IDC WebDev Business and Technology News
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11/30/05 issue
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1) Welcome to IDC WebDev's Monthly Newsletter
Welcome to another IDC WebDev newsletter, our brief way of saying "hello" to clients and partners past and present. Don't be afraid to tell us what you think or submit your own ideas for topics or issues (contact@idcwebdev.com).
We also encourage you to sign up your friends and colleagues! Just drop a line at contact@idcwebdev.com. We'll get a new issue out each month. Now on to the content.
2) Free Software Favorites Get Better
By: Jesse Mortenson
After Linux came Firefox and OpenOffice. The latter two have acted as the leading edge of bringing free, open source software to the average computer user's desktop. The popularity of both applications is considered essential to a broader mission to introduce more people to terms like "free software" and "open source." And, with new versions out recently, they just got better.
The Mozilla Foundation just released version 1.5 of Firefox, the web browser with over 10 million downloads. The improvements are mostly incremental, except in one critical area. Firefox 1.5 now includes automated software updates, making it easier to ensure that more users get their software fixed when a security vulnerability is identified and fixed. And, at least according to one reviewer, Firefox 1.5 is still ahead of the still-in-development Internet Explorer 7. You can read the review here at Yahoo.com.
OpenOffice.org, though not as widely used as Firefox, is a popular and robust office productivity suite. It includes a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation designer, database, and more. The new version - 2.0 - was just released and is a major improvement over the last version. It includes a comprehensive interface overhaul, and a number of new features aimed at catching up with the robustness of Microsoft's Office. An article in Computer World talks about the release.
Both applications are available for free download, and come with the strong recommendation of IDC WebDev.
Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/
OpenOffice: http://www.openoffice.org/
3) Special "Who Controls the Net" News Items
The last two months have produced a saga of conflict over who controls the root mechanisms that name and organize content on the Internet. Currently the United States holds official and de facto veto power over decisionmaking, a fact that many other countries are not happy with. The conflict has been resolved for now, but we present these background articles to give you an idea of what's at stake - it is likely to rise up again.
"Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed late Tuesday to leave the United States in charge of the Internet's addressing system, averting a U.S.-EU showdown at this week's U.N. technology summit."
Respected technology commentator Lawrence Lessig answers seven questions about who controls the Internet.
For good or evil, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman is yet again visible on the Republican side of a national issue - in this case bashing the UN.
4) Other Interesting News
The opening paragraph from this article says it all: "Next time you sit down to pay your cable-modem or DSL bill, consider this: Most Japanese consumers can get an Internet connection that's 16 times faster than the typical American DSL line for a mere $22 per month."
Think blogs are cool? Well, nothing gets popular on the Net for long before it is blotched over by advertising. Spammer bots have been programmed to create fake blogs and make comments on legitimate blogs to increase clicks to their sites. Watch out.
5) Tip of the Month:
The Federal Communications Commission is threatening to hold up future Voice over IP (VoIP) phone accounts over the issue of enhanced 911 (emergency) service. VoIP is a technology that allows Vonage, Skype and others to offer telephone service through a broadband Internet connection. The FCC is concerned that VoIP vendors cannot confirm that all users have enhanced 911 service in case of emergency, and leading vendor Vonage has only confirmed this in 28% of cases. Vonage blames competing telephone companies for refusing to cooperate.
While this doesn't practically affect cases where the VoIP line is an auxillary or business line in addition to a regular phone, it is cause to hold off on going forward with plans that rely exclusively on VoIP service. Until the FCC decides it is satisifed with VoIP 911 service, there is the possibility that it will freeze out new accounts.
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