Microsoft hits rough patches with managed services ... Intel bids for rebound with quad-core chips

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft hits rough patches with managed services
News: Idea sharing leads IBM to invest $100M in new areas
News: Intel bids for rebound with quad-core chips
News: Microsoft puts corporate AV client into beta
Windows Tip: Are cached credentials secure?
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Powerbook vs. microwave


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft hits rough patches with managed services
Microsoft Corp. is nurturing a plan to expand its work in managed services over the next year as companies look to reduce the cost of their internal IT management, a top company executive said Tuesday.

Idea sharing leads IBM to invest $100M in new areas
IBM Corp. will invest $100 million over the next two years in 10 potential new business opportunities after conducting a massive trawl for ideas among its staff, partners, customers and academic institutions.

Intel bids for rebound with quad-core chips
Intel Corp. has launched a family of quad-core processors, hoping to take back its crumbling share of the server market and win users in the trendy gaming PC segment.

Microsoft puts corporate AV client into beta
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday will take a step toward competing with McAfee Inc. and Symantec Corp in the enterprise security market by releasing a beta version of its Forefront Client Security desktop software.

Longhorn beta 3 due first half of 2007
Microsoft Corp. will release beta 3 of the next version of Windows Server, code-named Longhorn, in the first half of 2007. Beta 3 of Longhorn is expected to be feature complete and will be tweaked only for performance and quality control before the first release candidates of the product appear.

IBM holds lead on Top500 Supercomputers list
IBM has maintained its lead, and its bragging rights, over rivals in the number of supercomputer systems it operates throughout the world. IBM holds a 47.8 percent share of the biannual Top500 Supercomputers list. Second-place HP holds a 31.2 percent share of systems on the list.

HP brings its quad-core servers to market
Tuesday's debut of Intel Corp.quad-core-powered computers from Hewlett-Packard Co. completes the introduction of quad-core hardware from major computer and server manufacturers.


WINDOWS TIP

Are cached credentials secure?
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

A reader recently contacted me concerning a previous tip Troubleshooting Cached Logons where I shared a script that could be used to query your event logs to determine whether your machine is currently logged on using cached credentials. When you try to log onto your domain and your Windows XP computer can't contact a domain controller, your computer uses cached credentials to authenticate. These credentials are cached locally on your machine from a previous successful domain authentication, and are designed to enable you to log onto domain members when domain controllers are unavailable.

The reader told me that he heard from "some security experts" that storing domain credentials locally on client machines like this poses a security vulnerability since anyone who can gain access to your computer can run a password cracker against these stored credentials and extract your domain username and password from them. But how serious a vulnerability is this? To find the answer, I cracked open one of my all-time favorite books, Protect Your Windows Network: From Perimeter To Data by Jesper M. Johansson and Steve Riley.


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Zune to hit store shelves today ... IBM tops supercomputer list ... Sun releases Java under open-source license

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ITWHIRLED

Powerbook vs. microwave
We know that G3 Powerbooks are really outdated these days, but does that mean you should just stick them in a microwave to see what happens? This group of destructive types apparently thought so. Thankfully, Google Video exists to help document the "experiment."