Broadband Internet connectivity is so common these days that almost no one has a second thought about connecting to the Internet. Connecting is easy, but what if you need to control or restrict the ways in which the Internet connection is to be used? Sure enough, widespread availability of unlimited, unmetered Internet connections has its pros. But what about the contras?

Everybody is talking about nowadays how fast their connection is. Fast and unlimited maybe fine for the most home users, but this is not necessarily the same for work or study environments, public places, or specific age groups. The Internet contains enough threats such as spyware and viruses to make you wish to restrict access to certain resources. A virus can corrupt or destroy information on your PC, causing you spending days to recover data. Spyware steals your personal information and slows down your computer’s performance, making it a pain to work on. While it is usually possible to fix a PC contaminated with spyware and viruses, it is much safer and easier to prevent the infection in the first place – by restricting the browsing to the list of known, safe Web sites.

Restrict Internet browsing in Internet Explorer to the defined list of safe Web sites with Ashkon Software WebAllow http://www.weballow.com! WebAllow prevents electronic infections by block access to all but selected preapproved Web sites in Internet Explorer, effectively protecting your computer from spyware and viruses. If a user on your computer tries to access a website that is not on the list of allowed sites, she is redirected to a Web page of your choice to inform her about your access restriction policy.

While viruses and spyware sound familiar enough, Internet threats are not limited to those. The Internet offers a great variety of resources that are not always appropriate for your audience. Online computer games may be fine for the kids, but they can occupy the employees’ attention in an office. Online chats, forums and blogs are popular among students and office employees, occupying their time and taking away from their study or work – wasting valuable time. Finally, while certain Web sites may be appropriate for adults, these same sites are not likely to make you smile when accessed by your children due to coarse language or adult content.

Use WebAllow at home to block all but kid-safe Web sites on your home PC. Use it in the office to prevent your employees wasting their time playing computer games, chatting on the forums or reading breakdown news. Use the same product in the school, college or university to concentrate students’ attention on their study by only allowing access to their online class materials. Install WebAllow in a store or in a library and allow your customers to access your book or product catalog and nothing else. Do not let your computer users misuse Internet connection with WebAllow!

When installed, WebAllow is easy to configure by the administrator, and impossible to disable or uninstall by the regular users. It embeds into Internet Explorer and makes it impossible to visit Web sites other than defined. WebAllow is light on memory and disk space, and is perfect to be used on any computer type from powerful workstations to public computers with small memory and hard drives.

Once configured, WebAllow requires absolutely zero administration and runs completely unattended. WebAllow will improve your personal privacy and computer security, protect your kids, increase employee performance and motivate students. Download evaluation copy for free at http://www.weballow.com/

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Michael is a freelance writer and a part time stock trader. He occasionally writes articles about software and internet technologies for Ashkon Software LLC

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

I visited the ruins of a Roman settlement, the other day that was set in a lovely valley in the middle of an island.

The setting was idyllic, sheltered from the winds and not too far from the main market town, it seemed an ideal spot to farm and bring up a family.

Its history was thoughtfully provided on signs around the ruins of a substantial dwelling, which had been expanded in Roman times to include a hot and cold bathroom and mosaic floors. All of this was very attractive and a considerable investment for the landowner. But the settlement was abandoned, and it occurred to me that there had to be a good reason since it was clear that someone had put a lot of effort and finance into their dream.

I wondered if Vikings, who were known to be active in this area after the Romans left, had attacked it but there were no signs of charred brick work or the aftermath of battle.

Looking around another sign revealed the problem. There had been more than one attempt to settle the area, but the land formed a natural point of drainage for the hills around, and successive buildings had each eventually succumbed to subsidence.

I was left in no doubt that the buildings were of a good quality and that the builders were competent at construction, but clearly it had taken a few generations to work out that this was not a suitable site for construction. If we really wanted to settle this place now we would drive piles deep into the ground to overcome the subsidence.

The point that this drove into my mind was that of developing software. It is all too often the case that Software development organizations and their customers make the same mistakes over again. If the foundations are shaky then there is no point in building, but with a little forethought someone will could solve the problem and provide a safe way of delivering a good foundation.

The biggest mistake that organizations make is to rush to cut code before they understand the problem they are solving. That doesn’t mean you have to be complacent and that sitting around in a few meetings will solve all your problems.

What should be done is: -

Ring fence what you know.
Ring fence what you don’t know.
Make sure you are developing the right product.
Build the software that you know will not change.
Check that what you are building is what is wanted.

Often the customer just doesn’t know exactly what they want, so you need to involve them in the development process. The earlier they get to know the product then the more likely they are to buy into the solution. Having said all of that..

Code should be built where it enhances the understanding of the problem both to the customer and the developer.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

For the last 20 years Rob Wendes has been helping Business owners and professionals to improve their software development. www.robsabloggin.com

Office Communication Server 2007 is now endorsing people to communicate very rapidly with different persons from various areas, utilizing a range of sundry options for communications, such as voice, video and IM (instant messaging). Office Communication Server 2007 will buttress you to chat with others in real time and apart from this, the OCS 2007 will enable you to communicate directly through other programs you usually resort to and that seem to be more convenient for you to use.

