eWeek articles from December 2003

eWeek archives from December 2003

Internet Attackers on Phishing Expeditions.(Column)
December 1, 2003... As I said in my 2004 Outlook column, our e-mail accounts are now filled with some recent advances in the field of "phishing." If you haven't been paying attention, the term refers to a particular type of Internet scam in which a user is tricked...

IBM Tool Roots Out Privacy Flaws.
December 1, 2003... IBM is developing a technology that will give enterprises a deeper understanding of their exposure to privacy problems and automate the process of defining which users are tapping a network's assets and how they're using them. The tool is...

Wi-Fi to Get Big Extensions.(Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo)
December 1, 2003... Several companies are readying WLAN hardware and software to address the security and management of remote networks, especially in larger enterprises. The Wi-Fi Planet Conference & Expo in San Jose, Calif., this week will host security and...

Storage Vendors Turn Focus to Disaster Recovery, Workflow Management.
December 1, 2003... Major storage companies are working on new management tools that focus on disaster recovery and give users new options in workflow management, regulatory compliance and database management--all of which are tailored to specific hardware. ...

Stuffing for the Tip Box.
December 1, 2003... As his co-workers scurried to meet holiday deadlines to produce this issue of eWEEK, the prescient Puss procrastinated, knowing his Thanksgiving routine consisted of a Banquet frozen turkey dinner, a case of Schlitz and 500 hours of football....

Microsoft Readies New IT Solution Guides for SMBs.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Just as it has done with its Information Worker product family, Microsoft Corp. is building a set of blueprints and methodologies around its small/midsize business (SMB) products. In the Information Worker/Office world, Microsoft calls...

Acronis Revives Disk Drives.(with True Imager Server 7.0 software)
December 1, 2003... Acronis Inc. is building out its True Image Server software--which is used for server disk backups--with new versions designed to appeal to small IT departments and enterprises. True Image Server Version 7.0, released late last month,...

Analytics Tools Mine Text.(SPSS' Predictive Text Analytics)
December 1, 2003... With predictive analytics at the core of many marketing initiatives, software developers are adding predictive capabilities to text mining so that enterprises can act on information in unstructured as well as structured data. SPSS Inc....

Anti-Spam Legislation Advances.
December 1, 2003... In a frenzy of activity before adjourning for the year, Congress was set to pass last week anti-spam legislation that primarily targets unwanted pornography and flagrant fraud. However, the measure is unlikely to stem the tide of unwanted...

Organization for Vulnerability Researchers Proposed.(Pivx Solutions' proposal)
December 1, 2003... The number of active security researchers has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, and for many of them, research is not just a hobby but a profession. To help legitimize this calling and impose a bit of structure in what can be a...

Carriers Renew Focus on Business Customers.
December 1, 2003... Attempting to renew their focus on business customers, carriers are rushing to roll out networks and services aimed at speed, ease of use and business applications. AT&T Wireless late last month launched EDGE, its next-generation...

Cell Phone Number Portability Rule Kicks In.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... As new federal rules took effect to enable users to change cell phone providers without switching their cell phone numbers, carriers reported brisk business last week. Verizon Wireless reported more than twice the usual traffic in its...

Platt Named New Chairman of Boeing.
December 1, 2003... Phil Condit is resigning as chairman and CEO of The Boeing Co., and former Hewlett-Packard Co. CEO Lewis Platt has been named to replace him as chairman of the aerospace company's board of directors. In an announcement Monday, board members...

Former Compaq Exec Leaves Hewlett-Packard.(Jeffrey Clarke)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Jeffrey Clarke, the former chief financial officer for Compaq Computer and a key figure in the company's integration into Hewlett-Packard, resigned his post as executive vice president of global operations at HP, the company announced last...

IBM Looks to Develop World's Fastest Computers.
December 1, 2003... IBM's scaled-down version of its Blue Gene/L doesn't look like much of a supercomputer. About the size of a dishwasher, the Linux-based prototype is now the 73rd-fastest computer in the world and is just a sample of what's ahead, according to...

