2008 April: Computing

2008 April: Computing

Anchor: Base Index
Other months: March May
Other areas: Business climate education health international Internet science social technology Others
Topics: Companies data storage embedded predictions history machinery modelling operating systems patents prediction projects robots security simulation skills software speech systems translation video gaming

Companies

(see also in Internet)

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Yahoo! and Microsoft: Still No, Economist, 2008 Apr. 26 (Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang braces himself for Microsoft's hostility)
Microsoft sees slide in profits, BBC, 2008 Apr. 25 (Microsoft sees third quarter profits decline, hit by lower demand, but the results beat forecasts)
Maggie Shiels, Developers question Mesh openness, BBC, 2008 Apr. 24 (Web developers question the commitment to openness in Microsoft's new Live Mesh service)
AFP, Apple's Mac attack delivers dividends, The Age, 2008 Apr. 24 (Apple reports a billion-dollar profit for the first three months of the year topped with sales of Macintosh computers climbing more than 50 per cent)
Microsoft unveils its web vision, BBC, 2008 Apr. 23 (Microsoft lifts the lid on Live Mesh, web-based software designed to connect devices and applications online)
Chip maker AMD still in the red, BBC, 2008 Apr. 18 (chip maker Advanced Micro Devices reports its sixth quarterly loss in a row, while Sandisk returns to profit)
Bloomberg, Apple bites NY, The Age, 2008 Apr. 4 (Apple Inc. filed a federal challenge to New York's trademark application for a new ''Big Apple'' logo, saying it's too similar to the stylized emblem found on iPhones, iPods and iMac computers)
Bloomberg, Dell cuts 8,800 jobs, The Age, 2008 Apr. 4 (Dell Inc., the world's second-largest personal-computer maker, will cut even more jobs than the 8,800 it predicted last year after a slowing US economy curbs its biggest customers' appetite for technology)
Asher Moses, Hotmail users stuck firing blanks, The Age, 2008 Apr. 1 (Microsoft is scrambling to fix a bug in its free Hotmail email service that mysteriously deletes the body text from sent and received messages)

Embedded Computers and Robots

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Networks promise 'accident-free' cars, BBC, 2008 Apr. 1 (embedded sensors could help prevent traffic accidents)

History and Predictions

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Graeme Philipson, A rule that won't be broken, The Age, 2008 Apr. 15 (it's the unwritten law of computing - in the end we'll all be users)
Maggie Shiels, The garage where it all began, BBC, 2008 Apr. 11 (Silicon Valley is pitted with sites of pilgrimage for geeks but, for many, the lovingly restored garage at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto is a draw like no other)
AP, Dungeons & Dragons relives its past, The Age, 2008 Apr. 3 (the next edition of the game, due out in June, will for the first time be paired with online features that the publisher hopes will lure lapsed players back to the dungeon)
Computers to merge with humans, BBC, 2008 Apr. 2 (by 2020 the terms "interface" and "user" will be obsolete as computers merge ever closer with humans: one prediction in a Microsoft-backed report)
Bill Thompson, Who will write tomorrow's code?, BBC, 2008 Apr. 1 (sixty years ago, on June 21 1948, the Small-Scale Experimental Machine, or Baby, ran its first program and the age of the stored program digital computer properly began)

Machinery and Data Storage

(see also in Technology)

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Graeme Philipson, There's no drought in storage perfect storm, The Age, 2008 Apr. 24 (storage devices holding huge amounts of data get ever cheaper and smaller)
Maggie Shiels, Developers question Mesh openness, BBC, 2008 Apr. 24 (Web developers question the commitment to openness in Microsoft's new Live Mesh service)
Microsoft unveils its web vision, BBC, 2008 Apr. 23 (Microsoft lifts the lid on Live Mesh, web-based software designed to connect devices and applications online)
John Naughton, Turns out the mini-laptop revolution was just child's play, Observer, 2008 Apr. 13 (the EeePC, which was designed for children, has found its market niche among adults)
Marian Wilkinson, Computer rubbish grows with more on horizon, The Age, 2008 Apr. 12 (an estimated 1.6 million old computers are being dumped in landfills every year, but state and federal environment ministers have no proposal to deal with the problem when they meet next week to tackle Australia's massive garbage problem)
IBM races to make hi-tech memory, BBC, 2008 Apr. 10 (gadgets with vastly bigger memory capacities could result from research by IBM scientists)
Bobbie Johnson, Interview: Xbox 360 chief rings the changes after failures, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 3 (it's been dogged with problems, but the Xbox 360's UK boss, Neil Thompson, insists that it's a case of down, not out)
Graeme Philipson, Minding the store, The Age, 2008 Apr. 1 (one of my favourite publications used to be a little volume sponsored by EMC and published every two years by the University of California in Berkeley; called How Much Information, it estimated the total amount of information in the world - in books, newspapers, films and stored in optical and magnetic devices)

