Before the invention of the Internet and the creation of the Web, the vast majority of human conversations were in spoken form, with the only notable, but extremely limited, exception being epistolary exchanges. Some important spoken conversations, such as criminal trials and political debates (e.g., Hansard, the transcripts of...

Looking at the past years of application development, as a developer you might have noticed a significant shift from desktop applications to web applications. The Web has evolved as the major platform for applications and is going to take over many facets—not only in development but also in everyday life, resulting in this shift...

One day,Erica and her husband took the kids out for ice cream, and she noticed a big advertisement hanging above the counter. It said, “Bring in your digital photographs. We’ll put them on ice cream cakes.” She found the manager and asked what was involved. “It’s simple,” she said. “Just bring...

Between 1999 and 2009, a “ turbid ” or disordered sensation of change was felt as wireless connections expanded and eroded the edges of the Internet...

The term computer was quite popular back then. Now, the word is no...

People often ask me why I chose to publish this work. Primarily, this book was motivated by my experience in industry after having been in the academic world for many years. We often hear about the need to bridge the gap between industry and academia, but one can easily intellectually understand something without having experienced it...

RATHER THAN SIMPLY REPLACING PHONES and instant messages, Microsoft Lync, Microsoft ’ s Unifi ed Communications platform, makes communicating in completely new ways possible. Lync users can see whether a contact is available and where he or she is located before reaching out. After a user has decided to contact someone, he can...

Most students entering college have already had years of exposure to computers and other digital technologies. Elementary and high school students use computers to write papers, create presentations, communicate with each other, conduct research, and entertain themselves. Cell phones, digital cameras, and iPods are standard equipment...

TO THOSE OF US WHO PAY ATTENTION to such things, the world of software development has changed a lot in the last few years. In the .NET world, Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 is undoubtedly the most successful development environment. Since the release of the fi rst .NET version in February 2002, this product has undergone dramatic...

All students interested in researching the Internet are living in very interesting and exciting times. From the Internet’s beginning in the 1960s up to the present day, the Internet has grown to become a vast platform where there are now 2 billion users of this global infrastructure.1 Predictions are that this number will rise to...

Location-based services (LBS) are nally coming out of research labs and getting into the hands of nal users. It is fairly common to see cellular carriers and private companies oering LBS to locate your children, friends, and sites of interest, track assets, enhance the security of key personnel, help people with disabilities use...

Computing continues to become more and more personalized and accessible. Handheld devices have largely transformed into computing platforms. Mobile phones are no longer just for talking—they have been capable of carrying data and video for some time. Be it a phone or a tablet, the mobile device is now so capable of general-purpose...