 Features

Microsoft updates SQL Server on a pretty regular basis. Its newest version, SQL Server 2008, includes some new features not found in older versions. Here's a list of some of them. Read more »

Taking on Twitter with open source software

One service that seemed to come out of nowhere and get instant buy-in from influential digerati around the Web was Identica, an open source microblogging alternative from Montreal resident Evan Prodromou, who in 2003 had co-founded Wikitravel. Read more »

HTML 5 Editor Ian Hickson discusses features, pain points, adoption rate, and more

In this interview, HTML 5 Editor Ian Hickson discusses his favourite features, the features he thinks might be most contentious, the pain points he expects HTML 5 will address, and much more. He also talks about what he would change in the original HTML spec if he could go back in time. Read more »

50 significant moments from internet history

We take you through 50 defining moments of the internet. Read more »

Get started with Web vector graphics

At the Web Directions South conference in Sydney, Dmitry Baranovskiy presented "Web Vector Graphics", giving an overview of the models available for creating vector graphics on the Web and tools to make them render correctly in all browsers. Read more »

Microsoft unveils the F# programming language

This article kicks the tyres on the September 2008 Community Technology Preview of F#. Read this brief overview of the programming language's features and environment. Read more »

Help! My SQL Server Log File is too big!

Overgrown transactional log files can turn into real problems if they are not handled properly. This article discusses the perils of not handling SQL Server log growth properly, and what can be done to correct the problems. Read more »

Avoid problems when redirecting via drop-down lists

One of the most important skills a developer needs is the ability to debug and fix problematic code whether it is their own or another developer's handiwork. This article shows how to solve a problem involving redirection and drop-down lists. Read more »

How start-ups can survive

Here we go again: Another boom, another bust. But we've learned something from the last time, haven't we? Read more »

Video (15)

LinuxWorld: The evolving data center

At the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, Cisco general manager, Rajiv Ramaswami talks about the history of the data center. He also discusses new technologies driving data center innovation including on-demand provisioning, the deployment of SOA, and Web 2.0 solutions. Read more »

Bill Gates' last day

At CES 2008, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates and some of his closest friends debuted a comical look at what life would be like as Bill's last day approaches. Many of entertainment's biggest heavyweights, such as Bono from U2, actor George Clooney, and director Steven Spielberg, got some laughs... Read more »

What's coming in Silverlight 2.0

Shane Morris and Michael Kordahi discuss the features that they are looking forward to in the next version of Silverlight Read more »

Charney: 9/11 attacks made security an asset

Until 9/11 security was simply a cost, says the VP of Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group – the stock exchange being knocked out suddenly changed this. Read more »

Y! can spek bak 2 MS -- Club Builder

Microsoft produces another "video gem", we find out how to deal with smart people and we see which CEO can write comprehensible letters. Read more »

Difference Engine No. 2

Considered one of the most startling achievements of the 19th century, Charles Babbage's Difference Engine No. 2 has come to life 150 years later. CNET News.com's Kara Tsuboi visits the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, to see the machine in action. Read more »

High-performance computing for Web 2.0

At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz talks about the company's new high-performance computing facility in Austin, Texas, and how Web 2.0 companies like Facebook and Google are benefiting from high-performance computing systems. Read more »

Mozilla goes mobile

At the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Mozilla Foundation Chairman Mitchell Baker talks about the company's plans to enter the smartphone market with Fennec, a mobile version of its Firefox browser. She also discusses how the new, open platform will encourage Web 2.0 application development. Read more »

Salmonberry or Samba? What's in a name for Tridge

  Read more »

Torvalds: release timing was a mistake

Linus Torvalds, Linux kernel co-ordinator, admits that the timing of the Linux 2.6.24 kernel was a mistake. Read more »

Blog (219)

StartupCamp Melbourne: The review

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- StartupCamp Melbourne looks to have produced just as interesting ideas as the Sydney event which immediately preceded it, but the Victorian start-ups appear to have stumbled during execution. Sydney 1, Melbourne 0. Read more »

Scott McNealy's tips for a successful start-up

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- If you're itching to take your struggling start-up to the big time, you could do worse than take Sun Microsystems' Chairman and co-founder Scott McNealy advice to heart. Read more »

Omnidrive website vanishes

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- Questions are being raised this morning about whether high-profile Australian Web 2.0 start-up Omnidrive has closed its doors, with the company's site being replaced by what appears to be some form of newsletter service offering financial rewards. Read more »

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 developer features

Lana Kovacevic [blogs:webanatomy] -- The latest Firefox alpha release -- 3.1 alpha 2 is more significant for developers than end-users. Read more »

Gartner: Social software projects lack purpose

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- Social software projects fail because IT management lack purpose of their deployment according to the industry analyst firm. Read more »

Ubuntu gets jaunty

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week's Roundup looks at Ubuntu's new Jaunty Jackalope, new rules of virtualisation, the world of browsers and more. Read more »

Cinergix waves Australian flag

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- Just one Australian start-up appears to have made the final cut for the US-based DEMO and TechCrunch50 conferences this week: Melbourne-based firm Cinergix, which has produced an online collaborative process design tool dubbed Creately. Read more »

2Vouch refers well

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- Melbourne-based Web start-up 2Vouch yesterday launched the first public beta of what it dubs its "social recruiting platform". Read more »

MyPerfect.com.au has potential

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- Victorian Web start-up My Perfect has a strong story and rationale for why it will succeed. But it has to overcome some challenges and design flaws first. Read more »

Blog against poverty

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- Worldwide Blog Action Day is 15 October, in 2008 the goal is to raise awareness and conversation around the worldwide topic of poverty and in the process raise money for the cause. Who's in? Read more »

Others (4)

Gallery: Jamming it with Web 2.0

"So what is WebJam?" the girl at the bar serving my mate and I a beer asked. She's thinking that maybe there's something to do with music happening tonight, but it's nothing like that. Read more »

Mini-Confs Day 2

Mini-conferences continued to be the order of the day at Linux Conference Australia 2007. Read more »

Gnome 2.16 Preview

With the next major release of the GNOME desktop scheduled for release next month, each passing day sees more of the code frozen. This is the first iteration since version 2.14 was released in April, which saw extensive improvements in performance. Here is our first look at some of the features in Gnome 2.16. Read more »

Sneak peek at Tech.Ed 06

In this picture gallery we take a look behind the scenes at Tech.Ed 06. Read more »

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  • Staff XP stays on life support for longer

    This week's Roundup looks at Microsoft's decision to extend the life of Windows XP, the release of Microsoft Surface SDK, Firefox's new Geode plug-in, Yahoo's new tool -- Smush It and more. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Chris Duckett The good and truly awful celluloid depictions of computers

    Ever wonder why your lawyer uncle leaves the room whenever you turn over to Boston Legal? Or why your forensic science cousin can't stand crime drama? You know the answer: it’s the horrid trivialisation and dumbing down of an occupation to make it appear entertaining. Sometimes it is so unbelievable that it actually hurts and yelling at the screen is the only outlet. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

  • Brendon Chase Apple's iPhone engineers to tour Sydney, Melbourne

    Aussie developers will be able to get up close and personal with some of the iPhone engineers in November to learn how to build applications for the platform. Read more »

    -- posted by Brendon Chase

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