Operating Systems

(see also Software)

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Asher Moses, Cloud computing takes the 'P' out of PC, The Age, 2008 Apr. 24 (forget monster hard drives, backing up your PC and shrink-wrapped software - the future of computing is up in the "cloud")
Darren Waters, Ubuntu 'reaping Linux dividend', BBC, 2008 Apr. 21 (public perception of open source is changing fast, says Ubuntu leader Mark Shuttleworth)
Jack Schofield, XP is dead—so don't plan on avoiding Windows 7, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 17 (analysts suggest that, at some unspecified point after 2011, Windows could collapse under its own weight)
AP, Passionate Windows XP fans rebel, The Age, 2008 Apr. 14 (fans of Windows XP, set to be pulled off store shelves in June, paper the internet with blog posts, cartoons and petitions)
John Naughton, Turns out the mini-laptop revolution was just child's play, Observer, 2008 Apr. 13 (the EeePC, which was designed for children, has found its market niche among adults)

Projects and Systems

(see also in Business)

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Nick Miller, Health upgrade gets poor diagnosis, The Age, 2008 Apr. 17 (the State Government is grappling with another multimillion-dollar computer fiasco, this time involving a major upgrade of health technology systems)
Caroline Davies and Ben Quinn, New chaos hits Terminal 5, Observer, 2008 Apr. 6 (fresh computer problems hold up the Heathrow baggage system and force BA to cancel 24 flights)
William Birnbauer, Cashed-up executive or myki mouse caught in ticketing trap?, The Age, 2008 Apr. 6 (the software whiz who quietly helped determine how millions of people around the world pay for daily travel on public transport knows only too well that, in his game, publicity is bound to be bad)

Security

(see also in Internet and Technology)

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Computer security: Pain in the aaS, Economist, 2008 Apr. 26 (online crooks adopt the software industry's new service-based model)
Simon Bowers, HSBC loses disk with policy details of 370,000 customers, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 8 (bank faces possibility of regulatory inquiry and heavy fines after admitting loss of life insurance policy details)

Simulation and Modelling

(see also Video Gaming)

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Skills

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Stephen Cauchi, Exercise gets a Wii bit technical, The Age, 2008 Apr. 20 (call it The Great Indoors; from May 8, Australians will be able to do ski jumping, snow boarding, even tightrope walking - indoors)
Bill Thompson, Who will write tomorrow's code?, BBC, 2008 Apr. 1 (by and large we are merely users of the systems provided, pressing buttons and keys in response to prompts, using 'creativity' tools that constrain our invention, and putting up with failures, disappointments and crashes)
Phil Beadle, On teaching: A step too far, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 1 (computers are no substitute for the real thing)

Software

(see also Operating Systems)

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Gavin Knight, New tool lets online crims cover their tracks, The Age, 2008 Apr. 24 (fast flux has become a weapon of choice for phishers and spammers)
James Randerson, Is this the end for feedback? New software aims to take the buzz and screech out of live music, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 3 (labour-saving software for sound engineers promises to make feedback a thing of the past; audio engineers doubt value of latest device; some fans and musicians regard sound as part of act)

Speech Processing and Translation

(see also in Social)

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Video Gaming

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Video games immune to US slowdown, BBC, 2008 Apr. 18 (US sales of video game consoles and software have grown 57% over the past year, defying the economic downturn)
Neil Davey, Game review: NEVES, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 17 (a puzzler based on an Asian-style paper game with an amiable learning curve that, on occasion, goes vertical)
Daniel Emerson, Parents angry at violent school bully game, The Age, 2008 Apr. 17 (controversial new video game based on schoolyard bullying savaged by parenting and education experts)
Reuters, Nokia opens mobile gaming service, The Age, 2008 Apr. 4 (Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, launches its N-Gage gaming service, hoping to energise an ailing market for mobile gaming)
Aleks Krotoski, It's official: gaming won't turn you into a serial killer, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 3 (the Byron Review highlights a generational gap that harks back to the heady early days of rock'n'roll)
Keith Stuart, Get ready for sports to turn Unreal, Guardian, 2008 Apr. 3 (could we soon be tuning in to videogame tournaments rather than the big match?; some countries already are)
AP, Dungeons & Dragons relives its past, The Age, 2008 Apr. 3 (the next edition of the game, due out in June, will for the first time be paired with online features that the publisher hopes will lure lapsed players back to the dungeon)
Mark Ward, Casual games make a serious impact, BBC, 2008 Mar. 18 (for many years video games have been all about the hard core player; industry experts dissect why casual games are proving to be so popular)