December 17, 2009

Autodesk, a leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, announced the results of a new study that found productivity gains of up to 63% when engineers and designers use AutoCAD 2010 software for common design and documentation tasks. The study, conducted by Cambashi Limited, an independent consulting and analyst firm, compares the time it takes to complete specific tasks using AutoCAD 2010 and AutoCAD 2007 software.

The report concludes that “using AutoCAD 2010 can bring considerable performance improvements to the average user. As well as reducing the time to undertake different tasks, the new features of AutoCAD 2010 — particularly the enhanced PDF handling — extend the reach of the AutoCAD user and make collaboration simpler.” These findings illustrate how new capabilities in AutoCAD 2010 can help users realize a rapid return on investment in the latest release of one of the world’s leading design and documentation platforms.

AutoCAD 2010 Features Directly Correlate to Productivity Gains
The Cambashi study demonstrated how individual feature improvements in AutoCAD 2010, when used during typical design lifecycle activities, can minimize repetitive tasks and eliminate steps required to document and communicate design ideas. Average performance improvements documented in the study include the following:

• The PDF publishing feature in AutoCAD 2010 provides better visual quality with smaller file sizes and the ability to attach PDF files to a drawing as an underlay. These features helped users achieve a 63% productivity increase.

• AutoCAD 2010 features new free-form design tools that enable users to create almost any shape imaginable by simply pushing and pulling faces, edges and vertices.

Such free-form modeling capabilities enhanced productivity 62%

• Designers can use dynamic block modeling in AutoCAD 2010 to build multiple alterations using previously stored block geometry. By not having to create new geometries for each variation, designers experienced a 44% productivity increase.

• New PDF import, underlay and enhanced publishing features in AutoCAD 2010 can facilitate two-way communication with the extended design team, creating a 43% productivity improvement.

• AutoCAD 2010 introduced parametric drawing tools that enable designers to define persistent relationships between objects. These tools helped users experience a 35%p productivity increase in 3D drawing productivity.

“Economic conditions have reinforced the need for businesses to do more with less. Today, more than 27 years after Autodesk first released AutoCAD, we continue to add innovative new features to the product so designers and engineers can design and document their projects more quickly without compromising their high standards of quality and accuracy,” said Guri Stark, Autodesk vice president, AutoCAD and Platform Products. “As this study demonstrates, each new feature in AutoCAD 2010 is helping designers minimize time spent on rote activities, freeing them to perform more valuable work.”

December 17, 2009

Kaspersky Lab CEO and co-founder Eugene Kaspersky was recently named one of the most influential executives in the IT industry, boosting the Internet security company’s achievements in providing superior Internet security solutions.

The Moscow anti-virus whiz placed 10th in this year’s list of The Most Influential Executives of 2009 by Everything Channel’s CRN (USA) for having “rewritten the rules of the computer security game and created a security superpower with his company’s take-no-prisoners approach to the market.”

“Kaspersky’s hand-on approach to the business has translated into countless awards for the company’s products,” it said. “Kaspersky’s passion and drive to assure that the company has not lost its technical edge even as he has grown it into one of the largest privately held security companies in the world.”

US-based CRN is a leading trade newsweekly that provides timely industry news and analysis for solution providers, integrators and e-businesses building technology solutions and considered the most trusted source of news for 117,500 channel professionals.

Kaspersky Lab has grown to become the world’s largest privately held anti-malware company. At present, the company ranks among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users.

Eugene Kaspersky has overseen the direction and development of the Kaspersky Lab technology by spending countless hours writing and designing software himself.

Even with a growing team of researchers and software developers, Kaspersky remains closely involved in the software development process to ensure the technological direction of the company matches the needs of Kaspersky Lab’s partners and customers.

The company’s chief executive officer still meets face-to-face with resellers, business owners, IT industry luminaries and aspiring software students as he travels around the globe, sharing the values of the company, and ensuring Kaspersky Lab’s solutions meet the real-world needs of the users he has pledged to protect from Internet threats.

