Leopard hacked to run on sub-notebook PC ... 30 failed tech predictions ... Abu Dhabi firm takes $622M stake in AMD

In this issue:
- Google and Sun may butt heads over Android
- Google needs telco partner for 700MHz bid, say analysts
- Leopard hacked to run on Asus sub-notebook
- Abu Dhabi firm takes $622M stake in AMD
- Microsoft wins patent suit over boot-up technology
- Eight signs of evil in high-tech companies
- Top 30 failed technology predictions
- Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

Google and Sun may butt heads over Android
Google could be heading for a showdown with Sun over the way Android, Google's new mobile phone software platform, handles Java.

Google needs telco partner for 700MHz bid, say analysts
Google is said to be preparing a solo bid for frequencies to operate a wireless network in the U.S. -- but analysts say it will need a carrier partner.

Users complain new Gmail version slow, crashes browsers
A major upgrade to Gmail is getting the thumbs down from users who complain that the new version is extremely slow, often fails to load pages and even crashes their browsers.

Leopard hacked to run on Asus sub-notebook
Apple's Leopard has made a jump to a sub-notebook PC, with news today that a hacker has managed to install the OS onto an Asus Eee PC.

Abu Dhabi firm takes $622M stake in AMD
AMD said Friday it has received a $622 million investment from a unit of Mubadala Development Company, an investment company based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Microsoft wins patent suit over boot-up technology
Microsoft said it won a patent dispute Thursday over technology that helps computers boot up more quickly.

VMWare fires back at Oracle's VM performance claims
A VMWare official on Friday scoffed at Oracle's contention that its recent entry into the virtualization market performs better than 'the existing leader server virtualization product.'


FEATURE

Eight signs of evil in high-tech companies
Tom Wailgum, CIO

We don't ask perfection of the companies we deal with. But we all like to believe that, at least on a philosophical level, our employers, suppliers and customers are inherently good. An occasional faux pas can be pardoned (we're all human beings, right?), but moral degeneracy is something else again. Evilness will not be tolerated.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Aby Dahbi govt invests in AMD ... Microsoft delays WinHEC ... Garmin pulls out of Tele Atlas bidding war

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Top 30 failed technology predictions
Predictions nearly always come back to bite you -- eventually. Here are some especially delicious ones that should remind us to never say never.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!

More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

Gentlemen: What facial hair do you sport?

- Mustache alone
- Soul patch
- Sideburns
- Goatee (with mustache)
- Goatee (without mustache)
- Goatee plus sideburns
- Full beard (neatly trimmed)
- Full beard (somewhat unruly)
- Full beard (mountain man style)
- None - a clean face is a sign of a clean soul

Vote now!

8 signs of evil in high-tech companies ... Microsoft delays WinHEC ... First Facebook enterprise app launches

In this issue:
- Abu Dhabi firm takes $622M stake in AMD
- First enterprise application for Facebook launched
- Microsoft delays WinHEC by six months
- Citigroup signs 30,000 seat deal with Salesforce.com
- Microsoft wins patent suit over boot-up technology
- Top 30 failed technology predictions
- Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

Abu Dhabi firm takes $622M stake in AMD
AMD said Friday it has received a $622 million investment from a unit of Mubadala Development Company, an investment company based in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Citigroup signs 30,000 seat deal with Salesforce.com
Citigroup has signed a deal with Salesforce.com that will make it the on-demand customer relationship management vendor's biggest user.

Microsoft wins patent suit over boot-up technology
Microsoft said it won a patent dispute Thursday over technology that helps computers boot up more quickly.

Dell acquires Everdream to boost IT services portfolio
In an effort to boost its managed IT services portfolio, Dell on Thursday agreed to acquire desktop services management company Everdream.

Microsoft delays WinHEC by six months
Microsoft is delaying by six months its annual conference for hardware engineers, where it reveals its upcoming software plans to PC makers and other system builders.

