TechFreeks

The competitor to Windows says its browser is the most stable browser on the market.

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 16:00:00 +0000

A new version of Mozilla's popular Firefox Web browser is ready for download with improved security and memory use as the tiny company takes a stab at Microsoft Corp's dominant Internet Explorer.

The program's creators told Reuters on Thursday that the privately-held company's trial version of Firefox 3 browser is ready for the masses to use after months of development.

Until now, the company has discouraged average Internet users from moving on from Firefox 2, which was launched in October 2006.

"In many ways it (Firefox 3) is much more stable than anything else out there," Mozilla Corp Vice President of Engineering Mike Schroepfer said in an interview.

Key rivals to Firefox are market leader Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple Inc's Safari browser.

Engineers at Mozilla are still putting the finishing touches on the software and hope to release the final version of Firefox 3 by the end of June, Schroepfer said.

Mozilla is in a battle with Microsoft, which unveiled an experimental version of its Internet Explorer 8 in Las Vegas earlier this month and is looking to expand its presence on the Web through its bid to acquire Yahoo Inc.

Additions boost security and allow users to run Web sites when they are not connected to the Internet. Mozilla also says Firefox 3 uses less computer memory than Firefox 2.

Until now Mozilla has discouraged the typical computer user from exploring these new features. But its developers said on Thursday that the situation has changed and that they will be revising their Web site.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Web site still stated: "We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 beta 4 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only."

But they said that as they concluded their fourth round of tweaking their software, they determined it was ready for prime time.

A fifth round of changes, due to begin within the next few weeks, will involve "tuning the visual look and feel of the program" and further improving its stability," Schroepfer said.

Source: eWeek

Microsoft Confirms Windows 7 for 2010 – No Word on Windows 7 M2

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:47:00 +0000

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 7 is right on track for release in 2010. Concomitantly with the leaked details associated with Windows 7 Milestone 1 dropped by the Redmond company to select partners in January 2008, a potential timetable for the availability of the successor of Windows Vista was also made public. According to the leaked information on the next iteration of the Windows platform, having just reached M1, the final version of Windows 7 was to be wrapped up the end of 2009.
Officially, the Redmond company has only been saying that Windows 7 development would take an estimated three-year timeframe. However, Microsoft always failed to specify the moment when the three-year timeframe started. The debut of Windows 7 development was indeed connected with the release of Windows Vista, but this aspect only contributed to the confusion because the latest Windows client was launched to businesses in November 2006 and to the general public in January 2007. So in this context, the finalization of Windows 7 could just as easily be aimed for the end of 2009, as well as 2010.
Well, this is no longer the case. Microsoft explained that it would deliver Windows 7 three years after the consumers launch of Vista. "We are currently in the planning stages for Windows 7 and development is scoped to three years from Windows Vista Consumer GA. The specific release date will be determined once the company meets its quality bar for release," a Microsoft spokesperson revealed to Softpedia via email. Windows Vista Consumer GA means nothing more than the general availability of the operating system. In this regard, Microsoft has merely reconfirmed what it has in fact said since mid 2007, that Windows 7 is planned for 2010. Recently, the Redmond company has delivered a build of Windows 7 for review to the U.S. antitrust regulators. This was made public via the "Joint status report on Microsoft's compliance with the final judgments."I contacted Microsoft and asked whether the new version of Windows 7 was still M1 or if the company has reached Milestone 2 (M2). The leaked timetable for Windows 7 had M1 set to expire in March, and M2 to be delivered in March/April. Outside of the confirmation quoted above, Microsoft did not comment on Windows 7 M1, M2 or the potential antitrust issues that would be generated by the connecting of Windows 7 with Windows Live Wave 3.
Source: Softpedia

Gates no longer world's richest, falls to 3rd on Forbes list

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:29:00 +0000

March 06, 2008 (IDG News Service) Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates fell to third place on Forbes' 2008 list of the world's richest people after 13 years at No. 1, due largely to Microsoft's bid for Yahoo Inc., Forbes said.

The magazine, which puts out an annual list of the world's richest people, said Gates' decline was because of a slide in the value of Microsoft shares from Jan. 31, the day before the company announced a $44.6 billion offer to buy Yahoo, to Feb. 11, the day Forbes calculated stock prices into its valuations.

Had Microsoft shares not declined so much, Gates would have been in a close race with investing mogul Warren Buffett, who is a close friend of Gates, for the top spot on the list, Forbes said.

Buffett, head of Berkshire Hathaway, took over as the world's richest man this year with an estimated $62 billion fortune, while Mexican communications industry leader Carlos Slim Helu came in second with $60 billion, Forbes said. Gates' fortune was valued at $58 billion.

Microsoft helped put Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest ever billionaire, on Forbes' list. The founder of popular social networking Web site Facebook is worth $1.5 billion, according to the magazine, based on a calculation involving Microsoft's $240 million investment last year for a 1.6% stake in Facebook.

Zuckerberg ranked 785th overall on the Forbes list.

Other U.S. technology industry leaders toppled down the rich list. Larry Ellison, CEO and founder of Oracle Corp., fell to 14th place on the Forbes list, from 11th last year, while Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen tumbled to 41st place from 19th place last year.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page retained their titles as the richest young people on the Forbes list, coming in at $18.7 billion and $18.6 billion, respectively. They ranked 32nd and 33rd overall.

The remaining top 10 richest people in the world are mainly in heavy industry and commodities, according to Forbes. The next three richest men are all from India. Fourth place, Lakshmi Mittal, is a steel magnate, while fifth place Mukesh Ambani is in petrochemicals and his brother, sixth place Anil Ambani, is in power and communications. Oleg Deripaska of Russia made much of his fortune in aluminum, putting him in the ninth spot.

Retail titans took two of the top 10 spots. Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad of Sweden took seventh place on the list, while the founder of German discount store Aldi, Karl Albrecht, took 10th. Indian real estate developer KP Singh came in eighth on the list.

Source: Computerworld

Google Calendar Sync

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:08:00 +0000

I've suffered major headaches trying to sync all my calendars. I used the Microsoft Outlook calendar on my desktop computer at home, but since I wanted to be able to access my schedule from anywhere, I also kept a copy of it on Google Calendar. When I traveled, I'd import my Google Calendar data into my laptop's Outlook calendar so I could access it offline. This was not only annoying to maintain, but also quite error-prone. If I made updates on any of the copies of my calendar, I had to make sure to make those same exact changes to the other copies, too.

This was my life for a whole year before we started working on Google Calendar Sync, a 2-way synching application between Google Calendar and the calendar in Microsoft Outlook. I was probably the most excited person on the team when we started developing it, because now I can access my calendar at home or on my laptop, on Google Calendar or in Outlook. When I add an event to the Outlook calendar on my laptop, Google Calendar Sync syncs it to my Google Calendar -- and since I also have Google Calendar Sync running on my desktop, the event then syncs from Google Calendar to Outlook calendar on my desktop. All of my calendar views are always up to date, and I can choose whichever one I want to use.

Source: Google

Shifting Google Gears to mobile

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 06:17:00 +0000

Ever use a mobile web application and suddenly lose your cell connection? That's happened to me many times. If you've shared my pain, you'll be excited to know that we've launched Google Gears for mobile, which lets users access Gears-enabled mobile web apps offline. Initially available for Internet Explorer Mobile on Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices, mobile web app developers have already started integrating Gears for mobile into their online services.

