Stories about: Rand

Aras was a small, struggling software maker that stirred up a hornet's nest early last year, when it made a pair of seemingly contradictory decisions.

Although boxing legend George Foreman, a judge on the second-year CBS reality show American Inventor, has yet to invent a network device, his Lean Mean Grilling Fat-Reducing Machine has been used by countless techies to quickly cook sandwiches and hamburgers after a long day in the data center.

Web 2.0 has come to search engine optimization. Or rather, search engine optimizers have discovered Web 2.0.

A leaked letter to the European Commission has revealed the extent of lobbying by proprietary software groups to prevent the widespread adoption of open-source software.

Open source gives you choices. Not happy with commercial software? Try the open source alternative, and work to add the features you need. If no open source project already exists, start your own. Chances are, other folks have the same itch and would be willing to help you scratch it.

Open-source leaders have called for a boycott of standards from the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), in response to a new OASIS policy on the use of patents in its standards.

The wireless replacement for USB, ultra wide-band (UWB), will be ready by Christmas and without the IEEE, a leading group promoting the revolutionary technology has promised.

Countries in Africa are gradually adopting strategies that promote the use of Linux as an alternative to Windows, and South Africa is leading the charge, with the government's recent approval of an open source software adoption plan.

The formal launch of the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) should help consolidate the efforts of programmers across the continent to deliver homegrown solutions to IT users, according to advocates of open source software.

After a blizzard of critical postings hit the Web site of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the standards body Monday evening extended the deadline until Oct. 11 for public comment on its proposal to allow patented technology to be incorporated in Web standards.

As the U.S. government begins to formulate policy in response to the terrorist attacks last week, it is faced with trying to heighten national security and preparedness while preserving American citizens' civil liberties. Government officials will likely find that balance particularly difficult to maintain when it comes to regulation and the Internet.