eWeek articles from August 2003

eWeek archives from August 2003

Will Java Roast on An Open Fire?
August 1, 2003... The way Sun's Java programming language has been developed is something of a paradox. Sun owns the core code behind Java, which is used to create applications that can run across an almost-unlimited number of computers in a "distributed"...

Can the CIO Be An Endangered Species?
August 1, 2003... The code-writing is on the screen. Development of software is shifting to India, China and the Philippines. Deployment also is moving out. PeopleSoft has announced the creation of an implementation lab in Bangalore, India, which will integrate...

Fishing for Assets.
August 1, 2003... Financial advisers at the Merrill Lynch office in San Jose, Calif., cringe just before 1 p.m. local time, and it has nothing to do with trying to snag profits before the stock market closes. At 1 p.m., Merrill Lynch's daily video feed...

Auditing An Oracle.
August 1, 2003... Shareholders nearly deify Warren Buffett for the way he manages his diverse holding company, Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha. There's little doubt that he's squeaky clean in how he operates. But that doesn't necessarily mean that other companies...

Novell, Ximian: Opposites Attract.
August 5, 2003... After Novell's announcement this week that it plans to acquire Ximian, industry observers might be forgiven a collective "Huh?" At first glance, the two seem to be the least-compatible of couples. Novell is first and foremost a server...

Take Control of your Computer.
August 5, 2003... Even when seemingly idle, your PC runs a multitude of processes. Some perform vital functions--controlling hard drives, for example--but others don't. All expend precious system resources, though, and the more they consume, the slower your...

Fujitsu Takes Aim at IBM-HP-Sun Triumvirate.
August 7, 2003... At the recent IDC Asia/Pacific Server-Vision 2003 Conference in early July in Singapore, Masaya Nakahara, director of global business development and marketing for platform products division of Fujitsu Limited, outlined the company's ambition...

SAP Scores Big Wins in Malaysia, Thailand.(contracts withFrasier & Neave Holdings Bhd. Group and Telephone Organization of Thailand)(Brief Article)
August 7, 2003... Malaysia's leading carbonated and isotonic producer, Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd Group, has selected SAP AG's mySAP Business Suite family of business solutions to enhance collaboration, improve business processes, and reduce operating costs...

IBM Launches Resiliency Center.(Brief Article)
August 7, 2003... In an uncertain world, IBM is atempting to give companies solid footing with the launch of its Business Resiliency Centre (BRC) in Singapore. The facility, essentially a data center, will house equipment that IBM believes will address...

SCO Returns IBM Fire over Unix Rights.
August 7, 2003... The SCO Group Inc. fired back at IBM Corp. Thursday, hours after the Armonk, N.Y., tech giant countersued SCO over alleged intellectual-property violations around Unix/Linux. IBM filed the countersuit in the U.S. District Court for the...

Metastorm Upgrades e-Work Platform.(e-Work 6.0)(Brief Article)
August 7, 2003... Business process management software maker Metastorm Inc. announced today the availability of its next-generation platform, e-Work 6.0. The platform is designed to support the requirements of automating, managing and controlling complex...

NetPerceptions Reaching End of the Road.(Brief Article)
August 7, 2003... NetPerceptions Inc., a once high-flying Internet software company that led the Web personalization craze of the late 1990s, appears to have gone the way of many of the dot-coms it once sold its software too. The Minneapolis-based company...

Peregrine Exits Bankruptcy.
August 7, 2003... Peregrine Systems Inc. is back. The maker of asset and service management software on Thursday emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection saying it had completed all the requirements of the bankruptcy court. Peregrine came under...

Sprint Could Send Some Tech Jobs Overseas.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)--Sprint Corp. said Thursday it is considering outsourcing certain technology jobs and sending them overseas--a possibility that could lead to hundreds of layoffs at the telecommunications company. Sprint spokeswoman...

Linux Software Puts New Face on File Management.(Tactile Interactive's Interrogator 8.0 beta)
August 8, 2003... SAN FRANCISCO--A small developer hopes to get managers of Linux servers to break their command line habit. At this week's LinuxWorld show, Tactile Interactive offered a look at the latest beta of Interrogator, its powerful, graphical file...

Intel, Broadcom Settle Patent Disputes.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--Semiconductor rivals Intel Corp. and Broadcom Inc. announced Friday they have settled all their long-running patent disputes and agreed to license various technologies from each other. The companies had filed several...

eSeminars August Calendar.
August 8, 2003... Making Sense of VPN Challenges Aug 19, 2003 2 p.m. Eastern / 11 a.m. Pacific (one hour) Featured Speakers *Peter Coffee, Technology Editor, eWEEK - Ziff Davis Media *John Igoe, COO & President - SilverBack Technologies, Inc. ...

