Delayed GPLv3 draft to debut Wednesday ... PayPal asks e-mail services to block messages

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Delayed GPLv3 third draft to debut Wednesday
News: PayPal asking e-mail services to block messages
News: Yahoo launches mobile ad network
News: Static starts to clear on mobile TV
Tip: Create a security awareness program in three steps
Podcast: Early Vista sales outpace XP ... Samsung plans larger solid-state drives ... ICANN to vote on .xxx domains
ITwhirled: Mathematicians claim to solve problem nobody can explain


NEWS UPDATES

Delayed GPLv3 third draft to debut Wednesday
Months later than had been expected, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) intends to release the third draft of its GNU general public license version 3 (GPLv3) on Wednesday. The organization now also plans a final "last-call" draft following feedback on the third draft.

PayPal asking e-mail services to block messages
PayPal, the Internet-based money transfer system owned by eBay Inc., is trying to persuade e-mail providers to block messages that lack digital signatures, which are aimed at cutting down on phishing scams, a company attorney said Tuesday.

Yahoo launches mobile ad network
Yahoo Inc. launched new services on Tuesday to help publishers put their content on mobile phones and take advantage of an emerging medium for advertising.

Static starts to clear on mobile TV
As a mobile TV service from one major U.S. carrier gets rolling, vendors at the CTIA Wireless show this week in Orlando, Florida, will be highlighting video as a key emerging technology to make the mobile experience -- and service providers -- richer.

Samsung to ship higher capacity solid state disk drive
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. plans to begin shipping a solid-state disk drive in the second quarter that will have double the capacity of its current highest-capacity drive, it said Tuesday.

Optimus keyboard faces another delay
The much-talked-about Optimus Maximus keyboard project is facing another problem. The manufacturer of the OLED displays that are intended to be fitted inside each key is having "serious financial troubles and is not able to deliver displays at all," designer Artemy Lebedev wrote on the Optimus project's blog. But the keyboard should still be available this year.

Cisco adds 3G to branch router
3G (third-generation) wireless will grow up at the CTIA Wireless show in Orlando this week, finding its place in Cisco Systems Inc. business routers.

Adobe overhauls suite for design professionals
Adobe Systems Inc. on Tuesday said it had completely revamped its tools suite for high-end graphics and Web designers by combining, for the first time, products from the former Macromedia and its own portfolio.

Code posted for IE attack
New software has been published on the Internet that could be used to exploit a recently patched flaw in Internet Explorer.

Microsoft: Vista intro outsold XP
Sales of Vista during the first month that the newest Windows operating system was available to consumers were more than double the sales that Windows XP racked up in twice the time, Microsoft Corp. said.


TIP

Create a security awareness program in three steps
By Brent Huston, MicroSolved, Inc.

Security awareness programs may seem like they should be easy to implement, but in reality, they require skills that most security teams don't regularly practice. To help you on your way towards a brighter security future, we've identified three steps required to create an effective awareness program.

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Early Vista sales outpace XP ... Samsung plans larger solid-state drives ... ICANN to vote on .xxx domains

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Mathematicians claim to solve problem nobody can explain
A group of mathematicians have mapped an incredibly complex theoretical object called the "Lie group E8." The solution is so complex that if hand-written it would cover the island of Manhattan, and the project leader admits that "to say what precisely [the problem] is something even many mathematicians can't understand." Now, we're not saying that this is some colossal put-on, but if we were to try to pull a hoax like this, this is how we'd do it.

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

Microsoft details network hack in Windows ... Symbian adds support for TV, cameras, databases

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Microsoft details network hack in Windows
News: Symbian OS v9.5 adds support for TV, cameras, databases
News: SANS to test programmers' security sense
News: Intel to build $2.5 billion chip plant in China
Windows Tip: Determine bandwidth using WMI script
Podcast: Intel to build $2.5B fab in China ... MIcrosoft puts brakes on Soapbox ... IBM shows optical chipset
ITwhirled: The top 10 funniest tech videos on YouTube


NEWS UPDATES

Microsoft details network hack in Windows
Microsoft Corp. is warning of an attack that could be used to divert someone's Web traffic through a malicious proxy server by placing a malicious WPAD.dat file in the Domain Name System (DNS) or the Windows Internet Naming Service (WINS).

Symbian OS v9.5 adds support for TV, cameras, databases
Symbian Ltd. has updated its operating system for mobile phones, improving support for digital TV, cameras, database applications, location-based services and roaming between Wi-Fi and 3G (third-generation) networks.

SANS to test programmers' security sense
Amid growing Internet crime enabled in part by faulty programming, the SANS Institute will introduce a series of four exams for developers to test how well they can write secure code.

