This week’s 4cast:
1. Technology’s Elusive Rewards
So your library spends plenty of time researching, testing, and implementing new technology, but the results are never quite what you had hoped for. How do you really know when a shiny, new technology is the right one for you?
- Chasing the technology curve (Library Geek Woes)
- 2.0, Meet Square One (Library Dust)
- Finding the True Value of Web Technologies (Read/Write Web)
- Under the Hood of Web 2.0 : the top ten programming concepts for librarians to understand (The Other Librarian)
2. Your Own Worst Enemy
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, and several recent surveys suggest that the single biggest threat to any organization’s computers are the computer users themselves.
- Study: PEBKAC still a serious problem when it comes to PC security (Ars Technica)
- Cyber Security Awareness Month: Do You Know Where Your Firewall Is? (Threat Level)
- Report: Insiders cause more computer security problems than viruses (Ars Technica)
- Employees, Not Hackers, Greatest Computer Threat (Information Security Management System)
3. See You at the Office (Online)
More people are abandoning their traditional desktop word processing and spreadsheet applications for free, web-based ones. Google Docs leads the pack, but Adobe and others are also joining the race. Microsoft is now beginning to think about an online version of Office.
- Storing Files on the Internet, Microsoft Style (New York Times)
- The Barbarians Are At The Gate, But Microsoft Moves To Protect Office Revenues (TechCrunch)
- Adobe’s Latest Acquisition Creates Buzz Around Office Docs (Wired)
- Web apps: e-mail and games remain hot, office apps cool (Ars Technica)
4. Death to Vista; Long Live XP?
Meanwhile, given the lackluster adoption rate of the Vista operating system, Microsoft is now allowing PC manufacturers to continue offering Windows XP to their customers (at least for a while).
- Microsoft extends Windows XP’s stay (CNET)
- Microsoft Buckles, Gives Windows XP A Life Extension (Compiler)
- PC users still prefer Windows to Vista (Telegraph)
- Why Microsoft must abandon Vista to save itself (CNET News Blog)