Microsoft Makes Patch Management Progress.(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Microsoft is taking another step towards its goal of simplifying software-patch management across its product line. Next month, the company will begin beta testing its Microsoft Installer 3.0 technology, according to beta information cited...

Salesforce.com Scores Siebel Exec.(Dave Orrico )
August 8, 2003... CRM upstart Salesforce.com has nabbed another executive from customer relationship management software market leader Siebel Systems Inc. San Francisco-based Salesforce.com, which sells CRM and sales force automation software as a hosted...

Artemis Upgrades Portfolio Management Software.(Artemis 7.0)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2003... Enterprise portfolio, project and resource management software maker Artemis International Solutions Corp. announced yesterday the next iteration of its portfolio management software. Artemis 7 is designed to help corporations deal with...

MetiLinx Jumps Into Web Services Management.(with MetiLinx/Digital Evolution Adaptive Web Services Management in partnership with Digital Evolutin INc.)
August 8, 2003... MetiLinx Inc. along with new partner Digital Evolution Inc. on Monday will jump into the Web services management void with a new tool that applies utility computing concepts to Web services applications. The MetiLinx/Digital Evolution...

Research: Is Your Security Comfort Level Too High?
August 8, 2003... The results of this month's research are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. (To download the free Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in, click here.) *Is Your Security Comfort Level Too High? 90.2% of CIOs say their domestic security...

HP to Unveil More Than 100 New Gadgets.
August 10, 2003... SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--Hewlett-Packard Co. is introducing more than 100 new consumer gadgets on Monday, from digital cameras to photo-quality desktop printers, in anticipation of what could be a grinch-like holiday shopping season. CEO...

Paw and Order.
August 11, 2003... Spencer stepped up to the bar at the W Hotel near the Moscone to order the usual. Then he glanced around. Yikes! Geeks and ambulance chasers cheek and jowl. Both groups were there to decompress--geeks from LinuxWorld and the lawyers from an...

Taking IBM to School.
August 11, 2003... In the corner of the conference room adjacent to Steve Mills' office is what may be the last remaining cardboard cutout of IBM's Hyperman. Hyperman, the main character in IBM's attempted early-1990s foray into educational cartoons, "The...

Sun, Gateway Boost 4-Ways.(Sun Microsystems Sun Fire V480 and Gateway 995)
August 11, 2003... As Sun Microsystems Inc. upgrades its four-processor server, Gateway Inc. looks to provide enterprises with an alternative four-way system backed up with services from IBM. Sun last week bulked up its four-way Sun Fire V480 server by...

McData Targets Small Users.(McData Sphereon 4300 switch, SANavigator 4.0 and Enterprise Fabric Connectivity Manager 8.0 software)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... McData Corp. announced a new entry-level Fibre Channel switch and new high-end software options last week, with more due this fall and into next year, officials in Broomfield, Colo., said. The new switch, the Sphereon 4300, at just four...

RealNetworks, Sprint Set New Info Service.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... SEATTLE (AP)--RealNetworks and Sprint plan to offer a new service Monday that will let Sprint wireless-data customers subscribe to news, horoscopes, traffic and other information from RealNetworks over their mobile phones. The service...

Lego Dumps HP for IBM.
August 11, 2003... IBM officials are touting the power-on-demand capabilities of their servers as a key factor in their ability to convince toy maker Lego Co. to switch its infrastructure from Hewlett-Packard Co. products. According to an announcement being...

Oracle Extends PeopleSoft Bid.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Oracle Corp. announced late Friday evening that it extended its offer to acquire PeopleSoft Inc. to midnight Eastern time on Friday, Sept. 19. The offer still stands at $19.50 per share. The hostile takeover bid was initially set to...

Privacy Appliance Is OK.
August 11, 2003... In recent columns in eWEEK and on eweek.com, Cameron Sturdevant articulated concerns about research into privacy appliances funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Though I share many of Sturdevant's concerns, I regret that he...

Stalking the Elusive Utility Computing.(Industry Overview)
August 11, 2003... These days, all IT vendors ever want to talk about is utility computing. Research firm Gartner Inc. says utility computing will become part of the mainstream by 2005, and IDC research indicates there's strong interest in utility computing now....

The Wall of Fear.(software vulnerabilities)(Industry Overview)
August 11, 2003... The numbers are staggering: 82,094 new vulnerabilities discovered in software and hardware last year. That's up 64 percent from 2001. And in the first quarter of this year alone, the number was 76,404. The volume of flaws found has been rising...

