A welcome exception to the US DMCA, but the bigger pattern is still threatening to digital liberty

While the decision by the US Library of Congress to create exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for unlocking cellphones and jailbreaking iPhones (among other things) in the USA are very welcome, the reaction has been just a touch too euphoric. Not by everyone, mind you. Dan Gilmore begins to explain why this isn't a solution, and Wendy Seltzer nudges close to the problem as well. But plenty of people think they've been granted more than they really have.

Open source tool cuts time to find bugs from days to hours, claims researcher Charlie Miller

Researchers and developers - and hackers - can dramatically slash the time it takes to root out exploitable security vulnerabilities by using an open-source toolkit created at UC Berkeley, noted bug hunter Charlie Miller said at Black Hat.

Realise the benefits

Whether you are looking to consolidate physical resources and create a virtualized data center, or you’re sticking with a tried-and-true traditional architecture, the ability to forestall additional capital expenditures through the implementation of server offload techniques can only improve your financial efficiency—while maintaining or even improving availability, capacity, and performance. And with the anticipated growth of virtual machines per server, it is imperative to ensure that each application deployed within a virtual machine is as efficient as possible. The more concurrent users or transactions per second that can be processed, while limiting resources used, the more you can ensure that performance and capacity will not suffer as the number of virtual machines per physical server increases.

Recommended best practices

The virtualisation of network and application network infrastructure is the second wave of the virtualisation tsunami to hit the shores of the data centre. Unlike server virtualisation, because of its unique role in the data centre, Application Delivery Controller (ADC) virtualisation brings with it architectural implications that make a simple vitual-for-physical replacement strategy unacceptable. But there are appropriate places across the data centre and organisation where virtualised ADCs can be leveraged as stand-alone solutions, as well as in conjunction with its physical predecessor, to enable a more dynamic data centre without compromising reliability, scalability, and performance.

Implementing a more efficient green strategy

Most green initiatives thus far have focused solely on reducing the power requirements of individual devices. While that is certainly a valid approach to reducing power consumption, it does not affect other variables in the green equation such as the power required to cool a data center or the power provided to racks upon racks of servers.

The content management company Day Software may not be the world's most famous outfit making money from open source – perhaps a function of the fact that it is located in Basel, hardly known as a hotbed of hackers – but it's certainly an important one, particularly in the Apache part of the open source ecosystem.

Open source company takes over from Oracle

A Norwegian startup is assuming responsibility for maintaining an open source web authentication technology originally developed by Sun Microsystems, and seemingly neglected by Oracle, which purchased Sun in January. The company, ForgeRock, has released a new version of Sun's Open Single Sign On (OpenSSO) Enterprise software, called OpenAM, that adheres to the OpenSSO roadmap established by Sun.

Recently, there was an interesting rumour circulating that Oracle had a war chest of some $70 billion, and was going on an acquisition spree.

Audio and video podcasts are nothing new but recently there has been a boom in the number of good quality technology podcasts coming out of South Africa. From serious business-focused podcasts to geek talkshows there are at least four worth checking out.

ZATech Show

http://zatech.co.za/

The granddaddy of SA podcasts, the ZATech show is now well past its 100th show and continues to be highly entertaining and informative. Hosted by tech Simon Dingle, the show has a regular line-up of technology journalists including Duncan Mcleod, Brett Haggard, Ben Kelly and Jon Tullet as well as a selection of guests. Well worth a listen every week.

The Open Tech Exchange

http://mxc.libsyn.com/

Jointly hosted by Mark Clarke from SA and Darlene Parker from Canada the Open Tech Exchange is a regular technology show focusing on issues around open source and open standards. Topics range from users groups and community to free and open source in Africa, around the world and in business. The show generally focuses on one interview or a primary issue in each episode. The best thing about the OTE podcast is that gives coverage to open source people and issues that otherwise wouldn’t be heard from.

Lets Talk Geek

http://www.letstalkgeek.net/

One of the newest podcasts is the Lets Talk Geek one. As the name suggests the show is heavy on the geek talk and is an entertaining look at issues of the week. The usual hosts include Stewart Allen, Tim Haak, Barry Reid, Jeff Hinds as well as a guest of the week. The show is available as a video and audio podcast and while not explicitly focused on open source, regularly includes free software topics. The podcast has also done good interviews with a number of local open source personalities.

