Whether the rules of any given social media space are written or unwritten, it is important for marketers and communicators entering these spaces to learn them.

A deal between Google and Dell has finally come to fruition: some computer owners, after booting up for the first time, are being greeted by the phrase “Welcome to your new Dell PC – in partnership with Google.”

Matthew Aslett, Matt Asay & Alex Fletcher are all writing about the increased funding that open source companies have received in 2006. Good news indeed. (Picture from robinicus919)

At the bottom of Dell Computers‘ home page, there’s a pull-down menu you can use to load a version of the home page in the language of your country.

What’s in a name? Lee Roberts makes a shopping cart, content management solution known as ApplePieCart, or more appropriately, he used to.

One new feature in the latest version of Google’s information-laden Desktop product will get a lot of attention from users in the wake of Google’s fight with the Department of Justice over user privacy and trade secrets.

Ladies and gentlemen, update your computers! Microsoft announced that it would release a security update to help protect customers from exploitations of a vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) area of code in the Windows operating system on Tuesday, January 2, 2006, in response to malicious and criminal attacks on computer users that were discovered last week.

Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates announced the “golden age of computers” at a recent Princeton University award ceremony honoring world-changing figures. Gates intimated to a crowd of about 1,000 students the future of computing while addressing other technology issues like privacy and security.

California computer manufacturers Hewlett-Packard and Apple issued recalls for lithium-ion batteries on certain notebook computers. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued the orders for both companies. Both companies’ batteries experienced the same problems, which is overheating and possible melting due to an internal short.

The XPS series will have a lot more going for it than the rest of the product line, like dedicated customer support.

Lower costs and greater broadband availability have made PCs the centerpiece of everyday life at home.

Called Google Earth, the 3D mapping service brings a combination of aerial and satellite photos to the desktop.

A new software language may give computers better comprehension of what their human operators mean.

Internet directories function in a way similar to a university’s student directory or a telephone directory: it gives site owners a service that can bring exposure to their web site.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will install 229 Dell computers in its new Marcus Emergency Operations Center (EOC), scheduled to open in the fall of 2005.

Semantic: “Part of the structure of language, along with phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics, which involves understanding the meaning of words, sentences, and texts.” Google define:semantic

Working away from company premises via computer and phone links is a rapidly developing trend. Business Week reports 200 U.S. firms experimenting with the process, and more than thirty already operating formal programs. The University of Southern California’s Center for Future Research predicts that five million people will work this way within ten years. An “Association of Electronic Cottagers” has already been formed.

As the Internet matures, I see a trend starting to surface. As we know, Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs states that a foundational, human need, after survival and safety needs, is the need for social interaction. Like it or not, we are social animals — and the web doesn’t change that.

Question: I have been trying to find a way to transfer my existing OE email from this old P2$233Mhz to a nice fresh AthlonXP 2400+ I just finished building…and have met with little success and loads of reinstalls. (Cheat-mode reinstalls….Ghost is a very worthy toy

This article reprinted with permission by java.sun.com

Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing is difficult enough without having to learn a new API. The first version of JXTA introduced us to P2P, but the API was tough to learn, and not easily mapped to our current process. But now, with the release of JXTA 2.0, you get your warm fuzzies back — in the form of a ready-made API to wrap your P2P communications, with a socket-like interface and Java I/O streams.

Johns Hopkins Medicine has turned to a firewall designed for handheld computers to protect doctors who are using Pocket PC devices to gain instant access to medical data. The medical school and health-care organization recently deployed a wireless LAN to let doctors use the devices to update medical records, access radiography information, and write prescriptions. But security was a concern.