eWeek articles from December 2002

eWeek archives from December 2002

AMD Places Chips on 64.
December 2, 2002... Like just about every other company in IT, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is burdened with the challenges of an economic slowdown and drop in IT spending. But unlike anyone else, to turn itself around, the Sunnyvale, Calif., semiconductor...

Dell, EMC Pact Evolves, Intensifies.
December 2, 2002... A year into their OEM and manufacturing partnership, Dell Computer Corp.'s service and pricing prowess has combined with EMC Corp.'s reputation in storage to take both companies into new and profitable parts of the enterprise. But as the pact...

Liberty Alliance Waves White Flag at Passport.(Microsoft Corp.'s Passport service)
December 2, 2002... A growing rift among members of the Liberty Alliance authentication project is placing the technology's future in question. At the core of the problem is exactly where to target the single-sign-on technology in the face of stiff and growing...

IBM Bolts Voice Support Onto Existing Applications.(WebSphere Voice Application Access software)
December 2, 2002... IBM is continuing its push to let customers interact with corporate applications through speech. The Armonk, N.Y., company this week will announce WVAA (WebSphere Voice Application Access) software, which takes existing applications...

Databases Target Enterprises.(MySQL 4.0.5 and PostgreSQL 7.3 )
December 2, 2002... Two open-source database developers are upgrading their respective software in an effort to make them more attractive to the enterprise. Open-source database leader MySQL AB, of Uppsala, Sweden, this week will announce Version 4.0.5 of its...

Sun, China Unicom Team on Wireless Java.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Sun Microsystems Inc. Monday announced new Java initiatives in the wireless space at the ITU [International Telecommunications Union] Telecom Asia conference in Hong Kong. For starters, Sun announced that the Mobile Information Device...

Linux ColdFusion Users Irate With Macromedia.
December 2, 2002... ColdFusion MX users who are running the rapid server-scripting environment on Unix or Linux said they feel they've been left out in the cold by developer Macromedia Inc. Problems with the San Francisco company's software on Linux have...

Manufacturers To Get Real-Time Data.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Product lifecycle management software developer MatrixOne Inc. and Formation Systems Inc. will announce a joint development agreement today that will result in new collaborative software. Formation's Optiva product development software is...

Security Firm Deserts Users.(Lucira Technologies Inc.)
December 2, 2002... A company that once promised to find stolen corporate laptops is now itself missing in action. And left behind are countless customers stuck for the prepaid service and saddled with a software agent that not only resists being disabled but can...

OpenHack 4 Finale: Are Web Apps Safe?
December 2, 2002... What do hackers in Beijing, Sao Paulo, Madrid and Kuala Lumpur have in common? They were among the hackers who launched more than 50,000 attacks against our OpenHack 4 Web site. And, except for two relatively minor penetrations, all those...

BI Standards Emerging.(business intelligence )
December 2, 2002... Two standards designed to ease the use of business intelligence tools in heterogeneous data server environments are gaining momentum, but tangible benefits for users remain out of reach until the specifications gain maturity. The Java...

Buyer Beware of Telecom Gear.
December 2, 2002... Level 3 Communications Inc. last week agreed to acquire the assets of Genuity Inc., the latest example of a growing trend in the networking-gear industry that has seen once-highflying telecommunications products and companies put up for sale at...

Sun Offers An Early Look at Solaris 9 for Intel Hardware.
December 2, 2002... Sun Microsystems Inc. last week released an unsupported early-access, or test, version of its Solaris 9 operating system for non-Sun x86 hardware that early testers said is missing key features, including Sun ONE Application Server. ...

The Buzz: December 2, 2002.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Aussie Named Top Programmer A man from down under came out on top in a competition to find the best programmer. Australian John Dethridge late last month was crowned the champion of the TopCoder Invitational, beating some 700...

