Protecting the Earth and the bottom line

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Protecting the Earth and the bottom line
News: RIM finally breaks silence on BlackBerry outage
News: EPIC, CDD ask FTC to block Google-DoubleClick merger
News: Mobile phone sales to slow in 2007, says IDC
News: Google buys Marratech video conferencing company
News: SAP first-quarter profit climbs 10 percent
ITwhirled: UFOs invade Canada



NEWS UPDATES

Protecting the Earth and the bottom line
As the 27th anniversary of Earth Day approaches on Sunday, more companies are realizing that embracing energy conservation is good business, not just good public relations. "It's not just about pictures of little kids holding balloons, running across green fields," said Larry Vertal, senior strategist in microprocessors at Advanced Micro Devices Inc., which hosted an energy summit at its Sunnyvale, California, headquarters on April 9.


RIM finally breaks silence on BlackBerry outage
The addition of a new software routine caused the multi-hour failure of Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry messaging service in North America earlier this week, the company said Friday.


EPIC, CDD ask FTC to block Google-DoubleClick merger
Three U.S. online civil rights groups have filed a complaint asking the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to block Google Inc.'s planned US$3.1 billion acquisition of DoubleClick Inc. unless the company agrees to stop tracking its users.


Mobile phone sales to slow in 2007, says IDC
Global sales of mobile phones, while still buoyant, are growing at a slower rate as the market for first-time owners shrinks, according to market research released Friday by IDC.


Google buys Marratech video conferencing company
Google Inc. has bought Marratech AB, a Stockholm-based developer of video conferencing software, taking it further into the sphere of collaborative work tools.


SAP first-quarter profit climbs 10 percent
SAP AG has posted its financial results following a turbulent quarter for the company, reporting a 10 percent jump in profit on increased sales of its software and support services.


ITWHIRLED

UFOs invade Canada
Do aliens beings from beyond our solar system have a thing for ice hockey? Poutine? Bryan Adams and/or Alanis Morissette? It's impossible to know exactly what is going on in their pulsing, veiny, oversized skulls, but 736 of their spacecraft were spotted flying above the Great White North in 2006.

Microsoft, Samsung sign patent accord ... HP expands lead over Dell ... Mozilla releases Thunderbird 2

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Yahoo sued over jailing of Chinese dissident
News: Nokia phone sales drop in Q1 as prices fall
News: Gates launches developing world tech initiative
News: Microsoft, Samsung sign broad patent accord
Windows Tip: Forcing a remote reboot
ITwhirled: Physicist needs $20K to test time-travel hypothesis
Podcast: BlackBerry services resume after outage ... HP expands lead over Dell ... Microsoft, Lenovo join forces for R&D


NEWS UPDATES

Yahoo sued over jailing of Chinese dissident
The wife of an imprisoned Chinese dissident has sued Yahoo Inc. for divulging information about her husband's Internet activity, which allegedly led to his arrest and torture.

Nokia phone sales drop in Q1 as prices fall
Sales in Nokia Corp.'s core mobile phone business dropped in the first quarter as competition intensified in the global handset market, particularly from Asian vendors.

Gates launches developing world tech initiative
Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates launched an initiative in Beijing Thursday aimed at bridging the digital divide between technologically advanced and developing countries.

Microsoft, Samsung sign broad patent accord
Microsoft Corp. entered into a broad patent licensing agreement with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. aimed at speeding product development efforts for both companies, they said Thursday.

Mozilla releases Thunderbird 2 e-mail client
Mozilla Corp. unveiled the final version of its open-source Thunderbird 2 e-mail client on Thursday, improving how users can organize and label their messages.

HP extends market lead over Dell in PC sales
Hewlett-Packard Co. (PC) has extended its lead over Dell Inc. in personal computer sales according to two industry reports released Wednesday.

New legislation would overhaul U.S. patent system
A group of U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would overhaul the U.S. patent system, earning them praise from a number of technology groups.

