Lincoln College slashes approval process with DbArchive
Version One has announced that Lincoln College has cut its invoice approval process by four days as well as reduced its carbon emissions by installing its DbArchive document imaging software.
School goes wireless with Ruckus
Ruckus Wireless has announced that Helenswood Girls' School, East Sussex, has installed a new wireless LAN (WLAN) to provide staff and pupils with Wi-Fi access across the school's two sites.
Semotus becomes Flint Telecom Group after acquisition
Semotus Solutions, a US-based developer of software solutions for enterprise mobility, has completed its acquisition of substantially all of the assets and liabilities of Flint Telecom. Semotus issued 28.46 million shares of restricted common stock to Flint Telecom at the close of the transaction.
SAIC wins $250m NOAA deal
Science Applications International Corp has won a five-year $250m contract from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to provide nautical mapping services.
Accelrys to develop BI system for oil company
A multi-national oil and gas company has selected business intelligence software provider Accelrys to develop an integrated system to enable the company's scientists accelerate catalysis research and discovery as well as improve the performance of the resulting catalysts.
Nasa extends CSC support services contract
Computer Sciences Corp has won a nine-year $50m contract extension from Nasa to provide support services for its Hubble Space Telescope Program.
Vodafone expands stake in Africa's Vodacom
Vodafone has agreed to acquire an additional 15% stake in South African wireless provider Vodacom for ZAR22.5b ($2.4b) from South Africa-based fixed-line operator Telkom.
Astrata to monitor Shell's high-risk vehicles
Royal Dutch Shell will install location-based IT services provider Astrata Group's in-vehicle monitoring system in its high-risk vehicles.
Intel Core i7 (Nehalem): Architecture By AMD?
Intel's new Core i7 processors represent a major evolution of the Core 2-series, though a lot of the additions look like they come from AMD's playbook. Is there any truth here or are we the only ones thinking it?
Eltima updates SyncMate syncing software
Eltima Software has updated SyncMate, software for syncing data between a Mac to Windows Mobile handheld devices, to version 1.4. lMac Users who own Windows Mobile devices now can easily synchronize all information from both devices.
Norwegian Consumer Council Wants Special Complaint Board For Copyright Lawsuits
Earlier this year, we wrote about how the Norwegian Consumer Council, an independent organization financed by the Norwegian government, was telling people not to sign letters the recording industry was demanding ISPs send to users, which would put liability for file sharing on those users without any sort of due process. Now the NCC is back suggesting a special independent committee to handle copyright infringement cases. From what's written, it sounds like it would act as a separate process for copyright holders to bring charges of copyright infringement, that avoids an expensive and overcrowded court systems, while still allowing individuals due process and a guarantee of other basic rights. The NCC proposes that this is a much better solution than, say, cutting off accused file sharers with no due process. The idea definitely sounds a lot better than what's out there now -- but there could be unintended consequences as well. Here in the US, for example, we set up a special Federal Appeals court for patent lawsuits (CAFC), because of complaints about patent lawsuits clogging up courts where judges knew little about patent law, leading to bad outcomes. However, what happened was that CAFC became dominated by former patent attorneys (if not in numbers, in terms of influence) who significantly shifted the scope of patent law towards patent holders. In setting up a special court or arbitration system to deal with copyright infringement, there's a risk that it, too, could become dominated by interests focused solely on strengthening copyright law. While I definitely think it's a more interesting and productive proposal than most others out there, it's worth wondering if there would be unintended consequences. It still seems like the better long-term solution is for copyright holder to simply start embracing better business models. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
Bush Enacts PRO-IP Anti-piracy Law
U.S. President George W. Bush Monday signed into law a bill designed to increase protection of intellectual property.
What can we say? Money talks and bullsh|t walks, to quote Spinal Tap. Nokia's capacious pockets... er... compelling technology has beaten out the likes of Samsung and Apple to get its newest touchscreen phone a prime appearance in Britney Spears' latest raunchy pop promo....
