ALERT – Google Desktop has become popular in large part due to very painful desktop search functions in Windows. It is able to find documents and email very quickly and accurately. However, it has a feature that should probably be of considerable concern for enterprises. A feature called Search Across Computers ought to raise eyebrows. [...]

ALERT – If you are trying to control IM use and haven’t heard of Meebo, it is very likely your users have. Meebo’s purpose in life is to allow people to continue using IM even at companies that have a policy to block it. It is a web-based multi-protocol IM client that is accessed via [...]

ALERT – Think your users don’t get around email attachment restrictions? Think again. Attachment limitations, while possibly useful for managing resource utilization on an over-burdened mail server, encourage user creativity. In addition, Microsoft, Apple, and Google have jumped into the pool of web-based file-storage/sharing applications.
The success of these online applications is driven by users [...]

ALERT – uTorrent, an extremely popular BitTorrent client, has been re-branded and released as the official mainline BitTorrent client, appropriately named BitTorrrent 6.0.
BitTorrent, Inc. acquired uTorrent in December 2006 and gained nearly 50% of all BitTorrent users in the process. The original uTorrent standalone client will continue to exist, but will not include [...]

ALERT – SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a protocol designed to provide encryption with minimal to no configuration, and has been used extensively to encrypt web communications through HTTPS (HTTP in SSL). Most security devices, including most firewalls, are not able to decrypt the traffic to see what is running inside SSL, and have little [...]

ALERT – This San Jose Mercury News article covers the recent BitTorrent announcement of their streaming video service, joining the ranks of Joost and Babelgum who are delivering a similar service.
It is interesting to see how the use of P2P technology to deliver a legitimate (legal) service, complete with appropriate licensing demonstrates how it has [...]

ANALYSIS – Used by millions of users, RSS is much like instant messaging in that it is predominantly an end-user driven tool that has become invaluable in helping enterprise employees be more productive. Daily news delivered directly to their desktop via RSS feeds.
Now that news (RSS) can be accompanied by viruses or other malicious [...]