First enterprise application for Facebook launched
Open source enterprise content management company Alfresco has integrated its application with the social networking site to enable its users to communicate more effectively with customers and partners. Alfresco claimed that it was the first Facebook application specifically developed for business users.


FEATURE

Eight signs of evil in high-tech companies
Tom Wailgum, CIO

We don't ask perfection of the companies we deal with. But we all like to believe that, at least on a philosophical level, our employers, suppliers and customers are inherently good. An occasional faux pas can be pardoned (we're all human beings, right?), but moral degeneracy is something else again. Evilness will not be tolerated.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Aby Dahbi govt invests in AMD ... Microsoft delays WinHEC ... Garmin pulls out of Tele Atlas bidding war

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Top 30 failed technology predictions
Predictions nearly always come back to bite you -- eventually. Here are some especially delicious ones that should remind us to never say never.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!

More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

What's most likely to keep you from getting a good night's sleep?

- Work
- Video games
- Caffeine
- TV
- Web-surfing
- Parties (that I attend)
- Parties (being held next door, keeping me up)
- Crying baby
- Stress
- Nothing (zzzzzz)

Vote now!

Businesses may bypass Vista ... EBay to host "Red Team" security conference ... Apple issues Panther security patch

In this issue:
- IBM turns data centers into 'computing clouds'
- Vista in danger of being bypassed by businesses
- EBay to host "Red Team" security conference
- Dell will help corporations go green
- Five favorite Facebook widgets for business users
- Apple issues Panther security patch
- Halo 3 fan punches mom, cops when forced to stop playing
- Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

IBM to turn data centers into 'computing cloud'
IBM will release new products next year that turn data centers into a 'cloud' of computing resources that can be assigned wherever they are needed.

Vista in danger of being bypassed by businesses
Vista may be skipped over by business users in favor of Windows 7, the next version of the OS, if Microsoft ships it on schedule.

EBay to host "Red Team" security conference
EBay plans to host its own security conference next February, called 'Red Team eBay'.

OPENWORLD: Dell will help corporations go green
Dell plans to release a reference architecture in the future that will pave the way for enterprises to reduce power consumption and go green in the future, Dell CEO Michael Dell said in a keynote at the Oracle OpenWorld 2007 conference on Wednesday.

Disappearing Gmail messages baffle users
When Jeneane Sessum logged into her Gmail account on the afternoon of Oct. 27, she was greeted with a horrifying sight: an empty inbox.

Apple issues Panther security patch
Mac OS X 10.3.9 Panther users also came in for a software update from Apple last night, in the form of the latest security update for the systems.

Google Android on the defensive
Google has explained the choices it offers developers, at a public demonstration of the Android software development kit in London.

3GSM ASIA: GSM group backs LTE for mobile broadband
The board of the GSM Association voted to back LTE (Long-Term Evolution) as the mobile broadband standard to succeed HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access), the CEO of the group said Tuesday.


FEATURE

Five favorite Facebook widgets for business users
C.G. Lynch, CIO

We scoured the widget libraries and came up with five of our favorites for business users based on their utility for getting the job done. ...Continue


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
IBM unveils Blue Cloud data center software ... Ellison discusses Fusion applications ... EBay to host its own security conference

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Halo 3 fan punches mom, cops when forced to stop playing
A Florida teen was enjoying playing Halo 3 on a Sunday night -- like, we mean, really enjoying it. So much so that when his mother told him to stop because it was late, he ignored her. And then when she shut the machine down, he attacked her. And attacked the sheriff's deputies who later arrived on the scene.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!
More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

What's most likely to keep you from getting a good night's sleep?

- Work
- Video games
- Caffeine
- TV
- Web-surfing
- Parties (that I attend)
- Parties (being held next door, keeping me up)
- Crying baby
- Stress
- Nothing (zzzzzz)

Vote now!

