Stories by Heather Havenstein

New IBM tool analyzes code for mistakes as its written

IBM's Rational Software unit this week unveiled a development tool that can scan and check code as it's written to uncover errors before they make their way further into the development life cycle where fixes are far more costly.

GOP launches Facebook parody mocking Obama

The Republican National Committee this week launched a parody of Facebook called BarackBook that attempts to discredit Obama by highlighting as his "friends" people who may reflect badly on his presidential bid.

Search engine draws fanfare, testers prefer Google

While there has never been a shortage of so-called "Google killers" -- start-ups aiming to beat the search giant with a better mousetrap -- few have generated fanfare like Cuil. The start-up company's search engine, also called Cuil (pronounced cool), offers an index that's three times larger than any other search engine, its founders say.

Doctors, PHDs to edit new Wikipedia of medical information

A project launched Wednesday aims to create what is in essence a medical Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia focused on explaining conditions, drugs, procedures, medial facilities and other medical topics written by physicians and PhDs.

US transport authority leans on BI to save $100 million

The US federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) estimates that it will have saved an estimated US$100 million over a two year period by using business intelligence software to more effectively manage its workers.

SharePoint challenges IT as the Excel, Access of the day

Just as the use of Microsoft Excel and Access grew at unfettered rates in the 1990s - often under IT's radar - the vendor's Office SharePoint Server is spreading quickly through large companies as a development platform for users, according to a new study from Forrester Research.

Corporate IT Can Learn a Lot From Web 2.0 Coders

On July 14, Yahoo's Flickr unit reported that the latest update to the photo-sharing Web site went live two days earlier with five changes made by two of its developers. The July 12 "deployment" was the 42nd new release in a week where 19 developers made 735 changes.

Facebook facelift targets aging users and new competitors

Facebook rolled out a major redesign of its social networking site late Sunday that features a cleaner interface that links feed technology with user forums. Company officials said the updated site will give users more control and ownership over their profiles.

Five Web 2.0 dev lessons for enterprise IT

Yahoo's Flickr unit reported yesterday that the latest update to the photo sharing Web site went live with 9 changes made by three of its developers. The "deployment" was the 36th new release in a week where 627 changes were made by 21 developers.

Yahoo's plan to open its search index draws mixed reviews

Yahoo's move to provide third-party developers access to its entire search index could spawn a legion of smaller search engines that could take on Google, but it could also put Yahoo's own search business at risk, according to initial reviews in the blogosphere to the project Yahoo unveiled Thursday.

Obama outpacing McCain in Web-site traffic, online 'buzz'

During May, the last full month of the U.S. presidential primary season, traffic going to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign Web site outpaced visits to Sen. John McCain's official site by a 4:1 margin, according to data released Monday by market research firm Nielsen Online.

Google in brouhaha with anti-Obama bloggers

Google has found itself immersed in a blogger brouhaha after its Blogger subsidiary shut down the postings of several political bloggers opposing the election of Senator Barack Obama for president.

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