MS takes legal moves against auction pirates ... IBM launches SOA centers in India, China

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft takes legal moves against auction pirates
News: IBM launches SOA development centers in India, China
News: AMD asks court to consider Intel's worldwide activities
News: U.S. Dept. of Justice probes Sony SRAM sales
Opinion: IT Horror Stories. Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Star Trek fans stun Christie's with collective buying power


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft takes legal moves against auction pirates
Microsoft Corp. is preparing 55 legal actions worldwide against sellers on auction sites who are hawking illegal copies of the company's software, the company said Tuesday.

IBM launches SOA development centers in India, China
IBM Corp. is setting up development centers in Beijing and Pune, India that will focus on developing industry-specific SOA (service-oriented architecture) services to be reused across various customers.

AMD asks court to consider Intel's worldwide activities
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) has asked a U.S. court to compel Intel Corp. to disclose documents relating to its activities outside the U.S., as part of an ongoing antitrust lawsuit.

U.S. Dept. of Justice probes Sony SRAM sales
Sony Corp. said Tuesday that its U.S. unit, Sony Electronics Inc., has received a subpoena from the DOJ seeking information on its SRAM business. In a brief statement the company said it will cooperate with the request.

Office Live to emerge from beta November 15
Microsoft Corp.'s Office Live service is set to go out of beta Nov. 15, and will eventually offer small businesses a chance to buy ads from rival Google Inc. and others, according to a Microsoft executive.

HP looks to simplify SANs for the little guy
Hewlett-Packard Co. is readying a trio of storage products targeted at small- to medium-sized businesses with growing data storage needs.

Industry group to study benchmarks for virtualization
The Standard Performance Evaluation Corp. (SPEC) this week is forming a group to discuss whether virtualization benchmarks are needed and, if so, then set those benchmarks over an estimated three-month process.

Nokia software aims to ease converged phone use
Typically, each time users of dual-mode phones try to access Internet services, they must choose which network they want to connect to, sometimes from a list of multiple cellular and Wi-Fi networks. But if a user subscribes to a service from a provider using Nokia's Service Suite, that choice can happen automatically, based on lowest cost and highest speed network or other parameters set by users or the service provider.

NTT DoCoMo, Intel to let users set OS on cell phones
NTT DoCoMo Inc. and Intel Corp. will publish Wednesday a set of specifications that will allow users to load a second operating system onto their cell phones, the companies said Tuesday.


OPINION

IT Horror Stories. Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.
By Peter Armstrong, BMC Software

The visions of axe murderers, zombies, and giant spiders that Halloween conjures are nothing compared to the very real threats to your enterprise. Do you have any idea of the potential nightmares that lay dormant within your own organization? Here are two true tales of IT terror, guaranteed to keep you up at night. Read them if you dare.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
French publisher association joins lawsuit against Google ... Microsoft releases Media Player 11 ... IBM and Lehman Brothers set up China investment fund


ITWHIRLED

Star Trek fans stun Christie's with collective buying power
An auction of Star Trek memorabilia netted more than $7 million -- including $576,000 for a model of the Enterprise alone.