Steve Jobs: World leaders and CEOs pay tribute
World leaders and CEOs have paid tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who has died at the age of 56.
Jobs is credited with transforming Apple, the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak in 1976, into one of the biggest consumer brands in the world. Outside of Apple, Jobs was a driving force in helping Pixar, the animation house he owned from 1986 to 2006, become the Oscar-winning studio it is today.
Tributes have been pouring in, praising Jobs' singular vision for helping to revolutionise the world of computing and for opening the world's eyes to the transformative power of technology. Read more...
Chaos feared after Unix time-zone database is nuked
The internet's authoritative source for time-zone data has been shut down after the volunteer programmer who maintained it was sued for copyright infringement by a maker of astrology software.
David Olson, custodian of the Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Database, said on Thursday he was retiring the FTP server he's long maintained. Also known as the Olson database, it's the official reference Unix machines use to set clocks to local time and is used by countless websites and applications to reconcile time differences across the world.
“A civil suit was filed on September 30 in federal court in Boston,” Olson wrote in the message posted to the mailing list for the FTP site. “I'm a defendant; the case involves the time zone database.” He then permanently disbanded the list. Olson wasn't immediately available to comment for this article. Read more...
Google adds cloud-based SQL database to App Engine
Google has created a relational database for its cloud-hosted App Engine application development and hosting platform, a much-requested addition, the company said on Thursday.
For now, the database, called Google Cloud SQL, is available on limited preview mode, which means that the company will hand-select the developers who get access to it.
During this preview period, Google Cloud SQL will be free of charge. Google will announce pricing a month before it starts charging for it.
"You can now choose to power your App Engine applications with a familiar relational database in a fully-managed cloud environment. This allows you to focus on developing your applications and services, free from the chores of managing, maintaining and administering relational databases," wrote Navneet Joneja, product manager for Google Cloud SQL, in a blog post. Read more...
Survey shows shift to cloud-based services despite concerns
A survey of 5,300 IT and security managers in 38 countries about cloud computing offers a vivid snapshot of expectations, anxieties, and sometimes shattered hopes.
According to the Symantec "State of the Cloud" survey, 19 percent of the respondents said they had moved at least some applications to public software as a service, while 17 percent said they had adopted a private cloud arrangement. When it comes to public infrastructure as a service, 17 percent were using that, while 11 percent said they were using a hybrid arrangement linking private and public cloud services.
In addition, roughly a quarter of the respondents said they were in the middle of implementations based on these four defined categories of private and public cloud use. But about another quarter were not even considering it, with security, reliability, and performance concerns paramount. Read more...
Apple and Samsung: What’s behind the patent fight
Samsung took a step toward finding a kind of "pax tabletica" with arch-foe Apple in an Australian court last week, offering to remove features from its Galaxy Tab to avoid a court ban on sales of the device in that country. But what's really interesting about the case isn't the technical litigation, but the underlying attempt to define how much of a product's design is actually protected under existing, fragmented international laws.
The fight began in April, when Apple sued Samsung for allegedly copying Apple's tablet and smartphone designs. Shortly thereafter, Samsung countersued, and the battle was on.
In some ways, the various legal cases now pending between the two companies -- just this week Samsung went after planned sales the iPhone 4S in Italy and France -- seem likely to force courts worldwide to make decisive judgments on just how far a person can patent a design. Read more...
Update: Mozilla to prompt Firefox 3.6 users to ride rapid-release train
Mozilla will start a more aggressive campaign to convince users of the older Firefox 3.6 to upgrade to the newest edition, Firefox 7.
Earlier this week, Mozilla said it would kick off the offer today, but at 4:30 p.m. ET, the company said the offer had been postponed while it sorted out server capacity.
When Mozilla does pull the trigger, it would be the first time it has offered what it calls an "advertised update" or a "major update" to people still running 2010's Firefox 3.6.
According to Mozilla, the offer does not hint at an impending retirement of the older version.
"The advertised update has no bearing on support levels [emphasis in original]," said Firefox release manager Christian Legnitto in a blog post Wednesday. "It does not mean Firefox 3.6 is end-of-life." Read more...
Microsoft slates IE bug fix for next week
Microsoft today said it will ship eight security updates next week to patch 23 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE) and several other products in its portfolio.
The company sketched out the upcoming patches in an advanced notice of Patch Tuesday's line-up.
Two of the eight updates, which Microsoft refers to as "bulletins," will be rated "critical," the most-serious threat ranking in its scoring system. The remaining six will be labeled "important," the next-most-severe tag. Most of the bulletins, including four of the six pegged as important, are to patch vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit to execute malicious code, and potentially commandeer the computer, the company acknowledged.
Microsoft said that the eight updates will fix 23 security flaws. The company usually delivers a larger number of updates that patch a higher number of vulnerabilities in even-numbered months, leaving a lighter load for odd-numbered months.
In August, for example, Microsoft issued 13 updates that patched 22 vulnerabilities, while in September it delivered five updates that quashed 15 bugs. Read more...
Birth father of Steve Jobs has no comment
Steve Jobs never met his biological father, and even as the Apple co-founder's cancer progressed, he expressed no desire to talk with the man who gave him up for adoption as a baby.
When Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO in August because of his failing health, John Jandali, now 80, said he hoped his son would contact him.
In a rare interview, he told the British newspaper The Sun at that time: "I live in hope that before it is too late he will reach out to me. Even to have just one coffee with him just once would make me a very happy man." The side-by-side photos of father and son, run by the newspaper, are eerie in their similarities, and show what Jobs might have looked like had he lived to his birth father's age. Read more...
Apple’s board needs to step up to new era
The death of Apple Inc's strong-willed co-founder and Chairman Steve Jobs has put the secretive company's small board at crossroads.
Business as usual, or time for a change? The first signs of the future will be whether they choose an independent chairman and expand the number of directors.
Apple directors include heavy hitters, but they were seen offering advice to the chief executive rather than overseeing Jobs, who was known for persuading people to see things his way.
"The old message was "trust Steve," the new message has to be 'trust the team.' ... It's no longer the cult of personality." said Jim Post, a professor of corporate governance at Boston University School of Management who called for an independent chairman.
"The board needs to be expanded. They need to bring on additional independent talent ..., people who were not living in Steve's shadow," he said. Read more...