| 15 foolish high-tech stories
Celebrating April Fool's Day with stories on space, murder, fire, iPhones and text-messages. Conficker activation passes quietly, but threat isn't over
An expected activation of the Conficker.c worm at midnight on April 1 passed without incident, despite sensationalized fears that the Internet itself might be affected, but security researchers said users aren't out of the woods yet. Blocking Conficker domain names: Will it work?
One important effort to try and stop the Conficker worm from being activated by its creators on April 1 and beyond is blocking the domain names that it may use for... AT&T to resell Cisco telepresence gear to feds
AT&T and Cisco have inked an exclusive deal that allows the carrier's government marketing arm to sell fully managed room-based video conferencing systems from Cisco to...
Plus: Cisco rolls out low-end TelePresence system IT spending drop-off worse than after dot.com bust, Gartner reports
Gartner adjusts global IT spending forecast downward as more enterprise companies plan budget cuts and vendors report slowing sales. Cloud computing vendors converge on standard definition, goals
Cloud computing vendors are moving toward a common definition and forming industry groups to collaborate on building cloud technologies. Do I own my machine?
The built-in Webcam light is on. It shouldn't be on. I'm not using any recording, video-conferencing or photo applications. Why is it on? Is someone watching me? It's at times like this I get the eerie feeling that I don't actually, fully and completely own my machine. Turns out it was a driver problem, all fixed now. But I still can't shake that feeling. Highly anticipated open-source releases coming in '09
When big companies release new software, they launch it with lots of hoopla: press tours, technical conferences, free T-shirts. Open-source projects, even the well-known ones, generally release their major new versions with a lot less fanfare. The FOSS (free and open-source software) community is often too busy coding and testing to bother with marketing, even when the new "point release" of the software is really remarkable. Intel, Microsoft look away as beefed-up netbooks blur lines
Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp.'s attempts to confine netbooks to the low end of the market to protect mainstream notebook PC sales have taken another hit. Is computer science degree necessary? My two cents
The debate of whether a computer science degree is needed has gone on for 30 years and is still not finished. Microsoft Subnet blogger Susan Hanley adds her opinion in saying it depends. Fellow blogger Brian Egler said a computer science degree is helpful but not necessary to have. Tyson Kopczynski says a technology generalist who can adapt is more important than a person with a computer science degree. Mitchell Ashley discusses whether a computer science degree is necessary. He puts more weight on how a person learns. Guide to Videoconferencing Services: Part I
"Once the economy begins to recover, videoconferencing will see meteoric growth," BT's Videoconferencing Unit general manager Jeff Prestel told us in a recent interview. In the mean time growth is respectable, experience quality is improving, systems are easier to use, and high-end "immersive" solutions are creating a lot of buzz--although not making major inroads just yet. Collaborating with our colleague John Bartlett, we learned this and more during recent interviews with eight carriers to create this four-part "Guide to Videoconferencing Services." | 
A look at the top 10 iPhone apps that could get you into trouble.
A detailed account of how much tech chiefs made in 2008.
