theodp writes "At the World Economic Forum, Michael Dell's pitch to help Russia with its computers got the cold-as-Siberia shoulder from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. 'We don't need help,' shot back Putin. 'We are not invalids. We don't have limited mental capacity' (video — rant starts at 1:24). 'Our programmers are some of the best in the world,' Putin continued. 'No one would contest that here — not even our Indian colleagues.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

GalaticGrub writes "Technology Review has an article about a startup that wants to build a business out of crowd-sourcing the developing world. The company, called txteagle, seems to be interested mainly in using local knowledge to translate information into less common languages. The Finnish cell-phone company Nokia is a partner in the project, and CEO Nathan Eagle says that it provides a good example of a Western company that could benefit from txteagle workers. Eagle explains that Nokia is interested in 'software localization,' or translating its software for specific regions of a country. 'In Kenya, there are over 60 unique, fundamentally different languages,' he says. 'You're lucky to get a phone with a Swahili interface, but even that might be somebody's third language. Nokia would love to have phones for everyone's mother tongues, but it has no idea how to translate words like "address book" into all of these languages.'"

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Novell has released updates for GroupWise 7 and 8 to address multiple vulnerabilities. These vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, compromise a GroupWise account, conduct cross-site scripting attacks, or obtain sensitive information.

US-CERT encourages users to review the Novell download page and apply the appropriate patch to help mitigate the risks.

Computing staff, Computing, Thursday 29 January 2009 at 12:15:00

First Technology Barometer highlights differing views between IT leaders and their suppliers

Technology vendors beware ­- IT managers are far less enthusiastic about the latest technologies and the economic prospects for the next 12 months than their suppliers.

This is the main finding of the first quarterly Computing Technology Barometer, produced in association with financial adviser Cobalt Corporate Finance.

The barometer research asked a standard set of questions to a panel of Computing readers and to Cobalt’s IT vendor clients to compare views on the key issues of the day.

The results show that IT managers are less optimistic about employment levels and technology adoption.

Computing readers said they expect staff numbers to decline in the next 12 months -­ albeit only slightly. But vendors expect an increase ­ a view at odds with the reality of more than 40,000 industry job cuts announced in the past two months alone.

Cobalt partner Chris Williams said the disparity may be due to the recession hitting corporate IT buyers more quickly.

“IT decision-makers are one stage closer to the consumer and may be seeing the real effect of uncertainty on planning and budgets much earlier. Vendors may be due a wake-up call,” he said.

The Computing/Cobalt Barometer also asked respondents to identify their priorities for different technologies. In every category except one, vendors are expecting key technologies to be implemented sooner than IT managers are planning to do so.

The biggest disparities came in cloud computing, software-as-a-service and social networking, where suppliers anticipate much more rapid uptake than their customers.

The only area where IT managers are more enthusiastic than vendors was in green IT ­ perhaps surprising given the amount of “greenwash” generated by supplier marketing in the past two years.

But Cobalt’s Williams said that sometimes vendors can get things right before their customers catch up. “Trying to understand who has the more accurate interpretation is mired in uncertainty. Sometimes the buyers call it right and vendors are simply too optimistic, and sometimes the reverse is true, the buyers just don’t get it yet,” he said.

Both survey groups are expecting small increases in research and development, IT and training.

“Vendors and buyers have a similar view to their prospective expenditure, suggesting that both have factored in the recession,” said Williams. “Encouragingly, overall cutbacks are not expected to be severe.”

Technology Radar of IT priorities:

Barometer responses on employment and salaries:

Barometer responses on investment areas:

The Computing/Cobalt Technology Barometer -­ how you can take part

Computing’s reader research panel is composed of 4,500 UK IT managers. We surveyed the panel in December 2008 and received 200 completed responses. Cobalt surveyed its separate panel of 80 board-level executives in technology vendors. See www.computing.co.uk for the full results.

Everyone contributing to Computing’s reader panel has an opportunity to win great prizes. If you would like to take part in future barometers and research studies, visit: www.incisiveopinion.com/it.

Julie188 writes "Microsoft blogger Mitchell Ashley, who has been using Windows 7 full-time, predicts that Windows 7 will fail to lure XP users away from their beloved, aging operating system — after all, Windows 7 is little more than what Vista should have been, when it shipped two years ago. But eventually old PCs must be replaced and then we'll see corporations, desperate to get out of the expense of managing Windows machines, get wise. Instead of buying new Windows 7 PCs, they could deliver virtualized XP desktops to a worker's own PC and/or mobile device. Ashley believes that Citrix's Project Independence has the right idea."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Round up the dweebiest suspects

Security experts reckon a new low-threat worm that displays the image of President Obama on infected desktops is the work of technically-knowledgeable pranksters.…

An anonymous reader writes "A hybrid fission-fusion process has been developed that can be used in some traditional fission reactors to process radioactive waste and reduce the amount of waste produced by 99%. This process uses magnetic bottle techniques developed from fusion research. This seems like the first viable solution to the radioactive waste problem of traditional nuclear reactors. This could be a big breakthrough in the search for environmentally friendly energy sources. Lots of work remains to take the concept to an engineering prototype and then to a production reactor."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

How companies tackle this thing called the interweb

overThruster writes "Inventor Ted Ciamillo and marine biologist Frank Fish (yes, that's his real name) are at work on a human-powered sub designed to cross the Atlantic. What's interesting is the highly efficient propulsion system which uses a 'tail' modeled after CAT scans of a dolphin's. From the article: 'Ciamillo and Fish say they knew they were onto something when the first prototype Lunocet, a piece of sculpted foam sandwiched between two pieces of carbon fiber, essentially swam by itself. When they released it at the bottom of a test pool, its buoyancy combined with its cambered shape generated a forward thrust that made it scoot across the tank.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Boris didn't big me up - what gives?

