Friday, March 09, 2007

Wikipedia founder speaks on 'Essjay' controversy ... Jury: Vonage infringed on Verizon patents


HIGHLIGHTS
News: Wikipedia founder speaks on the Essjay controversy
News: Jury finds Vonage infringed on Verizon patents
News: No Microsoft security updates coming next week
News: Clearwire IPO jumps up on opening
Windows Tip: Daylight Savings Time fix
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Geek Comic of the Week: Teaching Baby Paranoia


NEWS UPDATES

Wikipedia founder speaks on the Essjay controversy
Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, the user-generated and edited encyclopedia, said he expects contributors to the site who claim certain credentials will soon have to prove they really have them.

Jury finds Vonage infringed on Verizon patents
A federal jury has found that Vonage Holdings Corp. infringed three Verizon Communications Inc. patents and must pay $58 million in damages plus royalties to Verizon, Vonage confirmed Thursday.

No Microsoft security updates coming next week
Microsoft Corp. is not planning to release any security updates on Tuesday, one of only a handful of times the company won't have security patches available since its monthly security updates began in 2003, Microsoft said Thursday.

Clearwire IPO jumps up on opening
Clearwire Corp. shares soared after the WiMax service provider's IPO (initial public offering) on Thursday, though later in the day they settled around their initial price.

SEC shuts down trading for 35 companies due to spam
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended trading for 35 companies that allegedly benefited from spam e-mail campaigns to hype their stocks.

Jury: ex-Gateway execs manipulated earnings
Two former executives with Gateway Inc., the nation's third-largest PC vendor, are guilty of manipulating earnings and revenues to meet Wall Street expectations, according to a verdict delivered Wednesday by a federal jury in California.

Fon lands $13.1 million more to fund community Wi-fi service
Wi-fi startup Fon Technology SL has secured an additional €10 million ($13.1 million) in funding for its plan to establish a global network of shared hotspots, the company said Friday.

Chip giant TSMC reports worst revenue in 20 months
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., the world's largest contract chip maker, reported its worst monthly revenue in 20 months on Friday, but analysts applauded the figure as further proof that an industry glut is dissipating.

Wall Street Beat: Vendors upgraded
Now that the dust has settled after last week's stock-market plunge, industry insiders are looking forward to continued stable growth in the IT sector.


DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME TIPS

Daylight Savings Time fix
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

Windows 2000 Professional has been out of lifecycle now for over a year, but I know for a fact there are a number of enterprises out there that still run it on their desktops. This can pose a big problem when it comes to something like the changes to Daylight Savings Time. If a product is no longer supported by a vendor, yet some feature must be updated for it to continue working properly. Here's what you can do.


Examining TimeZone data in Solaris
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

In last week's column, I encouraged anyone who hasn't already patched their OSes for the imminent daylight savings time changes. This week, we look at a command for displaying timezone data and verifying the date on which the switch to DST will be made.


Wake up and patch the OSes
By Sandra Henry Stocker, ITworld.com

Time is running out for anyone planning to ready their systems for the biggest time-related change since Y2K -- the 2007 Daylight Savings Time change. As Americans turn their clocks ahead one hour this year -- three weeks earlier than previously, systems administrators will be well advised to ensure their systems will do the same. Timezone configurations on systems from Solaris and Linux to Windows will require updates if not already updated through a patch, OS upgrade or service pack, to accommodate the new dates for switching to and then back off daylight savings.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
No Microsoft security patches next week ... Reports say Microsoft's search chief steps down ... Lawsuit charges another with responsibility for Winfixer software

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Teaching Baby Paranoia
Here's a series of stylishly drawn, reasonably footnoted fun facts -- or hoaxes? That's part of the paranoid fun, I guess. Did a pre-Gutenberg inventor of the printing press meet his fate at the hands of the inquisition? Was there a rash of sightings of "forest spirits" in 19th-century Massachusetts? Have scientists buried bogus holy objects around the world as part of a study?

