Sun looks for StarOffice resellers

Sun Microsystems is in talks with some of the major Internet service providers (ISPs) with a view to setting up agreements through which the ISPs will distribute and offer services related to Sun`s StarOffice suite.

Mru Patel, Sun`s business manager for SunONE Desktop Solutions, says Sun is in talks with "all the big ISPs" to try to decide if the market is ready for the company to offer the StarOffice software stack as a browser-based service. If the plans go ahead, Patel says, a supported service might cost between $46.56 and $3.10 per user per month, depending on the level of service and support required.

Sun will also take StarOffice to market on its own desktop hardware, namely the "Madhatter" Linux desktop and Sun Ray thin clients. The Sun Ray stateless device will be relaunched in January with server-side support for Sun`s desktop software stack, which includes StarOffice, Ximian`s Evolution messaging software, the Gnome desktop and the Mozilla browser. The same software stack will be offered on Sun`s Linux desktop. [TheRegister]

IT managers are cautiously optimistic that wireless networks will, over time, become as secure as today`s local area networks, but security concerns are still holding back deployment of the technology.

These are the main findings of a survey of IT security manager attitudes on the deployment of 802.11b, or wireless networks by security consultancy Defcom, released this week.

The senior IT security managers questioned by Defcom at a recent London event were optimistic on the future security of WLAN equipment; 90% believe it will be as secure as regular LANs within the next three to five years. However, nearly two-thirds say the main barrier to wireless networking growth is still the perceived lack of security.

Defcom said 80% do not trust the manufacturers of wireless networking solutions to provide security expertise. [TheRegister]

Mozilla.org released the 1.2 version of its Mozilla browser last week, with a "type-ahead" feature, prefetching and new enhancements to tabbed browsing. The new browser, which can be downloaded at the Mozilla site, also features a slightly revamped interface.

The new "type-ahead" feature is similar in concept to the suggested links that appear in Internet Explorer. However, it doesn`t require users to type the first few characters of a link; instead, it searches for links with the text string inside it. The feature, which works with any Gecko content window, can also be turned on and off.

The new browser will also prefetch related links. Using the W3C standard "link" tag, a Web page author can embed several prefetching links. While the user is reading the host page, the browser will begin quietly prefetching the links, which will then be loaded out of a user`s local cache, rather than over the Internet, should a user decide to click on them. [ExtremeTech]

Researchers say increased cellphone use by motorists has led to more crashes, but the value people place on being able to call from the road roughly equals the accidents` cost.

Harvard researchers, drawing on previous research involving cellphones and government figures for auto accidents, say in a study that there is a growing public health risk from the reliance on cellphones in cars.

Joshua Cohen, lead author of the study, says an individual has a small risk of being in an accident caused by a driver who is talking on the phone, but an overall public health issue exists nonetheless. At the same time, he urges careful consideration when deciding whether to ban cellphone usage.

"People place a value on these calls, so just wiping out the phone calls and saying we are going to ban them, that`s not something that should be taken lightly," he said.

Cellphone owners cited benefits such as security and peace of mind for instant communication, increased productivity, privacy and quicker crime and accident reporting.

The study found that a cellphone user has about a 13 in one million chance of being killed in an accident while making a call, as compared with a 49 in one million chance for someone driving without a seat belt. [SiliconValley]