Kurt D. Lynn

In October of last year, Microsoft launched HealthVault, a free online, encrypted storage area where individuals could manage their own medical record. Now, Google has tabled their own health storage offering called (surprisingly) Google Health. The ... battle for your medical record has begun. Both Google Health and Microsoft's HealthVault provide a secure place to store and maintain health data. The data that can be stored varies but will generally include records of vital statistics (e.g. heart rate, blood pressure, height, weight, etc.), patient family history, and disease or problem-related ... (view more)

Google has added one more method of advertising, as it continues to seek new sources of ad revenue. The question is whether the new technique -- AdSense for Video -- will fare any better than the previous concepts. The newly-minted AdSense for Video ... will provider advertisers a means to overlay video or text ads on a video viewer. The ads will be dynamic, rotating every 20 seconds and will be matched with the content of the video or web page being viewed. (Source: nytimes.com ) The assumption is that the rapidly growing interest in online video and Google's ownership of YouTube justifies the ... (view more)

Finally, the American consumer believes the Internet is a useful and convenient shopping tool and a good way to save time. However, there are still major obstacles between reaching the comfort zone for consumers. Concerns over privacy and credit ... card security remain a large issue to many would-be buyers. At least, this is what the Pew Interent Project Survey for September 2007 has concluded. Among the findings: Shopping on the Internet has become routine. A large majority of Internet users (93%) have done some Internet task related to e-commerce. e.g. they have bought something, researched a ... (view more)

Apple products command premium prices. A quick scan of the computers on Amazon.com's Best Seller List will show Apple computers in 10 of the 25 positions. In that list, according to J.P. Morgan's industry analyst Ingrid Ebeling, the average Apple ... selling price is $1482. All other computers listed averaged less than $600. Three years ago, in 2005, when average industry prices were falling from $1042 to $957 for a PC, Apple Macs stayed solid at $1442. That means that in the last few years the average Mac price has actually increased. (Source: appleinsider.com ) That's a good thing, right? To be ... (view more)

In mid-August of 2007, SCO, a long-time supplier of Unix-based systems and the arch-nemesis of all things Linux, lost its battle with Novell and IBM over the ownership of Unix. It was a death-blow. SCO promptly filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. But ... now, it's back! (Source: Internetnews.com ) In August, a U.S. District Court decision brought to a conclusion the long history of SCO-Linux controversies that began five years ago. In early 2003, SCO launched a campaign to challenge alleged infringement on their intellectual property -- particularly their "ownership" of Unix. Moreover, SCO called ... (view more)

If you operate a small business, then you know how difficult and expensive it can be to try to compete with bigger businesses. It often seems like an uphill battle. But now, you can find a valuable ally in your effort to grow against the flow: ... technology. Technology can empower your small business and level the playing field when competing against larger businesses. If you're looking to grow your business or are finding yourself going head-to-head with the big guys, there are a variety of technological tools and sources that can help. (Source: businessweek.com ) Among the technologies most ... (view more)

A year from now, your television could be defunct. If you're one of the 21 million Americans that the Government Accounting Office says have an analog TV the 17th of February 2009 could be an awful boring day. That's when analog TV signals will no ... longer be broadcast. (Source: nytimes.com ) The surprising fact, according to the Communications and Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), is that most people are unaware of the impending stoppage. Many seem to think that all the advertising and promotion of Digital TV is simply a merchandising ploy. In fact, many people don't even ... (view more)

In a move that could change the pecking order of the Internet search and advertising marketplace, Microsoft has made an unsolicited bid to purchase ailing Yahoo. In a letter sent to Yahoo's board of directors, Microsoft offered $44.6 billion in cash ... and stock for the troubled company; what's more, it has also been revealed that Microsoft explored an offer a year previous only to be rebuffed by Yahoo because of their confidence in the operational changes they were making at the time. (Source: cnn.com ) The last year, however, has been difficult for Yahoo. Their new ad delivery platform was ... (view more)

Get ready to pay for Internet usage by the gigabyte rather than the flat monthly access fee you're accustomed to. At least, that could be the outcome if a new pricing test by Time Warner's RoadRunner broadband service is deemed as worthy. The ... company is the fifth-largest Internet service provider in the U.S., however, its initial test will be constrained to subscribers in Beaumont, Texas. (Sources: ISP Planet and Internetnews.com ) In their new price scheme, a user's monthly fees would depend on how much bandwidth they used during the month. A spokesperson for Time Warner has explained that ... (view more)

Internet scam artists are now using the telephone to breach your privacy and your bank accounts and it seems to be working. Last week the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center raised the alarm about the increasing number of phishing attacks that are ... using a combination of email and telephone. (Source: computerworld.com ) The use of the telephone in these schemes is a departure from the email-only type of phishing assault and is catching many companies and individuals unawares. In the past, typical email phishing scams have involved making various representations via email and asking users to ... (view more)