Therefore, via the OCS 2007, you can now reach to different people both from the inside and outside of your company, utilize different ways of communication, ferret out people, ascertain whether their availability is what is stated, and of course create a connection with them afterwards, using a suitable connection for you.

Office Communication Server 2007 is considered to be an improved version of Microsoft Live Communication Server 2005. The new features of the OCS 2007 encompass a number of developments to Instant Messaging capacity. If you presently own a Live Communications Server 2005, you can very easily upgrade to the OCS 2007. All you are required to have is Office Communication Server 2007 infrastructure, that is supposed to be in parallel with the 2005 server and then you are allowed to migrate across the 2007 infrastructure. Aside from this, Office communication server 2007 does not necessarily need Exchange Server in order to function.

In order to run the Office Communication Server 2007 you will only need one server, provided your deployments are quite small. However, if the geographical distribution is vast and if you are requester as well a fault tolerance, you will need more servers. Overall, the most important difference between OCS 2007 and Live Communication server 2005 is focused on the chore of the most companies: communication. A major advantage of the OCS 2007 is that with the help of it the most important companies can now trim down all that is requested in the IT infrastructure.

Nowadays, people are more acquainted and resort to the following ways in order to communicate: e-mail, conference, IM, video etc. the question imposed at this point is why so many products should be used for sundry manufactures. Wouldn’t it be more effective if you could encompass all these facilities for a single client? Thus, one of the goals of Office Communication Server 2007 is to attain this significant idea.

The OCS 2007 also highlights presence, a benefit of all the united communications via Microsoft. With the help of presence you can instantly spot if a certain person is available and of course you can start to communicate whenever you want in a direct way. Office Communication Server 2007 is one of the most important advents nowadays and therefore more and more individuals and organizations resort to OCS 2007 in order to chat or simply for business reasons.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Be in touch with everything that is happening on the globe with the help of OCS 2007 do not loose the opportunity to bring thrive to your business by using and inquiring other users about different problems via Office Communication Server 2007.

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

In this internet driven world, more and more people are shifting from traditional form of development to techno savvy development. The modern day IT companies have understood the benefits of advance technology. And the companies have used it to good effect and the end result is that IT companies are booming. Today, Indian IT companies have earned name across the globe because of its quality software products.

Big Companies based in different parts of the world are outsourcing their work to India because of the presence of huge pool of talented professionals and also it allows them to save around 40% of money. Besides this, outsourcing allows them to concentrate on their core activities. Techno-savvy companies like Vsworx have gained hugely from outsourcing. Outsourcing to a company like Vsworx is always beneficial. Vsworx being a new generation medium-sized offshore software development company understands the business of clients very well and has developed a unique offshore model that effectively produces quality software products at cost-effective pricing within the stipulated period of time. Our technical team has the requisite proficiency in developing customized software products and assist clients through out the entire software development lifecycle, including project analysis and design, product development, implementation and training. We serve you in a manner as to give you the convenience of in-house development and also the luxury of hassle-free development of software products. All our services are truly global.

Benefits of outsourcing to Vsworx are as follows:

● Product-savvy and domain-savvy talent
● A sizeable pool of high-end architectural, design and testing skills
● Flexible and dynamic development environment
● Feeling of in-house development
● Sound quality

Vsworx as a growing organization believes in quality, aesthetics, functionality and implementation so that our clients’ business benefit immensely. Our advantage lies in the fact that we have 500 person years of experience and also an unshakable customer focus. This unique synergy allows us to deliver solutions that not only solve the most challenging of business issues, but deploy them faster and more cost-effectively. Fueled by the benefits of Internet, we have made our mark in software development and deployment across the globe. At Vsworx, we know that each company’s business needs are slightly different from others. To meet these requirements, we develop and integrate wide range of customized business solutions for our clients worldwide.

To end with it can be said that software development companies in India have made great impressions in the global market and because of the performance of IT companies, India’s economic growth is surging a head.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Michael Lucas is the pioneer author and like to share his experience and ideas with others.If you want any information about software development take the help of software development india.

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

We live in an era where almost everything is based on the proper functioning of computer software. Having reliable software is crucial to the fluent functioning of any company, no matter the size. In order to make sure you won’t have any trouble with your computer software, you should turn to custom software development to meet your specific needs. High quality custom software development should focus on the client’s requirements and rely on a solid set of work principles. At Cirrus Software you will have the opportunity to receive the best in UK custom software development.

There are many companies out there which offer custom software development services. They all promise high quality services. The problem is finding one that really treats all of its clients with great professionalism and delivers the projects in a timely fashion. A recent survey reveals that over 80% of all software development projects are unsuccessful. This harsh statistic is a consequence of the lack of professionalism of the software development providers. Most projects fail because they are over budget, late or missing functions. On many occasions, all three problems occur within the same project, making it impossible to be successful. When looking for high quality UK custom software development services make sure the provider has a solid working plan and includes your feedback in every decision making step.

There are quite a few problems which can influence the outcome of a software development project. Scope creep is a widespread issue among many software development projects. Scope creep occurs when the parameters of the project are modified during the evolution phases of the project, leading to an increase in the time or money required for completion. On many occasions a project fails because of complete lack of proper project management. If you are looking for UK custom software development made by a team of professionals, with solid principles, Cirrus Software is your best option.