IBM, ESRI Target Geospatial Data.(come up with Mobile Task Manager)
December 1, 2003... Enhanced data management offerings from IBM and Oracle Corp. aim to enable faster decision making by integrating geospatial data across multiple systems and mobile devices. IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., is working with GIS (geographic information...

Lucent Goes Indirect With Reseller Program.
December 1, 2003... After a few years of inconsistent service, many Lucent Technologies Inc. customers are discovering that if they want Lucent expertise, they shouldn't look to Lucent--not directly, that is. "Service started breaking down here in the last...

Mac OS X Server Due for Update.(Build 7D14 of Panther Server)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Apple Computer is readying a minor update to Mac OS X server that will deliver new system enhancements and bug fixes, sources said. The Mac maker last week provided developers with a prerelease version of Version 10.3.2, an update to the...

IT Providers Making an Olympic Effort Preparing for 2004 Games.
December 1, 2003... The orchestration of it services for the Athens Olympics next year has taken a 180-degree turn from those carried out for the 2000 Sydney or 1996 Atlanta summer games. While the mantra for those earlier Olympics' IT efforts might have been...

Online CRM Grows Up.
December 1, 2003... Publicly, CRM software market leader Siebel Systems Inc. used to scorn hosted customer relationship management application services. But that changed in early October when the San Mateo, Calif., company announced its hosted CRM offering, Siebel...

SBC Broadens Its Ip Services.
December 1, 2003... Jumping into the voip fray, SBC Communications Inc. has expanded its IP-based services to include a network-based IP VPN and a hosted voice-over-IP service. SBC's hosted service, which will be available nationwide by the end of next year,...

SCO Position Under Fire.(by Columbia Law University professor, Eben Moglen)
December 1, 2003... The war of words between the SCO Group and the open-source community continued last week with the publication of a paper by a Columbia University Law School professor, who described SCO's position as "desperate." "SCO: Without Fear and...

Expand Tool Manages App Traffic Across WANs.(ExpandView )
December 1, 2003... WAN optimization provider Expand Networks Inc. on Dec. 8 will launch a new applications traffic management tool that promises to bring greater visibility into how applications are performing across enterprise WANs. The Roseland, N.J.,...

Sharp Set to Update Linux-Based Unit.(Sharp Zaurus SL-6000)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Sharp is readying the next generation of its Linux-based Zaurus handheld computer. The Zaurus SL-6000 has a built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi radio, according to Sharp officials. It features 64MB of RAM, a high-resolution color screen, a built-in...

SNIA Delays Certifications to Fix Glitches.(Storage Networking Industry Association )
December 1, 2003... Storage administrators waiting for standards-certified products will have to wait a bit longer, a Storage Networking Industry Association official said last week. The relevant standards are CIM (Common Information Model) 2.8, which is a...

PeopleSoft, IBM Tightening Supply Chain Links.(PeopleSoft Supply Chain Management Suite 8.8)
December 1, 2003... PeopleSoft Inc. and ibm are taking different routes to help companies manage complex supply chains--the former with a software upgrade, the latter with a new research project. PeopleSoft, of Pleasanton, Calif., this month will ship Version...

LANDesk Tool Keeps Tabs on Patches.(LANDesk Patch Manager 8.0)
December 1, 2003... LANDesk Software Ltd. joins a growing list of patch management providers with the introduction of a new add-on to its LANDesk Management Suite. The LANDesk Patch Manager 8 add-on moves the Intel Corp. spinoff into the desktop security...

Vendors Look to Standardize Product Data.(JT Open community)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Product lifecycle management software developer UGS PLM Solutions, in conjunction with its major automotive customers, has created JT Open, a community to evangelize the use of a specialized data format meant to standardize collaboration among...

MPC Preps Laptops for Battle.
December 1, 2003... MPC Computers LLC is extending its TransPort notebook line to include separate families of systems equipped with additional security and authentication features and targeted at government and commercial users. Two notebooks aimed at...

