Free Republic

AUGUST 03, 2005 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - Newly launched TrueDemand Software Inc. aims to deliver a suite of radio frequency identification (RFID) applications designed to help retailers and manufacturers derive greater value from data generated by the emerging smart-tag technology. The Los Gatos, Calif.-based company, which opened its doors to business on Monday, is co-founded by two well-known experts in the RFID sector: Hau Lee, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, and Raymond Blanchard, SAP AG's former Auto-ID business development director for its manufacturing business solutions group. The CEO is Eric Peters, who...

The next time you visit the Web site of Microsoft Corp. to download some software, be prepared to let the world’s biggest software company have a look inside your computer. In a determined strike to quell the proliferation of counterfeit software, Microsoft is now requiring that all customers coming to its Web site for upgrades and other downloads submit their computers to an electronic frisking. If you use one of the estimated 100 million PCs running pirated software, don’t expect your upgrade. For Microsoft, the new policy is a stepped-up effort to combat the loss of billions of dollars’ worth...

"500 software companies active in Iran" Monday, August 01, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com LONDON, August 1 (IranMania) - There are 500 software companies in Iran, reported ILNA quoting statistics released by the Secretariat of the High Council of Information Dissemination. The report indicated that the software market has grown by 41% per annum over the past two years thanks chiefly to state support. The total value of Iran?s software production and services market reached $400 mln in 2004. The government, said the report, plans to boost software exports. There are also plans to increase software exports to $100 mln a...

The Danes love their beer, but increasingly they are looking beyond the old Danish standby, Carlsberg, to quench their thirst. Students from the Information Technology University in Copenhagen are trying to help by releasing what they are calling the world's first open source beer recipe. It is called Vores Oel, or Our Beer, and the recipe is proving to be a worldwide hit. The idea behind the beer comes from open source software. This is software whose code is made publicly available for anyone to change and improve, provided that those changes and improvements are then shared in turn. Perhaps...

Attackers are also focusing on Web browsers and media players, SANS says JULY 25, 2005 (REUTERS) - Flawed backup software has emerged as the latest target for hackers looking for corporate secrets, according to a survey released today. The survey by the nonprofit SANS Institute found new holes in widely used software products, even as computer users are getting better at patching some favorite hacker targets. Attackers are now focusing on desktop software, like Web browsers and media players, that may not get fixed as frequently as Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and other software widely used by business, the...

WASHINGTON, July 21, 2005 – The European Union lifting its arms embargo against China would bring "serious and numerous" consequences, according to a Defense Department report released this week. The European Union has embargoed arms sales to China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown. In the past year China has run an intense lobbying effort to have the ban lifted, a move strongly opposed by U.S. officials. "We think the Chinese would be able to obtain in Europe a lot of military or dual-use technologies that would be of great qualitative benefit to them," a senior DoD official said July...

July 11, 2005 (China Knowledge) - Microsoft will buy a 28% stake in Langchao International Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed computer distributor, for US$25 million. The deal is an extension of the global strategic cooperation between Microsoft and Langchao Group established last November. Earlier this month, Microsoft invested US$20 million in Langchao Group. According to Xinhua Financial Network, Langchao International is 67.5% owned by state-run company Langchao Group. Proceeds from the investment will be used for the acquisition, formation of joint ventures for the development and sale of software and/or general working capital.

Modernizes the sales and use tax. As reported by the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on June 20, 2005, with amendments. An Act modernizing the sales and use tax, amending and supplementing P.L.1966, c.30 and amending P.L.1980, c.105.

1 Best Free Web Browser Internet Explorer is a good browser but it has become such a target for malicious exploits that it is now a major security risk. Quite separately, the browser itself is now looking dated with most alternative products offering tabbed browsing and other productivity enhancements. There are several excellent alternatives but Mozilla Firefox is the stand-out pick. It's safer than Internet Explorer, so safe in fact that many users have reported no spyware infections since they started using the product. It's also browses faster than Internet Explorer and since the release of version 1.0, it's stable...

New research revealed at the ELSPA International Games Summit suggests that British consumers are aware of the industry's position on counterfeit goods, but do not support its initiatives to cut down on the rate of piracy. Highlights of a study to be released next week, called Fake Nation, were discussed at the summit by researcher Dr Jo Bryce, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Central Lancashire. One of the key findings of the study was that consumers consider piracy to be a normal part of life, and that they do not share the view of the industry...

NEW DELHI: Breaching the much touted "impenetrable" Window Genuine Advantage (WGA) of Microsoft, an Indian researcher has shown the global software leader how fragile its claims were. With a potential to hurt Microsoft's business across the world, Debasis Mohanty has broke open WGA through an "easy-to-exploit" weakness in the software for generating illegal copies of Window XP programme. Microsoft confirmed the claims of the Bangalore-based rsearcher Debasis Mohanty but sought to downplay it saying "it represents very little threat." A company spokesperson said they did expect counterfeiters to try a number of different methods to circumvent safeguards provided by WGA....