In order for a software development project to be successful there are a few basic steps the developer has to follow. First of all, every project should begin with the creation of a clear vision of the scope document. The scope contains the objectives of the project and also includes an outline of the work that needs to be done. A well-defined scope, developed according to the client’s requests, is the key to a successful project. Secondly, executive support is very important as it can help establish it as a corporate priority. Prioritizing the software requirements is another crucial step because it ensures the existence of a well-defined project. Next, a successful project should be broken down into specific phases so that the work is well organized. The development of a good visual prototype is also important; it helps the client get a better feel of the result you are going for and allows him to offer the appropriate feedback with the work done so far. Some other important steps to take when making sure a software development project is successful are using rapid application development, collaborating with all stakeholders, providing good leadership and a secure testing environment. If all of these steps are taken into consideration, your custom software development should be a complete success.

Nowadays, finding a software development provider is not a difficult task at all. There are many companies out there eager to help you develop the software you need. However, the companies that really offer quality services and especially reliable custom software development are very rare. The vast majority of service providers doesn’t have a well-structured development plan and thus end up failing. Cirrus Software is committed to offering the best in UK custom software development.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

If you’re looking for high quality custom software development you should know that a reliable provider is the one which has a well-established development plan. Get more information about the best in UK custom software development by visiting our website.

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

Business environment in 21st century has become intensly competitive and complex. This has forced companies to outsource their many business processes and concentrate on core competency. However, there are certain activities that companies want to keep with themselves as it is considered to be integral part of the company’s existence. Employees are one such part of organization and their welfare and growth is crtical from business continuity perspective.

Keeping in mind the complexity of tax calculation, various regulatory formalities and salary component variation, many companies are looking for a one-stop solution that can take care all of it. Intellinet system has developed a payroll software solution – IntelliPay that is suitable for all your salary processing needs.

Payroll software solution is a state of art graphical user interface based Payroll management Systems Software designed to take over the pressure monthly payroll processing away from your personnel/finance department there by assuring that people concentrate on more important work i.e. business of your organization.

The complete payroll software solution make this complicated function look much easier. The software is user-friendly, with user-definable preferences like Salary Heads and Salary structures, huge library of periodical statutory reports required under PF & ESI, TDS Law, Advance Register, Leave Register, flexible reporting and many more.

The term ‘payroll’ encompasses every employee of a company who receives a regular wage or other compensation. Some employees may be paid a steady salary while others are paid for hours worked or the number of items produced. All of these different payment methods are calculated by a payroll specialist and the appropriate paychecks are issued. Companies often use objective measuring tools such as timecards or timesheets completed by supervisors to determine the total amount of payroll due each pay period.

Business payroll software can be used to standardize the way a company handles the calculation and processing of its payroll. Business payroll software can be used not only to calculate money due to employees, but also to provide for the easy keeping of accurate records. Essentially, business payroll software can help to streamline the entire process, making the task of processing payroll less time-consuming and cumbersome. visit for more information about Payroll Software Solution

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

Michale Jordon is the expert of www.intellinetsystem.com “> Payroll Software Solution

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

I visited the ruins of a Roman settlement, the other day that was set in a lovely valley in the middle of an island.

The setting was idyllic, sheltered from the winds and not too far from the main market town, it seemed an ideal spot to farm and bring up a family.

Its history was thoughtfully provided on signs around the ruins of a substantial dwelling, which had been expanded in Roman times to include a hot and cold bathroom and mosaic floors. All of this was very attractive and a considerable investment for the landowner. But the settlement was abandoned, and it occurred to me that there had to be a good reason since it was clear that someone had put a lot of effort and finance into their dream.

I wondered if Vikings, who were known to be active in this area after the Romans left, had attacked it but there were no signs of charred brick work or the aftermath of battle.

Looking around another sign revealed the problem. There had been more than one attempt to settle the area, but the land formed a natural point of drainage for the hills around, and successive buildings had each eventually succumbed to subsidence.

I was left in no doubt that the buildings were of a good quality and that the builders were competent at construction, but clearly it had taken a few generations to work out that this was not a suitable site for construction. If we really wanted to settle this place now we would drive piles deep into the ground to overcome the subsidence.

The point that this drove into my mind was that of developing software. It is all too often the case that Software development organizations and their customers make the same mistakes over again. If the foundations are shaky then there is no point in building, but with a little forethought someone will could solve the problem and provide a safe way of delivering a good foundation.

The biggest mistake that organizations make is to rush to cut code before they understand the problem they are solving. That doesn’t mean you have to be complacent and that sitting around in a few meetings will solve all your problems.

What should be done is: -

Ring fence what you know.
Ring fence what you don’t know.
Make sure you are developing the right product.
Build the software that you know will not change.
Check that what you are building is what is wanted.

Often the customer just doesn’t know exactly what they want, so you need to involve them in the development process. The earlier they get to know the product then the more likely they are to buy into the solution. Having said all of that..

Code should be built where it enhances the understanding of the problem both to the customer and the developer.