Future of Portable Power.
December 2, 2002... If the annual gathering of technologists and technology that is Comdex/Fall is any indicator of things to come, wireless computing will continue its drive into the enterprise, where smaller, more manageable hardware resides. Hardware...

Cisco Boosts Device Security.
December 2, 2002... Cisco Systems Inc. last week continued its efforts to integrate security functions across its product line with 12 offerings targeting a range of customers. The integration of security functions with networking devices eases deployment and...

IT Gains Low-Cost Tools for Managing IP Packets.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Fortunately, a combination of low-cost tools and simple best practices can be used to help administrators figure out what applications, such as Lucira's MobileSecure, are transmitting to the Internet. Low-cost consumer security products...

Macromedia Overhauls Director Authoring Tool.(Macromedia Director MX )
December 2, 2002... Macromedia Inc. last week announced a new version of its multimedia authoring platform for building interactive content and applications for CDs and DVDs, kiosks, and the Web. Macromedia Director MX features include integration with the...

Gaps Delay Sweet Smile of Success.(Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC operating system )
December 2, 2002... Licensees for Microsoft Corp.'s Tablet PC operating system are at eighteen and counting, but notably missing are two of the giants in the industry--IBM and Dell Computer Corp. While they are loyal Microsoft customers for desktop and...

Groove, Microsoft Tighten Relationship.
December 2, 2002... Groove Networks Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are extending their technology partnership as each readies new versions of their respective collaborative applications. Groove is expected this month to release Version 2.5 of its namesake...

Mapics Acquires Frontstep to Target Midsize Manufacturers.
December 2, 2002... Mapics Inc. looks to boost its enterprise applications suite for manufacturers with the acquisition of rival Frontstep Inc., which the two companies announced last week. The combined company will provide a selection of Java- and Microsoft Corp....

Easing HIPAA Compliance.(Orion Systems Rhapsody Integration Engine 1.2 )
December 2, 2002... A New Zealand developer early next month will introduce North American health care providers to a new version of its application integration software. Rhapsody Integration Engine Version 1.2 from Orion Systems International Ltd., of...

Pervasive Enhances Embedded Database.(Pervasive Software's Pervasive.SQL 8.0 )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Pervasive Software Inc. this week is announcing the availability of Pervasive.SQL 8.0, its embedded database software, with added performance and enhancements to the product's integrated Client Cache engine and Dynamic Cache. Corey Malcom,...

OGIS, Mentor Aid Web Services Development.(OGIS International Inc's XGrotto)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Software development conference and Expo East provided a platform for announcing new tools to aid Web services development. OGIS International Inc., which delivers Java, UML (Unified Modeling Language) and Web services solutions, announced...

App Access Added to IM.(Universal Application Messaging software from Sprint)
December 2, 2002... Sprint Communications Co. lP, which made its enterprise instant messaging debut in April, is seeking to up the ante with the release last week of its Universal Application Messaging software. UAM uses the same buddy list interface as...

Gateway PC Conserves Corporate Desktop Space.
December 2, 2002... Gateway Inc. is trying to help space-constrained businesses gain more room on crowded desktops. The Poway, Calif., company earlier this month unveiled two small-form- factor PCs designed to occupy less space than traditional microtowers...

Gosling Holds Court on Standards.(James Gosling, the father of Java and a fellow at Sun Microsystems Inc)
December 2, 2002... James Gosling, the father of Java and a fellow at Sun Microsystems Inc., paid a visit to the Software Development Conference and Expo East last month, making a call for standards--and taking a few shots at Microsoft Corp. in the process. ...

ISS Goes Public With Vulnerability Disclosure Guidelines.(Internet Security Systems Inc)
December 2, 2002... Internet Security Systems Inc. on Monday released to the public the vulnerability disclosure guidelines that its internal X-Force research team uses in identifying flaws and notifying vendors and the public. The guidelines are fairly...