Eugene Kaspersky attributes much of Kaspersky Lab’s success to its 100 percent commitment to the channel..  The company’s partner program is built to drive leads and sales opportunities, provide financing options, and share in-depth training, competitive comparisons, and other resources to help win deals and provide unmatched post-sale support to the end-user.

“When I founded Kaspersky Lab, partnership was the basis for everything we did and it continues to be today,” said Kaspersky.

“Partners are the key to our success and we are constantly striving to provide them with the tools they need to be successful, including constant improvements to our technology to ensure our customers are kept safe online.  Receiving this recognition from Everything Channel’s CRN as one of the most influential individuals is truly an honor.  Congratulations to all of the executives who are recognized this year!”

The Top 100 Most Influential Executives in the Industry listing recognizes the executives who have changed the way the channel does business today and in the future. This year’s list salutes the 25 Most Influential Executives – individuals who are focused on innovation, as well as consistency and those overcoming remarkable challenges.

“With so many innovative channel executives in the industry today we’ve expanded our list to include 100 executives,” stated Robert C. DeMarzo, senior vice President and editorial director, Everything Channel. “We’ve highlighted the most influential, the sales leaders, the most innovative as well as those who have changed the rules of the channel and Eugene Kaspersky is at the top of the list.  We salute him and the other leaders for their hard work and devotion to the technology channel.”

By Dan Nystedt
IDG News Service
December 16, 2009

Microsoft may still face a lawsuit after apologizing for the theft of software code used in MSN China’s microblog service, Juku, from rival Plurk, a popular provider from Canada.

“We are definitely looking at all possibilities on how to move forward in response to Microsoft’s recent statement,” Plurk cofounder Alvin Woon said Wednesday. A “lawsuit is definitely one of the many options we have considered and will continue to look closely to,” he added.

Plurk fired off a blog posting early this week alleging as much as 80% of Juku’s code base was stolen from Plurk.

Microsoft apologized Tuesday, saying an outside company hired to develop Juku copied a portion of the code from Plurk. The statement from the world’s largest software vendor is at odds with one from MSN China early this month defending Juku as “a local innovation developed by MSN China … based on Windows Live Messenger networks.” The MSN China statement was a response to Chinese bloggers who early on called Juku a pirated version of Plurk.

The matter puts Microsoft in an unfamiliar position. The company has complained for years about the piracy of its software in China. In spite of its long experience with the issue, the software giant now finds itself apologizing for its failure to adequately safeguard the intellectual property of a rival code developer.

Microsoft could not immediately be reached for comment.

Dave Thompson, a spokesman for Plurk, said the company went ahead with its blog post accusing Microsoft of code theft only after determining willful intent was involved. “The client code and backend code on Plurk is still all proprietary and not easily accessible for anyone to just lift. Speaking technically, what makes our claim a little stronger is that Plurk’s client side code was obfuscated to begin with, so someone went in there and had to spend some real effort to unpack/reengineer the JS code and prettify it on their end,” he said.

(Owen Fletcher in Beijing and Nancy Gohring in Seattle contributed to this report.)

December 16, 2009

Transcend 4GB aXeRam DDR3-2000
www.transcendusa.com

Global manufacturer of high-performance memory modules, Transcend, has launched 4GB aXeRam DDR3-2000 memory kits for use with Intel’s LGA1156 Core i5 and Core i7 platforms. The XMP-ready DDR3 kits are designed to operate at a blazing-fast clock frequency of 2000 MHz with an exceptionally low voltage of just 1.65V.

Featuring memory bandwidth up to an incredible 32GB/s, Transcend’s new aXeRam dual-channel memory kit is rated at 2000MHz with timings of 9-9-9-24, allowing performance enthusiasts and gamers to take their Intel Core i5 platform to the next level of memory overclocking performance. The Core i5, based on Intel’s new Nehalem architecture, is the first Intel processor to integrate both a 16-lane PCI Express 2.0 graphics port and a two-channel DDR3 memory controller, enabling all input/output and manageability functions to be handled by the single-chip Intel P55 core-logic.

