eWeek articles from April 2005

eWeek archives from April 2005

Microsoft Files 117 Suits in Fight Against 'Phishing'.
April 1, 2005... WASHINGTON (Reuters)--Microsoft Corp. Thursday said it was filing 117 lawsuits against unknown Internet site operators it charged were engaged in "phishing" schemes to obtain personal and financial information from unsuspecting consumers. ...

Mobile Carriers Seek Cheaper Anti-Piracy Software.(beliefs of GSM Association)
April 1, 2005... AMSTERDAM (Reuters)--A powerful group of mobile telecoms operators on Friday called for lower prices for essential anti-piracy systems, warning that high royalty payments may stifle the markets for digital music and video. The mobile phone...

Apdex Alliance Gains New Members.
April 1, 2005... The recently formed Application Performance Index Alliance, dedicated to creating a single number to measure application performance, gained some momentum Thursday when it announced that Keynote Systems Inc. and Akamai Technologies Inc. have...

Google Trademark Suit Could Go to Trial.
April 1, 2005... In the ongoing trademark-infringement battle between a home-decorating retailer and Google, a U.S. District Court this week ruled that the case could proceed, possibly to trial. Google Inc. had sought a dismissal of the lawsuit, originally...

Mobile Market Awaits Break in the DRM Logjam.(digital rights management)
April 1, 2005... Grokster has hit the agenda of the U.S. Supreme Court. It promises to be one of those landmark legal battles that will produce a decision that profoundly changes life in these United States. In this case, it's digital life. Grokster, if...

EMC Tool Analyzes SAN Environments in Real Time.
April 1, 2005... A new real-time change control and analysis tool promises to help enterprises optimize changes made to their storage area networks. EMC's ControlCenter SAN Advisor allows organizations to perform real-time "what-if" analyses to determine...

WS SP1: Let Microsoft Make Its Own Apologies.(defects of Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1)
April 1, 2005... This morning I turned on my computer and had barely sat down when an IM from my friend and fellow Microsoft SBS admin, Susan Bradley, appeared. "Don't install SP1," it read, the service pack in question being the brand new release for Windows...

Out of the Shadow of Hardware Death.(usage forecasts of engineering tools)
April 1, 2005... Digital technologies have long since trashed the traditional connection between workmanship, performance and price. Without that connection to maintain natural market behaviors, it's going to take original thinking and deliberate effort to...

Red Hat Tops Its Records in Revenue, Sales.
April 1, 2005... Red Hat on Thursday announced record revenue and profits for its fourth quarter and its 2005 fiscal year, which ended Feb. 28. The Raleigh, N.C., company's total revenue for fiscal year 2005 jumped to $196.5 million, an increase of 58...

The Chaotic World of Defining Spyware.
April 1, 2005... Earlier this week, when anti-spyware vendor eTrust PestPatrol temporarily removed detections for eight adware applications marketed by Claria, the move caused many a raised eyebrow among anti-spyware advocates. PestPatrol said Friday it...

Sun to Update Solaris, Name OpenSolaris Board Members.
April 1, 2005... Sun Microsystems Inc. is already hard at work on the feature-set for the next version of its Solaris operating system, which is taking place on a parallel track to the development of updates for Solaris 10, released at the end of January. ...

Visa Fixes Authentication Problems.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... Visa has dealt with problems online merchants were having with its Verified by Visa authentication program, according to Mike Yakel, vice president for risk product development. E-retailers had complained the program would create pop-up...

Travel Search Prepares for Takeoff.
April 1, 2005... In a trend that could transform the way consumers find and book travel online, travel search engines are gaining increased backing from some of the Web's most heavily visited sites. Yahoo Inc. has begun promoting travel search following its...

AppSecInc Tackles SarbOx, FISMA Compliance.(Sarbanes-Oxley Act and Federal Information Security Management Act)(Application Security Inc. enhances its products)
April 1, 2005... AppSecInc will roll out canned best policies for its database-auditing and intrusion detection software on Monday at InfoSec World. The latest additions to AppSecInc's current roster of best practices will cover the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and...

Offshoring Fails to Buoy a Sinking Job Market.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2005... A recent column of mine discussed how one outsourcing expert believes tech companies that offshore some IT functions may boost their competitive posture, increase financial stability, and, so the notion goes, save jobs at home. There's...

Intel Strikes a Blow for Open-Source License Sanity.
April 1, 2005... Someone up there must like me, because a major company, Intel, is actually withdrawing an open-source license. Will miracles never cease! I've been saying that there are too many open-source licenses for quite some time now. I...

