Yahoo-MSN IM interoperability delayed ... IBM faces fewer claims in SCO suit

Today's IT news audio update
Taiwan invests $3.1 billion in Web 2.0 ... Judge denies some claims in SCO case against IBM .... U.K. domain body calls truce with ICANN


HIGHLIGHTS

News: Yahoo-MSN IM interoperability behind schedule
News: ICANN settles feud with country-code TLD operator
News: BenQ Mobile to lay off 10 percent of workforce
News: IBM faces fewer claims in SCO lawsuit
Opinion: Killing Idle Logins
ITwhirled: 2+2=5


NEWS UPDATES

Yahoo-MSN IM interoperability behind schedule
Yahoo and Microsoft Corp. said late last year that they would launch a service in the second quarter of this year that would allow their customers to send and receive messages and share buddy lists between the two instant messaging (IM) networks. With the second quarter come and gone, representatives from both companies say the interoperable service will launch globally "very soon."

ICANN settles feud with country-code TLD operator
The company that manages the U.K.'s top-level domain has struck a truce with the U.S.-based organization responsible for overseeing Internet domain names, cooling ongoing disagreements over administrative control of the Internet.

BenQ Mobile to lay off 10 percent of workforce
BenQ Mobile plans to lay off up to 10 percent of its German workforce as part of a restructuring plan meant to return the handset maker to profitability.

IBM faces fewer claims in SCO lawsuit
A U.S. judge has tossed out almost 200 of The SCO Group Inc.'s claims of intellectual property violation against IBM Corp. on the grounds that SCO didn't identify the alleged infringements in enough detail.

Google tries to have page-ranking suit dismissed
Google Inc. can use any criteria it wishes to rank Web sites, including downgrading competitors, a lawyer for the search giant told a federal judge Friday.


OPINION

Killing Idle Logins
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

It is not at all unusual for systems administrators to get a little antsy when users' login sessions sit idle for hours or days. Not only can login session consume resources, tie up software licenses and prevent file systems from being unmounted but, since we generally can't see what is going on at the user end of these sessions, we don't know whether these users could provide opportunities for unauthorized individuals to execute commands and access data under the guise of authorized users. A user who leaves for lunch without logging out or securing his login sessions by locking his screen, for example, might be giving someone else a chance to run commands using his account.

Read the full article here