process

Zoho Writer adds pages, headers, language support

Zoho Writer, one of the most full featured Web alternatives to Microsoft Word, has added a handful of new features this morning. Most notable is the addition of page support and headers, making the application a little friendlier for editing large, multipage documents. While it doesn't have Word's fancy side-by-side and zoom controls, Zoho offers a good way to give your document the once over before printing. Support for headers and footers is simple, letting you add things like page numbers, text, and images to the top and bottom edges of your document.

Writer has also added Chinese … Read more

Killer Download: Background apps for security and speed

With so many potential threats on the Internet, it is an absolute necessity to prepare your computer for the Web. Whenever I get a new computer, the first programs I download include antivirus, antispyware, and firewall software. Frankly, if you don't have at least these three types of programs running on your computer, it's like driving at night without your lights on--sure it's possible, but don't be surprised if it ends in a crash (har har).

Fortunately, there are a lot of great security programs available at Download.com. Recently I've written Killer Downloads about both the best firewalls and the top antivirus programs. This week I'm doing a software roundup of a different type. In recent scouting of new (and new to me) software I came across some great Windows programs that work behind the scenes to keep your computer running smoothly and also keep your data secure.… Read more

SAP to acquire India software maker

SAP announced on Wednesday that it is snapping up Yasu Technologies, which creates business rules management software.

The India-based company was founded in 1999 and has about 120 employees.

The deal is designed to boost SAP's business process management (BPM) offerings and will be tucked into SAP NetWeaver, which channels the ebb and flow of data to software applications via SAP's back-end middleware.

The Yasu announcement comes just a little over a week after SAP announced that it will acquire Business Objects in a deal valued at more than $6.8 billion, its largest acquisition ever.

SAP, however, … Read more

Open or not - innovation remains a fuzzy concept

The Economist has a special report on innovation in this week's issue, and it's good to see the magazine recognizing "open innovation" as the perhaps most important current trend in this space: "Rapid and disruptive change is now happening across new and old businesses. Innovation ... is becoming both more accessible and more global. This is good news because its democratization releases the untapped ingenuity of people everywhere and that could help solve some of the world's weightiest problems."

The report is an expansive tour de force through the entire innovation landscape, covering a … Read more

One big idea is not enough: innovating innovation management

Management's focus on innovation comes and goes in cycles. Right now, it is all the rage again (although it remains to be seen if that's still the case as innovation budgets may be cut when the looming recession hits the US), and the business press is covering it all across the board. Managing innovation is one of the most critical tasks companies face, and yet it remains one of the biggest challenges. Not only do companies need to come up with new ideas, but they also need to nurture a culture that consistently encourages and rewards innovation. If … Read more

Legal end of an era

My grandparents lived very long lives. My mother's father was born in 1893, grew up on a sheep ranch in Australia, fought for the British in World War I, suffered numerous life-threatening calamities and collisions as a semi-professional adventurer, and lived 86 years. My father's parents both lived to the age of 96. And my mother's mother lived to be more than 100 years old. She was a professional musician who played in the big bands, backing movies like Abbott and Costello's Here Come the Co-eds and played most famously in Phil Spitalny's Hour of Charm All Girl Orchestra, chronicled in the book Swing Shift. (Sadly that book was written after the memories of most of the sources had begun to degrade.)… Read more

Startup news: Process-one and industrial grade IM(?)

Just heard of a new open source startup and thought I'd share it with you. I don't know much about the company, Process-one, but it sounds interesting....… Read more

Master your Windows processes

By now, most users know all about antispyware software, antivirus apps, firewalls, and other essential tools for keeping your Windows machine lean and mean. (If you don't, be sure to check out the Security section of our PC Starter Kit.)

However, when your PC slows down and the Windows Task Manager says that a process named lsass.exe or svchost.exe is using 99 percent of your system resources, how do you know whether it's a legitimate task or something more insidious? When in doubt, the best place to start is a free utility called Process Explorer, created by Mark Russinovich, whose other claim to fame is the discovery of Sony's infamous CD rootkit.… Read more

Dark Room isolates you and your text

You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.

There is a small mailbox here.

OK, not really, but the freeware Windows app Dark Room (based off the Mac OS X 10.4 software WriteRoom) looks a heck of a lot like the classic text-adventure game Zork.

The idea behind Dark Room and WriteRoom is simple: offer a distraction-free application for writing text. Both apps throw out the bells and whistles and provide a lightweight text editor without buttons, menus, or anything else that might disturb your concentration.… Read more