2007 July:   Computing
Anchor:   Base Index
Other months:   June  August
Other areas:   Business  climate  education  health  international  Internet  science  social  technology  Others
Topics:    Companies  embedded  history  machinery  modelling  operating systems  projects  robots  security  simulation  skills  software  video gaming
Companies last  down  top  back  on

John Markoff, Gates plans his leave from Microsoft amid great change, IHT, 2007 July 30 (at the company's annual financial meeting last week Gates spoke first, outlining a decade-long agenda, not a mere 12-month outlook)
Todd Bishop, Microsoft unveils its growth program, The Age, 2007 July 28 (Microsoft Corp details some of its plans, hints at others and displays a continued willingness to make acquisitions as it seeks to persuade Wall Street there is still room for growth in its business)
Matt Richtel and Eric A Taub, Nintendo's Wii is winning battle of the game builders, IHT, 2007 July 16 (in the competition among the makers of video-game consoles, momentum for the Wii from Nintendo is building among crucial allies: game developers and publishers)
Katie Allen, Microsoft keeps top brand crown, Guardian, 2007 July 12 (US computer giant voted the UK's number one brand for the second year running)
AP, Intel to take stake in VMware, The Age, 2007 July 11 (Intel will invest US$218.5 million in virtualisation software maker VMware)
AP, Sony alters price and power of PlayStation 3, IHT, 2007 July 9 (Sony on Monday cut the price of its current PlayStation 3 by $100, or 16.7 percent, and introduced a high-capacity model in an effort to spur sales of the struggling video game console)
AP, Microsoft faces big Xbox repair bill, The Age, 2007 July 6 (Microsoft expects to spend more than $US1 billion to repair widespread hardware problems in its Xbox 360 video game console)
Outsourcing 'to earn India $40bn', BBC, 2007 July 3 (Indian software and services exports are expected to earn about $40bn in the year to March 2008 as demand for outsourcing remains strong)
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Is Mozilla Making the Same Mistakes as Microsoft?, Datamation, 2007 July 2 (feature bloat, among other concerns, is causing the open source browser to lose some of its charm)
Embedded Computers and Robots up  down  top  back  on

Jonathan Fildes, Robots battle for military prize, BBC, 2007 July 31 (the finalists of the UK Ministry of Defence "grand challenge" to find new military technology are announced)
Bettina Grachtrup, Search and rescue, The Age, 2007 July 23 (a tiny robot designed by students may one day save lives)
Robot to carry out heart surgery, BBC, 2007 July 20 (a robotic arm able to carry out an intricate life-saving heart operation is being pioneered by UK surgeons)
AP, Robot doctor makes rounds, The Age, 2007 July 17 (some doctors have found a way to use a videoconferencing robot to check on patients while they're kilometres from the hospital)
Lazy robots look more natural on the move, New Scientist, 2007 July 15 (if you want your robot to move like a human, make sure it uses as little energy as possible)
Digital cinema: The final frontier, Economist, 2007 July 14 (how digital technology is changing the way cinemas work)
3-D films: Looking more convincing, Economist, 2007 July 14 (true believers reckon 3-D is the next big thing; they might be right this time)
Robot unravels mystery of walking, BBC, 2007 July 12 (roboticists are using the lessons of 1930s human physiology to build the world's fastest walking robot)
David Shiga, Three-armed robot to work on space station, New Scientist, 2007 July 11 ('Eurobot' has successfully completed underwater tests simulating microgravity—it will one day help maintain the International Space Station)
AAP, R&D centre to develop mining cyborgs, The Age, 2007 July 9 (mining giant Rio Tinto will spend $21 million over the next five years on a new research and development centre for mining automation at the University of Sydney)
AAP, Top cop predicts robot crimewave, The Age, 2007 July 6 (technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty says)
Duncan Graham-Rowe, Rat-brained robot thinks like the real thing, New Scientist, 2007 July 5 (a robot controlled by a simulated rat brain has proved itself to be a remarkable mimic of rodent behaviour in classic animal experiments)
History up  down  top  back  on

