Gawkwire: Web Hosting and Internet News Resource

Only 8 Bugs Stand In The Way Of Chrome For Mac Beta

2009-11-28T15:20:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) We know that a beta version of Chrome for Mac is due at least by the end of December, but today brings more confirmation that it may be even closer than that. Mike Pinkerton, the guy leading the Chrome for Mac team, has just tweeted out that there are only “8 remaining M4 Mac beta blockers! Go team! #chrome”

This means that there are only 8 things standing in the way of Chrome for Mac going beta. “M4″ stands for “milestone 4,” which is how they phrase “version 4,” which the Mac beta build of Chrome will be (the current dev channel version is 4.0.249.12, for example). ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/only_8_bugs_stand_in_the_way_of_chrome_for_mac.html

German Government Claim Google Analytics is illegal

2009-11-24T06:36:00-05:00

Germany (TechCrunch) Several federal and regional government officials in Germany are trying to put a ban on Google Analytics, the search giant’s free software product that allows website owners and publishers to get detailed statistics about the number, whereabouts and search behavior of their visitors (and much more).

According to an article in today’s Zeit Online (poor Google translation here), multiple federal and state government officials charged with guarding over national data protection are convinced that Google Analytics is against the law in Germany and are mulling imposing fines on companies who use the service to gather detailed stats based on their website visitors’ usage patterns without the explicit consent of those visitors. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_design/german_government_claim_google_analytics_is_illegal.html

Facebook Soon To Enable You To Comment On Status Updates Via E-mail

2009-11-23T06:26:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Annoyed because you have to leave your e-mail inbox every time you would like to respond to someone else’s Facebook status update? Good news: the social network is testing a brand new feature that will enable you to comment on threads by e-mail.

It appears as if the new feature is currently being tested only with a very small subset of users; we haven’t seen it at the bottom of any Facebook notification e-mails yet and there are only about 4 tweets from the past couple of days mentioning the new feature. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/facebook_soon_to_enable_you_to_comment_on_status_updates_via_e-m.html

Watch “Leverage Cloud Computing” Webinar Now for Free

2009-11-20T06:25:00-05:00

(HostingCon) If you were unable to attend the first HostingCon Webinar Series event last week, you can watch the webinar “Leverage Cloud Computing in Your Hosting Operation” free of charge in the HostingCon Webinar Archive.

Brian Farrow of Hivelocity and Bert Armijo of 3Tera did a fantastic job preparing and presenting the webinar content. A few of the topics covered in the webinar included the myths of cloud computing, the drivers of cloud computing adaptation, and the concerns of deploying a cloud computing infrastructure. If you own, operate, or are employed by an organization that is considering a move to the cloud, this webinar is one to watch!

Watch the webinar “Leverage Cloud Computing in Your Hosting Organization” now for free.

Look for more HostingCon Webinar Series events throughout the rest of the year and into 2010.

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/watch_leverage_cloud_computing_webinar_now_for_free.html

Q&A with Microsoft's security chief

2009-11-19T06:27:00-05:00

LOS ANGELES, CA (cnet) When Ray Ozzie penned his Internet Services Disruption memo back in 2005, he had a pretty good idea where the computing world was going. He just didn't know how Microsoft was going to get there.

While many are ready to write off Microsoft as an declining icon of computing's last generation, Ozzie sees Microsoft positioned to leapfrog some of the companies that tend to be thought of as the leaders of the cloud computing world--names like Amazon, Salesforce and Google.

"I will never, ever, utter the words 'mission accomplished' for obvious reasons," Ozzie said in an interview after his speech at the Professional Developers Conference. "But I'm really pleased with where things are."

It's been a tough journey, to be sure. But Ozzie says Microsoft has changed in ways he could not have imagined. In particular, Ozzie points to Windows Azure--Microsoft's operating system in the clouds. Rather than just offer a set of services to move today's computing programs to remote servers, Ozzie says Azure is designed to handle the applications of tomorrow.

"When we began developing Azure, we developed it more or less with a clean sheet of paper saying, 'What will the operating environment look like for the next 30 years?' Ozzie said. "If you look at VMware or (Amazon's) EC2, what it really is--and I mean to be saying this respectfully--but it's more or less a (virtual machine) hosting environment. It's not a transformational computing environment."

In a lengthy interview with CNET, Ozzie also talked about lessons Microsoft learned from the recent Sidekick outage as well as why people are wrong to count Microsoft out of the smartphone race.

Here is an edited transcript

http://www.gawkwire.com/business/q_a_with_microsoft_s_security_chief.html

A CNET Conversation with Eric Schmidt

2009-11-16T06:28:00-05:00

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/a_cnet_conversation_with_eric_schmidt.html

Google Chrome OS To Launch Within A Week

2009-11-13T06:13:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Google’s Chrome OS project, first announced in July, will become available for download within a week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. Google previously said to expect an early version of the OS in the fall.

What can we expect? Driver support will likely be a weak point. We’ve heard at various times that Google has a legion of engineers working on the not so glamorous task of building hardware drivers. And we’ve also heard conflicting rumors that Google is mostly relying on hardware manufacturers to create those drivers. Whatever the truth, and it’s likely in between, having a robust set of functioning drivers is extremely important to Chrome OS’s success. People will want to download this to whatever computer they use and have it just work.