Article Source: http://www.christiannotepad.com

For the last 20 years Rob Wendes has been helping Business owners and professionals to improve their software development. www.robsabloggin.com

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

By: James Hunt

Software development and software engineering go hand in hand when it comes to the implementation of software. Software development deals more with the creation of the software and when this is complete, software engineering takes over with the creation of software systems. Both of these disciplines are at times interchangeable and without much difference to the layman. If you just want to have one specific piece of software designed, such as database software that will keep track of your bird watching hobby, then you’ll just need software development. If, however, you want your bird watching database to be able to support multiple functions, such as delivering a report with statistics and results, then you’ll more likely need the expertise of software engineering.

Software engineers will implement and design software applications through the use of many mediums. These software applications will then be used for a variety of purposes that include business practices to entertainment purposes. It is these software applications that allow users to make their time on the computer as functional and productive as possible. Types of software applications include language applications, office applications, entertainment packages, and applications for education.

The cost of hiring a software developer will be significantly less than hiring a software engineer. Before you make your final decision about what you want the software to do you need to plan you budget, your timeline, and determine what you want the end result to be. The industry of software development continues to grow each year as more and more businesses are having their own software developed for them that is specific to what they do and what they want the software to do. Most companies will already be using some type of software application, such as Office Suite, and most likely won’t need another application developed for them. For most intents and purposes you’ll be fine hiring a software developer for you and your business needs.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest. Read more at www.software-development-center.com

Keywords: software development, software engineering, applications, software design

Software Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

For more info please visit us at – Software development services

By: James Hunt

There are many different types of business software that you can purchase for your business or home office. No matter what office task that you’re trying to accomplish, there is a piece of software out there for you to make your job faster and easier.

Some typical pieces of business software include accounting software, billing software, timesheet software, and order-entry software. Business software can be sold separately or it often comes bundled in a software package. Most business will want to have some type of accounting software in the office. Excel spreadsheets are a great way to keep track of things but sometimes more functionality is needed, such as that found in a comprehensive accounting program.

If you don’t want to pay the big dollars for a large accounting program, but still want to keep detailed information about your business, you may want to consider buying bookkeeping business software, which is less expensive but will still get the job done.

With all the business software available to you it’s easy to get confused about what you want, what you need, and how to tie it all together. Contact a software dealer in the area where you live and ask for some advice. Or talk to someone who works in an office and uses business software. Sometimes word of mouth is the best way to determine what software actually does what it says it’s going to do.

Keep in mind that there will be a learning curve when it comes to using any new software. You’ll need to learn what the software can do and how to implement it with your own personal preferences. If you’re unsure of how to use software of any kind you may want to think about taking a computer software refresher course at a college or online.

The business software that you decide to purchase may also come with a built in tutorial so that you get some hands on practice before starting to use the software.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest. Read more at www.best-in-business-software.com

Keywords: business solutions, software, small business, home business

Software Article Source: http://www.eArticlesOnline.com

For more info please visit us at – Offshore Software Development

Blogging is a popular online activity nowadays. People simply want to share their experiences and outlook on life with everyone on the Internet. Teenagers run blogs to express themselves through an activity that is considered cool and ‘in’ by peers. Adults blog to share sentiments or to offer advice and guidelines to online readers.

Currently, many online entrepreneurs make use of the Internet for income opportunities. Modern blogs provide earning opportunities for bloggers. Thus, it is logical and practical that almost all regular Internet users are now aiming to have and maintain their own blogs. But the problem is, not all are willing and able to learn how to start up the initiative.

To begin with the activity, experts advise first time and would be bloggers to simply use desktop publishing software installed on their personal computers. Doing so will help make the task easy and less complicated. Here are several ways on how you can come up with blogs using desktop publishing software installed on your PC.

- For starters, aim using the Word processor. If you want your blog to be purely content-focused and really juicy on information, this is the desktop publishing program for you. Use the software normally and then post as a blog once you get your domain.

- For blogs that aren’t only dependent on text, use a desktop publishing for page layout. Page layout software facilitates the integration of images and pictures with basic text content. Thus, if you want to pose more photos and other kinds of images, this desktop publishing software is advisable for you. Simply choose the templates you like, fill in content blanks and post the images and photos using the browser menu.

- To use the Web publishing software, select the chosen template or modify existing template designs using the usual commands and programs. Follow instructions on how to include and post photos, audio files and videos. You can edit your initial Web publication output afterwards. What is best about this desktop publishing software is that it automatically converts all files into PDF and HTML formats intended for Web publishing.

To make your blog worthwhile, you should also make sure that the content you will be posting is worthwhile, engaging and very informative. Desktop publishing software is there to aid you create printable outputs. Now, use them to start up your own Website or blog and see how you can make a difference.

Article Source - http://www.freearticles.com/article/Using-Desktop-Publishing-Software-For-Blogging/2870

For more info please visit us at – offshore software development

Despite a new owner and the potential for more competition in the future, MySQL and Oracle will continue to work together.

By Charles Babcock InformationWeek  March 31, 2008 10:00 AM

When MySQL AB was bought by Sun Microsystems, some knowledgeable observers said the first thing Sun would do is make MySQL free of its dependence on Oracle.

