Apple clears Jobs in options probe, restates earnings ... "Happy New Year!" worm on the move

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Apple clears Jobs in options probe, restates earnings
News: "Happy New Year!" worm on the move
News: Yahoo to offer full auction refunds in Japan case
News: New Creative Commons head to reach out to businesses
Opinion: Attack of the killer digicam
ITwhirled: Geek Comic of the Week: Station V3


NEWS UPDATES

Apple clears Jobs in options probe, restates earnings
An investigation into past stock option grants at Apple Computer Inc. has found that Chief Executive Steve Jobs was aware of procedural irregularities but did not benefit personally from the grants or understand the accounting implications.

"Happy New Year!" worm on the move
Verisign Inc. is warning of a new e-mail worm arriving in inboxes with the subject "Happy New Year!" The message, currently being spread from 160 e-mail domains, requires users to click on the attached "postcard.exe" file in order to cause damage.

Yahoo to offer full auction refunds in Japan case
Yahoo Japan Corp. has decided to refund users of its auction Web site any money that was sent to a consumer electronics retailer that abruptly closed down and disappeared.

New Creative Commons head to reach out to businesses
Creative Commons, the grass-roots content licensing system that has taken hold amongst bloggers and other content creators online, could soon be arriving in your digital camera.

AT&T offers more concessions for BellSouth acquisition
In a bid to win approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for its planned $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp., AT&T Inc. has expanded the set of concessions it's offering to overcome opposition to the deal.

Nintendo Wii sales surge in Japan
Sales of Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii surged in the third week of December in Japan as more supplies of the hard-to-get games console arrived in shops across the country.

Report: Apple records on Jobs options falsified
Apple Computer Inc. gave Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs 7.5 million stock options in October 2001 without authorization from its board and later falsified documents that said the board had met to approve the grant, according to a Financial Times report on Thursday.

Intel ordered to produce foreign evidence in AMD case
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) will be able to collect evidence about events outside the U.S. for an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp.


OPINION

Attack of the killer digicam
By Sean McGrath

In recent times, sites publishing user-generated video content, such as YouTube have been very much in the news. Young people who, prior to video sharing sites became popular, had no particular interest in investing in a camcorder are now doing so and producing home videos that are, well ... interesting. Videos of themselves goofing around in the kitchen. Videos of a friend's opinions on pop star X. Videos of how best to care for your pet hamster. Everything imaginable. It is tempting to watch some of these and dismiss them as skateboard-like. That is, possibly a passing fad, possibly a phenomenon destined for niche status. Perhaps "professionally produced" video will always be beyond what amateurs can produce. Perhaps. Perhaps not.


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Station V3
Station V3 is a lonely space station, a rest stop and fuel station in a system where nobody really needs to rest or refuel. The cast of characters, including a overprogrammed robot and plant mastermind, entertain themselves while waiting for visitors. Plus: ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS!

Amsterdam tests open source ... Internet access recovers in Asia after quake

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Amsterdam city authorities test open source software
News: Internet access recovers in Asia after quake
News: Yahoo research goes beyond computing to social science
News: Netflix best, CDW worst in customer satisfaction
Opinion: Short straw people 2
GottaGadget: What's your biggest gadget secret?
ITwhirled: U.K. already considering robot rights


NEWS UPDATES

Amsterdam city authorities test open source software
Microsoft Corp. has two years -- until the company's contract expires in 2008 -- in which to convince Amsterdam city authorities that it can offer better value for money on the desktop than open source alternatives.

Internet access recovers in Asia after quake
Asia's Internet and telecommunication infrastructure showed signs of recovery Thursday, following service disruptions caused by a series of powerful earthquakes off Taiwan's southern coast earlier this week.

Yahoo research goes beyond computing to social science
Yahoo Research has set up a team of economists, ethnographers, cognitive psychologists and sociologists to research new media experiences that will promote the formation of online communities.

Netflix best, CDW worst in customer satisfaction
This holiday shopping season consumers rated Netflix Inc.'s Web site as the best among the 40 largest retail sites, while CDW Corp.'s ranked last, according to a survey whose results were released Wednesday.

YouTube response to Japan complaints 'not satisfactory'
A group of Japanese content producers that asked YouTube Inc. to act on the large amount of copyrighted material on the popular site say a response received from the company was unsatisfactory.

Taiwan IT production largely unaffected by big quake
A pair of powerful earthquakes near Taiwan caused some factories to temporarily halt operations for safety reasons, but mostly left the island's IT production unscathed, companies said Wednesday.

Microsoft sees botnets as top cyber-threat
If there's one thing that Aaron Kornblum, a senior attorney with Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Safety Enforcement team, would like to quash, it's the botnet armies -- the remote-controlled PCs that have been taken over without their user's knowledge. Symantec counted more than 4.5 million of them during the first six months of 2006, and according to Kornblum, they are the backbone of today's cybercrime.

Taiwan allows three chip investments to China
The Taiwan government gave a formal stamp of approval on three major China-bound chip investments on Wednesday, a significant easing of regulations for its technology industry and a sign of improving ties with China.

Report: Feds looking at Apple stock-option documents
U.S. federal investigators are "looking closely" at stock-option documents that former Apple Computer Inc. officials allegedly falsified to boost their own profits, The Recorder legal newspaper reported late Tuesday in its online edition. Revelations regarding past stock-options practices are expected in Apple's delayed annual report due out Friday.

After one month, no rush to adopt Vista
Windows Vista has been on the market for nearly a month now, but enterprise users and industry experts agree that Microsoft's latest and greatest OS still isn't yet ready to replace XP.


OPINION

Short straw people 2
By James Gaskin

Two years ago I wrote Short Straw People for those of us working
during the holidays. Now it's time to revisit that issue, because
we're still working during the holidays. We drew the short straw again.


GOTTA GADGET

What's your biggest gadget secret?
Do you play games on your PDA during boring meetings? Do you have a separate account for gadget purchases that your spouse doesn't know about? Do you use your gadget in an unexpected way?

Share a secret, and enter our drawing to win an Apple iPod (with video capability).


ITWHIRLED

U.K. already considering robot rights
The Brits are definitely forward thinking on this one: A report from the United Kingdom government's chief scientist speculates that by the year 2056, robots may have reached the level of consciousness that will merit rights (voting, health care) and responsibilities (military service, taxes).

Earthquake disrupts Internet access in Asia ... PS3, Wii have banner sales week

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Earthquake disrupts Internet access in Asia
News: PS3, Wii have best week of sales since launch in Japan
News: Samsung develops 1G chip for handheld devices
News: Wikipedia-like search engine in development
Opinion: Remote monitoring
ITwhirled: Terrible iPod-related gift ideas


NEWS UPDATES

Earthquake disrupts Internet access in Asia
A pair of powerful earthquakes off the coast of Taiwan damaged undersea cables and disrupted telephone and Internet access in Asia on Wednesday.

PS3, Wii have best week of sales since launch in Japan
Sales of both the PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles jumped in Japan during the second week of December thanks to greater supplies of the consoles from their respective manufacturers.

Samsung develops 1G chip for handheld devices
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has developed a thin, low-power 1G-byte chip for portable devices such as cameras, media players and game consoles.