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Thursday, March 08, 2007

Microsoft signs first E.U. protocol licensee ... 3M sues Sony, Lenovo over battery patents


HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft signs first E.U. protocol licensee
News: 3M sues Sony, Lenovo and others over battery patents
News: Third biggest LCD maker sees laptop, camera rebound
News: Yahoo apologizes to Indian housewife
Storage Tip: Testing with confidential data
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: iTunes sleuths expose faked recordings


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft signs first E.U. protocol licensee
Microsoft Corp. has signed up the first licensee for the workgroup server protocols the European Commission ordered it to open up to competitors in a 2004 antitrust ruling, it said Thursday.

Microsoft moves to replace JPEG with HD Photo
Microsoft Corp. will soon submit a new photo format to an international standards organization that it says offers higher quality images with better compression, the company said on Thursday.

3M sues Sony, Lenovo and others over battery patents
3M Co. has filed suit against several big electronics companies, including Sony Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd., for allegedly violating two patents related to lithium-ion battery technology.

Third biggest LCD maker sees laptop, camera rebound
Executives at AU Optronics Corp., the world's third largest LCD panel maker by revenue, on Thursday said demand for notebook PCs and digital cameras has picked up recently, and predicted better times ahead.

Yahoo apologizes to Indian housewife
Yahoo Inc. apologized on Thursday after recipes from the blog of an Indian housewife were used without permission on Yahoo's India's new Malayalam-language Web portal. The reproduction of the recipes, which were taken from a blog in Malayalam run by a housewife in Kerala, in Southern India, sparked an online protest among bloggers.

Avaya adds IP phones, gateways, SIP
Aiming to let enterprises do more with their IP (Internet Protocol) telephony systems and keep them available when a network goes down, Avaya Inc. introduced new software, phones and a gateway at this week's VoiceCon Spring conference.

Gates calls for new privacy law
Gates repeated past Microsoft calls for a wide-ranging privacy law during a speech at advocacy group the Center for Democracy and Technology's annual gala dinner Wednesday. A comprehensive privacy bill should allow consumers to control their personal data, should provide transparency about what their data is used for, and should notify them when their data has been compromised, Gates said.

VMware questions rivals' virtualization
The president of virtualization software leader VMware Inc. Wednesday questioned the strategy of rivals that are integrating virtualization functionality into their operating systems.


STORAGE TIP

Testing with confidential data
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

IT personnel will eventually need to use a copy of confidential information for test and development purposes. Data security cannot be compromised, but the business must continue to move forward with new tested software functionality. What are the options?

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Gates wants more visas for foreign workers ... Samsung ships hybrid disk drives ... IFPI sues Yahoo China for piracy

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

iTunes sleuths expose faked recordings
After pianist Joyce Hatto died, classical music critics listened to CDs her husband had released on his own record label and hailed her as a neglected genius. But when users began to notice that iTunes recognized them as CDs by other artists, it was revealed that Hatto's husband had been releasing existing recordings under his wife's name.

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Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Public beta due soon for new Microsoft VOIP server ... Three security technologies to watch


HIGHLIGHTS
News: Public beta due soon for new Microsoft VOIP server
News: HTC in race to put out first Windows Mobile 6 handset
News: Samsung ships its first hybrid disk drive
News: Google updates desktop search tool
Security Tip: Three security technologies to watch
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Ten leading open source innovators


NEWS UPDATES

Public beta due soon for new Microsoft VOIP server
Microsoft Corp. will release a public beta of new VOIP server software by the end of this month. The software smoothly integrates with legacy phone networks and its Office application suite, the company said.

HTC in race to put out first Windows Mobile 6 handset
Taiwanese handset maker High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) is racing to put out the first smart phone based on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile 6 OS, a company representative said Wednesday.

Microsoft TechFest provides glimpse of future
What do cats and Internet security have in common? If you had attended Microsoft Corp.'s TechFest 2007 on Tuesday in Redmond, Washington, you would know.

