InfoWorld.com articles from May 2008

InfoWorld.com archives from May 2008

BEA employees hold 'wake' for company; Now that the acquisition by Oracle is formal, mixed emotions set in.
May 1, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill BEA Systems employees gathered at a Silicon Valley restaurant Wednesday for what was loosely termed a "wake" to recognize that the company no longer exists as an independent, publicly owned company but has become part of...

Microsoft ships Expression Studio 2 tools; Products back Silverlight and provide application design tools that complement the app dev tools found in Visual Studio.
May 1, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft announced Thursday the release of its Expression 2 Studio design tools, which provide application design capabilities to complement application development capabilities of the company's Visual Studio toolset....

VoIP reviews: IP phone systems help small businesses sound big; Appliances from Allworx, Critical Links, Fonality, Microsoft, and Sutus all combine sophisticated features and low cost; they differ in breadth and complexity, with Fonality’s Asterisk-based PBXtra rising to the top.
May 1, 2008... Byline: Doug Dineley If you’re currently trapped behind a stubborn, 20th-century phone system, you’d be surprised at what a modern, IP-based phone system can do -- and how affordable they can be. For an office with a handful of...

Exclusive product review: Infortrend EonStor B12S delivers big with small-form-factor drives; Built around 2.5-inch drives, EonStor B12S storage array yields space and energy savings without skimping on performance and features.
May 1, 2008... Byline: Mario Apicella For years now, 3.5 inches has been the reigning size of disk drives for enterprise storage arrays. Now, however, smaller, more efficient 2.5-inch SFF (small form factor) drives are proving viable challengers to their...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 2, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan This week's quizis more musically inclined than most, with nearly a third of the questions touching on digital tunes. We also hit all the right notes on Grand Theft Auto IV, imaginary iPhones, breakthroughs in computer...

Tibco airs SOA plans; WebSphere, Ruby, SCA ambitions for the ActiveMatrix SOA platform detailed at the Tibco User Conference.(Conference news)
May 2, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Tibco Software plans a number of technology enhancements based on its ActiveMatrix service platform for SOA, including accommodations for IBM's WebSphere application server and the Ruby programming language. ...

Answer key: You don't know tech; The facts behind this week's top 10 tech questions.
May 2, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Now that you know how you scored, you probably want to know why. Check out the answers below for the gory details. And be sure to return next week for another news quiz, ripped straight from the tech headlines. ...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 5, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan This week's quizis more musically inclined than most, with nearly a third of the questions touching on digital tunes. We also hit all the right notes on Grand Theft Auto IV, imaginary iPhones, breakthroughs in computer...

Stupid hacker tricks, part two: The folly of youth; Tech-savvy delinquents set the Net aflame with boneheaded exploits that earn them the wrong kind of fame.
May 5, 2008... Byline: Andrew Brandt Ah, youth. Ready to take on the world, today's generation of dynamic, tech-immersed youngsters have grown up alongside the Internet. Firsthand, and sometimes single-handedly, they have advanced some of today's hottest...

Sun cites open source tribulations; But company is world's largest open source vendor, executive says, while other officials add that company has learned a lot in its efforts.
May 5, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems officials on Monday acknowledged issues the company has had to deal with in offering products such as the OpenSolaris OS and Java via an open source business model. Morning events at the CommunityOne...

Ruby faces off against PHP, Java; CommunityOne conference panelists focus on scripting language attributes.
May 5, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Ruby experts compared the scripting languages of the rival PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) language and Java during a panel session at the CommunityOne conference in San Francisco on Monday. After an audience member...

Stupid hacker tricks, part two: The folly of youth; Tech-savvy delinquents set the Net aflame with boneheaded exploits that earn them the wrong kind of fame.
May 5, 2008... Byline: Andrew Brandt Ah, youth. Ready to take on the world, today's generation of dynamic, tech-immersed youngsters have grown up alongside the Internet. Firsthand, and sometimes single-handedly, they have advanced some of today's hottest...

Product review: Zoho CRM aims big, hits small; New Enterprise Edition delivers SMB-worthy features at a rock-bottom price, but key shortcomings make it a poor match for large sales and service teams.
May 5, 2008... Byline: James R. Borck AdventNet's Zoho CRM Enterprise Edition is a new, low-cost subscription-based SaaS offering that may be impossible to ignore. Building on a Professional edition that combines sales, service, marketing, and inventory...