Wikipedia-like search engine in development
The founder of Wikipedia, the user-edited online encyclopedia, is developing a wiki-based search engine to compete with established commercial search engines from Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc.


OPINION

Remote monitoring
By James Gaskin

Do you know what's going on at all your remote offices? When someone
calls and reports the network is "acting funny" do you have a way to
look at their network, or are you doing that painful "tell me what
lights are on" dance with the remote site secretary who started work
yesterday?


ITWHIRLED

Terrible iPod-related gift ideas
Were you the lucky recipient of one of these iPod-themed gifts? If so, you may be questioning the gift giver's sanity. Who knew so many undergarments could uselessly be redesigned to accommodate iPods?

Social networks influence holiday e-shopping ... Toshiba to push HD DVD at CES

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Sharp to expand LCD production earlier than planned
News: Toshiba plans aggressive HD DVD push at CES
Report: Panasonic in talks to sell JVC stake to Kenwood
News: Social networks influence holiday e-shopping
News: Project aims to tag Tokyo neighborhood with RFID
Opinion: A quick trip to Redmond
ITwhirled: Top ten geek business myths


NEWS UPDATES

Sharp to expand LCD production earlier than planned
Rising demand for flat-panel televisions around the world is pushing Sharp Corp. to bring forward a planned expansion of display production, the company said Monday. Sharp's second manufacturing line at its Kameyama factory in western Japan will begin producing LCD panels in January -- two months ahead of schedule.

Toshiba plans aggressive HD DVD push at CES
Toshiba will join a group of companies supporting the HD DVD format in a news conference Jan. 7, the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, to announce their plans for 2007.

Report: Panasonic in talks to sell JVC stake to Kenwood
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. (Panasonic) is in talks to sell a big stake in its loss-making Victor Co. of Japan Ltd. (JVC) subsidiary to Kenwood Corp., the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Saturday morning edition.

Social networks influence holiday e-shopping
New e-commerce trends have shaped this holiday season, including the increasing importance of social networks, blogs and user content, booming sales of luxury items, an extended shopping period and the emergence of niche sellers.

Project aims to tag Tokyo neighborhood with RFID
A location-based services trial that will see a famous Tokyo neighborhood blanketed with around 10,000 RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and other beacons got its start earlier this month.

Elpida begins mass production of 70nm DRAM
Japanese memory-chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. Monday began mass production of memory chips using a 70-nanometer production process, which offers to further reduce costs and improve performance.

Congress in '07: Privacy and patents on agenda
Some technology vendors and advocacy groups see new opportunities in the U.S. Congress in 2007, with issues such as patent reform and data protection getting fresh life under a Democratic-controlled legislature.


OPINION

A quick trip to Redmond
By Joel Shore

Heading up to Microsoft's Redmond, Wash. campus is always interesting. In the past, these trips were for big-time launch events, briefings for large groups of editors and analysts, product reviewers' workshops, or the occasional one-on-one interview for an executive profile piece. This time was different. Very different.

The recent gathering included just a handful of invitees. Several of them were from the world of the blogosphere. The agenda appeared to revolve around the idea of innovation. Certainly many people do not use the words "innovation" and "Microsoft" in the same sentence. I could play the cynic and note that Microsoft purchased DOS, built Windows from ideas first seen in Apple's Lisa, and more recently, launched its Zune music player five years and five million units after Apple's iPod. But I digress.


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top ten dumbest secret identities ... Top ten geek business myths ... Top ten vampire myths ... Top 10 Ruby sites ... Top ten inventor myths

Profits overflow at RIM ... Sony rootkit settlement reaches $5.75M

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Profits overflow at RIM
News: Toshiba: We'll beat Sony to the living room with Cell
News: Santa's Web site hacked
News: Sony rootkit settlement reaches $5.75M
Opinion: Net neutrality and what the Internet will become
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Geek Comic of the Week: xkcd


NEWS UPDATES

Profits overflow at RIM
Revenue and profit both surged at Research in Motion Ltd. in the third quarter, driven by strong sales of its first consumer-focused device, the BlackBerry Pearl.

Toshiba: We'll beat Sony to the living room with Cell
Toshiba Corp. is confident that it will beat Sony Corp. to market with consumer electronics devices packing the powerful Cell microprocessor, the head of its consumer electronics business said Thursday.

Santa's Web site hacked
With Christmas fast approaching, Santa Claus reached out for a little help from Stopbadware.org this week. The consumer advocacy group said it was approached by a Nevada man named Santa Claus, who asked them to help figure out why his Web site was being flagged by Google's Web site filters. It turned out that Santa's Web site, Santaslink.net, had been hacked.

Sony rootkit settlement reaches $5.75M
Sony BMG Music Entertainment's botched attempt to stop unauthorized music copying has cost the company another $4.25 million. Two days after reaching settlements worth a combined total of $1.5 million with Texas and California, Sony on Thursday agreed to pay another 40 states the money to end investigations into its use of two copy protection programs.

Microsoft acknowledges vulnerability in Vista
A vulnerability that affects four of Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems, including Vista, doesn't appear to pose a great risk, according to one security vendor.

Wall Street Beat: The year ahead
Get set for some surprises. With 12 more months of moderate expansion expected in the global IT arena, vendors will have to get creative in 2007 to maintain the kind of growth investors want.

Microsoft releases new Longhorn build
Microsoft Corp. Thursday released a new build of its forthcoming release of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn. The company posted the release, which is the December Community Technology Preview (CTP) of the server OS, on its Microsoft Connect site.

Motorola to buy video vendor Tut for $39 million
Motorola Inc. will expand its video delivery lineup by buying Tut Systems Inc. for $39 million, the companies announced Thursday. Tut, in Lake Oswego, Oregon, sells systems to service providers for encoding, processing and distributing digital video.

Samsung exec pleads guilty to DRAM price fixing
A top executive from Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will serve 10 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine for his role in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices.

IBM tames photons in optical chips
Researchers at IBM Corp. have drawn one step closer to building a microprocessor that transfers data with light instead of electricity, a technique that could one day boost computing speed while saving power.


OPINION

Net neutrality and what the Internet will become
By Dan Blacharski

The thing I like most, and dislike most about the Internet is that anybody can publish an opinion. But as in much of life, you must take the bad to get to the good, and so I willingly wade through the inevitable and prolific web sites created by half-literate hatemongers, and am usually able to find those pearls of wisdom that I require.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Sony BMG pays out more for rootkit settlement ... IBM makes photonic computing breakthrough ... Motorola buys Tut Systems


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: xkcd
This deliberately unpronouncable comic is subtitled a "webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language." Its subjects range from the sweet (attempting to reduce the Earth's angular momentum to make a night of romance last a little longer) to the silly (John Nash trying to use game theory to pick up women in a bar). There's also a map of the Internet (really!), and plenty of equations.

Google upgrades Blogger ... Siemens sets network speed record

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Google upgrades Blogger service - for some
News: Siemens sets network speed record
News: Seagate buys backup services company
News: Juniper to take $900M charge for options
Unix Tip: Problems with inetd
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Crazy Apple Rumors


NEWS UPDATES

Google upgrades Blogger service - for some
Google Inc. is offering some users of its Blogger Web site access to a new version of the blog hosting service allowing user-definable templates, tagging of posts, multiple authors, and faster publication of new posts, the company announced on its own blog. It will also integrate use of the blogging service more closely with other services through changes to the account log-in process.

