Kate Erickson

Microsoft and Red Hat recently signed an interoperability deal designed to please both Windows and Linux users. Red Hat, the largest corporate contributor to open source development, is a powerful ally for Microsoft due to their position as "the ... most trusted" Linux distribution vendor. (Source: redhat.com ) The two-part deal will maximize the potential for virtualization via each company's "hypervisors" (software that gives users the ability to run multiple operating systems on the same computer at once). It will also ensure that both Windows and Red Hat (Linux) software will be compatible ... (view more)

Time's up for users hoping to test run the Windows 7 beta , as today Microsoft blocked the ability to download the preview edition. "Sorry," the website has been telling users since midnight, February 9, "Windows 7 Beta downloads are no longer ... available." Anyone with interrupted downloads will be able to complete them, and those with a copy will still be able to access their product keys. No new downloads will be possible at this time. The beta edition, which had been open for download by the general public since January this year, will no longer be on Microsoft's website ... (view more)

Is there anything Google can't do? Google mapping technology, the subject of intense international criticism last week with the introduction of the Latitude location-based social application, steps in to save the day by mapping raging Australian ... bushfires. This weekend, as the largest bushfires Australia has ever seen ravaged the landscape, engineers at Google Australia lent a helping hand by creating a Google Map that tracks the progress of the fires and provides essential information to those at risk. The map allows Australian citizens to keep track of clear, threatened, and danger zones ... (view more)

A new analysis claims that over 90% of the Windows security vulnerabilities reported last year were made worse by users logged in with administrative privileges -- an issue Microsoft has been hotly debating recently. BeyondTrust Corp. (BTC), a ... software development company specializing in enterprise rights management, has indicated that the act of giving users administrative rights may leave systems more open to risk. The report issued by BTC was prepared by assessing security vulnerability bulletins released by Microsoft in 2008, and identifying specific "mitigating factors" (those that could ... (view more)

Despite the upcoming release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) , it appears that Microsoft is still losing market share to its competitors at Apple and Mozilla. (Source: computerworld.com ) Web metrics firm Net Applications released a new ... market share analysis Sunday, placing Microsoft at 67.6% -- the lowest market share percentage for the company since 2005. This 0.6 point drop follows an unfortunate trend for Microsoft, who has lost approximately 8 percentage points in the last year. While nowhere near as devastating as the drastic drops of November and December 2008, it seems that ... (view more)

After flirting with open source development for some time, Microsoft has made another step towards real commitment with the release of source code for Web Sandbox, a program used to test and secure web site content. (Source: zdnet.com ) The Sandbox ... source code will be released under the Apache 2.0 license, an open source license agreement allowing the content creator to maintain copyright while permitting others to develop the product for their own use. Microsoft has gradually been increasing their involvement with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) since 2008 when they agreed to fund ... (view more)

In recent news that seems more science fiction than applied science, Japanese researchers have unveiled exciting new research that could change the way we create and use computers in years to come. Japanese professor Tetsuro Majima of Osaka ... University has demonstrated that proteins -- once the concern of chemists and biologists -- could now have impressive potential in the world of computer science. (Source: livescience.com ) Majima's research has indicated that proteins isolated from select bacteria species are able to store computer data, and that this type of storage could exceed the ... (view more)

Since the launch of the highly successful AdSense campaign, Google has been synonymous with online advertising. Thanks to a new initiative that will merge online and print ads, Google is making the leap from the screen to the printed page and ... hosting ads in a newspaper near you. Google's new Print Ad program will allow organizations with an existing AdSense account to convert their campaigns to print format with just a few mouse clicks. Advertisers will be able to search for ad space within over six hundred international newspapers. Linking online ads with print media could cause a ... (view more)

America Online (AOL) has broken its vows of proprietary ownership and will soon integrate open source Jabber protocols into its AIM and ICQ instant messaging services. AOL is currently in the process of testing a new version of AIM, using the Jabber ... platform as a way to make improvements to its service and eliminate potential operating bugs. While the modifications are still in the test phase, supporters of open source software are looking forward to the potential benefits Jabber can provide. (Source: betanews.com ) Although Jabber is relatively well known within technical circles, most ... (view more)

Yahoo email users can look forward to great new features in the next year as the company fights for its share of Internet messaging. By adding new features that will either imitate or link to existing social networks, Yahoo hopes to provide users ... with an experience that will make email more applicable as a social networking tool. (Source: technologyreview.com ) Yahoo's plans for the new features were unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas earlier this month. As the most popular web-based email service, Yahoo upgrades will benefit over two hundred million users. ( ... (view more)