Stupid hacker tricks part 2: Youth and consequences; Tech-savvy delinquents set the Net aflame with boneheaded exploits that earn them the wrong kind of fame.
May 6, 2008... Byline: Andrew Brandt Ah, youth. Ready to take on the world, today's generation of dynamic, tech-immersed youngsters have grown up alongside the Internet. Firsthand, and sometimes single-handedly, they have advanced some of today's hottest...

Nokia, Ikivo partner on Java for mobile devices; Caucho and JNBridge are among the host of companies making JavaOne announcements.
May 6, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Nokia and Ikivo are partnering to build tools that enable collaboration between graphic designers and software engineers in the development of Java applications for mobile devices. The announcement, being made...

Sun offers JavaFX road map; Company also touts cloud effort Project Hydrazine; Neil Young appears at JavaOne conference.
May 6, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Meet this year's JavaOne spotlight technology, the same as last year's JavaOne spotlight technology. Sun Microsystems executives at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco on Tuesday hailed the potential of the...

Product review: Apple's little big iron; Eight-core Harpertown Xserve has all of the advantages of a big iron Unix server, made simple and affordable.
May 6, 2008... Byline: Tom Yager If I'm not otherwise engaged next Thursday morning, I just might spend my economic stimulus check to enter the PC server business. I could go shopping for a wholesale 1U bare-bones rack server, with my primary criteria...

Embarcadero buys CodeGear; In acquiring the Borland Software tools group, Embarcadero is expected to become world's largest platform-independent software provider.
May 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill CodeGear, the development tools unit of Borland Software, has been acquired by Embarcadero Technologies. Embarcadero said the deal combines the market leaders in development tools and database tools. The $30 million...

Java platform to get modularity, OSGi support; Sun details upcoming versions of Java at its JavaOne conference.(Conference news)
May 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Upcoming versions of the Java platform will be fitted with capabilities such as flexibility, OSGi support, and modularity, Sun Microsystems officials said Tuesday afternoon at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco. ...

Artists, developers to synch up in NetBeans; Integrated workflows eyed for Sun's open source IDE.
May 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Capabilities to integrate workflows between software developers and artists are being developed for NetBeans, Sun's open source IDE, Sun Vice President James Gosling said this week. Speaking at the CommunityOne...

Product review: .Net comes to WebSphere Portal; Mainsoft lets .Net developers build WebSphere portlets, and it allows WebSphere to talk to SharePoint, to boot.
May 7, 2008... Byline: Rick Grehan In the beginning, Mainsoft released Visual MainWin for Java EE, which compiled .Net CIL (Common Intermediate Language) code into Java bytecode. As technically fascinating as that was, on its own it provided limited...

JavaOne: AMD cites Java improvement efforts; Also at JavaOne, Sun advances GlassFish app server and the new GlassFish Communications Server.
May 8, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Emphasizing the company's commitment to the Java platform, AMD detailed Wednesday how it is building technologies to make Java work better. The company promoted its Java support at the JavaOne conference in San...

Sun defends JavaFX Script; Despite multitude of scripting languages, need is served by new platform, Sun official says.
May 8, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill In a world where the list of scripting languages for application development seems endless, is Sun's JavaFX Script one too many? This question was raised during the JavaOne conference in San Francisco Wednesday, with...

Product review: The sweetest wireless LAN system; Ruckus Wireless' ZoneFlex Smart WLAN System is powerful, easy, and yes, smart, making managed wireless networks a no-brainer for small deployments.
May 8, 2008... Byline: Curtis Franklin Jr. Small businesses have, for some time, been able to easily deploy a wide-open access point or two, or put together a couple of access points with a basic level of security. The thing that hasn't been easily...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 9, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan We started the week with Microsoft calling off the Yahoo deal (or maybe not). Then Grand Theft Auto stole the spotlight with its record-breaking sales. Along the way, we have the Webby Awards, big settlements for movie...

Sun: Java ubiquity an advantage in RIA battle; Sun stresses ties between JavaFX and the base Java platform, and touts Java Community Process changes and SOA enhancements.
May 9, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems is counting on the ubiquitous nature of Java to help its JavaFX technology compete in the rich Internet application (RIA) space against rivals Adobe Systems and Microsoft. A browser plug-in for...

