You may not have read much about Lotus Symphony - OpenOffice.Org casts a pretty big shadow over other free Office competitors. Like OpenOffice, IBM's cross-platform office suite is based on the Open Document format and is a very capable alternative to Micorosoft Office.

Symphony doesn't provide the same number of tools as Office or OpenOffice, but it does handle word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tasks. The latest release adds a much needed piece of functionality to Symphony - the ability to open files created using Microsoft Office 2007 (though files can only be saved in 2003 or 2000 formats). A Flash-based presentation of Symphony's features is available for viewing, and there's also a transcript available if you would rather read them yourself.

One I particularly like is the tabbed interface. As with the tabs in my browser, it keeps my workspace just as tidy whether I've got a single document or dozens open at the same time.

The suite is roughly a 200Mb download for Windows, Mac, and Linux, and is available from the IBM web site. There's also a large, online library of clipart for you to utilize in your documents.

In our last installment the XForce was busy keeping you safe on the Internet. In this episode it's XForce versus the evil spam.

Spam, as we all know, is a pain in the rear. The XForce report covers a lot of ground on spam and phishing.

Some of the things the report covers (that I won't):

• What happened to image-based spam?
• How much spam is phishing?
• How much spam is PDF spam?
• Where are the web pages contained in spam messages hosted?

So, here are the interesting spam nuggets from the report. The XForce reports that Russia sends 11% of spam, Turkey sends 8% and the US sends 7% of worldwide spam. Can you believe that Turkey is beating us in spam?

The XForce report also lists the most common subject lines for spam and surprisingly, there is not a mention of Viagra in any of them. The most popular spam subject line, at .67% of the world's spam is - Replica Watches. I know, boring, isn't it? The second and third most popular subject lines are about more risque topics.

If all this talk of spam has that lovely Monty Python song stuck in your head, go try the spam-a-lot game. But if you're at work you might want to turn your speakers down (or off)!

The XForce won't save you from a burning building but, they just might make your surfing safer. The XForce is IBM's team of Internet Security Systems researchers and they've just released the midyear report for 2008, listing all kinds of facts and figures on internet security. If you're really into data, go read the report for yourself. It might also be good for insomnia. I'll give you the quick highlights here.

The first part of the report is about computer threats and vulnerabilities. Top five companies with vulnerability disclosures (when they publish information about a security problem) in 2008 so far?

• Apple
• Joomla!
• Microsoft
• IBM
• Sun

And a surprise at the bottom of the list, Wordpress, which is new on the list this year.

The most exploited vendors so far in 2008? Apple, HP and Microsoft. Not surprising targets since that's what most of us use in our daily life.

More worrisome is the increase in web application vulnerabilities. There has been a 51% increase since 2006. That means we, the people who are online all day, are being targeted more often. Some of these threats come from malicious websites which most of us have learned to stay away from. But some also come from web facing applications, like WordPress

There are thousands of free and commercial applications for PalmOS. But some of the best applications for Palm devices, like Opera Mini, don't actually run on PalmOS. They're Java midlets that run on a Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

For the past few years, Palm has offered a free download of IBM's WebSphere EveryPlace Micro Environment JVM. But for some unexplained reason, Palm will stop offering a download link on Jan 12, 2008. Palm will still offer support for anyone who has already installed the JVM on their device, but no new customers will be able to grab the virtual machine.

So if you haven't already downloaded the awkwardly named WebSphere Everyplace Micro Everyplace Micro Environment now might be a good time to grab it. The JVM will not run on older Palm devices like the Tungsten W, Tungsten T2, or Zire 71, but if you've purchased a Palm phone or PDA in the last few years you should be able to download and install this free application.

Remember Lotus Symphony? A few months ago IBM launched its open source MS Office competitor based on OpenOffice.org code. We downloaded it, installed it, weren't particularly impressed, unloaded it and forgot about it.

Now IBM is back with a second beta release of Lotus Symphony. The application still runs pretty slow on our Windows Vista test system. There are versions available for Windows XP, Vista, and Linux. A Mac release is scheduled for next year.

Computer World reports that IBM plans to release updates every 6 to 8 weeks. The next version will include support for 23 languages. Right now, Lotus Symphony is only available in English.

As for major changes in Lotus Symphony Beta 2, we didn't notice much in the way of new features. So we're guessing most of the tweaks are under the hood bug fixes.

[via Computer World]

IBM workers went on strike this morning in Second Life marking perhaps the biggest (if not the first) virtual strike in history. Italian workers are upset over a new contract deal that canceled their performance bonus costing them each 1000 Euros (close to$1400) a year. The pay cut came at a time of big profits for IBM, and right after the workers asked for a small pay increase.

Workers took their strike to the IBM islands of Second Life this morning carrying virtual picket signs. The employees online protest coincides with a real-life picket line outside of the IBM offices in Italy also taking place today. 900 avatars have signed on to protest in Second Life, representing more 18 different countries.

If you're not on Second Life but still want to get in on the action you can sign the petition to IBM and follow the protest today online.

A leading worldwide IT consultancy and outsourcing business with control of over 1 million corporate desktops has added Google Apps to its technology arsenal.

CapGemini [PDF] will start to target the desktops of over a million corporate workers with Google's spread of online office applications that consist of Email, Calendar, Docs and Spreadsheets. Slashing IT costs, and saving corporations countless dollars. CapGemini is currently a Microsoft Vista and Lotus Notes partner, but given the search giant's efforts with their "accessible anywhere" applications and storage, CapGemini's clients will have yet another option for the most appropriate technology that fits into their business goals. With Google's applications, users can allow for complete collaboration watching changes in real time.

Google is rumored to be launching a Presentation application into its suite of applications shorty, rounding out its professional offerings. Something for Microsoft to watch out for. CapGemini will collect a £25 license fee charged by Google for the use of its applications.

