As InfoWorld’s Tom Yager writes in today’s Ahead of the Curve, “While it makes IT break out in hives, professional users need … secure shared data and remote desktop access without the hassle of VPN.” Apple’s $99 per year .Mac service (https://www.mac.com) “has the makings of an interesting solution to the desktops-as-servers conundrum.” But the iDisk client, set up as a virtual volume, “shows both its age and its consumer-targeted nature. …Without changes to iDisk, .Mac falls short of requirements for commercial use.”Where Apple’s .Mac comes close, Microsoft Live Mesh hopes to take it all the way. “What Live Mesh does is very simple: It keeps folders and RSS feeds synchronized across all of the PCs in your custom-defined “mesh” so that no matter which of your PCs you’re facing, folders and feeds published via Live Mesh are all kept in sync and made available both online and off. “Let’s dare to hope that what Microsoft calls the “social aspect” of Live Mesh will soon begin to take shape as a cure for commercial file sharing woes, and an end to the unsecured desktop server.” Technology Industry