EnterpriseDB announced on Tuesday that it had raised $10 million from funders including IBM, which took a small but symbolically laden stake in the four-year-old open-source database maker.

EnterpriseDB's products are based around the open-source PostgreSQL technology, a rival to the more popular MySQL. For several years, Sun Microsystems had been one of the strongest supporters of PostgreSQL, bundling it with its Solaris 10 operating system and partnering with EnterpriseDB to provide support.

[ For an in-depth analysis of Suns MySQL acquisition, see Analysis: Suns billion-dollar baby ]

Sun bought MySQL AB in late January. Though Sun and EnterpriseDB executives both denied at the time that Sun's backing for PostgreSQL would weaken, EnterpriseDB CEO Andy Astor admitted in an interview last week that he no longer "has high expectations for Sun and Postgres."

"We will continue to have a relationship with Sun, and we will continue to support Postgres [for Sun], but frankly, if I paid $1 billion for MySQL, I know where I'd be paying attention," Astor said.

[ For EnterpriseDB CEO Andy Astors take on the open source landscape, see The state of open source: Andy Astor ]

IBM, meanwhile, is "very interested" in what EnterpriseDB is doing, Astor said. The company joins Charles River Ventures, Fidelity Ventures, and Valhalla Partners in this Series C funding round.

IBM did not return a request for comment. But Raven Zachary, an analyst with The 451 Group, said the investment "is a significant move."

"With MySQL as part of Sun now, IBM sees its open-source database future aligned with PostgreSQL through EnterpriseDB," he said. "IBM also gains in this move through EnterpriseDB's Oracle database compatibility, as IBM competes with Oracle via DB2. This is a smart move for IBM."

EnterpriseDB has now raised a total of $37.5 million in its four-year history. It claims 225 paying customers today. Asked why IBM did not simply buy EnterpriseDB, Astor answered, "Because we're not for sale."

The company already provides a version of its database for IBM's Z/OS mainframe platform. Astor said similar marketing partnerships with other partners are in the offing.

He also had no reservations about aiming a few polemical blasts at EnterpriseDB's rival.

"We are going straight after MySQL in the marketplace with a dramatically more robust database," he said. EnterpriseDB "has excellent tooling, is faster than MySQL in transactional environments, and is far more scalable."

He continued: "If it was going to cost the same to get either a Yugo or a Mercedes, which one would you pick?"

MySQL actually has a partnership with IBM, with its database bundled into IBM's System i servers.

Zachary doesn't think IBM will abandon that.

"It's in IBM's best interests to make sure the most popular open source software works on its systems, and that includes MySQL. I wouldn't read too much into this," he said.

EnterpriseDB is one of the largest contributors of source code back to the PostgreSQL project. But much of what EnterpriseDB sells is a set of extensions on top of PostgreSQL. The company doesn't assign those extensions back to the project. As such, it has been tarred by purists as one of several essentially closed source companies operating in the guise of open source firms.

[ For an in-depth discussion of the challenges and opportunities facing open source endeavors, see Roundtable: The state of open source ]

Perhaps in reaction to those concerns, EnterpriseDB also announced today the release of its open source Postgres Plus 8.3, which is based on PostgreSQL but includes some of EnterpriseDB's improvements. EnterpriseDB will still offer an Advanced Server version of Postgres Plus that is neither free nor open source, but includes Oracle compatibility and other features.

EnterpriseDB is also making its GridSQL data warehousing software available immediately under the General Public License version 2.0.

"I think that EnterpriseDB's product rebranding clarifies some ambiguity that existed in the market," Zachery said.

In an attempt to improve computer performance, Sun is working on technology to let chips communicate using lasers instead of electricity, in what would be a break from conventional computer design.

The company on Monday received a $44 million contract from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to boost computational performance by using lasers for chips to communicate over silicon optics and to reduce power consumption by placing chips close to each other, Sun said.

Usually, chips are soldered and physically unattached, but with the research, Sun is trying to connect the chips densely in a grid, said Ron Ho, a distinguished engineer at Sun. At close proximity, lasers provide better bandwidth for chips to communicate, which can boost overall system performance. The performance increase could be at up to terabits per second, Ho said.

The research will densely pack hundreds of cores in what Sun calls a "macrochip." This research's findings could help data centers reduce power consumption and provide more efficient computational cycles for supercomputers in the high-performance computing space. It could help push supercomputing capabilities in areas like weather research and oil exploration.

The grid placement of chips and lower power requirement of optical networking should also reduce operational and manufacturing costs for supercomputers, Ho said.

Sun won't bring out supercomputers or servers based on the research soon, though the technology will start appearing in servers in about three to four years, Ho said.

Many companies are involved in silicon nanophotonics research, which enables high-bandwidth communication networks between chips with thousands of cores to enable computational and power efficiency. Research has been going on for years, but little attention has been given to bringing down power consumption and ownership costs, Ho said. Sun is trying to push research in the area, Ho said.

IBM is looking to replace wires on a chip with pulses of light on tiny optical fibers for quicker and more power-efficient data transfers between cores on a chip. The technology transfers data up to a distance of a few centimeters about 100 times faster than wires and consumes one-tenth as much power. NEC is also working on technology to enable optical data transmission between chips. DARPA is also looking to fund further research efforts in the space.

Sun's research partners for the project include silicon photonics companies like Kotura and Luxtera, and universities including Stanford University and the University of California at San Diego.

Last week Microsoft rolled out Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) to Windows Update, giving the majority of users their first look at the big update. Some didn't like what they saw.

At all.

One user, identified as "ronroyer" in a comment posted to the Vista blog, said SP1 had crippled his connection to the Internet. "I tried everything ... completely useless ... this has been nothing but one frustrating experience," said ronroyer.

If you've had problems with SP1 -- and by the tone of much of the news coverage, you're not alone -- you can turn back the hands of time, or at least those on your PC, to before you jumped on the service pack.

Here's the skinny, as we know it now.

How do I get rid of SP1? The simplest way, according to Microsoft's own documentation and its support staff, is to uninstall it using the normal procedure for tossing out unwanted applications.

From Control Panel, click "Programs" then in the ensuing window under "Programs and Features," click "Uninstall a program."

Click "View installed updates," select "Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330)" and click "Uninstall."

How long does it take to uninstall SP1? According to a Microsoft technical support representative we talked to, it should take between 20 and 30 minutes to uninstall the service pack. A Computerworld guinea pig PC, loaded with Vista Ultimate and updated last week to SP1, took around 35 minutes to return to its pre-updated self.

Like the installation of SP1, the uninstall is a three-stage process. There is one reboot in the middle, then another nearer the end. The in-the-middle restart doesn't happen automatically, however, so you have to stick around to click a button. The rest is hands-off.

Are there any SP1 bits left on the machine? Microsoft says no. But the updates that Microsoft required prior to offering Service Pack 1 through Windows Update -- dubbed "prerequisites" by the company -- do remain.

These include the January KB935509 update to BitLocker, and two others originally delivered in February, KB937287 and KB938371. The middle update of trio, KB937287, remember, was the one that raised a ruckus last month when some users reported that it had sent their PCs into a death spiral of endless reboots . Microsoft yanked the update several days later the automatic delivery list; users were still required to download and install it last week, however, before they were able to "see" SP1 on Windows Update.

Are there any other Microsoft-approved ways to uninstall SP1? According to the KB948537 support document, the company also says users can roll back to a pre-SP1 state by using Vista's System Restore feature.

Microsoft spells out two options: One "offline" -- if the PC isn't connected to the Internet, or perhaps because of SP1 not able to -- and another dubbed "online." The former requires that you have your original Vista install DVD and a PC that will boot from the optical drive.

For more details, KB948537, which is available here , spells out the steps for each restore option.

Apple has made some progress in meeting its self-imposed goals for making more environmentally friendly products. But a look at what Apple has done in the past year finds that the company still has some work ahead of it when it comes to reaching the environmental objectives outlined by Steve Jobs.

Those goals were spelled out by the Apple CEO nearly a year ago in an essay entitled A Greener Apple posted on Apple's Web site. In his May 2007 letter, Jobs laid out not only what environmental efforts Apple was making at the time, but also what the company's plans were for the future.

The goals set out by Jobs ranged from several fait accompli to more ambitious ongoing plans, but they focused primarily on two facets of environmental impact: The reduction of toxic chemicals in Apple products and the company's recycling program.

Jobs' public statement came as the company found itself the focus of an ongoing campaign by activist group Greenpeace, which did everything from picketing the 2007 Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco to setting up an Apple-specific environmental Web site to criticizing the company's policies in a series of reports.

Apple's efforts in the past year have paid off in at least one regard--the most recent version of Greenpeace's 10-point Guide to Greener Electronics bumps up the company's rating. "Apple was at a score of 4 a year ago," said Rick Hind, Legislative Director of the Greenpeace Toxics Campaign. The organization's most recent scorecard , published earlier this month, shows Apple with a score of 6.7, placing it at ninth out of the 18 companies ranked. "By having a global takeback program and completing BFR (brominated flame retardants) and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) eliminations, they could have a score of 7.7," Hind said. That score would have put Apple in a tie with Samsung and Toshiba at the top of Greenpeace's ratings.

