Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal ... Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
News: Google updates Apps for Domain suite
News: Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
News: Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Opinion: AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not


NEWS UPDATES

Bribery investigation sets back Nokia-Siemens deal
The planned merger of network infrastructure units at Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG won't close by the end of this year as expected because the companies will execute a compliance review of Siemens, spurred by the corruption investigation currently shaking the German technology company.

Google updates Apps for Domain suite
Google is extending its Google Apps for Your Domain hosted-applications suite with a service that walks companies through the selection and registration of a domain name. As part of the service, which costs $10 per year, Google will also link the components of the browser-based suite with the chosen domain.

Boeing privacy breach puts U.S. total over 100 million
A stolen laptop at The Boeing Co. has pushed a widely watched tally of U.S. data breach victims past the 100 million mark. On Tuesday, Boeing disclosed that files containing Social Security numbers, names and home addresses of 382,000 current and former employees were compromised in early December when an unencrypted laptop was stolen from an employee's car.

Microsoft updates Vista in latest piracy crackdown
Microsoft Corp. Thursday released an update to Windows Vista that will shut down unauthorized versions of the OS that allow users to skip the product's activation system.

YouTube yet to answer Japan concerns as deadline looms
The Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers (JASRAC) has yet to receive a response from YouTube to complaints raised earlier this month regarding copyright infringement on the popular online video site. In the letter they asked for a reply no later than Dec. 15.

Yahoo to buy Taiwan blog site Wretch
Yahoo Taiwan Inc. agreed to buy popular blog site Wretch.cc in a deal the companies expect to push them into the Web 2.0 era in Taiwan.

Wall Street Beat: IT heavyweights look ahead
Heading toward the end of a better-than-expected year for IT, the good news this week was that there were no big surprises when Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems Inc. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. laid out strategies at investor and analyst conferences.

IE7's phishing filter gets speed boost
Microsoft Corp. has released a patch for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) that will boost the brand-new browser's performance on some Web sites.


OPINION

AJAX and the hidden cost of ease of use
By Sean McGrath

The IT industry - always a seething den of buzzword bingo - appears to
be in complete overdrive at the moment. Based on a back-of-an-envelope
calculation, I believe I have had to internalize an average of 1.5 new
buzzwords every working day this week.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft shuts out Vista pirates ... Skype to start charging for calls in the US ... Grameen outsources development of open-source software


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Kawaii Not
Kawaii Not bills itself as "the webcomic for cute gone bad," and that's a pretty accurate assessment. The comic is done in the style of the adorable Sanrio characters from Japan, but with a slightly twisted twist, whether it's mistletoe berries that announce their voyeuristic glee or an adorable hammer that declares that it's "coming for your toes."

Google searches patent database ... Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Google now searches U.S. patent database
News: Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets
News: Skype to start charging U.S., Canada users for calls
News: HP and Microsoft challenge IBM with new deal
Tip: Litigation holds require a formal data retention strategy
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Latest advertising technology hits snag


NEWS UPDATES

Google now searches US patent database
If you've ever dreamed up an ingenious new invention and then wondered if someone else has already made it, Google Inc.'s new patent search offering is for you. The new site lets anyone search for U.S. patents by keyword, patent number, inventor and filing date. Users can view a scanned image of the original patent and zoom in on pages.

Sony confident of hitting PS3 targets
Sony Corp. is confident it will hit shipment targets for its recently launched PlayStation 3 game console, its president said Thursday. Prior to the launch of the PS3 in November, Sony said it would ship 2 million consoles this year in Japan and the U.S. and 6 million by the end of its financial year in March 2007.

Skype to start charging U.S., Canada users for calls
Internet phone service provider Skype Ltd. plans to start charging U.S. and Canadian users $29.95 per year for unlimited calls to regular phones in both countries, as the end of a free trial offer looms.

HP and Microsoft challenge IBM with new deal
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) is strengthening ties to Microsoft Corp. to provide a broadened portfolio of business software products to the enterprise market while delivering a competitive blow to rival IBM Corp.

Ingres goes with Infor as first ERP partner
Open-source database vendor Ingres Corp. Wednesday named Infor Global Solutions as its first ERP (enterprise resource planning) partner since Ingres spun off from CA Inc. over a year ago.

Third Word exploit released
Hackers have released attack code that exploits a critical vulnerability in Microsoft Corp.'s Word software -- the third such bug to be disclosed in the past week.

Grameen outsources open-source development to India
The Grameen Foundation has outsourced to Aditi Technologies Pvt. Ltd. the development of open-source software to meet the automation needs of microfinance agencies worldwide.

Symantec launches $15M piracy suit
Symantec Corp. last month filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking more than $15 million in damages from a network of U.S. and Canadian businesses that are alleged to have sold counterfeit versions of Symantec's products, including Norton AntiVirus, pcAnywhere and Veritas Backup Exec.

Congress wants HP's Hurd to explain stock sale
Two U.S. Congressmen have asked HP CEO Mark Hurd to explain why he sold $1.37 million worth of HP stock just before the company's spying scandal became public.