Open-Source Software Takes Lead as Major Source of Security Flaws.
December 2, 2002... Thanks to several high-profile vulnerabilities and an overall increase in the number of flaws this year, open-source software has taken over Microsoft Corp.'s position at the bottom of the security heap. A research note from two analysts...

An Eye on the Future.(Microsoft planning)
December 2, 2002... Now that the antitrust legal action against Microsoft Corp. has been settled, users are hoping the Redmond, Wash., software company can focus on the road ahead. More than anything, customers want to see Microsoft live up to its promise of...

Homeland Security Starts at Home.
December 2, 2002... President Bush's successful drive for a department of Homeland Security is groundbreaking on many levels, not the least of which is the scope of the undertaking. Creation of the new department has been described as the largest overhaul of the...

Hacker Log: Pathway to Successful Site Attack.
December 2, 2002... A few fairly simple practices would have prevented my successful attack on eWeek's OpenHack site. The bottom line is that application security can be attained, but it must be consistently applied and methodically checked to be effective. ...

OpenHack Wrap.(OpenHack online security test )
December 2, 2002... eWeek Labs' fourth OpenHack online security test provided a number of lessons on how to protect corporate data. It also offered further proof that when it comes to security, the devil truly is in the details. OpenHack is an interactive...

Oracle and Microsoft Weigh In.
December 2, 2002... After the conclusion of the OpenHack 4 project, eWeek Labs West Coast Technical Director Timothy Dyck posed questions on enterprise security via e-mail to two of the people who helped harden the test applications: Oracle Corp.'s John Abel,...

HP Adds Remote Management to Server Line.(HP ProLiant DL320 and DL360)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Hewlett-Packard Co. is adding remote management and fault resilient technologies to three products in its rack-optimized server line. The Palo Alto, Calif., company on Monday rolled out two new servers, the HP ProLiant DL320 and DL360, and...

NAS Appliance Boosts Capacity.(Linksys' Etherfast Network Attached Storage EFG80)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... Linksys' Etherfast Network Attached Storage EFG80 box is good news for workgroups and branch offices seeking inexpensive storage. The $599 EFG80 workgroup NAS device, which shipped in October, is loaded with 80GB of storage capacity and a...

Dana Lightens Users' Loads.(AlphaSmart's new mobile computing device)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... From the new tablet PCS from Microsoft and its OEM gang to mobile phones endowed with J2ME and fold-out keyboards, users are willing to try anything that will keep them computing while lightening the burdens in their briefcases, backpacks and...

AirZip Locks Down Attachments.(AirZip Document Secure)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... E-mail would become more useful, and less dangerous, if attachments could be kept on a leash and if senders could control privileges such as viewing, printing, saving, copying or forwarding contents. AirZip Document Secure, introduced last...

Jetway Shrinks PC, Not Power.(MiniQ 740 from Jetway Computer)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... If there's one thing I expect to see at Comdex, it's the Sony pavilion filled with PCs and peripherals that make new rules for high-touch design. Sony's near-total absence from this year's Comdex floor was one of the show's jarring notes,...

Metaserver 4 Elevates BPI.
December 2, 2002... One of the newest acronyms in enterprise business applications is BPI, which in many ways seems awfully similar to formerly hot acronyms such as B2B and EAI. Whatever you call it, business process integration can, when done correctly, make...

NetForensics Effectively Handles Hacks.(NetForensics 3.0)
December 2, 2002... Version 3.0 of netforensics corp.'s namesake flagship product takes interoperability and capability to new heights, presenting a formidable challenge to the other security event management products in this emerging field. NetForensics 3.0,...

Zeus Balances More Unix Loads.
December 2, 2002... Zeus Technology Inc.'s latest Zeus Load Balancer, Version 1.6, offers businesses of any size a robust, flexible server load balancing system. Zeus Load Balancer 1.6, which began shipping in October, gains advanced traffic management...