Andrew Brown, Bad ideas spread like wildfire, so why didn't a good one catch on?, Guardian, 2007 July 26 (there is a sadness when ideas are not rewarded; the inventor of the modern spreadsheet has to make money from lecturing because he never patented his idea of laying out information on a grid)
Jonathan Fildes, Antique engines inspire nano chip, BBC, 2007 July 24 (the blueprint for a tiny, rugged mechanical computer has been inspired by ideas put forward 200 years ago)
Dan Kaufman, Gone but not forgotten, The Age, 2007 July 17 (history is filled with innovative technology products that ended up on the scrap heap of the obsolete)
UK computer history gets new home, BBC, 2007 July 11 (plans are taking shape to set up a museum dedicated to Britain's role in the origins of modern computers)
Noel Sharkey, The programmable robot of ancient Greece, New Scientist, 2007 July 4 (two thousand years ago, a great engineer made a programmable machine - the control system is more like knitting than computing, but it shares aspects of modern programming languages)
Maev Kennedy, National Archive project to avert digital dark age, Guardian, 2007 July 4 (National Archives and Microsoft announce partnership and unlock millions of unreadable stored computer files)
Bill Thompson, Cultural past of the digital age, BBC, 2007 June 26 (how technology is changing the way we think about books and film)
Machinery up  down  top  back  on

Lia Timson, Mighty mouse will continue to roar, The Age, 2007 July 31 (personal computers will disappear in the future, with all information stored on the internet and accessed via a plug in the wall)
Daniel Pepper, India's computer recyclers exposed to harm, The Age, 2007 July 28 (in India, one person's trash may no longer be another's treasure)
Laptop for poor countries may be sold commercially, New Scientist, 2007 July 24 (the non-profit group behind a low-cost laptop computer for children in poorer countries says it may sell the same device on the commercial market by Christmas 2007)
Jonathan Fildes, '$100 laptop' production begins, BBC, 2007 July 22 (a low-cost laptop, designed for children in developing countries, finally goes into mass production)
AP, Global PC shipments up 12%, The Age, 2007 July 20 (worldwide shipments of personal computers rose strongly in the second quarter due to growing demand in Asia and unexpected strength in the US)
Leon Gettler, Deal offers office PCs a second life, The Age, 2007 July 19 (Microsoft, Westpac and Boston Consulting Group team up in program to distribute thousands of superseded desktop computers to needy households)
David Flynn, Rise of printing powerhouses, The Age, 2007 July 17 (while most personal users head straight for colour photo printers, anyone setting up a serious home office veers towards laser printers and especially the all-in-one or "multifunction" devices that can scan, copy and often fax as well as churn out black-and-white prints)
Intel and $100 laptop join forces, BBC, 2007 July 13 (Intel and the One Laptop per Child foundation bury their differences and agree to work together on the project)
Charles Arthur, Where the Xbox 360 went wrong, Guardian, 2007 July 12 (whoops, there is a problem with the console failing in significant numbers after all, said a reluctant Microsoft this week; so what is the cause?)
Andy Patrizio, Is Laser The Solution For Hard Drive I/O?, Datamation, 2007 July 6 (Dutch researchers say they can write data up to 100 times faster than current technology, but that's a long way away and may not be the best solution)
Pedro Hernandez, A Pillar for Green Storage Temples, Datamation, 2007 July 5 (storage can be grand and efficient, according to Pillar, makers of midrange NAS and SAN gear swathed in green)
Help File: Q&A for a digital world, IHT, 2007 July 5 (downloading and installing the latest drivers is usually a good place to start when dealing with hardware that's acting erratically; but mice are trickier beasts to tame)
Operating Systems up  down  top  back  on

AFP, Acer boss says Vista 'disappointing', The Age, 2007 July 25 (the head of personal computer maker Acer says the 'entire industry' is disappointed with Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system)
AP, Intel to take stake in VMware, The Age, 2007 July 11 (Intel will invest US$218.5 million in virtualisation software maker VMware)
Clint Boulton, Analyst to EMC: If You Love VMware, Set it Free, Datamation, 2007 June 30 (Gartner analyst Tom Bittman also says VMware could be a bigger threat to Microsoft than Google)
Projects up  down  top  back  on

