• Novell Moonlight upgrade tracks Silverlight improvements

  The Novell-sponsored Mono Project on Tuesday will offer a beta version of Moonlight 4, an open source Linux implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight rich Internet application plug-in that tracks the most recent Microsoft release, Silverlight 4.

• Oracle highlights Solaris Unix plans

  Oracle executives talked up on Thursday the planned Solaris 11 release due in 2011, with the Unix OS upgrade offering advancements in availability, security, and virtualization.

• First look: Office 365 beta shows promise but lacks polish

  Office 365: A revamped offering that combines the features of BPOS with Office 2010. From what we've seen of the Office 365 beta, it still has a long way to go before it can be considered a true turnkey solution for business.

• Smartphone online usage climbing rapidly, with iPhone in the lead

  The iPhone leads the pack when it comes to using the Web over mobile devices, according to a new study released today by Informa Telecoms & Media.

• New MacBook Air: The best ever

  After all the hype about the new MacBook Air releases last week, all the oohing and aahing over the engineering that slipped a significant amount of power and capability into such a tiny package, I was ready to be somewhat disappointed by the new 13.3-inch MacBook Air that arrived on my doorstep earlier this week. I've used every MacBook Air since it was originally released, and I still use an 18-month-old Air for hours and hours every day. What could impress me about the new one? As it turns out, plenty.

• First look: Internet Explorer 9 beta makes waves

  One of the best ways to see what's changed with the ninth and newest version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer is to tune into beautyoftheweb.com and watch the words, images, and DIVs bounce around, luring the world into pretty images and information that can't sit still. "Tune in" is the appropriate verb because the experience is closer to consuming television than what the Web was once supposed to be, an endless library filled with serious knowledge that might come from an underground physics bunker in the mountains.

Whitepapers about platforms

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  Enhancing Decision-Making, Cost-Efficiency, and Profitability With Predictive Analytics

  Today’s managers must always look at the past, present, and future. They need reports on past performance to improve operational efficiency. Business intelligence (BI) platforms such as Information Builders WebFOCUS, are providing a unified decision-support environment where managers can retrieve and analyze data about past, present, and future activities. In this paper, we will discuss the incorporation of predictive modeling capabilities into the WebFOCUS BI platform, and highlight how this advanced functionality can dramatically improve decision-making, thus reducing risk and costs while increasing revenue and profits.

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  Deduplication and Compression: Maximizing Effective Capacity Utilization