Software security firm Sophos has just released a new study which finds that more than 60% of users don't apply security patches and more than half disable firewall software.

Thanks to Yahoo and a developer named dataffect, I can now track USGS earthquake data and map it on the good ole US of A. Or I can find Long Beach hotels close to the airport, courtesy of 'cityres'.

Wall Street Journal reports today that Google's Android mobile platform won't launch until Q4 and not Q3 as originally hoped. Hardly a surprise but it goes to show how difficult it can be to pull all of the pieces together on a platform -- no matter how promising the software -- when you are dependent on hardware vendor timetables.

According to an announcement made at Google Developers Conference in San Francisco, MySpace e-mail is getting a shot in the arm from Google Gears. Read our piece on Google Gears: Google Gears: The future of application development?

The gang at Google Labs have announced a new hosted AJAX library solution intended to provide a globally-available, load-balanced sets of common used toolsets which are often used in the development of web-based applications.

In recent research completed by Gartner Group, analyst Adam Sarner adds Generation Virtual or Generation 'V' into the alphabet soup of generational grouping (e.g., Gen X, Gen Y and so on). Sarner suggests that companies and organizations have to dramatically rethink the way they market online since Gen V presents some extraordinary and unprecedented challenges to traditional assumptions about reaching customers online.

Beware of strangers bearing Hallmark E-Cards. The Hallmark E-Card phish from last summer is back again. Bearing the Hallmark logo, a somewhat reasonable set of options, and sporting a gradient design, it looks almost believable.

Google solicited thousands of entries from K-12 students around the country and selected the top forty (ten doodles for each of the four grade groups). Winners of the contest will be featured on Google's homepage.

We are often asked by our clients at the beginning of an engagement to outline keys to an effective web project. We've likely all seen projects which start off promisingly and end badly -- either over budget or minus the cohesion necessary to meet the desired objectives. And while we can't give away the store for free (it took some convincing before Warner would let me post this!), we offer these three keys to starting -- and finishing -- a project successfully.

With its Yahoo Open Strategy, Yahoo drops its bid toward an open platform for custom application built on core elements of the web services site. As with other platform plays from Facebook and Google, Yahoo is trying to entice the third party development world with a host of assets and tools for extending the value -- and reach -- of the Yahoo product/service line.