MySQL incorporated the InnoDB transaction storage system as part of its database system, then Oracle acquired its Finnish parent company, Innobase Oy, in October 2005. “Look for Sun to do more and more to make MySQL free of any third parties,” said Raven Zachary, open source analyst with the 451 Group, in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco.

But Zack Urlocker, the executive VP of products, who supervises both engineering and marketing at MySQL, says such independence is still viewed as unnecessary inside Sun. Urlocker appeared on a panel on the state of the open source database market. Seated nearby was Ken Jacobs, VP of product strategy at Oracle.

MySQL’s strength has been in its ability to serve Web pages, and many Web applications are built with MySQL as the database of choice in the background. Oracle aspires to be the database of future applications as well, including Web applications, and it’s conceivable the two eventually will come into more direct competition.

But Urlocker says that doesn’t mean MySQL can’t keep using InnoDB. “We’ve always had a very good relationship with Oracle,” he said after the panel concluded.

“It’s absolutely a fact. We’ve always had a very good relationship,” affirmed Jacobs, one of the original employees of Oracle, who helped establish Oracle with the federal government from its new Washington office in 1981.

MySQL isn’t ready to announce anything yet, but the way Urlocker and Jacobs exchanged meaningful glances, it was as if to say they’re ready to sign a multiyear continuation of their agreement.

Meanwhile, another third-party piece of software on which MySQL used to depend, the SolidDB for MySQL that was under the sponsorship of IBM, has been pushed off to SourceForge. Dhiren Patel, IBM’s community relations manager for the overall SolidDB project, announced that IBM had acquired SolidDB in December for its in-memory database, technology that will help it compete with Oracle TimesTen.

“This in-memory technology, and not Solid’s open source offering, was the key driver behind IBM’s acquisition. As a result, I regret to inform you that, effectively immediately, we will not be continuing further development on SolidDB for MySQL,” he wrote March 3, six days after Sun completed the MySQL deal.

The open source community around SolidDB for MySQL will be free to continue work on the project, and the developer forums and bug tracking have been migrated to SourceForge as well, Patel noted.

Urlocker said both Jacobs and Charles Phillips, Oracle’s president, have assured him of continued, unfettered access to InnoDB. MySQL, initially developed as a read-only database, gets its key transaction handling characteristics from InnoDB and SolidDB for MySQL.

Article source - http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000559

For more info please visit us at - Oracle Database Application Development & Software development

Users gain ability to strictly monitor who can access content they store on the social network

By Heather Havenstein

March 19, 2008 (Computerworld) After enduring withering criticism late last year for the lack of adequate privacy controls in its Beacon advertising system, Facebook Inc. today garnered positive reviews for new controls that let users more strictly monitor who can access the content they create on the site.

The privacy controls launched Wednesday let users limit access to information like photo albums or contact information to specific Facebook friends or friends lists, the company said. Facebook had rolled out the friends list feature in December as a way to help users communicate with groups of friends on the network.

Nick O’Neill, a blogger on All Facebook, noted that the new features

provide users with more granular privacy by specifying various settings for each friend list. “This means that, in theory, all of my professional contacts will no longer be able to access my photos, and I can start posting those photos of my crazy times in college,” he added.

“These new settings have theoretically transformed Facebook, making it possible to manage all of my contacts from one site,” O’Neill wrote.

The All Facebook blogger also noted that the social networking firm today also launched a new option that allows users to opt-out of personalized SocialAds that integrate into photos a notice telling his or her friends about recent purchases made at various online retailers.

“If you hadn’t noticed already, once in a while your friends’ photos have been showing up on ads promoting applications and fan pages,” O’Neill said. “Many were turned off by those ads complaining that making money off of our profiles is crossing the line. This is a significant step by Facebook, highlighting that Facebook has granted a higher priority to user privacy over monetization. This is an encouraging step and greatly welcomed, considering there wasn’t much controversy over the ads as they existed.”

Josh Catone, a blogger on ReadWriteWeb, said that when the friends list feature was rolled out in December, he called it a necessary first step in attracting the business networking crowd to Facebook. However, he also noted that the feature “had no teeth” because of a lack of privacy controls. That has changed because the new features give users the option of showing private information to only specific friends or “friends of friends,” which is similar to features in the more business-oriented LinkedIn professional networking site, Catone added.

“While going after the business networking crowd has never been an objective expressed overtly by the company, it does make sense,” he said. “As Facebook’s core early audience — college students — grows up, they’ll need a more secure environment to network with colleagues and friends. Facebook is slowly positioning itself to be a place where both casual and business networking can take place at the same time, which means that rather than maintaining two accounts — one at Facebook and one at LinkedIn or Xing — users could stay at Facebook and use the tools they grew accustomed to in college.”

Not all industry observers were pleased with the changes. Jeffrey Chester, founder and executive director at the Center for Digital Democracy — one of the strongest critics of Beacon’s initial lack of privacy controls — noted that Facebook still has to ensure that its members are candidly informed about any personal data shared with advertisers and marketers.

“Its incremental improvements — all due to the increasing scrutiny in the EU and U.S. and from privacy advocates — are occurring at a snail’s pace,” he said. “Facebook’s senior managers still have not come to terms with the need for them to ensure transparency and full user control.”