Sun exec ponders OpenSolaris, Linux; In an interview, Ian Murdock, formerly with the Linux Foundation and now with Sun, discusses the company's open-source efforts and how to monetize them.
May 9, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Ian Murdock is vice president of developer and community marketing at Sun Microsystems. Prior to that, he was the founder of the Debian Linux distribution and CTO at the Linux Foundation. InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul...

Answer key: You don't know tech; The facts behind this week's top 10 tech questions.
May 9, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Now that you know how you scored, you probably want to know why. Check out the answers below for the gory details. And be sure to return next week for another news quiz, ripped straight from the tech headlines. ...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan We started the week with Microsoft calling off the Yahoo deal (or maybe not). Then Grand Theft Auto stole the spotlight with its record-breaking sales. Along the way, we have the Webby Awards, big settlements for movie...

Rich Web development: Is the browser doomed? The Web is evolving into a full-fledged app-delivery platform, calling into question the browser's ability to fulfill the needs of today's rich Internet apps.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Neil McAllister Since its inception, the Web has been synonymous with the browser. Pundits hailed NCSA Mosaic as "the killer app of the Internet" in 1993, and today's browsers share an unbroken lineage from that humble beginning....

Developers' role shifting from apps to platforms; Untrained workers are moving into app dev space, pushing career developers into the platform space, a Sun engineer noted at JavaOne.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill A word to professional developers: Your job is being taken over by untrained neophytes, but you still will have plenty to do to keep yourself busy and employed. This was the message for developers during a...

Microsoft readies service packs for dev tools; Improvements to Visual Studio 2008 include database and Office 2007 Ribbon support.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft released Monday beta versions of separate service packs for the Visual Studio 2008 software development platform and the accompanying .Net Framework 3.5, a Microsoft official said in a blog. General-release...

SOA Software buys LogicLibrary; Combination links governance automation, repository technologies.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Matching up critical components in the SOA space, SOA Software, which provides SOA governance automation, said Monday it has acquired SOA repository and governance vendor LogicLibrary. The combination creates an...

Can Sun rejuvenate Java? Promised technologies begin to emerge that could finally make JavaFX a more serious competitor to Flex, Silverlight, and scripting.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Sun Microsystems is trying to rejuvenate Java, using the JavaOne conference last week to position the 13-year-old Java platform as a foundation for next-generation technologies in such spaces as rich Internet...

Do new Web tools spell doom for the browser? The Web is evolving into a full-fledged app-delivery platform, calling into question the browser's ability to fulfill the needs of today's rich Internet apps.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Neil McAllister Since its inception, the Web has been synonymous with the browser. Pundits hailed NCSA Mosaic as "the killer app of the Internet" in 1993, and today's browsers share an unbroken lineage from that humble beginning....

First look: Google's high-flying cloud for Python code; Google App Engine simplifies the problem of deploying and scaling Web applications, but not without a few wrinkles and question marks.
May 12, 2008... Byline: Peter Wayner One of the joys of being a Web programmer is heading to a dinner party, a haircut, or a reunion and fielding the pitches for everyone's dream for a brilliant Web application. Everyone is always happy to cut you in for...

IT heroes unwelcome; Initiative and foresight unrewarded, IT pro gets revenge for taking lumps by jumping ship.
May 13, 2008... Byline: Anonymous In the late 1990s I worked for a Midwestern manufacturer. We ran a very small IT shop for the size of our corporation (8 people for a company grossing a third of a billion dollars annually, across 10 locations), and all...

Study: 'Hyperconnected' users growing; Enterprises will have to accommodate new wave of information workers who use multiple devices and applications.
May 13, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Enterprises are facing an exploding "culture of connectivity," with global information workers using an increasing number of devices and applications, according to an IDC study released on Tuesday. In a worldwide...

Stupid marketing tricks; Robo-calling site serves up sleaze by the bucketful.
May 13, 2008... Byline: Robert X. Cringely[R] So my phone rang one day last week and, naturally, there was a computer on the other end. But this wasn't a political robo-call trying to confuse me into voting for the wrong candidate. This was a commercial...

Is the browser doomed? The Web is evolving into a full-fledged app-delivery platform, calling into question the browser's ability to fulfill the needs of today's rich Internet apps.
May 14, 2008... Byline: Neil McAllister Since its inception, the Web has been synonymous with the browser. Pundits hailed NCSA Mosaic as "the killer app of the Internet" in 1993, and today's browsers share an unbroken lineage from that humble beginning....