Next OpenOffice release to include Pentaho BI
Open-source business intelligence software vendor Pentaho Corp. is hoping a new tie-up unveiled Thursday with the OpenOffice.org community and Sun Microsystems Inc. will bring its BI offerings to the attention of many more new users.

MS Antitrust: Iowa judge approves class-action settlement
A judge in Iowa's Polk Country District Court Wednesday granted preliminary approval to a settlement in one of the last class-action lawsuits faced by Microsoft Corp. in the wake of the antitrust case brought by the U.S. government in the 1990s.

Ballmer: SAAS shouldn't threaten IT jobs
While the movement toward SAAS (software as a service) and away from client-based software may change the role of the IT professional, it shouldn't signal a widespread loss of jobs, experts speaking during Microsoft Corp.'s IT Pro Town Hall in Redmond said on Wednesday.

Red Hat creates global services center in India
Red Hat Inc. has set up a global services center in India that will assist its customers with deploying open-source technologies. The center will hire about 100 staff over the next 12 months.


WINDOWS TIP

Forcing a remote reboot
Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

You've probably heard that old saying, "When in doubt, reboot." There
can be many reasons why you might need to reboot a system from
applications that leak memory to problems caused by patching. And
while rebooting a system to fix an issue isn't an elegant solution,
well if it works, it works. Right?

Unfortunately sometimes when you try and reboot a remote system it may
not behave as expected. For example, one business I know has scheduled
reboots for one of their servers using Task Scheduler and the
shutdown /r, but from time to time the reboot fails for no apparent
reason, even when using the /f (force) command. How can you make sure
your server reboots when you tell it to?

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


ITWHIRLED

Physicist needs $20K to test time-travel hypothesis
Always wanted to meet Abraham Lincoln or James Dean? Got $20,000 burning a hole in your pocket? Talk to physics prof John Cramer, who has some interesting ideas on time travel but can't get the funding needed to test them out.

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BlackBerry services resume after outage ... HP expands lead over Dell ... Microsoft, Lenovo join forces for R&D

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BlackBerry suffers widespread outage ... Intel's Centrino to get WiMax next year

HIGHLIGHTS
News: BlackBerry suffers widespread outage
News: Intel's Centrino package to get WiMax next year
News: Oracle updates leave critical Windows flaw
News: Intel has big plans for little devices
Unix Tip: Rejecting email from outside
ITwhirled: British scientists determine formula for perfect bacon sandwich
Podcast: BlackBerry service has widespread outage ... Oracle patch delayed for Windows customers ... Intel to put WiMax in Centrino ... Via picks Intel for ultramobile PC


NEWS UPDATES

BlackBerry suffers widespread outage
The BlackBerry wireless e-mail service from Research In Motion Ltd. appears to have suffered a widespread outage starting Tuesday evening in the U.S.

IDF: Intel's Centrino package to get WiMax next year
Intel Corp. said Wednesday it plans to next year add WiMax to its Centrino platform, a long-expected move likely to boost demand for wireless broadband services.

Oracle updates leave critical Windows flaw
Some Oracle Corp. customers using the Windows operating system will have to wait another two weeks to receive a critical software update to their database software, thanks to a glitch that came up in testing the company's latest patches.

IDF: Intel has big plans for little devices
Intel Corp. Wednesday unveiled its Ultra Mobile platform, also known as McCaslin, designed for ultramobile PCs and other handheld devices, and outlined plans for increased Linux support and a new chip for ultramobile PCs due in 2008.

Virginia Tech students hit social sites after shooting
Many students at Virginia Tech on Monday turned to message boards and social networking sites to try to find out what exactly was happening on campus during a shooting spree that ended with 33 dead.

Oracle sets out content management road map
Building on its December acquisition of Stellent, Oracle Corp. Wednesday began to flesh out its content management software strategy.

SAAS is hitting its stride
Delivering software as a service (SAAS), accessed from the Internet rather than installed on a computer, is rapidly becoming the way for businesses to use software, said experts attending a conference Tuesday called SaaScon in Santa Clara, California.