Oops, Gates gets it wrong ... When no password can be best ... Greatest hits of viral video

In this issue:
- Oops, Gates gets it wrong
- Tip: When no password can be best
- Apple could build Penryn into Xserve
- Greatest hits of viral video
- VeriSign to divest several lines of business
- Sun joins virtualization fray with xVM
- Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

Apple could build Penryn into Xserve
While Apple is tight-lipped about the introduction of new Mac systems with Intel's latest Penryn processors, analysts said the company's Unix-based Xserve servers could be the first to include the power-efficient Penryn chips.

Oops, Gates gets it wrong
Bill Gates misspoke while speaking during Microsoft's shareholder meeting, pointing to the challenge around his move to spend less time working for the company.

VeriSign to divest several lines of business
VeriSign plans to refocus its business on its two core activities, managing DNS infrastructure and selling SSL security certificates for Web sites.

Leopard mauls competition, takes half Japan retail market
Apple's new Leopard operating system took a sizable bite of the Japanese retail operating system market during October and accounted for over half of all sales of packaged operating system software despite being on sale for only the last six days of the month.

Sun joins virtualization fray with xVM
Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz unveiled the company's virtualization product line, xVM, at Oracle's OpenWorld conference. XVM consists of two components: xVM Server, a hypervisor with support for Linux, Solaris and Windows guest operating systems; and xVM Ops Center, a management console.

Nortel, with IBM's help, unveils SOA strategy
Nortel this week announced a relationship with IBM to plot a service-oriented architecture and Web services framework for the development of communications-enabled applications and business processes.

Greatest hits of viral video
There's no formula for creating a video that millions of people will be inspired to watch and tell their friends about, but if there were, it would have to include some portion of humor (often unintentional), embarrassment, obscenity, and plain old goofiness. Since the advent of YouTube in 2005, many viral videos have been made, but few surpass the popularity of these 25, um, classics.

IBM: Most Symphony users are Microsoft customers
IBM Tuesday released the second beta of its Symphony rival suite to Microsoft Office, claiming that 88 percent of its users are Microsoft customers

AT&T mobile banking goes nationwide
AT&T fulfilled its promise of nationwide mobile banking on Tuesday, rolling out a service for customers of two banks that uses an application residing on the user's handset.

Apple's new phones lead to iTypos
iPhone users make mistakes more often when texting compared to users of phones with hard keys, a new study found.


WINDOWS TIP

When no password can be best
By Mitch Tulloch, Microsoft MVP

Best and worst approaches for securing built-in Administrator accounts. ...Continue


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Onecare 2.0 - iPhone in China - Verisign divestments - Nokia N82

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Geek Comic of the Week: Nekko and Joruba
Family drama, noir-ish adventure, and moody, shadowy artwork nicely complement the sci-fi themes in this online, ongoing graphic novel. Be sure to start from the beginning and work your way through to catch up!

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!
More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

What's most likely to keep you from getting a good night's sleep?

- Work
- Video games
- Caffeine
- TV
- Web-surfing
- Parties (that I attend)
- Parties (being held next door, keeping me up)
- Crying baby
- Stress
- Nothing (zzzzzz)

Vote now!

Leopard mauls competition ... 10 career killers to avoid ... Microsoft's OneCare 2.0 due next week

In this issue:
- VeriSign to divest several lines of business
- Microsoft's OneCare 2.0 due next week
- Leopard mauls competition, takes half Japan retail market
- Nokia unveils successor to N95
- Judge to White House: Back up e-mail
- 10 career killers to avoid
- NASA research to ease drunkenness
- Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

VeriSign to divest several lines of business
VeriSign plans to refocus its business on its two core activities, managing DNS infrastructure and selling SSL security certificates for Web sites.

Microsoft's OneCare 2.0 due next week
Microsoft Corp. plans to release a major update to its Windows Live OneCare security suite next week, according to online retailer Amazon.com.

Leopard mauls competition, takes half Japan retail market
Apple's new OS X Leopard took a 53.9 percent share of the Japan OS market in October despite being on sale for only the last six days of the month.