Sony isn't willing to drop the PlayStation 3's price, but the electronics giant is at least keeping the console up to date with another firmware revision....
RE:Vision Effects releases updates for Premiere Pro users
RE:Vision Effects has released updates for Twixtor, ReelSmart Motion Blur and FieldsKit to specifically address issues of crashing and hanging that users were experiencing within Premiere Pro. The products released are Twixtor 4.5.9, ReelSmart Motion Blur 3.2.5 and FieldsKit 2.0.1, and are the After Effects-compatible versions that work within Premiere...
Photos of new MacBook Pro leaked?
Ahead of Apple's laptop event Tuesday, Engadget posts a blurry photo of what appears to be the rumored Apple MacBook Pro laptop.
'EveryMac' updates iPod Q&A
EveryMac now features a comprehensive update to the iPod Q&A to cover the latest iPod models and answer additional questions submitted by readers. The Resources section of EveryMac.com also has been updated completely.
Michelin adds mobile Internet to its menu
Michelin guides, lauded as roadmaps to the world's finest cuisine, will be delivered to iPhones and other "smart" mobile devices.
Software thwarts chatting while driving
A Canadian company has unveiled software crafted to prevent people, particularly mobile device-loving teenagers, from making telephone calls or text-messaging while driving.
The end of the world as we know it
I recently read an article on IOL entitled "End of the world as we know it" that tackles the world's collective denial of where we are at the moment.
Report: Justice Dept. talking with Yahoo, Google
The Web giants are in early stage negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department to avoid an antitrust challenge to their proposed advertising agreement, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
10 Movies That Shouldn't Have Come Out on Blu-ray
What Happens in Vegas ... shouldn't have happened at all. Meet the Spartans Type "kicked in nuts" into YouTube - you'll get more laughs in 30 seconds. Daddy Day Camp Should have gone straight to HD DVD, since HD DVD players will never, ever be manufactured again. Zombie Strippers Zombies in Blu-ray? Sure. Strippers in Blu-ray? Totally. Together in Blu-ray? Um ... no. Little Man The pioneering special effects that turn a Wayans into an infant somehow don't hold up in hi-def. Dude, Where's My Car? Where you left it - in the $1 bin at Blockbuster. Manilow Live! Blu-ray boasts unparalleled sound quality. Bummer. The Love Guru If you look closely, you can see the last shred of Ben Kingsley's dignity fade away. Norbit Fat suits and high pixel counts? Yuck. Rambo Only for collectors of movies where a guy seems to punch someone's head off. Wired.com
Gallery: Golden Age of Trains in Black and White, by Photographer Jim Shaughnessy
: Photo: Jim Shaughnessy Photographer Jim Shaughnessy first turned his lens on trains in 1946 at age 13. Over the following 20 years, he chased trains around New England and Canada, documenting the fall of steam engines and the rise of diesel locomotives - all in gorgeous black and white. Shaughnessy approaches the machines with a documentary eye, with art as a welcome byproduct. His extensive body of work includes some of the most important historical photographs of locomotives from the era. Still an avid train photographer, Shaughnessy lives in his hometown of Troy, New York, a formerly bustling railroad hub that shrank as railway use dwindled. Wired.com talked with him about his photography and his fascination with trains. Click through the gallery to read the interview and see selections from Shaughnessy's upcoming book, The Call of Trains, to be released Nov. 3. Left: Canadian National Spadina Avenue engine-servicing facility in Toronto, Ontario, 1957 "This is an arty picture which I normally wouldn't have taken," Shaughnessy said. "But I had taken every other possible angle so I thought this would be good. And it turns out it really fills the bill for people who like arty photos. "And the more I look at it, the more I like it. It's just a big industrial-type scene and the fact that it's backlit only increases the drama and enhances its dirty effect. "A lot of the pictures we used in the book have never been printed by me before for any... Wired.com
Oct. 14, 1858: This History Might Ring a Bell
