1. "Google Plans Worldwide Developer Day,"
InfoWorld, April 11
Google is sponsoring a 27-hour developer day May 31, hoping to lure more interest in its development tools and APIs. Developers have been invited to workshops at Google offices in 10 countries, with the sessions including how to develop location-based services with Google Maps, Google Earth and SketchUp; creating mashups with Ajax and Google Gadgets; and developing with the Google Web Toolkit. Workshops will be in Mountain View, Calif.; Sao Paulo, Beijing, Tokyo, Sydney, Moscow, London, Madrid, Paris and Hamburg, Germany. Google will webcast the programs offered from its Mountain View headquarters. Sessions from other locations will be broadcast on YouTube.

2. "US Agencies Still Get Low Cybersecurity Grades,"
Network World, April 12
If they were schoolkids, we would ground them until they showed improvement. The U.S. departments of Defense and State got failing grades on the annual cybersecurity report card, with Homeland Security bringing in a D. It's scant relief that Homeland Security's 2006 grade is better than the F it scored in 2005 for information security measures (seeing as how it's in charge of national security, including protecting against cyberterrorism). The federal government overall got a C-minus compared to a D-plus last year. To hand out kudos where they're due, the Department of Housing and Urban Development scored an A-plus in 2006 compared to a D-minus the year before, while the Department of Justice improved from a D to an A-minus, and Health and Human Services went from flunking to earning a B. Overall, though, no one was singing praises. "I would not accept a C-minus on my kids' report cards," said Karen Evans, administrator of e-government and information technology at the White House Office of Management and Budget. "Average is not good enough."   

3. "Printer Problem? Don't Call IT, HP Says—Watch a Video," 
Computerworld, April 11
HP's two new high-end enterprise computers come with self-help features such as live-action videos and step-by-step control panel instructions with the aim of helping users deal with problems themselves (beyond smacking the machines or turning them off and on a few times) rather than calling IT for help (so that they can smack the printers and turn them off and on a few times). The CM8060 and CM88050 printers have a tool that plays a video offering more details on how to locate paper jams, and they also have LED lights and door sensors to serve as "digital breadcrumbs," telling which part of the printers to open to deal with a particular problem. The printers are based on the company's Edgeline technology, which prints a line at a time. So besides all the self-help techniques, the printers will offer print faster than older models.