19
May
2009
|
19:55 PM
America/Los_Angeles

Newswatch: Hard to Imagine "Turning it Off" -SiliconValley.com

Wednesday 8am Silicon Valley news report:

Is there any ‘turning it off’? -SiliconValley.com


Ironic that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, exhorted University of Pennsylvania graduates in a commencement speech yesterday to turn off their computers and phones to “discover all that is human around us.” Google has many of us so deeply invested into its offerings that some of us are practically paralyzed when we can’t access its services for a few hours.


Microsoft’s Linux Rivals Try to Head Off Acrimony -WSJ


Some backers of Linux and other forms of open-source software–which allows multiple contributors to modify and enhance software–think it’s likely that some of the developments in Android could find their way into Moblin for netbooks. If Ubuntu also agrees to cooperate, what could be three variants of Linux for netbooks could become one.


War against the 10 blue links at Yahoo -SFGate


Yahoo is hoping that expanding the shortcuts is the key to bolster its distant second place status in search to industry leader Google. Whether Yahoo's efforts will succeed any more than past initiatives remains an open question.


Cassidy: Democracy 2.0 -MercuryNews


"We have this open system," Cranston says, "so you can see the information that I think people find the most valuable: Who do I trust? And what do they recommend?"
Political debate today has been reduced to knee-jerk partisanship and is often manipulated by "special interests, money, nuts and criminals," Cranston says.


Dell aims bright new netbook at younger students -AP


The extent to which laptops improve academic performance remains debatable, but Dell Chief Executive Michael Dell, perhaps not surprisingly, argues that computers in classrooms are a key ingredient to better schooling.


What is Web 3.0? -sys-con


These gradual, almost superficial changes, have done little to change what the Internet actually does from a technological perspective, but have greatly altered our perception of the "Internet experience".


Microsoft confirms server vulnerability warning -ZDNet


Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a possible vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS). An elevation of privilege vulnerability exists in the way that the WebDAV extension for IIS handles HTTP requests.


H.P.’s Profit Falls 17% -NYTimes


“I just think we are going to need another quarter of data to really make a meaningful statement about any upturn or anything like that,” Mr. Hurd said in a conference call with analysts to discuss the second-quarter results. “Our guidance is meant to be a sort of ‘steady as she goes.’ ”


Stanford iTunes U class at 1 million downloads -SFGate


The appeal of the class illustrates the allure the iPhone has had on not just consumers but legions of developers and budding coders. Brent Izutsu, manager of Stanford on iTunes U, said the university has offered about 100 courses on iTunes U but none has come close to the iPhone course.





SanDisk CEO upbeat on 2009 -Reuters


SanDisk Corp Chief Executive Eli Harari said 2009 could turn out to be "significantly better" than anticipated at the start of the year as big cutbacks in flash memory production bring balance back to an industry stung by oversupply.


Google Threatened With Sanctions Over Photo Mapping Service in Germany -NYTimes


The data protection administrators of 16 German states, led by Hamburg and the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, have objected to Google’s plans for its Street View service. In Kiel, a city on the Baltic Sea, residents last year put stickers on their front doors warning Google not to film their property for the service.


LSI Sees Money in the Storage Shadowlands -NYTimes


Networking companies need to place more storage directly in their systems in order to make sure that bulky video and audio files reach people more quickly. In addition, it makes sense to scatter data around different parts of a country as consumers use location-based functions that require quick responses.