Gates steps aside; Ozzie steps up ... Oracle's Q4 revenues top expectations

HIGHLIGHTS

Daily IT News Audio Update
Gates to step away from day-to-day role at Microsoft, Ozzie elevated ... Oracle revenues surpass expectations ... Google targets U.S. government and Shakespeare with new search sites

News: Blu-ray Disc players, movies coming next week
News: Oracle's Q4 results to top expectations
News: Vulnerability found in Microsoft Excel
News: Gates to scale back Microsoft role in 2008
Data security tip: Identify What you Need
ITwhirled: Geek Comic of the Week -- White Ninja


NEWS UPDATES

Blu-ray Disc players, movies coming next week
Next week, the high-definition video fight for consumers' hearts, minds, and wallets begins in the U.S. when the first player and content for the Blu-ray Disc high-definition movie disc format will be launched.

Oracle's Q4 results to top expectations
Oracle Corp.'s fiscal fourth-quarter results are set to top expectations, led by a surge in revenue from new software licenses, the company said Thursday.

Vulnerability found in Microsoft Excel
A new vulnerability has been found in Microsoft Corp.'s Excel spreadsheet program, just a few days after the company fixed problems with several of its applications in its monthly patch distribution.

Gates to scale back Microsoft role in 2008
Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said Thursday he will step out of his daily role at Microsoft in July 2008 so he can take on a full-time role at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the charity organization he runs with his wife.

Ozzie's illustrious IT career takes another turn
Within minutes of the official Microsoft Corp. announcement Thursday that Ray Ozzie has stepped into the role of chief software architect, his official biography at the company Web site was updated to reflect this latest development in what was already an illustrious IT career.

Microsoft WGA program continues to irk users
Microsoft Corp.'s program for testing whether a PC is running a genuine copy of Windows, Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), has drawn considerable fire from users since it was launched last July.

Wall Street Beat: Apple buzz renewed
Market buzz around Apple Computer Inc. sounded again this week, as better news about chip companies helped break a losing streak on several exchanges.


TIP

Data Security: Identify What you Need
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

When you are evaluating vendor products, look at what part of the data security problem they solve -- data preservation, data confidentiality, or both. For example, an encryption product provides for data confidentiality. However, unless encryption key management is well-handled, there is a risk of the permanent loss of all the encrypted data (as unencrypted data that cannot be read is effectively lost). So you must weigh the need for data confidentiality with the risk to data preservation. Keeping in mind that data security is about data preservation and data confidentiality is the starting point for thinking about data security in greater depth.


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: White Ninja
What to say about White Ninja? Well, he's a Ninja dressed in white ... though he doesn't really do very Ninja-esque things. Mostly, he finds himself in absurd situations -- accidentally turning into a peanut, say, or trying to stop his roommate's habit of collecting newspaper obituaries, or forcing his five-year-old son to get a job.

Netscape.com takes on Digg ... Microsoft gives an ActiveX reprieve

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Motorola and others to launch mobile Linux group
News: Microsoft gives ActiveX reprieve to some customers
News: Netscape Web portal morphs into 'social news' site
Opinion: June's coolest gadgets
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Do you have the Genghis gene?


NEWS UPDATES

Motorola and others to launch mobile Linux group
A group of top mobile phone makers and operators are launching a foundation to create an open Linux-based software platform for mobile devices, they said on Thursday.

Microsoft gives ActiveX reprieve to some customers
Users who are unprepared for changes that Microsoft Corp. has made to the way its Internet Explorer browser handles ActiveX can get a reprieve, the company said Wednesday.

Netscape Web portal morphs into 'social news' site
AOL LLC has retooled its Netscape.com portal as a "social news" Web site where users and Netscape.com staffers can post, vote for, tag and review articles.

Google announces U.S. government search site
Google Inc. unveiled a search site Thursday designed to take the frustration out of trying to find U.S. government information.

Alcatel revises SME convergence product
The latest update of Alcatel's OmniPCX Office server, the fifth for the product, includes IP telephony on a local wireless network, a PC based attendant console and a SIP network interface.

Harnessing resources with collaborative development
In today's networked enterprise, development managers can easily harness resources from any location. Collaborative development platforms allow developers -- scattered around company locations, working from home, or with partner organizations -- to contribute to projects the same way they would from a central site.

OPINION: June's coolest gadgets
When the new ultra-mobile PCs were being unveiled at Cebit in Germany in March, who'd have guessed that Sony Corp. had the neat, little UX50 up its sleeves? The diminutive computer is the smallest Vaio computer yet and runs Windows XP. It's about the size of a paperback book and has a touchscreen display and full keyboard.

PODCAST: Daily IT News Audio Update
HP intros new blade design ... US lawmakers question VA security problems ... Netscape.com relaunched as social news site

More podcasts

ITWHIRLED: Do you have the Genghis gene?
While he was busy conquering huge swaths of Asia and the Middle East, Genghis Khan took some time out to father so many children that scientists are fairly confident they can identify his male descendants by their Y chromosome. The latest individual to discover that he's in the Mongolian imperial family is an accounting professor in Miami. Genghis would be so proud!

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