servers

Cloudy, with a chance of video

With Apple's iCloud coming next week, hot on the heels of Amazon and Google's cloud services for music, it seems like the years-old dream of cloud media streaming is coming to greater fruition than ever before. That's promising news to me, a person who cut the cord on his cable TV over a year and a half ago. I live off the Internet and my various devices--my laptop, game consoles, iPhone, and iPad--to get my media, be it TV shows, movies, music or books.

So far, it looks like 2011 will be more the year of Cloud Music than that of Cloud Video. And that's a shame, because I'm getting fed up with my half-baked digital-video life.

I've spent the last week with a product called Pogoplug Video, which attempts to do what no one's currently offering yet: the ability to stream multiformat video files easily across multiple platforms, be they gaming console, computer, or phone/tablet, even across the Internet or 3G.

I held high hopes for the Pogoplug Video. The $199 device is much like the Pogoplug Pro we reviewed last year, equipped with a more powerful processor. And, it does what it promises, to a point: video files stored on hard drives or USB sticks plugged into the Pogoplug do indeed technically play back on iPhones, iPads, laptops, or even via DLNA on an Xbox 360 or PS3.… Read more

LaCie unveils Windows Server-based 5-bay NAS

It's been a while since I last had opportunity to take on a Windows Server-based NAS server, such as the Acer Aspire EasyStore or HP's MediaSmart series. And now when Microsoft fanboys are starting to worry that the company has abandoned the NAS server market, LaCie has announced its first network storage server that's based on an NAS-specific operating system (OS) from the software giant, the 5big Storage Server.

The new NAS server is powered by Microsoft's Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Standard operating system, which was introduced in October 2010 and is based on Windows … Read more

Report: Windows 7 almost five times more secure than XP

Windows 7 is four to five times less vulnerable to malware infections than is Windows XP.

Those are the findings of Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report (PDF), which detailed in depth the state of software vulnerabilities, exploits, security breaches, and malware in 2010.

Overall, the study found that infection rates for newer Microsoft operating systems with the latest service packs are consistently lower than those for older OSes, giving Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 the highest marks for security.

Looking at the number of reported infections per 1,000 computers, Microsoft found that Windows 7 64-bit had … Read more

Mozilla jumps into Node.js server project

Mozilla, taking interest in the Node.js project to run JavaScript programs on servers, not just browsers, has passed an early milestone with its own flavor of the software.

Node.js is built with the V8 JavaScript engine from Google's Chrome browser, but Mozilla is transplanting Firefox's JavaScript technology in a project called SpiderNode. (The JavaScript engine in Firefox is called SpiderMonkey, and the hybrid technology used in SpiderNode is called V8Monkey.)

"We now have a Node executable running on V8Monkey," though it still crashes at this early stage, said SpiderNode project member Paul O'Shannessy … Read more

Microsoft reveals more details on Windows Intune

Microsoft has released more details about its Windows Intune product for customers eyeing the cloud-based PC management service.

Responding to customer questions, Microsoft has updated its Windows Intune FAQ page and served up a blog post yesterday to cover several key points.

Officially launched in late March, Windows Intune can take on basic PC administration from companies that don't have the staff to handle it internally. Perhaps best suited to small and midsized businesses but available to larger companies as well, Intune can keep PCs updated with the latest software and security patches. Business owners can also use the … Read more

Virtual-desktop integration touches all professions

I recently gave a presentation at a small gathering of IT "enthusiasts" in Albany, N.Y. I say "enthusiasts" because the audience was an eclectic mix of IT technologists and people with advanced expertise in non-IT fields. For example, I met two people from an architectural firm, and neither was an IT administrator. One was an architect and the other was a building systems engineer (HVAC, wiring, etc.). They were there specifically to learn more about an IT systems requirement for a new elementary-school building project. I had not expected to see an architect in the … Read more

Facebook hopes to spur data-center innovation (photos)

In order to meet the extreme demands put on its servers, Facebook has designed its own servers and data-center setup. Now, with a project called the Open Compute Project, it's sharing those plans with partners and competitors alike in the hopes that it will help push the evolution of data-center design. Here are a few photos from today's event, held in Palo Alto, Calif. For more details on the project, see our article here.

D-Link ships ShareCenter dual-bay NAS servers

D-Link announced today the availability of its ShareCenter dual-bay NAS servers, the DNS-320 and the DNS-325.

The company says these new servers can host two SATA 3.5-inch hard drives of capacities up to 2TB each and can be accessed remotely using the Mydlink mobile application.

The new NAS servers from D-Link also support media streaming and are able to host digital content for media streamers, like game consoles or the D-Link Boxee Box.

Related links D-Link DCS-932L D-Link Boxee Box

Other than that, the two new servers have a standard set of features like most NAS servers. They can … Read more

Microsoft releases Windows Home Server 2011

Microsoft has officially released its new Windows Home Server 2011.

With the release to manufacturing, Windows Home Server 2011 is now slated to reach MSDN and TechNet subscribers in early April where they can download the software via their subscriptions. The latest version should also start to pop up on computers in May, according to Microsoft, which said that manufacturers have already been working with the new home operating system.

The official version of Windows Home Server 2011, codenamed Vail, comes almost a year after the beta was released and close to two months since the release candidate made its debut.… Read more

How to fix Apple's Time Capsule (and how it will make the iPad 2 even better)

Sure, the iPad's fun. It's thin, it's addictive, it can handle a wide variety of apps and media files. There's only one problem: it still needs to sync to a PC.

If "magical" was the catchphrase most repeated at last year's iPad unveiling, "post-PC" was this year's equivalent for the iPad 2. I had hoped that, along with the iPad 2, Apple would find a way access media libraries wirelessly. They have, in a way, with iOS 4.3's new Home Sharing capability--but it needs a Mac or PC … Read more