Talk Central

http://www.techcentral.co.za/category/podcasts/talkcentral-podcasts/

The newest tech podcast is the Tech Central one. Produced by TechCentral the podcast is primarily focused on business technology. Duncan Mcleod and Candice Jones, editors of the TechCentral publication, discuss the main business technologies of the week in this regular podcast. Entertaining and informative.

Got a favourite local podcasts? Tell me about it.

Stops selling Linux PCs online

Despite previously claiming that Linux systems are safer than those running Windows, PC maker Dell has stopped selling computers pre-installed with the Ubuntu operating system via its website - the principle source of orders for the company

Twice the network at half the cost

Creating networks that can run business-critical applications is one of the core focuses of the enterprise IT department. This has traditionally meant wired Ethernet, with wireless often seen as an afterthought for convenience rather than the network of choice. But as aging wired infrastructure approaches its next expensive refresh cycle and users demand mobility IT departments are looking for an alternative. In uncertain economic times, a networking technology that radically cuts per-port costs and eliminates most cabling would seem to be ideal.

Enterprise wireless networking

The last decade of the 20th century witnessed the use of Internet. The first decade of the 21st century has seen the rise of wireless connectivity. Wireless networking is now commonplace—mobile connectivity is becoming a rule, not an exception. But getting there was not as easy as it may seem today. Wireless networking requires a basic understanding of the world of Radio Frequency (RF)— where concepts like channel planning, cell sizes and frequency reuse are the norm.

Flexible working for efficiency and effectiveness

Following the May 2010 general election and resulting budget cuts, the UK public sector faces the toughest challenges in decades. Adoption of leaner, more agile work styles, implementation of mobile and flexible working solutions and some strong executive leadership will be called for if the sector is to continue delivering the required levels of public services while producing the many billions of efficiency savings that will be expected of it.

Closing the stable door before the horse bolts

Many companies are enduring a recovery from recession that can best be described as tentative. They may not regard it as the best time to be investing money and management time in privacy protection. In fact, the opposite is the case. The business imperatives for building and maintaining the walls that will prevent data breaches have never been so urgent. Not only are the legal requirements to maintain data security – and sanctions in the event of failure – higher than ever, customers increasingly regard the protection of their data as a differentiator between businesses with whom they choose to work with and those they don’t. All this must be done at a time when the amount of work being done by employees outside the traditional confines of the office is growing rapidly. This development makes the task of preserving data confidentiality exponentially more difficult.

Realise the benefits

The report begins by reviewing the classic approach comparing the service as a substitute for business travel. By looking at three distinct classes of business travel - day trips, overnight trips and week-long trips - Brockmann & Company developed a Demand curve for each class of substitution. We then review the value of the service with respect to the more mature audio conferencing and web conferencing services.

Making the right choice for your organisation

Telepresence is the latest in a long line of visual communications technologies that have promised to revolutionise corporate collaboration. But can the new technology meet the complex and demanding needs of today’s organisations for reducing costs, improving productivity, and realising their environmental responsibilities—or is it just another example of a solution looking for a problem?

Telepresence buyers guide

Deriving the best return on your telepresence investment requires that the solution deliver superior performance under all circumstances. Inconsistent quality and performance can reduce the overall telepresence experience and cause the telepresence rooms to have lower utilization. Ongoing costs for network infrastructure, network bandwidth, system support and service can have a tremendous impact on the value of a telepresence solution regardless of any up-front discounts. All these factors reduce the benefits of your deployment and the return you can expect.

The benefits of seamless communication

The business world is changing. Today’s workforce is more global than ever before. Not only are teams spread out around the world, but people are also working from a greater variety of places — workstation, home office, coffee shop and anywhere in between.

Browser prepares for overhaul

Firefox is set to adopt a new tab design that will transform the browser's interface, a senior Mozilla developer has announced..

Mozilla updates a just-released fix for second time in two months

For the second time in two months, Mozilla on Friday rushed out a fix for Firefox to patch a problem with a browser update issued just days before.