Technology

Autonomic computing is one of the new hot buzzwords. However, not much has been done to provide an actual demonstration of what this technology is about in order to explain the hype. In this article, Alfredo Da Silva discusses an implementation that shows how practical autonomic computing can be. Complexity and high installation and maintenance costs are a reality of today's computer systems. This is mostly due to the fact that they are created to meet the specific needs of their owners and users.

In this article, we'll compare the capabilities of Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows XP and Linux. Would-be flamers, please note: yes, I am aware that you can add third-party software or hardware to almost any system to expand its capabilities. To be fair, we are primarily considering "vendor-supplied" capabilities, although we'll also note, where applicable, some freely downloadable utilities that can address or augment built-in capabilities. Any list of downloadable third-party add-ons is, of course, necessarily incomplete and is intended only as a guide to further exploration.

Ultrawideband (UWB) is shaping up as a high-speed wireless technology for the enterprise, but before its success can be assured, it must first navigate the complexities of industry working groups. Specifications for UWB, including 802.15.3a, are being forged by a task group of the Wireless Personal Area Networking (WPAN) working group, a subset of the IEEE. The task group's charter carries a broad mandate that goes beyond streaming, encompassing all of what it calls “time-sensitive file transfers” such as media content.

When veterinarian Tom Tribolet moved to Buenos Aires to try his hand as a thoroughbred racehorse trainer six years ago, staying in touch with his sons in Arizona and California meant spending upward of $500 a month with the Spanish-owned company that controls half of Argentina's phone service.

Today, Tribolet can call anyone he wants in the United States and Canada any time he feels like it. And his monthly bill comes to $40.

Homeland Security officials have told CNN that an advisory will be issued directing the aviation industry and all federal screeners and local authorities to pay particular attention to electronic items like remote key locks, and specific brands and models of cell phones, boom boxes and cameras.

BT has developed new technology that takes mobile messaging from the arena of 2D photo messages and voice clips to another level where "actual emotions can be conveyed between family and friends in a physical and tactile way".

The research by BT Exact, BT's research business, allows interactive toys to be linked to mobile phones so that SMS communication can be displayed through the toys' actions. This enables the texting experience to become more personable and fun, according to BT Exact.

The protocol that has defined e-mail for more than two decades may have a fatal flaw: It trusts you.
Developed when the Internet was used almost exclusively by academics, the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, or SMTP, assumes that you are who you say you are.

SMTP makes that assumption because it doesn't suspect that you're sending a Trojan horse virus, that you're making fraudulent pleas for money from the relations of deposed African dictators, or that you're hijacking somebody else's computer to send tens of millions of ads for herbal Viagra.

In 1998, Joe Firmage took the risky step of disclosing a visionary experience that convinced him of a connection between the world's religions and high-tech advances and visitors from outer space.

A French eyewear designer has teamed up with an acclaimed European aerial photographer to let the blind and visually impaired "see" his photographs.

The special tactile imaging technique developed with the help of designer Alain Mikli aims to bring Yann Arthus Bertrand's photography to as many people as possible.

After working three years towards a photographic exhibition for the blind, Bertrand has now added 30 tactile images to his "Earth from the Air" exhibition currently on display at London's Natural History Museum.

HTTP compression, a recommendation of the HTTP 1.1 protocol specification for improved page download time, requires a compression feature implemented at the Web server and a decompression feature implemented at the browser. While popular browsers were able to receive the compressed data as early as three years ago, Web servers were not ready to deliver compressed content. The situation is changing, though, as server compression modules are introduced.