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By Tim Conneally, BetaNews

March 20, 2008, 4:56 PM

Google yesterday announced the availability of a plug-in for Windows Mobile devices, which provides a shortcut on the home screen to Google’s search.

The plug-in was first made available to BlackBerry devices last December, and then to Symbian-based phones more recently. Making it available on Microsoft’s popular mobile operating system was only a logical step for Google.

The plug-in can be found at mobile.google.com, where Google offers its other mobile services. It comes as a 300KB file called “googlesearch.CAB,” which upon installation makes a Google search field appear on the home screen of the phone.

By eliminating the need to open a browser and navigate to Google, the company claims that searches have increased 20% among those with the Symbian and BlackBerry versions of the software.

Google’s dominance in mobile Web searches was the subject of debate at the Visiongain Mobile Web Search Conference in London. While some said the company is the last word in Web searches in both traditional and mobile settings, others accused Google of lacking innovation in its mobile search delivery, where more appropriate (e.g. location-based) results are required.

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Apple uses the update mechanism for Windows for distributing the latest versions of its iTunes music store and for the QuickTime video player.

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek

Apple on Thursday said it is distributing the latest version of the Safari Web browser to Windows users through Apple Software Update, a move that reflects a more aggressive attempt to grab market share fromMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Internet Explorer.

Apple uses the update mechanism for Windows for distributing the latest versions of its iTunes music store and for the QuickTime video player, which is a foundation technology for iTunes. With the release of Safari 3.1 this week, Apple also started offering Windows users the option of installing the browser upgrade. Software Update is also used to update Apple software in Mac computers.

“We are using Software Update to make it easy and convenient for both Mac and Windows users to get the latest Safari update from Apple,” company spokesman Bill Evans said in an emailed statement.

As of February, IE had 74.9% of the browser market in terms of usage, followed by Mozilla Firefox, 17.3%; and Safari, 5.7%, according to Web site analysis company Net Applications.

By shipping Safari via Software Update, Apple is taking a more aggressive approach to distributing its browser within Microsoft’s home turf. In releasing Safari 3.1, Apple claimed its browser loads Web pages 1.9 times faster than IE 7 and 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2. Such claims are not unusual among vendors comparing products to rivals’.

Among the key improvements in the latest version of Safari, which is available at no charge, is support for additional Web standards. On that front, the upgrade supports new video and audio tags in HTML 5, and animations created through the use of cascading style sheets. The browser also supports CSS Web fonts.

Microsoft this month said it would configure the default settings in the upcoming IE 8 to render content using methods that give a top priority to Web standards interoperability. In choosing to favor standards, Microsoft recognized a “concrete benefit to Web designers if all vendors give priority to interoperability around commonly accepted standards as they evolve,” Ray Ozzie, chief software architect for Microsoft, said in a statement.

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Posted by Elinor Mills

Google on Wednesday unveiled Gadgets for Spreadsheets in Google Docs, allowing people to create graphical representations of data in spreadsheets and publish them on Web sites.

For consumers, this means they have a dozen or so new ways to look at data in their spreadsheets. Google has put up a gallery of specialty gadgets to choose from. They include gadgets to display data on a pie chart, map, time chart, funnel chart, Gantt chart, pivot table, and on a heat map if it’s geographical data. You can even create interactive charts like those used by Google Finance and for motion charts.

These visuals can also be pushed out to appear on an iGoogle home page or any other site and they will be dynamically updated as changes are made to the spreadsheet.

Gadgets will soon be coming to other apps in Google Docs and eventually search, to help people find relevant content and links, says Jonathan Rochelle, senior product manager for Google Docs.

Google has also added new features that make using Spreadsheets easier. For one, there is a notification system that will e-mail you when somebody has made a change to a spreadsheet that is being collaborated on. You can set it to alert you once a day or after each new change is made. The changes are highlighted so you can easily detect what is new.

There is also a column-based auto-complete function that looks for cues from adjacent cells to try to guess what you are typing, an updated color palette and function editing capability that uses the arrow keys, as well as an auto-complete function for typing long formulas.

In addition, spreadsheet creators now have access to historical stock market data through a Google Finance function and new functions to automatically sort and filter data.

Google is doing something interesting with its Gadgets platform, making gadgets a data source for spreadsheets as well as a data distribution method for developers.

“If I’m collecting census data and putting it into a spreadsheet, I can also make that data available to statisticians,” through the Visualization API, says Rochelle. “It doesn’t have to be in a spreadsheet form” to distribute.

Spreadsheets is just the first data source that can be handled this way.

“We’re making the spreadsheet almost a platform for simple development and delivery,” he says.

With the enhancements, Google is ratcheting up the competition its free Web-hosted apps are giving Microsoft’s desktop productivity suite, which companies pay for.

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SAN FRANCISCO -(Dow Jones)- The iPhone Dev Team, a group of independent software developers, say they are close to unleashing a new product that undoes the tight control Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to have over the flow of the software to its iPhone.

The developer team is working on a feature it’s calling Pwnage, which lets iPhones download and run other software programs that haven’t gone through any official, Apple-controlled software distribution channels.