HP's Fiorina Plays to Consumers.
August 11, 2003... NEW YORK--Hewlett-Packard Co. officials earlier this year told enterprises to demand more. Now they're telling consumers to enjoy more. HP on Monday rolled out 158 new consumer products, from printers to digital cameras to computers, in...

HyperTransport Adds Members.(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
August 11, 2003... HyperTransport, technology aimed at faster I/O, is picking up speed in the industry. Seven companies, including EMC, IBM, LTX, Media Fusion, National Semiconductor, Network Appliance and Texas Instruments, this week joined the...

Google Revs Up Searches.(Google Search Appliance GB-1001)(Hardware Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 11, 2003... EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Google Search Appliance GB-1001 For companies that want a powerful and easy-to-deploy enterprise search engine, Google's Search Appliance provides most of what's needed, with all the search capabilities one would expect from...

Cyber Head Hunt Nears End.(for Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security Division)
August 11, 2003... As the Department of Homeland Security prepares to name a leader for its National Cyber Security Division, observers in Washington and the private sector say DHS' hiring process has set up the new NCSD head to fail. "It's been the most...

Pervasive to Buy Data Junction.
August 11, 2003... Pervasive Software Inc. is buying Data Junction Corp. in a deal worth $51.7 million, company officials announced on Monday. Pervasive, an Austin, Texas, maker of embedded database technology and other data-management solutions, will...

HP Product to Convert VHS Movies to DVD.(HP DVD Movie Writer dc3000 was)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--It's a familiar sight in many households: shelves of home videotapes gathering dust. A new Hewlett-Packard Co. device aims to make it easier for consumers to transfer their memories from analog VHS tapes to the...

RIM Lawsuit Concerns Users.
August 11, 2003... While research in Motion Ltd. won a stay of an injunction prohibiting the company from selling its BlackBerry e-mail products in the United States, customers remain concerned about the company's burgeoning legal fees. The Federal District...

EC Gets Tough on Microsoft.
August 11, 2003... Taking a tougher stance on Microsoft Corp.'s use of its market power than their counterparts in the United States, officials in Europe are proposing remedies for alleged anti-competitive behavior that include greater interface disclosure...

Zone Labs to Acquire IMsecure.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Zone Labs Inc. on Tuesday plans to announce that it has acquired IMsecure Corp., a small developer of security software for instant messaging applications. At the same time, Zone Labs will announce that it is integrating the IMsecure Desktop...

HP to Talk Utility Computing.
August 11, 2003... As Hewlett-Packard Co. takes its Adaptive Enterprise strategy for utility computing on the road over the next few weeks, it may find it a little more difficult to explain than expected. A combination of several similar-sounding utility...

iAnywhere Teams Up With SuSE Linux.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... iAnywhere Solutions Inc. and SuSE Linux have forged a technology alliance that will give the mobile technology company access to ongoing Linux developments, iAnywhere officials announced on Monday. iAnywhere, a Sybase Inc. subsidiary in...

EMC Moves on Legato Plans.
August 11, 2003... Though the ink is still wet on its planned acquisition of Legato Systems Inc., EMC Corp. has a strategy to integrate, extend and sell new backup products around that company's software. While most users received the acquisition news...

Left, right push for new commercial-data laws.
August 11, 2003... A critical mass of policy advocates on opposite ends of the political spectrum have teamed up to press for new laws restraining the government's use of commercial data, fearing that technology is pushing data usage faster than the legal...

AOL May Want Time Warner to Drop AOL Name.
August 11, 2003... America Online is asking AOL Time Warner Inc. to drop "AOL" from its name, concerned that negative publicity about the parent company is hurting the online service's efforts to right itself, a person familiar with the situation said Monday. ...

Is the BlackBerry Doomed?
August 11, 2003... Is the BlackBerry out of legal juice? Yes, a federal court really did order RIM to pull its BlackBerry products from the United States, but then immediately postponed the order until RIM's appeal could wend its way through the courts. The...

WebLogic Integrates Apps.(BEA Systems' WebLogic Platform 8.1 and Liquid Data for Web Logic 8.1)
August 11, 2003... An upgrade to BEA Systems Inc.'s WebLogic platform brings together the company's application development, integration and portal technologies. WebLogic Platform 8.1 provides a services-oriented architecture that encompasses BEA's flagship...

Quovadx to Unify Technology.
August 11, 2003... Quovadx Inc., which has quietly built up a stable of business automation and integration software, plans to unify the technology in a major release of its QDX technology platform late this year. QDX X will provide a unified interface to the...