1858: Manual labor hoists the great hour bell into place high in the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament in London. Some people are already calling the 14.33-ton bell "Big Ben." Fire had destroyed most of the ancient Palace of Westminster, seat of the British government, in 1834. Parliament resolved to build a new home for itself, complete with a giant tower. The new Houses of Parliament (still officially the Royal Palace of Westminster), designed by A.W.N. Pugin and Charles Barry, rose in neo-Gothic splendor along the Thames. The building was not completed until 1870. The giant tower was to have a giant clock (with a 23-foot-diameter face on each of the tower's four sides) and a giant bell to toll the hours. The clock - with its 14-foot minute hands - was completed in 1854, but the 314-foot-high tower wasn't ready for it yet. The first giant bell was cast for the tower at Stockton-on-Tees in 1856 and shipped to Westminster. It was oversize, at 16 tons. Worse, it cracked when they tested it. Back to the drawing board. More precisely, back to the melting pot. The big bell was broken up, and the pieces taken to the Whitechapel Bell Foundry in East London, where Philadelphia's Liberty Bell had been cast. The metal was melted down and poured into a new mold April 10, 1858. After extensive testing, the bell was placed on a special trolley and drawn by 16 beribboned horses to Westminster, by way of Southwark on the opposite side of the Thames.... Wired.com
Intel, Microsoft squeezed by $170 billion budget cuts
Intel, Microsoft and the technology companies that so far have escaped the credit crisis relatively unscathed will lose out on as much as $170 billion in sales next year as the crunch catches up with them.
Dear Newspapers: Locking Up Archives Shrinks Your Business
Plenty of folks have pointed this out for years, but newspapers that try to lock up their back archives and charge for viewing those articles are very likely hurting their bottom line more than helping it. That's because those archives are a treasure trove of info that people would be interested in finding via a search engine -- but they almost never want to pay for it. For many years, the NY Times tried locking up its archives and charging to read stories, but eventually did the math and realized it made a lot more sense to put all its archives online for free, and make money off the ads. Since removing the barriers, the NY Times has seen its traffic spike significantly, and its archives have become a significant portion of the overall site's traffic . However, some newspapers still can't see the forest for the trees, and think that the answer is to charge high prices to view old articles. That most likely just gets people to look elsewhere, and diminishes ad revenue as well. Parker Mason has written an open letter to the Toronto Globe & Mail decrying its continued practice of charging $5 for access to a single archived article (for just 30 days of access). It's a good read, and I'm guessing that folks like Mathew Ingram , who works at The Globe, have been pushing for changes to the paper's policy, but until then, the company seems to be hurting itself. Mason's letter is well worth reading, but here's a snippet: But then you go and do something like trying to charge me $4.95 for a newspaper article that I've already paid for and read, and this hurts me (telling me that this content will only be available for 30 days only adds insult to injury). Your greatest asset is the thousands and thousands of pages of information and news stories that you have in your archives. People want to view this content, and just as they have endured advertising in your print publications, they'll endure the same kind of advertising on your website. I understand your thinking when it comes to locking up this content behind a pay wall: it is valuable information, so people will pay to see it. The problem is, you are only half-right. It is valuable information, but only when it is easy to access. In the age of Google, people will quickly move on and find the information elsewhere, somewhere where it easier to get at. Permalink | Comments | Email This Story
10 essential tasks to keep Leopard purring
While Mac OS X Leopard isn't prone to crashes, freezes, drive corruption or inexplicable performance losses, keeping up with a few key maintenance tasks can prevent problems and keep it running at its best. We outline the tasks and tools you'll need to keep the cat purring.
A road warrior's guide to netbooks
See a netbook in your future? Here's what to look for, whether it will be your primary computing device or a second PC for travel.
A Helmet Patch to Measure Blasts
Researchers are developing a cheap, lightweight plastic strip that can be worn on a soldier's helmet to help diagnose brain injury.
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