With almost 11 months having passed since Jobs posted his letter on Apple's environmental plans, here's a look at the progress the company has made in meeting its stated goals.

Getting the lead outIn A Greener Apple, Jobs touted the fact that Apple had phased out CRT monitors, a major source of lead, and made a complete transition to LCD displays well before any of its competitors. CRTs aren't the only source of lead in computers, though: Apple's environmental product design page concedes that a very small amount of lead can still be found in some of its products. The most recent iMac revision, for example, contains less than a gram of lead, though that's undeniably a vast improvement over the 484 grams of the material used in the design of the original G3 iMac.

A quick survey of competitors Dell, HP, and Lenovo shows that all three manufacturers are still making and selling CRT monitors. None have as of yet announced plans to eliminate CRTs from their lineup.

Restriction of hazardous substancesThe European Union has implemented a strict set of environmental guidelines known as the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS). In his letter, Jobs stipulated that all of Apple's products were compliant with the "spirit and letter" of RoHS, especially in as regards three specific chemicals: cadmium, hexavalent chromium, and decabromodiphenyl ether, all of which have long been removed from Apple's products. Jobs also pointed out that several of Apple's competitors have continued using these materials in their products, taking advantage of exemptions from the RoHS standards.

Arsenic and old mercuryFrom the perspective of many Mac users, one of the most interesting tidbits that Jobs let drop in his May 2007 was the news that Apple would be transitioning its LCD displays from fluorescent to LED backlighting, a process that would, among other benefits, eliminate the use of mercury. "They did lead the way on mercury-free flat screens," said Greenpeace's Hind, who points to that chemical's extreme toxicity.

But Apple noted that the transition was contingent on technical and economic feasibility. The iPhone and all models of iPhone use mercury-free displays, but the only Macs using LED-backlighting in Apple's lineup are the 15-inch MacBook Pro introduced last June and the MacBook Air . The most recent MacBook Pro speed bumps brought an LED-backlit display as a build-to-order option on the 17-inch MacBook Pro, but the MacBook models released at the same time still use fluorescent backlighting, as do Apple's Cinema Displays and the aluminum iMac.

Apple also promised to eliminate the use of arsenic in the glass of its LCD displays, a promise which has so far been met only by the MacBook Air, though Apple says it plans to stop using arsenic completely by the end of 2008.

BFRs, PVCs, and other three-letter abbreviationsTwo other materials to which Jobs drew particular attention were PVC and BFRs. The CEO said that Apple had made great strides in reducing the use of both materials in all of its products and packaging, and planned to eliminate them completely by the end of 2008. According to Apple's current environmental information, iPods use BFR-free circuit boards, the MacBook Air uses no PVC in its internal cables, and both the latest MacBook Pros and MacBooks feature mostly PVC-free internal cables and mostly BFR-free circuit boards.

Reduce, reuse, recycleThe final topic Jobs covered in his letter concerned Apple's recycling program. In 2006, Apple had recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste, equivalent to 9.5 percent of the weight of the products it'd sold seven years prior in 1999 (a standard of measurement proposed by rival Dell). Jobs hoped to increase that percentage to 13 percent in 2007, 20 percent in 2008, and almost 30 percent in 2010, as well as expand recycling programs to almost all of the countries in which Apple products were sold.

Apple's page on its recycling program doesn't provide updated figures for either of these goals, but the company does now accept old cell phones along with all iPods and Macs from anywhere in the U.S., with free shipping, as Jobs promised. And those who buy qualifying Macs or displays from Apple can also recycle old equipment free of charge.

But Apple's recycling programs still has shortcomings, especially in terms of its geographic availability. "Their recycling is not global and not universal," said Greenpeace's Hind. "It's quite limited."

Yearly updatesIn closing his letter, Jobs vowed to provide on Apple's environmental status on an annual basis. While Apple's yearly shareholder meeting earlier this month seemed ripe for such an update, Jobs's only remark on the topic was that there was work left to do, but that Apple was ahead of the industry.

At that meeting, shareholders were asked to vote on a motion to create a board committee for sustainability. But Apple, citing its recent environmental practices, recommended against the proposal--it did not pass. Apple did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Meanwhile, Apple has created a prominent section of its Web site devoted to environmental matters and appears to be in the process of revamping the Environment section of its newest Macs' technical specifications, making them more prominent and providing a more transparent accounting of the environmental facets of each product.

While Apple has a lot of targets to hit by the end of 2008 in order to keep its promises, the company seems to be on the way to doing so though. As Steve Jobs would likely tell you, there's still more than 40 weeks to go.

Associate editor Dan Moren is co-editor of MacUser

Codice Software on Monday introduced Plastic SCM 2.0, a software configuration management system that the company said streamlines how applications are assembled.

Plastic SCM can manage parallel development, where multiple developers work on software at once, perhaps from geographically dispersed locations. Featured are version control capabilities, merge tracking, and visualization tools.

"We built Plastic SCM from the ground up to be the mission-critical replacement for other software configuration options, many of which are open source projects," said Pablo Santos, chief executive officer at Codice, in a statement released by the company. "We have made Plastic SCM with an easy-to-use interface, in a way that is massively scalable and can integrate with a wide variety of development environments."

Thousands of branches can be managed through a streamlined user interface, Codice said. Plastic SCM can be used by developers working with Java, Microsoft technologies, or other languages. It can work with tools such as Visual Studio, Eclipse or Oracle JDeveloper.

The product will run on Mono, which is an open source version of Microsoft's .Net Framework. It can be integrated with the MySQL or Microsoft SQL Server databases.

Many customers will use Plastic SCM as a replacement for CVS, Visual SourceSafe, or Subversion, Codice said. Branches and data can be imported from these tools.

A revision management engine wrapped around versioning functionality is featured. Managers can assign a task and attach it to a branch of a given project.

Protecting the secrets of a uranium enrichment plant should be enough to keep any CIO very busy. But when Sarbanes Oxley mandated even tougher controls on databases containing key financial information, David Vordick, CIO of USEC, a $1.9 billion public company that operates a gaseous diffusion plant in Paducah, Ky., knew he was going to get even busier.

His security defenses are complex and multilayered, and while simplicity is generally a good thing, it's not Vordick's priority. "Our philosophy is defense in depth. That means looking at multiple (security) products from multiple vendors. We can not be dependent on any one layer," he says.

Not every CIO has the same worries as Vordick, of course. But as regulations like SOX and PCI standards place increasing demands on IT's security capabilities, more and more companies are choosing to simplify network defense by using a security appliance that combines hardware, software, and networking technologies. U.S. companies spent $3.85 billion on network security appliances in 2006, an expenditure expected to nearly double by 2011, according to market researcher IDC.

As USEC designed its security architecture, Vordick and his team had a wealth of options. They could have chosen to install one or more UTM (unified threat management) appliances, devices that handle multiple threats from a single chassis, or opted for a series of single-function, best-of-breed appliances.

USEC choose a best-of-breed database security appliance by Guardium, plus point products from other vendors, largely because the defense in depth strategy meant that the convenience of deploying and managing a single device was outweighed by the fear of creating a single point of failure, Vordick says. Moreover, USEC sought a security appliance that would serve as a check on IT employees with privileged database access who might seek to view or change data without proper authorization, an atypical function for a UTM.

The choices regarding network security appliances are complex, but your decision won't just come down to a technology issue, says John South, senior security consultant for Plexent, a Dallas-based IT service management company. "The real question is how do we get our business done and still protect the corporation?" he asks.

Here are some of the issues South suggests you consider regarding security appliances: How does security fit into my overall architecture, and where is the boundary of my network? How many people will it take to support my choice; do I have the staff or can I count on support from the vendor? If I choose a UTM, do I know that the services are well integrated and the device is ultra-reliable; if I choose a series of point products, will the overall solution be able to handle a blended threat, and do the separate devices work well together? Does the appliance, best of breed or UTM, offer adequate reporting capabilities?

And if you're thinking of combining functions in a UTM, consider this: Services like firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection are not particularly compute intensive, but are latency intolerant. Anti-virus, URL filters, and the like are compute intensive, but much more tolerant of latency. Mixing the two classes of services on your network can slow down applications that are sensitive to latency, says South.

The Case for UTMSan Francisco-based DriveSavers had a different set of concerns when it decided to shore up its security strategy. Though the company has about 80 employees, its network handles an average of 12TB to 14TB of data every business day. Because the company handles critical data, including passwords, for its clients, the tolerance for security lapses is very small.

"We have the keys to (our client's) kingdom, so they want to be absolutely sure their information can not be compromised," says CSO Michael Hall, whose company retrieves data from damaged hard drives. "An easy way for [clients] to validate is to probe our ports; we say 'hit me with your best shot,'" he says.

After taking the benign hit, DriverSavers techies collect the log data and get the evidence to the client. That seemingly simple task, however, was becoming a problem, "We were compiling logs from a number of different (security) appliances and had to consolidate. It was cumbersome, time consuming, and, from a business point of view, ineffective," says Hall.

