Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search ... WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Japanese Internet icon found guilty
News: Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search
News: WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player
News: Ballmer questions business strategy of Google
Opinion: Is Google Book Search fair to authors?
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Meteorite bombardment in Illinois


NEWS UPDATES

Japanese Internet icon found guilty
The founder and former CEO of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor Co. was found guilty of violating securities laws on Friday and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in one of the biggest cases of corporate abuse for Japan in recent years.

Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search
In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web search market share, Microsoft Corp. is giving financial incentives to large enterprise customers whose employees use Microsoft's Live Search engine.

WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player
Cisco Systems Inc. is entering new territory with its planned $3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx Communications Inc., with plans to deliver collaboration tools as an online service and possibly integrate the company's business-related offerings with consumer social networking technology.

Ballmer questions business strategy of Google
Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer criticized rival Google Inc., saying it is devoted primarily to ad-supported search while Microsoft has reinvented itself many times over.

Vodafone takes hybrid approach to mobile VOIP
Vodafone Group PLC is demonstrating a service at the Cebit trade show that allows mobile phone customers to call and exchange presence information with users of Internet phone services such as Skype.

Wall Street Beat: M&A heats up market
With Cisco Systems Inc. and Pitney Bowes Inc. announcing big acquisitions Thursday, buyout activity is giving nervous IT investors something to think about besides the volatility that has hit stock markets -- and tech companies -- since the big selloff two weeks ago.

Skype gains business reviews, expertise marketplace
Skype Ltd. has released a new version of its Internet telephony and instant messaging software that adds a feature to let users create business reviews, and another one to sell expertise, as the eBay Inc. subsidiary promotes interaction among its users.


OPINION

Is Google Book Search fair to authors?
By Dan Blacharski

I admit, when I first heard about the Google Book Search, I was afraid they were digitizing and posting entire libraries online - a practice that would be disastrous for the publishing industry, blatantly unfair to authors, and outright illegal. Fortunately, they're not doing that.

Subscribe to Blog Insights - A weekly recap of what bloggers are saying about information technology.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Cisco buying WebEx for $3.2 billion ... Microsoft offers credits for enterprise Web search ... Livedoor's Horie found guilty

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ITWHIRLED

Meteorite bombardment in Illinois
A central Illinois woman had her window broken by a piece of metal the size of a deck of cards. A university professor tentatively identified the projectile as a meteorite. No further strikes have been reported, which means that the Earth is safe from the planet-killing meteorite swarms ... for now.

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Cisco to buy WebEx ... Google embraces anonymous searches ... Intel to shrink chip size

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Cisco to buy WebEx for $3.2 billion
News: Intel promises more energy-efficient chips
News: Google to make search logs anonymous
News: OpenBSD hit by second flaw in 10 years
Unix Tip: Last workday of the month: A retake
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Navy researching vomit ray


NEWS UPDATES

Cisco to buy WebEx for $3.2 billion
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Thursday it will buy the online conference provider WebEx Communications Inc. for $3.2 billion to sell collaboration tools to small and medium businesses.

Intel promises more energy-efficient chips
Intel plans to further reduce the size and power consumption of its mobile microprocessors over the next year or so, paving the way for computers that are smaller and consume substantially less power, a company executive said Thursday.

Google to make search logs anonymous
Google Inc. will start making its records about users' searches anonymous after 18 to 24 months under a policy announced Wednesday. Until now, the dominant search company has indefinitely retained a log of every search, with identifiers that can associate it with a particular computer.

OpenBSD hit by second flaw in 10 years
The security-conscious OpenBSD team has acknowledged that the operating system contains a serious security flaw in the code that handles IPv6 packets. OpenBSD is known for its strict security policies, and until this week its website boasted "Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 10 years!"

RSA to offer Trojan take-down service
EMC Corp.'s RSA division plans to launch a new service next month that will help financial institutions take down Web sites associated with malicious Trojan Horse software. The service is planned as an extension to the FraudAction phishing takedown service already offered by RSA

Researcher: Cingular, Travelocity still in spyware net
Just weeks after reaching a settlement with New York's attorney general, AT&T Inc.'s Cingular division and Travelocity.com LP are again being accused of having ties to spyware companies.

Siemens teams with Nokia on Wi-Fi-GSM hand-over
Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is working with Nokia Corp. to polish the hand-over of voice calls between corporate wireless LANs and public mobile phone networks, a Siemens executive said Wednesday.

SAP to offer regular updates for Business One
SAP will start releasing frequent updates to its Business One software for small businesses in the form of what it is calling "enhancement packages." The packages will include maintenance updates, new features and best-practice tools, the company announced Thursday during a news conference at the Cebit trade show.

New Red Hat OS features modular design
The newly launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system features a modular design that counters the argument by critics that operating systems are becoming too large and complex, a Red Hat Inc. executive said at launch ceremonies Wednesday in San Francisco.

Ballmer talks up CRM Live
Microsoft demonstrated Dynamics Live CRM, its planned hosted customer relationship management software, during the closing Wednesday keynote given by CEO Steve Ballmer at its Convergence show in San Diego. CRM Live will be another member of the vendor's growing Live software-as-a-service product family, joining Windows Live and Office Live.


