Tech News

Calabasas-based network testing tools firm Ixia has launched a new product, focused on the network security market, the firm announced today. Ixia said that it has launched IxDefend, which is says is a comprehensive security analysis tool that can assess the security and robustness of software applications, network appliances, and information systems. The firm said its product can be used to identify known and zero-day threats to systems, programming errors, and other security exposures in applications. Pricing and other details of the product were not disclosed. READ MORE>> Tags: programming, software, tools

This probably will make me sound like an old fogey, but I believe you can't fully appreciate the present until you understand the past. This is especially true in the realm of consumer electronics, where innovations move so fast, it's easy to forget where we've been.

I've owned many computers over the years, each more robust than the last. My latest is an absolute screamer, with heaps of RAM, a massive array of hard drives and a blazingly fast dual-core CPU. Quite frankly, it packs more power than I ever imagined was necessary. Yet in a few years, even this won't be enough. Like many people, I've gotten spoiled.

I got hooked on computers relatively late, in 1984, with Commodore 64, the world's best-selling home computer. The basic machine came with a whopping 64KB of RAM, built-in BASIC programming language, a ROM-based operating system, integrated keyboard, sprite graphics and a 3-voice sound chip.

Today, the average cell phone is more advanced than the old C-64, but at the time, it was nothing short of revolutionary. It connected to any TV set, or a 40-column monochrome monitor, if you could afford one. For storage, you were limited to the agonizingly slow Commodore Datassette tape drive, or the 1541 51/4-inch external floppy drive, which held only 170 KB of data per disk.

Despite their now-laughable specs, personal computers weren't exactly cheap back then. If I remember correctly, my C-64 and disk drive retailed for about $800, but that still beat the competition: An Apple IIe cost about $1,400, a Tandy TSR-80 III ran about $1,000 and the original IBM PC cost around $1,350. Yet none of them could touch the C-64 in computing power or fun factor.

I eventually graduated from the C-64 to the Commodore 128, which featured twice the power -- a 2 Mhz CPU,... Tags: mac, programming, software

Among all the profiles on MySpace, the social networking site's users have uploaded almost 4 billion photos. Now through an agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co., MySpace hopes people will increasingly print these images and, eventually, buy photo-embellished merchandise, too.

MySpace and HP said Tuesday that they are starting a business relationship that will put Web-based printing software from HP into the photo sections of MySpace.

This means MySpace pages will display HP-branded click-to-print buttons. The buttons are meant to make it easier for users to print content stored on their MySpace profiles -- like photos and blog postings -- than it would be to do so through their Web browsers.

The buttons are expected to appear in November on MySpace in the U.S., Australia, Western Europe and Canada. And in the following months, people will be able to buy things emblazoned with photos from the site, MySpace Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe said.

For example, bands with MySpace profiles might eventually set up their own online merchandise stores where people could choose photos they like and have them printed onto shirts through HP, he said.

"It's pretty powerful when you think we have over 5 million bands on MySpace," he said.

MySpace, part of News Corp., is not releasing financial details of the agreement.

Such partnerships may be worth trying because it has generally proven difficult for social networking sites to make money from advertising. MySpace does have a variety of large advertisers, but many analysts believe social network sites have barely tapped their potential for revenue, given that they have large audiences that spend lots of time on the sites. Tags: blog, software