Test spin: Google App Engine; Google App Engine simplifies the problem of deploying and scaling Web applications, but not without a few wrinkles and question marks.
May 14, 2008... Byline: Peter Wayner One of the joys of being a Web programmer is heading to a dinner party, a haircut, or a reunion and fielding the pitches for everyone's dream for a brilliant Web application. Everyone is always happy to cut you in for...

Adobe refreshes Flash Player; Facing stiff competition in RIA space, company gains an edge, observers say.
May 14, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Facing serious challenges to its dominance in the RIA (rich Internet application) space, Adobe Systems will refresh its bread-and-butter Flash Player technology Thursday with capabilities that could provide an edge on...

Test your Geek IQ; If you truly want to know how smart you are when it counts, then InfoWorld's Geek IQ test is the puzzler for you.
May 14, 2008... Byline: Oliver Rist Sure, you may have scored more than 150 on the standardized IQ test, you may party hearty with Mensa Mommas -- but what's that actually worth in the real world? Diddly. If you truly want to know how smart you are when...

Product review: Jive Software's social enterprise portal; Clearspace 2.0 makes the business case for social software with SharePoint integration, workable project management, and document sharing with external users.
May 14, 2008... Byline: Mike Heck If the many business-oriented blog and wiki solutions are starting to look like one big blur, you're not alone. Most "Web 2.0 collaboration" vendors give you a departmental wiki that works about the same as the rest, but...

Agile project management set for small teams; VersionOne also set to expand enterprise-level product.
May 15, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill VersionOne launched an agile project management platform for small teams of developers this week and is sprucing up its enterprise-level product next week. Agile development involves short, iterative development...

Moonlight release puts Silverlight on Linux; RIA expands its reach with the release of a Linux client implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight technology.
May 15, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill The first public release of Moonlight, which provides a Linux client implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight rich Internet application (RIA) technology, was made available this week. Moonlight, an open source...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 16, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Windows holes, Google food, aging tunesmiths, cranky billionaires, Tony Soprano, and -- yes -- the ghost of MicroHoo dominate this week's quiz. Are you ready to demonstrate your geek street cred? Give yourself 10 points...

Compuware 2.0 set as rebirth of company; Looking to revitalize, the vendor will evaluate products and focus on business value.
May 16, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Looking to sharpen its business focus, Compuware this week launched its "Compuware 2.0" campaign, which is being characterized by the 35-year-old software tools vendor as a rebirth of the company. With Compuware 2.0,...

ObjectWave's Swan swims for RIA connectivity; Rich Internet application platform enables simpler connectivity between AJAX interfaces and server-side code.
May 16, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill ObjectWave is offering a rich Internet application platform called Swan, which makes it easier to link AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) interfaces to back-end server code. Now in a beta release, Swan enables...

More than 200,000 demand Microsoft save XP; InfoWorld's petition to keep the popular Windows version on the market has passed a new milestone.
May 16, 2008... Byline: InfoWorld staff In the four months since InfoWorld asked businesses and individuals to sign a petition at SaveXP.com requesting Microsoft keep Windows XP for sale beyond the planned June 30 general end-of-sales date, more than...

Answer key: You don't know tech; The facts behind this week’s top 10 tech questions.
May 16, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Now that you know how you scored, you probably want to know why. Check out the answers below for the gory details. And be sure to return next week for another news quiz, ripped straight from the tech headlines. ...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Windows holes, Google food, aging tunesmiths, cranky billionaires, Tony Soprano, and -- yes -- the ghost of MicroHoo dominate this week's quiz. Are you ready to demonstrate your geek street cred? Give yourself 10 points...

Inside 2008's hottest tech startups; InfoWorld picks 10 newbies whose technologies could make a huge difference to business IT.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Bill Snyder Money is the mother's milk of politics, it's been said, but when it comes to technology, ideas are the real coin of the realm. In that spirit, we present InfoWorld's hottest tech startups of 2008, an honor roll of 10...

Backbase links AJAX, Java; Framework lets Java developers leverage existing skills.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Backbase on Monday is introducing Enterprise Ajax 4.2 for Java, a version of its AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) framework.for Java developers. With the framework, these developers can build AJAX-based RIAs...