Take Zoho and Buxfer, for example: Zoho is a powerful suite of web-based productivity applications, while Buxfer is an innovative personal finance web application that helps you track your money. With Google Gears for mobile integrated into mobile Zoho and Buxfer, you can now access these web applications even when your phone is disconnected from the mobile web. Stuck on a plane? No problem — you can still read your docs on your mobile with Zoho Writer Mobile offline. Want to buy that new plasma TV, but can't remember how much is in your account? Check your balance with Buxfer's mobile web application, even if there is no cell phone signal. Try them out on your Windows Mobile 6 device by going to m.buxfer.com or mobile.zoho.com.

When you first access mobile Buxfer or Zoho Writer on your Windows Mobile device and go offline, you will be asked to install Google Gears for mobile. Once installed, Gears sits happily on your phone helping you stay connected to your data -- even when you lose your network connection.

If you're a developer who's interested in creating mobile web applications using Google Gears for mobile you can find out more information on our developer site. Finally, if you're not a Windows Mobile user, stay tuned -- we're working to roll out Google Gears for other platforms with capable web browsers, including Android.

Source: Google

Database Survey Gives Oracle The Lead In All 13 Categories

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 16:33:00 +0000

The survey compared Oracle with DB2, MySQL, Informix Dynamic Server, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase Advanced Server Enterprise.

In its first survey of database preferences, market research firm Evans Data found that Oracle leads in user satisfaction in performance, security, and 11 other categories.

At the same time, it found IBM's DB2 tied with Oracle for one top score and ranked number two in several of the remaining categories. Microsoft's SQL Server showed high user satisfaction in ease of database management and modeling tools, but fell behind in scalability and performance.

"The most glaring item that we took away from this research is that in 23 years we've never had one vendor come out number one in all categories," Evans Data CEO John Andrews said of Oracle's ranking in an interview. The report becomes public Tuesday.

In a few categories, the open source system, MySQL, trailed most of the five commercial systems with which it was compared. But high user satisfaction in several categories indicates that Sun Microsystems may have gotten its money's worth when it paid $1 billion for the database's parent company, MySQL AB, last month. MySQL was second only to Oracle in multiplatform support, an important factor in hosting Web applications. When it came to the all important "performance" category, it ranked higher than Microsoft SQL Server, Informix, and Sybase.

The results, however, are measures of user expectations for each system, not frequency of use or a neutral metric of actual performance, Andrews cautioned.

"Sun has publicly stated they will do very little to change the open source database or its business model. The two companies have a good match in culture and offerings, and we predict Sun will successfully integrate MySQL and the union will be a benefit to both companies," the report predicted.

In most cases, the 1,470 respondents to the survey were users of several database systems and were comparing systems as they rated each in 13 categories as excellent, very good, adequate, or needs improvement. Evans Data then assigned a numerical value to the ratings and plotted the results. The complete survey results may be downloaded from http://www.evansdata.com/reports/free-report.php.

The survey was conducted in December 2007.

Oracle lead in performance ratings, followed by DB2 Universal Database, MySQL, Informix Dynamic Server, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and Sybase Advanced Server Enterprise.

In scalability, Oracle lead, followed by DB2, then PostgreSQL took over the commanding position of the open source systems, followed by SQL Server, Informix, Sybase, and MySQL. Andrews said MySQL's adoption is predominantly among workgroups and smaller businesses with less expectation of scaling up to very large databases. When it was pointed out that Google, Facebook, and Slashdot were all MySQL users, Andrews said: "Some of these giant Internet entities have demonstrated that MySQL can scale, if you have the know-how."

Oracle lead the security category, with its ability to automatically store data in encrypted form and to maintain an Audit Vault of information drawn from the operating system, database, and any other auditing source. DB2 was number two followed in the third position by PostgreSQL, with its "robust security layer," said Andrews. Number four was SQL Server, followed by Sybase, MySQL and Informix.

Atomicity is the quality of "all or nothing" when it comes to capturing a transaction. It's important for the integrity of the database to confirm that all parts of a transaction have been committed to the system, not just a fraction of them. Oracle was tops in atomicity, followed by DB2, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Sybase, MySQL and Informix.

In multiplatform support, Oracle once again lead the category, followed by MySQL. Informix was tied with MySQL, with PostgreSQL holding down the fourth spot. DB2 landed in the fifth slot. Sybase was sixth and SQL Server seventh. "This is where Microsoft SQL Server really falls down and that's becoming more and more of a problem as the frequency of Microsoft-only shops declines," said the report.

An increasingly important category for databases that are intended to serve Web applications is XML data handling. Again, Oracle and SQL Server lead the category, followed by DB2. But the open source systems, MySQL and PostgreSQL made up the sixth and seventh ranks, respectively. Informix and Sybase occupied the fourth and fifth positions.

When it comes to management tools that come with the database, Oracle lead, followed by SQL Server, DB2, MySQL, Sybase, and Informix. Bringing up the rear was PostgreSQL. "PostgreSQL, which has a large community of open source developers to create tools for it, does not provide them with the database," the report noted. In another category, the ability of a system to maintain the integrity of the data through system failures, incomplete backups, or storage failures, is known as durability. Oracle once again lead, followed by DB2, SQL Server, Informix, PostgreSQL and Sybase, with MySQL holding the bottom rank.

In quality of data modeling tools, Oracle lead, followed by SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Informix. Oracle offers both the Designer modeling tool and JDeveloper with design tool elements. Microsoft offers Visio modeling from its acquisition of Visio tools several years ago. Under Microsoft ownership,"the Visio technology has evolved until Microsoft has some of the world's best modeling tools."

In a bar graph showing how the seven systems compared on a point basis after including all categories, Oracle lead with a rounded off score of 2,500; DB2, roughly 2,200; SQL Server, 2,000; MySQL, 1,800; Informix, 1,775; PostgreSQL, 1,750; Sybase, 1,600.

The survey sought responses from 1,470 developers and IT managers in North America (420), Asia Pacific (500), Europe/Middle East/Africa (400), and South America (150). About one third were enterprise database users; one third were database consultants, value added resellers, and system integrators; and a third were other types of organizations, including academic institutions, OEMs and ISVs.

Source: InformationWeek

Intel's ultramobile chips get a step closer with Atom branding

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 12:01:00 +0000

Intel's Silverthorne and Diamondville chips will be called Atom and the company's Menlow platform for ultramobile computers will be renamed Centrino Atom when these products hit the market, according to a company spokesman.

The creation of the new processor brand sets the stage for the tiny, low-power chips' upcoming release, and marks the opening salvo in a concerted push by Intel to make ultramobile computers a mainstream product segment.

Several versions of the Atom processor are on track to be delivered to during the first half of this year, according to Danny Cheung, an Intel spokesman in Singapore.
The processors are made using Intel's 45-nanometer process, and will run at clock speeds up to 1.8GHz. Slower versions will also be available, but Intel isn't saying what the slowest clock speed will be. Pricing for the chips has yet to be announced.

The chips, which measure less than 25 square millimeters, have a thermal design power (TDP) of between 0.6 watts to 2.5 watts. That number refers to the maximum sustained power that users are likely to see with the chips, not the maximum amount of power the chips can consume.

The small size of the Atom means 2,500 of them can be produced on a single 300-millimeter silicon wafer, allowing Intel to sell them at a low price while maintaining high margins.
While Intel hasn't announced a specific date for Atom's release, Mobile Internet devices based on Centrino Atom will hit the market in the beginning of the second quarter, Cheung said.

Mobile Internet device, or MID, is the term Intel uses to describe some, but not all, devices that are generally referred to as ultramobile PCs. Prototype MIDs shown by Intel typically include touchscreens or slide-out keypads and the company envisions these devices running Linux instead of Windows.

