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The Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation are uniting to try to jump-start a new Green Revolution. This is not aimed at electric cars for you and me. Not aimed at cheaper electricity for Beijing or London. This is aimed at agriculture in areas where starvation and povertyabound. Gates donations alone will exceed $300-millionfor Africa and other regions. Perhaps they want to spend it before the American dollar becomes worthless. The Rockefeller group is ponying up another $50 million. They’ve formed Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The goal is to improve agricultural practics and output in Africa. Separatre donations will be made to help farming in Philippines and India as well. You can go here for some…

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Ok, I know most people would not consider a 37-page legal opinion “fascinating”. But as a computer science major and armchair software patent quarterback (not to mention long-time TiVo fan), that’s exactly how I’d describe today’s written decision by the US Court of Appeals in which they ruled that EchoStar (Dish Network) infringes on TiVo’s “time-warp” patent. I mean, how can you not appreciate passages like this one, which delves into one of life’s great mysteries: is the word “an” singular or plural? As a general rule, the words “a” or “an” in a patent claim carry the meaning of “one or more.” That is particularly true when those words are used in combination with the open-ended antecedent “comprising.” However,…

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Oracle has a belated reply to a survey a few weeks back on how database administrators have never installed one of the company’s critical patch updates. In a blog post Oracle’s Eric Maurice faults the survey for relying on a small sample size–not that it stopped us from reporting it. But Maurice then takes an interesting detour to the psychology of patching. In short, patching stinks, but it may not be nearly as bad as you think. The problem is that there are unintended consequences to patching. The biggest fallout can be a bunch of broken applications. That risk is weighed against being vulnerable to attackers. Maurice writes: It is generally in human nature to find known and immediate difficulties…

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Fortify Software says it will offer a free copy of its source code analysis software to states in order to check the integrity of their e-voting machines. According to the press release: “We’re donating our products to states so they can find places where their machines’ software is vulnerable to attack,” said John M. Jack, Fortify’s CEO. “These coding mistakes open the door for a malicious voter or polling location volunteer to change your vote or even cast multiple votes; corrupting an election could be as easy as inserting a carefully programmed cartridge or a bogus ballot into the machine.” “Our assessment found security vulnerabilities in the software of these systems,” said Matt Bishop, a professor of computer science at…

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Fortify Software says it will offer a free copy of its source code analysis software to states in order to check the integrity of their e-voting machines. According to the press release: “We’re donating our products to states so they can find places where their machines’ software is vulnerable to attack,” said John M. Jack, Fortify’s CEO. “These coding mistakes open the door for a malicious voter or polling location volunteer to change your vote or even cast multiple votes; corrupting an election could be as easy as inserting a carefully programmed cartridge or a bogus ballot into the machine.” “Our assessment found security vulnerabilities in the software of these systems,” said Matt Bishop, a professor of computer science at…

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Which one of the following will kill SOA projects faster this year? Lack of money, or Lack of skills? Two separate articles out this week talk about double-trouble for SOA in 2008. Anne Thomas Manes, analyst with Burton Group, is warning that a potential downturn in the economy could pull the rug out from under many SOA projects. According to a report in SearchSOA, Anne warned that “You’re going to see budgets shrink. You’re going to be asked to do more with less. One of the most dangerous things is we’re going to see funding for major initiatives evaporate.” In addition to corporate budget cuts, there will be other pressures on IT, such as as globalization, outsourcing and auditing required…

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Which one of the following will kill SOA projects faster this year? Lack of money, or Lack of skills? Two separate articles out this week talk about double-trouble for SOA in 2008. Anne Thomas Manes, analyst with Burton Group, is warning that a potential downturn in the economy could pull the rug out from under many SOA projects. According to a report in SearchSOA, Anne warned that “You’re going to see budgets shrink. You’re going to be asked to do more with less. One of the most dangerous things is we’re going to see funding for major initiatives evaporate.” In addition to corporate budget cuts, there will be other pressures on IT, such as as globalization, outsourcing and auditing required…

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