Jim Wagner

Microsoft announced the formation of its Media/Entertainment & Technology Convergence Group, a move it says addresses the trepidation that industry executives have regarding the software company’s history. The company tapped Blair Westlake, former Universal Television Networks Group chairman, to head up the group as its corporate vice president. “Microsoft, for a long time, has tried […]

IBM took the wraps off Java-based software development tool enhancements to kick off its Rational Software Development Users Conference this week in Texas. The company unleashed a pile of code to enhance several of its key software initiatives, which it will dole out throughout the year. The intitiatives will support IBM’s efforts to integrate the […]

Executives from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) are inching closer to a new era of self-government apart from the U.S. Department of Commerce. Speaking from the Shangri-La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during ICANN’s tri-annual meeting Monday, Vint Cerf, ICANN chairman, said seven of the 24 tasks needed to move ICANN’s […]

Officials at JBoss, Inc., announced the certification of its open source project, JBoss Application Server version 4.0, with J2EE 1.4 Monday, marking it as the first open source company to pass the version’s extensive compatibility test process. The certification makes JBoss 4.0 the open source project’s first fully J2EE-compatible application server. According to company officials, […]

Imagine never having to reach for the phone again when you want to order a pizza. Just a few clicks on your television’s remote control is all that stands between you and your piping-hot delivery. This is interactive television (iTV) and it’s local telephone company CT Communications’ take on the future of home delivery. Using […]

The foundation formed in the wake of a failed Web browser initiative by AOL celebrates its first anniversary Thursday. The Mozilla Foundation, an open source project that develops a standalone and bundled browser, e-mail client, HTML editor and IRC chat client, has in recent times gotten help from Microsoft , the most unlikely of sources […]

A judge has agreed to delay the proceedings of SCO Group’s copyright-themed lawsuit against AutoZone , a ruling that’s a partial win for both sides. The lawsuit, filed against AutoZone in March, claims that, as a large user of Linux, the auto parts retailer “violated SCO’s UNIX copyrights by running versions of the Linux operating […]

IBM’s emerging technologies site, alphaWorks, now features a Java-based application that lets developers see how their site looks and sounds to a person with low-vision impairment or blindness. Called aDesigner, the tool was developed in the IBM Tokyo Research Lab to make Web access easier for the thousands of Internet users around the world who […]

A panel of experts from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said VeriSign moved too soon with its controversial SiteFinder service and recommends it never be used in the public realm again. The report, “Redirection in the Com and Net Domains,” released over the weekend by the Security and Stability Advisory Committee […]

While writing Exploring the JDS Linux Desktop for O’Reilly & Sons, Sam Hiser and Tom Adelstein realized that Sun’s Java Desktop System (JDS) was underrated by many desktop users. And even its creators. So to try and garner some industry-wide JDS respect, the authors Monday launched JDShelp.org. “We were monitoring the Sun JDS forum and […]

Officials at Novell will soon dive into the world of professional open source with paid support and services for Mono 1.0, an open source development platform based on version 1.1 of the .NET framework. Paid Mono support is the Waltham, Mass.-based company’s first endeavor into professional open source, a term used to describe a maintenance […]

Developers at the Mozilla Foundation quickly patched a hole in its Web browser that could allow crackers to take over users’ PCs. The 572-byte patch disables the browser’s use of the “shell:” external protocol handler. The handler determines what application to execute when it runs across a specific file extension. One example of this is […]