Centrino Atom will include a single-core Atom processor, formerly called Silverthorne, as well as the Poulsbo chipset and a wireless chipset. Intel has yet to announce the formal name of Poulsbo, which packs a Northbridge and Southbridge chipset into a single package to reduce size and lower power consumption.

Not all Atom processors will ship with Poulsbo. Some versions of the chip, known by the code name Diamondville, will ship with two-chip chipsets. These processors, which will be available in single-core and dual-core versions, are intended for low-cost notebooks, like Asustek Computers' Eee PC, and inexpensive desktops, respectively.

Intel refers to these devices as netbooks and nettops to differentiate them from mainstream desktops and notebooks. To further separate these product segments, Intel has set guidelines for device makers that limit the features of Atom-based devices, preventing the chips from being used in notebooks with a 15-inch screen instead of a Core 2 Duo processor, for example.

Low-cost notebooks and desktops based on Atom will hit the market sometime during the third quarter, Cheung said, adding Intel also expects to see demand for Atom processors in consumer electronics and embedded applications.

Intel expects low-cost computers will appeal to first-time computer buyers in emerging markets as well as users in more mature markets looking for a second computer.

Source: Infoworld

Over 50 percent of companies fire workers for e-mail, Net abuse

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Managers cite accessing porn, using offensive language in e-mail, and breaching confidentiality rules as grounds for firing, according to survey
Think you can get away with using e-mail and the Internet in violation of company policy? Think again.
A new survey found that more than a quarter of employers have fired workers for misusing e-mail, and one third have fired workers for misusing the Internet on the job. The study, conducted by the American Management Association (AMA) and The ePolicy Institute, surveyed 304 U.S. companies of all sizes.
The vast majority of bosses who fired workers for Internet misuse, 84 percent, said the employee was accessing porn or other inappropriate content. While looking at inappropriate content is an obvious no-no on company time, simply surfing the Web led to a surprising number of firings. As many as 34 percent of managers in the study said they let go of workers for excessive personal use of the Internet, according to the survey.
Among managers who fired workers for e-mail misuse, 64 percent did so because the employee violated company policy and 62 percent said the workers' e-mail contained inappropriate or offensive language. More than a quarter of bosses said they fired workers for excessive personal use of e-mail and 22 percent said their workers were fired for breaching confidentiality rules in e-mail.
Companies are worried about the inappropriate use of the Internet, and so 66 percent of those in the study said they monitor Internet connections. As many as 65 percent of them use software to block inappropriate Web sites. Eighteen percent of the companies block URLs to prevent workers from visiting external blogs.
Companies use different methods to monitor workers' computers, with 45 percent of those participating in the survey tracking content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard. An additional 43 percent store and review computer files. Twelve percent monitor blogs to track content about the company, and 10 percent monitor social-networking sites.
Companies are keen to track employee e-mail and Internet behavior in part due to legal fears. According to research done by the AMA and ePolicy in 2006, 24 percent of companies in the study had e-mail subpoenaed by courts, and another 15 percent have faced lawsuits based on employee e-mails.
The researchers found that even though only two states require companies to notify their workers that they're monitoring them, most tell employees of their monitoring activities. Of the companies that monitor workers in the survey, 83 percent said they tell employees that they are monitoring content, keystrokes, and time spent at the keyboard. As many as 84 percent tell employees that they review computer activity, and 71 percent alert workers that they monitor their e-mails.
Source: Infoworld

Yahoo set to open its search engine to third parties

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:38:00 +0000

February 26, 2008 (Computerworld) Yahoo Inc. is planning to open its Yahoo Search engine to allow third parties to add a wide variety of data to search results.

Code-named "Search Monkey," the new open-source application programming interfaces (API) that Yahoo is slated to detail today will allow Web site owners to add information such as ratings and reviews, images, deep links and other data directly to the Yahoo Search results Web page.

"Our intent is clear -- present users with richer, more useful search results so that they can complete their tasks more efficiently and get from 'to-do' to 'done,'" noted Vish Makhijani, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo Search. "So instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time, users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in Web sites."

Web site owners can supply Yahoo with data, and the company's Machined Learned Ranking technology will ensure that the results are presented to users at the correct time, he added.

"We believe that combining a free, open platform with structured, semantic content from across the Web is a clear win for all parties involved -- site owners, Yahoo and, most importantly, our users," Makhijani said. "And by the way, users will be in complete control of the experience and will be able to turn off anything related to open search if they so desire."

In an example provided by Yahoo, a search result for a Japanese restaurant in California that previously would have included the URL, an abstract and an address would provide ratings, price information and links for reviews and photos with the new tools. Yahoo plans to provide additional details on how the open search tool will work over the next few months.

Not to be outdone, Google Inc. posted a reminder Monday that its similar effort, called Subscribed Links, allows users to create custom search results that users can add to their own Google search pages. Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer and head of Google's Webspam team, noted that Subscribed Links, which Google debuted in 2006, allows users to "display links to your services, answer questions, and calculate useful quantities and more."

Source:Computerworld

Computer Programmer's Attorneys Use 'Geek Defense'

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:07:00 +0000

On Trial for Murder, Man Being Portrayed As Eccentric, Difficult
OAKLAND, Calif. -- When Nina Reiser disappeared in September 2006, investigators suspecting foul play looked long and hard at her estranged husband, the computer genius Hans. Eccentric, awkward and notoriously difficult as a human being, Hans Reiser proved quite accommodating when it came to providing clues.

After taking no part in the massive public effort to search for the mother of his two children, he listed the reasons he was happy that Nina was gone in a phone call monitored by police. He discreetly purchased copies of "Masterpieces of Murder" and "Homicide" from a local bookstore. Police discovered his passport in his fanny pack along with $8,000 in cash and a cellphone that could not be tracked electronically because its battery was removed, just like the phone found inside Nina's minivan, which was found abandoned on a side street smelling of rotting groceries; she had been to the store before dropping the kids at Hans's house.

Police also found soaked floorboards in his car and an empty space where the passenger seat should have been.

In the courtroom where Hans Reiser is on trial for murder, all this might appear to indicate guilty knowledge. But his attorneys cast it as evidence of an innocence peculiar to Hans, a computer programmer so immersed in the folds of his own intellect that he had no idea how complicit he was making himself appear.

"Being too intelligent can be a sort of curse," defense counsel William Du Bois said. "All this weird conduct can be explained by him, but he's the only one who can do it. People who are commonly known as computer geeks are so into the field."

And so this week, after a prosecution case that took almost three months, Du Bois launched what Wired magazine dubbed "the Geek Defense." In court, Du Bois has taken pains to portray his client as an irritating nebbish. He has repeatedly asked Alameda County Circuit Court Judge Larry Goodman to order his client to stop distracting him by talking in his ear at the defense table. He called Reiser "an inconsiderate slob" in front of the jury.

"We're leaving the right message," Du Bois said outside court. "He's a very difficult person. It's very difficult to represent a genius."

The effort will be watched and appreciated down the breadth of Silicon Valley, perhaps the only place a computer genius might find a jury of peers.

There, Hans Reiser's actions appear fairly reasonable, at least to people who spend much more time with computer code than with other humans.

"It strikes me that a lot of coders have a somewhat detached view of the world, and it's reasonable to assume that Hans might not even have stopped to think about how things looked," said Rick Moen, a local area network consultant in Menlo Park.