Samsung ships its first hybrid disk drive
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun shipping its first hybrid hard-disk drives that mix conventional magnetic storage with flash memory, it said Wednesday.

Google updates desktop search tool
Google Inc. has released a new version of its desktop search tool, adding a preview feature to help find information more quickly and making some improvements to the interface design.

Windows Mobile handsets get Yahoo Go 2.0
Yahoo Inc. has teamed up with High Tech Computer Corp. (HTC) to put a suite of Internet software applications on millions of Windows Mobile handsets, the companies said Wednesday.

HP piles up PC sales lead over Dell
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) continued to pull ahead of Dell Inc. in global PC sales during the fourth quarter of 2006, according to an industry report released Tuesday.

Sony to delay full-year results due to Sarbanes-Oxley
Sony Corp. will delay the release of its full-year earnings by about three weeks due to stricter U.S. accounting rules, the company said Wednesday.

IBM surpasses HP in storage hardware sales
IBM Corp. earns bragging rights for surpassing Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2006 storage hardware sales, though it still trails industry leader EMC Corp., according to an industry report published Tuesday.

Ingres, Wipro team on open-source enterprise software
Indian outsourcer Wipro Ltd. is to develop open-source business software and offer system integration services around the open-source database from software vendor Ingres Corp., which will be marketed jointly by the two companies.


SECURITY TIP

Three security technologies to watch
By Brent Huston, MicroSolved, Inc.

Three security-related technologies that are worth watching are: Security information management and unified threat management products, buffer overflow protection shims, and source code assessment tools.

Subscribe to Security Strategies - Tips and technologies to protect your enterprise.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft attacks Google over copyright ... Dell losing marketshare to HP ... China bans new Internet cafes

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Ten leading open source innovators ... Top 10 Digg clones ... Top 10 ways to motor your home ... 10 New ways to make money online

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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Intel loses e-mails related to AMD case ... Security expert cracks RFID chip in U.K. passport


HIGHLIGHTS
News: Security expert cracks RFID chip in U.K. passport
News: Intel may have lost e-mails related to AMD case
News: France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
News: Microsoft hits Google over book search model
Windows Tip: Enabling weak crypto in Vista
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Bad idea of the week: Driving while laptoping


NEWS UPDATES

Security expert cracks RFID chip in U.K. passport
Security expert Adam Laurie, who has worked with RFID and Bluetooth technology, has cracked one of the U.K.'s new biometric passports. The attack, which uses a common RFID reader and customized code, siphoned data off an RFID chip from a passport in a sealed envelope.

Intel may have lost e-mails related to AMD case
Intel Corp. may have lost some internal e-mails that the company is required to produce in a lawsuit brought against it by Advanced Micro Devices Inc., lawyers for the company said Monday.

France bans citizen journalists from reporting violence
The French Constitutional Council has approved a law that criminalizes the filming or broadcasting of acts of violence by people other than professional journalists. The law could lead to the imprisonment of eyewitnesses who film acts of police violence, or operators of Web sites publishing the images, one French civil liberties group warned on Tuesday.

EMC's DeWalt named new McAfee chief
McAfee's board of directors on Monday named former EMC executive Dave DeWalt as the security software company's CEO and president. DeWalt takes the helm of a company tainted by allegations surrounding backdating of stock options by former executives.

Microsoft hits Google over book search model
In a speech Tuesday to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), a Microsoft attorney attacks Google's book search service, saying iGoogle is misappropriating principles of fair use to further its own business model.

Hurd says HP's cost structure still too high
Despite the turnaround Mark Hurd has engineered at HP, the president, chairman and CEO of the technology giant remains unsatisfied. Hurd said at a Morgan Stanley Technology Conference on Monday in San Francisco that the company still has to reduce its cost structure in order to be more profitable and grow.

Intel pitches plan to beat chip glut
Facing a market glut of microprocessors and weak corporate demand for PCs running Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Vista OS, Intel Corp. hopes to stay profitable by producing new chip designs faster than its competitors, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said Monday.