Annabel Stafford, Medicare claim system far from easy, The Age, 2007 July 26 (an EFTPOS style system allowing patients to claim Medicare rebate in doctor's surgery faces a big hurdle just months from the election)
Ned Temko, Security 'adds to air misery', Observer, 2007 July 22 (millions of passengers are facing added misery at British airports because of the way in which new security measures have been brought in)
Mark Milner, BA lambasts government over airport security, Guardian, 2007 July 17 (chairman Martin Broughton blames the UK's decision to restrict passengers to one piece of carry-on luggage for crashing Heathrow's baggage handling system and claims the policy has 'no security justification')
Peter Ker, Have card, will travel, The Age, 2007 July 15 (smartcard ticketing is set to be introduced to Melbourne's public transport system but it could be a bumpy ride)
Rob England, When Will Technology Make Life Simpler?, Datamation, 2007 July 11 (technology has gone mad, with techno-freaks allowed to design user interfaces; why does my car need a firmware upgrade?)
Steve Andriole, 10 "New Rules" for IT, Datamation, 2007 July 5 (they're not all so nice—but they're necessary to compete successfully)
Security(see also in Internet and Technology) up  down  top  back  on

Christopher Drew, Scientists' tests hack into electronic voting machines in California and elsewhere, IHT, 2007 July 28 (computer scientists from California universities have hacked into three electronic voting systems used in California and elsewhere in the nation and found several ways in which vote totals could potentially be altered)
David Gow, Microsoft takes lead in the search for online privacy code, Guardian, 2007 July 23 (call for industry talks to end policy patchwork; data will be quarantined and then quickly killed))
Computer security: The bounty hunters, Economist, 2007 July 21 (an attempt to offer a legitimate outlet for hackers who want to earn an honest crust)
Abbey online bank suffers glitch, BBC, 2007 July 13 (Abbey's online banking system suffers problems which mean some customers are shown details relating to other users)
Phillip Inman, Watchdog seeks an end to 'horror' of personal data security leaks, Guardian, 2007 July 12 (Britain's data watchdog calls for greater protection for the public, while business leaders oppose stronger powers to investigate breaches)
Firms breaching data protection, BBC, 2007 July 11 (a "horrifying" number of companies, government departments and other public bodies have breached data protection rules in the past year)
Online auction for security bug, BBC, 2007 July 6 (security researchers can now get cash rewards for the loopholes they discover in popular programs)
Patrick Gray, Online fraud targeted, The Age, 2007 July 3 (companies at the frontline of the fight against computer-enabled fraud are trying new ways to curb this growing threat)
Chip Walter, Insights: A Little Privacy, Please, Scientific American, 2007 July (computer scientist Latanya Sweeney helps to save confidentiality with "anonymizing" programs, "deidentifiers" and other clever algorithms; whether they are enough, however, is another question)
Simulation and Modelling up  down  top  back  on

John Markoff, Humans can hold heads up in poker, The Age, 2007 July 27 (in a match between man and machine this week, a software program running on an ordinary laptop computer fought a close match but lost to two well-known professional poker players)
AP, It's man v machine and the winner takes all, The Age, 2007 July 23 (poker champion Phil Laak has a good chance of winning when he sits down this week to play 2000 hands of Texas Hold'em - against a computer)
Christine Evans-Pughe, Forecasting human behaviour carries big risks, Guardian, 2007 July 19 (computerised forecasting techniques are certainly useful for stores, but flawed when it comes to complex human issues)
Computing and biology: Arresting developments, Economist, 2007 July 14 (David Harel of the Weizmann Institute in Israel reckons he can recreate living organisms inside a computer)
Skills up  down  top  back  on

Jason Hill, Gaming's business end, The Age, 2007 July 26 (gamers could well be the CEOs of the future)
Leon Gettler, Games people play to succeed at work, The Age, 2007 July 25 (in a world where John Howard and US presidential candidates take to YouTube, it's inevitable that technology will reshape political game of managemen)
Bobbie Johnson, British startups need to lose their sense of place, Guardian, 2007 July 19 (the real path to success doesn't change; having good ideas and working hard remains the top of the tree)
Jason Hill, More Brain Training, The Age, 2007 July 12 (think you're a smarty pants?; Nintendo's Dr Kawashima might beg to differ)
Software up  down  top  back  on