Worm Exploits RPC Flaw in Windows.(msblast.exe)
August 11, 2003... A worm that exploits the recently discovered RPC DCOM vulnerability in Windows began spreading rapidly on the Internet Monday afternoon. The worm is targeting TCP port 135 and is causing some large spikes in traffic, but has yet to cause any...

New Silverback Upgrade Assesses Vulnerabilities.(Silverback Technologies' SilverBack 38)
August 11, 2003... Silverback Technologies Inc. is jumping on the patch management bandwagon with a new version of its resource monitoring software that adds vulnerability assessment. Release 3.8 of SilverBack's namesake software for monitoring network,...

NEC, Motorola Team on Wireless Roaming.
August 11, 2003... NEC America Inc. and Motorola Inc. are joining forces on an effort to provide wireless roaming between corporate and cellular networks, the two companies announced last week. The companies plan to offer roaming for data transmissions and...

The Road Ahead.
August 11, 2003... Microsoft Corp. executives laid out the company's product vision for the next five years at its annual financial analyst meeting here late last month. And while fiscal issues were discussed during the daylong briefing, the main focus was on the...

Success Via Standards.(Column)
August 11, 2003... Microsoft's out to better know its enemy. To this end, the company has promoted a new competitive strategist, Martin Taylor, who's said he's after "just the facts" and who's established a testbed of open-source software on the Microsoft campus...

Deals to Smooth B2B Wrinkles.
August 11, 2003... Epicor Software Corp. and Inovis Inc. have both sought out partners to enhance the way enterprises connect their IT systems with those of their trading partners and customers. Business-to-business collaboration software maker Epicor last...

Managing Mobile Computers.(Mobile Automation's Mobile Lifecycle Management Suite 5.2)
August 11, 2003... Mobile Automation Inc. will continue its advance on enterprise desktop deployments with a new release of its Mobile Lifecycle Management Suite. The 6-year-old company, which began with a mission to provide scalable, easy-to-use tools to...

Getting Handle on Data Center.(Opsware Data Center Intelligence and BladeLogic Operations Manager)
August 11, 2003... Enterprises looking to ease the management of their data centers will get help over the next couple of months from Opsware Inc., BladeLogic Inc. and Sun Microsystems Inc. Opsware and BladeLogic next month will each release offerings that...

Clustering Choices Expanded.(Xiotech Magnitutde)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Xiotech Corp. is aiming to fill the dearth of clustering options in enterprise storage with its new Magnitude three-dimensional array, according to company officials."What we've done is taken a pure clustering approach, broken up into layers,"...

Let's Fund E-Government.
August 11, 2003... If you think your it budget has problems with, say, a 10 percent cut, look at the federal government's E-Gov initiative, which is now in line to get about 2 percent of the amount initially requested by the Bush administration. Is this any way...

Building the Dynamic Data Center.(Opsware's Opsware System 4.0)(Software Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 11, 2003... Opsware Inc.'s latest data center suite is not only an effective tool for automating server tasks at geographically dispersed organizations, but it will also allow companies to prevent system changes from becoming system problems. ...

Stop Anti-Spam Laws.(definition of spam can cause problems)
August 11, 2003... Stopping spam has become the cause du jour of politicians and government bodies that need to express righteous indignation and show constituents that they can do something to solve their problems. Schemes to blot out spam range from the...

Identity Theft Crisis.
August 11, 2003... There's a giant shopping spree going on, and you can be part of it! Thousands of people are buying millions of dollars' worth of stuff, using credit cards with your name on them. What? You haven't been a victim of identity theft yet? Don't...

Utility Computing Push.(Industry Overview)
August 11, 2003... Utility Computing is the new data center utopia, and server automation and allocation are two of the most critical requirements for achieving it. Major hardware vendors such as Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. are at the...

Open-Source Testers Offer Low-Cost Alternatives.(Apache JMeter and Dieseltest )(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... A big problem with web application testing is that those who need the tools the most, such as independent site developers and departmental Web site managers, can't afford the five-figure price for most of these testing tools. It's hard to tell...

XOsoft Gives Tape Backup a Boost.(Data Rewinder)(Software Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 11, 2003... The days of relying on tape backup alone for data protection are over because data is more important than ever now, and downtime has evolved from being an embarrassing situation to a business-threatening one. With that in mind, XOsoft Inc.'s...

Yahoo Combo Builds Web Presence.(SiteBuilder 1.0)(Software Review)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... For companies looking to put together a web presence quickly and cost-effectively, Yahoo Inc.'s SiteBuilder 1.0 Web authoring tool and Web hosting services offer a good combination of software and services. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY SiteBuilder...