'Raw' Format Is a Lifesaver.
April 1, 2005... Will Adobe's DNG (Digital Negative ) displace the current multitude of raw camera formats? I don't really have an opinion, but I can provide some explanatory material to inform the debate. In a previous column, I said that exposure is easy...

Technology May Hold Back Social Security.(social policy of Social Security Administration)
April 1, 2005... AARP runs television spots panning the idea of allowing tens of millions of U.S. citizens to establish private accounts for their retirement, as part of the federal Social Security program. President Bush travels the country pitching these...

Storage Virtualization Tools Refined.
April 4, 2005... IBM, Network Appliance Inc. and Hitachi Data Systems Corp. are pushing storage virtualization to help administrators remedy shrinking capacity and poor utilization rates without increasing the number of storage arrays in their IT environment....

Open Source Initiative Adds New Blood.(boards of directors appointed)
April 4, 2005... On April 1, the Open Source Initiative quietly made its good on its promise to expand its board's membership, both in general and by adding members from outside the United States. Danese Cooper, a former Sun Microsystems Inc. open-source...

Microsoft Offers Partners New MapPoint License Option.
April 4, 2005... Microsoft has acceded to partners' requests to provide more reasonable licensing options for MapPoint, a mapping software product now being tweaked by some integrators to create custom logistics applications for enterprises and SMBs that run...

Services' Siren Songs Demand New Harmonies.
April 4, 2005... The past week at eWEEK Labs has focused on assembling our forthcoming report, to be published a week from today, on the winners and finalists in our Fifth Annual Excellence Awards (for which we briefly announced the names of the finalists last...

SpikeSource to Unveil New Products, Updates to Open-Source Stacks.(Kim Polese)(Interview)
April 4, 2005... SpikeSource Inc., an open-source IT services company, has developed a solution for what it says is one of the biggest problems facing open-source technology adoption by large enterprises today: the lack of uniform integration, certification,...

SAP Extends Grab for PeopleSoft Users.(service enhancement)
April 4, 2005... In another move to attract Oracle customers, SAP has extended its Safe Passage Program to all users of J.D. Edwards and PeopleSoft applications. SAP AG's Safe Passage program, which the company rolled out in January hard on the heels of...

Cyber-Terrorism Analyst Warns Against Complacency.(Roger Cressey)
April 4, 2005... ORLANDO, Florida--Cyber-security and counterterrorism analyst Roger Cressey on Monday pleaded with IT executives not to underestimate the threat of "national cyber-event" targeting critical infrastructure in the United States. During a...

Blinkx Update Merges Search Results.(Blinkx)
April 4, 2005... Startup Blinkx on Monday updated its desktop search client by combining search results into one view and adding new security features. The San Francisco-based company released Blinkx 3.0, an update that revamps the way the client displays...

Impinj Launches Industry's First RFID Gen 2 System.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Impinj announced on Monday the roll-out of its GrandPrix, a set of RFID tags and readers touted as the first RFID system to comply with EPCGlobal's emerging Generation 2 protocol. In an interview with CIO Insight, Impinj Inc. President and...

Firefox JavaScript Engine Flaw Flagged.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... A moderately critical security flaw in the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox Web browser could put users at risk of information disclosure attacks, according to an advisory from security research outfit Secunia. The vulnerability has been...

e-Pharmacies Supplant Doctors?(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Online consumers are using Internet pharmacies to take control of their own medication and to sometimes cut the physicians out of the process. More than 17 million Americans visited Internet pharmacies last quarter, up 14 percent from the same...

IT Admins Must 'Think Like Hackers'.(presentation of Jeff Crume)(administrators)
April 4, 2005... ORLANDO, Fla.--Veteran IBM security architect Jeff Crume on Monday urged IT administrators to start thinking like malicious hackers to fully understand the ways in which a corporate network can be breached. In a standing-room-only...

ICANN Digs into Panix.com Domain Theft--but Not Too Deep.(investigation of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
April 4, 2005... In my continuing series on domain name theft I have observed the problem shift as the technology and standards have shifted. The problem used to be sloppy registrar practices. We still have that, although some registrars have gotten better....

Seagate, Hitachi Talk Up 3D Recording Plans.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Seagate chimed in Monday on perpendicular recording, a next-generation means of improving the areal density of hard disk drives. Hitachi GST is expected to release the first of the new drives later...

Google to Expand Video Search.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO--Google is ready to expand its experimentation with video search this week by allowing individuals to submit video to the search engine. Google co-founder Larry Page on Monday disclosed the company's plan to begin accepting...

Savvis to Help Customers Determine Data Center Needs.
April 4, 2005... Savvis Communications Corp. last year launched its hosted data center, giving customers a virtualized environment that offers everything from compute power to storage to networking. Now the Herndon, Va., company is looking to make it easier...