Intel to build $2.5 billion chip plant in China
Intel Corp. President and CEO Paul Otellini Monday confirmed the company plans to build a $2.5 billion chip plant in China. The plant, to be built in Dalian, on China's northeastern coast, will enter production during the first half of 2010.

TSMC extends lead over IBM, other chip rivals: Gartner
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) took the top spot in the contract chip manufacturing business again in 2006, and extended its lead over some rivals, such as IBM Corp.

Virtual Iron joins HP partner program
Virtual Iron Inc., the open source underdog to virtualization industry leader VMware Inc., has been chosen to join a Hewlett-Packard Co. partnership program and has landed the travel Web site Priceline.com Inc. as a customer.

Iona adds repository tool for SOAs
Iona Technologies Inc. is broadening its suite of Artix infrastructure software with a new tool announced Monday for managing software services in an SOA environment.

Rackable Systems offers data center in a box
Server maker Rackable Systems Inc. is introducing a data center-in-a-box product that bears a resemblance to the Project Blackbox portable data center coming from Sun Microsystems Inc.

Study: Online advertising fraught with malicious code
An analysis of more than 10 million unique URLs, based on live web traffic recorded in the U.K., by security firm Finjan found that online advertising hosts 80 percent of all instances of malicious code.


WINDOWS TIP

Determine bandwidth using WMI script
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

Did you know that you can use WMI to measure your machine's network bandwidth using a script? To use this script, copy the text provided in this article into Notepad (with Word Wrap turned off) and save it as ReportBandwidth.vbs. To run this script on a Windows Vista machine, open an elevated command prompt and type cscript reportbandwidth.vbs /? to view a list of different arguments you can
use with this script.

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Intel to build $2.5B fab in China ... MIcrosoft puts brakes on Soapbox ... IBM shows optical chipset

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

The top 10 funniest tech videos on YouTube
Spring has sprung, and with it, you may be experiencing a bout of spring fever. Here's a cure, or at least a temporary remedy: "The top 10 funniest tech videos on YouTube" links to some "hilarious parodies, spoofs and jokes related to IT and computers." But if you're in tech support, get ready to be skewered; a lot of the jokes come at your expense, like the Norwegian television show excerpt depicting a medevial help desk.

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

Maintenance contracts at heart of Oracle, SAP dispute ... Palm profit drops

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Maintenance contracts at heart of Oracle, SAP dispute
News: Palm profit drops despite strong smartphone sales
News: IBM finds way to keep chips running cooler
News: NBC, News Corp. team up on YouTube rival
Storage Tip: Intelligence for unstructured data
ITwhirled: MySpace finishes conquest of human social life, now set to destroy journalism
News Podcast: Oracle sues SAP for corporate theft ... NBC, News Corp. to launch YouTube rival ... Bill Gates finally gets his degree


NEWS UPDATES

Maintenance contracts at heart of Oracle, SAP dispute
Software maintenance--who provides it and at what price--is at the heart of the corporate theft lawsuit Oracle Corp. filed against arch-rival SAP AG, one expert said.

Palm profit drops despite strong smartphone sales
Amid rumors that the company could be acquired, Palm Inc. reported Thursday that its third-quarter profit was $16.5 million, down from $19.8 million for the same quarter last year.

IBM finds way to keep chips running cooler
Scientists at IBM Corp.'s Zurich Research Laboratory have developed a glue-application technique used to assemble chips that will keep them running cooler, the company said.

NBC, News Corp. team up on YouTube rival
News Corp. and NBC Universal will challenge Google Inc.'s YouTube for online eyeballs and advertising dollars by launching a video-streaming Web site by the third quarter, News Corp. announced Thursday.

FCC to examine net neutrality
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday launched an inquiry into how broadband providers manage their traffic, again getting involved in a debate over network neutrality.

Novell, Red Hat compare desktop Linux programs
Open-source rivals Novell Inc. and Red Hat Inc. are each highlighting initiatives to bring Linux-based functionality to the desktop.

Broadcom says Qualcomm violated duty to standards group
A U.S. jury ruled that a failure by Qualcomm Inc. to disclose two patents to a video standards group means the company waived its rights to enforce the patents, which are now part of the H.264 video compression standard, Broadcom Corp. said Thursday.

Belgian company loses lawsuit against Google
A Belgian court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a company that said a feature for Google Inc.'s search engine offers up password-cracking tools and serial numbers to unlock their software.

Private equity fund Blackstone Group considers IPO
Blackstone Group, a large private equity group whose shareholdings include some major IT names, is planning an initial public offering. The group's filing with the SEC didn't disclose the proposed value of the offering, but U.S. media reported the issue will raise about $4 billion.