Meanwhile, DriverSavers was growing rapidly, and it was a good time to look at the company's overall network architecture and see how security could be better integrated. Security goals included simple, 24-hour reporting capabilities, consolidated management, better use of space, ease of deployment, and good network performance.

Ultimately, Hall deployed Cisco's ASA Adaptive Security Appliance, which consolidated intrusion detection, firewall, anti-virus, and data leakage protection, plus a Cisco MARS (monitoring analysis and response system) box, which consolidates reporting functions. What about concerns regarding a single point of failure? Forrester Research analyst Rob Whiteley says that vendors have done a good job building reliability and redundancy into their devices. "Reliability has become moot," he says. Hall agrees, but just in case, he's kept his old, single function appliances installed and ready to use as a failover.

Compliance ToolCompliance requirements can be another key reason to choose a UTM appliance, as was the case for San Diego's Paradigm Investment Group, which holds 96 Hardee's burger franchises in seven states. The problem: Paradigm needs to collect sales data and manage Web traffic, including feeds from security cameras, at each restaurant. While that sounds fairly straightforward, the PCI Security Standards Council mandates that point-of-sale servers must not only encrypt data, but also ensure that data related to credit card billing is securely separated from other types of network traffic, while remaining capable of moving data and fetching anti-virus updates.

That regulation has real teeth. Bogus credit card charges resulting from a hacker's efforts lead to a security audit and fines of up to $500,000, notes Paradigm CTO Greg May.

Because Hardee's restaurants don't have an IT staffer behind the counter, the company looked for a solution that included a central management console. They found it in UTMs from Fortinet, choosing the Fortimanager, FortiGate, and FortiWiFi products. Why Wi-Fi? The chain has Wi-Fi hotspots that need to be locked out of X-rated sites, and in the future the company hopes to mine marketing data from its public network, says May.

The system includes a firewall that segments traffic and sets up different security rules for each segment, an anti-virus function and content filtering. The system includes even more functions, such as a VPN, that Paradigm could easily turn on if needed.

Security appliances are getting a lot of buzz and there's plenty of debate about the virtues of UTM versus a best-of-breed approach. But it's worth noting that any security appliance, whether multifunction or single function, comes with some caveats. "In general, appliances can not be virtualized," says Joel Pogar, director of security and network solutions with the Forsythe Solutions Group, a technology consulting and infrastructure solutions provider. And once an appliance is integrated into the network environment, it can be difficult to remove, he adds.

Even so, Pogar says that appliances, both multifunction and best of breed, have a number of advantages over conventional solutions, including performance. That's because the hardware and the OS are optimized for each other. And since applications are preinstalled on the appliance, configuration and deployment can be completed very quickly.

If UTMs are easier to manage, and best of breed devices offer tailored functionality, is there a way to get both? There may be. Crossbeam Systems offers an appliance that allows customers to run security services from any of Crossbeam's 20 or so best-of-breed partners.

Richard Isenberg, director of security for CheckFree, a provider of financial e-commerce products and services recently purchased by Fiserv, says his company's growth spurt brought on an epidemic of what you might call box creep. "We were adding boxes in every function, with more hardware costs and more people to manage."

Although that sounds like an argument for deployment of a conventional UTM, Isenberg says he didn't like the idea of getting all of his software from a single vendor. "Sure, the firewall might be great, but maybe the IDS isn't," he says. "Why should I settle?"

Checkfree was able to consolidate 20 IDS devices, 20 switches, and 26 firewalls onto seven of Crossbeam's X-series appliances. Cost savings? Nearly $200,000 per year, with ROI in about three years, he says.

Isenberg disagrees with those who say UTMs create the risk of a single point of failure. In fact, he believes the opposite: "Every additional box creates more failure points."

John South, the Plexent security consultant, says Crossbeam is one of the few companies taking a hybrid approach. "All of the major players are designing point devices for secure services or packaging services into various sizes of appliances scaled from small to medium businesses up to large enterprises."

The debate over UTM vs. best of breed is really a debate that you must decide within your enterprise's walls. As Vordick puts it: "Risk tolerance and understanding the trade-offs in the different platforms are decisions each company has to make."

Companies that provide services for improving Web sites' search-engine rankings and running effective search-engine ad campaigns have a new competitor: Google.

Bundled in the DoubleClick acquisition came Performics, which provides search-engine marketing (SEM) and search-engine optimization (SEO) services.

This has created concern for SEM and SEO service providers, which now face Google, a key partner, also as a rival.

"It puts us in the awkward position of competing with Google's own [SEM/SEO] agency for client accounts," said Lance Loveday, CEO of Closed Loop Marketing, an SEO and SEM firm.

Over the past seven years, as Google's popularity with advertisers and end-users has boomed, so has the SEM and SEO business. Marketers began spending significant amounts to advertise on search engines, primarily Google, and they realized that they needed help from SEM firms to design, fine-tune, and track the effectiveness of those campaigns. At the same time, those marketers recognized that they also had to make sure that their companies' Web sites ranked well on search engines when users entered keywords relevant to their businesses, which is what SEO service providers specialize in.

Before the DoubleClick acquisition, SEM and SEO firms saw themselves as providers of complementary services to Google, but now that Performics is part of Google, things have changed.

For starters, there is a concern that Performics will get special access to inside information about Google's search-engine algorithms, allowing Performics to provide SEO services that are more effective that its competitors'.

Then there is the worry that Google will push its in-house Performics SEM services at highly discounted prices, or maybe even free, in direct competition with SEM service providers.

Due to these and other clash points, SEM and SEO providers say their relationship with Google will inevitably get strained. This will likely be bad for Google, considering that SEM providers have a lot of influence over how their clients allocate their search advertising budget.

But there are other reasons why holding on to Performics could be bad for Google, and they have to do with perceived potential conflicts of interest that could spook Google advertising clients.

For example, Performics is supposed to help its clients get the highest ROI from their paid search campaigns by recommending they spend what's necessary -- and not more -- in order to get their desired results. But Google's business is to sell as much advertising as possible, said Scott Buresh, CEO and owner of SEO/SEM firm Medium Blue.

Closed Loop's Loveday also foresees Performics clients worrying whether Performics will now have an incentive to increase their spending on Google advertising for the benefit of its parent company. "Now, the reality is that Google has the dominant [search advertising] platform and in most cases Google probably should get most of a client's search campaign budget, but there's definitely an appearance of a conflict of interest," Loveday said.

U.S. companies spent about $10.2 billion in search advertising in 2007, and Google grabbed 79 percent of that pie, followed, distantly, by Yahoo with 12 percent and Microsoft with 6 percent. Search was the most popular ad format last year in the United States, accounting for 40 percent of the overall online ad spending, according to IDC.

Ron Rule, lead developer for Web analytics company iWebTrack warns that with DoubleClick in general, Google now has access to significantly more data about users' behavior and ad campaigns, creating a potential for abuse. Advertisers can protect themselves by measuring their ad campaigns' effectiveness with independent Web analytics companies such as iWebTrack, he said via e-mail.

"The merger effectively gives Google more pricing power and without proper unbiased analytics, large amounts of money can be wasted very quickly on [pay-per-click search advertising] campaigns, which Goggle and competitors like Yahoo are glad to take," Rule said.

The Performics ownership also puts Google in a delicate and difficult situation regarding its claim that its search results aren't influenced by commercial considerations, Buresh said. With Performics, Google is now in the business of taking money from clients in exchange for helping them rank better in search-engine results, he said. While Performics will not sell paid inclusion into Google search results, it does offer fee-based SEO services, he said.

"Google has maintained consistently that there's no amount of money you can spend with them [in paid search] that will help your site in the organic rankings, that they maintain a Chinese wall between the two," Buresh said. "Now that it owns an organic optimization company, you're paying Google for better placement in search results."

In addition, Performics does provide paid inclusion services -- something Google has sworn never to do -- into search engines that engage in this practice, in which a company pays a search engine to include its Web site in its index. This puts Google and its new Performics division in a serious philosophical conflict, as search industry expert Danny Sullivan argued in his Search Engine Land blog recently.

"Google was the lone hold-out against paid inclusion at the time [2004] and often used this as a marketing point to help promote itself. Not only was it used for marketing, but Google's cofounders strongly believed the practice was wrong. That's why in the letter from the founders that formed part of the IPO filing, they called it out several times," Sullivan wrote.

For all these reasons, a consensus exists among SEO and SEM firms that Google should divest itself of Performics, but reached for comment, Google remained noncommittal, providing this prepared statement:

"We intend to spend the next several months assessing all of DoubleClick's products and services including those offered by Performics. In the near term, we intend to operate Performics as a stand-alone business unit consistent with its past practices. Upon the completion of our integration planning with respect to Performics, we will be in a better position to announce our future plans for this business."

For Loveday, the situation is clear: "I don't understand how it serves Google's interest to maintain Performics."

Apple has upgraded the Xserve, its rackmount server. Now outfitted with Intel's latest quad-core Xeon processors, today's Xserve packs a lot more power into the same slim 1U package.

Apple's server has the unenviable task of pleasing two disparate audiences: Macintosh users, who expect a suitably Mac-like server, and cranky server administrators, who prefer the command line and demand feature and price parity from a host of 1U server vendors. (U is a standard measure that refers to the space between shelves on a rack. It equals 1.75 inches.) The Xserve is largely successful on both fronts, but its design can force some uncomfortable compromises.