"I remove my cellphone battery periodically, and I've taught many people to do the same," noted John Gilmore, a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is challenging the Bush administration in court on wiretaps. "What can you do when the FCC mandates tracking capability to every cellphone? On the lame excuse that once in a while someone calls 911 and can't give the address."

On his LinuxMafia site, Moen maintains a timeline of the case culled from the posts filed from correspondents in the courthouse gallery 35 miles north, live-blogging the trial for the San Francisco Chronicle and Wired's Threat Level blog.

"I met Hans a couple of times socially, and he did not strike me as being all that peculiar for a technical person," Moen said. "A little bit intense, a bit highly focused. Quite bright."

Now 44, Reiser was accepted at the University of California at Berkeley at age 14. He wrote a role-playing game to compete with Dungeons & Dragons and dabbled in science fiction. His signal adult achievement was ReiserFS, a file system he named for himself, unusual in the programming world. The system organizes data on Linux, the "open source" operating system.

After opening a company in Russia, he met Nina Sharanova, a striking obstetrician-gynecologist using a dating service to meet foreigners. They married when she became pregnant, but after the second child was born in 2001, Nina began an affair with Hans's best friend, Sean Sturgeon. The cross-dressing bondage and discipline enthusiast had been "maid of honor" at their wedding.

The ensuing divorce was ugly. Hans accused Nina of Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, saying she made their son ill for her own gratification. Nina complained of Hans's avowed enthusiasm for violent video games, which he encouraged the boy to play as a rite of passage. Relations were so brittle that a police officer seeing them exchange the children one day advised Nina to "get a gun."

She was last seen at Hans's house, where she was dropping off the children for Labor Day weekend 2006. She was 31 then.

"His undergraduate thesis is on how if you change the perspective, the reality is different," said Ramon Reiser, the defendant's mathematician father, folding a pair of pants in the courtroom hallway as he waited to testify.

The thesis might apply to the evidence, which the judge in the preliminary hearing termed thin. Ramon Reiser argued that it's likelier that Nina is back in her native Russia with funds embezzled from her husband's business than in an unmarked grave she was carried to in the soaked, seatless Honda CR-X. The children are with Nina's mother in St. Petersburg.

"When you look at it, would Hans Reiser turn a hose on a car to wash it? Absolutely, his mother told him to get that car cleaned up," the elder Reiser said.

"I and my brother -- maybe it's genetic -- have driven our cars without the front seat. It's really convenient."

If Hans Reiser testifies in his own defense, his attorney said the risk is that "this guy is so weird, it's a little tricky to wrap yourself around it if you're a juror." He described his client as borderline for Asperger's Syndrome, a condition that self-described geeks call unusually common in the computer industry, combining as it does an exceptional ability to focus with an inability to read social cues.

Gilmore added that the unforgiving nature of computers demands of coders "a perfectionism that makes it hard sometimes in social situations. When I see something that's a little bit wrong, and I ought to just shut up and roll with it, but I comment and it causes trouble with the people around me. Back-seat driving and that sort of thing."

Yet not all the strangeness in the case arises from computers. Du Bois takes every opportunity to mention Sturgeon, who in addition to his role as Hans's friend and Nina's lover, told investigators that he killed eight people years ago. It's unclear whether the claim is true: Sturgeon remains free. But the judge forbade attorneys from mentioning the claim in court.

In any event, Sturgeon reportedly has insisted that whatever his crimes, he had nothing to do with Nina's disappearance. Wired quoted him as saying that, in the Reiser case, he is red herring, or rather, he said, "a red Sturgeon."

Source:Washington Post

Download links to some good Dot Net Ebooks

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:55:00 +0000

MS Press - OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and C Step By Step pdf

VB .NET - The Complete Reference McGrawHill pdf

Microsoft ASP .NET with Visual Studio .NET doc

MASTERING VB .NET PDF

Wrox - Beginning Visual Basic 2005 pdf

O Reilly - Visual Basic 2005 - A Developer s Notebook chm

Microsoft Press Working With Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Apr 2006 chm

Building Intelligent .NET Applications chm

Professional VB 2005 pdf

ADO DOC

VB .NET Core Classes In A Nutshell - O Reilly chm

ASP .NET for Developers Sams pdf

OReilly Visual Basic 2005 in a Nutshell 3rd Edition chm

ADO .NET Step By Step MS Press pdf

Professional ADO .NET Programming Wrox pdf

ebook - PDF OReilly - Visual Basic pdf

Microsoft Press Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 The Language Jan 2006 pdf

ASP .NET DataGrid ppt

Apress - Beginning Object Oriented Programming Using Visual Basic 2005 From Novice to Professional pdf

A Programmers Introduction to Visual Basic .NET pdf

Visual Basic .NET Power Tools - Sybex chm

VB.NETFunctions pdf

Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers - MS Press pdf

ASP .NET Bible pdf

Programming VB .NET Oreilly pdf

ADO.NET pdf

No Strach Press - The Book Of Visual Basic 2005 - .NET Insight For Classic Visual Basic Developers pdf

OReilly Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart chm

Sybex - Visual Basic .NET Power Tools rar

O Reilly - Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook chm

VB .NET - Step by Step MS Press pdf

070-310 XML Web Services And Server Components With Visual Basic .NET v01 04 06 Study Guide pdf

070-310 XML Web Services And Server Components With Visual Basic .NET v02 14 06 219q pdf

VB .NET pdf

ASP developer s guide pdf

Comparison of VB and C pdf

O Reilly - Programming Visual Basic 2005 chm

Apress Pro VB 2005 and the dot .NET 2 0 Platform 2nd Edition Apr 2006 pdf

Programming VB .NET MS Press pdf

VBdot.NETDevelopersGuide pdf

A Quick Tutorial Vb6 to VB7 htm

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No Starch Press - Visual Basic 2005 Express Now Playing pdf

MS Press - Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers msi

Common ASP .NET Code Techniques pdf

APress - Building Client Server Applications Under Visual Basic .NET - An Example Driven Approach chm

Microsoft Press Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 The Language Jan 2006 chm

Microsoft Releases List of Programs that Won't Work with Vista SP1

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:12:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. released a list of known programs that experience some sort of "loss of functionality" with Windows Vista SP1.

The list of 11 products -- divided into categories of "blocked from starting," "do not run" and "loss of functionality (minor or major)" -- is based on reported issues and is "not comprehensive," the company said. Many of the affected programs offer newer versions or upgrades that will make the software compatible (linked below where applicable).

As of press time, the products are:

Blocked from Starting

BitDefender AV or Internet Security, version 10
Fujitsu Shock Sensor 2.1.0.0
Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10
Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008
Trend Micro Internet Security 2008
ZoneAlarm Security Suite 7.1

Do Not Run

Loss of Functionality

As Vista SP1 was released to manufacturing and IT professionals this month, the list may grow -- especially after the update goes live for consumers in March.
Source:Redmond Developer News

Microsoft offers its development, design tools to students for free

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:28:00 +0000

Microsoft Corp. Monday unveiled a new program that will offer as many as 1 billion high school and college students free access to its development and design tools.

The DreamSpark program is now available to 35 million college students in the U.S., China, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K., Microsoft said. The company then plans to expand the offer to high school students worldwide in the coming months. Once the full program is in place, the number of potential users could approach 1 billion students, Microsoft said.

"I've always believed in getting developers at as young an age as possible," Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said in a video interview on Channel 8, a Microsoft site focused on student developers. "These are the tools that people can build a career around or they can just build fun software for themselves. The basics of understanding how good architecture works, the data structures ... those have been the same for the last 30 years. Fundamentally, the skills of design, of knowing what good code looks like -- that is going to be valuable for at least the next three decades."

