Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The World's First National Internet Election. InternetVoting writes "Expanding on the limited 2005 Internet voting pilot successes, the small European nation of Estonia will become the first country to allow voting in a national parliamentary election via the Internet. Fresh off the news of France's successful primary election using Internet voting and the announcement of 12 new UK election pilots, is Europe leaving the U.S. behind?"[Slashdot] 9:32:52 PM      Google It!.

Skype Asks FCC to Open Cellular Networks. Milwaukee's_Best writes "Skype has just asked the FCC to force wireless phone companies to open their networks to all comers. Skype essentially wants to turn the wireless phone companies into just another network of the kind currently operated on the ground. This would require carriers to allow any phone to be used on their networks, and for any application. Users would simply purchase a voice or data plan (though these could easily converge into a data plan if VoIP calling is used) and then use the device of their choice to access the network of their choice. Think of it as network neutrality for cell networks. Given the competition that exists within the industry, is this needed?"[Slashdot] 9:23:49 PM      Google It!.

A Google Package Challenges Microsoft. Google will unveil communications and productivity software aimed at businesses that will be accessible over the Internet. By MIGUEL HELFT. [NYT > Technology] 9:13:58 PM      Google It!.

"IBM has announced an open-source desktop, running Lotus apps and Firefox on top of Red Hat or SUSE Linux. It's based on an internal project which has deployed Linux desktops to several thousand IBM staff, in what IBM said was one of the largest corporate Linux roll-outs to date. 6:12:30 PM      Google It!.

Podcast by Joh Udell: My guest for today's episode is Mary Czerwinski, a research area manager at Microsoft Research. Our conversation begins with a reference to the search strategy I used to recall Mary's name, which I'd seen in a SeattlePI.com story about a workshop on attention and interruptions that was held last month on the Microsoft campus. -- Dr. Czerwinski is a cognitive psychologist working for Microsoft Research in area of interface design --BL 4:54:30 PM      Google It!.

James Gosling Appointed to the Order of Canada. Andrija Ifkovic writes "James Gosling, the creator of Java language and a VP of Sun has been appointed to the Order of Canada. 'The Order of Canada recognizes outstanding lifetime achievement and contributions to society and the country by Canadians from all walks of life.' This is the highest honor Canada can bestow upon its citizens. [Slashdot] 3:32:08 PM      Google It!.

Google Shuts Hole in Desktop Product . BOSTON -- A potentially devastating hole in Google Inc.'s prevalent desktop search product could have exposed personal files on users' computers to data thieves. Google fixed the defect within weeks of being informed about it and says it has no evidence the vulnerability was exploited. By BRIAN BERGSTEIN. [washingtonpost.com - Technology - Industry News, Policy, and Reviews] 1:29:57 PM      Google It!.

Renewable fuels will revolutionize agriculture, says U.S. official. Growing demand for grains that can be converted to clean ethanol or biodiesel fuels distilled from plants will likely revolutionize agriculture in both rich and poor countries, a top U.S. agriculture official said.  Concerned about global climate c... [KurzweilAI.net Accelerating Intelligence News] -- this is more disruptive that it may seem at first glance because so much energy is wasted transporting fuels that locally energy sustainable agriculture could be disruptive to the oily industry and have a major impact on poor countries. --BL 10:39:22 AM      Google It!.

Visual Basic on GNU/Linux. jeevesbond writes "The Mono Project announced that it has developed a Visual Basic compiler that will enable software developers who use Microsoft Visual Basic to run their applications on any platform that supports Mono, such as Linux, without any code modifications."[Slashdot] 10:23:37 AM      Google It!.