The Xserve features Intel's latest quad-core Xeon processors.

The Xserve's base configuration offers a single quad-core 2.8GHz Xeon processor, 2GB of 800MHz DDR2 memory, and a single 80GB, 7,200-rpm SATA hard drive, for $2,999. The PCI expansion slots are now PCI Express 2.0 -- one 9.25-by-16-inch slot and one 6.6-by-8-inch slot; the 6.6-inch slot also supports 133MHz PCI-X cards. A SuperDrive is now the standard optical drive. The Xserve also offers two Gigabit Ethernet ports, two FireWire 800 ports, a DB-9 serial port, and three USB 2.0 ports; one of those USB ports is on the front, replacing the FireWire 400 port found on earlier Xserves. The Xserve still lacks a video port on the front.

Available upgrades include two Xeon processors at 2.8GHz or 3GHz, up to 32GB of FB-DIMM RAM in eight slots, a second load-sharing power supply, and a variety of network and storage controllers. The chassis accommodates three 3.5-inch hard disks in either 7,200-rpm SATA or 15,000-rpm SAS varieties. An $800 hardware RAID controller is also available. All Xserves include an unlimited-user copy of Mac OS X Server.

For this review, Apple provided an Xserve with two 3GHz processors, 8GB of RAM, three 300GB SAS disks, the hardware RAID controller, and dual power supplies; the final price for this almost top-of-the-line configuration is $8,999.

Return of hardware RAIDIntroduced in August 2007, the Xserve's hardware RAID controller replaces the Xserve's storage backplane; you can purchase it as a factory option, or install it yourself into any Intel-based Xserve. Unlike the RAID controller used in the Xserve G5 or the Mac Pro, it does not occupy a PCI slot.

To add a new disk as a spare, just select Make Spare from the RAID menu.

The controller offers 256MB of battery-backed cache and four RAID levels: Enhanced JBOD (a non-redundant configuration that takes advantage of the controller's caching), RAID 0 (striped set without parity), RAID 1 (mirrored set without parity), and RAID 5 (striped set with distributed parity). You can use Apple's graphical RAID Utility to configure the controller, RAID sets, and protected volumes. RAID Utility is included on the Mac OS X Server install disc, and is installed in the /Applications/Utilities folder. RAID Utility's interface is a graphical representation of a RAID's components: controller, RAID sets, volumes, and disks.

An Enhanced JBOD (or just a bunch of drives -- and yes, that's a canonical technical term) set can be migrated to a stripe, mirror, or RAID 5 set while preserving data. I tested this feature by migrating a 300GB Enhanced JBOD set to a three-disk 900GB striped set; the migration took 1.5 hours and completed without a hiccup. In another test, the controller took about 3.5 hours to initialize a new three-disk 600GB RAID 5 volume. When I removed a disk from a three-disk RAID 5 set, the Xserve reacted exactly as I expected: The RAID set went into degraded mode, and alerts showed on the Xserve's interface, in Server Monitor, and as a flashing LED on the server's front panel. Restoring the RAID set was a simple matter of replacing the disk and using the Make Spare command to add it to the RAID set; it took about 2.5 hours to rebuild the RAID set. At long last, the Xserve has a proper hardware RAID controller on the backplane. It's a bit steep at $800, however, particularly when most vendors offer basic hardware RAID 0 and RAID 1 in their standard controllers.

RAID Utility's event log shows the chronology of a disk's failure and replacement.

Remote management-a-go-goEach of the Xserve's two Ethernet ports has two controllers. One controller is for the standard Ethernet used by Mac OS X Server, while the other is for the Xserve's embedded LOM (Lights-Out Management) feature. LOM allows an administrator to remotely monitor the server's hardware as well as power it up and down over the network. Each port can be enabled for network use by the operating system, or LOM, or both. The feature works well, but Apple's implementation creates challenges for effective remote management.

Best practices call for remote administration to be done across a private and restricted network. LOM is managed through one set of network interfaces, and Mac OS X Server's remote management and user services are managed through another; because the two pairs of controllers share a single pair of physical ports, it is difficult to provide all three functions (LOM, administrative tools like Server Admin, and user access) securely using only the two available ports. Administrators must therefore designate a single port for remote administration, attach it to the secure network, and assign separate IP addresses to each of the Xserve's controllers on that port--one for LOM and one for Mac OS X Server. Then Mac OS X Server's Firewall can be used to disallow Server Admin, Workgroup Manager, and Screen Sharing access from anywhere but the administrative network.

If your deployment requires services on two physical networks, you must purchase a second Ethernet card in order to supply services and also perform secure remote administration; in this case, the embedded LOM begets a hidden cost.

Competing manufacturers, such as Dell, HP, and Sun, put lights-out management (including screen control) on a dedicated port, thereby leaving two ports for standard services.

LOM is not active when shipped from the factory and must be explicitly enabled with Server Assistant, or by running Server Monitor directly on the Xserve. Apple officially supports LOM only with static IP addressing, and that is the only option available via either supported configuration method. Apple says it chose this configuration for security, so customers cannot unwittingly expose remote administration access. LOM can be configured for DHCP via the included command-line ipmitool utility; although this technique is unsupported, it worked as expected in my tests.

While Apple's sensitivity to network security is admirable, in this case it's inconsistent with Mac OS X Server's setup process; the operating system utilizes DHCP (when booted from installation media and during initial configuration) to enable remote control and management of installations (see the Mac OS X Server Administration manual for details). Were LOM likewise enabled from the factory, administrators could completely control and remotely manage an Xserve's installation--including the first power-on. The Xserve's boot configuration can be controlled via the buttons on the front panel; perhaps that'd be a good place for this option.

LOM's user accounts are not managed through Mac OS X Server and have different password requirements; LOM passwords must be a minimum of eight characters. Access to LOM is only available via local user accounts; access via an enterprise directory is not available and would be a welcome addition.

Server Monitor shows the RAID's degraded status; disks in the RAID set appear yellow.

Power, heat, and ownership economicsApple proudly touts the new Xserve's energy efficiency, pointing to the Xeon's on-demand power throttling, and the fact that the power supply exceeds the government's Energy Star efficiency specifications. However, a server's power consumption must be addressed as a complete system: the electric bill is produced not only by the server's power draw at the wall, but by the associated air conditioning required to keep the environment cool as well.

When measured at idle, the new $2,999 Xserve's power consumption and heat output are nearly identical to the previous $2,999 Intel-based Xserve. That's good news if you're upgrading from the previous Intel-based Xserve, but it's more complicated if you're upgrading from an earlier Xserve G5 or G4-based model. If you compare each generation's $2,999 configuration, you'll find that the environmental demands of today's model are more than 55 percent greater than the Xserve G5.

Today's Xserve is vastly more powerful than earlier models, but it is not immune to the industry-wide trend of increased demands on power and cooling. If you're upgrading from an older Xserve, take care to study your power and cooling infrastructure -- and budget -- as other upgrades may follow in a quad-core Xserve's wake. The fact is that most servers are usually idle -- take into account the loads your servers maintain, and size your purchase accordingly.

Fast is as fast doesMeasuring performance is treacherous territory for any server vendor. Vendors want to show their product in a positive light, but benchmarks can illustrate a product's weaknesses as well as its strengths.

Apple cites the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation's (SPEC) CPU2006 benchmark for raw computational performance, which shows that today's Xeon 5400-based Xserve is 80 percent faster than the previous Xeon 5100-based model. As of this writing, the formal results for today's Xserve are based on Apple's internal tests, and they are not available at www.spec.org. Until the full results are available, we can neither verify Apple's claims nor compare the Xserve against competing systems.

In another category, Apple uses results from the SPECjbb2005 test to tout a 120 percent increase in Java server performance over the previous Xserve. Apple says this benchmark was chosen because it illustrates both the benefits of the new quad-core Xeon processors and the improvements made in Leopard Server. That's great news if your business runs Java server applications on Xserves, but it may not reflect the performance of other applications.

The available results from comparable systems show Apple's Xserve, running the included Mac OS X Server and JVM (Java Virtual Machine), competing against systems running either Sun Solaris or (at considerable additional expense) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and BEA's JRockit virtual machine. The competitors best the Xserve's score by factors of two to three, a startling performance benefit achieved in software; hopefully Apple's forthcoming update to Java SE 6.0 will narrow this gap. (True to form, Apple declined to comment on unreleased software or future plans.) 

Benchmarks tell a number of tales, but is the Xserve fast when the rubber meets my particular road? The new Xserve's AFP performance is so fast that I could not muster enough client computers to discover its performance ceiling. Macworld tested the Xserve's AFP performance in three RAID configurations: Enhanced JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 5. The Xserve's results were tightly clustered, with only 0.4 to 8 percent separating the configurations' scores in the various tests. The new Xserve was 49 to 139 percent faster than a currently deployed, RAID 5-equipped Xserve G5. Compared to the SATA-equipped model we tested last year, the new model was 15 percent slower in 300MB writes, but 50 percent faster in 300MB reads. These results are not surprising given that SATA disks are typically better at sustained streaming operations, while RAID 5 is usually slow in writes due to parity calculations.