SCO Finally Files Its Late Financial Paperwork.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... On Friday, The SCO Group Inc. announced it has finally filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission its amended Form 10-Qs for the 2004 quarters ended Jan. 31, April 30 and July 31 and its annual report for the fiscal year 2004. SCO...

Adobe Bridge Creates a Buzz.(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... NEW YORK--A first look at the new Adobe Bridge feature in Adobe Systems' forthcoming Creative Suite 2 got people talking at Monday's Adobe Ideas Conference here. Adobe Systems Inc. officially announced the new suite, which includes new CS2...

Can Adobe Redefine Creative Workflow?(Brief Article)
April 4, 2005... Launched 18 months ago into an already fairly mature software market, the first release of Adobe's Creative Suite was a runaway success. The integration of all of the different software elements Adobe provides to the design and publishing...

CIOs Find New Roles, New Directions.(survey of chief information officers)
April 5, 2005... 26% of CIOs spent half their career in IT and half outside of IT 55% say contributing to corporate strategy is one of their three top responsibilities 34% of CIOs manage another corporate function while running IT 16% spend most of their time...

Intel's Otellini Calls for Government Action on Broadband.
April 5, 2005... WASHINGTON--In the country's capital for the annual federal government IT conference and exhibition, Intel Corp. President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini echoed a sentiment heard with increasing frequency here: The U.S. government...

Security Company Warns About DNS Attacks.(Domain Naming System)
April 5, 2005... A security company has issued a warning over a possible hijacking of the Internet's DNS system, which has resulted in some users being unable to reach some Web sites--instead being redirected to sites maintained by the attackers. According...

Microsoft Accepts Most EU Demands.(European Union)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2005... Monday, Microsoft sent a letter to European Union regulators accepting most of the Commission's demands to satisfy antitrust concerns, but asked for further dialog on some matters regarding the licensing of its source code. Microsoft has...

CA's Swainson Speaks Out on Restructuring.(Interview)
April 5, 2005... In launching the new organizational structure at Computer Associates International Inc., CEO John Swainson is making his biggest mark yet on CA, as he tries to put its troubled past behind the software behemoth. With five months at the helm,...

CA Reorganizes into Five Business Units.(Computer Associates International Inc.)
April 5, 2005... Computer Associates International Inc. on Tuesday will put the final pieces of its reorganization puzzle together when it launches five separate business units, each with profit and loss responsibility. The new business units, architected...

Spyware Lawsuit Alleges Computer Hijacking.
April 5, 2005... A recently filed class-action lawsuit against alleged spyware king DirectRevenue of New York claims that the company has deceptively downloaded harmful and offensive spyware to unsuspecting users' computers. The suit, filed in the Circuit...

Adobe Tightens Workflow in CS2.( Adobe Creative Suite 2)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2005... NEW YORK--New features in Adobe Creative Suite 2 will enable graphic design teams to manage their workflows more effectively with less time spent outside the Adobe design environment, according to panelists at this week's Ideas conference here,...

Verizon Threatens to Pull Out of MCI Deal.
April 5, 2005... WASHINGTON (Reuters)--Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday said it would pull out of its $7.6 billion deal to buy MCI Inc. if MCI's board deemed a rival $9.07 billion bid by Qwest Communications International Inc. "superior." The move...

Study Shows Microsoft, Linux Neck-and-Neck.
April 5, 2005... SEATTLE (Reuters)--Most U.S. businesses say there is very little difference between the cost of maintaining a Windows versus a Linux-based corporate computing environment, according to a new Yankee Group study released on Monday. The main...

Sun Names OpenSolaris Board.
April 5, 2005... Sun Microsystems Inc. on Monday announced the five members of its OpenSolaris Community Advisory Board to steward the evolution of that community and its governance model, including open-source luminary Roy Fielding, the co-founder of The...

JBoss Enhances Indemnification Program.
April 5, 2005... JBoss Inc. has upgraded its indemnification coverage for customers using its JBoss Enterprise Middleware System. The Atlanta-based company Tuesday announced that its indemnification coverage now includes unlimited coverage for defense,...

Get the Facts Right on Linux, Microsoft.(Column)
April 5, 2005... "The times they are a-changin'," as Bob Dylan sang. Last year, Microsoft launched an advertising blitz against Linux titled "Get the Facts," or as I liked to call it, "Get the FUD." Some of Microsoft's "facts" came from research by...

FCC Chairman Calls on Cable to Address Indecency.
April 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO--In one of his first appearances since taking the helm at the Federal Communications Commission, Kevin Martin encouraged cable executives to deal with the issue of indecency on television as an industry. Martin, who was...