UNIX TIP

Rejecting email from outside
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

If you would like to generate email on a server, but don't want to put up with email from the outside, you can configure sendmail to do this for you.

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


ITWHIRLED

British scientists determine formula for perfect bacon sandwich
Totally not wanting for cash are a group of Brits who managed to quantify the deliciousness of a bacon sandwich (or "bacon buttie" in UK parlance). The formula is N = C + {fb(cm) · fb(tc)} + fb(Ts) + fc · ta, if you're interested.

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Daily IT News Audio Update
BlackBerry service has widespread outage ... Oracle patch delayed for Windows customers ... Intel to put WiMax in Centrino ... Via picks Intel for ultramobile PC

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Adobe CEO responds to Microsoft's Silverlight ... Microsoft releases Media Player plug-in for Firefox

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Adobe CEO responds to Microsoft's Silverlight
News: Microsoft releases Media Player plug-in for Firefox
News: Intel processor hits speedy 2 teraflops in demo
News: Sun, Fujitsu and Hitachi freshen server lines
Security Tip: Three inexpensive ways to increase security
ITwhirled: 10 years of blogs: An incomplete timeline
Podcast: Intel developing x86-compatible terascale chip ... New servers from Sun, Fujitsu and Hitachi ... Adobe questions Microsoft plans with Silverlight ... Oracle releases integration software


NEWS UPDATES

Adobe CEO responds to Microsoft's Silverlight
Silverlight, which is seen as Microsoft's challenger to Adobe's Flash format, was unveiled Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas. The head of Adobe has questioned Microsoft's commitment to keeping its new Silverlight platform compatible with other operating systems besides Windows.

Microsoft releases Media Player plug-in for Firefox
Microsoft, as part of its outreach to the open-source community, has released a new official Windows Media Player plug-in for Firefox 2.0 that resolves problems with the older one.

IDF: Intel processor hits speedy 2 teraflops in demo
Intel Corp. demonstrated its fastest multi-core processor yet at the Spring Intel Development Forum (IDF) in Beijing on Tuesday, an 80-core processor that hit a speedy 2-teraflops (trillions of floating point operations per second) in a demonstration.

Sun, Fujitsu and Hitachi freshen server lines
Sun Microsystems Inc. and Fujitsu Ltd. are introducing new servers Tuesday that they jointly developed, while another server maker, Hitachi Ltd., is unveiling new blade servers. They each aim to address buyers' dual needs for computing power and energy efficiency.

Amazon Web Services losing money
Amazon.com Inc.'s Web services business isn't profitable, but it's growing very rapidly and the company expects it to make money eventually, Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos said Monday.

IDF: Intel plans powerful x86 chip with many cores
Intel Corp. is developing a programmable processor with many cores that is compatible with the x86 instruction set and capable of performing 1 trillion floating-point operations per second, a senior company executive said Tuesday at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing.

JotSpot chief: Google is a nerd paradise
JotSpot agreed to be acquired by Google Inc. partly because the search engine giant is "a nerd's paradise," JotSpot co-founder Joe Kraus said Monday. As a self-described nerd leading a startup of nerds, Kraus "couldn't think of a better company" to be acquired by in Silicon Valley, he said at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

Vonage admits it has no workaround
Vonage Holdings Corp. has acknowledged it has no workaround for technology that was found to infringe Verizon Communications Inc. patents and does not know if one is feasible.

Yahoo expands ad deal with newspaper partners
In a win for its online advertising strategy, Yahoo Inc. Monday extended a deal that makes it the exclusive online distribution site for U.S. newspapers from a consortium of 12 newspaper companies, enabling the Web portal and search vendor to share and earn online advertising revenue with them.


SECURITY TIP

Three inexpensive ways to increase security
By Brent Huston, ITworld.com

Want to increase overall security of your small to mid-size business network without spending much time or money? These three inexpensive ideas will help bring more security and less hassle to your environment.

