Tech News:
Tech politics: Friends up on Capitol Hill
from cnnMoney.com
Amid all the post-election noise, Democrats haven't been subtle about their top priorities once they take control of Congress: boost minimum wage, reform Medicare, rescind the 2001 tax cuts, and clean up "the swamp" of Washington lobbying.
With such a teeming legislative plate, the tech industry might be feeling like table scraps right about now. It shouldn't. The 110th Congress could be the most technology-friendly in history.
Here's why: Yes, Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive new Speaker of the House, hails from one of the most liberal parts of the country, San Francisco. But she also represents a city that's near the heart of America's tech sector.
A year ago this month, after extensive meetings with VCs and entrepreneurs, Pelosi unveiled an "innovation agenda" that called, among other things, for broadband access for all Americans, whether it comes via Wi-Fi, Wi-Max or a fixed line by 2010.>>>more
Intel leapfrogs AMD with quad core x86 processors
from techweb.com/eetimes.com
ntel Corp. officially rolls out its first two quad-core CPUs Monday (Nov. 13), claiming it has retaken the lead from archrival Advanced Micro Devices in the multi-core CPU wars. Intel's Xeon 5300 series for servers and the Core 2 Extreme Quad for desktops use two dual-core Core 2 processors in multi-chip packages.
"We will ship one million quad-core processors before our competitor ships its first one," said Stephen Smith, a director in Intel's desktop group.
AMD has said it will ship its first quad-core CPUs around the middle of 2007. However, those chips will integrate four processor cores and four memory controllers on a single die, likely sporting greater performance than the Intel parts.
The Intel launch comes the same day the latest rankings of the world's top>>>more
With IE 7, green means go for legit sites
from cnet.com
Starting early next year, the address bar in Internet Explorer 7 will turn green when surfing to a legitimate Web site--but only in some cases, not all.
The colored address bar is designed to be a sign that a specific site can be trusted, giving people the green light to carry out transactions there. It is a weapon in the fight against phishing scams, which use fraudulent Web sites
The idea is among the draft guidelines created by the CA Browser Forum, an organization comprised of companies that issue certificates for Web sites and major browser makers. Last week, Microsoft decided to adopt that draft version for IE 7, released last month. It plans to add the functionality in January.>>>more
A Sneak Peek at a Fractured Web
story from wired.com
Internet censorship is spreading and becoming more sophisticated across the planet, even as users develop savvier ways around it, according to early results in the first-ever comprehensive global survey of internet censorship.
The internet watchdog organization OpenNet Initiative is compiling a year's worth of data gathered by nearly 50 cyberlaw, free-speech and network experts across as many countries, whose governments are known internet filterers.
The study systematically tested if, when, how and by whom thousands of controversial websites are blocked in each nation.
Last week, ONI researchers gathered at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School to begin hashing through their as-yet unpublished -- and in many cases, still incomplete -- findings. Wired News sat down with five members of the ONI team to>>>more
Sun making Java open-source software
from msnbc.com|tech
Computer server and software maker Sun Microsystems Inc. said Monday that it had begun to make its Java technology an open-source software project available for free on the Internet.
The announcement represents one of the largest additions of computer code to the open-source community — and it marks a major shift for a company that had once fiercely protected the source code used in 3.8 billion cell phones, supercomputers, medical devices and other gadgets.
Santa Clara-based Sun said it is making nearly all of Java's source code — excluding small pockets of code that aren't owned by Sun — available under the GNU General Public License. The same type of license>>>more
Calling Out Microsoft
column from washingpost.com
A few months ago, you could have been forgiven for wondering about what the folks in Redmond, Wash., were doing. It's been almost five years since the last new consumer release of Windows, nearly three years since the last update to Microsoft Office and more than five years since the last new version of Internet Explorer. Only Windows Media Player had seen any meaningful updates since the arrival of Windows XP -- and WMP 10 was shipped back in 2004.
Now, that's all changing. During the past few months, long beta-test programs have ended for Internet Explorer 7, the Windows Defender spyware remover and, as of two weeks ago, Windows Media Player 11.>>>more
For Ted Leonsis, a Quest to Find Himself Faster Online
from washingtonpost.com|technology
For a man who's often in the public eye, Ted Leonsis didn't like what he saw when he Googled himself last year.
Leonsis -- vice chairman of AOL, majority owner of the Washington Capitals hockey team and the Mystics of women's basketball, and minority owner of the NBA's Wizards -- was disappointed to see that whenever he typed his name in Google's search box, the results were a hodgepodge of news stories.
That didn't work for him. He wanted to figure out a way to manipulate Google's complicated search engine to put the information he wanted people to see at the top of his results.>>>more
Other National News:
Democrats Push for Troop Cuts Within Months
story from nytimes.com
Democratic leaders in the Senate vowed on Sunday to use their new Congressional majority to press for troop reductions in Iraq within a matter of months, stepping up pressure on the administration just as President Bush is to be interviewed by a bipartisan panel examining future strategy for the war.
The Democrats — the incoming majority leader, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada; the incoming Armed Services Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan; and the incoming Foreign Relations Committee chairman, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware — said a phased redeployment of troops would be their top priority when the new Congress>>>more
Pelosi Endorses Murtha as Next Majority Leader
story from washingtonpost.com
House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) endorsed Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) yesterday as the next House majority leader, thereby stepping into a contentious intraparty fight between Murtha and her current deputy, Maryland's Steny H. Hoyer.
The unexpected move signaled the sizable value Pelosi gives to personal loyalty and personality preferences. Hoyer competed with her in 2001 for the post of House minority whip, while Murtha managed her winning campaign. Pelosi has also all but decided she will not name the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) to chair that panel next year, a decision pregnant with personal animus.>>>more
No comments:
Post a Comment