DreamSpark is available to students whose studies include technology, design, math science and engineering.

As part of the program, students can access Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition, Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition and XNA Game Studio 2.0, Microsoft said. The students are also eligible for a free 12-month academic membership to the XNA Creators Club.

The program will also encompass Microsoft's Expression Studio design tools, including Expression Web, Expression Blend, Expression Design and Expression Media. Students also can access SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition and Windows Server Standard Edition for free as part of the program.

"The opportunity, as a student, to use the same professional tools that I can expect to use after I graduate gives me a real head start in my career," said Nathan Murith, a computer science student at the University of Geneva in Switzerland who tested the service, in a statement. "I'm already getting more out of my studies, applying my learning to try out new ideas, and gaining new insights into careers in software design and development."

In the next six months, Microsoft plans to expand DreamSpark to college students in Australia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Japan, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovakia, and more countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe. The program will be extended to high school students by the third quarter of 2008, Microsoft said.

Microsoft is working with academic institutions, governments and student organizations around the world, such as the International Student Identity Card Association, to ensure the necessary local student identity-verification technology infrastructure exists to provide access to DreamSpark, the company added.

Source: Computerworld

Yahoo sends letter to shareholders over Microsoft bid

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:35:00 +0000

CEO Jerry Yang says Yahoo wants to take advantage of a 'unique window of time' in the growth of online ads to build market share and create value for stockholders

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang cited the growing online advertising market and his company's position to take advantage of that growth as reasons for shareholders to reject Microsoft's acquisition bid, he said in a letter to shareholders Wednesday.

The letter, the contents of which Yahoo made public Wednesday, stated that Microsoft's February 1, $44.5 billion unsolicited takeover offer was too low. Yang said that Yahoo is the most visited site in the United States, held the top position in online display advertising, and counted almost one out of two of the world's Internet users as its members. He also said Yahoo is the top mobile destination in the U.S.

Yang did not cite sources for most of his claims. However, comScore Networks research from November 2007 confirmed Yahoo's online display advertising leadership, with almost 19 percent of the market.

The online ad market is expected to grow from $45 billion last year to $75 billion in 2010, Yang said, and that Yahoo wanted "to take advantage of what we see as a unique window of time in the growth -- and evolution -- of this market to build market share and to create value for stockholders."

The company plans to grow visits to its properties "by 15 percent per year over the next several years," although did not specify how. He also said that Yahoo's own search marketing system, Panama, along with two 2007 acquisitions -- Right Media and Blue Lithium -- would "complement and enhance Yahoo!'s existing capabilities and will make it easier for advertisers and online publishers to buy and sell advertising online."

Both Yahoo and Microsoft have struggled to compete with Google's success in online advertising, specifically its paid search and Adwords programs. Based on the same comScore data, Microsoft captured only 6.7 percent of online display ads. That poor performance is seen as the main impetus behind its move for Yahoo.

The letter made no mention of talks with News Corp. for some sort of share swap, intended either to offset Microsoft's interest or force the software company to boost its bid for Yahoo, as reported late Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Infoworld

With Videos-On-Demand, Bollywood Meets Web 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 09:15:00 +0000

In many ways the films of Bollywood, South Asia's prolific film industry, are tailor-made for the Web: They're instantly digestible, they're lavishly eye-catching, and they come in an unending stream of around 1,000 movies a year. Plus, the huge expat Indian community of some 25 million worldwide offers a sizable potential market.

So it makes perfect sense that Bollywood.tv is using next-generation caching and content-delivery technology to bring its vast collection of South Asian spectacles to online subscribers around the world.

Based in London and owned by Australian investment firm Charter Pacific Corp., Bollywood.tv was founded in 2005. It has amassed a catalog of 1,900 contemporary and classic Bollywood movies in languages including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, and Bengali. The site charges $3.99 and up to watch full-length movies and has a monthly subscription offering as well.

Along with third-party providers like Bollywood.tv, big Bollywood studios are getting into the online act as well. Last year two of the largest Indian film factories, Rajshri Group and Eros Entertainment, began making their movies available via download to fans across the Web. Several recent South Asian blockbusters have been released simultaneously in theaters and on the Web.

Bollywood.tv CEO Nigel Glynn-Davies said Thursday his company has started using the Velocix content-delivery system to move films across the Internet. Velocix, which changed its name from CacheLogic earlier this month, offers what it calls "multisourced caching" -- a way of dividing large files (feature-length videos, computer games, software applications, and the like) into pieces and storing them across many different caching sites across the Internet, then delivering the whole dynamically from the best source.

Citing Cisco Systems research that shows consumer-generated traffic growing at 52% a year between now and 2011, Velocix CEO Phill Robinson said that conventional content-delivery networks, such as Akamai's, are not designed for such high-capacity requirements.

"Most content-delivery networks work exactly the same now as they did 10 years ago," said Robinson -- they cache files locally on servers and deliver them from a single source based on the user's location. Velocix, by contrast, carves up large multiple gigabyte files into 256-KB slices and shifts the source of the download or stream based on the optimal connection at any given moment.

Velocix also uses intelligent routing technology to deliver big files using a combination of peer-to-peer networks and caching.

As well as working with major broadcasters such as the BBC, Velocix is equipping independent content distributors to provide for-pay online video services to their audiences. Last November the popular Italian soccer club AC Milan began providing streaming and on-demand video of matches to fans online, using Velocix's technology.

The entry of the big studios into the movie-on-demand market means that Bollywood.tv could face some stiff competition in the coming years. But in the world of South Asian movies, nobody ever said that less is more.
Source: Information Week

'Office 14' to be more Web-friendly, Gates says

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Microsoft envisions the next version of Office to have partial online functionality similar to how Outlook Web Access works

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates talked publicly for the first time on Monday about the next big Office release, code-named Office 14, which he said will give users new ways to access their applications online.

Microsoft won't provide the full functionality of Office online, but it will offer limited capabilities to view and edit the data in Office applications. It already does this for its Outlook e-mail client with a product called Outlook Web Access, and it will offer similar capabilities for other applications in Office 14, Gates said in a speech at the Microsoft Office System Developer Conference in San Jose, California.

"Outlook Web Access is not the full version of Office, but if you want to go into a kiosk or an Internet cafe and browse and connect, it gives you plenty of functionality," he said. "As we look at all the modules [in Office 14], we have in mind the equivalent of Outlook Web Access," Gates said.

It was the first time Microsoft had confirmed the "Office 14" moniker for the next release, although the Windows enthusiast Web site AeroXperience reported that fact recently, citing an internal Microsoft document. It also reported that a beta of Office 14 would appear this year with commercial release planned for 2009.

Gates offered no timeline Monday and addressed Office 14 only briefly at the end of his speech, which focused on how developers can extend the current version of Office. He was answering a question from a developer in the audience who asked when Microsoft would provide full online access for Office in the same way Google does for its Google Apps service.

"There are lots of ways I can get to your Office data, but nothing compares to Google," the developer said.

Google Apps is used mostly by smaller businesses today, but it is seen as a potential competitor to Office despite having more limited functionality. Microsoft, which makes much of its profits from its Office desktop software, has been criticized for moving too slowly in getting the applications online.

It will take another step in that direction with Office 14 by offering Outlook Web Access equivalents of other Office applications such as Excel. "If you look at spreadsheets, maybe you'll not be able to set up all the data models [online], but you'll be able to read documents, change a few assumptions, and try things out," Gates said.