Siemens sets network speed record
The race to push more bits down broadband networks has leaped ahead with Siemens AG achieving a transmission speed of 107G bps (bits per second) over a single optical fiber.

Seagate buys backup services company
Hard drive maker Seagate Technology LLC will buy EVault Inc. for US$185 million in an acquisition designed to bolster Seagate's managed services business, the company said on Thursday.

Juniper to take $900M charge for options
Juniper Networks Inc. will take a non-cash charge of about $900 million in the wake of an investigation that found the company improperly dated employee stock-option grants.

HP will acquire Bitfone to boost iPAQ line
Hewlett-Packard Co. moved to strengthen its line of iPAQ handhelds on Wednesday by announcing a plan to acquire Bitfone Corp., a developer of software applications that allow cell-phone manufacturers to manage wireless mobile devices.

Websense to buy PortAuthority
Websense Inc. will pay $90 million to acquire PortAuthority Technologies Inc., a provider of information-leak detection appliances.


UNIX TIP

Problems with inetd
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

I ran into a problem recently with one of my Solaris 9 servers. For
some reason which I have yet to pinpoint, any lines that I add to
the /etc/inet/inetd.conf file are removed from the file almost as soon
as I finish adding them. Well, almost any lines. Since I generally
precede any additions to system configuration files with comments that
describe what the lines are for, I did so with these recently added
lines as well. When the file was modified, I noticed that only my
comments remained in the file of the lines that I had inserted.

The culprit wasn't a cron job. For one thing, there were no obvious
cron jobs which could account for what was happening. For another,
the timing was odd. The file wasn't changed back on a time boundary
(e.g., on the minute). Further, since comments were not removed, it
was clear that the file was not simply being overwritten by a copy of
the old file. Instead, only the functional entries were being
stripped. Some recent change to this system was ensuring that nothing
was added to inetd.conf.

Read the full article here.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
HP acquires Bitfone ... Fiber broadband usage rises in Japan ... PC sales slump in U.S.


ITWHIRLED

Crazy Apple Rumors
The Mac rumor community is so rich and, um, passionate that it's no wonder it has its own clown prince. John Moltz's Crazy Apple Rumor Site is a funhouse mirror to normal Apple paparazzi, where rumors about the iPhone coexist with alien entities and "Schillermania."

EBay's Chinese site to become JV ... Mozilla patches vulnerabilities

HIGHLIGHTS
News: EBay to replace Chinese auction site with JV
News: Ericsson to buy Redback for $2.1 billion
News: Apple to get a month of security bugs
News: Mozilla fixes bugs with first update to Firefox 2.0
Windows Tip: Deploying printers using Group Policy
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: YouTube Amateur


NEWS UPDATES

EBay to replace Chinese auction site with JV
EBay Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it will replace its China auction site with a new joint-venture site run by partner Tom Online Inc. in 2007.

Ericsson to buy Redback for $2.1 billion
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson has agreed to acquire Redback Networks Inc., a maker of carrier edge routers, for $2.1 billion.

Apple to get a month of security bugs
Apple Computer Inc. will soon be a member of the "month of bugs" club. On Jan. 1, two security researchers will begin publishing details of a flood of security vulnerabilities in Apple's products. Their plan is to disclose one bug per day for the entire month, they said Tuesday.

Mozilla fixes bugs with first update to Firefox 2.0
Mozilla Corp. has released the first update for the Firefox 2.0 browser to fix eight security vulnerabilities. According to the company, release 2.0.0.1 of Firefox fixes flaws in memory corruption as well as the way the browser executes RSS, Javascript and CSS code, among other vulnerabilities.

Sony pays $1.5M to settle Texas, CA rootkit suits
Sony BMG Music Entertainment will pay $1.5 million in penalties to settle lawsuits with California and Texas over its controversial use of copy protection software.

Dell taps chair of board audit committee for CFO post
Dell Tuesday named Donald Carty as vice chairman and chief financial officer (CFO), replacing James Schneider, who had previously announced plans to leave for the position of executive chairman of the board of Frontier Bancshares Inc.

Intel to launch Core 2 Quad in January
Intel Corp. plans to launch the third model of its four-core processor in January, continuing its efforts to stay ahead of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) on the next-generation processor family.

Citrix buys application provisioning company Ardence
Citrix Systems Inc. agreed to buy Ardence Inc., the developer of real-time provisioning technology, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition will extend Citrix's application delivery offering to include real-time, on demand provisioning of desktops, server images and service oriented architecture objects.


WINDOWS TIP

Deploying printers using Group Policy
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

Windows Vista includes Group Policy software by default, which means Windows Vista clients don't need any preparation before deploying printers to them. But you must make sure your Active Directory schema is upgraded to "R2" level before you can deploy printer connections to Vista machines using Group Policy.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
EBay's Chinese site to become JV ... Mozilla patches vulnerabilities ... Ericsson buys Redback for $2.1B


ITWHIRLED

YouTube Amateur
How do you play the drums and the piano if you don't actually, you know, know how to play the drums and piano? You videotape everything one note and drumbeat at a time and then splice it all together, of course. Bonus: Strange-looking Norwegian man in tights.

Worm spreading via Skype chat ... eBay to close China site

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Worm may be spreading via Skype chat
News: Tech lobby to renew visa reform push
Reports: eBay to close China site, Tom to take over
News: CD maker will pay Microsoft for counterfeit software
Opinion: RFID Chips: Not in my arm!
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: How to spend $250 on Christmas games


NEWS UPDATES

Worm may be spreading via Skype chat
Computer security analysts are studying reports of a worm that may be circulating via a feature in Skype Ltd.'s popular VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) service.

Tech lobby to renew visa reform push
As Democrats take over leadership of both houses of the U.S. Congress from Republicans, technology industry lobbyists will try again to push for worker visa reform.

Reports: eBay to close China site, Tom to take over
EBay Inc. will close its China site and begin a relationship with Tom Online Inc. to create a replacement, news reports indicated Tuesday.

CD maker will pay Microsoft for counterfeit software
A French CD duplicator has agreed to compensate Microsoft Corp. after producing discs with unauthorized copies of Microsoft software, the companies said Tuesday.

Falco memo confirms AOL senior exec departures
AOL LLC on Monday confirmed to its employees the rumored departure of several senior executives and announced a reshuffling of top-tier management duties in a memo penned by Randy Falco, the new chief executive officer.

Oracle software revenue shows signs of weakness in Q2
Oracle Corp. reported another strong financial quarter on Monday, posting $4.2 billion in revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2007, results that beat analysts estimates by 1 percent. However, there were signs in its software revenue results that the company's growth spurt on the strength of acquisitions of PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems could be coming to a halt.

Vista could sap notebook PC battery life
Notebook PC users who upgrade to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista may have to disable some of the new operating system's flashy graphics features to avoid seeing a decrease in battery life compared to Windows XP.

Opera updates browser with phishing filter
Opera Software ASA has added a filter that blocks phishing sites to its Web browser software, following the example set by rivals Microsoft Corp. and Mozilla Corp.

Trend Micro: Vista zero-day exploit for sale
An online criminal has offered to sell software that exploits an unpatched bug in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system, according to security vendor Trend Micro Inc.