Unknown Territory Holds Untold Value.(Stephen Wolfram and his new scientific equations)
December 2, 2002... One of the summer's most controversial books was Stephen Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science," which has sold a remarkable number of copies for a 1,200-page tome full of mathematical diagrams and expressions. If every equation in a book really...

Peregrine Turns to Self-Healing Remedies.
December 2, 2002... His Hirsuteness doesn't expect you'll hear the hypnotic "It Was a Very Good Year" by Sinatra in the halls of Peregrine Systems' San Diego digs any time soon. The company has faced $100 million in accounting improprieties; the loss of its CEO,...

Has Dell Been Blinded by Sun?
December 2, 2002... Dell has become the darling of the industry, taking commodity products, spitting them out on an efficient computer manufacturing machine and backing them up with adequate support. But Dell is lately spreading itself thin and jumping into...

Net Guard Needs IT Pros.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... The motto of the National Guard Is "Always Ready, Always There," and soon, the U.S. government will ask IT workers to stand by the same credo. Within the sweeping Homeland Security bill, recently signed into law by President Bush, is a...

MicronPC Offers Entry-Level Desktop.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... MicronPC L.L.C. is adding an entry-level edition to its line of business desktop computers. The ClientPro 125 is aimed at offering users good performance in a design that can be expanded as demand dictates, according to officials at the Nampa,...

Toward a More (Un)Wired World.
December 2, 2002... I'd sooner give up my satellite television, my wireless and landline phone services, and take to eating ramen noodles five nights a week than give up my broadband Internet access. OK, maybe ramen only two or three nights a week, but we're still...

Office 11 Needs XML.
December 2, 2002... Hear that giant sucking sound? It's all the IT data that employees create that gets laboriously created, checked and formatted, and then is never used again. Word processors and spreadsheets are the top offenders here, and whole industries...

West Virginia Joins Mass. in Microsoft Fight.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... West Virginia will join Massachusetts in appealing the Microsoft antitrust ruling. West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw announced Monday that the state would be continuing its legal battle with the software giant. McGraw said...

Study Finds Windows Cheaper Than Linux.
December 2, 2002... A Microsoft-sponsored white paper from research group IDC, which compares the total cost of ownership of Microsoft's Windows 2000 and Linux server environments across five enterprise computing workload situations at 104 companies, found that...

Micromuse to Buy Lumos for 2.7 Million.
December 2, 2002... Micromuse Inc. Monday announced plans to acquire operational support system supplier Lumos Technologies Inc. for approximately $2.7 million. San Francisco, Calif.-based Micromuse, which provides network fault management for large service...

Sybase Patches Database Server Holes.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2002... SHATTER, Application Security Inc.'s security and development team, last week discovered three new potential security holes in Sybase Inc. database servers. The team, aka Security Heuristics of Application Testing Technology for Enterprise...

Kay's Contributions Inspire HP's Expectations.
December 2, 2002... When the New York Times reported Alan Kay's arrival as a senior researcher at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, my eye tripped over that article's description of Kay's pioneering work with Smalltalk: "an influential programming language that uses...

U.S. Government Fails to Make Security Grade.
December 3, 2002... For the second year running, the federal government has flunked Computer Security 101. The 24 major agencies of the U.S. government performed so poorly this year that lawmakers charged with overseeing government efficiency want to tie...

Sniffer Gains 802.11a Support.(Network Associates Inc.'s Sniffer division )
December 3, 2002... Network Associates Inc.'s Sniffer division is adding support for high-speed wireless LAN networks. Starting this week, the company's Sniffer Wireless protocol analyzer will be able to troubleshoot for both 802.11b and 802.11a networks. ...

Sun, Microsoft Go Head-to-Head on Java.
December 3, 2002... Sun Microsystems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are scheduled to head into round two of their legal skirmish over Java when the two companies meet in court here Tuesday morning. The companies will be battling over Sun's call for a preliminary...