STORAGE TIP

Intelligence for unstructured data
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

IT organizations have the skills to deal with the data growth caused by unstructured data - and deal with the growth you must. But just as with previous data revolutions (first to a focus on online transaction processing systems, which use structured data, and then to semi-structured information, such as e-mail, office productivity, and HTML documents), the heightened awareness and utility of unstructured information can only make the place of data even more central to an enterprise.

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


ITWHIRLED

MySpace finishes conquest of human social life, now set to destroy journalism
Wired Magazine claims to have acquired inside documents that show that MySpace is cooking up a Digg- or Reddit-style social news site. No word yet on whether users will be able to customize their news pages with eye-searing black-text-on-pink-background layouts, or if crappy Nu metal music will start playing when you visit the site.

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



PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Oracle sues SAP for corporate theft ... NBC, News Corp. to launch YouTube rival ... Bill Gates finally gets his degree

More podcasts

Nokia ships N95 phone with GPS

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Nokia ships N95 phone with GPS
News: Motorola cuts Q1 estimate, shakes up management
News: Hitachi to close HDD plant in Mexico, slash workforce
News: Online searching for PS3 bargains proves popular
News: Compatibility woes make UK firms wary of using Vista
News: Broadcom asks US to ban Qualcomm phones
ITwhirled: Top 10 myths about family vacations


NEWS UPDATES

Nokia ships N95 phone with GPS
Nokia Corp. has started shipping its N95 mobile phone in Europe and Asia, the first in an expected series of devices from the Finnish company with built-in GPS (global positioning system) capabilities.

Motorola cuts Q1 estimate, shakes up management
Motorola Inc. replaced a top executive and warned that sales would be lower than expected for the quarter and the year.

Hitachi to close HDD plant in Mexico, slash workforce
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Inc. plans to close a manufacturing plant in Mexico and lay off around 11 percent of its 40,000-person global workforce in a bid to shore up its hard disc drive (HDD) operations.

Online searching for PS3 bargains proves popular
Market researcher Hitwise has reported that last week the PlayStation 3 (PS3) overtook the Nintendo Wii as the most searched-for gaming console online.

Compatibility woes make UK firms wary of using Vista
U.K. firms show little enthusiasm for the Windows Vista operating system, with nearly six out of 10 businesses saying they have no plans to deploy it, research has revealed.

Broadcom asks US to ban Qualcomm phones
Broadcom Corp. officials called on the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to ban the import of mobile phones containing high-speed Qualcomm Inc. processors because of patent infringement.


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top 10 unforgettable hoops shots ... Top 10 movie creatures ... Top 10 Ikea hacks ... 10 weird places to stash your cash ... Top 10 myths about family vacations

Dell launches low-cost PC in China

HIGHLIGHTS

News: Dell launches low-cost PC in China
News: Another Microsoft-Alcatel patent flap to be probed
News: BenQ sees mobile phone ops turning a profit in Q3
News: Liberty releases new client ID specifications
News: IDC: Acer could surpass Lenovo as No. 3 PC maker
News: Micron opens first chip plant in China
News: IBM wins contract to transform Indian mobile operator
ITwhirled: 10 weird places to stash your cash


NEWS UPDATES

Dell launches low-cost PC in China
Dell Inc. has launched a new low-cost desktop PC aimed at grabbing market share in China. Instead of Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Vista OS, it runs Windows XP.

Another Microsoft-Alcatel patent flap to be probed
The U.S. International Trade Commission is going to investigate allegations by Microsoft Corp. of patent infringement by the French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA.

BenQ sees mobile phone ops turning a profit in Q3
There may be a light at the end of the tunnel for BenQ Corp. and its long running mobile phone troubles. A rebound in its Taiwan mobile phone division could see it turn profitable by the third quarter of this year, the company says.

Liberty releases new client ID specifications
The Liberty Alliance released a new set of specifications aimed at protecting identity information transmitted by mobile devices during Web-based transactions.

IDC: Acer could surpass Lenovo as No. 3 PC maker
Acer Inc. could be in position to "slingshot" ahead of rival Lenovo Group Ltd. to become the world's third-largest PC maker during the first quarter, an industry analyst said Wednesday.

Micron opens first chip plant in China
Micron Technology Inc., one of the world's largest memory chip makers, opened its first chip factory in China on Tuesday, the company said in a statement.

IBM wins contract to transform Indian mobile operator
IBM Corp. has bagged a 10-year business transformation contract from a large Indian mobile services operator, Idea Cellular Ltd. The contract, awarded on a risk-reward revenue sharing model, is expected to bring to IBM revenue of between US$600 million and $800 million over 10 years, Idea said Wednesday.

ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top 10 unforgettable hoops shots ... Top 10 movie creatures ... Top 10 Ikea hacks ... 10 weird places to stash your cash ... Top 10 myths about family vacations

IPTV groups forms, minus Microsoft and Alcatel ... BenQ chairman offers to resign over mobile troubles

HIGHLIGHTS
News: BenQ chairman offers to resign over phone troubles
News: IBM, Cisco release crisis response service
News: IPTV groups forms, but without two key players
News: FTC stays part of Rambus case
ITwhirled: Bad idea of the week: Selling drugs on Craigslist
Unix Tip: Power outage 2007


NEWS UPDATES

BenQ chairman offers to resign over phone troubles
The chairman of BenQ Corp. offered his resignation on Tuesday over losses caused by the company's inability to make its former German mobile phone subsidiary profitable. BenQ's board of directors refused to accept the offer, however, demanding that he remain in his role and turn the company around.

IBM, Cisco release crisis response service
IBM Corp. and Cisco Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced a new one-stop service designed to help businesses and government agencies respond to and recover from disasters, the companies said.

IPTV groups forms, but without two key players
Several big telecommunication carriers and equipment suppliers hope to accelerate the deployment of Internet-based television services by agreeing to a set of interoperable technology specifications. Two key suppliers of IPTV technology are absent from the group, however: Microsoft Corp. and Alcatel-Lucent SA.

FTC stays part of Rambus case
A U.S. agency has modified its own ruling, freeing Rambus Inc. to collect royalties for past uses of its memory chip technology despite charges that the company holds a monopoly in the industry, the company said Monday.

Dynamics users: Microsoft is listening more
Microsoft Corp. is spending more time soliciting and responding to feedback from users of its Dynamics business applications, according to attendees at the vendor's recent Convergence show in San Diego.

Vista's tunnelling protocol poses risk
Windows Vista's implementation of a tunnelling protocol called Teredo can be added to the list of security problems posed by the operating system, according to recent research from Symantec Advanced Threat Research.

EMC partners with NIIT to bridge storage training gap
EMC Corp. has partnered with Indian training company NIIT Ltd. to train storage professionals in 32 countries. The alliance is the first of its kind by EMC, and aims to fill a shortage of storage and information management professionals worldwide, Manoj Chugh, EMC's country manager for India, said on Tuesday.

Dell opens Chinese blog, lauds Taiwan
Dell Inc. opened its first Chinese language blog on Monday in a bid to make sure its communications keep pace with its growth and enable it to better serve customers, the head of the new blog said in the first entry.

Microsoft offers small-business promotions
Microsoft Corp. is offering small businesses promotions for free software trials and business tools, as long as they are willing to ensure that they are running genuine copies of Windows.

MySpace politics site: Large potential audience
MySpace launched a U.S. presidential campaign site Monday, and it has the potential of reaching millions of people who don't otherwise go to political Web sites, one analyst said.


UNIX TIP

Power outage 2007
By Sandra Henry Stocker, ITworld.com

The power was gone and the UPS was keeping the systems up, but without
air conditioning, the computer room was already heating up. "What", I
asked myself as I surveyed the computer room that morning, "are my
priorities?". I could wait for the auto-shutdown script, set to be
triggered by a low-battery event issued by the UPS, to kick in and
begin the graceful shutdown of servers. "But how hot", I
wondered, "will the room be by then?" Better to run the script
manually and the sooner the better.

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


ITWHIRLED

Bad idea of the week: Selling drugs on Craigslist
If you were a drug dealer, you probably wouldn't advertise on TV, or in the newspaper, or in some other venue where law enforcement would be likely to see it, would you? But surely the Internet is a whole different story! A New York man decided that Craigslist would be a great way for him to sell some crack cocaine in his possession, with predictable results.

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

Salesforce.com unveiles Spring 07 update ... Google buys in-game ads company

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Hackers selling IDs for $14, Symantec says
News: Adobe releases first Apollo code to developers
News: Google buys game advertising, statistics software
News: Salesforce.com readies its take on MySpace
Opinion: Management maps
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: 10 weird places to stash your cash


NEWS UPDATES

Hackers selling IDs for $14, Symantec says
Identity thieves are offering a person's credit-card number, date of birth and other sensitive information for as little as $14 over the Internet, said a new report on online threats released Monday.

Adobe releases first Apollo code to developers
Adobe Systems Inc. is giving developers a free preview of its forthcoming runtime code-named Apollo on Monday, releasing an alpha version of the technology on its Adobe Labs site.