Yahoo resumes Messenger upgrade prompts
Yahoo Inc. resumed promoting a Yahoo Messenger upgrade on Monday after fixing a bug in the program that altered users' e-mail preferences without their consent.

Myspace goes mobile with Cingular
MySpace went mobile in a big way on Monday, launching a service that lets Cingular Wireless LLC subscribers use many features of the social networking portal on their cell phones.


OPINION

RFID Chips: Not in my arm!
By Dan Blacharski

RFID technology is here to stay, and in its most benign form, brings a
lot of advantages. But there are two things to make clear: First,
despite industry claims to the contrary, RFID is not a secure
technology, and it should never be used to track anything sensitive.
Second, it should never be used on people, or in personal
identification of any type. But regrettably, our government is moving
away from being one which values the privacy of its citizenry, and
seems bound to push this technology into places where it has no
business being.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Hackers allegedly offer Vista exploit for sale ... Sharp ramps up production of blue diodes ... Linksys, not Apple, offers iPhone


ITWHIRLED

How to spend $250 on Christmas games
The average Brit spends £125 (about $250) on computer games at Christmas time. For some, that might seem like nothing; to others, a crazy amount of money. One Web site dares to show both sides how it's done.

Google, NASA plan 'major' announcement ... BSA, MPA, China copyright agency sign piracy agreement

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Google, NASA plan 'major' announcement Monday
News: BSA, MPA, China copyright agency sign piracy agreement
News: Three AOL senior executives to leave
News: HP tightens security in HP-UX
Opinion: Budget adjustments
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: The 10 best Internet acquisitions ever


NEWS UPDATES

Google, NASA plan 'major' announcement Monday
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Ames Research Center plans a "major announcement involving Google Inc." Monday at 11:00 a.m. PST, it said Friday in a statement.

BSA, MPA, China copyright agency sign piracy agreement
Industry groups for producers of copyright material, including the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Motion Picture Association (MPA), signed an agreement on Friday with the National Copyright Administration of China (NCAC) for protection against Internet piracy in China.

Three AOL senior executives to leave
A month after Jonathan Miller unexpectedly got fired as AOL LLC's chief executive officer, three of the senior executives who reported directly to him and who oversee key areas of AOL's business are on their way out, according to sources.

HP tightens security in HP-UX
HP is announcing Monday the availability of a free upgrade to HP-UX 11i v2 that automatically encrypts data as it is stored. HP has offered this capability before, but this upgrade puts the encryption capability right into the operating system (OS).

Reports: Sony to start video download service
Sony Corp. plans to launch an online video download service next year, according to reports in both the Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal newspapers.


OPINION

Budget adjustments
By James Gaskin

Whatever your final budget number for 2007, prepare to slice that
number. Continued weakness in the residential housing market
(construction spending was down for the seventh month in a row in
October), a slowdown in US manufacturing, and warnings about flat
retail sales from WalMart and others means your budget will probably
get cut next spring.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5042/daily_news_podcast/index.html
Intel should share documents in antitrust case, expert says ... Nintendo replaces Wii straps ... Worm hits Symantec antivirus products

More podcasts
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5042/


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
The 10 best Internet acquisitions ever ... 10 reasons companies fail to retain their best talent ... Ten greatest robberies of all time ... Ten amazing brain facts ... The 10 best horror movie deaths

Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal ... Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
News: Google updates Apps for Domain suite
News: Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
News: Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Opinion: AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not


NEWS UPDATES

Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
The planned merger of network infrastructure units at Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG won't close by the end of this year as expected because the companies will execute a compliance review of Siemens, spurred by the corruption investigation currently shaking the German technology company.

Google updates Apps for Domain suite
Google is extending its Google Apps for Your Domain hosted-applications suite with a service that walks companies through the selection and registration of a domain name. As part of the service, which costs $10 per year, Google will also link the components of the browser-based suite with the chosen domain.

Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
A stolen laptop at The Boeing Co. has pushed a widely watched tally of U.S. data breach victims past the 100 million mark. On Tuesday, Boeing disclosed that files containing Social Security numbers, names and home addresses of 382,000 current and former employees were compromised in early December when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee's car.

Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Microsoft Corp. Thursday released an update to Windows Vista that will shut down unauthorized versions of the OS that allow users to skip the product's activation system.

YouTube yet to answer Japan concerns as deadline looms
The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) has yet to receive a response from YouTube to complaints raised earlier this month regarding copyright infringement on the popular online video site. In the letter they asked for a reply no later than Dec. 15.

Yahoo to buy Taiwan blog site Wretch
Yahoo Taiwan Inc. agreed to buy popular blog site Wretch.cc in a deal the companies expect to push them into the Web 2.0 era in Taiwan.

Wall Street Beat: IT heavyweights look ahead
Heading toward the end of a better-than-expected year for IT, the good news this week was that there were no big surprises when Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. laid out strategies at investor and analyst conferences.

IE7's phishing filter gets speed boost
Microsoft Corp. has released a patch for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that will boost the brand-new browser's performance on some Web sites.


OPINION

AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
By Sean McGrath

The IT industry - always a seething den of buzzword bingo - appears to
be in complete overdrive at the moment. Based on a back-of-an-envelope
calculation, I believe I have had to internalize an average of 1.5 new
buzzwords every working day this week.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates ... Skype to start charging for calls in the US ... Grameen outsources development of open-source software


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not
Kawaii Not bills itself as "the webcomic for cute gone bad," and that's a pretty accurate assessment. The comic is done in the style of the adorable Sanrio characters from Japan, but with a slightly twisted twist, whether it's mistletoe berries that announce their voyeuristic glee or an adorable hammer that declares that it's "coming for your toes."

Google searches patent database ... Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Google now searches U.S. patent database
News: Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets
News: Skype to start charging U.S., Canada users for calls
News: HP and Microsoft challenge IBM with new deal
Tip: Litigation holds require a formal data retention strategy
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Latest advertising technology hits snag


NEWS UPDATES

Google now searches US patent database
If you've ever dreamed up an ingenious new invention and then wondered if someone else has already made it, Google Inc.'s new patent search offering is for you. The new site lets anyone search for U.S. patents by keyword, patent number, inventor and filing date. Users can view a scanned image of the original patent and zoom in on pages.

Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets
Sony Corp. is confident it will hit shipment targets for its recently launched PlayStation 3 game console, its president said Thursday. Prior to the launch of the PS3 in November, Sony said it would ship 2 million consoles this year in Japan and the U.S. and 6 million by the end of its financial year in March 2007.

Skype to start charging U.S., Canada users for calls
Internet phone service provider Skype Ltd. plans to start charging U.S. and Canadian users $29.95 per year for unlimited calls to regular phones in both countries, as the end of a free trial offer looms.

HP and Microsoft challenge IBM with new deal
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is strengthening ties to Microsoft Corp. to provide a broadened portfolio of business software products to the enterprise market while delivering a competitive blow to rival IBM Corp.

Ingres goes with Infor as first ERP partner
Open-source database vendor Ingres Corp. Wednesday named Infor Global Solutions as its first ERP (enterprise resource planning) partner since Ingres spun off from CA Inc. over a year ago.

Third Word exploit released
Hackers have released attack code that exploits a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Word software -- the third such bug to be disclosed in the past week.

