Stories about: Reilly

Mashup tools have so far been used mostly for simple applications like adding geographical information to corporate data by pulling Google Maps into common processes.

For many IT shops, nothing strikes fear as deep in its heart as the notion that a new technology will be as alluring to users as Excel, which in many organizations has withstood every attempt at being controlled at all by IT.

Google officials fielded questions from developers at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco who pressed the company about its Google App Engine, asking about everything from its language support, privacy assurances, pricing and backward compatibility.

It's not your kid's video game.

Microsoft is aiming to use the Internet as a hub to "mesh" data, devices and applications that are always updated and available from anywhere. Microsoft's new Live Mesh, which it announced as a limited technology preview Tuesday and planned to detail further here at the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo, combines hosted services for storage, sharing files and peer-to-peer connections to allow multiple different devices to work together and users to access updated applications from anywhere, the company said.

The Open Source Census, an effort to pin down hard statistics regarding the implementation of open-source software around the world, got underway on Wednesday.

Jeff Jonas knows the Las Vegas gambling industry inside and out. As the founder and chief scientist of Systems Research & Development (SRD), Jonas helped build numerous casino systems before 2005 when his company was purchased by IBM.

Google's Android team isn't worried about wireless carriers building Android distributions that are incompatible with one another, Google developer Dan Morrill said this week at the O'Reilly ETech conference on emerging technology in the US. He also said security problems on Android-powered smartphones will be minor compared to the potential benefits.

Imagine a robot that hands you a beer and then cleans your kitchen and living room. That's what a start-up called Willow Garage in California is busy developing. But the company isn't going it alone: Willow Garage is an open source project that wants as much outside participation as possible.

Microsoft's Silverlight rich Internet application (RIA) platform has yet to gain traction among companies or programmers, according to two indirect measures of popularity.

Adobe Systems and Yahoo!'s Brickyard will offer developers new programming tools and Web services for creating content-drive communications and location services, and start-up company Bug Labs announces a new, easier way to build electronic gadgets for niche and custom uses.