Software: Grabbing Bits Off The Net

By | November 24, 2011
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 I haven’t tried this but it sounds a great idea: The Easy Bee is software that automates Web navigation tasks and builds aggregated pages with always up-to-date Web extracts. The Easy Bee lets you create Web agents?Honeybees?that will periodically navigate, extract and aggregate for you any web content, even web pages that require form filling and button clicking. What you end up with is a page of all the bits and pieces from the web that you need, be they newsfeeds, stock quotes or whatever.
 

News: When Is A Newspaper Website Not A Newspaper Website?

By | November 24, 2011
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 More on disguised branding, this time with newspaper-related sites. Steve Outing points out on Poynter that newspapers are putting up bloglike sites to appeal to the younger crowd, while playing down the site’s connections to the owner. Steve cites the Arizona Daily Star’s AZNightBuzz, where “there’s no indication on the home page that the site is connected to the newspaper, even on the About Us page”.
 
His conclusion: “Newspapers are deciding that the newspaper brand name may actually be a hindrance in attracting the college demographic to their media products — so they’re dispensing with it.”

News: The Free Version Of Office Is Out

By | November 24, 2011
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 The free, open source Office suite, OpenOffice, is now officially into version 1.1, including enhancements such as “revolutionary” XML file format, one-click PDF (Adobe Acrobat) export and Macromedia Flash export for presentations and drawings, according to The Register.
 
 
There is is enhanced MS Office file compatibility, accessibility support and a faster load times. Supported languages include English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Korean and Japanese. Of course, it’s available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris.

News: Palm’s New Wireless Keyboard

By | November 24, 2011
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 On the heels of its launch of fresh handhelds, Palm has launched some new accessories, including a wireless keyboard, multifunction stylus, six cases, a camera card, handheld device protection units and complete accessory kits.
 
According to UK PR firm M2 Communications the wireless keyboard lets users type using a QWERTY key layout without the need to connect the device to the main unit with wires. Pricing starts at GBP59.99. The stylus costs GBP9.99 and can be used as a writing pen, a laser pointer, a torch and a stylus.

News: Tougher Sentences For Hackers?

By | November 24, 2011
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 It’s about to get tougher for hackers and virus writers, or at least for those who get caught. TechNews.com  reports that those convicted will soon will face significantly harsher penalties under new guidelines which focus on the harm caused. Hackers, for example, will face up to a 25 percent increase in their sentences if they hijack e-mail accounts or steal personal data — including financial and medical records and digital photographs. Convicted virus and worm authors face a 50 percent increase.
 
While this may be welcome to those who have suffered at the hands of such folk, there are worries. TechNews quotes Internet security experts as saying the number of computer-related prosecutions could rise as federal prosecutors try to tie them into otherwise unrelated crimes. The government reckons not: the piece quotes John G. Malcolm, the Justice Department’s computer crimes chief, as saying: “whether they’re drug dealers, embezzlers, hackers or software pirates… people who commit crimes use computers more than they used to.”