XplanaZine

NComputing gets $28M in 2nd round
NComputing Inc. said Monday it raised $28 million in a second round of funding. The Redwood City-based provider of desktop virtualization software and hardware said the round was led by Menlo Park-based Menlo Ventures. Also participating were existing investors, Foster City-based Scale Venture Partners and Korea’s Daehong Technew Corp. — Biz Journals

8th annual MacBowl raises $24,000 for SF school
Macworld and Aspyr Media’s eighth annual MacBowl charity event was held on Thursday night at the Yerba Buena Lanes, above the Moscone Center where Macworld Conference & Expo is held. The event raised $24,000 in equipment, donations and cash for the Yick Wo Elementary School, located on Jones St. in San Francisco. The funds and equipment donated will be used to establish a Mac-based computer lab at the school. — Macworld

MacSpeech unveils Dictate
Long time Macintosh speech recognition developer MacSpeech on Tuesday announced a brand new product at Macworld Conference & Expo, called MacSpeech Dictate. — Macworld

Becta unveils schools IT campaign
Educational technology body Becta has launched the ‘Next Generation Learning Campaign’, in response to findings that schools are failing to meet parents’ demands for effective use of technology in schools. A survey commissioned by Becta revealed that 95 per cent of parents believe that technology helps their children to learn, but that only one in five schools are using it effectively. — Vnunet.com

Sun to acquire MySQL
Sun Microsystems will pay $1 billion for Swedish software company MySQL, whose open-source database is used for some of the most widely visited websites in the world. — Macworld

Social Networks, from the 80s to the 00s
As Facebook enjoys its moment in the sun, we should take a moment to step back and look at the history of computers and social communication. Some historical perspective is in order, both to assess the real value of social networks as businesses, and to anticipate how they are likely to evolve in the future. — Gigaom