Google buys game advertising, statistics software
Google Inc. has acquired Adscape Media, an in-game advertising company based in San Francisco, for an undisclosed sum, Google announced Friday. Adscape offers technology for placing advertisements in video games for PCs, gaming consoles and mobile phones.

Salesforce.com readies its take on MySpace
Salesforce.com Inc. Monday joined other corporate software players trying to take the concepts behind the highly successful social networking site MySpace and apply them to the business world. AppSpace is a hosted portal which forms part of the Spring 07 release of the Salesforce hosted CRM software.

Fujitsu offers flash-based notebooks
Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp. is fortifying two models in its notebook line by offering the option of solid state drives for rugged applications like health care and aviation, the company said Monday.

Expert: Supreme Court copyright ruling invites chaos
The 2005 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Grokster v. MGM case is partly responsible for Viacom Inc.'s dispute with Google Inc. ending up in court, an expert on copyright law said in a Sunday opinion piece in The New York Times newspaper.

Hackers promise month of MySpace bugs
Two hackers going by the names of Mondo Armando and Müstaschio promise to begin disclosing security vulnerabilities in MySpace, News Corp.'s popular social networking site, every day next month.

Apple offers to re-price options for employees
Apple Inc. has offered to re-price stock options for some employees who received them at incorrect prices. In a filing Friday with the SEC, Apple said 114,695 options, issued between 1997 and 2002, were erroneously assigned grant dates that preceded the finalization of those grants.

Broadcom, Qualcomm settle more disputes
Qualcomm said on Friday that it had agreed with Broadcom to dismiss patent infringement claims and trade secret misappropriation charges asserted by the companies in two lawsuits.


OPINION

Management maps
By James Gaskin

Why do executives look so disappointed when they visit the operations center? Because the TV program 24 shows us a NOC with network maps linked to satellites able to drill down and watch Jack Bauer run around town. You've got log files, and if you're lucky, a reproduction of a router face plate with blinking LEDs.

Time to spiff up your presentation for executive eye candy as well as provide better management. Take a look at the new FireScope (.com) Dashboard now integrated with Google Maps and drill down to street level. You won't see Bauer running around, but you will see your remote locations in physical context with their environment.

Subscribe to Enterprise Networking - Strategies for designing, implementing and securing enterprise-level networks.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Salesforce.com unveiles Spring 07 update ... Google acquires in-game ads company ... ID thieves selling identities for $14 ... Adobe releases Apollo runtime

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
Top 10 unforgettable hoops shots ... Top 10 movie creatures ... Top 10 Ikea hacks ... 10 weird places to stash your cash ... Top 10 myths about family vacations

Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search ... WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Japanese Internet icon found guilty
News: Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search
News: WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player
News: Ballmer questions business strategy of Google
Opinion: Is Google Book Search fair to authors?
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Meteorite bombardment in Illinois


NEWS UPDATES

Japanese Internet icon found guilty
The founder and former CEO of Japanese Internet portal Livedoor Co. was found guilty of violating securities laws on Friday and sentenced to two and a half years in prison in one of the biggest cases of corporate abuse for Japan in recent years.

Microsoft offers enterprises incentives for search
In an apparent attempt to boost its disappointing Web search market share, Microsoft Corp. is giving financial incentives to large enterprise customers whose employees use Microsoft's Live Search engine.

WebEx buy makes Cisco a collaboration player
Cisco Systems Inc. is entering new territory with its planned $3.2 billion acquisition of WebEx Communications Inc., with plans to deliver collaboration tools as an online service and possibly integrate the company's business-related offerings with consumer social networking technology.

Ballmer questions business strategy of Google
Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer criticized rival Google Inc., saying it is devoted primarily to ad-supported search while Microsoft has reinvented itself many times over.

Vodafone takes hybrid approach to mobile VOIP
Vodafone Group PLC is demonstrating a service at the Cebit trade show that allows mobile phone customers to call and exchange presence information with users of Internet phone services such as Skype.

Wall Street Beat: M&A heats up market
With Cisco Systems Inc. and Pitney Bowes Inc. announcing big acquisitions Thursday, buyout activity is giving nervous IT investors something to think about besides the volatility that has hit stock markets -- and tech companies -- since the big selloff two weeks ago.

Skype gains business reviews, expertise marketplace
Skype Ltd. has released a new version of its Internet telephony and instant messaging software that adds a feature to let users create business reviews, and another one to sell expertise, as the eBay Inc. subsidiary promotes interaction among its users.


OPINION

Is Google Book Search fair to authors?
By Dan Blacharski

I admit, when I first heard about the Google Book Search, I was afraid they were digitizing and posting entire libraries online - a practice that would be disastrous for the publishing industry, blatantly unfair to authors, and outright illegal. Fortunately, they're not doing that.