Macworld's buying adviceThe quad-core Xeon-based Apple Xserve is a superbly modern 1U server with powerful options for storage and remote access. As with any server, deployments should be carefully planned--the embedded LOM may necessitate an additional Ethernet card under some circumstances, and anyone upgrading from a PowerPC-based model should study their power and cooling infrastructure before upgrading.

Andrew T. Laurence is a server administrator and "Mac guy" at the University of California, Irvine.

3Com shareholders overwhelmingly approved a merger offer on Friday that had been cancelled the day before.

The vote appeared to be designed to ensure 3Com could get a $66 million breakup fee as compensation for pursuing a merger with Bain Capital Partners and Huawei Technologies that was proposed last year. The $2.2 billion deal would have taken 3Com private and put 16.5 percent of the company's shares in the hands of Huawei, a large networking vendor partly owned by the Chinese government.

The deal was put on hold last month because of concerns expressed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) after the partners voluntarily submitted it to the agency. 3Com, based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, is a relatively small player in networking equipment but makes some intrusion-detection products. U.S. Representative Thaddeus McCotter, a Republican from Michigan, has said the U.S. Department of Defense uses that security gear and having 3Com partly owned by a company linked to the Chinese government could endanger national security.

After the negative finding by CFIUS, the parties said they were trying to modify the deal so it could be approved. But on Thursday, Bain said it had given up because CFIUS planned to act to stop the deal.

3Com said Thursday that Bain's termination was invalid because the reasons Bain cited weren't grounds to end the deal. At the same time, 3Com said it would fulfill its obligations under the deal while pursuing the breakup fee. To get it, 3Com shareholders would have to approve the merger, the company said.

The shareholders approved the defunct merger by a vote of about 281.5 million to 7.5 million shares, with 4.2 million shares abstaining, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Marathon Technologies announced Monday that everRun VM, a product it says can provide high-level fault tolerance for virtual machines, will ship in April.

It represents a step up in capability from the Littleton, Massachusetts, vendor's previous releases, said John Humphreys, an analyst with IDC. "They were able to offer fault tolerance at the server level, now they've taken it to the virtual applications."

The application, now in beta, works by using at least two physical servers, each with either its own storage or based on a shared storage model. They are connected through what Marathon calls an "availability link," according to a demo presentation.

Users must first install Citrix XenServer Enterprise on each server to create guests. EverRun VM is installed on top of the hypervisor, below the guest layer. EverRun clones a guest to which users want to add availability protection and puts it on both servers. The two guests are then joined through everRun VM and seen as a single environment, the demo explains.

The product will offer varying levels of availability protection, from basic failover to system-level fault tolerance, which maintains application and memory state. That optional capability will be available in the fourth quarter, according to Marathon.

In the meantime, the software will provide "component-level" protection. For example, if a storage device fails, the input-output stream would be automatically redirected to the paired disk on the other host. Once a failed device is replaced, everRun will automatically resync it with its pair, the company said.

Administrators can view and adjust the everRun server environment through a Web-based management console, fine-tuning settings on each virtual machine.

Phillip Blucas, IT manager at Louisiana Public Broadcasting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said Monday he has been beta-testing the product for about a week.

"I see what it can do, and it's pretty cool. I'm not using it in production, that's for sure. But I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be good enough," Blucas said.

"It eliminates the need for a [storage area network], which is a big thing as far as I am concerned," he added.

Pricing for everRun starts at $2,000 per server and $4,500 per server bundled with XenServer Enterprise.

Marathon's aggressive pricing strategy, which would help it sell to midmarket companies, makes sense for a couple of reasons, according to Laura DiDio, an analyst with Yankee Group. Smaller virtualization vendors like Marathon want to "move downstream" because there may be less bureaucracy around buying decisions at midsize companies, she suggested.

Also, midmarket organizations -- which could include hospitals, insurance companies or municipalities -- are "just as risk-averse, if not more so than large enterprises," she argued.

Humphreys voiced a similar thought. "The concept of high availability for virtualized environments is a concept that deserves a lot of attention. Virtualization, in effect, creates more mission-critical servers."

Google has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to carve out a set of off-limits channels for proposed wireless devices that could operate in unused television spectrum bands, in hopes that the proposal will help the FCC approve the use of so-called white-space devices.

Google, in a filing to the FCC made late Friday, proposed that the FCC set aside television channels 36 to 38 for wireless microphone use to avoid spectrum interference. Users of wireless microphones and U.S. television stations have been the main opponents to the push by Google, Microsoft, Dell, and other tech companies for the FCC to approve the use of new wireless devices in the unused white spaces in the television spectrum.

Companies asking the FCC to open up the spectrum white spaces see new markets for high-speed wireless devices, or "WiFi on steroids," in the language of Richard Whitt, Google's Washington, D.C., telecom and media counsel.

The white spaces "offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans," Google's filing said. "This spectrum can provide robust infrastructure to serve the needs of under-deployed rural areas, as well as first responders and others in the public safety community."

Google filed the proposal with the goal of moving the FCC's white spaces proceeding to a "more constructive tone," Whitt said. "We believe it's unfortunate that some have preferred the comfort of the past to the promise of the future, and are using their influence to convince policymakers to protect legacy applications at any and all costs."

The Google proposal also suggests that the FCC could require two spectrum-sensing technologies called geo-location and beacons -- the low-cost beacons would have to be added to wireless microphones -- to ensure against interference. That portion of the Google filing borrows from a Motorola filing late last year.

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has raised concerns that the white space devices would cause interference with television signals. Instead of pushing through the white space proceeding, the FCC should focus on the transition of television stations to digital broadcasts, mandated by Congress to happen by February 2009, the NAB has said. The transition is freeing up spectrum in the 700MHz band for wireless services; an FCC spectrum auction for the band concluded last week.

The Google proposal would create a so-called safe harbor for wireless microphones between channels 36 and 38 in the television spectrum. That safe harbor would also protect medical telemetry devices and radio astronomy services, which use channel 37, Google said.

Google's filing with the FCC said an opening of the white spaces, combined with the Google-sponsored Android open source mobile platform, could "provide uniquely low-cost mobile broadband coverage for all Americans." Google offered to provide free technical support to third parties wishing to deploy services using the white spaces.

The FCC is currently testing four white-space prototype devices. In February, the power in one of the devices failed, but it did not interfere with TV signals, according to the White Spaces Coalition. Another white-space device malfunctioned in tests by the FCC last year.

The NAB, in February, called white-space devices "not ready for prime time." Spokesmen for the NAB and Shure, a wireless microphone manufacturer, were not immediately available for comments on the new Google proposal.

Web hosting vendor The Planet plans to offer in late 2008 commercial transit services that support IPv6, a long-anticipated upgrade to the Internet's main communications protocol.

IPv6 provides larger address space, built-in security, enhanced network management and new mobility features when compared to its predecessor, IPv4.

The Planet isn't the first Web hosting company to support IPv6, but it is believed to be the largest in the United States to do so. Hurricane Electric of Fremont, Calif. already offers IPv6 and IPv4 transit services.

The Planet will offer its hosting customers support for IPv6 and IPv4 simultaneously in what's called a dual-stack approach.

The Planet has more than 22,000 customers, primarily SMBs. The company hosts 6.7 million Web sites worldwide.

"One of the reasons The Planet is doing IPv6 is that IPv4 address space is in short supply," says Stan Barber, vice president, network operations at The Planet. "If you're going to be serving content to customers over most Web environments today ... you need unique globally addressable space, especially if you're sending out video streams. Eventually, getting that on an IPv4-type of environment is going to be limited while all of this address space is going to be available on IPv6. If, for example, a manufacturing company who has a Web site wants to be able to tap into the future, they're going to have to make their Web site available on both IPv4 and IPv6."

Barber admits that he isn't seeing a lot of demand for IPv6 services yet from The Planet's customers.

"People haven't been beating down our doors for IPv6, but there have been inquiries from our customers about IPv6," Barber says. "Our intent is to give them the capability to figure out what IPv6 will do for them beyond the additional address space."

The Planet says it will offer IPv6 services in late 2008. It will run a beta program earlier this year.

The Planet has teamed up with NTT America to offer the new IPv6 service. NTT was the first carrier in the United States to offer commercial IPv6 services, and it has been a leader in the development of new IPv6 offerings such as an IPv6-enabled managed firewall service.

"NTT has a history of good engineering support for both IPv4 and IPv6 transit, and they go to places where IPv6 is hot, such as Korea, Japan and China," Barber says.

The Planet is using Global Crossing as its secondary IPv6 carrier. Anytime The Planet offers a transit service, it uses two or more service providers for diversity, Barber said.

Michael Wheeler, vice president of sales at NTT America, said he hopes the introduction of more IPv6-enabled network services like The Planet's will help build momentum for IPv6 in the United States.

"We've seen IPv6 as being an important part of where the Internet is headed for quite awhile," Wheeler said. "From a global perspective, we understand the implications of IPv4 address limitations that are coming in the next couple of years. This is an additional functionality that The Planet brings to the table....We want to be able to power them to do that."