We expect Google will be careful with messaging around the launch, and endorse a small set of devices for installation. EEE PC netbooks, for example, may be one set of devices that Google will say are ready to use Chrome OS. There will likely be others as well, but don’t expect to be able to install it on whatever laptop or desktop machine you have from day one. Google has previously said they are working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba on the project.

We’ve seen convincing and not so convincing screenshots of Chrome OS over the last several months. The good news is the speculation is about to end, and you can try it out yourself. If you have one of the supported devices, that is. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/google_chrome_os_to_launch_within_a_week.html

Facebook coming to PS3 in mystery update?

2009-11-11T18:05:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) Some leaked screenshots from Sony show a PS3 interface with what looks like a native Facebook client configurable. There’s also a new photo browser and the ability to change the color of your gamercard, but at those features I make a dismissive gesture— thusly. A Facebook app would be handy, though a constant stream of status updates from heavy players might be lead to mutings by less gaming-orientated friends. “Devin found a new item!”

But that’s just the usual pain that comes with convergence. Facebook integration was announced for the Xbox 360 back at E3, though it’s not yet to the point of an actual client. It’s been given a few test runs, and I have to say it looks a bit ugly in NXE form, but what doesn’t? I think what irks me the hipshot way the avatars stand. It isn’t right. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/web_hosting/facebook_coming_to_ps3_in_mystery_update.html

Amarjyoti Krishnan of BobCares speaks about HostingCon 2009

2009-11-12T06:57:00-05:00

(HostingCon) BobCares has exhibited at many HostingCon shows, and HostingCon 2009 in Washington DC was no exception. Amarjyoti Krishnan, who is the director and co-founder of the company, was kind enough to take a minute out of his hectic schedule to describe his company’s experience at HostingCon 2009.

There are still HostingCon 2010 exhibitor opportunities available for the upcoming conference in Austin, Texas. If you’re interested in exhibiting, be sure to secure your booth or sponsorship opportunity now before it’s too late!

Interested in more video content from HostingCon? Subscribe to the HostingCon YouTube channel to be notified when new video content is posted!

http://www.gawkwire.com/events_html/amarjyoti_krishnan_of_bobcares_speaks_about_hostingcon_2009.html

Jeff Lyon of Black Lotus talks about the HostingCon experience

2009-11-10T11:18:00-05:00

The HostingCon 2009 exhibit hall was a bustling place full of valuable networking experiences and business connections. Jeff Lyon, CEO of Black Lotus Communications, took some time out of his day on the show floor to tell us just how valuable HostingCon 2009 was to his company and his plans for Black Lotus Communications at HostingCon 2010 in Austin, Texas.

Interested in exhibiting at HostingCon 2010? Booth spaces are filling up fast! Check out the Exhibiting at HostingCon 2010 page to see just how valuable a presence at HostingCon can be for your company.

Be sure to subscribe to the HostingCon YouTube channel for more video content throughout the year just like the HostingCon 2009 Black Lotus Communications exhibit hall talk above!

http://www.gawkwire.com/video_tv/jeff_lyon_of_black_lotus_talks_about_the_hostingcon_experience.html

Massive Security Flaws in Facebook & MySpace

2009-11-05T07:12:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) A Facebook developer named Yvo Schaap has uncovered a massive security flaw present on both Facebook and MySpace that would give hackers the ability to steal all of your account data, including your photos, personal messages, and basically everything else you’ve ever put on the social networks, without you ever realizing it.

Schaap stumbled upon the exploit and contacted both Facebook and MySpace. According to his blog MySpace has since fixed the bug, and while his blog indicates that Facebook is still working on it we’ve confirmed that they’ve fixed it as well (we’re waiting on a statement from MySpace). So what exactly could the exploit do? From Schaap’s blog:

You don’t need much time to think of all the ways this could be exploited. All what has to happen is a active session, or a “auto login”-cookie and a URL which hosts a exploiting Flash file. For example when accessed, a automatic “post update” could be made, that would lure friends of the user to access the exploit URL, and the exploit would spread virally. An more invasive and hidden exploit could harvest all the users personal photo’s, data and messages to a central server without any trace, and there is no reason why this wouldn’t be happening already with both Facebook and MySpace data. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/massive_security_flaws_in_facebook_myspace.html

Nasty Gmail Bug Marks Unread E-mails As Read

2009-11-04T06:27:00-05:00

(TechCrunch) I haven’t noticed this myself today, but it appears at least a subset of Gmail users are inadvertently drawing closer to an inbox with zero unread e-mails thanks to a nasty bug that marks messages as read even before the user opens them.

Former TechCrunch writer Ouriel Ohayon was one of the first to signal the bug on Twitter – with many of his followers echoing the phenomenon – and a quick search shows other users are seeing the same thing. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/nasty_gmail_bug_marks_unread_e-mails_as_read.html

Google opens up Wave federation

2009-11-03T06:32:00-05:00

(cnet) Google took an important step on Monday in the development of Google Wave, opening its servers up to outsiders who want their own waves to communicate with the outside world.

A "wave" is a stream of messages that blends traditional e-mail, instant messaging, file sharing, and workplace collaboration tools. There have been plenty of supporters and detractors of Google Wave, Google's bid to reinvent e-mail as a combination of such services. But Google's implementation of Wave is going to be only one part of the story: outside developers will have the opportunity to build their own wavelike services using the Google Wave API set. ...Go to source

http://www.gawkwire.com/technology/google_opens_up_wave_federation.html