Outlook Web Access is a part of Microsoft's Exchange Server 2007 software, and it was unclear how the other Office 14 applications would be packaged and delivered. Gates did say that SharePoint Server, which is becoming more closely aligned with Office, "will be able to render a greater set of Office documents in an HTML environment."

Source: Infoworld

Microsoft spurned, but will likely win Yahoo in the end

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:00:00 +0000

Now that Yahoo Inc. has formally turned down Microsoft Corp.'s unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid, some industry observers say the most likely outcome is that Microsoft will raise its offer and Yahoo will be forced to accept it.

Today, Yahoo's board told Microsoft that its $31 per share offer undervalued the company and said it would continue to evaluate other "strategic options" in order to maximize value for its shareholders.

Microsoft called Yahoo's decision "unfortunate," and said its offer gave shareholders "superior value." The unsolicited bid was a 62% premium over Yahoo's closing price the day before the Feb. 1 offer was made. Since then, Yahoo's stock has risen in value and was trading just above $29 this morning.

Microsoft, in a statement, also warned that it might pursue a hostile takeover. "Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo's shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal," the company said.

Microsoft believes that acquiring Yahoo will position it to better compete with Google Inc. in the online advertising market. For its part, Google has been doing what it can to scuttle the Microsoft takeover bid, including playing up the antitrust component of the deal. Google could not be reached for comment today.

"We have Microsoft's initial offer of $31 per share and we have what Yahoo wants, which is about $40 per share. They're looking for the amount of money Microsoft had offered them in a previous round," said Rob Enderle, an analyst at San Jose-based Enderle Group.

Although Enderle said the deal will most likely go through, Yahoo won't get as much money as it wants from Microsoft.

"Microsoft will counteroffer," he said. "This is a negotiation. Microsoft's initial offer was lower than Yahoo wanted, and Yahoo wants an offer that's higher than Microsoft is willing to pay. Now they do their dance and we see on whose side it ends up, typically someplace in the middle. But right now it looks like it will happen."

Guy Creese, an analyst at Burton Group in Midvale, Utah, said that while Yahoo is looking for more money from Microsoft, the Internet company is also looking to Google to form some kind of partnership.

"I think they have several options, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out," Creese said.

Anthony Sabino, professor of law and business at St. John's University in New York, said Microsoft's offer was a "bonanza beyond belief" for Yahoo's shareholders, and if Microsoft sweetens the pot a bit more the board is under a legal obligation to consider it because its job is to maximize value for it shareholders.

"It's incredible for Microsoft to come and make this kind of offer," Sabino said. He added that although the Yahoo board and CEO Jerry Yang don't want to become part of Microsoft, they probably won't have a choice.

"It should not be a surprise that that there is a powerful dissident group within Yahoo that has told the board they want it to consider this offer because it is a lot of money and they're not going to let the board turn it down," he said. "And not only are they right in terms of the business sense, because you don't turn away money that's offered to you in this princely sum, it's also a question of what the corporate law in this country provides."

And Sabino said that law is very specific. He said once a company is in play, which means another company has made a bid for it, its board has a duty to the shareholders to try to obtain the best price it can.

"There's no doubt in my mind that Yahoo is in play. There is an interested bidder or bidders for the company, so they're on the auction block," Sabino said. "Yahoo doesn't want to be there, Jerry Yang doesn't want to be there, the rest of the board doesn't want to be there, but being in play isn't something you usually have a voluntary choice about."

Sabino said the board can probably squeeze more money out of Microsoft, but at some point it will have to accept the offer.

"Microsoft will probably sweeten this offer to get what they want, but sooner or later Yahoo is going to say, 'OK, fine. We give up' because once the offer maxes out, what are they going to do? They simply can't [reject the offer] and say, 'We're better off going it alone.' They can't do that to the shareholders," he said.

As for Yahoo partnering with Google, Sabino said that deal wouldn't pass regulatory muster.

David Ferris, president of San Francisco-based Ferris Research, said he didn't think Yahoo was right to turn down Microsoft's offer.

"The thing is, it's a very large amount of money," he said. "I think it was a good offer for stockholders, but maybe Yahoo is just trying to get a better offer. But I'm not so sure they were right to turn it down."

Source: Computerworld

Yahoo! set to revive merger talks with AOL after rejecting hostile takeover

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 06:06:00 +0000

Yahoo! is seeking to restart merger talks with AOL as a means of defending itself against the $45 billion (£23 billion) hostile bid approach from Microsoft, The Times has learnt.

It is understood that Yahoo! and its team of advisers from Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, the US investment banks, have spent the past week evaluating possible tie-ups with media and technology firms that would save it from being swallowed by Microsoft.

It is also understood that one option being explored is to restart merger talks with AOL, the online business owned by Time Warner. Tie-ups with groups such as Google or Disney are also being considered. Although Yahoo! and AOL previously failed to join forces because of differences over price, it is hoped that the urgency created by an unwelcome approach from Microsoft and an impending economic downturn will spur the two into new talks. Google, which offered support to Yahoo! when the Microsoft approach was made public, also has a 5 per cent stake in AOL.

Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, will today tell Wall Street that his board has rejected the software giant’s cash-and-shares proposal because it significantly undervalues the company. It is believed that the Yahoo! board will not even consider starting talks with Microsoft unless the suitor group offers at least $12 billion more, representing a share price value of more than $40.

Currently, Microsoft has proposed paying $31 in cash and shares, valuing Yahoo! at just under $45 billion. Microsoft had proposed to pay Yahoo! shareholders up to half in cash and the rest with Microsoft shares.

A source close to Yahoo!’s thinking told The Times: “All they [Microsoft] are trying to do is pick off the company on the cheap. They’re trying to steal it. And the board is not going to let that happen. They have gone for a valuation that reflects the five-year low of the stock.”

The source added: “It would have to be in the 40s to start talking, and we would have to get over regulatory issues. It would have to be an offer that would give Jerry Yang something to stand on a podium and smile about.”

Yahoo! came to its decision at a meeting of its board on Friday night.The rejection may raise eyebrows, since Microsoft’s bid proposal valued Yahoo! at a 62 per cent premium to its closing price the day before the offer was made public on February 1.

Such a rejection would suggest that Mr Yang is prepared to argue to shareholders that he is capable of boosting Yahoo!’s share price by at least 62 per cent if the company stays independent. It is understood that today’s announcement will not include any firm talks with other media firms.

Yahoo! has suffered eight consecutive quarters of profit decline. Critically, it has also lost part of its share of the $40 billion online advertising market to Google, its dominant rival.

Microsoft is thought to be trying to engage Yahoo! shareholders in some form of discussion. It is also understood to be considering a proxy fight in the next month, in which it plans to oust most of the Yahoo! board and replace key executives with its own choice of management team.

That process — open to Microsoft as a shareholder in Yahoo! — is understood to be the last resort for the computer group if Mr Yang refuses to start serious merger talks. Any shareholder in Yahoo! can nominate executives by next month. Nominations would then be voted on by all shareholders.

Microsoft is desperate to take over Yahoo! because of the threat that Google’s dominance of the online search advertising market poses to the computer company’s future. Last year, after long discussions about a merger between the two, Yahoo! declared that it was not for sale. However, it did agree to draw up proposals about how the two could co-operate to fight Google more effectively.

Yahoo! is considered by Microsoft to have reneged on its pledge and Microsoft has become increasingly frustrated in the past 12 months as Google has grown stronger and Yahoo! has lost market share and been forced to cut 1,000 jobs.

Source:Times Online

Windows XP to be phased out by year's end despite customer demand

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 05:22:00 +0000

Computer makers have been told they'll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.