“You can do things like installing custom-made files, straight from (Apple’s) iTunes,” according to comments attributed to one of the iPhone Dev Team’s developers, who goes by the name MuscleNerd, posted on the team’s Web site, iphone-dev.org. “The tools are undergoing intensive developing and soon will be ready for public consumption.”

Pwnage is the latest example of how disruptive software developers have been to Apple’s best-laid plans for its iPhone, a key product for Apple. Once distributed, the Pwnage feature means Apple may no longer be able to count on taking a 30% share of every iPhone software program sold, as it said it would.

Meanwhile, the Pwnage software also weakens the steps Apple is taking to rein in a developer community regarding iPhone software sales, which are expected to blossom into hundreds of millions of dollars, if not $1 billion a year, in annual sales.

As outlined by Apple about 10 days ago, starting sometime in June Apple plans to begin distributing iPhone software made by outside developers. But it first will inspect iPhone software programs from third parties, then distribute them either through Apple’s iTunes Web store, or directly to the phone via an Apple- controlled “Apps Store.”

Meanwhile, Pwnage may also weigh on Apple’s plans to sell more iPhones to businesses, steps it announced two weeks ago when it said every iPhone will soon be able to access Microsoft Corp.’s (MSFT) Outlook email. But Apple also plans to make business software providers like SAP AG (SAP) or Oracle Corp. (ORCL) distribute their iPhone software through official Apple channels, a move that rankled an industry not used to having to deal with an intermediary. It remains to be seen, though, if enterprises would see the new Pwnage software as a decent workaround to the issue.

An Apple spokeswoman did not comment for this story, citing company policy not to talk about products in development at other companies. A representative for iPhone Dev Team, which rarely grants interviews, did not return several emails seeking comment.

The iPhone, a combination phone and digital media player with a touch-screen interface, was introduced last June, and has since become Apple’s fastest selling device. As of two weeks ago, Apple was the No. 2 seller of smart phones, with a 28% share, behind No. 1-ranked Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry wireless email device and cell phone.

Shortly after the iPhone was released, Apple promised to open the iPhone so developers could create and distribute software programs for the device. From the start, Apple has allowed developers to create Web-based features for the iPhone to use.

But lots of developers didn’t wait for official channels. Within a few days of the iPhone’s release, they came up with their first substantial, market-changing development: software to unlock the iPhone so it will work on any GSM-based cellphone network, rather than just AT&T Inc.’s (T), which at the time was the only iPhone service provider.

Even though Apple wiped out those programs with an iPhone software update of its own, unlocking software still exists and its sales have thrived. Nearly 25% of all the iPhones sold, according to various estimates, are now unlocked, thus depriving Apple and its carrier partners the fees they would normally have collected from phone service revenue.

The popularity of the unlocking software is also putting more pressure on Apple to do away with its strategy of picking a single carrier per country to exclusively sell the device.

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By KEVIN J. DELANEY

Google Inc. plans to announce a new service that Web publishers can use to manage their online ad sales and serve up ads each time a consumer pulls up a Web page.

The offering is an early sign of Google’s plans to broaden its ad offerings following the completion of its $3.1 billion DoubleClick Inc. acquisition this week.

The new Ad Manager service, which a limited number of Web sites are testing, will provide the ad serving free, where companies such as DoubleClick have traditionally charged Web publishers to serve up their ads. Even when they sell their own ads, publishers usually rely on such ad-serving companies to actually insert the ads in a Web page when a consumer pulls it up.

Google, Mountain View, Calif., is hoping that Ad Manager users will agree to carry some ads Google sells in ad spots on their Web sites they haven’t filled themselves. Google would take a commission on revenue from any ads it sells.

The move comes as the Internet giant looks to expand its online ad offerings beyond the small text ads that run alongside Web search results and other content, which today represent the bulk of Google’s revenue, and amid fears that a consumer slowdown could spill over into online ads.

Google says it won’t require Ad Manager users to carry the ads from Google’s AdSense system, and they can also choose to fill the spots with ads from other online ad networks in cases where they generate more money for the publisher. The Ad Manager service will handle formats including graphical display, video and text ads.

Google developed Ad Manager itself and says that it will serve Web publishers with small- to medium-size sales forces, while DoubleClick’s services are suited for higher-end ad-sales operations. Some industry executives have speculated that Google will eventually make DoubleClick’s ad-serving services free. A Google spokesman says the company has no immediate plans to make DoubleClick products free.

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Website visitors will have another way to view the videos.

By Michelle Quinn,

YouTube, not happy to be just an Internet site, is expanding to the medium it has helped undermine — the boob tube.

On Wednesday, TiVo Inc., the digital video recorder maker, announced that its customers would be able to watch YouTube videos on their TVs using one model of TiVo’s set-top box sometime this year.

Over the last year, it has been possible to watch YouTube videos on the television through other devices, such as Apple Inc.’s Apple TV.

But TiVo, which has more than 4 million subscribers, could make YouTube a television star.

YouTube has been a thorn in the side of traditional media ever since the video sharing website was created in 2005. Now owned by Google Inc., YouTube has faced criticism and legal trouble that it benefited from visitors copying TV shows and putting them on the site.

YouTube has also hastened the fracturing of how people, especially teenagers, get their entertainment, with many turning on their computers instead of TVs.

