Sun Brews Up Rich JavaFX

Sun Microsystems has launched a new platform in an attempt to gain a foothold in the rapidly growing rich internet applications space, as well as generate solutions for mobile devices and even TVs. The platform, JavaFX 1.0, seeks to let developers build Web apps with high-fidelity audio and video, rich text, vector graphics, animation and Web services for, as Sun notes, "all the screens of life."

IBM Takes Dead Aim at Microsoft With Virtual Linux Desktop

IBM has teamed with Virtual Bridges and Canonical to offer a new Linux-based virtual desktop solution. The three companies announced the general availability of Virtual Linux Desktop Thursday, calling it a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft's desktop software. VLD runs open standards-based e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, unified communication, social networking and other software.

Is YouTube Becoming PrudeTube?

In the early days of YouTube, one could find scads of commercial pornography, plenty of amateur pole-dancing and scatological material out the wazoo, but as the world's top user-generated video Web site chases down more revenue, it has also cracked down on the kind of mature content that might make advertising executives a tad nervous.

Our Selves but Not Our Bodies

Shaking hands with yourself is an amusing out-of-body experience. The illusion of having your stomach slashed with a kitchen knife, not so much. Both sensations, however, felt real to most participants in a Swedish science project exploring how people can be tricked into the false perception of owning another body.

The Rise of the Netbook

You see them on tables in coffee shops, under the arms of college students and on the laps of travelers waiting for a flight. Called "netbooks" or "mini-notebooks," these small, lightweight and relatively affordable computers are one of the hottest tech toys of the year. Popularized by Asus Eee PCs, which start at $269, netbooks are designed for basic tasks -- Web surfing, e-mail and word processing.