TIP
Litigation holds require a formal data retention strategy
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

The new changes to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) will have considerable impact on IT in general and storage administration in particular. Litigation holds are likely to be an especially thorny issue. A litigation hold means that you are required to preserve data that may be the target of a lawsuit against your company so that you can make the necessary information (e-discovery) available if required. But a huge gap exists between your legal department asking you to put a litigation hold on data and your ability to actually do so. And that is your challenge.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
HP, Microsoft team up against IBM ... Google in talks to buy South Korean software company's U.S. subsidiary ... Symantec sues alleged software pirates


ITWHIRLED

Latest advertising technology hits snag
CBS Outdoor was ready to unleash a whole new experience on the staid world of advertising: "Got Milk?" ads in San Francisco bus shelters that emitted the odor of delicious freshly baked cookies. But the city's lawmakers pulled the plug on the campaign after only a day, worried about potential allergic reactions.

IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool ... HP, Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal

HIGHLIGHTS

News: IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool
News: HP and Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal
News: Google allows employees to auction off stock options
News: Microsoft offers software for building robots
Unix Tip: Adding lines to the ends of files
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Space Shuttle not ready for 'Auld Lang Syne'


NEWS UPDATES

IBM, Yahoo launch free enterprise search tool
IBM Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have developed a free, entry-level, enterprise search application that at least one analyst believes will seriously disrupt the low-end segment of this market where Google Inc. has been selling many of its Mini search devices.

HP and Microsoft to unveil enterprise software deal
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. will enter into a new enterprise software agreement to be detailed Wednesday.

Google allows employees to auction off stock options
Google Inc. will allow some employees to auction off their vested stock options to institutional investors, enabling workers to potentially reap greater profits from their options, the company said Wednesday.

Microsoft offers software for building robots
Microsoft Corp. released the commercial version of its software for robots on Wednesday, hoping to shape the market much as it did for PC software a few decades ago.

Skype releases beta for Windows Mobile smart phones
Skype Ltd. released the beta version of Skype 2.2, a software client that allows Windows Mobile smart phones to access the company's VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service over Wi-Fi connections.

Intel moves Spring IDF to Beijing, drops U.S. conference
Intel Corp.'s annual Spring Intel Developer Forum (IDF) conference will not be held in the U.S. next year, a company official confirmed Wednesday. Instead, the world's largest chip maker is moving the event to Beijing.

'Rock Phish' blamed for surge in phishing
Rock Phish has grown to be one of the most prominent phishing groups in operation. It has developed a variety of new attack techniques that have earned the group a kind of grudging respect among security professionals, who estimate that the criminal organization's phishing schemes have cost banks more than $100 million to date.

Cisco focuses on video, innovation teams
Cisco Systems Inc. executives looked to video, the developing world, and still-emerging technologies as they kicked off the company's C-Scape analyst conference Tuesday.

EBay Express disappoints merchants
Merchants complain that eBay Express doesn't attract sufficient shoppers and generates an inconsequential volume of sales, although eBay Inc. says it is satisfied and remains committed to the site.

Microsoft fixes IE, Windows Media Player flaws
Microsoft Corp. has rolled out its monthly security updates for December, patching critical flaws in Internet Explorer, Windows Media Format and the Visual Studio 2005 development software.


UNIX TIP

Adding lines to the ends of files
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

Let's look at a quick, clever way to add lines to the ends of files on a Unix system. This little Unix trick can be very useful if you are distributing installation directions to customers and want to limit the possible mistakes that they can make in updating important system files. The basis of this trick is the Unix here document -- a special form of I/O redirection that allows you to insert the content to be added between the redirect command and a special marker that is recognized as the end marker for the inserted text.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft, HP to announce enterprise partnership ... Investigation of LCD industry widens ... Microsoft releases new security updates


ITWHIRLED

Space Shuttle not ready for 'Auld Lang Syne'
As if NASA engineers didn't have enough safety problems to worry about with the aging shuttle fleet, a potential late December mission has them fretting about how the spacecraft's 1970s-era computers will -- or, more likely, won't -- deal with the rollover from one year to the next.

Regulatory probe of LCD market widens ... Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Regulatory probe of LCD market widens
News: Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision
News: Fujitsu claims first 300GB SATA 2.5-inch drive
News: New HP software shows fruits of Mercury acquisition
Tip: Listen to your users, multi-select files in Explorer
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Ten servers that changed the world


NEWS UPDATES

Regulatory probe of LCD market widens
An investigation into possible anticompetitive behavior in the flat-panel display market widened Tuesday, with four more big vendors saying they had been contacted by investigators.

Salesforce.com gets closer to 'iTunes' vision
Salesforce.com Inc. plans to turn its AppExchange Web site into a fully functioning online marketplace for hosted software.

Fujitsu claims first 300GB SATA 2.5-inch drive
Fujitsu Ltd. has developed a hard-disk drive suitable for use in laptop PCs and video recorders with a capacity of 300G bytes, the largest in its class, the company said Tuesday.

