LinuxInsider: Linux News & Information from Around the World

Verizon Embraces LiMo Foundation's Brand of Openness

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

The Open Handset Alliance may have the power of Google behind it, but a surge of new members has just swelled the ranks of the competing LiMo Foundation to 40, the group announced Wednesday. Verizon Wireless, Mozilla, Infineon Technologies, Kvaleberg, Red Bend Software, Sagem Mobiles, SFR and SK Telecom are the newest members of LiMo, which was founded in January 2007 by just six companies. "This latest group of new members demonstrates the rapidly expanding reach of the LiMo ecosystem," said Morgan Gillis, the group's executive director. [More...]

Wikis: The Crown Jewels of Collaboration

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

Increasingly, managers find themselves leading teams that are scattered in different cities or even continents, working on projects which have to be flexible enough to rapidly evolve to meet changing business needs. In this environment, business managers are starting to learn what software developers have known for years: Wikis provide a simple but powerful boost to collaboration. [More...]

Larousse: A Wikipedia Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Wednesday - May 14, 2008

France has long battled against the Anglophone cultural invasion, and now it has thrown down a virtual gauntlet. Larousse, the French encyclopedia created more than 150 years ago, is launching its own -- it would say improved -- version of Wikipedia. Its first, free-access, online encyclopedia will have the same contributor function, but Larousse has introduced some constraints. [More...]

Mobile Applications With a Sense of Place

Tuesday - May 13, 2008

What do you want your cell phone to be able to do? Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cell phones that use Google's upcoming Android mobile operating system. [More...]

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Can a Windows PC Really Be Cheaper Than a Linux Box?

Monday - May 12, 2008

It must have been a chilly week in hell last week, because the unthinkable appears to have happened: A Windows PC has been announced that will be cheaper than a Linux one. That's right, folks: The Windows XP version of the Asus Eee PC 900 will sell for $599 in Australia, while the Linux version will cost $649, according to APC Magazine. [More...]

New Powerset Search Tech Gets Your Drift

Monday - May 12, 2008

Powerset, a new Internet search engine company, has launched a proof-of-concept salvo in the search engine war -- a natural language processing engine that attempts to understand the meaning behind a search phrase and the text it's searching against. Instead of returning a long list of results that simply contain the key words a user enters, Powerset attempts to unlock the meaning encoded in ordinary human language. [More...]

Google Speaks in Tongues

Sunday - May 11, 2008

Teaching a computer to understand languages isn't rocket science -- it's not nearly that easy, said Peter Norvig, director of research at Google. It takes a limited number of calculations to send a spacecraft to the moon, Mars or other planets. And while the calculations aren't so simple, they are fairly easily managed by a computer, he said. [More...]

Not Much Life in China's Virtual Worlds

Saturday - May 10, 2008

Last November, Procter & Gamble's Vidal Sassoon launched with much fanfare its first hair salon in China's virtual world. There was even a virtual ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, today the VS salon in HiPiHi, China's oldest and largest virtual world, sits mostly empty save for the occasional visitor. [More...]

Sun's JavaFX: Smart Move or Too Much Caffeine?

Friday - May 9, 2008

Taking on the likes of Adobe and Microsoft, Sun Microsystems on Tuesday unveiled its new JavaFX family of products for building rich Internet applications. Based on Sun's longstanding Java platform, JavaFX includes a runtime and a tools suite that Web scripters, designers and developers can use to quickly build and deliver rich interactive applications for desktop, mobile devices, TV and other platforms. [More...]

MySpace Walls Come Tumbling Down

Friday - May 9, 2008

MySpace has forged agreements with other popular Internet sites -- Yahoo, eBay, Photobucket and Twitter -- to permit MySpace users to migrate their data. Profiles, videos and friend networks are among the content that can be ported. They can then access the partner sites using their MySpace user names and passwords. [More...]

Collaboration to Drive Innovation at HP Labs

Friday - May 9, 2008

HP has unveiled an initiative allowing academic institutions to collaborate with HP Labs in joint research through an open and competitive process. The HP Labs Innovation Research Program invites colleges, universities and research institutions around the world to submit proposals related to current research. [More...]

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