Grameen outsources open-source development to India
The Grameen Foundation has outsourced to Aditi Technologies Pvt. Ltd. the development of open-source software to meet the automation needs of microfinance agencies worldwide.

Symantec launches $15M piracy suit
Symantec Corp. last month filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking more than $15 million in damages from a network of U.S. and Canadian businesses that are alleged to have sold counterfeit versions of Symantec's products, including Norton AntiVirus, pcAnywhere and Veritas Backup Exec.

Congress wants HP's Hurd to explain stock sale
Two U.S. Congressmen have asked HP CEO Mark Hurd to explain why he sold $1.37 million worth of HP stock just before the company's spying scandal became public.


TIP
Litigation holds require a formal data retention strategy
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

The new changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) will have considerable impact on IT in general and storage administration in particular. Litigation holds are likely to be an especially thorny issue. A litigation hold means that you are required to preserve data that may be the target of a lawsuit against your company so that you can make the necessary information (e-discovery) available if required. But a huge gap exists between your legal department asking you to put a litigation hold on data and your ability to actually do so. And that is your challenge.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
HP, Microsoft team up against IBM ... Google in talks to buy South Korean software company's U.S. subsidiary ... Symantec sues alleged software pirates


ITWHIRLED

Latest advertising technology hits snag
CBS Outdoor was ready to unleash a whole new experience on the staid world of advertising: "Got Milk?" ads in San Francisco bus shelters that emitted the odor of delicious freshly baked cookies. But the city's lawmakers pulled the plug on the campaign after only a day, worried about potential allergic reactions.

IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool ... HP, Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal

HIGHLIGHTS

News: IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool
News: HP and Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal
News: Google allows employees to auction off stock options
News: Microsoft offers software for building robots
Unix Tip: Adding lines to the ends of files
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Space Shuttle not ready for 'Auld Lang Syne'


NEWS UPDATES

IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool
IBM Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have developed a free, entry-level, enterprise search application that at least one analyst believes will seriously disrupt the low-end segment of this market where Google Inc. has been selling many of its Mini search devices.

HP and Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. will enter into a new enterprise software agreement to be detailed Wednesday.

Google allows employees to auction off stock options
Google Inc. will allow some employees to auction off their vested stock options to institutional investors, enabling workers to potentially reap greater profits from their options, the company said Wednesday.

Microsoft offers software for building robots
Microsoft Corp. released the commercial version of its software for robots on Wednesday, hoping to shape the market much as it did for PC software a few decades ago.

Skype releases beta for Windows Mobile smart phones
Skype Ltd. released the beta version of Skype 2.2, a software client that allows Windows Mobile smart phones to access the company's VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service over Wi-Fi connections.

Intel moves Spring IDF to Beijing, drops U.S. conference
Intel Corp.'s annual Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference will not be held in the U.S. next year, a company official confirmed Wednesday. Instead, the world's largest chip maker is moving the event to Beijing.

'Rock Phish' blamed for surge in phishing
Rock Phish has grown to be one of the most prominent phishing groups in operation. It has developed a variety of new attack techniques that have earned the group a kind of grudging respect among security professionals, who estimate that the criminal organization's phishing schemes have cost banks more than $100 million to date.

Cisco focuses on video, innovation teams
Cisco Systems Inc. executives looked to video, the developing world, and still-emerging technologies as they kicked off the company's C-Scape analyst conference Tuesday.

EBay Express disappoints merchants
Merchants complain that eBay Express doesn't attract sufficient shoppers and generates an inconsequential volume of sales, although eBay Inc. says it is satisfied and remains committed to the site.

Microsoft fixes IE, Windows Media Player flaws
Microsoft Corp. has rolled out its monthly security updates for December, patching critical flaws in Internet Explorer, Windows Media Format and the Visual Studio 2005 development software.


UNIX TIP

Adding lines to the ends of files
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

Let's look at a quick, clever way to add lines to the ends of files on a Unix system. This little Unix trick can be very useful if you are distributing installation directions to customers and want to limit the possible mistakes that they can make in updating important system files. The basis of this trick is the Unix here document -- a special form of I/O redirection that allows you to insert the content to be added between the redirect command and a special marker that is recognized as the end marker for the inserted text.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft, HP to announce enterprise partnership ... Investigation of LCD industry widens ... Microsoft releases new security updates


ITWHIRLED

Space Shuttle not ready for 'Auld Lang Syne'
As if NASA engineers didn't have enough safety problems to worry about with the aging shuttle fleet, a potential late December mission has them fretting about how the spacecraft's 1970s-era computers will -- or, more likely, won't -- deal with the rollover from one year to the next.

Regulatory probe of LCD market widens ... Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Regulatory probe of LCD market widens
News: Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision
News: Fujitsu claims first 300GB SATA 2.5-inch drive
News: New HP software shows fruits of Mercury acquisition
Tip: Listen to your users, multi-select files in Explorer
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Ten servers that changed the world


NEWS UPDATES

Regulatory probe of LCD market widens
An investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior in the flat-panel display market widened Tuesday, with four more big vendors saying they had been contacted by investigators.

Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision
Salesforce.com Inc. plans to turn its AppExchange Web site into a fully functioning online marketplace for hosted software.

Fujitsu claims first 300GB SATA 2.5-inch drive
Fujitsu Ltd. has developed a hard-disk drive suitable for use in laptop PCs and video recorders with a capacity of 300G bytes, the largest in its class, the company said Tuesday.

New HP software shows fruits of Mercury acquisition
Software announcements from HP Tuesday show how the acquisition this year of Mercury Interactive Corp. may be paying off. The company is introducing a business technology optimization (BTO) software portfolio that brings together Mercury's applications management software with HP's systems and network management software marketed under its Open View software family.

Microsoft releases beta of unified communications hub
Microsoft Corp.'s goal to provide a unified communications infrastructure for the enterprise moved forward Tuesday with the release of a private beta of software it sees as its communications hub.

Intel speeds up introduction of new quad-core chip
Intel Corp. says it has rushed introduction of a new quad-core chip originally scheduled for next year to Monday to meet demand from server manufacturers for the processor.

HP buys data management services company
Hewlett-Packard Co. has agreed to acquire IT services company Knightsbridge Solutions Holding Corp. for an undisclosed sum

Napster Mobile coming soon to Europe
Napster Inc. will launch its first mobile download service for Europe in Ireland later this month on Telefónica SA's O2 Ireland network

U.S. trade commission says Qualcomm violated patent
The U.S. International Trade Commission said that Qualcomm Inc. is infringing on one of Broadcom Corp.'s patents, dealing a blow to Qualcomm in an ongoing patent battle between the companies.

IDC: Americans are cool to mobile data services
U.S. cell-phone users are staying away from mobile data services in droves, according to research company IDC. Almost three-quarters of respondents in an IDC online survey didn't use any data service other than text-messaging in the third quarter of this year.