Microsoft is offering free support to any Windows Vista user experiencing problems with installing Service Pack 1 (SP1), according to a company spokesman.

"[Anyone] needing technical support regarding your installation of Windows Vista SP1, please go to the following URL and choose the bottom option that says 'Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (All Languages)'," said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft employee who posted several comments to the company's Vista blog. The link LeBlanc pointed users to led to a Vista SP1-specific support site.

"You have a variety of options you can choose for support, all of which will not cost you any support fee," said LeBlanc. "I repeat: support for SP1 will not cost you anything."

"That's a good move on their part," said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.

The SP1 site offers support via e-mail, online chat, and telephone, and lists hours of operation for the last two options. Free phone support, for instance, is available from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific time on weekdays, and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific time on weekends. The free support will be available for one year, and covers installation and compatibility issues.

Normally, Microsoft offers no-cost support only to users who bought Windows at retail. Users who obtained the operating system already installed on a PC are referred to the computer manufacturer, or OEM (original equipment manufacturer); the company's for-a-fee support runs $59 per request unless the user or business has a pre-paid support plan with Microsoft.

That policy, as well as the wording of the Vista SP1 support site as late as last Friday, confused one user commenting on the same thread. "You cannot get free support from [Microsoft] if Vista came pre-loaded on your HP. At least, that is what the Web site indicates," said romroyer.

LeBlanc quickly replied. "You are incorrect. We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1 -- even folks like pat [an earlier commenter on the thread] who may be using a OEM copy of Windows Vista that came with their HP laptop," said LeBlanc. "Again, anyone can get free support for installation issues of SP1."

By Sunday, Microsoft had modified the Vista SP1 support site and removed references directing users to contact their OEM if they had acquired Vista on a new computer. The site's wording had been altered to read: "No-charge: Unlimited support requests."

That's Microsoft's standard support policy for service packs, a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. "The no-fee support is actually part of our Windows Service Pack policy, not something specific to Windows Vista SP1."

Microsoft, however, has done little to broadcast news of the free SP1 support. The home page for the Windows Vista Solution Center, the operating system's help and support starting point, makes no mention of it; nor does Microsoft's main Windows Vista SP1 site.

Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.

Free: It's the magic word for an ever-expanding wealth of downloadable software and online services. Free doesn't necessarily mean good, however, and hunting for freebies can mean sifting through a lot of junk.

That's where we come in. We surfed, clicked, and installed to find sparkling free gems capable of planning your time, keeping you in touch, and tuning and securing your PC, not to mention glitzing up your desktop, helping you stay productive, and entertaining you with music, videos, photos, and games. We paid special attention to programs and services you may not have heard of before.

We also singled out two free offerings--one download and one online service --as the best of the bunch. We want to hear your picks for the best freebies, too, whether they appear in this article or not. Please let us know by joining our forum discussion.

Productivity

AbiWord (download)Tired of expensive, slow, bloated word processors? Download this surprisingly powerful freebie, which includes sophisticated features such as mail merge and advanced layouts. The program handles a wide variety of document formats, including those of Microsoft Word, Rich Text Format, OpenOffice.org, and other programs.

TrackMyShipments (service)If you place orders often via the Web or phone, here's a site for you. When you get a shipping notification, forward the e-mail to track@trackmyshipments.com. The service reads through your message for the tracking information and keeps it in one place for all of your orders. Log in to the site to see the progress of your shipments, including a map showing their progress.

Buzzword.com (service)You have plenty of free Web-based word processors to choose from, but most aren't as slick as this one. The design is tasteful and elegant, menu items slide in and out of place, and it's incredibly simple to use. But don't let the pretty face fool you, because Buzzword is feature-packed as well. Inserting tables and graphics is a breeze, you can easily select background colors, and the document manager is a standout too.

ThinkFree Online (service)Don't want to fork over several hundred dollars for Microsoft Office? Try this Web-based productivity suite, which covers word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations. The service can create files compatible with Microsoft Office, so you can download files to your own PC where you can work on them offline using Office applications, if you wish. You can also edit your Office-created documents in ThinkFree, though you have to be connected to the Internet to do that. But if you're always connected, you can't beat free.

StarOffice (download)If you prefer offline apps that reside on your PC, download the free StarOffice suite, which includes a word processor, a spreadsheet app, and a presentation program, among other goodies. It's part of the free Google Pack, which also contains a bunch of other programs you might not want. During the Google Pack download, simply check the box next to StarOffice and uncheck all the others.

Foxit Reader for Windows (download)High on our list of the most annoying applications of all time is Adobe Acrobat Reader. It's slow, bloated, and buggy, and it often crashes some systems--all of which can drive you insane. Foxit lets you read and even fill out PDF files, without touching Reader. This small and compact tool loads fast, won't hog RAM or system resources, and won't crash your PC.

Microsoft Office Live Small Business (service)With this service, you can share documents and collaborate with coworkers and customers, build a Web site, and manage your contacts. A variety of for-pay options are available as well, but you don't have to pay for the basics.

Blist (service)If you own a small business, you need a database to create and track customer records, among other details. At home, you may want to organize information related to hobbies, such as your fantasy football stats. With Blist, you can do all of that online for free. You just drag and drop column types, such as numbers, dates, names, and money amounts, onto a grid. Then type in your data, and voilá--instant database.

Moffsoft FreeCalc (download)For simple, basic operations, the calculator that ships with Windows is fine. But if you need more, get this great free download. It has a variety of new keys, such as memory subtract, and its nifty "tap" feature keeps a running history of all your calculations.

File sharing and storage

4Shared (service)This clever site combines personal, online storage with file sharing. You get 5GB of free space to store your files. You can either keep the files private or share them with other users, on a folder-by-folder basis. The service imposes just one limitation: No file can be larger than 100MB.

Torrent Swapper (download)Though BitTorrent has become the de facto protocol for sharing files, the BitTorrent client leaves a lot to be desired. Get this far superior, and faster, open source client instead. It's easy to use, and it lets you get recommendations from others about files to download; it also allows you to stop, pause, resume, and queue downloads.

Shareaza (download)Want to share files, but don't want to be tied exclusively to the BitTorrent protocol? This simple-to-use free download allows you to share files on multiple networks and protocols, including BitTorrent, Gnutella, Gnutella2, and eDonkey. It offers fast search and chat capabilities, and you can skin it to your taste as well.

Microsoft Office Live Workspace (service)This is, by far, the most powerful free file-sharing site you can find. It's closer to a full-blown collaboration tool, and it links directly to Microsoft Office so that you can edit your online files using Office applications. The service is ideal for small businesses looking for a way to collaborate on common documents.

Dropboks (service)Don't expect sophistication or any bells and whistles here. This service is a simple, straightforward way to store up to 1GB of files online for free.

Openomy (service)This simple, no-frills storage site also lets you share files with other people. You get 1GB of free storage, and you can send colleagues links to your files so they can download them. It has as basic an interface as you will find. One important note: Make sure to create "tags" (the equivalents of folders) and then upload files to your tags; otherwise, you may never unearth the files again.

MP3 Rocket (download)You can do more with this Gnutella client than just share and download files. You can also listen to Internet radio stations, watch online video channels, and burn your own CDs.

Bluestring (service)If you want to share media and other kinds of files, the task doesn't get much easier than on this site. Upload your files to the service, and you'll have access to them online whenever you want. You can then share them with others in various ways, including sending an e-mail link to the storage site. It's also a good way to publish photos and media to a Web site or blog, since you can put a link in your page to the file being hosted on Bluestring.

Security

VirusTotal Uploader (download)Great for checking potentially dangerous downloads and e-mail attachments, this uploader gives you a right-click option to send any file under 10MB to VirusTotal's exceptional site, where you'll receive antivirus scan results from 32 different program engines.

Avira AntiVir PersonalEdition (download)Avira typically does a great job of detecting malware on a PC; the paid version of the program posted a 99.6 percent catch rate in the latest tests from AV-Test.org. The free version employs the same engine, but you'll have to tolerate the occasional pop-up urging you to upgrade to the paid application.

Spyware Doctor Starter Edition (download)This edition of the popular PC Tools antispyware application is part of the Google Pack. The free version can run full spyware scans but doesn't have many of the real-time protection features of the paid version.

Comodo Firewall Pro (download)Comodo's extensive firewall can block unauthorized attempts to send information from your PC to the Internet, which surpasses the protection that the built-in XP firewall offers. But as with any advanced firewall, be sure you know what you're doing before monkeying with the more in-depth security settings.

TrueCrypt (download)Create an encrypted virtual drive with its own drive letter that automatically protects any file you add to it with your choice of encryption. If you try this program, be sure to go through the helpful first-time-use tutorial.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector (download)Secunia's useful program makes keeping your software applications up-to-date much easier. It even covers apps that you might rarely use but that can leave Internet Explorer (and your PC) wide open because of an unsafe ActiveX control. PSI provides details on the security holes in old software and tells you where to obtain updates.

Spamfighter Pro (download)Spamfighter harnesses the collective intelligence of 4.5 million e-mailers around the world to block spam with a toolbar in Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Mail. The free version shows a text ad in the toolbar and adds a footer to your e-mail messages.

