Economist's Take On Open Source Development. An anonymous reader writes "Economist Dean Baker outlines alternative funding mechanisms for software development in a new report called "Opening Doors and Smashing Windows" [PDF Warning], available at the Center for Economic and Policy Research. One proposal is to create a US government-funded Software Development Corps of public software corporations, which compete and produce only free and open source software. Baker estimates that through the resulting lower prices in software and computers, the government would recoup its annual $2 billion appropriation to the program and US consumers would save $80-120 billion each year -- all while 20,000 software developers are supported to work specifically on open source projects." [Slashdot]

 

10:40:29 AM    

 

Internet phone calls on the rise. People will increasingly make calls via the net instead of using traditional phone lines, say analysts Gartner. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

10:38:38 AM    

 

The new face of public participation?  BBC plans interactive youth soap. The BBC is set to launch an interactive web-based soap opera about youngsters in Brighton next year. [BBC News | Technology | UK Edition]

 

10:37:35 AM    

IBM developerWorks: Take off the training wheels. The result is similar to what many people find after putting training wheels on a child's bicycle: the vehicle is more cumbersome and the child never learns to ride it properly. This month I'll count the ways excessive protections make computers harder to use and more accident prone. [Tomalak's Realm]
10:35:54 AM    

 

US Senate approves H-1B visa increase.

(InfoWorld) - WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved up to 30,000 additional foreign-worker visas a year in a program popular with technology vendors.

The Senate approved a proposal to "recapture" unused H-1B visas going back to the early 1990s and to add up to 30,000 of those unused visas to the 65,000 annual cap. The number of applications for H-1Bs for the federal government's fiscal year 2006 hit the cap in August, a month and a half before the fiscal year began.By Grant_Gross@idg.com (Grant Gross). [InfoWorld: Top News]

 

10:34:28 AM    

Got data and file management problems in your office?  

Synergis to Host Web Series (Synergis).

Synergis Software to Host Web Series on Data and File Management Best Practices with Guest Speaker Cadalyst Columnist Robert Green

From: Synergis
Type: Press Release

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

 

10:31:53 AM    

 

Fred Abler is behind this, he wrote about it last year on this Website...low polygon 3D models for non-photorealistic rendering...

Announcing FormFonts 3D (CGarchitect.com).

Announcing FormFonts 3D

From: CGarchitect.com
Type: News Report

[CADwire.net - AEC CAD industry news]

 

10:29:06 AM    

 

Skype could pose security problems for companies, analysts say. The growing popularity of free Internet telephony software from Skype Technologies could pose the same kind of security challenges for companies that other peer-to-peer technologies have created in recent years, security experts said. [Computerworld News]

 

10:25:14 AM    

 

ooopps...I just can't help it...Dutch dentist amputates own finger. No IT angle, but definitely digital [The Register]

 

10:24:24 AM    

 

Is That 8 GB in Your Pocket?. A new USB flash drive ain't cheap, but it'll let you carry a wad of data with you. Plus: Kodak refocuses on professional photographers. From the Wired News blog Gear Factor. [Wired News]

 

10:13:45 AM    

 

Video and the Podcasting Star. Why iPod exhibitionists aren't exactly leaping at the chance to play TV anchor on the web. By Steve Friess. [Wired News]

 

10:10:38 AM    

 

As landscape architects try harder and harder to make computer renderings look like Turner paintings, the main stream gamer industry has a different idea involving big-time, real time interactivity and high-res motion/backgrounds.  The CNET article from Madden talks about lighting, weather conditions, online interactivity...while Wired examines the urban design and landscape backgrounds of downtown and country action games...'Madden': The next generation. EA Sports Senior Producer Jeremy Strauser discusses efforts to make the venerable football franchise storm the Xbox 360. [CNET News.com]

 

10:08:33 AM