TIP

Listen to your users, multi-select files in Explorer
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

I was manning the Ask The Experts booth at a 2007 Microsoft Launch
event the other day when I heard an interesting story from another
Microsoft MVP. He told me that his wife was really excited about a new
feature in Windows Vista that made it a lot easier for her to work on
her computer.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Europe gives approval for UWB ... Intel moves up release of quad-core chip ... African users embrace mobile Internet


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Ten servers that changed the world ... Ten best things to say if caught sleeping at your desk ... Ten things you shouldn't buy new ... Top ten most common phobias ... Top ten women of gaming

Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100 ... Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100
News: New type of memory chip may replace flash, HDD
News: Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead
News: Project checks Java code for security bugs
Opinion: Bring out the tinfoil hats
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Coding horror: Stop developer-designed UIs now


NEWS UPDATES

Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100
When the Nasdaq stock market opens next Monday, Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies Ltd. will become the first Indian company to be included in its prestigious list of top-100 companies.

New type of memory chip may replace flash, HDD
Flash memory and hard-disk drives could face a challenge from a new chip technology, dubbed phase-change memory, being developed by a group of companies led by IBM Corp.

Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead
Virtual Iron Inc. and XenSource Inc. both are introducing new virtualization software to undercut on price the dominant player in the field, VMware Inc.

Project checks Java code for security bugs
Fortify Software Inc. and the FindBugs project have launched a free service that will scan open-source Java software for bugs in the code.

Sun goes multilingual with Java SE 6
Over two years in the making, Sun Microsystems Inc. is due to release the latest version of its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software Monday, placing particular emphasis on the application development platform's support for other scripting languages.

Vista to benefit partners more than Microsoft
A new IDC report on the impact of Windows Vista on the industry claims Microsoft Corp.'s business partners stand to benefit more financially from the OS than Microsoft itself will in 2007.

Fujitsu Siemens offers SAN bundle for small businesses
Following a similar move by Hewlett-Packard Co., Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH plans to announce a packaged storage area network (SAN) product on Thursday aimed at small and medium-size businesses.

LG.Philips subpoenaed in LCD competition probe
First it was chips, now it's LCDs (liquid crystal displays). Authorities around the globe are investigating possible anticompetitive conduct in the LCD industry, according to activity at LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. offices.

Mozilla ships developer release of Firefox 3.0
Mozilla Corp. has hit an early milestone on the road to the next version of its open-source browser, but the final product is still a year away, developers say.


OPINION

Bring out the tinfoil hats
By Dan Blacharski

Many schools and college campuses have been using WiFi technology to allow students to have broader and easier access to the Internet. The technology seems to be everywhere. Airports are giving travelers access, and you can even get it at coffeehouses, so you can log on and check your email while you're swilling down your morning coffee. Hospitals are taking advantage of the technology to permit caregivers to have access to computerized patient records at each bedside. I have to admit, my ancient Windows 95 laptop doesn't have WiFi, but I can see the attraction.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Hackers circumvent Vista's anti-piracy safeguard ... Oracle raises bid for Indian software company ... Intel remains World's largest chip maker

More podcasts
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5042/


ITWHIRLED

Coding horror: Stop developer-designed UIs now
One of the commonly cited problems with open source software is that it tends to be built to the tastes of developers, not the public at large. To see why that might be a concern, check out the horror show that is the wGetGUI.

Pirates work around Vista's activation feature ... HP settles civil lawsuit over spying

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Security hole found in Windows Media Player
News: Oracle increases i-Flex offer
News: Pirates work around Vista's activation feature
News: HP settles civil lawsuit over spying
Opinion: Two radically different approaches to enterprise application software
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Geek Comic of the Week: Webcomic Crossover & Cameo Archive


NEWS UPDATES

Security hole found in Windows Media Player
Users are being advised to disable a certain type of file in Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Media Player software following the discovery of a new security hole in the software.

Oracle increases i-Flex offer
Oracle Corp. has increased the price it is willing to pay for an additional stake in i-flex solutions Ltd., a vendor of financial software in Mumbai, India.

Pirates work around Vista's activation feature
Hackers are distributing a file that they say lets users of the corporate version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista operating system get around the software's anti-piracy mechanisms.

HP settles civil lawsuit over spying
HP has agreed to a $14.5 million settlement in the California civil lawsuit related to the company's spying scandal. Under terms of the settlement with the California attorney general, HP will pay $13.5 million to create a "Privacy and Piracy Fund" for law enforcement activities related to privacy and intellectual property rights operated in the state Attorney General's Office.

Microsoft readies Windows, Visual Studio security fixes
Microsoft Corp. plans to patch its Windows and Visual Studio products next week, but it does not have a fix in the works for a widely publicized flaw in Word, which hackers are reportedly exploiting in targeted attacks.

Microsoft's Office Open XML format becomes a standard
ECMA's General Assembly voted by 20-1 in favor of Microsoft's Office Open XML document format at a meeting in Zurich on Thursday afternoon, and will now submit the format to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for its approval. The vote against came from a representative of IBM Corp.

IBM accuses mainframe company of patent infringement
IBM Corp. says a Sunnyvale, California, company has infringed its patents by creating computers that allow customers to run IBM's System z operating systems and software on mainframes from other vendors.

MySQL, Open-Xchange announce partnership
Open-source players MySQL AB and Open-Xchange Inc. announced a partnership and support agreement Thursday to optimize the interaction between MySQL databases and Open-Xchange groupware functions. Open-Xchange customers won't have to pay extra for product support for MySQL, they said.

Microsoft: 1 million Zune sales by June 2007
Microsoft Corp. has predicted it will sell 1 million Zune devices in its first six months, a figure that would be more than Zune's chief rival iPod sold in its first 14 months but a relatively slow start for the much-hyped MP3 device.

FTC launches program for victims of ChoicePoint breach
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun mailing claim forms to more than 1,400 identity theft victims who spent money to clear up identity-theft problems due to a security breach at data broker ChoicePoint Inc. announced in early 2005.


OPINION

Two radically different approaches to enterprise application software
By Sean McGrath

Nothing stays still for long in this business. Every day (or so it
seems) there is some new technological innovation that changes the
business environment. Competitive forces move and shape-shift all the
time. To keep up, you develop/deploy your own technologies that in
turn may change the business environment in which you operate. Around
and around the cycles of change we go...


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
HP will pay $14.5 million to resolve a civil suit in its spying scandal ... Microsoft confirmed a new security flaw in Windows Media Player ... Oracle increased its bid for i-flex solutions


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Webcomic Crossover & Cameo Archive
Do you ever get the feeling that Web comics are one big running in-joke? Check out this exhaustive list of crossovers and cameos between different Web comics characters and artists.

Google to host e-mail, build portal for BSkyB ... Nintendo investigates flying Wii controllers

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Google to host e-mail, build portal for BSkyB
News: Orange lets mobile users access PC content
News: Nintendo investigates flying Wii controllers
News: Police raid IBM's Moscow office
Opinion: The virtual taxman
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: The iPhone already arrived -- in 1995!


NEWS UPDATES

Google to host e-mail, build portal for BSkyB
Broadcaster and Internet service provider British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSkyB) has asked Google Inc. to host e-mail and other services for its broadband customers in the U.K. Their collaboration could also lead to the creation of targeted TV ads.

Orange lets mobile users access PC content
France Télécom SA, the parent company of mobile phone operator Orange, is offering a service that lets mobile phone users access videos, music and other content from their PCs.

Nintendo investigates flying Wii controllers
Nintendo Co. Ltd. is taking a close look at the wrist-strap on the controller for its Wii console after several reports on the Internet about straps breaking, causing the controller to fly out of the hands of users, its president said Thursday.

