News (161)

92% against filter: Whirlpool survey

Early results from broadband information site Whirlpool's annual survey has found that 91.8 per cent of respondents do not support the idea of mandatory internet filtering, with most believing the government should focus on educating parents and children instead. Read more »

ICANN gives non-Latin scripts the nod

ICANN, the nonprofit body that oversees internet addresses has approved the use of Hebrew, Hindi, Korean and other scripts not based on the Latin alphabet in a decision that could make the web dramatically more inclusive. Read more »

Google Docs adds live sharing to folders

Google Docs has long let users share documents between one another, but folders -- a feature Google begrudgingly added to Docs back in mid-2007 -- have largely been left out of the picture. Read more »

Pirate Party storms Australia

The Pirate Party, which champions issues such as intellectual property rights, free speech and data privacy, is on its way to becoming an official party in Australia. Read more »

US extends probe into Oracle-Sun deal

The US Department of Justice has decided to extend its investigation into Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun, according to a brief statement put out late on Friday. Read more »

Why I switched from Firefox to Chrome

Sorry if it sounds like I'm drinking the Google Kool-Aid here, but I have switched from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome as my default browser for the very reason Google's executives said we should: speed. 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 »

IBM warns standards bodies to shape up

IBM has issued a warning to international standards body ISO in the wake of its approval of Microsoft's OOXML. Read more »

Strike cloud clears at IBM Australia

The chance of industrial action at IBM's Baulkham Hills, Sydney facility has dropped dramatically after a workers' meeting last night broadly accepted the direction that union negotiations with Big Blue had taken. Read more »

O'Reilly: Stop throwing sheep, do something worthy

NEW YORK -- Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media, is known as a futurist, but his keynote address on Thursday morning at the Web 2.0 Expo was heavy on the realism in the wake of sobering news from Wall Street. Read more »

Features (29)

Workflow Patterns

In this serialisation of Chapter 15 from the book Oracle SOA Suite Developer's Guide, we look at some of the more complex, yet common use cases and how these can be addressed in a relatively straightforward fashion by the Workflow Service. Read more »

Google vs. Microsoft

At the 2008 Gartner Application Development, Integration and Web Services Summit, David Mitchell Smith, vice president and Gartner fellow gave a presentation titled "Google vs. Microsoft", discussing the seeming battle between the two companies. Read more »

Ballmer: From the frying pan to the firing line

In these eBay days, buyer's remorse is increasingly common. Less common is the remorse of the unbought — a sensation now widely reported among major Yahoo shareholders in the wake of Ballmer's retreat. Read more »

Microsoft plays open but patent jaws still have teeth

Despite Microsoft's claim it will not sue developers that build free open source software on Microsoft platforms, a caveat leaves a yawning space for its legal teeth to gnash those that commercialise the software. Read more »

Developer Spotlight: Inside .NET with Juval Lowy

Builder AU caught up with Lowy during his masterclass in Sydney and discussed what is in .NET 3.0, the design review process and how developers can better learn. Read more »

Web 2.0 meets the enterprise

Long set up like a gated community, the enterprise software industry is quickly gaining a populist streak. Read more »

Is Java getting better with age?

Scripting languages are catching on with developers, but Sun's James Gosling sees plenty of kick left in Java. Read more »

Scripting Java with the Bean Scripting Framework

Want to support all the scripting languages for Java? The Bean Scripting Framework, BSF, enables you to do just that with a simple API. We'll show you how in this article. Read more »

Faster XML ahead?

The Net's top standards body is getting closer to speeding up XML-based software, a move that could benefit everyone from mobile phone carriers to television broadcasters to the military. Read more »

The open-source patent conundrum

The latest tactic in the software-patenting battle is the granting of patent rights to open-source developers. But are the grants really the equivalent of wolves in sheep's clothing? Read more »

Video (1)

Microsoft denies OOXML has 'proprietary hooks'

As Australia and various other nations prepare to vote on whether Microsoft's Open Office XML becomes an ISO standard, the Redmond giant is attempting to downplay fears that OOXML adopters will be hooked into the company's technology. Read more »

Blog (14)

IE9's H.264 vote killed Ogg

Chris Duckett [blogs:betaliving] -- In a split decision by the judges, the winner of the W3C/WHATWG video codec consensus is H.264, taking home the future of video playback on the internet while loser Ogg goes home with nothing but thoughts of what might have been. Read more »

SMB bug gets seven-year itch

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week's roundup looks at the Great Firewall of Australia, seven year-old security holes, Android's big bug and we chase Steve Ballmer around Sydney. 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 »

Sydney start-up Streem launches news site

[blogs:bootstrappr] -- Sydney-based start-up Streem yesterday formally launched a new online news site, saying it would differ from traditional media outlets by paying readers a small fee for any content they submitted. Read more »

Screw-ups, Mobile Linux shakeup and kthxbai Bill

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- The Roundup looks at where Sun went wrong with open source, what is happening in the Mobile Linux world and look at the departure of Bill Gates from full time work duties. Read more »

Firefox 3 add-ons to make you a better Web developer

Brendon Chase [blogs:codemonkeybusiness] -- Firefox might be a fast browser but it's extensions can transform it into a powerful development tool for Web developers and designers. Here are 10 of the best to get you started. Read more »

How useful is OpenSocial?

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week's coverage was all over the local MySpace developer launch, we took a look at Google's AppEngine, had more videos than we knew what to do with and can someone put us out of our misery buy Yahoo already! Read more »

Yahoo open search: Good for users, but great for Yahoo

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- Yahoo is making a big deal of its new open search initiative. This program, not yet live, will allow site publishers to influence the way the Yahoo search engine displays results for their sites. Read more »

Flickr fans band together to fend off Microsoft

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This is what happens when Microsoft tries to take over not just a company but also a community: a number of Flickr users have launched a group opposing the attempted acquisition. Read more »

Pirates rejoice!

Staff [blogs:syslog] -- This week's roundup brings news about Vista first service pack, PDF's standards push and a video of why the Web needs changing. Read more »

Others (1)

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 »

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  • Staff Microsoft shows off IE9 preview

    This week, highlights from Microsoft's MIX10 conference and more in the Roundup. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

  • Chris Duckett IE9's H.264 vote killed Ogg

    In a split decision by the judges, the winner of the W3C/WHATWG video codec consensus is H.264, taking home the future of video playback on the internet while loser Ogg goes home with nothing but thoughts of what might have been. Read more »

    -- posted by Chris Duckett

  • Staff Google launches Apps Marketplace

    Google launches and app store, while Mozilla plans to re-write its open-source license. More of this week's news in the Roundup. Read more »

    -- posted by Staff

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