UNIX TIP

Last workday of the month: A retake
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

One of my articles last month described an approach to determining whether some particular weekday happens to be the last workday of the month. In response, a reader offered a version that has a particularly interesting advantage. Instead of being implemented as code which can be inserted into any script in which you want to execute certain commands only on the last workday of the month, this script is a standalone that you would use to invoke other scripts or specific commands when it's the appropriate time for them to run -- when it's the last workday of the month.

Subscribe to Unix in the Enterprise - Tips and tricks for managing your Unix systems.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft unveils Dynamics Live ... Google embraces anonymous searches .... Intel to shrink chip size

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ITWHIRLED

Navy researching vomit ray
Looking for new methods to incapacitate without killing, the U.S. military is researching a proposed radio-frequency weapon that would throw its target's equilibrium out of whack, resulting in dizziness and vomiting but no permanent damage. But who will clean up?

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BenQ's cell phone nightmare continues ... Samsung remakes the Q1 ... MS sues cybersquatters

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Mobile phone nightmare not over yet for BenQ
News: After one year, Samsung remakes the Q1
News: Intel may face hurdle on China factory: TSMC chairman
News: Microsoft files lawsuits against cybersquatters
Windows Tip: Managing Windows Firewall in Mixed Environments
Interview: Flickr co-founder talks about growth, plans
ITwhirled: Italian minister buys Second Life island


NEWS UPDATES

Mobile phone nightmare not over yet for BenQ
Just when BenQ Corp. thought the worst of its mobile phone woes were behind it, Taiwanese prosecutors raided its offices and hauled away three executives for questioning over alleged insider stock trading related to when it revealed losses incurred from BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG.

After one year, Samsung remakes the Q1
One year after Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. introduced its first Q1 ultra-mobile PC, the company has revamped the device, making it lighter and more powerful. The new device, called Q1 Ultra, will be unveiled Thursday during a press conference at the Cebit exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

Intel may face hurdle on China factory: TSMC chairman
The U.S. government may prove to be a major hurdle in any plan by Intel Corp. to build an advanced chip factory in China, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. warned Wednesday.

Microsoft files lawsuits against cybersquatters
Microsoft Corp. has filed two new lawsuits against companies it accuses of registering domain names similar to certain of its trademarks. It has also settled three similar suits with other companies, it said Wednesday.

Microsoft's new industry focus yields IP buy
Just a day after debuting a new initiative to produce more industry-specific functionality for users of its Dynamics business applications, Microsoft Corp. Tuesday announced it had purchased intellectual property (IP) and code relevant to the manufacturing sector.

Red Hat release renews OS debate
As Red Hat Inc. prepares to launch the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system on Wednesday, the question is again being asked whether a robust and feature-laden operating system is really needed for some computing situations.

Microsoft releases major Server 2003 update
Microsoft Corp. has queitly released a major update to its server operating system designed to make the product more stable and secure.

Lenovo to ship Windows Live on PCs
In a modest win for Microsoft Corp.'s struggling online services business, Microsoft said late Tuesday that computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. will pre-load Windows Live services on its ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCentre desktops and Lenovo-branded PCs.

AMD system pumps PC content to TV screens
Claiming it has forged a new link for consumers who want to connect their TVs and PCs, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced Wednesday at Cebit it has designed a mix of technologies that solve the perennial challenge of converging the computer and the television.


WINDOWS TIP

Managing Windows Firewall in Mixed Environments
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

If you migrate all the desktops in a given organizational unit to Windows Vista, you can simply manage the firewall on these computers using the new Group Policy node found under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Windows Firewall With Advanced Security. But what if your OU will contain a combination of Windows XP and Windows Vista computers? What's the best way to use Group Policy to manage the Windows Firewall on these computers? Here's a brief answer taken with permission from the soon-to-be-released Windows Vista Resource Kit.

Subscribe to Windows in the Enterprise - Tips for how to maximize Windows safely and securely.


INTERVIEW

Flickr co-founder talks about growth, plans
In this interview, Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and general manager of the lauded photo management and sharing site Flickr, talks about Flickr's growth in size and quality, its status as a Yahoo Inc. company, and near and long-term plans, as well as peanut butter.


ITWHIRLED

Italian minister buys Second Life island
His main political rival controls three national television networks, a newspaper, a weekly magazine and a publishing house, so an Italian minister has decided to try and level the propaganda playing field by buying himself an island in Second Life.

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Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit ... Microsoft, IBM add community support

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit
News: Acer is on the lookout for M&A targets
News: IDC: Q4 storage revenue drops at Dell, HP
News: Microsoft to offer 'MySpace' for apps users
Storage Tip: Not your father's backup/restore software
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: South Korea explores robot ethics


NEWS UPDATES

Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit
Viacom Inc. has sued Google Inc., alleging copyright infringement from video-sharing site YouTube and seeking $1 billion in damages.

Acer is on the lookout for M&A targets
Acer Inc., the world's fourth largest PC vendor, plans to make a meaningful acquisition this year and is already looking at candidates, the company said Tuesday.

