CourseCast of the Week

Episode 119, 09/19/2009

Title/Description: Cloud Government, Malvertisers, Social Voice Chat, Zune HD and other Tech Headlines

Welcome to Course Technology's CourseCast of the week, Episode 119, recorded September 19th, 2009. This is Ken Baldauf bringing you this week's technology news and information. This CourseCast is brought to you by Course Technology. Check out www.cengage.com/coursetechnology for innovative textbooks and creative electronic learning solutions.

Visit the CourseCasts Website at CourseCasts.course.com where you will find links to the full stories covered in this CourseCast, related discussion questions for use in your technology courses, and the CourseCast Archives.

And now the news…

Story 1: Governing from the Cloud

The U.S. Government now has its own App Store! In an effort to reduce its $75 billion annual IT budget, the Fed is encouraging agencies to embrace cloud computing. A new Web site at Apps.Gov provides access to federally approved cloud computing services for Business, IT services, Productivity, and Social Media. By moving to cloud delivered services, the federal agencies can reduce their own IT infrastructure and costs.

Google is designing a version of its cloud applications specifically for U.S. government agencies. The applications are being designed to meet regulatory requirements as Google works to achieve the U.S. government's Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification. A relationship between Google and the Fed would give Google and Cloud Computing a big competitive advantage over Microsoft.

Learn more about cloud computing by viewing the video at apps.gov.

• Now, Even the Government Has an App Store [NYTimes]
• Apps.Gov to Bring Cloud Efficiencies to Federal Agencies [E-Commerce]
• Google to deliver 'government cloud' to feds in 2010 [Computerworld]
• Will government gig put Google ahead of Microsoft in cloud race? [Computerworld]
• White House unveils cloud computing initiative [c|net]

Story 2: Microsoft Goes After Malvertisers

You've heard of malware, software with malicious intent. Now there's a new term in the geek dictionary: malvertisement: an online advertisement designed to lure people to malicious Web sites where there computer is infected with malware. Malvertiseming is often associated with another term from the geek dictionary: scareware: a popular method of spreading malware by making users believe that their computer is infected. When the user clicks the link to repair their PC, it actually becomes infected with the malware. The result is typically one more PC added to the ranks of zombies in a botnet.

This week a malvertiser snuck an ad by the New York times advertising department. The scammers claimed to represent Internet phone provider Vonage and paid to place ads on nytimes.com. After days of running actual Vonage ads, they started running ads for fake antivirus software. When Times readers clicked the ads to downloaded the software, their computers became infected. The Times received hundreds of phone calls about the ad, and ended up pulling all third party advertisements from its site until the culprit could be found.

Microsoft is on a crusade to stamp out the growing malvertising menace. This week the company filed five civil law suites in Seattle against alleged malvertisers. The practice of malvertising is a threat to Microsoft's online advertising revenues.

• Microsoft Files Lawsuits Against ‘Malvertisers’ [Reuters]
• Malvertisers Sued as Microsoft Cracks Down [NewsFactor]
• New York Times tricked into serving scareware ad [Computerworld]

Story 3: Voice Chat Coming to Social Networks

Voice chat is coming to both Facebook and Twitter. A service named Vivox Web Voice for Facebook, currently in closed beta, allows Facebook users to voice chat with friends individually or in groups. At the same time, a new service from an IP communications company named Jahjah has gone into beta, which allows Twitter users to launch two-minute voice chat sessions with their followers. My guess to what comes after voice chat? Video chat! a service already provided by Google's Talk and others.

• Coming soon: Facebook Voice Chat [Christian Science Monitor]
• Voice feature for Twitter goes into beta today [Computerworld]

Story 4: Zune HD Released

The Zune HD was released this past week and is receiving favorable reviews. The handheld media device from Microsoft competes against the iPod Touch offering movies, video games, apps, and music through Microsoft’s subscription service. The Zune HD features a beautiful 3.3-inch OLED touch screen that supports 720p HD output for hi-def movie watching. It also includes HD-radio and Wi-fi. Unlike Apple, Microsoft has not opened the device to third party software developers, but instead develops all of the applications itself. Interestingly, Microsoft has decided to include paid advertisements on the device in the form of videos and still images that are displayed while applications are loading.

• Third time's a charm: Ars reviews the Zune HD [Ars Technica]
• Zune HD apps are here... complete with pre-roll ads [Ars Technica]

News Briefs

• Georgia Tech has received a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to fund a program that transforms out of work IT professionals into high-school computer teachers. Operation Reboot will pair 30 IT professionals with 30 high school computer teachers, to the mutual benefit of both. The IT specialists are provided a new career, and the high-school teachers learn up-to-date real-world computing applications. It's a win-win-win for unemployed IT workers, high schools, and Georgia Tech.
  Georgia Tech to Transform Unemployed Technology Workers into High School Computing Teachers [Georgia Tech College of Computing]
• A study titled "Point, Click, and Cheat: Frequency and Type of Academic Dishonesty in the Virtual Classroom," surprised many when it found that cheating is less common in college courses that take place in virtual classrooms than in physical classrooms.
  Students appear less likely to cheat in online classes [Ars Technica]
• Imagine selecting a book from an online catalog and having it printed and bound before your eyes in 4 minutes. Well Google has made this a reality for bookstores that purchase its $100,000 Espresso Book Machine. Google has digitized over 2 million public domain books and is making them available to bookstores to print for a $1 fee. Materials to print one paperback book run around $3. The new technology is expected to shake up the publishing industry.
  Google Lets You Custom-Print Millions of Public Domain Books [Wired]
• Google is experimenting with a new Web browsing technology. The new service from Google Labs is called Fast Flip and it allows users to flip through news stories as you would flip through a magazine. Try it out at fastflip.googlelabs.com.
  Update: Google tries to enhance news browsing with Fast Flip [Computerworld]
• Facebook has surpassed 300 million users and has declared itself to be "cash flow positive." Cash flow positive means that the company has reached a point where noninvestment revenues cover the cash it spends on capital expenditures. It is the final step prior to becoming profitable.
  Facebook passes major user, financial milestones [Computerworld]
• Microsoft has released a technical preview of its Office Web Apps to tens of thousands of select users for a trial run. So far, reviewers are holding their tongues as there isn't enough of the software available yet to review properly. The online software will be available as a public beta later this year.
  First look: Microsoft Office Web Apps challenge Google, Zoho [Computerworld]
  Microsoft Office Web Apps Preview [TechReviewSource]
  Microsoft launches Office Web Apps preview [Computerworld]
• Microsoft announced a big price break for students on the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Individuals with an .edu email address can get Windows 7 for $30.00 through January 3 2010. Windows 7 is due to be released October 22 and can be downloaded from microsoft.com/windows/windows-7
  Microsoft slashes student price for Windows 7 to $30 [Computerworld]

That's it for this week's CourseCasts. A BIG shout out goes to Derrick Thomas and his students in the Technology Foundations class at The Boys' Latin School of Maryland in Baltimore. Thanks for listening! Email me with your comments and suggestions for the show at coursecasts@gmail.com. Let me know how you use CourseCasts in your classes and I'll give you and your school a shout out on my next CourseCast. Until next time have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!