US Commerce Department reports loss of 1,137 laptops... Outlook vulnerable to critical VML bug ... Red Flag Linux may be next on IBM's agenda

HP CEO Hurd to brief reporters on spying scandal ... Germany to make hacking a crime ... Samsung executive pleads guilty to fixing DRAM price


HIGHLIGHTS

News: US Commerce Department reports loss of 1,137 laptops
News: Outlook vulnerable to critical VML bug
News: Red Flag Linux may be next on IBM's agenda
News: Jailed Chinese journalist to sue Yahoo
News: AOL cuts deal to sell AOL France
News: Yahoo promotes Flash, Ruby mashups
News: Wall Street beat: Software looking good
Interview: As BI matures, companies should too
Opinion: Stay tuned. We will be right back after these.


NEWS UPDATES

US Commerce Department reports loss of 1,137 laptops
The U.S. Commerce Department reported that 1,137 laptops have been lost or stolen since 2001, with 249 of them containing some degree of personal data.

Outlook vulnerable to critical VML bug
A critical bug in the Internet Explorer (IE) browser also affects users of the Outlook 2003 e-mail client, making it much more serious than previously thought.

Red Flag Linux may be next on IBM's agenda
The next Linux distribution that IBM Corp. throws its weight behind is likely to be China's Red Flag Linux, suggesting that for businesses elsewhere in the world the Linux market will remain a two-horse race for the time being.

Jailed Chinese journalist to sue Yahoo
A Chinese journalist jailed in part due to e-mail evidence provided by a Yahoo Inc. subsidiary plans to file a lawsuit in the U.S. against the Internet company within the next few months.

AOL cuts deal to sell AOL France
AOL LLC continued its strategy of separating its Internet access and content businesses in Europe, with the sale of its France Internet access business to Neuf Cegetel SA. The deal, announced Thursday, is worth ?288 million (US$366 million) and includes an ongoing partnership between AOL and Neuf Cegetel, a broadband operator.

Yahoo promotes Flash, Ruby mashups
Yahoo Inc. has added sections for Flash and Ruby to its Web site for external developers. The goal is to promote the creation, using those two popular programming languages, of third-party applications that interact and integrate with Yahoo online services.

Wall Street beat: Software looking good
Despite financial and accounting problems at Dell Inc., Novell Inc. and Yahoo Inc., underlying faith in the software sector and a solid first-day performance on Riverbed Technology Inc.'s initial public offering indicate that the end of the year may yet reward IT investors.


INTERVIEW

As BI matures, companies should too
Business intelligence software is evolving into its older sibling, business performance management, a combination of planning, budgeting, reporting and benchmarking tools, according to the father of BI, Howard Dresner. At the same time, the main obstacle to BI or BPM adoption remains cultural rather than technological, he said.


OPINION

Stay tuned. We will be right back after these.
By Sean McGrath

Some time ago I upgraded my satellite TV service to include the
ability to record programs very easily via an integrated hard disk. In
effect my satellite receiving box became a computer known as a Digital
Video Recorder (DVR).

In the intervening period between then and now I have become a
significantly less useful individual to TV advertisers. Here is why
this is so ...