BitDefender Online Scanner (service)If you suspect that your regular anti-virus app missed a malware infection, head to BitDefender's online scanner (requires Internet Explorer) for a second opinion. The Web app scans your system's memory and all files, detecting and removing infections.

ThreatFire Free (download)ThreatFire supplements (but doesn't replace) your regular antivirus program. It adds behavioral-analysis protection that attempts to identify Trojan horses and other malware based on how they act on your PC.

McAfee Rootkit Detective (download)The information you receive from Rootkit Detective's pursuit of malware-hiding rootkits might be too technical to use yourself. The handy Submit button, however, will produce free advice on dealing with the suspicious files it finds.

Video and photo

Phrasr (service)Here's an offbeat Web site for folks who would like to create online photo-collage postcards and share them. When you type in a phrase, the site grabs photos from the Flickr photo-sharing site that it believes match each word, and then builds a Web page/photo gallery based on it. You can click each photo to view the original at Flickr, and send the URL to a friend.

Flypaper (service)With this site (as well as its associated software) you can create Flash-based "stories," in the form of slide shows or multimedia presentations, about anything you want. You can create a résumé, a presentation for your company or a trade group, training material, or anything else that comes to mind. Prebuilt templates will help you get started.

Miro (download)This open-source video tool will play every video format under the sun, show HD content, tune in to video blogs, save YouTube videos, and even download and show video files via BitTorrent.

Photoscape (download)This do-it-all tool, a must-have application for digital photographers, offers a file viewer, an image editor, a slide-show creator, a batch editor, and a screen-capture program. It can even convert photos in the RAW format used by many digital cameras to the more useful JPEG format.

URL Snooper (download)Are you frustrated that YouTube and similar sites allow you to view videos online, but not download and save them to your PC? With this free program, you can grab them. Head to a Web page, and the program lists all of the videos on it. You just double-click one to view it or save it.

MeeVee (service)Throw away your print TV listings--this site is approximately 10,000 times better. In addition to the standard listings, Meevee lets you create your own personal channel listings by combining your favorite TV programs and online video. It has a wealth of detail about each show, and the online-video listings contain links to the actual video content. Try that with your TV Guide.

Yahoo Live (service)This is a video site with a difference--it broadcasts live video, rather than prerecorded clips. You can broadcast yourself live, too, as long as you have a Webcam. When we checked in on a Sunday afternoon, it didn't have a whole lot of live content, but you can expect that to change as interest in real-time services grows.

Fixmymovie (service)Everyone wants to create great-looking videos to post on the Web, but few people have professional-quality video cameras. That's where this site comes in. It takes the grainy, dark video you've captured with your cell phone, Webcam, or digital camera, and helps you clean it up for posting online by adjusting the contrast and bringing out the details hidden in dark areas.

FotoFlexer (service)Who needs software to edit photos or add special effects? Instead, head to this site and use its full complement of powerful editing tools, including all kinds of special effects such as stretching, adding a tint, and drawing a cartoon based on the photo.

System utilities and backup

Zamzar (service)Need to convert files from one format to another? With Zamzar you can convert files to countless types of formats. The site works with all Microsoft Office document file types, as well as a large number of video, audio, and graphics files, and even file-compression archives.

Bug.gd (service)If you encounter an undecipherable error message and want to find a solution to the problem, head to this Web site and type in the error message. If any of the site's previous users have found the answer to your problem, it will be listed there. It's about 100 times better than waiting on hold to talk to a support rep.

Clip2net (service)Here's a clever tool for people who want to take screen captures and use them on the Web. After you download free software from this site and use it to capture a screen, the software uploads the capture. Clip2Net then sends you the URL to the hosting location, so you can link directly to the images from your blog or Web site.

iDrive (service)You can back up 2GB of data for free to this Web site, using associated software that sets up a virtual drive. When you copy files to that virtual drive, you're actually storing your stuff at a secure iDrive server on the Internet.

CCleaner (download)This utility offers the best way to clean the gunk out of your PC, including waste from Windows, the Internet, Microsoft applications, and plenty of third-party applications.

AppSnap (download)Want to make sure all of the freeware on your PC is current? This program scans your system, locates freeware that's out of date, and then upgrades the applications that you tell it to.

Eusing Free Registry Cleaner (download)Your Registry is filled with outdated and bad entries. Clean it with this free utility, and keep your system in tip-top shape.

CO2 Saver (download)This free program puts your PC into sleep or hibernation mode at appropriate times, which conserves energy and reduces carbon dioxide emissions. You'll save money and help the environment.

Maps and directions

WeFi (download)With WeFi, you can connect with the world in more ways than one. It not only finds Wi-Fi hotspots but also maps other Wi-Fi users' locations by triangulating among hotspots. It then displays them on a map, so you can see who's near you.

Zillow (service)What is your home worth? How about the home of your neighbor down the street--or a house in Tuscon, Ariz.? At this real estate site you can find out the worth of almost any home in your neighborhood, as well as buy or sell a home, scope out new neighborhoods, and chat with people who already live there.

TerraServer (service)This Microsoft-run site gives aerial views of any location in the United States, and displays topographical maps too. You can print any of the maps yourself or order a high-resolution copy.

FreeMind (download)Finding maps of the world is easy -- how would you like to make a map of your ideas? That's exactly what this software promises to do. With it, you connect your ideas, works, and projects; its visual representation can help you devise new ideas and keep track of old ones.

Discovery Earth Live (service)Interested in the current state of the planet? This Web site from the Discovery Channel shows a globe that presents multiple layers of information, including clouds, water vapor, and rainfall.

MizPee (service)There's no delicate way to describe this site, so we won't try. You use it when you are in a public place and need to find a clean toilet--something that's not so easy in most metropolitan areas. You can either check the service on your PC before you travel somewhere or use your cell phone's browser.

Stellarium (download)This open source astronomy app displays all the celestial objects you could ever want to see, including stars, planets, nebulae, and constellations. It displays the night sky in various grids and from different points of view, and can show the movement of heavenly bodies in slow- or fast-motion.

Flightstats (service)Want to check for delays, learn the current status of flights at airports, and track planes as they fly to their destination? This site offers an exceptional amount of detail, such as whether certain airports are de-icing aircraft.

Communications

Pownce (service)On this social networking site you can send items to friends and receive items from them, including messages, links, files, and event notices. Pownce is also a kind of meta-networking service, since it imports all your friends from other social networking sites and e-mail programs, such as Facebook, Hotmail, and Twitter.

Pidgin (download)Why can't instant messenger programs get along? With the open-source IM client Pidgin, they can. Within this single application, you can chat with people on all of the big instant messaging networks--including AIM, Google, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger--plus many others you may not heard of, such as QQ and SILC.

Pbwiki (service)Creating and maintaining a wiki is a great way for people to collaborate. With Pbwiki, you'll find it a breeze to set up a wiki of your own, for free. Whether you use it for a workgroup, for an entire business, or for a nonprofit or social group, it's ideal.

Make Me Sustainable (service)Want to do good for the planet while connecting with like-minded others? Specify an activity at this site, and it calculates the amount of greenhouse gases the activity produces, in units of carbon dioxide. It then suggests how you can reduce your impact and shows you how much less carbon dioxide you'll generate as a result. You can also see what other people in your geographic area have done, or create sustainability discussion groups.

Gizmo (download)Tired of paying massive phone bills? Cut them down to size with this free Skype-like software, which allows you to talk for free with other Gizmo users through your computer. You can make inexpensive calls from your PC to landlines and cell phones, too.

Dopplr (service)If you travel a lot and want to share your travel plans with family, coworkers, and friends, try this site. You can put in your itinerary and have your friends enter theirs, and the site will create a map showing where everybody will be. If you discover that you and a friend will happen to be in the same city, for example, you can make arrangements for dinner, even if it's in the airport.

Talkshoe (service)Here's a free way to participate in group voice chats with people who share your interests. Head to the site and click a chat to join, and you'll be able to talk using the Web-based app. You can create your own chats, as well. Talkshoe integrates directly into other social networking sites, such as Facebook, so you can converse with your friends from those sites too.

TeeBeeDee (service)Tired of social networking sites aimed at people whose idea of ancient history is the Clinton administration? This service caters to folks 40 and above. Whether you're interested in work, play, relationships, or just about anything else, TeeBeeDee can help you find others who share your passions.

Time management

Voo2do.com (service)

Much more than a to-do list, this project management site helps you track how much time you spend on tasks grouped into different projects. You can share tasks and projects, and create new tasks by sending the site an e-mail.

TimeBridge (service)Need to schedule meetings with scattered colleagues on assorted e-mail and calendaring networks? Head over to TimeBridge, which can pull in your Outlook or Google calendar availability and allow participants (who don't have to be TimeBridge members) to choose from up to five proposed meeting times.

30Boxes.com (service)The interface of this calendar site lets you quickly create events with tags, invites, Google map links, and more. You can also import up to 100 contacts from Gmail, Hotmail, Outlook, Plaxo, or Yahoo to take advantage of all the sharing that the site emphasizes.