New HP software shows fruits of Mercury acquisition
Software announcements from HP Tuesday show how the acquisition this year of Mercury Interactive Corp. may be paying off. The company is introducing a business technology optimization (BTO) software portfolio that brings together Mercury's applications management software with HP's systems and network management software marketed under its Open View software family.

Microsoft releases beta of unified communications hub
Microsoft Corp.'s goal to provide a unified communications infrastructure for the enterprise moved forward Tuesday with the release of a private beta of software it sees as its communications hub.

Intel speeds up introduction of new quad-core chip
Intel Corp. says it has rushed introduction of a new quad-core chip originally scheduled for next year to Monday to meet demand from server manufacturers for the processor.

HP buys data management services company
Hewlett-Packard Co. has agreed to acquire IT services company Knightsbridge Solutions Holding Corp. for an undisclosed sum

Napster Mobile coming soon to Europe
Napster Inc. will launch its first mobile download service for Europe in Ireland later this month on Telefónica SA's O2 Ireland network

U.S. trade commission says Qualcomm violated patent
The U.S. International Trade Commission said that Qualcomm Inc. is infringing on one of Broadcom Corp.'s patents, dealing a blow to Qualcomm in an ongoing patent battle between the companies.

IDC: Americans are cool to mobile data services
U.S. cell-phone users are staying away from mobile data services in droves, according to research company IDC. Almost three-quarters of respondents in an IDC online survey didn't use any data service other than text-messaging in the third quarter of this year.


TIP

Listen to your users, multi-select files in Explorer
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

I was manning the Ask The Experts booth at a 2007 Microsoft Launch
event the other day when I heard an interesting story from another
Microsoft MVP. He told me that his wife was really excited about a new
feature in Windows Vista that made it a lot easier for her to work on
her computer.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Europe gives approval for UWB ... Intel moves up release of quad-core chip ... African users embrace mobile Internet


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Ten servers that changed the world ... Ten best things to say if caught sleeping at your desk ... Ten things you shouldn't buy new ... Top ten most common phobias ... Top ten women of gaming

Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100 ... Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100
News: New type of memory chip may replace flash, HDD
News: Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead
News: Project checks Java code for security bugs
Opinion: Bring out the tinfoil hats
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Coding horror: Stop developer-designed UIs now


NEWS UPDATES

Infosys to become first Indian company in Nasdaq-100
When the Nasdaq stock market opens next Monday, Indian outsourcer Infosys Technologies Ltd. will become the first Indian company to be included in its prestigious list of top-100 companies.

New type of memory chip may replace flash, HDD
Flash memory and hard-disk drives could face a challenge from a new chip technology, dubbed phase-change memory, being developed by a group of companies led by IBM Corp.

Lower cost rivals challenge VMware lead
Virtual Iron Inc. and XenSource Inc. both are introducing new virtualization software to undercut on price the dominant player in the field, VMware Inc.

Project checks Java code for security bugs
Fortify Software Inc. and the FindBugs project have launched a free service that will scan open-source Java software for bugs in the code.

Sun goes multilingual with Java SE 6
Over two years in the making, Sun Microsystems Inc. is due to release the latest version of its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) software Monday, placing particular emphasis on the application development platform's support for other scripting languages.

Vista to benefit partners more than Microsoft
A new IDC report on the impact of Windows Vista on the industry claims Microsoft Corp.'s business partners stand to benefit more financially from the OS than Microsoft itself will in 2007.

Fujitsu Siemens offers SAN bundle for small businesses
Following a similar move by Hewlett-Packard Co., Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH plans to announce a packaged storage area network (SAN) product on Thursday aimed at small and medium-size businesses.

LG.Philips subpoenaed in LCD competition probe
First it was chips, now it's LCDs (liquid crystal displays). Authorities around the globe are investigating possible anticompetitive conduct in the LCD industry, according to activity at LG.Philips LCD Co. Ltd. offices.

Mozilla ships developer release of Firefox 3.0
Mozilla Corp. has hit an early milestone on the road to the next version of its open-source browser, but the final product is still a year away, developers say.


OPINION

Bring out the tinfoil hats
By Dan Blacharski

Many schools and college campuses have been using WiFi technology to allow students to have broader and easier access to the Internet. The technology seems to be everywhere. Airports are giving travelers access, and you can even get it at coffeehouses, so you can log on and check your email while you're swilling down your morning coffee. Hospitals are taking advantage of the technology to permit caregivers to have access to computerized patient records at each bedside. I have to admit, my ancient Windows 95 laptop doesn't have WiFi, but I can see the attraction.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Hackers circumvent Vista's anti-piracy safeguard ... Oracle raises bid for Indian software company ... Intel remains World's largest chip maker

More podcasts
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/5042/


ITWHIRLED

Coding horror: Stop developer-designed UIs now
One of the commonly cited problems with open source software is that it tends to be built to the tastes of developers, not the public at large. To see why that might be a concern, check out the horror show that is the wGetGUI.