By early 2008, Microsoft's contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines. "The OEM version of XP Professional goes next January," said Frank Luburic, senior ThinkPad product manager for Lenovo. "At that point, they'll have no choice."

Despite Microsoft's relentless promotion of Vista, manufacturers are still seeing plenty of demand from customers for systems preloaded with XP, especially in the finicky SOHO market.

In a recent post on its Direct2Dell blog, Dell reaffirmed to concerned customers that it wasn't about to force small business users -- who typically purchase PCs piecemeal, rather than in large enterprise-style orders -- to shift to Vista, which has experienced a less-than-stellar reaction from many buyers because of driver issues and moderately beefy hardware requirements.

"Dell recognizes the needs of small business customers and understands that more time is needed to transition to a new operating system," the post read in part. "The plan is to continue offering Windows XP on select Dimension and Inspiron systems until later this [northern] summer."

"From a local perspective, the post was a reminder more than an announcement," Dell ANZ corporate communications manager Paul McKeon told APC.

"This was something we'd always planned during the transition phase since businesses will have different time frames to adopt the new OS. If you're a consumer, you're unlikely to be managing more than say 2.4 OS images at home, so it's less of an issue"

There's general agreement amongst PC resellers that Vista has provided a minor boost to PC sales, but hasn't produced blockbuster numbers. A similar story applies in the retail space. Figures from marketing consultancy GfK suggest that after an initial sales surge, around 1500 copies of Vista are now being sold through Australian retailers each week, according to a recent report in the AFR.

While Dell's post suggested it wouldn't be promoting Vista systems to the home market, manufacturers still have the option of selling XP-based systems for consumers this year.

Source : APCMAG

VB .NET Ebook Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Sun, 08 Apr 2007 06:18:00 +0000

101 Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Applications

Beginning Object-Oriented Programming with VB 2005: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional)

Beginning VB.NET 2003

Beginning Visual Basic .NET Database Programming

Beginning Visual Basic 2005

Beginning Visual Basic 2005 Databases (Programmer to Programmer)

Beginning Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: From Novice to Professional)

Building Client/Server Applications Under VB .NET: An Example-Driven Approach

Building Websites with VB.NET and DotNetNuke 4

Coding Techniques for Microsoft(r) Visual Basic(r) .NET

Comprehensive VB .NET Debugging

Creating and Consuming Web Services in Visual Basic

Designing Enterprise Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

Expert One-on-One Visual Basic .NET Business Objects

Expert One-on-One Visual Basic 2005 Database Programming (Expert One-On-One)

Expert One-on-One Visual Basic 2005 Design and Development

Expert VB 2005 Business Objects, Second Edition

Fast Track Visual Basic .NET

Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 2005, An (6th Edition)

Learning Visual Basic .NET

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition: Build a Program Now!

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programmer's Cookbook

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition Programming for the Absolute Beginner (For the Absolute Beginner)

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))

Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code, Second Edition

Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET

OOP with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET and Microsoft Visual C# .NET Step by Step

Peer to Peer with VB.NET

Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

Pro VB 2005 and the .NET 2.0 Platform, Second Edition

Professional VB 2005 (Programmer to Programmer)

Visual Basic .NET Tips & Techniques

Visual Basic(r).NET: The Complete Reference

Visual Basic 2005A Developer's Notebook

Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:52:00 +0000

SQL Server e-Books Download

A Developer's Guide to SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft .Net Development)

You'll find practical explanations of the new SQL Server 2005 data model, built-in .NET hosting, improved programmability, SQL:1999 compliance, and much more. Virtually every key concept is illuminated via sample code that has been fully updated for and tested with the shipping version of the product.

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Express Database Applications with Visual Basic Express and Visual Web Developer Express: From Novice to Professional

SQL Server 2005 Express is the database component of Microsoft's Express Suite of products. It is free of charge, inherits many (nonenterprise) features from SQL Server 2005, and comes complete with development and administration tools. As such, it is an ideal database for developers and administrators to use in prototype/evaluation projects.

Administrator's Guide to SQL Server 2005 (Microsoft Windows Server)

SQL Server 2005 is the biggest change to SQL Server in many years, and the first revision at all in five years. Yet almost all of the books written or announced on SQL Server 2005 either are written for developers, or try to cover material for both developers and admins. This will be one of the first, and one of the only, books written specifically for database and systems administrators.

Beginning SQL Server 2005 for Developers: From Novice to Professional (Expert's Voice)

SQL Server 2005 will increase your programming options, productivity, analysis, and database management. If you have some basic knowledge of relational databases and want to start a career as a developer using SQL Server, then this book is your ideal first step. It explains the core jobs and roles for developing a database in both SQL Server 2000 and 2005.

Advanced Transact-SQL for SQL Server 2000

This is a defining book on the Oracle database for any developer or DBA who works with Oracle-driven database applications. Tom has a simple philosophy: you can treat Oracle as a black box and just stick data into it or you can understand how it works and exploit it as a powerful computing environment. If you choose the latter, then you will find that there are few information management problems that you cannot solve quickly and elegantly.

Beginning SQL Server 2005 Programming (Programmer to Programmer)

After a quick primer on database design basics and the SQL query language (for those programmers who may be building their first database application), this book provides an overview of SQL Server itself, which has been dramatically redesigned with the 2005 release

Beginning Transact-SQL With SQL Server 2000 and 2005

Beginning Transact-SQL with SQL Server 2000 and 2005 Transact-SQL is a powerful implementation of the ANSI standard SQL database query language. In order to build effective database applications, you must gain a thorough understanding of these features. This book provides you with a comprehensive introduction to the T-SQL language and shows you how it can be used to work with both the SQL Server 2000 and 2005 releases.

Designing SQL Server 2000 Databases for .NET Enterprise Server

Microsoft recently announced its .NET Enterprise Server line abd its commitment to .NET as Microsoft's application architecture model. SQL Server 2000 is the first .NET Enterprise Server available and it offers the data storage and management component of the .NET line.

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noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:48:00 +0000

SQL Server e-Books Download

Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML

Guru's Guide to SQL Server Stored Procedures, XML, and HTML

Hitchhikers Guide to SQL Server 2000 Reporting

Books in the Microsoft Windows Server System Series are written and reviewed by the world's leading technical authorities on Microsoft Windows Technologies, including principal members of Microsoft's Windows and Server Development Teams. The goal of the series is to provide reliable information that enables administrators, developers, and IT professionals to architect, build, deploy, and manage solutions using the Microsoft Windows Server System.

Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: The Storage Engine

This practical, hands-on book offers deep, thorough coverage of the internals of architecture and resource management in SQL Server 2005, focusing on the Storage Engine. The book features extensive code samples and table examples.

Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000

To help you design Microsoft database servers that must achieve the best possible performance, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000 has the details you need. For one thing, author Kalen Delaney explains how SQL Server 2000 works at a level that will interest all database administrators.

Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Programming (Pro-Developer)

This thorough, hands-on reference for database developers and administrators delivers expert guidance on sophisticated uses of Transact-SQL (T-SQL)—one of the most familiar and powerful programming languages for SQL Server. Written by a T-SQL guru, this guide focuses on language features and how they are interpreted and processed by the SQL Server execution engine.

Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2005: T-SQL Querying (Solid Quality Learning)

A comprehensive, hands-on reference for database developers and administrators, this book focuses on advanced querying techniques using Transact-SQL (T-SQL), the database programming language built into SQL Server.

Inside SQL Server 2005 Tools (Microsoft Windows Server System Series)

SQL Server has always distinguished itself by, among other things, its management tools. One of the earliest design principles for the team was "It just works." We accomplished this by replacing the usual database knobs and levers with intelligent defaults and adaptive behavior.