Police raid IBM's Moscow office
Speaking Thursday, IBM spokesman Jonathan Batty confirmed that the raid had taken place. However, he wouldn't say if the authorities seized documents or computer equipment.

Elpida, Powerchip to invest $13.9B in DRAM venture
Japanese memory chip maker Elpida Memory Inc. and Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. have announced a broad plan to invest US$13.9 billion over five years to build four new DRAM factories in Taiwan.

Access charges Palm $44 million for Palm OS license
Access Co. Ltd., the Japanese company that purchased PalmSource Inc. last year, has sold a perpetual license for the Palm OS to PDA-maker Palm Inc. for US$44 million, the companies said Wednesday.

Microsoft's 'Blue Dragon' debuts for Xbox 360
"Blue Dragon," one of two eagerly awaited role-playing games for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 games console, made its worldwide debut in Japan on Thursday.

YouTube 'reviewing' Japanese protest
Google Inc.'s YouTube is "reviewing" a letter sent to it on Monday by the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) and 22 others, calling on the operator of the popular Web site to do more to prevent users uploading copyrighted content.

Former telecom firm owner indicted on E-Rate fraud
The former president and owner of ATE Tel Solutions Inc. has been indicted and charged with defrauding a U.S. government program intended to help schools and libraries in poor areas connect to the Internet.


OPINION

The virtual taxman
By Dan Blacharski

I don't play online games, but a lot of people enjoy them. There are
virtual communities, entire virtual lives, filled with people who have
virtual jobs and even make virtual money. I can't imagine what it
would be like to have a virtual life—the real thing is hard enough—but
I suppose it could have advantages. Wouldn't it be great if, in real
life, when you screwed up something, you could just reboot and start
over? No such luck. But one real-life government agency wants in on
the virtual action, and it seems that a virtual taxman is going to be
taking a cut.

Read the full article here.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Nintendo investigated flying Wii controllers ... Elpida and Powerchip Semi invest $14 billion in DRAM plants ... NTT Docomo and Mitsubishi to replace 1.3 million batteries


ITWHIRLED

The iPhone already arrived -- in 1995!
Apple mobile phones and tablet computers are like the Loch Ness Monster to the Mac rumors community -- often whispered about, never seen in stores. But both of these products, and some even odder ones (like the "Wizzy Active Lifestyle Telephone") were produced by Apple in prototype form more than a decade ago.

ATI loses ground after AMD purchase ... Yahoo reorganizes, COO to leave

HIGHLIGHTS

News: ATI loses ground in graphics after AMD purchase
News: Wii sold estimated 372,000 units at launch in Japan
News: Yahoo reorganizes into three groups, COO to leave
News: Microsoft warns of new Word attack
Tip: Sharing DVD drives
GottaGadget: What's your biggest gadget secret?
ITwhirled: Star Wars Kid gets more downloads than Paris Hilton


NEWS UPDATES

ATI loses ground in graphics after AMD purchase
ATI Technologies Inc. lost ground in every major graphics product category during the third quarter, and its acquisition by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is likely to blame, according to Jon Peddie Research.

Wii sold estimated 372,000 units at launch in Japan
Sales of Nintendo Co. Ltd.'s Wii games console hit 372,000 units over its first two days on the market, according to figures from Enterbrain Inc.

Yahoo reorganizes into three groups, COO to leave
Yahoo Inc. will reorganize into three new units, as part of a shake-up that will see Chief Operating Officer Dan Rosensweig leave the company, Yahoo said Tuesday.

Microsoft warns of new Word attack
Microsoft Corp. warned Tuesday of a new, unpatched memory corruption error in its word-processing software, and said that it was investigating reports of "limited" attacks that exploit the problem.

Dell, Microsoft collaborate on storage tech
Dell Inc. and Microsoft Corp. rolled out a new storage system on Wednesday for file and application data that integrates hardware and software from both vendors. The system pairs Dell's PowerVault NX1950, a serial-attached SCSI (SAS) back-end storage array that can use up to 45 drives, with Windows Unified Data Storage Server 2003, a file server and package of management tools.

Sametime links up with AIM, Google Talk
IBM Corp.'s Sametime has gained interoperability with public instant messaging networks from AOL LLC and Google Inc., and will interoperate with the one from Yahoo Inc. in a matter of weeks.

2006: The year in PCs and chips
Vendors in the PC and chip industries moved boldly in 2006, changing the marketplace map through mergers, recalls, layoffs and lawsuits. Oh, and they launched some impressive new products too, keeping Moore's Law moving as they built smaller, faster chips and cooler, more efficient computers. Here, in chronological order, we share a sampling of the biggest events of the past 12 months.


TIP

Sharing DVD drives
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

While only the newer Sun systems and higher-end PCs today are equipped
with DVD drives, application software is beginning to arrive on DVDs
because of the tremendous increase in storage capacity. Your typical
CD holds about 700 MB of data. That was a lot of data when system
disks were only a couple of gigabytes in size. DVDs, on the other
hand, may hold 4.3 or 4.7 GB -- and that's just a starting point. If
the multi-layer storage capacity of DVDs is ever fully employed, DVDs
will hold nearly 16 GB of data. With less overhead for data integrity
and more area, it's no wonder that Solaris is being shipped on DVDs
only.

So what do you do if you need to install software that is only
available on a DVD on a system which has only a CD drive? One answer
is to mount and share the DVD from a system with a DVD reader. Since
I had to do that just last week, I'll run through the steps in today's
column.


GOTTA GADGET

What's your biggest gadget secret?
Do you play games on your PDA during boring meetings? Do you have a separate account for gadget purchases that your spouse doesn't know about? Do you use your gadget in an unexpected way?

Share a secret, and enter our drawing to win an Apple iPod (with video capability).


ITWHIRLED

Star Wars Kid gets more downloads than Paris Hilton
Viral Factory, a British firm, declared the famous video of Ghyslain Raza, the Canadian teenager who swung a golf ball retriever around like a light saber, is the most commonly shared Internet video in history, with over 900 million views -- more than twice as many as Paris Hilton's infamous sex video. A decades-old film of an whale being dynamited on an Oregon beach, which was a meme from the early days of the Internet, also made the top ten.

MySpace tries to root out sex offenders ... AMD shrinks desktop chips

HIGHLIGHTS
News: MySpace tries to root out sex offenders
News: Japanese rights holders send protest to YouTube
News: AMD shrinks desktop chips to 65-nm design
News: Toshiba develops 100GB 1.8-inch HDD
News: NEC launches tough laptop PC
Storage Tip: New e-discovery rules mean no more business as usual
ITwhirled: Google code search reveals hidden comment gems


NEWS UPDATES

MySpace tries to root out sex offenders
Stepping up efforts to keep sex offenders off MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to build a U.S. national sex offender database and dedicate staff to checking the database against MySpace profiles.

Japanese rights holders send protest to YouTube
A broad group of companies and associations covering most of the Japanese entertainment industry is calling on YouTube Inc. to be more proactive in policing its Web site for copyrighted material.

AMD shrinks desktop chips to 65-nm design
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) began selling its top chip for desktop PCs made with a 65-nanometer design on Tuesday, continuing its efforts to keep up with Intel Corp. as the industry migrates from 90-nm design to a faster, more efficient generation of processors.