IDC: Q4 storage revenue drops at Dell, HP
Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. reported declines in storage hardware revenue in the fourth quarter of 2006, running contrary to a growth trend for the storage industry.

Microsoft to offer 'MySpace' for apps users
Microsoft Corp. introduced the first in a planned series of online communities for users of its Dynamics applications to provide forums where peers can exchange best practices. Centered around specific industries or job titles, the first community is aimed at finance professionals such as corporate controllers, finance managers and accountants.

SEC charges ex-Nortel executives
U.S. and Canadian stock regulators filed fraud charges on Monday against several former executives of Nortel Networks Corp., accusing them of twisting accounting practices to make it seem that the company was meeting Wall Street expectations.

Philips starts selling off stake in TSMC
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV sold just over 887 million shares of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) Monday for NT$57.66 billion ($1.75 billion), part of a sale intended to finalize Philips' exit from the semiconductor industry.

IBM enhances software development program
IBM Corp. is enhancing its software developer's support program by creating a software code exchange.

VC firm, ex-Microsoft execs back Internet OS company
A venture capital firm has given a $10 million boost to a Swedish company that could soon be in the competitive crosshairs of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.


STORAGE TIP

Not your father's backup/restore software
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

If you are looking at traditional backup/restore with the extra-added appeal of disk, contact the vendors in your market space with whom you are familiar (and those could be through your current storage hardware vendor). If you are interested in overall recovery management or a new technology, such as continuous data protection, you can contact companies that focus in those spaces. If, on the other hand, you are looking at a storage hardware solution, then you will know that the vendor that you are choosing also has a backup/restore story and probably one that involves disk-based backup as well. In any event, you are likely to find at least one -- and probably more than one -- company that will meet your needs.

Subscribe to Storage Strategies - Tips for effective storage management, technology updates and best practices.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft, IBM add community support ... Nortel ex-executives charged ... Xcerion gains backing

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

South Korea explores robot ethics
South Korea, always on the cutting edge of technology, foresees a robot in every home by 2020. Getting a head start, the government is putting together a "robot ethics charter" to help keep people mentally and emotionally healthy in their dealings with the humanoid machines, and to stave off the inevitable robot revolt and takeover.

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Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case ... HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case
News: HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard
News: Samsung samples 8 GB flash chip for mobile phones
News: EDS acquiring Indian testing company
Book Review: MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Ed.
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: 10 Biggest nerds in TV history


NEWS UPDATES

Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case
E-mail messages from some of Intel Corp.'s most senior executives are among those that should have been preserved but were not after the chip-maker was sued for alleged antitrust violations by Advanced Micro Devices Inc., according to a court transcript released by AMD.

HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard
Four months before federal regulators apply stringent new efficiency standards to desktop PCs, Hewlett-Packard Co. has tweaked three computers to qualify for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star 4.0 label.

Samsung samples 8 GB flash chip for mobile phones
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun shipping samples of an 8 G-byte flash memory chip, enough to store up to 2,000 songs on a mobile phone, the company said on Monday.

EDS acquiring Indian testing company
Electronic Data Systems Corp. is acquiring RelQ Software Pvt. Ltd., a privately owned software testing company in Bangalore, India, to strengthen its global testing capabilities by offering applications testing, validation and verification, and quality assurance services.

Cisco, IBM expand joint support to 46 countries
Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. are expanding a cooperative support offering from the U.S. to 46 other markets. Through the offering, called Managed Maintenance Solutions for Cisco Products, enterprises that use IBM as a systems integrator can get Cisco technical support by calling IBM.

More efficient quad-core Xeons coming Monday
Intel Corp. quad-core microprocessors that work at an energy-efficient 50 watts per processor will officially be on the market starting today, according to the company.

GoDaddy hit with denial-of-service attack
Domain registrar and hosting company GoDaddy.com Inc. was hit with "significant and sustained" distributed denial-of-service attacks Sunday, causing four to five hours of intermittent service disruptions, including hosting and e-mail, the company said.

Seagate ships super secure hard drive
Two years after first being announced by Seagate, the world's most secure hard drive is finally to go on sale in a laptop from system vendor ASI.

Verizon ruling could be hard on Vonage
Shares of Vonage Holdings Corp. plunged Friday in the wake of a patent-infringement ruling against the company that some analysts called a grim outcome for the VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service provider.


BOOK REVIEW

MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

MySQL is one of the most popular open source databases. With an estimated 10 million active installations and more then 50,000 downloads every day, it runs on nearly every Unix platform and Windows as well. Along with this popularity, however, comes a host of questions from users on how to best accomplish any of a myriad of tasks. That's where MySQL Cookbook comes in. Whether you're new to MySQL or a long-time user, you will find numerous "tricks" that you can put to immediate use.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Daylight saving time shift goes smoothly in U.S. ... Intel ships low-power quad-core Xeons ... TSMC reports lowest sales in 20 months

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
10 Things to do if you get pulled over ... 10 Biggest nerds in TV history ... 10 Job hunting mistakes and how not to make them ... 10 Ways to prevent interruptions ... 10 Predictions for XML in 2007

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