Researcher: Half a million database servers have no firewall
Think your database server is safe? You may want to double-check. According to security researcher David Litchfield, there are nearly half a million database servers exposed on the Internet, without firewall protection.

Nokia unveils successor to N95
Nokia has unveiled a new high-end mobile phone with a 5 megapixel camera and a built-in GPS navigation system.

3GSM ASIA: China Unicom also open to iPhone talks, CEO says
China Unicom may be open to selling Apple's iPhone in China, giving Apple a second option for bringing its device to the world's most populous market.

Apple's new phones lead to iTypos
iPhone users make mistakes more often when texting compared to users of phones with hard keys, a new study found.

Former FBI, CIA employee pleads guilty to computer crime
A former employee of the FBI and CIA has pleaded guilty to charges of fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship and accessing a U.S. government computer system to unlawfully find information about her relatives and the Islamic organization Hizballah.

Judge to White House: Back up e-mail
Judge Henry Kennedy in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia issued a restraining order banning the White House from deleting backup copies of e-mail messages.


CAREER TIP

10 career killers to avoid
Thomas Hoffman, Computerworld

Like other types of workers, IT professionals can be vulnerable to committing career sabotage -- sometimes without even recognizing it.

To help IT professionals become more aware of potential career blunders, Computerworld spoke with John M. McKee, president of BusinessSuccessCoach.net, a Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based career coaching and consulting firm. McKee is the author of Career Wisdom: 101 Proven Strategies to Ensure Workplace Success. Here are 10 career-killers, with McKee's advice about how to recognize and avoid them.


ITWHIRLED

NASA research to ease drunkenness
Sometimes people grouse about all the tax money that goes to supposedly esoteric space-based research. How can it help us in the real world? Well, a test series NASA developed to detect Martian life is now being used to determine if a wine will cause the dreaded "red wine headache."

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!
More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

What's most likely to keep you from getting a good night's sleep?

- Work
- Video games
- Caffeine
- TV
- Web-surfing
- Parties (that I attend)
- Parties (being held next door, keeping me up)
- Crying baby
- Stress
- Nothing (zzzzzz)

Vote now!

China Mobile in talks to sell iPhone ... Microsoft spin-off opens mobile beta ... Windows Server 2008 pricing revealed

In this issue:
* China Mobile to sell iPhone
* Microsoft spin-off opens mobile beta
* OPENWORLD: Cisco helps speed up Oracle 11g
* Apple fixes security bug with iPhone update
* Windows Server 2008 pricing revealed
* Creating a chrooted FTP account
* Does your Website suck?
* Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

China Mobile in talks with Apple to sell iPhone
China Mobile is in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in China, the company's CEO said on Tuesday. But he's not keen on the type of revenue-sharing model that Apple has insisted on elsewhere in the world.

Microsoft spin-off opens mobile beta
A Microsoft spin-off plans to release an open beta of a new mobile browsing user interface in mid-December.

OPENWORLD: Cisco helps speed up Oracle 11g
Cisco did its part for Oracle users as the OpenWorld conference opened Monday, announcing a protocol it developed with the software company for running Oracle databases over larger server clusters.

Apple fixes security bug with iPhone update
Apple has begun pushing out the iPhone 1.1.2 firmware update, fixing a flaw in the way the phone renders TIFF images.

Windows Server 2008 pricing revealed
Microsoft Monday outlined pricing on eight versions of Windows Server 2008 that are slated to ship early next year.

IBM agrees to buy Cognos for $5B
IBM has agreed to buy business intelligence software vendor Cognos for around $5 billion in cash, in a bid to expand delivery of BI beyond the traditional user base.

IT FORUM: Microsoft readies Stirling security console
Microsoft is on track to begin testing a console by the end of the year that will give customers a single tool for managing all of its Forefront enterprise security products.

