Cody Taylor

snydeq writes “InfoWorld’s Randall Kennedy reports on rumors that IE8 may be Internet Explorer’s swan song: ‘IE8 is the last version of the Internet Explorer Web browser,’ Kennedy writes. ‘It seems that Microsoft is preparing to throw in the towel on its Internet Explorer engine once and for all.’ And what will replace it? Some are still claiming that Microsoft will go with WebKit, which is used by Safari and Chrome. The WebKit story, Kennedy contends, could be a feint and that Microsoft will instead adopt Gazelle, Microsoft Research’s brand-new engine that thinks like an OS. ‘This new engine will supposedly be more secure than Firefox or even Chrome, making copious use of sandboxing to keep its myriad plug-ins isolated and the overall browser process model protected.'” The sticking point will be what Microsoft does about compatibility for ActiveX apps.

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jonniee writes “MIT Professor Barbara Liskov has been granted the ACM’s Turing Award. Liskov, the first US woman to earn a PhD in computer science, was recognized for helping make software more reliable, consistent and resistant to errors and hacking. She is only the second woman to receive the honor, which carries a 0,000 purse and is often described as the ‘Nobel Prize in computing.'”

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TEDChris writes “Here’s an intriguing attempt at a versatile new tech device that tries to augment the wearer’s five senses. It comes out of Patty Maes’s group at the MIT Media Lab. By combining a computerized personal projector with a camera and linking both to the Net, a host of surprising new applications becomes possible. This 8-minute demo created a lot of buzz at TED last month and was posted online today. Would love to know what the Slashdot community makes of it.”

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For the last several months, social-media pundits have busied themselves debating whether Twitter was the new Facebook.

There are numerous Firefox add-ons to help enhance your music listening experience. From those that enable you to control your online or desktop media player, to tools to help you fill in gaps in your album art collection, or tweet your current song to your reviews followers, here are 16 great Firefox music add-ons to get your groove on.

Compete just released this month’s statistics and unsurprisingly, Twitter had a big month, growing around 33 percent over the past month, just within the United States. Recently I’ve been estimating the site at around 10 million global users and it’s clear that with the massive press coverage, the company is growing at a quick rate.

He did it. Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and nerd superhero, just made his debut on Dancing with the Stars. As you’d expect, the surprisingly nimble Woz enjoyed himself without concern of mockery. But as one judge put it, “overall it was a disaster.”

The conclusion? The Desktop. Why the desktop? Linux has already conquered the server market. All it needs to do for that portion of its audience is to continue to scale upwards and keep creating incredible, usable servers. What Linux has failed to do yet is to show the world exactly what a desktop can do for the user.

Yes, Apple’s App Store carries great stuff for your iPhone. But some of the best applications Apple banned from the App Store are now found at an unauthorized store, called Cydia. But Apple is already prepping to send its legal sharks after The Cydia Store by leveraging DCMA in order to push jailbreaking into illegal territory.

Glyn Moody writes “For years, the content industries having been trying to get laws passed that would stop people sharing files. For years they failed. Then they came up with the ‘three strikes and you’re out’ idea — and it is starting to be put into law around the world. First we had France, followed by countries like Italy, Ireland — and now South Korea: ‘On March 3, 2009, the National Assembly’s Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting & Communications (CCSTB&C) passed a bill to revise the Copyright Law. The bill includes the so called, “three strikes out” or “graduated response” provision.’ Why has the ‘three strikes’ idea caught on where others have failed? And what is the best way to stop it spreading further?”

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