Boris Johnson's outspoken defence of Gary McKinnon in his extradition fight has been criticised by a former security consultant, who complains he was denied such support when he himself was charged with hacking offences.…

Microsoft founder Bill Gates says it could be four years before the world's troubled economies return to economic growth.

An anonymous reader writes "Mount Redoubt, or Redoubt Volcano, is an active stratovolcano in the largely volcanic Aleutian Range of Alaska. The once quiet volcano has begun to roar once again. It's last eruption was in 1989 and geologists suggest that the next one is upon us. Alaskans who lived through the earlier eruption are stocking up on breathing masks and goggles. Starting on Friday, January 23 2009, the level of seismic activity increased markedly, and on Sunday AVO raised the Aviation Color Code to ORANGE and the Volcano Alert Level to WATCH. On the basis of all available monitoring data AVO regards that an eruption similar to or smaller than the one that occurred in 1989-90 is the most probable outcome. We expect such an eruption to occur within days to weeks." From the AP article: "Alaska's volcanoes are not like Hawaii's. 'Most of them don't put out the red river of lava,' said the observatory's John Power. Instead, they typically explode and shoot ash 30,000 to 50,000 feet high — more than nine miles — into the jet stream. 'It's a very abrasive kind of rock fragment,' Power said. The particulate has jagged edges and has been used as an industrial abrasive. 'They use this to polish all kinds of metals,' he said." The server for the Alaska Volcano Observatory appears to be overloaded and is unresponsive.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech Ticker writes "The Indian Government last year announced the development of a cheap $10 laptop, but was later rectified as $100 laptop. Now the government has announced that HRD minister Arjun Singh will unveil the prototype of a Rs. 500 ($10) computer. The computer is developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai. No specifications were revealed but DNA, a daily newspaper, has mentioned that it will be small and portable, will feature Wi-Fi, LAN, and expandable memory, and will operate on 2 watts of power."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Twenty UK companies sign a pledge to do more to safeguard the personal data they hold about customers and citizens.

Showing our vulnerability side

From time to time we ask our analyst friends at Freeform Dynamics to compose a primer on a tech topic du jour. Today, we focus on vulnerability management, a crucial component in every IT security strategy.…

'I'm a capital 'D' Dumbass', admits fleeced victim of Lads from Lagos

A Houston lawyer is suing Citibank after being taken for $182,500 by email scammers claiming to be a debt-chasing Japanese company, Texas Lawyer reports.…

Bryan Glick, Computing, Friday 30 January 2009 at 11:22:00

Critics say people will be disappointed

The government's much-anticipated Digital Britain report has received a lukewarm response, with critics saying it promises much but delivers little.

The draft document, unveiled yesterday, presents a 22-point action plan outlining the government's plans for the UK's digital transformation, which will include the upgrading and modernising of all wired, wireless and broadband infrastructure and making broadband available to every house in Britain by 2012.

But Tory shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said that most people will be disappointed with the report.

"The digital economy is vital for Britain because of our natural strengths in creating digital content. But when it comes to delivery of that content we are lagging badly. This was the chance to put things right," he said.

"This government, which has been the best customer for the management consultancy industry in the history of Britain, has promised us no new action, but a total of eight new reports.

"The most critical question of all is how to stimulate investment in a next-generation broadband network. This is dealt with under Action 1. What is Action 1? 'To establish a government-led strategy group.' There are no concrete pledges, only eight new reviews."

Liberal Democrat spokesman Don Foster also said that the report made "very disappointing reading".

"Why have we got such low ambitions, such a low target?" he asked, adding that investing in high-speed broadband could create 600,000 new jobs in the UK but that the government had only made a "vague commitment" on the issue.

Business leaders at the CBI welcomed the report, but were less than enthusiastic. "Business wants to see a clear vision of how to move to a fully functioning knowledge economy," said CBI deputy director-general John Cridland.

"Extended access to broadband for businesses and households has to be the right way forward, but there must be a dialogue between business and government about how this can be funded.

"The government must also put in place the right conditions for essential investment in next-generation broadband."

tsamsoniw writes "Singapore-based Atlantis Resources Corporation, which brings to the table tidal-turbine technology, is partnering with Scotland-based datacenter developer Internet Villages International) to construct a tidal-powered 150MW 'Blue Datacenter,' InfoWorld reports. If all goes to plan, the facility will eventually be powered entirely by clean energy produced by tidal-current turbines in the Pentland Firth, the stretch of water between the far north Scottish mainland and Orkney. The firth's currents could generate 700 megawatts of electricity by 2020." And reader Mike writes "Here's something to raise a glass to: recently the Rothes consortium of whiskey and scotch distillers announced that they have partnered with Helius Energy to install a power plant fueled entirely by whiskey by-products. The completed plant will use biomass cogeneration to convert draff and pot ale from the distillery into 7.2 MW of electricity — enough to power 9,000 homes."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Angelica Mari, Computing, Thursday 29 January 2009 at 14:10:00

System expected to support improvement in quality of business data

Supermarket chain Morrisons is to implement a voice-based system to improve the efficiency of stock picking at its warehouses.

Morrisons invested over £6m in the new platform, which will replace a paper-based system and is intended to enhance the quality of business data and reporting capabilities for its Oracle warehouse management system.

Under the platform, operators receive computer-generated voice instructions and can track and trace products from the picking point to the delivery destination.

The system and belt-mounted computers to be used by pickers will be provided by Zetes. The roll-out will be conducted in phases starting this month and is set to complete by 2010.

Morrisons awarded the contract following a successful three-month pilot. The trial is claimed to have provided benefits such as improved picking accuracy, better operational efficiency in areas such as task allocation, and the ability to support multilingual pickers.

Stevie Wonder's plea on gadgets