Stories about: UCLA

I was invited to an urgent, one-on-one meeting with the CIO of a very large IT organization. No hint of the subject matter. Upon arrival, I saw that he was very disturbed about something, but he simply handed me a copy of an e-mail he had recently received from the chairman of the board:

Over at the Open Sources blog, Savio Rodrigues calls attention to two critical security vulnerabilities in the Spring Framework for Java. They were discovered by security consultancy Ounce Labs, which disclosed the exploits in a detailed report. If you use Spring for critical business applications, you'll definitely want to be aware of the threats and take appropriate measures.

Researchers are touting an innovative cryptography method they've developed called "functional encryption," which though largely untested in the real world, one day could have an impact on how enterprise data is encrypted, stored and decrypted.

Bloggers are digital-era sweatshop workers, according to a story last week in the New York Times. "They work long hours, often to exhaustion. Many are paid by the piece - not garments, but blog posts. This is the digital-era sweatshop ... Some are starting to wonder if something has gone very wrong. In the last few months, two among their ranks have died suddenly."

A lot has changed in the 20 years since the first laptop computers appeared, including gigahertz processors, colour screens, optical drives and wireless data. However, one thing that has stubbornly stayed the same is the conventional clamshell format with its hinged display lid that opens to reveal a mechanical keyboard.

Few reports have surfaced of security breaches in virtual-server environments, but the potential looms large.

Although many universities in the US have been installing or updating their emergency notification systems for students, faculty and staff since last April's shootings at Virginia Tech, technology can't fix one problem: not everyone who's eligible for the emergency alerts wants them.

Students at North Carolina State University are learning to build business applications in the Web 2.0 mold using an IBM incubator project called Project Zero.

Another US$400, 2-lb. Linux-based mini-laptop will be arriving in Wal-Mart stores in the US by the end of this month to rival the Eee, AsusTek Computer's ultraportable.

We at Computerworld would be the last to say that science and technology aren't creative pursuits. Still, when most people say, "Oh, she's very creative," they're probably not talking about the subject's ability to perform higher math or engineer a network. Such people might be amazed to learn of the remarkable number of actors, directors, musicians and other celebrities who nurture an inner geek.

Depending on how you calculate it, the Web has been around for between 15 and 17 years--which makes it old enough to ask for the car keys, but still an awkward teenager growing toward maturity. Yet it already has a long and storied history (and some prehistory). We've decided to chronicle its 15 greatest moments here.