StorageTek Unveils 4G Enterprise Storage System.
April 5, 2005... Storage Technology Corp. has announced a 4G-bps Fibre Channel-based storage-area network solution designed for high-end environments that demand maximum throughput. The FLX380, which StorageTek says is the first 4G-bps enterprise storage...

Fujitsu Packs Itanium 2 Chips into High-End Servers.
April 5, 2005... Fujitsu Computer Systems on Tuesday unveiled PrimeQuest, a new line of Itanium 2-based servers aimed at the high end of the market. At a press conference in San Francisco, officials with Fujitsu Computer Systems Corp.--a subsidiary of...

Insurance Provider Funds Switch to Electronic Health Records.(Electronic Health Records)
April 5, 2005... In a move that drew praise from the nation's health IT czar Monday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has promised $50 million to implement electronic health records so data can be shared among nursing homes, hospitals and outpatient...

Coming to Your Pocket: A Terrorist Beacon?(technology policy of Department of State)
April 5, 2005... What do you suppose our enemies would pay for a device capable of identifying all the Americans walking down the street in a foreign city? And why might the U.S. Department of State be making such a weapon possible? We're talking about a...

IBM Announces New SOA Services.(Service Oriented Architectures)(Brief Article)
April 5, 2005... IBM's Global Services division Tuesday announced a set of new asset-based services aimed at helping customers move to service-oriented architectures. Michael Liebow, vice president of Web services and SOA at IGS (IBM Global Services), said...

'Severe' Vulnerabilities Are Possible in VOIP, Official Warns.(Voice over Internet Protocol)
April 5, 2005... Dr. Shashi Phoha, director of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, said she thinks that the growth of VOIP technology brings with it some significant risks that users need to be prepared...

Sybase Drops Gag Threat Against Security Research Co.
April 5, 2005... Sybase has dropped its threat of legal action and allowed a security research company to release information about previously addressed database vulnerabilities. Next Generation Security Software Ltd. on Tuesday published details of six...

VOIP Panel Seeks Standard.(Voice over Internet Protocol)
April 5, 2005... WASHINGTON--The current FCC-created dichotomy between the Baby Bells and other communications companies simply doesn't make sense, a diverse panel of communications executives told a conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on...

Microsoft Keeps Up Presence at Open-Source Events.
April 5, 2005... Determined to have its presence seen and its voice heard by its core customer constituencies amid the growing open-source chorus, Microsoft is coughing up cash and sponsoring targeted open-source conferences. The Redmond, Wash., software...

Feds Want Private-Sector Security Data.
April 5, 2005... WASHINGTON--As homeland security and ongoing military operations across the globe continue to preoccupy much of the nation's capital, federal IT contractors are emphasizing security at all levels of the network. However, one security...

Open-Source Developers Close In on Proprietary Vendors.
April 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO--Long-established producers of enterprise application software will have to contend with a rising tide of vigorous competition from open-source software developers, according to Larry Augustin, CEO of Medsphere Systems Corp., a...

Gateway Rolls Out Hardware, Recruits VARs.(Value Added Resellers)
April 5, 2005... Gateway this week rolled out a new two-processor server and wide-screen laptop PCs, at the same time actively trying to recruit more VARs to sell to SMBs. But some resellers say low-priced hardware alone won't be enough to sway them to work...

Google Takes to the Sky with Map Service.
April 5, 2005... Google is heading skyward with its online maps, providing users with a bird's-eye view of a state, city or street corner. The search company late Monday incorporated satellite images into Google Maps, its beta mapping service released in...

Open-Source Security Tools Touted at InfoSec.(InfoSec World conference )
April 5, 2005... ORLANDO, Fla.--A well-known security consultant on Tuesday urged cash-strapped businesses to consider using free, readily available open-source security tools and applications to help cope with the rising spate of malicious hacker attacks. ...

Sun Sees Shining Future in Open Source.
April 5, 2005... SAN FRANCISCO--Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief operating officer and president, on Tuesday presented a spirited defense of his company's decision to use the Common Development and Distribution License for its OpenSolaris project rather than the...

Cisco Launches Tech Support Service for SMBs.
April 5, 2005... Cisco Systems launched its first technical support service for channel partners created specifically for small and midsized businesses on Monday at its Partner Summit. At its partner meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Cisco Systems...

Outsource to Free Up Staff, Not Cut It.(information technology management)
April 6, 2005... For at least a decade and a half, the top concern of chief information officers has been making sure that the information systems they put in place served and met their company's business objectives. One would think that after wrestling...