Subscribe to Blog Insights - A weekly recap of what bloggers are saying about information technology.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Cisco buying WebEx for $3.2 billion ... Microsoft offers credits for enterprise Web search ... Livedoor's Horie found guilty

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Meteorite bombardment in Illinois
A central Illinois woman had her window broken by a piece of metal the size of a deck of cards. A university professor tentatively identified the projectile as a meteorite. No further strikes have been reported, which means that the Earth is safe from the planet-killing meteorite swarms ... for now.

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

Cisco to buy WebEx ... Google embraces anonymous searches ... Intel to shrink chip size

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Cisco to buy WebEx for $3.2 billion
News: Intel promises more energy-efficient chips
News: Google to make search logs anonymous
News: OpenBSD hit by second flaw in 10 years
Unix Tip: Last workday of the month: A retake
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: Navy researching vomit ray


NEWS UPDATES

Cisco to buy WebEx for $3.2 billion
Cisco Systems Inc. announced Thursday it will buy the online conference provider WebEx Communications Inc. for $3.2 billion to sell collaboration tools to small and medium businesses.

Intel promises more energy-efficient chips
Intel plans to further reduce the size and power consumption of its mobile microprocessors over the next year or so, paving the way for computers that are smaller and consume substantially less power, a company executive said Thursday.

Google to make search logs anonymous
Google Inc. will start making its records about users' searches anonymous after 18 to 24 months under a policy announced Wednesday. Until now, the dominant search company has indefinitely retained a log of every search, with identifiers that can associate it with a particular computer.

OpenBSD hit by second flaw in 10 years
The security-conscious OpenBSD team has acknowledged that the operating system contains a serious security flaw in the code that handles IPv6 packets. OpenBSD is known for its strict security policies, and until this week its website boasted "Only one remote hole in the default install, in more than 10 years!"

RSA to offer Trojan take-down service
EMC Corp.'s RSA division plans to launch a new service next month that will help financial institutions take down Web sites associated with malicious Trojan Horse software. The service is planned as an extension to the FraudAction phishing takedown service already offered by RSA

Researcher: Cingular, Travelocity still in spyware net
Just weeks after reaching a settlement with New York's attorney general, AT&T Inc.'s Cingular division and Travelocity.com LP are again being accused of having ties to spyware companies.

Siemens teams with Nokia on Wi-Fi-GSM hand-over
Siemens Enterprise Communications GmbH & Co. KG is working with Nokia Corp. to polish the hand-over of voice calls between corporate wireless LANs and public mobile phone networks, a Siemens executive said Wednesday.

SAP to offer regular updates for Business One
SAP will start releasing frequent updates to its Business One software for small businesses in the form of what it is calling "enhancement packages." The packages will include maintenance updates, new features and best-practice tools, the company announced Thursday during a news conference at the Cebit trade show.

New Red Hat OS features modular design
The newly launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system features a modular design that counters the argument by critics that operating systems are becoming too large and complex, a Red Hat Inc. executive said at launch ceremonies Wednesday in San Francisco.

Ballmer talks up CRM Live
Microsoft demonstrated Dynamics Live CRM, its planned hosted customer relationship management software, during the closing Wednesday keynote given by CEO Steve Ballmer at its Convergence show in San Diego. CRM Live will be another member of the vendor's growing Live software-as-a-service product family, joining Windows Live and Office Live.


UNIX TIP

Last workday of the month: A retake
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

One of my articles last month described an approach to determining whether some particular weekday happens to be the last workday of the month. In response, a reader offered a version that has a particularly interesting advantage. Instead of being implemented as code which can be inserted into any script in which you want to execute certain commands only on the last workday of the month, this script is a standalone that you would use to invoke other scripts or specific commands when it's the appropriate time for them to run -- when it's the last workday of the month.

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft unveils Dynamics Live ... Google embraces anonymous searches .... Intel to shrink chip size

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

Navy researching vomit ray
Looking for new methods to incapacitate without killing, the U.S. military is researching a proposed radio-frequency weapon that would throw its target's equilibrium out of whack, resulting in dizziness and vomiting but no permanent damage. But who will clean up?

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

BenQ's cell phone nightmare continues ... Samsung remakes the Q1 ... MS sues cybersquatters

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Mobile phone nightmare not over yet for BenQ
News: After one year, Samsung remakes the Q1
News: Intel may face hurdle on China factory: TSMC chairman
News: Microsoft files lawsuits against cybersquatters
Windows Tip: Managing Windows Firewall in Mixed Environments
Interview: Flickr co-founder talks about growth, plans
ITwhirled: Italian minister buys Second Life island


NEWS UPDATES

Mobile phone nightmare not over yet for BenQ
Just when BenQ Corp. thought the worst of its mobile phone woes were behind it, Taiwanese prosecutors raided its offices and hauled away three executives for questioning over alleged insider stock trading related to when it revealed losses incurred from BenQ Mobile GmbH & Co. OHG.