SyncMyCal (download)This app can synchronize your Google, Pocket Microsoft Outlook, or 30Boxes calendar with your Outlook XP, 2003, or 2007 calendar. The free versions can handle multiple online calendars but they won't automatically sync (you'll need to click a button in an installed Outlook toolbar).

Lightning (download)This program adds a great-looking, full-featured calendar and task list to Thunderbird, Mozilla's excellent free E-mail application. You can create multiple color-coded calendars and pull in events from other online calendars such as Google Calendar.

Scrybe (service)If you want to see just how much an online application can feel like a desktop program, sign up for the ongoing beta of Scrybe's calendar and note-taking app. Its slick display, with zoom effects when you drill down from month to week to day, will make you quickly forget you're in a browser window. It also has an offline mode, an Outlook-like reminder pop-up, and lots of other nice features.

Ta-da List (service)If you just want a simple and easy list for tracking tasks, check out Ta-da List. It has few features, but you can get it up and running in no time.

Music

Winamp (download)The latest version of the venerable free music player can sync with iPods and fixes a serious security bug in earlier versions of the software. Its new companion download, Winamp Remote, allows you to listen to non-DRM-protected music on your PC from anywhere through a Web browser.

Audacity (download)This capable open source download can edit and record .mp3, .wav, and other digital audio files. You can use the program to convert file types, record podcasts, and mix special effects into your favorite songs, as well.

iTunes Library Updater (download)If moving or deleting songs has thrown your iTunes library into disarray, grab this handy tool. It can easily clean up duplicates and orphaned entries, as well as add new music from specified directories that iTunes doesn't yet know about.

Soundsnap (service)Find almost any type of royalty-free sound sample at this well-designed site, whether you're looking for trumpeting elephants, synthesized drum loops, or the perfect "boing" sound effect.

iLike (service)With a plug-in for Windows Media Player or iTunes, iLike installs a sidebar displaying artist news (recent albums, local concerts, and so on) based on music already residing in your library. It also recommends new music that you might like, offering song samples. You can share playlists and preferences with other iTunes-using friends, too.

Slacker (service)Start with your pick of Internet radio stations in Slacker's in-browser player--from 90s Alternative to Outlaw Country to Big Band/Swing--or type in the name of a band to get a station covering that sort of music. Afterward, you can customize the station with your choice of artists, and fine-tune options such as song popularity and age. You can also download a stand-alone software player.

Lala.com (service)If you take the time to upload all or part of your MP3 collection to Lala.com, you can then play those songs anywhere through a Web browser. Though you can't download the songs to another PC, you can use a downloadable applet to sync your Lala music (both uploads and music purchased from Lala) to your iPod.

Wavosaur (download)When you need to edit short audio programs, sound effects, or loops, give the free Wavosaur audio editor a try. It has all the basic audio editing functions (cut, copy, paste, crop, fade in, fade out, and so on), and some audio analysis features, as well. You can use it to record sound and do batch-processing on a folder full of files.

Desktop dustomization

WinMatrix (service)This customization clearinghouse serves up a dizzying array of guides, links, and posts for the serious tweaker who wants to change the look and feel of Windows XP or Vista. If you're new to the XP customization game, start with the site's excellent beginner's guide.

WindowBlinds (download)For "skinning" the various Windows interfaces, Stardock's WindowBlinds theme manager is the tool to use. After you pick up the program, head to Wincustomize.com for a kid-in-the-candy-shop feeling as you browse through 522 pages of free and for-pay skins that beautify the taskbar, window borders, Start menu, and other elements. The free trial won't skin Internet Explorer and has a few other limitations; the full version runs $20.

Wincustomize (service)Here you'll find a wealth of free wallpaper and screen savers, as well as themes and packages, for Stardock's excellent Windows customization programs. You can nab 50MB of downloads right away, or register (at no cost) and bump that up to 500MB.

SlickRun (download)If you're a Windows power user who constantly heads to the Run command in the Start menu, SlickRun can save you some time with its floating on-screen command window. You can also create "MagicWords," one-word aliases that quickly launch programs when you type them into the command window.

Vista Start Menu (download)Despite the name, this beefed-up Start menu runs on Windows XP as well as on Microsoft's newer OS. The much-larger menu can make getting to programs easier if you have a bunch installed, and it also provides quick access to autorun programs that are set to start with Windows.

RealWorld Cursor Editor (download)Replace any of the 15 Windows pointers with this do-it-all app. You can download ready-made pointers or use the built-in editing tool to create new ones, from scratch or based on existing images.

RocketDock (download)This launchpad for files and programs brings some Mac OS flavor to Windows, introducing a bit of the Apple operating system's signature great looks and ease of use.

AlfaClock (download)Windows' taskbar clock is boring and limited. Replace it with this highly customizable display, which shows (or even speaks) the date and the day of the week along with the time.

Xplorer2 (download)The dual-pane folder viewer and display filters provided in this Windows Explorer competitor can help speed up major file management tasks, and you can still use Explorer whenever you want.

News readers

FeedDemon (download)It's hard to beat the polished and newly free FeedDemon when it comes to desktop news-reader features. And you can sync it with the Newsgator site to stay on top of news even when you're out and about.

RSS Bandit (download)Some nice interface touches, such as attractive colored tabs and panels that keep their names when they collapse, make RSS Bandit a useful tool for keeping up with the news.

Feedreader (download)In Feedreader you can create custom Smartfeeds that pull together news posts from all of your subscribed feeds matching one or more e-mail-like filtering rules. For instance, you can capture all posts that contain "Apple" or "MacOS" in the title or body.

Awasu Personal Edition (download)This program offers you several nice features, such as a quick full-screen switch for easy news reading on your desktop. The free personal edition, however, updates the content only once an hour.

GreatNews (download)Six different feed presentation styles, including Essay, Newspaper, and Firefox Sage, make this news reader (in beta) worth checking out.

FreeRange FreeReader (download)Bring the RSS love to your BlackBerry, J2ME, Nokia, Palm OS, or Windows Mobile smart phone with this mobile news reader. The free version is limited to ten news feeds and relies on your phone's data connection.

Feedshow (service)A simple and straightforward desktop-app-like reader in a Web browser, Feedshow can switch between resizable two- and three-panel layouts and accepts keyboard shortcuts. And you don't have to download anything to your computer.

RSS Ticker (download)This Firefox add-on for serious news junkies scrolls updates for your Live Bookmark feed subscriptions across the top or bottom of the browser window. Mouse over a headline for a summary, and click it to bring up the whole article in the browser.

Games

Splume (service)When you launch a green ball across the screen onto a red or blue ball in this instantly likable online game, the incompatible balls give each other the stink eye. Attach a green to another green, however, and the balls share a gaze of adoration. Add in imaginative level designs and splooshy sound effects, and you have an engaging time sink.

Excit (service)A fun spreadsheet. No, really. In this online game you lead a sprightly cross-hair cursor to the exit--without hurtling it off the edge of the spreadsheet game board--in order to advance to the next, progressively harder level. And each level of success you achieve provides a password you can use later to restart where you left off.

Command & Conquer Gold (download)Electronic Arts released the classic Command & Conquer Tiberian Dawn real-time strategy hit as a free download for the game's twelfth anniversary. To install the game, first burn the downloadable .iso files to a CD or access them with a free utility such as Virtual CloneDrive. Then follow the instructions .

Airport Security (service)Pull an ever-changing list of prohibited items -- canned cheese, a worn shirt, candy bars--from passengers' bodies and luggage quickly enough to keep the line moving in this online Shockwave game.

Dungeon Runners (download)Free players in this tongue-in-cheek, Diablo-esque MMOG (massively multiplayer online game) can't use the full range of items available to paid-subscription players, but they can still have a great time romping through the dungeons and building their own characters. Five dollars a month gets you the whole shebang.

Little Fighter 2 (download)Up to four people on the same computer, or up to eight in a network, can battle it out with fists, flung items and fireballs, and other flashy special moves in this anime-like, manic fighting game.

Disaffected (download)This satirical "anti-advergame," in which players help customers in a dysfunctional FedEx Kinko's, takes a swipe at the genre of games meant to market a company or product.

Freeciv (download)If talk of Sid Meier's classic game Civilization II evokes fond memories of hours lost to "Just one more turn," try this excellent free clone, which supports up to 30 network players and a host of optional mods for new sounds, rules, and nations.

flOw (download)Everyone wants to be an aquatic worm-creature, lazily chewing on microorganisms and evolving into something completely different, don't they? Grab a copy and get transformed.

Best download

FreeReader Brings the News to Your Mobile Device

With scores of free programs now available on the Web, an application has to have more than just good looks to get the nod for our favorite shareware product. Our winner brings your news to places other free news readers can't.

FreeRange FreeReader brings the speed and convenience of RSS feeds to a wide array of mobile phones. Install this clean and fast feed reader, and the fun little games on your phone will soon suffer from neglect as you instead go straight for all the latest news reports from your favorite sources.

You can set up everything through your phone, but the better bet is to create your account and feed subscriptions through the Web site on a PC. As with any good news reader, you can import or export OPML lists from other readers, though you're limited to ten subscriptions in the free version. You can also create custom feeds that track news on part