To ensure extra stability and signal integrity at high clock speeds, all aXeRam modules are comprised of 128Mx8 high-quality DDR3 FBGA chips and use robust eight-layer PCBs that fully comply with rigorous JEDEC (Joint Electron Device Engineering Council) standards. The aXeRam DDR3 memory modules use premium DRAM chips and high thermal efficiency aluminum heat sinks with cooling fins to delivering amazing overclocking performance while maintaining cool temperatures.

The memory kit includes two identically matched DDR3 2000MHz modules and is now available in 4GB (2GBx2) capacity.

December 16, 2009

Emerson Network Power, a business of Emerson and the global leader in enabling Business-Critical Continuity, has engaged Rice Communications as its PR agency for Southeast Asia (SEA).

Rice will work with Emerson to raise awareness of their latest IT infrastructure and telecom technologies that enable efficiency without compromising availability. Part of their role includes strengthening the company’s profile in key market segments in IT and telecommunications as well as emerging audience groups.

“Rice comes with extensive knowledge of the ICT market and by working with them we can effectively communicate our solutions and services to our market. Aside from their capabilities, we look forward to leveraging their understanding of Emerson’s business and goals,” said Katrina Tirante, SEA marketing manager, Emerson Network Power.

Rice Communications will work with the company’s Asia Pacific marketing team in six key markets in the region, namely: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.

“As a full-service consultancy, we have been proving strategic, insightful and customized professional communications services to our clients, both on a global and regional scale. We accomplish this through a combination of professional skills and extensive knowledge in the ICT industry, “said Sonya Madeira Stamp, managing partner, Rice Communications. “With Emerson, we intend to work hand-in-hand in strengthening their communications efforts and support them on various in-market initiatives they will be rolling out over the coming months.”

Based in Singapore, Rice was established in January 2009 and is headed by Sonya Madeira Stamp, who has over 15 years of experience in communications.

By Owen Fletcher
IDG News Service
December 15, 2009

Microsoft suspended a microblog-style site for Chinese users on Tuesday after the service was accused of copying programming code from Plurk, a Twitter rival popular in Asia.

Plurk this week alleged that MSN Juku, a service where users could share 140-character messages with friends on a scrolling timeline, appeared to have stolen up to 80 percent of its codebase from Plurk. In a blog post, Plurk showed screenshots and samples of similar JavaScript and CSS code pulled from both services.

Microsoft is looking into the allegations against MSN Juku, which a Microsoft joint venture in China hired a third-party vendor to develop, the company said in a statement. The service, still in beta and launched last month, could not be accessed on Tuesday. Microsoft promised to release further information as it learned more.

Plurk did not reply to e-mails or phone calls on Tuesday.

Online social networking is increasingly popular in China and Microsoft was just one of several big companies looking to tap the market, though Twitter and some of its local-language rivals have been blocked for months in the country on political grounds.

(Dan Nystedt in Taipei contributed to this report.)

By Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service
December 15, 2009

Microsoft‘s Juku service in China did indeed steal code from Plurk, a popular Twitter rival in Asia, the software giant admitted on Tuesday.

Plurk alleged this week that about 80% of Juku’s code base was stolen from Plurk. Shortly after the accusations appeared on Plurk’s blog, Microsoft suspended the Juku service and said it was investigating the matter.

Now it says that a vendor working with Microsoft’s MSN China joint venture acknowledged that a portion of the code that it provided was indeed copied.

Microsoft was apologetic in its note. “When we hire an outside company to do development work, our practice is to include strong language in our contract that clearly states the company must provide work that does not infringe the intellectual property rights of others. We are a company that respects intellectual property and it was never our intent to have a site that was not respectful of the work that others in the industry have done,” Microsoft said in the statement.

The company has worked hard over the years to try to prevent the piracy of its own software. China, where the Juku service was developed, is one of the biggest consumers of pirated Microsoft software.

Microsoft said it is suspending the Juku service indefinitely and that it assumes responsibility for the situation. It apologized to Plurk and said it would reach out to the company directly to explain what happened.

Microsoft also said it will be working with MSN China to examine development practices and applications provided by vendors.

Plurk has not responded on its blog to Microsoft’s latest statement.