Open source code examined; Coverity finds improvements during project to examine more than 55 million lines of code.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill A code analysis of popular open source software projects has revealed that the quality and security of open source software continues to improve. In its "Scan Report on Open Source Software 2008," Coverity analyzed...

More than 200,000 demand Microsoft save XP; InfoWorld's petition to keep the popular Windows version on the market passes a new milestone.
May 19, 2008... Byline: InfoWorld staff In the four months since InfoWorld asked businesses and individuals to sign a petition at SaveXP.com requesting Microsoft keep Windows XP for sale beyond the planned June 30 general end-of-sales date, more than...

InfoWorld's top 10 tech startups for 2008; Innovative technologies and new spins for existing technologies characterize this year's hot tech newbies.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Bill Snyder There are few clearer bellwethers as to the imminent direction of technology than where venture capitalists put their money. They're about making money, so they look for industry patterns they think will lead to sure...

Lab test: Four Dell and HP workstations strain their quads; Our system and graphics performance tests show terrific price-performance at the low end of the quad-core workstation spectrum, and awe-inspiring power at the top; HP takes the bantam belt, while Dell is heavyweight champ.
May 19, 2008... Byline: Andrew Binstock There was a time when workstations occupied a highly competitive niche in the hardware market. In those days, some 10 years ago, companies such as Sun Microsystems, SGI, IBM, HP, and Dell competed fiercely to...

Codie awards go to Red Hat, Adobe, Salesforce.com; Smaller companies also take home prizes from the Software & Information Industry Association.
May 20, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Winners of this year's Codie awards, given by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIAA) Tuesday evening, include some familiar names in software as well as some lesser known and new companies. Awards...

Are you ready for Windows 7? Don't expect a slimmed-down OS: If you can't run Vista, you won't be able to run Windows 7.
May 20, 2008... Byline: Randall Kennedy "Hold the line!" That's the new rallying cry for the core Windows development team. Add new features. Tweak existing ones. But whatever you do, don't make Windows 7 any slower or fatter than Vista."Hold the line!"...

IBM Rational IDE tops survey; Other players, including Visual Studio, rated highest in other categories, but the Evans Data survey found that IBM's RAD was tops in overall user satisfaction.
May 21, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Despite trailing rivals in several individual categories, IBM's RAD (Rational Application Developer) nonetheless had the highest user satisfaction scores among several IDEs rated in an Evans Data study being released on...

Red Hat updates enterprise Linux platform; Virtualization, clustering, and hardware support improved in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2.
May 21, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Red Hat is announcing availability Wednesday of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.2, with enhancements in virtualization, clustering, and hardware support. Version 5.2 was described as a minor update by Red Hat's Daniel...

ZoneAlarm ForceField: Compromised in sixty seconds; Check Point's virtualized browser security client, like would-be panaceas before it, fails to live up to the hype.
May 21, 2008... Byline: Roger A. Grimes Check Point Software's new Web browser security software, called ZoneAlarm ForceField, integrates a host-based firewall, anti-spyware, Web site rating, anti-phishing, and keylogger-jamming into a limited...

Coverity buying software build management vendor Codefast; The acquisition, Coverity's first, is intended to help developers with build process.
May 22, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Coverity, known in the code security and quality space, plans to announce its acquisition of build management vendor Codefast next week. The acquisition is Coverity's first, the company said. Technology and...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 23, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Is Microsoft-Yahoo truly dead? Why did CBS buy CNET? How much would you pay for a letter from a dead genius? And what is Carl Icahn's problem anyway? The answers to these questions and more are found in this week's quiz...

Microsoft touts research projects in search, privacy; Microsoft Research emphasizes efforts in multiple areas, including concurrent programming and language translation.
May 23, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Characterizing research as critical to the company's survival, Microsoft officials Thursday offered glimpses into multiple research efforts in areas such as privacy and search. In an event at Microsoft Research's...

Google I/O conference set for developers; Company to discuss OpenSocial, Android, App Engine, AJAX with conference attendees.(Conference news)
May 23, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill At its Google I/O developer conference next week, Google will shed light on technologies such as Google App Engine, for building and hosting Web applications, and OpenSocial, the Google-backed API for social networking....