OPENWORLD: Siebel On Demand to become 'social CRM'
At its OpenWorld show this week, Oracle Corp. is expected to announce an upcoming version of its Siebel CRM On Demand service that will include social networking features reminiscent of consumer portals such as Facebook or MySpace.


UNIX TIP

Creating a chrooted FTP account
By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

Often referred to as a "chroot jail" or a "padded cell" because users cannot escape from the directories into which they are put when they log in, the basic concept of a "chroot" (change root) configuration is that a user's working view of the system's file system is dramatically modified so that only some particular directory and its contents is visible. However, in order to be useful, each chrooted environment should contain many of the same directories you would expect to find in the root file system on a typical Unix system. Here's what you need to know.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
China Mobile to sell iPhone ... India enters supercomputers list ... Asia carriers offer flat-rate data ... Chizen to step down as Adobe CEO

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Does your Website suck?
What with the advances in Web design -- your AJAX and your CSS and your what have you -- you may genuinely not know whether or not your site is a terrible abomination upon the Internet that must be banished and never spoken of again. Fortunately, this handy guide -- in decision flowchart form, the better to be understood by IT managers! -- will give you the lowdown on your probably awful site.

Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!

More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!


POLL

What's most likely to keep you from getting a good night's sleep?

- Work
- Video games
- Caffeine
- TV
- Web-surfing
- Parties (that I attend)
- Parties (being held next door, keeping me up)
- Crying baby
- Stress
- Nothing (zzzzzz)

Vote now!

IBM agrees to buy Cognos for $5B ... Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!

Highlights:

* Microsoft reveals Server 2008 pricing, Hyper-V brand
* Dell revamps PowerEdge line of servers
* Microsoft not happy with AV software performance
* IBM agrees to buy Cognos for $5B
* University sues Google over distributed search patent
* Intel launches power-efficient Penryn processors
* Hacker pleads guilty to creating botnets
* Top 10 ridiculous domain names
* Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!


TODAY'S NEWS

Microsoft reveals Server 2008 pricing, Hyper-V brand
Microsoft gave further details Monday of a group of server and virtualization products due next year that will set the tone for how well the company will compete in the enterprise software market.

Dell revamps PowerEdge line of servers
Bringing Intel's latest Penryn chip to its servers, Dell on Monday is expected to revamp its PowerEdge line of servers with new hardware and a new nomenclature to identify the systems.

Microsoft not happy with AV software performance
Microsoft is still experiencing growing pains as it brings its consumer and enterprise security products and service up to speed.

IBM agrees to buy Cognos for $5B
IBM has agreed to buy business intelligence software vendor Cognos for around US$5 billion in cash. The move follows a period of consolidation in the BI and performance management software market, where Oracle bought Hyperion, while Cartesis and ALG Software were snapped up by Business Objects, which is itself being swallowed by SAP. Cognos also bought the much smaller performance management software vendor Applix earlier this year.

University sues Google over distributed search patent
Google has been sued by a university and a start-up company in the U.S. for allegedly infringing on a patented technology to run its online search service.

Intel launches power-efficient Penryn processors
Intel on Sunday launched its long-awaited new line of power-efficient microprocessors, code-named Penryn, designed to deliver better graphics and application performance as well as virtualization capabilities.

Hacker pleads guilty to creating botnets
John Schiefer, 26, admitted that he and some associates developed malware that allowed them to create botnet armies of as many as 250,000 computers. Schiefer was able to collect information sent from the infected computers, including usernames and passwords for Paypal accounts. He and his associates were then able to make purchases using the Paypal accounts. They also shared the password information with others.


ITWHIRLED

- Top 10 ridiculous domain names
- Top 30 failed technology predictions
- If I can only subscribe to five podcasts, which five would I choose?

See these and other top 10 lists


Subscribe to the ITwhirled alert - weird tech news direct to your inbox.


NEW GIVEAWAY

Win a Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt!

More than just a T-shirt; it's a public service. This fantastically functional shirt displays loud and proud the current wi-fi signal strength. Enter for a chance to win!