Cloud computing has two distinctly different meanings. The first is simple: The use of any commercial service delivered over the Internet in real time, from Amazon's EC2 to software as a service offered by the likes of Salesforce or Google.

Source: InfoWorld Top Stories

Last week, I had the opportunity to camp out at VMware's VMworld 2010 conference in San Francisco. The odd amalgamation of 17,000-plus geeks and suits from around the globe -- fleetingly united by the same free conference backpack -- was a sight to see. Both VMware and its unusually wide community of partners (and some competitors) made good use of the face time with potential and continuing customers. Through all of the marketing din and underneath the press releases, a few trends stood out, along with a strong sense that virtualization was reaching a new level of maturity.

Source: InfoWorld Top Stories

Dear Bob ... I hold the top rank position in the IT section of my agency. I'm an architect. [ Get the spin on key tech news that you'll find nowhere else at InfoWorld's Tech Watch blog. | Keep up on career advice with Bob Lewis' Advice Line newsletter. ]

Source: InfoWorld Top Stories

Hurd and Oracle are in negotiations to have the former HP chief join Oracle as a senior executive, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Source: CNET News.com

A Liquid Paper-like product's ad, created specifically to run on YouTube, shows the possibility of creating something remarkable on a site for which display advertising is becoming a key profit-making component.

Source: CNET News.com

In a remarkable twist to the battle over Craigslist's Adult Services area, the site removes the section and replaces the home-page link to it with a "censored" tag.

Source: CNET News.com

As any experienced traveling professional can tell you, not all laptops are created equal. Most designs are fine for consumer use, but business users have their own demands that need to be met. Laptops need to be able to survive all the bumps, scrapes, and jostling that comes with life on the road; they need to offer plenty of online connectivity options so that workers can plug in wherever they are; and they need to emphasize actual business use -- for tasks such as word processing and data manipulation -- over flourishes like music management and extra graphics processing power.

Source: InfoWorld Top Stories

The iPhone's no longer the only smartphone with a CNET News app. Our breaking stories and in-depth features are now even easier to read and browse on Android devices from the new, free CNET News app. Read about what it does and why it's worth downloading.

Source: CNET News.com