Robert Hudson, Beautiful lies, The Age, 2007 July 26 (what happens when our images can be altered so easily)
Ian Sample, Computer program takes draughts crown, Guardian, 2007 July 20 (Chinook unbeatable after creator's 18 years of work; achievement a big step for artificial intelligence)
Charles Arthur, CPU hogs shouldn't be given houseroom, Guardian, 2007 July 19 (would the original Napster have been a success if it had demanded 50% of your computer's processing power?; somehow I don't think so)
Maria Aspan, Adobe creates interactive outdoor ads to showcase its new Creative Suite 3 software, IHT, 2007 July 12 (Creative Suite 3 compiles stalwarts like Photoshop and Illustrator as well as programs that were inherited when Adobe purchased Macromedia, like Dreamweaver and Flash)
Jack Schofield, Silverlight looks better by the Moonlight, Guardian, 2007 July 12 (after a 21-day 'hackathon,' a group of open source developers managed to show an incomplete version of Microsoft's still-unfinished Silverlight running on Linux)
Catherine Brahic, Thousand of new volcanoes revealed beneath the waves, New Scientist, 2007 July 9 (new software designed to sift through decades-worth of geophysical data finds huge numbers of previously unknown submarine cones)
Stuart J Johnston, Are Spreadsheets 'Out of Control'?, Datamation, 2007 July 3 (study finds spreadsheets underappreciated as critical enterprise assets, but recommends use of audit and compliance tools)
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Is Mozilla Making the Same Mistakes as Microsoft?, Datamation, 2007 July 2 (feature bloat, among other concerns, is causing the open source browser to lose some of its charm)
John Sterlicchi, Google Apps prepares to challenge Microsoft Office, Guardian, 2007 July 2 (the search giant, via a series of acquisitions and some internal development, is getting its web-based tools ready to go head-to-head with Word, Excel and PowerPoint)
Video Gaming up   first    top   back  on

Game worlds show their human side, BBC, 2007 July 27 (World of Warcraft and Second Life are proving a boon to social scientists who are using them as virtual laboratories)
Kate Bevan, Why do we have to die in games?, Guardian, 2007 July 26 (in real life, dying is unavoidable and final; but even though it's accepted that characters die in videogames, is it really necessary?)
Louisa Hearn, Army recruiters use the lure of games, podcasts, The Age, 2007 July 25 (the internet has become the new battleground for Australian Defence Force recruitment)
AP, Spa game targets female players, The Age, 2007 July 20 (what do women want?; apparently, the answer is video games about beauty treatments)
AFP, China limits internet gaming, The Age, 2007 July 19 (the Chinese government has launched a campaign to limit the number of hours teenagers spend online playing games)
Jason Hill, Game to get fit?, The Age, 2007 July 19 (Nintendo has created a new fitness game with a pressure-sensitive balance board for its Wii console)
AP, Iranian game promotes sacrifice and martyrdom, The Age, 2007 July 18 (Iranian students unveil a new video game that simulates an attempt to rescue two Iranian nuclear experts kidnapped by the US)
AP, Video games blamed for child neglect, The Age, 2007 July 16 (a couple in the US who authorities say were so obsessed with the Internet and video games that they left their babies starving and suffering other health problems have pleaded guilty to child neglect)
Eric A Taub, Video-game makers attract wider range of players, IHT, 2007 July 12 (the Wii, which uses a hand-held motion-sensitive controller, has attracted a significant number of older gamers; in Wii households one in eight men over 50 regularly use the console)
Spielberg's gaming vision emerges, BBC, 2007 July 10 (two video games developed with director Steven Spielberg are set to be shown off at the E3 conference)
AP, Less bling for E3 game expo, The Age, 2007 July 9 (E3 says goodbye to scantily clad babes, multimillion dollar exhibits, blaring lights and pounding music)
Aleks Krotoski, National Rail chiefs could learn a lot by playing games, Guardian, 2007 July 5 (games are really good at breaking down the fourth wall and engaging audiences with robots)
Jason Hill, Games people play, The Age, 2007 July 5 (talks about the art of play with ACMI's Games Lab curator, Helen Stuckey)
Reuters, Video gaming affects reading, homework, The Age, 2007 July 4 (boys who play video games on school days spend 30 per cent less time reading than those who do not play such games)
Timothy Williams and Cassi Feldman, In a fast-paced world, street games are vanishing, IHT, 2007 July 1 (in a time before video games, trans fat or car alarms, in a city that seemed like a smaller version of present-day New York, screaming children ruled the streets)