InfoWorld reveals that “Apple and Microsoft topped the list of InfoWorld's annual product award winners this year, nabbing three and four Technology of the Year Awards, respectively. Announced today, InfoWorld's 2009 Technology of the Year Awards recognize the best hardware and software products evaluated by InfoWorld reviewers during 2008.  Microsoft's four prizes include two for development tools and two for small-business solutions. Best Integrated Development Environment went to the matchless Visual Studio 2008, while Best Rich Internet Application Platform went to Silverlight 2 — which shares the award with Adobe Flash, Flex, and AIR. We don't like ties, but we're so impressed with the Microsoft and Adobe offerings that we couldn't choose between them.”

According to Yahoo!Tech, “[t]echnology companies face a bumpy ride in 2009.  Global business and government spending on computer, software and communications products and consulting services is expected to decline 3 percent this year, Forrester Research said in a report due out Tuesday.  This would mark the first decline since 2002, when information-technology spending dropped 6 percent after falling the same amount in 2001.”

In a Washington Post article, Dan Lyons speculates about “[w]ho will run Apple after its visionary chief executive and product guru Steve Jobs leaves.”

CNetNews writes that “Microsoft, Intel, and Cisco plan to announce Tuesday that they are working together to help ensure that proper standards are created for measuring digital literacy.  The three companies aren't coming up with the assessment criteria themselves, but rather bringing together a group of education leaders and academics to identify the characteristics that should form the basis of global standards.  While such standards have emerged for math and science, they are also needed for other kinds of 21st century skills, Microsoft Vice President Anoop Gupta said in an interview last week.  To head the effort, the troika has tapped professor Barry McGaw, currently the director of the Melbourne Education Research Institute at the University of Melbourne, to serve as the project's executive director.”

BBC News reports that “[t]he US National Security Agency has helped put together a list of the world's most dangerous coding mistakes.  The 25 entry list contains errors that can lead to security holes or vulnerable areas that can be targeted by cyber criminals.  Experts say many of these errors are not well understood by programmers.  According to the SANS Institute in Maryland, just two of the errors led to more than 1.5m web site security breaches during 2008.”