Cisco buys another social-networking firm
Cisco Systems Inc. is continuing to buy its way into social networking, acquiring some assets of the company that operates Tribe.net while letting the site remain independent.


WINDOWS TIP

Enabling weak crypto in Vista
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

If you're planning on deploying Windows Vista on mobile computers that remotely access your company network using a virtual private network (VPN) connection, you must be aware that support for weak or non-standard cryptographic algorithms has now been removed from Windows Vista. This can result in compatibility issues with certain VPN servers and the result is that some clients may not be able to connect to your corporate network after upgrading them to Windows Vista. Here's an explanation from the Windows Vista Resource Kit concerning why this change was implemented, plus a workaround you can use if you can't upgrade your VPN servers or don't have access to high-crypto for regulatory reasons.

Read the full article here.

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Former EMC executive tapped to head McAfee ... Production problems hurt AMD ... Hurd says HP must do better

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Bad idea of the week: Driving while laptoping
One LA resident found out, in the most tragic way possible, that just because you can plug your laptop into your car's cigarette lighter and use it while you drive doesn't mean that you should.

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Monday, March 05, 2007

Virtualization now comes in a USB drive ... SugarCRM aims for Euro expansion


HIGHLIGHTS
News: China Network, Taiwan TV to test Qualcomm mobile TV
News: Virtualization now comes in a USB drive
Report: Palm discussing strategic options with bankers
News: SugarCRM aims for Euro expansion with Dublin office
Unix Tip: Examining TimeZone data in Solaris
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Is that a poison dart frog, or just your phone?


NEWS UPDATES

China Network, Taiwan TV to test Qualcomm mobile TV
China Network Systems and Taiwan Television Enterprise Ltd. (TTV) plan to begin testing mobile TV technology from Qualcomm Inc. in Taiwan starting this month, the companies said.

Virtualization now comes in a USB drive
VMware is introducing Monday a public beta version of ACE 2 Enterprise Edition, an upgrade of its two-year-old ACE program for virtualizing desktop computers. One of the new features is Pocket ACE, which allows the user to store the ACE desktop virtualization tool on a USB drive, a portable hard drive or an Apple iPod, plug it into a remote computer, and run the virtualization software on that computer.

Report: Palm discussing strategic options with bankers
Smartphone maker Palm Inc. is consulting with investment bankers on its strategic options, including the prospect of selling the company, seeking investment from venture capitalists, or making an acquisition of its own, according to a report in the The Wall Street Journal.

SugarCRM aims for Euro expansion with Dublin office
SugarCRM Inc., an open-source customer relationship management (CRM) vendor, has opened a new office in Dublin to help extend its European presence.

Toshiba to hasten NAND flash expansion
Toshiba Corp. is expanding production of NAND flash memory chips faster than originally planned, the company said Monday.

Global stock turmoil hits Gates share sale
Bill Gates sold over 20 million shares of Microsoft Corp. stock last month, and turmoil in the global stock markets probably shaved a few million dollars off of the money he made.

Microsoft announces 512MB Xbox upgrade
Microsoft plans to release worldwide on April 3 a 512MB Memory Unit for the Xbox 360. The company also plans to increase the size of its Xbox Live Arcade games from 50MB to 150MB.


UNIX TIP

Examining TimeZone data in Solaris
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

In last week's column, I encouraged anyone who hasn't already patched their OSes for the imminent daylight savings time changes. This week, we look at a command for displaying timezone data and verifying the date on which the switch to DST will be made.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft wins one patent case with Alcatel-Lucent ... YouTube strikes content deal with BBC ... Italian minister buys island in Second Life

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Is that a poison dart frog, or just your phone?
Certain endangered species aren't getting any more numerous -- but the noises they make are carrying further. An environmental group is offering free ringtones that sound like the cries, howls, and croaks of various threatened animals in order to raise awareness of their plight.

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