After one year, Samsung remakes the Q1
One year after Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. introduced its first Q1 ultra-mobile PC, the company has revamped the device, making it lighter and more powerful. The new device, called Q1 Ultra, will be unveiled Thursday during a press conference at the Cebit exhibition in Hanover, Germany.

Intel may face hurdle on China factory: TSMC chairman
The U.S. government may prove to be a major hurdle in any plan by Intel Corp. to build an advanced chip factory in China, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. warned Wednesday.

Microsoft files lawsuits against cybersquatters
Microsoft Corp. has filed two new lawsuits against companies it accuses of registering domain names similar to certain of its trademarks. It has also settled three similar suits with other companies, it said Wednesday.

Microsoft's new industry focus yields IP buy
Just a day after debuting a new initiative to produce more industry-specific functionality for users of its Dynamics business applications, Microsoft Corp. Tuesday announced it had purchased intellectual property (IP) and code relevant to the manufacturing sector.

Red Hat release renews OS debate
As Red Hat Inc. prepares to launch the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 operating system on Wednesday, the question is again being asked whether a robust and feature-laden operating system is really needed for some computing situations.

Microsoft releases major Server 2003 update
Microsoft Corp. has queitly released a major update to its server operating system designed to make the product more stable and secure.

Lenovo to ship Windows Live on PCs
In a modest win for Microsoft Corp.'s struggling online services business, Microsoft said late Tuesday that computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. will pre-load Windows Live services on its ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCentre desktops and Lenovo-branded PCs.

AMD system pumps PC content to TV screens
Claiming it has forged a new link for consumers who want to connect their TVs and PCs, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. announced Wednesday at Cebit it has designed a mix of technologies that solve the perennial challenge of converging the computer and the television.


WINDOWS TIP

Managing Windows Firewall in Mixed Environments
By Mitch Tulloch, MTIT Enterprises

If you migrate all the desktops in a given organizational unit to Windows Vista, you can simply manage the firewall on these computers using the new Group Policy node found under Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Windows Firewall With Advanced Security. But what if your OU will contain a combination of Windows XP and Windows Vista computers? What's the best way to use Group Policy to manage the Windows Firewall on these computers? Here's a brief answer taken with permission from the soon-to-be-released Windows Vista Resource Kit.

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


INTERVIEW

Flickr co-founder talks about growth, plans
In this interview, Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and general manager of the lauded photo management and sharing site Flickr, talks about Flickr's growth in size and quality, its status as a Yahoo Inc. company, and near and long-term plans, as well as peanut butter.


ITWHIRLED

Italian minister buys Second Life island
His main political rival controls three national television networks, a newspaper, a weekly magazine and a publishing house, so an Italian minister has decided to try and level the propaganda playing field by buying himself an island in Second Life.

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

Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit ... Microsoft, IBM add community support

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit
News: Acer is on the lookout for M&A targets
News: IDC: Q4 storage revenue drops at Dell, HP
News: Microsoft to offer 'MySpace' for apps users
Storage Tip: Not your father's backup/restore software
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: South Korea explores robot ethics


NEWS UPDATES

Viacom slaps Google with $1 billion YouTube lawsuit
Viacom Inc. has sued Google Inc., alleging copyright infringement from video-sharing site YouTube and seeking $1 billion in damages.

Acer is on the lookout for M&A targets
Acer Inc., the world's fourth largest PC vendor, plans to make a meaningful acquisition this year and is already looking at candidates, the company said Tuesday.

IDC: Q4 storage revenue drops at Dell, HP
Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. reported declines in storage hardware revenue in the fourth quarter of 2006, running contrary to a growth trend for the storage industry.

Microsoft to offer 'MySpace' for apps users
Microsoft Corp. introduced the first in a planned series of online communities for users of its Dynamics applications to provide forums where peers can exchange best practices. Centered around specific industries or job titles, the first community is aimed at finance professionals such as corporate controllers, finance managers and accountants.

SEC charges ex-Nortel executives
U.S. and Canadian stock regulators filed fraud charges on Monday against several former executives of Nortel Networks Corp., accusing them of twisting accounting practices to make it seem that the company was meeting Wall Street expectations.

Philips starts selling off stake in TSMC
Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV sold just over 887 million shares of stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. (TSMC) Monday for NT$57.66 billion ($1.75 billion), part of a sale intended to finalize Philips' exit from the semiconductor industry.

