News Items

News for Tuesday, March 14 2006

Software design legend Steve McConnell says agile programming, like CASE before it, is a good idea that hasn't quite lived up to expectations.

Peptides injected into hamsters' brains helped restore vision. Research has implications for stroke and trauma recovery as well.

A new Trojan making the rounds has found a new angle: Cryzip encrypts the data into a password-protected file, and demands a $300 ransom to extract the files.

Google says it will soon sell full-text versions of books at the request of its book publishing partners. First up, Harper Collins and Random House will be available.

New Microsoft site 10 is a place for people who use technology. Featuring Laura Foy and Tina Wood (formerly at G4 TV).

Poor Steve, isn't it time for a merit increase?

October 18-21, San Francisco CA. Learn PHP from the source.

Happy Pi day (3/14)! Don't forget to draw a circle, or memorize a few dozen digits to celebrate.

Step 1: Build something cool with one of the Express Editions Step 2: ??? Step 3: Win $10,000US

Developers without source control are like cars without bumpers. Everything is fine until you run into something.

News for Monday, March 13 2006

Great resource for your next drive on the red planet.

Google Inc.'s shares fell to their lowest levels in 4-1/2 months on Friday as analysts bemoaned recent communication miscues and its refusal to be more open about its finances. Do no evil, say no evil?

An error in McAfee's virus definition file released Friday morning caused the company's consumer and enterprise antivirus products to flag Microsoft's Excel, as well as other applications on users' PCs, as a virus called W95/CTX.

Criminals wielding counterfeit debit cards and stolen PINs are rampaging across bank accounts across the US.

Some of the uber-sexy Razr cell-phone are prone to dropping calls and restarting without good cause. Replacement phones are waiting, and Motorola is working on a fix.

Oracle Corp. is due to make its SQL Developer tool generally available Monday. Formerly known as Project Raptor, the free software will be Oracle's first visual database development tool.

Your next television set or monitor could be powered by new surface-conduction electron-emitter display technology from Toshiba and Canon. Will it make the plots any brighter?

The latest pre-release version of Expression Interactive Designer (nee Sparkle) is now available. You will have to have the February CTP of WinFx installed to use it, however.

Fuel cells aren't just for cars and buses now, soon they'll be powering your laptops.

News for Friday, March 10 2006

Enterprises that upgrade to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 can allow mobile Blackberry users to exchange instant messages with users of Microsoft Windows Messenger, Live Communications Server 2005 and IBM Lotus Sametime systems, the RIM said.

Skype for Business, aimed at small companies with fewer than 10 employees, wants to be the new PBX.