[via Guardian]

Hospitals are willing to upgrade systems and spend revenue on software applications and Big Blue is never too shy to come to the rescue.

Mid-size hospitals in India are now seeing new IT initiatives as a way to gain a competitive advantage against the larger more well known facilities. It's suggested that there was a $300 million untapped hospital service market available for the taking when IBM jumped in and offered up their hardware, middleware and services. The applications that IBM will provide the hospitals are revenue management applications, hospital enterprise resource planning, learning management, health insurance claims processing and performance management applications.

There are only a few hospitals in India that have successfully implemented IT solutions. There are supposedly issues surrounding choice, as well as not much understanding at evaluating different options available.


[via infoworld]

If you're jealous of all those mad scientists who've been loading up Linux on their shiny new Sony PS3, TerraSoft thinks they have the answer. They're taking pre-orders for PS3's pre-loaded with Yellow Dog Linux's Playstation distribution. Now, even if you don't know a kernel from a colonel, you can smile brightly when your friends and foes drop jaws to the ground while your expensive console boots the most advanced open source OS on the planet.

Your Linux laden PS3 will set you back $650 credits dollars and TerraSoft isn't making any promises on when your new pride and joy will arrive. If you've already got your hot little hand on the third generation of Sony console, IBM's got a helpful guide to squeezing Yellow Dog in alongside Sony's own proprietary OS. The only caveat? Sony's partial opening of the platform comes with a tiny string attached; You'll get no accelerated graphics capabilities when running Linux.

For all you corporate users that want to connect to the outside world, the Yahoo! Messenger blog just announced that Y! Messenger can now connect to users on MS Live Communications Server and IBM \ Lotus Sametime. This is in addition to the previously released support for MSN Messenger (now called Windows Live Messenger).

I'm not sure how this functionality can be found - I pulled the current version of Y! Messenger from the official website, and it doesn't yet have Sametime or LCS listed - maybe I'm just a little impatient...

[Update: I just booted my PC and the options appeared auto-magically...]

IBM has been out of the Consumer Electronic Show for ten years, and is now about to resurface again with an insurgence of new technologies to get their buzz going again. The last show they were at was in 1997, and now they have to prove again that they are heavy hitters in the industry. For the upcoming show, IBM is said to be planning to demonstrate how its technology, components, and top level business partnerships with the likes up Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have been used in many leading edge electronics like gaming systems and mobile devices. IBM has been doing a lot of interesting things lately to get in people's minds that they aren't old school anymore, and that they can hang with the cool kids once again. This includes a $10 million investment in technologies that can help build Second Life style virtual worlds.

Taking an unexpected jab right at Google's Enterprise Search Appliance, IBM and Yahoo! have teamed up to launch IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition, a free search solution that will index "up to 500,000 documents and over 200 file types in 30 different languages." OmniFind Yahoo! Edition will run on Linux (Red Hat Enterprise and SUSE Enterprise, to be specific), Windows XP, or Windows 2003 Server. The minimum requirements specify 1GB of RAM and 80GB of hard drive space, but the recommended specs call for dual 3Ghz processors, twice the RAM, and 250GB of mirrored disk space. Google's "Mini" search appliance, by contrast, starts out at $1,995 including hardware, and tops out at 300,000 documents for $8,995, and its more full-featured search appliance starts at $30,000.

Yahoo! and IBM tout the OmniFind system's ease of setup, ("Go from installer to searching in minutes"), so for organizations who can gather the hardware and install the software themselves and need to index fewer than half a million documents, Google's appliances' bang to buck ratio suddenly doesn't look very healthy.

[Via CIO]

Big Blue has been eyeing a wireless software company called Vallent Corp., and is working to close a deal for early 2007. Vallent, a software company from Washington that develops network monitoring tools for wireless service providers, has developed software that is capable of monitoring traffic, identifying network bottlenecks, and protect against any service interruptions. Vallent's current high profile customer list currently includes Cingular, Nextel, Lucent and Motorola. IBM says that this deal will give the company key technologies that will increase the amount of consumer and corporate data that is transmitted wirelessly. IBM plans to integrate Vallent's software with IBM's Tivoli Netcool line.

Pocket PC users are kind of screwed when it comes to mobility software. Although our devices are far more capable than modern phones, almost all online mobility software caters to the phone using contingent. Consider Gmail Mobile - although it's a nice pared-down interface for mobile phone users, on a Pocket PC it's horrendous to use, particularly if you don't happen to have a Windows Mobile powered phone. Google Reader Mobile is similar - so pared down that Bloglines kicks its ass on a Pocket PC.

So I was pretty disappointed when Google released a new downloadable client for mobile phones that makes using Gmail a lot faster and more enjoyable on mobile devices, since Google's definition of mobile devices appears to be "mobile phones". And this got me to thinking, since the new downloadable Gmail Mobile client is written in Java, shouldn't there be some way to run a Java virtual machine on my Pocket PC 2003 Dell Axim X50v? And it turns out, there is!

Ah, the flop. The tech industry has had more than its share, and it's never pretty. Miguel Carrasco has collected 10 of the biggest flops in computing history, a list which includes four OSes and six machines. A lot of the computers on the list are considered ahead of their time and still have big followings, like the Apple Newton and Steve Jobs' NeXT cube. I have a big soft spot for #3 on the list, the IBM PCjr, which was my first computer. It was a hunk of junk, and several years obsolete by the time I got mine, but nevertheless I have fond memories of it. Both Microsoft and Apple make strong showings on the list, Microsoft on the software side with the likes of Microsoft Bob and Apple with the afforementioned Newton and some others you'll no doubt remember.

[Via Jason Calacanis, whose first computer was also the PCjr]