IBM enhances software development program
IBM Corp. is enhancing its software developer's support program by creating a software code exchange.

VC firm, ex-Microsoft execs back Internet OS company
A venture capital firm has given a $10 million boost to a Swedish company that could soon be in the competitive crosshairs of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.


STORAGE TIP

Not your father's backup/restore software
By David Hill, Mesabi Group

If you are looking at traditional backup/restore with the extra-added appeal of disk, contact the vendors in your market space with whom you are familiar (and those could be through your current storage hardware vendor). If you are interested in overall recovery management or a new technology, such as continuous data protection, you can contact companies that focus in those spaces. If, on the other hand, you are looking at a storage hardware solution, then you will know that the vendor that you are choosing also has a backup/restore story and probably one that involves disk-based backup as well. In any event, you are likely to find at least one -- and probably more than one -- company that will meet your needs.

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


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Microsoft, IBM add community support ... Nortel ex-executives charged ... Xcerion gains backing

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

South Korea explores robot ethics
South Korea, always on the cutting edge of technology, foresees a robot in every home by 2020. Getting a head start, the government is putting together a "robot ethics charter" to help keep people mentally and emotionally healthy in their dealings with the humanoid machines, and to stave off the inevitable robot revolt and takeover.

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

Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case ... HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard

HIGHLIGHTS
News: Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case
News: HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard
News: Samsung samples 8 GB flash chip for mobile phones
News: EDS acquiring Indian testing company
Book Review: MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Ed.
Podcast: Today's IT news audio update
ITwhirled: 10 Biggest nerds in TV history


NEWS UPDATES

Otellini e-mail among those missing in AMD case
E-mail messages from some of Intel Corp.'s most senior executives are among those that should have been preserved but were not after the chip-maker was sued for alleged antitrust violations by Advanced Micro Devices Inc., according to a court transcript released by AMD.

HP pitches PCs for new Energy Star standard
Four months before federal regulators apply stringent new efficiency standards to desktop PCs, Hewlett-Packard Co. has tweaked three computers to qualify for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star 4.0 label.

Samsung samples 8 GB flash chip for mobile phones
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has begun shipping samples of an 8 G-byte flash memory chip, enough to store up to 2,000 songs on a mobile phone, the company said on Monday.

EDS acquiring Indian testing company
Electronic Data Systems Corp. is acquiring RelQ Software Pvt. Ltd., a privately owned software testing company in Bangalore, India, to strengthen its global testing capabilities by offering applications testing, validation and verification, and quality assurance services.

Cisco, IBM expand joint support to 46 countries
Cisco Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. are expanding a cooperative support offering from the U.S. to 46 other markets. Through the offering, called Managed Maintenance Solutions for Cisco Products, enterprises that use IBM as a systems integrator can get Cisco technical support by calling IBM.

More efficient quad-core Xeons coming Monday
Intel Corp. quad-core microprocessors that work at an energy-efficient 50 watts per processor will officially be on the market starting today, according to the company.

GoDaddy hit with denial-of-service attack
Domain registrar and hosting company GoDaddy.com Inc. was hit with "significant and sustained" distributed denial-of-service attacks Sunday, causing four to five hours of intermittent service disruptions, including hosting and e-mail, the company said.

Seagate ships super secure hard drive
Two years after first being announced by Seagate, the world's most secure hard drive is finally to go on sale in a laptop from system vendor ASI.

Verizon ruling could be hard on Vonage
Shares of Vonage Holdings Corp. plunged Friday in the wake of a patent-infringement ruling against the company that some analysts called a grim outcome for the VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) service provider.


BOOK REVIEW

MySQL Cookbook, 2nd Edition
By Sandra Henry-Stocker

MySQL is one of the most popular open source databases. With an estimated 10 million active installations and more then 50,000 downloads every day, it runs on nearly every Unix platform and Windows as well. Along with this popularity, however, comes a host of questions from users on how to best accomplish any of a myriad of tasks. That's where MySQL Cookbook comes in. Whether you're new to MySQL or a long-time user, you will find numerous "tricks" that you can put to immediate use.


PODCAST

Daily IT News Audio Update
Daylight saving time shift goes smoothly in U.S. ... Intel ships low-power quad-core Xeons ... TSMC reports lowest sales in 20 months

More podcasts


ITWHIRLED

She's a 10
10 Things to do if you get pulled over ... 10 Biggest nerds in TV history ... 10 Job hunting mistakes and how not to make them ... 10 Ways to prevent interruptions ... 10 Predictions for XML in 2007

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

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?

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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