Toshiba develops 100GB 1.8-inch HDD
Higher capacity music players and laptop computers could be on the way thanks to a new hard-disk drive from Toshiba Corp. that manages a 25 percent jump in storage space over current models.

NEC launches tough laptop PC
NEC Corp. launched its latest laptop PC on Tuesday with a splash. A bottle of water was poured over the computer while it was operating to demonstrate its toughness to harsh environmental conditions.

FCC chief pushes AT&T-BellSouth vote
Kevin Martin, chairman of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is trying to get the ball rolling toward a decision on AT&T Inc.'s proposed acquisition of BellSouth Corp.

OSDL refocuses efforts, loses CEO
Open Source Development Labs Inc., the nonprofit Linux development consortium, has laid off just under a third of its staff, with employee numbers in the U.S. and Asia falling from 28 to 19, along with the resignation of Stuart Cohen, the lab's high-profile chief executive officer.

SAP delivers first mySAP 2005 enhancements
SAP AG has delivered the first in a planned series of regular enhancements to the current version of its ERP (enterprise resource planning) software, as the vendor embarks on a new way to deliver ERP applications.

Novell to support Open XML in office suite in January
Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. have wasted little time in demonstrating there is real work being done as part of their recent Linux interoperability pact. Just a month after the historic deal between the companies, Novell said Monday it will support the proprietary document format in Microsoft Office 2007, Open XML, in its open-source version of the OpenOffice productivity suite by the end of January.

MySpace worm uses QuickTime for exploit
The social networking site MySpace.com is under what one computer security analyst calls an "amazingly virulent" attack caused by a worm that steals log-in credentials and spreads spam that promotes adware sites.


STORAGE TIP

New e-discovery rules mean no more business as usual
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

You may not have heard of the changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), but complying with them will have a significant impact on data and storage management. Why is this important? The FRCP rules govern discovery in civil litigation. Discovery means that you must provide legitimately requested company information to those who sue your company. FRCP Rule 26(a) clearly defines electronically stored information as discoverable.


ITWHIRLED

Google code search reveals hidden comment gems
Maybe you'll think twice next time about how you comment your code when you realize that it might end up on Google's code search. A Google open source specialist has found multiple instances of such gems as "you are not expected to understand this," "this shouldn't work," "your mother," and, of course, "windows sucks."

Dell unveils energy-efficient servers ... Qualcomm buys wireless chip companies

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Dell claims new servers save on electric bill
News: Sun enhances mobile delivery platform
News: Ask.com to revamp local search
News: Microsoft supports developers of mobile mashups
Interview: Beyond skill: Building a career in IT
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: 10 Products that set new standards of innovation


NEWS UPDATES

Dell claims new servers save on electric bill
Computer maker Dell Inc.'s solution to the data center energy crisis is to market more energy-efficient versions of its PowerEdge line of servers. The model 1950 and 2950 servers deliver a 25 percent improvement in performance per watt compared to the standard 1950 and 2950, the company claims.

Sun enhances mobile delivery platform
Sun Microsystems is today announcing enhancements to its Sun Java System Content Delivery Server (CDS) at the International Telecommunication Union's Telecom World show in Hong Kong. CDS provides a common infrastructure for delivering all types of content, including Java applications, games, ringtones and wallpaper.

Ask.com to revamp local search
IAC/InterActiveCorp's Ask.com has revamped and renamed its local search service, becoming the latest search engine provider to improve its offering in what is considered one of the most popular search segments for both advertisers and end users.

Microsoft supports developers of mobile mashups
Microsoft Corp. Monday took the wraps off a new service, called Connected Services Sandbox, that offers developers tools and support needed to produce Web-based applications for mobile phones that combine APIs (application programming interfaces) from different sources with telecommunication services.

Qualcomm buys WLAN and Bluetooth technologies
Qualcomm Inc. is making two acquisitions of Bluetooth and WLAN (wireless LAN) chip technologies, allowing it to further the integration of wireless networking capabilities in mobile phones.

IAnywhere beefs up RFID software
IAnywhere Solutions Inc. is adding location tracking capabilities and support for a wider range of sensor technologies in RFID Anywhere 3.0, the latest version of its sensor management software announced on Monday.


INTERVIEW

Beyond skill: Building a career in IT
The IT market and IT technology are constantly evolving, a characteristic that Steve Bjorg, Co-founder, President and CTO of MindTouch believes keeps a career in IT exciting. In this interview, Bjorg discusses the essential elements of a great career in IT.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Qualcomm buys wireless chip companies ... Microsoft mobile phone developer service ... Dell unveils energy-efficient servers ... Ask.com updates local search service


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
10 Products that set new standards of innovation ... Tiny Lisp course - Lisp in 10 bullets ... The 10 commandments of blogging ... 10 Steps you can take to guarantee failure ... 10 Useful free Windows programs

AMD receives DOJ subpoena ... PlayStation 3 sales drop sharply

HIGHLIGHTS
News: AMD receives DOJ subpoena over graphics processing
News: Business Objects acquires SaaS firm Nsite
News: Storage spending jumps 10 percent in the third quarter
News: PlayStation 3 sales drop sharply on low supply
Opinion: All good things come to those who wait, even Vista and Office 2007
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Most delicious beta test ever


NEWS UPDATES

AMD receives DOJ subpoena over graphics processing
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has subpoenaed Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) as part of an antitrust investigation into the market for graphics processors and graphics cards, AMD said Thursday.

Business Objects acquires SaaS firm Nsite
Business Objects SA will acquire Nsite Software Inc., which develops a software-as-a-service delivery platform, in a move to offer more of its own products over the Internet, the companies announced.

Storage spending jumps 10 percent in the third quarter
Worldwide revenue for external disk storage systems rose to $4.3 billion in the third quarter of 2006, a 9.9 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to the research firm IDC.

PlayStation 3 sales drop sharply on low supply
Sales of the PlayStation 3 console during its first full week of availability in Japan were sharply lower than those during the two days immediately following its launch, according to estimates published this week.

Gates Foundation expands digital divide initiative
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Thursday announced a new, US$328 million plan to provide computer and Internet services through public libraries in developing nations.

Alcatel-Lucent deal closes
Alcatel-Lucent, a global communications giant with combined annual revenue of more than €18 billion ($24 billion), will debut Friday after a sometimes rocky engagement between Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc.


OPINION

All good things come to those who wait, even Vista and Office 2007
By Joel Shore, ITworld

With Windows Vista and Office 2007 now released, what are your customers' expectations, and are you moving to lower them?

One thing we've learned over the years is that businesses are slow to upgrade client operating systems and applications. That happens for a variety of reasons: the software is unproven and risky, acquisition and deployment costs are prohibitive, training dazed and confused end-users is an enormous undertaking, help desk personnel lack intimate familiarity and expertise, or maybe new versions simply aren't needed.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft launches Vista ... Ken Kutaragi steps aside at SCEI ... AMD readies quad-core Opteron chip


ITWHIRLED

Most delicious beta test ever
Yes, you can participate in the beta testing of some innovative new chip designs -- even if you have no background in electrical engineering! That's because the "chips" in question are deep-fried potato slices dusted with a number of intriguing flavors. Web 2.0 comes to the snack aisle!