Instant SQL Server 2000 Applications

Improve functionality and develop robust SQL Server applications with confidence using this collection of pre-written solutions. Best-selling programming author Greg Buczek brings you the most authoritative and useful collection of expert techniques and ready-to-use applications available

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noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 19:45:00 +0000

SQL Server e-Books Download

Learning SQL on SQL Server 2005

Anyone who interacts with today's modern databases needs to know SQL (Structured Query Language), the standard language for generating, manipulating, and retrieving database information. In recent years, the dramatic rise in the popularity of relational databases and multi-user databases has fueled a healthy demand for application developers and others who can write SQL code efficiently and correctly.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 DTS Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))

Teach yourself how to use SQL Server 2000 Data Transformation Services (DTS)—and begin writing your own data movement applications—one step at a time. This practical, hands-on tutorial expertly guides you through the development of a DTS application that extracts and transforms data from a database into a data warehouse.

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services Step by Step (Pro-Step by Step Developer)

Teach yourself how to use the new, integrated reporting capabilities in SQL Server—one step at a time! This practical, hands-on guide expertly builds your expertise with the concepts and architecture of SQL Server Reporting Services—including Report Definition Language, Report Designer, Report Server, and the programming model.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Administrator's Companion (Pro - Administrator's Companion)

This comprehensive administrator's reference delivers the details you need to successfully plan, deploy, administer, and support Microsoft SQL Server 2005. The authors - experts in database technologies - provide easy-to-follow procedures, practical workarounds, and key troubleshooting tactics for everyday, on-the-job results.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

Your hands-on guide to learning Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services, Microsoft’s customizable analysis solution for business data modeling and interpretation. Analysis Services is a powerful tool for business intelligence, so understanding the essentials—how to create a cube, as well as how to deploy, customize, and extend the basic calculations—is critical to harnessing the full benefits of SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services Step by Step (Step by Step (Microsoft))

Your hands-on guide to learning Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, Microsoft’s customizable reporting solution for business data analysis. Reporting Services is a powerful tool for business intelligence, so an understanding of the essentials—how to architect a report, as well as how to install and program Reporting Services—is key to harnessing the full benefits of SQL Server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Applied Techniques Step by Step (Pro - Step By Step Developer)

SQL Server 2005 is Microsofts next-generation data management and analysis solution that delivers increased security, scalability, and availability to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy, and manage. This is a skill-building, learn-by-doing tutorial to help developers and database administrators with basic product knowledge begin to master SQL Server 2005.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005: Database Essentials Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))

The popular, learn-by-doing tutorialupdated for SQL Server 2005. Teach yourself the fundamental techniques for designing, building, testing, and deploying SQL Server databases one step at a time.

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noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:20:00 +0000

Oracle e-Books Downloads

Advanced SQL Functions in Oracle 10g

Designed to exploit Oracle 10g's SQL, this book is a comprehensive look at Oracle 10g's analytical functions, MODEL statements, and regular expressions. In addition, the book covers collection/object-oriented structures and introduces new Oracle 10g topics like SQL, XML, and statistical functions.

Cost-Based Oracle Fundamentals (Expert's Voice in Oracle)

The question, "Why isn't Oracle using my index?" must be one of the most popular (or perhaps unpopular) questions ever asked on the Oracle help forums. You've picked exactly the right columns, you've got them in the ideal order, you've computed statistics, you've checked for null columns--and the optimizer flatly refuses to use your index unless you hint it. What could possibly be going wrong?

Expert One on One Oracle

Tom Kyte is of a rare breed. To begin, he's technically expert in his subject (administration of and development of applications for Oracle database management systems). What's more (and what distinguishes him from the ranks of the super-competent), he is both able and willing to share his considerable store of wisdom with Oracle users via books like Expert One on One: Oracle.

Expert Oracle Database 10g Administration (Expert's Voice)

Expert Oracle Database Architecture: 9i and 10g Programming Techniques and Solutions

Expert Oracle9i Database Administration

This is the only real Oracle9i database administration book in the market! This 1,000 page book enables a beginner or intermediate level Oracle DBA or Oracle developer/manager to master the art of building and managing complex Oracle9i databases.

Guerrilla Oracle: The Succinct Windows Perspective

Walks through the process of transforming a Windows NT or 2000 server into an Oracle 8i or 9i database server. The guide demonstrates how to install and define the Oracle database software, create a basic security schema, formalize the database backup plan, add client PCs, normalize the data, design the GUI forms, and produce reports. The CD-ROM contains code sample and scripts.

High Performance Oracle Database Applications: Performance and Tuning Techniques for Getting the Most from Your Oracle Database

Teaches how table design techniques can be used to maximize Oracle performance. Exposes the internal mechanisms of Oracle. Provides pretested performance scripts to get immediate performance information. Offers expert advice on interpreting Oracle performance information. Shows how to quickly implement performance and tuning data collection without buying expensive tools.

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noreply@blogger.com (TechFreeks) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 05:17:00 +0000

Oracle e-Books Downloads

High-Performance Oracle: Proven Methods for Achieving Optimum Performance and Availability

Ensuring high-performance and continuous availability of Oracle software is a key focus of database managers. At least a dozen books address the subject of "performance tuning"-- that is, how to fine-tune the Oracle database for its greatest processing efficiency.

Mastering Oracle SQL

Few books on the market today go beyond discussing syntax and the barest rudiments of using Oracle SQL. This book changes that. The authors cover the full range of Oracle SQL features that apply to query writing. Learn to write UNION queries that take full advantage of SQL's set orientation, and ways to use Oracle's new analytic SQL features to write ranking queries, lag and lead queries, and more.

Mastering Oracle SQL and SQL*Plus

SQL is the ANSI-standard language for accessing and manipulating relational databases. Anyone (programmers, administrators, or designers) who work with a relational databases need to understand the SQL language. While most books on the market do not properly cover the basics, this book differs: it explains fundamentals in detail, supported by realistic examples.You will gain full competence to define, access, and manipulate data in an Oracle database.

OCA: Oracle Application Server 10g Administration I Study Guide (Exam 1Z0-311)

Complete coverage of the exam objectives, hands-on exercises, review questions, and more, this is the first and only book to offer such in-depth coverage of this challenging exam

Oracle 10g Data Warehousing

Oracle Oracle Database 10g. Written by people on the Oracle development team that designed and implemented the code and by people with industry experience implementing warehouses using Oracle technology, this thoroughly updated and extended edition provides an insiders view of how the Oracle Database 10g software is best used for your application.

Oracle 9iAS Portal Bible

Oracle databases have long handled the publicly invisible task of managing large corporate data stores. With the release of Oracle 9iAS Portal, the company has made it much easier to securely share the contents of data warehouses with appropriate audiences.

Oracle Application Server 10g Administration Handbook (Osborne ORACLE Press Series)

From the exclusive publisher of Oracle Press books, here is an architectural and technical reference on how to use Oracle Application Server 10g to Web-enable Oracle databases for application server systems. You’ll find coverage of installation, configuration, and tuning, using Java with Oracle Application Server 10g, and much more.

Oracle Application Server 10g: J2EE Deployment and Administration

Oracle Application Server 10g: J2EE Deployment and Administration focuses on the latest version of Oracle's fully J2EE-certified application server (previously called Oracle9iAS). Oracle Corp. is aggressively attacking this market with a new lost-cost version of the server, as well as a program to move BEA customers onto Oracle free of charge.

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