An online site in Russia is using an affiliate model to spread malicious code, including back doors, other Trojans, spyware, and adware By Gregg Keizer, TechWeb InformationWeek An online business based in Russia is paying Web sites 6 cents for each machine they infect with adware and spyware, according to security researchers who call the practice "awful." Pay To Infect A Russian business pays Web sites to infect PCs with adware and spyware -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IframeDollars says it pays 6.1 cents per compromised machine to any site that signs up as an affiliate -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IframeDollars claims that it handed out $11,890...

Okay, I'm an idiot. Now that we've established that, can anyone help me figure out what is freaking out my computer? I'm in a really bad fix because I work in a law office and because of this problem our e-filings are at a standstill. Naturally it falls on me to fix this, because the attorney is even more clueless than I am. We have a Windows 2002 system...I think...hooked to an HP Laserjet 3030 all-in-one printer/scanner/fax. Three times in the last two weeks I have gotten the message "Not set up on PC" in the little scanner window when...

Indian IT exports exceed projection, grow 34.5% BANGALORE - India's software and services exports exceeded expectations and registered a 34.5% growth to clock revenues of US$17.2 billion in 2004-05, and forecast for the current fiscal is a 30-32% jump to touch US$22.5 billion. NASSCOM had projected a 30-32% growth for 2004-05, from $12.8 billion in the previous year. Findings of its annual survey on the performance of the Indian IT-ITES industry (excluding hardware) and the outlook for 2005-06, released FRiday, showed a 34.5% growth for 2004-05. At a press conference here, NASSCOM Chairman S Ramadorai and NASSCOM President Kiran Karnik...

PARIS: Software protection companies are warning that a vicious new form of cyber-attack known as "ransomware" is threatening computers by encrypting documents and demanding money for them to be decrypted. Symantec, a manufacturer of anti-virus programmes, said on Thursday on its website that the attacking programme is a "Trojan horse" that enters the computer via holes in the victim's web browser, scans a hard drive and encrypts any text-based documents that it finds. Unlike a virus, a Trojan horse does not replicate from machine to machine. f it installs successfully, the new threat wipes out text files then displays a...

WASHINGTON - For years executives at the Department of Veterans Affairs have disparaged their homegrown hospital computer system as old, clunky and expensive to maintain. They have spent - and lost - fortunes trying to convert to more "modern"' software, including a $300-million experiment that flopped last year at Bay Pines VA Medical Center in St. Petersburg. Over the next decade, the VA wants taxpayers to fork over another $3.5-billion to overhaul the entire network. In the broader medical community, however, the VA's "old" computer system, which lets doctors manage patient care with the click of a mouse, is sometimes...

Chicago, IL, May. 25 (UPI) -- Want to draw a "Wookie" for your Web site, or craft some other cool Hollywood-style character for the whole world to see? The latest graphic design applications from Corel Corp., Quark Inc. and other software developers are making it possible for amateur as well as experienced artists to craft images similar to those by produced by LucasFilm for the "Star Wars" movies for Internet sites, experts told UPI's The Web. "We're somewhat looking to target the Web more," said Nick Davies, general manager of Corel in Ottawa, Canada, maker of the popular CorelDRAW, Corel...

HONG KONG, May 20 Asia Pulse - The use of pirated software was the most popular in Vietnam among Asian countries in 2004, with the piracy rate standing at as high as 92 per cent, according to a report released Thursday by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Hong Kong. China came in second at 90 per cent, followed by Indonesia, which registered 87 per cent, the report said. It was found that 52 per cent of the computer software used in Hong Kong was pirated, which cost software manufacturers US$116 million in losses. The BSA warned that the prevalent...

..."Computers are the new garage," said James Rotondi, the editor of Future Music, a new magazine packaged with enough free software to get any would-be Moby started. "A lot of people who are making music right now have never recorded to tape. The concept is completely foreign to them." Music recording, an arduous, analog process that has long been the province of musician gearheads and studio savants, is being downsized and democratized by a virtual array of digital sound loops, simulated instruments and the notebook-size means to record them. The growing power of laptop computers and new software means consumers...

Don't start with the pirate gags -- eye patches, pieces of eight, Johnny Depp with a cutlass. David Cook and Roger Green have heard them all. Still, it is hard to resist the analogy. Here we are, with thousands of American software engineers clamoring for more work, and these two guys have a plan to carry even more jobs offshore. Not to India this time, or to China. Just . . . offshore. They figure three miles out in the Pacific should be far enough.