IBM Mainframe

Google's amazing satellite-based three-dimensional (3D) mapping product, Google Earth, has come under fire over security concerns.

The free Web-based utility shows an aerial view of a user-requested location, including 3D buildings in major cities across the United States, as well as 3D terrain showing mountains, valleys, and canyons around the world. The problem is that is also shows government buildings that could be potential targets for terrorists.

The Grand Canyon Series Displays are the world's largest and probably most spectacular LCD monitors ever designed. The 2.5-inch thin Grand Canyon Display Series seemingly breaks ground in every engineering and architectural design detail, bringing computing visuals and immersive video experience to whole new levels.

Unlike anything we've ever seen before (or thought possible), the Grand Canyon Displays are exclusively custom-built in re-enforced aluminium, maximising both their enclosure size and the flexibility of positioning where physical space is at a premium. They are also the ultimate adrenaline rush for the hardcore gamer and the ideal tool for creative professionals for when display space maximisation and image quality are absolute priorities.

Oracle released a beta version of the product, called Oracle Database 10g Express Edition, on Friday for 32-bit Windows and Linux systems. The software can be downloaded free for development and limited production use. It can also be distributed free with third-party products from ISVs.

The company hopes to attract new users to its software by offering them a free "starter database" for development and deployment purposes, Oracle said. Along with developers it wants to attract more ISVs, educators and students.

Production use comes with restrictions. The database is limited to use with 4GB of data and 1GB of RAM and can be used on only one processor per server, Oracle said. The same conditions apply for use by ISVs. Support is offered by way of an online forum for users.

The product is built on the same code base as Oracle's existing 10g databases but with some options removed, so applications will run unchanged on Oracle's higher-end databases, according to Tim Payne, Oracle vice president of technology marketing for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar provides several features for deeply exploring and understanding Web pages.

You can Explore and modify the document object model (DOM) of a web page, Locate and select specific elements on a web page through a variety of techniques, Selectively disable Internet Explorer settings, View HTML object class names, ID's, and details such as link paths, tab index values, and access keys, Outline tables, table cells, images, or selected tags, Validate HTML, CSS, WAI, RSS web feed links, Display image dimensions, file sizes, path information, and alternate (ALT) text, Immediately resize the browser window to 800x600 or a custom size, Selectively clear the browser cache and saved cookies.

A British teenager has been cleared of launching a denial-of-service attack against his former employer, in a ruling that delivers another blow to the U.K's Computer Misuse Act.

At Wimbledon Magistrates Court in London, District Judge Kenneth Grant ruled Wednesday that the teenager had not broken the CMA, under which he was charged. The defendant, who can't be named for legal reasons, was accused of sending 5 million e-mail messages to his ex-employer that caused the company's e-mail server to crash.

The teenager greeted the news with relief, although an appeal by the prosecution is still possible. "I feel very happy. This has been going on for two years. At the moment, this is no longer hanging over my head," the teenager told.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. OEM software is sold by the software creator to a hardware manufacturer. For example, Microsoft will sell OEM versions of Windows and Office to companies like Dell or Gateway, at volume discounts. Dell and Gateway are then able to sell you the PC, complete with software, at a reasonable price. If you bought a PC from one of these companies, chances are that in the box, you found a handful of CD-ROMs with all kinds of software on them. No manuals, no instructions - just the CDs. These CDs are OEM software.

Sometimes, people and/or companies will not use the OEM software that came with their computer, and so they decide to sell the software, usually very inexpensively. If you need the software, it's a great way to save tens or hundreds of dollars off of the retail, boxed version you would buy in the store.

With energy costs heading continuously upwards, Fujitsu is now suggesting that companies should tell their employees to turn PCs off at night to save energy. Of course, for many, many years, this has been a very popular question for computer users.

There are, clearly, pros and cons to leaving the computer on and turning it off...Some people insist that constantly restarting your computer is actually worse for it than just leaving it on. Others claim the energy savings are a much bigger deal, and that argument may gain support with energy costs getting higher every day.

In a report released on Monday, the PC maker claimed that about $217 million (123 million pounds) is wasted every year in the U.K. alone powering PCs that could have been shut down or left in hibernation mode. The report also pointed out the environmental impact of all the wasted energy.