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


ITWHIRLED

10 years of blogs: An incomplete timeline
Hard to believe it, but the now-ubiquitous weblog turned 10 this month. Here are a few of the milestones -- minus any incidents of people being fired for blogging, bloggers getting people fired, or famous bloggers being fired -- needless to say, it's a short list.

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Daily IT News Audio Update
Intel developing x86-compatible terascale chip ... New servers from Sun, Fujitsu and Hitachi ... Adobe questions Microsoft plans with Silverlight ... Oracle releases integration software

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Google to sell radio ads through Clear Channel ... Microsoft unveils Silverlight as Flash killer

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Intel offers a look beyond Santa Rosa
News: Google to sell radio ads through Clear Channel
News: Microsoft unveils Silverlight as Flash killer
News: HD DVD, Blu-ray protection in question after attacks
Security Tip: Don't be seduced by penetration testing certifications
ITwhirled: 21 biggest tech flops
Podcast: Microsoft and Adobe unveil new desktop software products ... Intel will give its first demonstration of PRAM this week ... Google strikes deal Clear Channel to sell radio ads


NEWS UPDATES

Intel offers a look beyond Santa Rosa
The next version of Intel Corp.'s Centrino notebook platform, called Santa Rosa, will hit the market next month, but the company is already looking ahead to other products, including an updated "Santa Rosa refresh" and a quad-core mobile processor set for release next year.

Google to sell radio ads through Clear Channel
Google Inc. has struck a deal with Clear Channel Communications Inc. to sell 30-second audio ads on its AM and FM radio stations, reinforcing Google's advertising sales business beyond the Web.

Microsoft unveils Silverlight as Flash killer
Microsoft Corp. this week will reveal new technology to deliver rich media applications on the Web, part of a broader strategy to go head to head with Web and design tools powerhouse Adobe Systems Inc.

HD DVD, Blu-ray protection in question after attacks
Next week, new HD DVD movies will hit the shelves that won't play on some players, the first countermeasure by the content and software industries to combat intensive efforts by hackers to break copy-protection technology.

CA to pursue co-founder Wang for fraud
A special committee at CA Inc. Friday released a report blaming co-founder Charles Wang for accounting fraud at the company and recommending suing him for damages and the value of company stock he received.

Google to pay $3.1B for DoubleClick
Google Inc. has agreed to buy DoubleClick Inc. for $3.1 billion in cash, an acquisition that strengthens Google's status as an online advertising powerhouse.

Microsoft targets SAAS program
Microsoft Corp. has consolidated some of its efforts to help Web hosting companies offer software-as-a-service (SAAS) into a new program tailored for offerings to independent software vendors (ISVs).

Coming soon: a Microsoft fuel-cell charger
A New York-based company that is one of a handful developing fuel cells for consumer electronics devices says it has started commercial production of a fuel cell-based recharger for Microsoft Corp.

Adobe to show off media player
Adobe Systems Inc. has developed its first desktop media player and plans to give the industry an early peek at it at the National Association of Broadcasters trade show in Las Vegas this week.

New worm wriggles around on Skype
A worm targeting Skype Ltd.'s VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) application is harvesting e-mail addresses and directing users to a range of sites hosting other malicious software, security vendors said Monday.

IBM and Yahoo upgrade enterprise search app
IBM Corp. and Yahoo Inc. have enhanced their joint enterprise search product, a free competitor to Google Inc.'s Mini device.


SECURITY TIP

Don't be seduced by penetration testing certifications
By Brent Huston, MicroSolved, Inc.

There's been a lot of recent talk about certifications for penetration testing, but don't be swayed. You must continue to carefully vet your security partners when it comes to protecting your perimeter.

Here's why.

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


ITWHIRLED

21 biggest tech flops
There's a curious urge in the tech community to make lists of our most notable failures. Here's another batch, ranging from products too beautiful for this world (the Newton) to those killed by circumstances beyond their control (digital audio tapes) to just plain bad ideas (DIVX).

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PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft and Adobe unveil new desktop software products ... Intel will give its first demonstration of PRAM this week ... Google strikes deal Clear Channel to sell radio ads

More podcasts