Monthly, 66 million viewers watch about 2.6 billion videos on YouTube, accounting for about 57% of the 116.7 million monthly online video audience, according to Nielsen Online.

A Harris Poll in December found that 65% of U.S. adults who were online had watched a video on YouTube, compared with 42% the previous year. Among people 18 to 24, 85% watched something on YouTube, compared with 73% the year before.

“Among all age groups, there’s interest in more video online, both professionally created and user generated,” said Jim Schaffer, vice president of client development for media and entertainment research for Harris Interactive.

“But clearly the younger age groups are clamoring for it more,” he said.

Many people already go to YouTube for the same reason they use TiVo — to be able to watch TV when they want it. But with TiVo, YouTube might finally make it on the main home screen.

“It’s possible it could bring people back,” said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew Internet & American Life Project.

“But if it’s really complicated it probably won’t change how people watch their YouTube.”

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IBM Corp. acquired Encentuate Inc. to add to its Austin software division Tivoli.

Encentuate, based in Redwood City, Calif., provides software managing identity and access to networks. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

IBM (NYSE: IBM) also announced the creation of a security software laboratory in Singapore, which will utilize Encentuate’s Singapore development team.

Encentuate manages user passwords and enforces security policies with a single sign on, eliminating the need to remember several passwords.

The company has more than 40 employees, and the staff will not relocate to Austin.

Al Zollar, general manager of IBM Tivoli software, says customers want better ways to manage identity and access to computer systems.

This is the sixth completed acquisition by IBM this year. IBM has spent more than $20 billion on more than 60 acquisitions of hardware, services and software companies. IBM Software Group has acquired 53 companies since 2000, including Encentuate.

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By David Chartier

Thanks to Parallels and VMware, Mac users have powerful virtualization tools for running operating systems in addition to the one Apple installs on the factory floor. Since Windows is one of the most popular virtualized OSes on Apple’s computers, security giant Norton felt it was time to try a new two-punch strategy on the Mac security market with Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection. Featuring both Norton AntiVirus 2008 for Windows and Norton AntiVirus 11 for Mac OS X, as well as the typical one-year subscription for virus updates, the company believes it’s the right time for some users to take another look at security on the Mac.

There are some decent reasons behind Norton’s targeting of the Mac virtualization crowd. For example, both Parallels’ and VMware’s virtualization products can enable Windows VMs to access a Home folder in Mac OS X, a directory that stores much of a user’s data like contacts, personal data, passwords (encrypted, of course), and more. While we haven’t heard any reports of a virus striking a Windows VM and taking advantage of this Mac OS X directory access, it certainly is theoretically possible. There are also products like MacDrive which can grant read/write access of an entire Mac-formatted volume to versions of Windows from 98 on. Both of these situations could bring a Mac’s OS X boot volume into the sights of a malicious application.

Beyond users of virtualization apps, however, there is a case to be made for Mac users to at least consider looking at security products. There haven’t been any wide-spread, run-for-the-hills cases of viruses or self-perpetuating trojans for Mac OS X yet, but Mac users should think about discarding the “What, me worry?” attitude towards security they have cultivated. Past events like the 9805 AutoStart worm that overwrote system data, the Word 2004 demo trojan that wiped out a user’s entire Home folder with (ironically) a legitimate Terminal command, last year’s Month of Apple Bugs, and the recent trojan disguised as a QuickTime codec download are arguably neglected reminders of the less-than-bulletproof reputation of Mac OS X.

Is this a sight Mac users need to grow accustomed to?

Of course, Mac OS X is still a fairly secure OS on the whole. While Apple has occasionally lagged when it comes to fixing vulnerabilities, it generally moves fairly swiftly with releasing small, but frequent security updates to hammer out the dings in Mac OS X’s armor. Some may continue to cling to the “security through obscurity” argument, and users who aren’t virtualizing Windows will remain immune to Windows-specific exploit. Still, times always change (as do market shares), and Norton’s new dual-platform virus protection is a sign that at least a portion of the market should think a bit more closely about security when playing on both sides of the fence.

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Users can access an English-language beta version of Microsoft Office Live Workspace from the company’s Web site at no charge.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said Tuesday it has made available for worldwide public testing a hosted version of its widely used Microsoft Office productivity software.

As part of the trial, users can access an English-language beta version of Microsoft Office Live Workspace, as the offering is called, from the company’s Web site at no charge. Microsoft for the past several months has conducted a private beta program for Office Live that’s drawn more than 100,000 participants, according to the company.

Office Live Workspace lets users store and access Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office applications on the Web through any computer with an Internet connection — even if the PC isn’t running Office on its hard drive.

That means a mobile worker could, say, create a Word document at his or her office, upload it to the service, and then access it later from virtually any PC.

Without Office Live, that same worker would have to carry the file around on a flash device or e-mail it to himself. Still, the document could only be downloaded and opened on a computer running a Word-compatible application.

Office Live could also eliminate the insecure practice — often used by executives on the go — of downloading files to a public computer. Office Live users can store more than 1,000 documents on the service and also grant access authorization to their files to business colleagues and other third parties.

Office Live Workspace is part of the software-plus