COVER STORY

Heal Your Hardware
Zack Stern

You know to call 911 in a medical emergency, but what should you do when your gadgets face a similar life-or-death scenario? if you spill coffee on your laptop, for instance, reacting quickly could save your hardware and data. The correct procedure — such as dismantling your laptop’s keyboard or installing an inexpensive battery for your iPod — can save your faltering hardware, giving it another chance to age gracefully. And the laptops, cameras, cellphones and world will thank you.

NEXT

Headliners
LG Black Label Series
HP Mini by Studio Tord Boontje

Launch Pad
Genius’ Stocking Stuffers
Canon Ups Portfolio With New Wr-Fi Printers
Lenovo Refreshes PC Lineup With Win7 Models
Apple Overhauls Its Mac Portfolio
Sony Ericsson’s New Handsets

On The Radar
Holiday Android Sneak Peek

On The MashUp

HD Pocket Camcorders: What Would You Change?

SPOTLIGHT

Mobile Phone
LG GD900 Crystal

Notebook PC
Lenovo ThinkPad T400s

Media Player
Western Digital WD TV Mini

Motherboard
Redfox TA790GX A3+

Digital Camcorder
Torque ES-5 HD

Multimedia Speakers
Altec Lansing FX3020 Soundbar

REGULARS

GeekTech
Jason Cross

Why You Should Use Sleep Mode Every Day?
With Sleep Mode, the instant-on dream is practically here, and it doesn’t use a lot of extra power.

Beta Watch
Edward N. Albro

RoboFarm Online offers protected password syncing; FanSnap aggregated the best ticket deals online; and LocateTV makes sure couch potatoes won’t spend another night aimlessly channel surfing.

With Sleep Mode, the instant-on dream is practically here, and it doesn’t use a lot of extra power.

Privacy Watch
Erik Lerkin

Firefox and safari on the iPhone can now report your physical location. But who are they telling?

Download This
Preston Gralla, Andrew Brandt & Ian Harac

Your life is already compicated– your software shouldn’t make it worse. Instead, surf the Web on a browser equipped with a built-in BitTorrent client, edit photos with a simple app that won’t slow your PC to a crawl and a utility that gives you what you need to know about the weather.

Linux Line
Keir Thomas

Wine offers the ability to run Windows programs for which there are no open-source equivalents. To get the most out of it, however, you need to hack.

Bugs & Fixes
Erik Larkin

Microsoft might be feeling like the little Dutch boy this month, plugging holes with little patches and with rare out-of-cycle fixes in an attempt to prevent attackers from pouring through.

Hassle-Free PC
Rick Broida

Few things are more irritating than starting up your computer only to be greeted by an obnoxious, incomprehensible vague error message. Fortunately, we have a fix for this common problem, as well as advice for dealing with two other everyday PC hangups.

HOW TO

Protect Your Privacy on Facebook & Twitter
Tony Bradley

How To Use Microblogging Sites Safely
Jessa dela Torre

Take Your Work Into the Cloud With a Web OS
Robert Strohmeyer

Add Photos to Your Facebook Profile Via E-Mail
Rick Broida

By Eric Lai

ComputerWorld

December 15, 2009

Plurk, a micro-blogging service popular in parts of Asia, claimed today that its site design and underlying code were copied by a recently debuted service from Microsoft‘s China division.

MSN Juku made its beta debut in China earlier this month as a way for users to post 140-character messages on a scrolling timeline interface.

Screenshots. The Plurk page layout and user interface compared with MSN China’s new microblogging service, as posted on Plurk’s blog.

According to Microsoft, MSN Juku is a “local innovation developed by MSN China…based on Windows Live Messenger networks.”

At the time, local Chinese media were already commenting on the similarities in the look-and-feel between MSN Juku and Plurk, with one calling it a “bandit” version (Chinese slang for a knock-off).

That accusation was brought out into the open today by Plurk. In a blog post, the company said that while “imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but blatant theft of code, design, and UI elements is just not cool, especially when the infringing party is the biggest software company in the world.”

Plurk showed purported screenshots of MSN China’s new service, which it called “a little overly inspired” by Plurk’s 18-month-old service. It also showed snippets of JavaScript and CSS code from both services, and claimed that 80% of the codebase “appears to be stolen directly from Plurk.”

