Stories by: Eric Lai

A recently-approved technology standard should help software developers to tap the latent processing power of graphics chips and transform regular computers into veritable supercomputers -- at least for certain applications. Poised to take advantage of the technology first is Apple.

Open Invention Network, which buys patents related to the Linux operating system and licenses them royalty-free, Tuesday launched a program aimed at encouraging open-source developers to document information about their work so that it can be easily read and used by patent offices and lawyers.

When people think of software pirates, they usually envision college kids downloading games off BitTorrent, or adults getting too-good-to-be-true bargains off eBay, or street stalls lined with DVDs in Third World cities.

Google late last week claimed results of in-house data sorting tests bolster its claims that its MapReduce technology can manipulate more data faster than any conventional database.

There are many ways to judge an online map -- the panoramic sweep of its street views, how accurately it gives directions, the number of restaurant reviews it has.

OpenOffice.org 3.0 was downloaded 3 million times in its first week, with about 80 percent of the downloads by Windows users, an official with the group said in a blog post on Monday.

Oracle's annual OpenWorld show is usually a showcase for its enterprise software. This year, however, it was all about hardware, as CEO Larry Ellison introduced a new family of database/storage products last week that it had been working on with partner Hewlett-Packard for three years.

In enterprise software, the closest thing to the dominance of Windows is the Oracle database.

Over the past two years, running Windows and Windows apps virtually on Apple hardware has become a popular way for consumers to dump their PCs in favor of Mac gear.

When asked if and how they plan to match Microsoft Office's unparalleled feature set, most online office suite vendors simply switch the subject, touting the superiority of their Web-based collaboration, and low or free price.

Microsoft's US$300 million advertising campaign for Windows starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld launched last week night with an extra-long television commercial almost entirely devoid of any talk of Windows, Microsoft, or anything, really.