Toshiba, Memory-Tech develop 3-layer DVD, HD DVD disc ... No decision at Sunday HP board meeting

Today's IT News Audio Update
HP board doesn't reach decision at Sunday meeting ... Software pirate sentenced to 87 months in prison ... NEC in talks to sell Packard Bell PC division


HIGHLIGHTS
News: Prototype 3-layer DVD, HD DVD disc developed
News: Storage software market grows without EMC, says IDC
News: No decision at Sunday HP board meeting
News: E.U. expands Intel probe
Feature: Skype slips into business
Windows Tip: Remotely changing the default script host
ITwhirled: What hath Wiki wrought?


NEWS UPDATES

Prototype 3-layer DVD, HD DVD disc developed
A three-layer optical disc developed by Toshiba Corp. and Memory-Tech Corp. can be read by both DVD and HD DVD players, making it possible for movie companies to package both a standard definition and high-definition version of the same movie on a single disc.

Storage software market grows without EMC, says IDC
EMC Corp. and Symantec Corp. missed out on a boom in storage software sales in the second quarter, according to research by IDC. While the worldwide market for storage software grew 8.6 percent from a year earlier, to $2.5 billion, revenue from storage software dropped 3.2 percent at EMC and slipped 1.8 percent at Symantec Corp.

No decision at Sunday HP board meeting
Hewlett-Packard Co.'s board of directors took no action at a special Sunday meeting and will reconvene late Monday to continue discussions about the scandal that has occupied the company over the past week.

E.U. expands Intel probe
The European Commission has expanded an ongoing antitrust probe of computer chip maker Intel Corp. to examine claims that the company has been pressuring the Continent's largest computer retail chain not to sell computers containing chips made by archrival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd confirmed Monday.

WebMethods makes Infravio its second recent SOA buy
Business integration suite vendor WebMethods Inc. is on the acquisition trail again, this time looking to pick up expertise in SOA (service-oriented architecture) governance through the planned purchase of Infravio Inc.

E.U. and U.S. still haggling over passenger data sharing
European and U.S. security officials were locked in talks in Brussels Monday to replace a passenger data sharing agreement that was outlawed by a European court in May.

Record number of phishing sites seen for July
Cybercriminals created a record number of phishing Web sites in July and also hijacked a record number of brands to help them do their work, a consortium that monitors online fraud said Monday.

NEC selling off Packard Bell
NEC Corp. executives are negotiating the sale of the company's Packard Bell division, reportedly to eMachines founder Lap Shun "John" Hui. The move would leave NEC without a consumer PC brand, while it continues to supply the European professional market with NEC-branded computers.


FEATURE

Skype slips into business
Two years ago, Mark Ehr and a few co-workers began using Skype Ltd. to communicate between Proxima Technology's Denver headquarters and its offices in Sydney, Australia, and Windsor, England. Soon, top executives began using Skype for internal calls. "That set the tone for the rest of the company," Ehr says, and today Skype is the primary means of making intracompany calls at Proxima. Skype has also allowed Proxima to put off a planned migration to an internal VOIP telephony system.


TIP

Remotely changing the default script host
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

By default, Windows computers have Wscript.exe configured as their default script host instead of Cscript. The difference between these two script hosts is mainly evident when your script generates some kind of output. For example, if Wscript.exe is your default host, then your script output is windowed and is displayed as a series of popup dialog boxes. But if Cscript.exe is your default host, then your script output is displayed within the command prompt window in which your script is running.

Now if you are an enterprise admin who has started developing your logon scripts using VBScript (.vbs files) instead of the old batch language (.bat files) you must pay attention to this matter of which default script host is configured on your users' computers. For example, say you write the following simple logon script that maps a drive....

Read the full article here


ITWHIRLED

What hath Wiki wrought?
When Jimbo Wales founded Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit, he probably never imagined this: rival Milwaukee-based ferry services vandalizing each others Wikipedia entries in an attempt to woo customers.