PeopleSoft Upgrades BI, Analytics Platform.(Brief Article)
December 3, 2002... PeopleSoft Inc. on Monday announced the availability of the latest version of its Enterprise Warehouse business intelligence and analytics platform, designed to give users immediate access to enterprise data and predefined business metrics. ...

OpenHack 2002 Downloads.
December 3, 2002... As part of our OpenHack 4 security test (which ran from Oct. 22, 2002 to Nov. 8, 2002), we are posting a collection of resources created during the test for use by our readers. Here are descriptions and download links for each file archive....

Career Coach.
December 3, 2002... Dear Career Coach: How would you recommend a small business owner hire his first IT employee and start building an IT department? While I feel comfortable defining the scope of the projects that we would like to accomplish over the next...

Judge Steals Show in Sun-Microsoft Duel.
December 3, 2002... BALTIMORE--U.S. District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz stole the show during Tuesday morning's preliminary injunction hearing in the Sun Microsystems vs. Microsoft antitrust case here. The judge's questions to lawyers representing the two...

Hitachi Aims to Steal EMC's Thunder.(Thunder 9500 and HiCommand Tuning Manager)(Brief Article)
December 3, 2002... Hitachi Ltd. today announced a new array series and new storage resource management software. The announcement comes one day after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the vendor's hard-drive division merger with IBM. The new series,...

RealPlayer Still Vulnerable to Attack.(Brief Article)
December 3, 2002... Nearly two weeks after posting a faulty patch for several security vulnerabilities in its ubiquitous RealPlayer and RealOne software, Real Networks Inc. has yet to release a working fix for the problems. And, a security researcher said...

Intel Upgrades Compilers for Developers.(Intel C++ Compilers for Windows 7.0 and Intel Fortran Compilers for Windows and Linux 7.0)(Brief Article)
December 3, 2002... Intel Corp. is upgrading its software designed to make it easier for developers to build and run applications on Intel technology. Intel on Tuesday rolled out Version 7.0 of Intel C++ Compilers for Windows and Linux and Version 7.0 of Intel...

Fiorina: HP Expects $3 Billion in Savings.(Brief Article)
December 3, 2002... Hewlett-Packard Co. officials expect to complete the integration of Compaq Computer Corp. by the end of the company's fiscal year 2003, almost a year ahead of schedule, according to Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina. Speaking to financial...

Sun, Microsoft In Attack Mode.
December 4, 2002... Despite several hours of arguments and testimony from attorneys and witnesses, the judge hearing the preliminary injunction arguments in the Sun Microsystems Inc. versus Microsoft Corp. antitrust case managed to win the day at closing as much...

IBM Offers Native Linux on pSeries Server.(Brief Article)
December 4, 2002... Users of IBM's pSeries Unix servers now will be able to run Linux natively on the servers. IBM on Wednesday announced that the eServer p630 will start shipping Linux-ready, without having Big Blue's AIX Unix operating system bundled with...

Witness: MS Enjoys 'Network Effects' Advantages Over Sun.
December 4, 2002... An expert witness for Sun Microsystems Inc. testified that Microsoft Corp. enjoys network effects advantages over Sun based on past anti-competitive acts that could cause the market for distributed application platforms to tip in favor of .Net...

Oracle Touts Linux Support.(Brief Article)
December 4, 2002... BOSTON--Oracle Corp. Vice President of Marketing Rene Bonvanie on Wednesday opened the Enterprise Linux Forum Conference & Expo 2002 by demonstrating an "unbreakable" eight-node cluster running the company's Oracle9i RAC (Real Application...

Alcatel Launches New Cert.(Brief Article)
December 4, 2002... Alcatel SA has rolled out a new professional certification aimed at network engineers, network administrators and other IT professionals trained to manage the company's new OmniSwitch family of network switches. The new designation is...

SeeBeyond, Claredi Form HIPAA Alliance.(Brief Article)
December 4, 2002... Enterprise application integration software developer SeeBeyond Technology and Claredi Corp. announced Wednesday an alliance that will result in a new solution for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act [HIPAA] compliance. ...