Lab test: Sun's X4150 shows the beef; The Sun Fire X4150, with four Intel cores, fast drives, and oodles of I/O, brings surprising heft and sizzling performance to a 1U frame.
May 23, 2008... Byline: Paul Venezia Sun has developed a 1U chassis design that can handle an impressive number of drives, yet also provide for a standard two-socket Intel-based mainboard and the company's signature four gigabit Ethernet interfaces, not...

InfoWorld tech celebrity quiz; Match your tech-fame wits against our dirt-filled industry-insider quiz.
May 26, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan, Gina Smith So you've already passed our Geek IQ Test and think you have the latest dirt on today's tech celebrity set? Well, it will also take some old-school lowdown on the folks who first brought fame and infamy to the...

Adobe offering tool betas; Component products from upcoming Creative Suite to be available for a tryout.
May 26, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Adobe Systems is releasing Tuesday public beta versions of upcoming upgrades to the company's Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth tools. The products are to be part of the next release of Adobe Creative Suite, for...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 27, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Is Microsoft-Yahoo truly dead? Why did CBS buy CNET? How much would you pay for a letter from a dead genius? And what is Carl Icahn's problem anyway? The answers to these questions and more are found in this week's quiz...

Google sets pricing for app hosting service; App Engine program also opens up access; AJAX toolkit readied for conference.(Conference news)
May 27, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Google is announcing pricing for its App Engine service for Web application hosting Wednesday, maintaining a free tier, then charging for storage of more than 500MB of data. The company at its Google I/O conference...

Ruby on Rails upgrade eyed; Framework to get caching, time zone accommodations, and its founder will advocate that users not overwork themselves.
May 27, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Ruby on Rails 2.1, a planned upgrade to the popular open-source Web framework, could be released as soon as this weekend, the creator of the framework, David Heinemeier Hansson, said on Tuesday. Highlights of the...

The state of IT: Primed for uncertainty; Thanks to shifts since the last downturn, IT is poised to weather economic turbulence with confidence.
May 27, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Call it a slowdown, a downturn, or the dreaded "R" word, worries about the state of the U.S. economy have increased across virtually all sectors save one: technology. But has IT -- like the Mafia and the U.S. military...

Open source on the wire; It’s already on your servers, why not running your network?
May 27, 2008... Byline: Paul Venezia Once upon a time, using open-source servers and applications for business was frowned upon in many circles. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find any sizeable infrastructure that doesn’t leverage open-source...

Google expanding search capabilities; At the Google I/O conference, the company discussed bringing its search capabilities into new areas and devices and including new media types in search results.(Conference news)
May 29, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill The expansion of Google's core search capabilities into applications such as cross-language information retrieval and book-searching were detailed by a company official Thursday who also predicted more personalization...

Lab Test: Xythos Enterprise Document Management Suite 7.0 builds on Web 2.0 tech; Injection of AJAX, wikis, and RSS, along with improved tagging and search options, make Xythos a strong choice for bringing order to unstructured content.
May 29, 2008... Byline: Mike Heck InfoWorld has watched Xythos mature impressively over the years, starting as a highly usable, economical document manager through Version 6.0, then broadening its appeal with records management. Enterprise Document...

You don't know tech: The InfoWorld news quiz; Match your weekly tech news wits against our snarky quiz master.
May 30, 2008... Byline: Dan Tynan Windows 7 gets translucent, Dell gets in Dutch with the law, and both cable set-top boxes and the inventor of frozen French fries are declared dead. If that's not a weird week, we don't know what one is. Do you know what...

Google to host JavaScript libraries for developers; API launched in an effort to bolster AJAX usage.
May 30, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Google this week launched its Google AJAX Libraries API, enabling developers to use the company's global infrastructure to host and serve major JavaScript libraries. "What it is really about is being able to make...

Microsoft linking Silverlight, Ruby on Rails; Microsoft will demonstrate integration of its browser plug-in technology and Web framework at RailsConf.(Conference notes)
May 30, 2008... Byline: Paul Krill Microsoft plans to demonstrate integration Friday between its new Silveright browser plug-in technology for rich Internet applications and the Ruby on Rails Web framework. The integration will be done via a plug-in,...

Product review: Titus Labs helps stop e-mail slips; Titus Labs Message Classification proves an easy and flexible way to enforce data sensitivity labeling in Outlook.
May 30, 2008... Byline: Roger A. Grimes The news media is full of stories about e-mails and documents that were better off not sent. Last year an airline CEO accidentally sent an ultra harsh e-mail to complaining customers, the text of which was obviously...