"The Register has unearthed a research paper that shows IBM working on a computing system capable 'of hosting the entire internet as an application'. This mega system relies on a re-tooled version of IBM's Blue Gene supercomputers so loved by the high performance computing crowd. IBM's researchers have proposed tweaking the Blue Gene systems to run today's most popular web applications such as Linux, Apache, MySQL and Ruby on Rails."

So, you think that since there are so few holes in your Mac OS that you're invulnerable to attack? That may be true for Trojans and viruses, but it's not the case for phishing attacks that can be fiendishly deceptive and destructive. Not worried yet? Read this column and you might think again.

A revealing Computerworld feature dissects offers a rundown on how Wikipedia and its various sister projects really work - the ideals behind Copyleft and the GNU FDL license, the people that contribute, the policies and guidelines that determine contributions, dispute resolution, the Wikipedia Hierarchy, and an amusing summary of some of the major controversies and lamest edit wars that have occurred within the world of Wikipedia. These include the Siegenthaler incident, the real size of the Death Star, whether the C# Programming language should be written with a hash or the musical sharp symbol, the real height of Andre the Giant, and the eternal conflict between British and US spelling. The story also looks at what the future holds for Wikipedia. An in-depth, revealing look at how the world's largest encyclopedia really works.

"In addition to Project Indiana Developer Preview 2, Solaris users can now rejoice over the next release in the Solaris Express Developer Edition family. SXDE 1/08 is the quarterly update to Sun's next-generation Solaris Operating System that is built from the latest OpenSolaris Nevada technologies. This first SXDE release of 2008 brings a host of new features for the developer such as NetBeans 6.0 and the GlassFish v2 application server. Even for those that aren't developers, SXDE 1/08 brings new features further down on the Solaris stack such as the Sun xVM virtualization server with support for libvirt, support for the 802.11n Intel 4965 wireless chipset, and a variety of new services."

Windows Vista SP1 includes a number of enhancements over the original Vista release in the areas of application compatibility, device support, power management, security and reliability. You can see a detailed list of the changes in the Notable Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 whitepaper. One of the improvements highlighted in the document is the increased performance of file copying for multiple scenarios, including local copies on the same disk, copying files from remote non-Windows Vista systems, and copying files between SP1 systems. How were these gains achieved? The answer is a complex one and lies in the changes to the file copy engine between Windows XP and Vista and further changes in SP1.

Graphics card producer NVidia confirmed late yesterday it is purchasing Ageia Technologies, the first producer of so-called 'physics processors' for 3D gamers, for an undisclosed amount. Ageia Technologies is best known for its PhysX processor, which is supported by popular games such as Gears of War, the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series, and Unreal Tournament 3. Working under NVidia's wing will help the company properly implement PhysX into future product launches, which should result in a broader target market.