Quantum Eases Backup Pain.(Quantum DLTsage technology)
August 11, 2003... For many time-strapped IT managers and their equally harried staff, the most frustrating problem in storage management is having a failed backup. Running tape backups is a chore that must be done but isn't enjoyable--even when everything goes...

Acer System Taps Centrino.(Acer TravelMate 290LMI)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... These days, $1,500 won't buy you much in terms of desktop replacements, but with Acer's TravelMate 290LMI, that sum will get you on the Intel Centrino bandwagon--and more. This enterprise-oriented desktop replacement, which was released...

IBM Releases IBM Community Tools.
August 11, 2003... IBM on Monday released a new suite of communication tools that bring together instant messaging and message brokering. The suite, known as IBM Community Tools, is designed to allow users to interact with communities, such as customer and...

Jury Orders Microsoft to Pay $520 Million.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... CHICAGO (AP)--A federal jury awarded a Chicago-based software company and the University of California more than $520 million in damages Monday after finding that Microsoft Corp.'s popular Internet Explorer browser infringed on a patent. ...

Yahoo! Stalked Overture for Over a Year.
August 11, 2003... SAN FRANCISCO (AP)--Internet giant Yahoo! Inc. so prized Overture Services Inc. that it stalked the online search engine for more than a year, overcoming early resistance to prevail with a takeover offer, according to documents filed Monday....

RoboDemo Eases Flash Development.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... For developers and product managers creating product demos and tutorials, Flash is an obvious choice as an excellent format for delivery. However, many workers lack the ability or the inclination to learn how to develop in Flash. And...

Snapshot: WANSync Keeps Sites Up-To-Date.(XOsoft)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
August 11, 2003... Small companies that want to protect against downtime and file corruption would be fine with the server-level XOsoft Inc.'s Data Rewinder alone (see review, above). However, for companies with backup data centers or remote sites, XOsoft's...

Great Code Comes from Knowing More.(Column)
August 11, 2003... The blessing, and the curse, of being a software developer is that there's almost no limit on what would be useful to know. As software merges into every product or service, extracurricular knowledge will be the mark of the developer with a...

Ohio Man Charged As Acxiom Hacker.(Daniel Baas)(Brief Article)
August 12, 2003... LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)--A man who police say hacked into the computers of several companies was in custody Monday in Ohio, awaiting a court hearing on charges he stole sensitive information from Acxiom Corp.'s computer servers. Daniel...

Microsoft to Appeal $520M Patent Ruling.
August 12, 2003... CHICAGO (AP)--Microsoft Corp. says it will appeal a jury's ruling that it pay more than $520 million in damages to a university and a software company because its popular Web browser infringed on a patent. The jury could have awarded as...

Making PBXs Play Well Together.
August 12, 2003... In the midst of what many in the IT industry see as an inevitable move to IP-based telephony, many enterprises are grappling with a mishmash of technologies from different vendors. To make everything work together more smoothly in the...

Transmeta's Low-Power Chip: Efficeon.
August 12, 2003... Transmeta Corp. is giving its forthcoming energy-efficient processor, which until now has been known as Astro, the brand name Efficeon. The chip, also known as the TM8000 processor, will begin shipping in the third quarter, and Transmeta...

WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 Makes Debut.(Web Services Interoperability Organization )
August 12, 2003... BOSTON--After a long period of hype around Web services, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) Tuesday announced the official delivery of the WS-I Basic Profile 1.0. The WS-I Basic Profile 1.0 is a set of specifications that...

Blaster Worm on the Move.
August 12, 2003... The Blaster worm continued to tear through the Internet Tuesday morning as security experts struggled to find and fix infected systems. The worm is presenting a unique problem for security specialists because it is infecting a large number of...

Gateway to Enter Camera Market.
August 12, 2003... Like PC competitors Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc., Gateway Inc. is busy planning the next major phase in its diversification strategy: more than a dozen new consumer lines, including its own digital cameras. Gateway currently plans to...

EU Imposes Tariffs on Computer Chips.(Brief Article)
August 12, 2003... BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--European Union governments Tuesday said they have imposed a 34.8 percent tariff on imports from Hynix Semiconductor Inc. after ruling that the South Korean government had unfairly subsidized the chipmaker. The...

Computer Infection Disrupts Asia, Europe.(LovSan)
August 12, 2003... STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP)--A virus-like infection that plagued computers in the United States was evident Tuesday in Europe and Asia as thousands of users in several countries reported disruptions. Experts said the number was likely to increase....