John Lister

Yahoo has announced the opening of a new data center that uses wind power to drastically improve its electric efficiency. The technology used is based on chicken coops and fowl smells. Data Centers Power Hungry for Electricity Data centers, which ... process information on a huge scale, are a huge problem when it comes to energy efficiency. That's because, as you'll probably have experienced by using a notebook computer on your lap or touching the case of a desktop computer after prolonged use, processors build up a lot of heat as they work. It also takes a lot of energy running fans to keep ... (view more)

Microsoft has urged business users not to let the wait for the next edition of Internet Explorer 9 put them off upgrading to the latest edition of Windows. The company insists that waiting won't make the process any easier. 3 Reasons Why Businesses ... Are Waiting for IE9 While reviews of Windows 7 have been positive, it's clear businesses are taking their time to upgrade for a variety of reasons. Reasons for not upgrading to Windows 7 include: keeping spending under control because of financial concerns during the present economic crisis, cautiousness resulting from bad experiences with Windows ... (view more)

Social networking giant Facebook has flatly denied a report that it is working on its own cell phone. But not everyone believes the rumors are false. Facebook Phone Story Leak by TechCrunch The first report came this past Sunday when TechCrunch ... founder and writer Michael Arrington claimed that Facebook was working on a program by which it would write the phone's operating system and software, while partnering with a manufacturer to physically build the handset. According to Arrington, two senior Facebook staff members have been working on the project. One helped create the Mozilla Firefox ... (view more)

A leaked Google document has revealed how much major firms spend on online advertising. It shows that even well-established Internet brands spend millions of dollars a month using Google's Adwords advertising system. The document has been published ... by industry journal Advertising Age and, as well as giving general information for the first six months of the year, reveals how much companies spent on Google ads in June, 2010. For those unaware, Google Adword ads appear alongside Google search results and online websites that participate in the Adwords program. Advertisers use a bidding system ... (view more)

A new application allows owners of the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch to run Windows on their portable devices. The catch is that they'll need a Mac computer running an $80 program to do so, though users of previous editions can upgrade for a smaller ... fee. The program in question is the recently released Parallels Desktop version 6. It's virtualization software, which means that users can set their Mac up to act as if it were a PC. This then allows them to install and run a copy of Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7, though technically they'll need the appropriate Microsoft license to do so: for ... (view more)

Wal-Mart will soon compete with the major cellphone networks by selling its own calling plan. The world's largest retailer will offer exceptionally low rates on voice calls and texts, though its data charges may be too expensive for many users. The ... chain will be acting as a virtual operator, meaning it licenses bandwidth from a mobile network (T-Mobile in this case), and resells it to customers. Its plan, dubbed "Family Mobile", costs $45 a month for one line and $25 a month for each additional line, with unlimited US calls and texts. That's substantially lower than what major networks ... (view more)

YouTube will this week test live broadcasting for the first time. If successful, it could bring both new visitors to the site as well as several legal and technical challenges. At first the company will run a two-day trial featuring live broadcasts ... from four of the major companies that produce original videos for YouTube, such as Howcast. It will then analyze the data from the trials to find ways to refine and improve the technology before eventually making it available to all users. (Source: google.com) A New Frontier for YouTube YouTube has previously broadcast live events, but only through ... (view more)

Microsoft has convinced a judge to grant it legal ownership of 276 web domains previously used to control networks of infected PCs. It's the first time this has happened, and the company believes it could be used as a legal weapon. The case involves ... a botnet , created from computers infected with the Waledeac worm . A botnet is short form for "robot network" -- or quite simply, a network of infected computers controlled by one or few individuals. Botnet Sends 1.5 Billion Spam Email Messages Per Day At one point an estimated 80,000 computers were under part of the botnet and were ... (view more)

Apple has joined Mozilla in releasing a browser security update for a bug affecting numerous Windows programs. It means Safari and Firefox are the only major browsers that have been issued a fix. In both cases, the problem is the much talked-about ... Windows DLL bug that deals with dynamic link libraries (DLLs). It involves the way Windows works and the settings of individual applications, many of which aren't produced by Microsoft. Windows DLL Bug Affects All Versions of Windows In short, the problem is that when an application tries to load a DLL but doesn't say where the file is located, ... (view more)

With Microsoft's latest mobile Windows finally shipping to manufacturers, handset makers are deciding whether it's worth paying a licensing fee for the software when free alternatives (such as Google's Android) are available. However, Microsoft ... argues that the hidden costs of open source systems mean Windows represents better value. Windows 7 Phone License Fee Cheaper Than 'Free' Manufacturers that want to install Windows Phone 7 on their handsets will have to pay a licensing fee to Microsoft, just as computer makers do with Windows. The fee is understood to average around $15 a handset. That ... (view more)