Plurk said the two services are so similar that some bloggers speculated that Microsoft’s service might have been based on a partnership with Plurk, a rumor it quickly dismissed.

“We were never contacted by any party at M$ to collaborate on such a venture nor did we give any prior written or verbal permission to anyone on their side to take our code, take our CSS, and copy the essence and ethos of our service,” wrote Plurk. “As a young startup, we’re stunned, shocked, and unsure what to do next and need your support and suggestions.”

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

According to a separate interview with Plurk’s co-founder published on Monday, the nine-employee company is scattered across the world, though incorporated in Canada.

Plurk has largely failed to make a dent in the English-speaking Web, where Twitter dominates. It had 766,000 visitors last month, compared to 1.3 million for Friendfeed and 131 million for Twitter, according to statistics from Compete.com. Plurk is also banned in China, along with Twitter and some other social-networking services, by the government for political reasons.

However, Plurk reportedly tops the microblog market in Taiwan, ahead of Twitter. It is also popular in other Asian countries such as Indonesia and Singapore. One reason: Twitter, due to cost and time, only operates a fully localized service in Asia for Japanese users. Plurk, meanwhile, solicits help from volunteers in each country to help translate key commands and phrases, with the best chosen by a vote in that country. That allows Plurk to offer its service in 33 languages, including Chinese, Gaelic, Arabic and Japanese.

By Tony Bradley
December 15, 2009

The headlines recently have been dominated with news of online privacy. Facebook has implemented changes that affect the privacy of status updates, and Google made headlines for its apparent disregard for privacy.

The difference between how Facebook and Google have addressed privacy issues offers a stark contrast. While Facebook has quickly responded to criticism and backlash, and has implemented additional changes to try and accommodate concerns, Google CEO Eric Schmidt dismissed privacy concerns entirely.

Facebook has faced challenges with privacy and what sorts of controls it has in place to ensure that users can exert some control over who is able to view their status updates, photos, events, and other Facebook entries. The Canadian government pressed the issue and succeeded in pressuring Facebook into changing a handful of practices to address privacy concerns.

As Facebook implemented changes this week, which were previously announced and anticipated–a change of pace for Facebook changes, there was immediate backlash. Facebook is struggling to figure out how to capitalize on member status updates for real-time search to be more like Twitter, and it is going through some growing pains to establish the right mix of sharing and security.

Google is also faced with constant criticism and concern from privacy advocates. Google is the monolithic Big Brother of the Internet, crawling and indexing every last byte of data that exists and presenting it to the general public in a matter of milliseconds through its various search offerings.

The difference between Facebook and Google as it relates to privacy is that Facebook appears to listen to concerns and respond by implementing changes to try and address issues, while Google seems to be dismissive. The Google response is to just stress why you should trust it, or why you shouldn’t care about privacy.

In a CNBC interview, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explained his stance on online privacy “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines –including Google –do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.”

The problem with that point of view is that it assumes you can only be concerned about privacy when you are doing something illegal or unethical. It doesn’t take into consideration the myriad ways that data can be inadvertently leaked or compromised by search engines like Google.

Just because executives and managers want information to be private, it doesn’t mean that they are trying to hide anything like shady accounting a’ la Enron, or illegal pyramid schemes a’ la Madoff. It simply means that some information is sensitive or confidential for a reason.

For businesses that rely on Google Docs or Gmail, there is a level of trust there that Google will respect the privacy of that data and protect it from unauthorized access. Comments like those made by Schmidt provide a reason to think twice about using Google for any sensitive or confidential communications.

As Google plants cookies on PC’s to expand the scope of personalized search, or becomes the focal point for Internet traffic with its public DNS, it is privy to a great deal of information which could be used to reach conclusions. It is important for Google to take privacy seriously.

Facebook and Google are facing many of the same challenges. Whether you like the changes introduced by Facebook or not, its hard not to appreciate its attempts to respond to concerns rather than taking the Google approach that unless you wear a tinfoil hat or have terrorist connections you have no right to be concerned about privacy.