OpenHack Security Q&A with Microsoft and Oracle.(Interview)
December 4, 2002... After the conclusion of the OpenHack 4 project, eWEEK Labs West Coast Technical Director Timothy Dyck posed questions on enterprise security via e-mail to two of the people who helped harden the test applications: Oracle Corp.'s John Abel,...

PGP Opens Up Encryption Source Code.
December 4, 2002... Newly formed PGP Corp. took a big step Monday toward endearing itself to cryptography enthusiasts and privacy advocates by releasing the source code for its flagship line of encryption products. The code for the entire PGP 8.0 line--which...

WiredRed Rolls Out Java Client for IM.(E/pop Java Client)(Brief Article)
December 4, 2002... WiredRed Software Corp. announced Wednesday the availability of a Java client for its e/pop enterprise instant messaging application. The new client, e/pop Java Client, works with WiredRed's e/pop Enterprise Server and will allow customers...

Hitachi, NetApp Offer EMC Alternative.
December 5, 2002... Storage administrators seeking an alternative to EMC Corp. for a high-end network-attached storage gateway to Fibre Channel disks will get a new choice next year from Hitachi Ltd. and Network Appliance Inc. An as-yet unnamed product the two...

Sun Grills Microsoft on Interoperability.
December 5, 2002... BALTIMORE--After Sun Microsystems Inc. finished with its last witness, Microsoft Corp. Wednesday evening slogged through three witnesses and started on a fourth before calling it a day in the preliminary injunction hearing in the Sun...

Microsoft Releases .Net Server 2003 RC2.
December 5, 2002... Microsoft Corp. on Thursday announced that it has delivered the second release candidate for Windows .Net Server 2003. Customers can register to obtain a trial version of RC2 through the Customer Preview Program at...

Tech Giants to Build Network of 'Hot Spots'.(Cometa Networks)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2002... Technology industry giants AT&T Corp., Intel Corp. and IBM, along with two investment companies, today confirmed that they are creating a new company that will build a network of wireless LAN "hot spots" across the United States. ...

AMD Raises Q4 Guidance.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2002... Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on Thursday said it expects to fourth-quarter sales to come in at $700 million, a 35 percent jump over earlier projections from the chip maker. AMD, of Sunnyvale, Calif., said higher-than-expected demand for PC...

Application Security Locks Down DB2.(AppDetective)
December 5, 2002... Application Security Inc. has put out the beta for an IBM DB2 version of the company's AppDetective tool, a network-based, penetration testing tool and security audit scanner for databases. AppDetective has three modes of operation: Scan,...

Security Expert Takes Issue With Rating of New IE Flaw.(Thor Larholm)
December 5, 2002... A security expert is taking Microsoft Corp. to task for what he says is a deliberate effort to downplay the severity of a newly discovered vulnerability in Internet Explorer. Microsoft on Wednesday released a cumulative patch for IE, which...

Microsoft Enhances Integration in Small Business Manager.(version 7.0)
December 5, 2002... Microsoft Business Solutions, a division of Microsoft Corp., announced Thursday the next iteration of its Small Business Manager suite, geared toward helping small organizations manage their business functions. SBM 7.0 provides a number of...

Intel Projects More Than $6.8M in Q4 Revenue.(Brief Article)
December 5, 2002... Intel Corp. on Thursday joined rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. in upgrading its fourth-quarter forecast, calling for revenue to come in between $6.8 billion and $7 billion for the quarter ending Dec. 28. AMD earlier in the day also raised...

Sony to Bundle StarOffice in Europe.
December 5, 2002... Sun Microsystems Inc. has snared another vendor to distribute its StarOffice 6.0 desktop office productivity suite. The latest deal with Sony Information Technology Europe involves bundling StarOffice on Sony desktop computer systems in...