Inside the Mind of Alan Greenspan.(analysis of monetary policy)
April 6, 2005... How--and why--does the Federal Reserve chairman decide to raise interest rates? By analyzing statistical indicators and raw data on the health of the U.S. economy. By pulling together reports of the Fed, governors and bank presidents. Then, by...

Despite Losses, BlackBerry Maker Doesn't Fear Magneto.
April 6, 2005... BlackBerry device maker RIM posted a loss in the fourth quarter as a result of settling its three-year patent dispute with NTP. Despite this drop, RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie remains confident, pointing out in an earnings conference call that...

Oracle Takes Control of Retek.
April 6, 2005... Oracle has taken control of Retek after 83 percent of shareholders tendered outstanding stock, the company announced Tuesday. Oracle Corp. announced its intentions to buy Retek Inc., a retail software developer largely considered to be the...

SEC to Vote on Rule Changes.(economic policy of Securities and Exchange Commission)
April 6, 2005... After months of debate, the SEC was set to vote on a package of rule changes, known as Regulation NMS, on Wednesday. The intent of Reg NMS, which is composed of a series of initiatives, is to modernize and strengthen the NMS (national...

IBM to Sell NetApp Storage Gear.
April 6, 2005... With storage rival EMC Corp. firmly in its line of fire, IBM on Wednesday announced that it will enter into an OEM deal with Network Appliance Inc. to resell the network-attached storage vendor's entire product line. As part of the...

Dell on Target to Meet Growth Goals, Officials Say.
April 6, 2005... AUSTIN, Texas--Officials with Dell Inc. expect the company's strong growth to continue for the foreseeable future. First-quarter revenues are on target to come in at about $13.4 billion, and the computer maker expects to reach its goal of...

Isilon's Clustered NAS Solutions Aim at the Enterprise.
April 6, 2005... Isilon Systems, a provider of intelligent clustered storage systems, has introduced a new line of products with greater scalability, capacity and throughput than its previous systems. The Isilon IQ 1920, 3000 and 4800 contain from 1.9TB to...

MCI Nixes Qwest Again, Stays with Verizon.
April 6, 2005... PHILADELPHIA (Reuters)--Long-distance telephone company MCI Inc. rejected a $9.1 billion takeover offer from Qwest Communications International Inc., leaving the spurned suitor to gauge shareholder reaction as it weighs its next move in the...

Push Is Coming to Shove for XP SP2 Deployment.(marketing of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2)
April 6, 2005... Affecting all the XP users who have been avoiding or procrastinating about installing the Windows XP Service Pack 2 upgrade, Microsoft is about to make the decision for them. On April 12, Microsoft Corp. is scheduled to turn on its...

Whatever Doesn't Make You Stronger Kills You.(management of business enterprises)
April 6, 2005... All human organizations tend to be self-amplifying. --Angus' Eighth Law There's an effect that hamstrings all corporations, even the most effective ones. It's the natural tendency of any organization to become ever more like what it...

New Web-Ad Law Stirs Tempest in a Blogging Teacup.(technology policy of San Francisco)
April 6, 2005... A firestorm of indignation lit up the string of independent Web sites known collectively as the "blogosphere" this weekend, creating a storm of e-mail and name-calling for a San Francisco City official who isn't even that well known in her...

IBM-Net App Alliance Could Steal EMC's Thunder.
April 6, 2005... The recently announced pairing of IBM and Network Appliance might just be the one-two punch needed to square off against market leader EMC Corp., analysts believe. In an effort to take on storage behemoth EMC, IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., and...

Microsoft Lobbies Small-Business Software Vendors.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2005... Microsoft is continuing its campaign to lobby software vendors to write applications that build on top of the company's products. This week, Microsoft invited 250 ISVs to its Redmond, Wash., headquarters to give them a head start on the...

CA's Intrusion Detection Software Vulnerable to DoS Attack.
April 6, 2005... A flaw has been discovered in Computer Associates International Inc.'s eTrust intrusion detection software that could allow remote attackers to trigger a denial of service attack. iDefense Labs, at security firm iDefense Inc., on Tuesday...

IBM, Nokia, Oracle to Back EU Against Microsoft.
April 6, 2005... BRUSSELS (Reuters)--A lobby group backed by Nokia, Oracle and IBM has asked an EU court for permission to join the European Commission in its antitrust battle with Microsoft, it said on Wednesday. The five-firm European Committee for...

Windows Supercomputer Release Slips to 2006.(Brief Article)
April 6, 2005... Microsoft Corp. acknowledged on Tuesday night that it is running about six months behind schedule with its high-end Windows Server 2003 Compute Cluster Edition product. A week ago, company officials said Microsoft expected to release an...