Development

The database that all Linux and UNIX-based platforms and many time-based applications use to keep track of the ever-changing global timezones has been shut down, due to a copyright lawsuit leveled at the unpaid maintainers of the database.

Windows is modular; different pieces for different functions, working together in the same machine. Microsoft's diagnostics should know if a module is broken, but can't always tell if a falling out means two won't talk, or if one has become corrupt, but won't admit it.

The people that put 'chipping flint' right next to 'cheating at computer games using binary' may not be the ones who judge your employability, but reading what they consider 'obsolete' will make you realize how many generations of IT you've actually lived through.

Google does three things well; one of them is search my hardware for information the same way it searches the Internet. Why kill the most intimate thing Google will ever do for customers?

At the VMworld conference, VMware CEO Paul Maritz described efforts to lead virtualization in half a dozen markets at once, only one of which it unquestionably owns now.

If you’re planning a specific transaction involving software assets, whether it’s an M&A, equity investment, product introduction, demand for IP indemnity, commercialization of research or other event, conduct a software code audit as early as possible in the transaction. Knowing what’s in the code can speed up transaction times and reduce costs associated with fixing problems at the last minute.

Asking the question: if someone wanted to sue a vendor for GPL non-compliance on behalf of the Linux kernel, who could do it, and what might happen next?

If banks can put dye packs and broadcasting GPS units that signal cops where stolen moneybags are being taken, why can't you do that for data? Honeypot technology shows you how, but existing honeytokens have to be better at sending calls for help.

Plus: Pentagon dithers; RIM begs developers to stay.

Even though open web standards built around HTML5 should be accessible to all browsers equally, apparently some browsers are more equal than others.

Researchers have found that giving subatomic bits of information more choice about how to run a PC it's easier to control the processing they do. No, it doesn't make sense to us, either.