Curl Beefs Up Client/Web Development Platform.(Curl Client/Web Platform 3.0)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Curl Corp. is broadening its web application development platform by giving enterprise users new capabilities for monitoring and managing business performance metrics. The Cambridge, Mass., developer this week will announce the...

Siebel Pushes UpShot Further.
December 1, 2003... Siebel Systems Inc. is adding customer service capabilities to its UpShot Edition hosted CRM service, giving enterprises the opportunity to extend the technology to more users in an organization. Last week Siebel pumped up its hosted...

MS-Linux? It Could Happen.
December 1, 2003... Could Microsoft come out with its own Linux distribution? It sure could. There's nothing in the GPL to stop it. And in fact, SCO CEO Darl McBride told me at November's CDXPO in Las Vegas that Microsoft's second licensing payment to his company...

Oracle Revs Up the Rhetoric.
December 1, 2003... The war of words between Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft Inc. over Oracle's $7.3 billion hostile takeover bid for its enterprise software rival heated up last week. Oracle officials, in Redwood Shores, Calif., accused PeopleSoft of improperly...

NetQoS Enhances Network Performance Reporting Tool.(ReportAnalyzer 5.0)
December 1, 2003... NetQoS Inc. is preparing to launch a rearchitected version of its network performance reporting and traffic management tool that can scale to some of the largest enterprise networks based on Cisco Systems Inc. products. ReporterAnalyzer...

2004 Chip Revenues to Show Sharp Increase.(according to iSuppli)(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2003... The semiconductor market should continue to show gains in 2004, building on the recovery begun this year, according to a research report released Monday. World semiconductor revenue will build on 2003's recovery, rising 17 percent to...

VOIP Rules Inch Toward Internet.
December 1, 2003... Federal regulators this week will begin the process of deciding whether to regulate telephone calls placed over the Internet the same way they regulate traditional telephony. It's a task policymakers have put off since Congress opened the...

BEA, IBM Push J2EE Specs.
December 1, 2003... BEA Systems Inc. and IBM are developing three new specifications that will improve portability across the companies' competing application servers as well as other Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition application servers that comply with the...

Benioff: Salesforce.com Sets Sights on Integration.(Interview)
December 1, 2003... In just four years, Salesforce.com Inc.'s high-profile chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, has guided the upstart hosted CRM provider to 8,200 customers, more than $100 million in revenues and profitability. The San Francisco-based company, which...

IBM Leases PeopleSoft's Procurement Software.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... IBM will use PeopleSoft Inc.'s Enterprise Services Procurement software to help it better manage its supplier relationships, PeopleSoft announced Monday. The ESP software will be used internally by IBM in an effort to enhance its services...

Managing Disk Fragmentation.
December 1, 2003... Managers are concerned about the reliability of their data storage, but that worry usually focuses on the physical status of drives or from outside security alerts. However, the everyday usage of your computer can result in fragmentation of...

Microsoft Aims for Software in Every Car.
December 1, 2003... REDMOND, Wash. (AP)--First Microsoft set out to put a computer in every home. Now the software giant hopes to put one in every vehicle, too. "We'd like to have one of our operating systems in every car on Earth," said Dick Brass,...

Companies Explore 'Micropayments' Idea.(Industry Overview)
December 1, 2003... NEW YORK (AP)--An idea that seemingly evaporated along with dot-com mania is back: that the Internet would realize its full grass-roots potential if Web surfers could pay small amounts for tidbits of online content. Several companies are...

Researchers Find Serious Vulnerability in Linux Kernel.
December 1, 2003... Security professionals took note of a critical new vulnerability in the Linux kernel that could enable an attacker to gain root access to a vulnerable machine and take complete control of it. An unknown cracker recently used this weakness to...

SAN Maker McData Reports Down Quarter.(Q3 2003)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... McData Corp. officials said on Monday that the company lost $50 million and its revenue dipped to $94.7 million for the third fiscal quarter of 2003, compared to a profit of $9.1 million on $107 in the second quarter. In comparison, the in...

FCC Forms Policy Committee to Investigate VOIP.
December 1, 2003... Washington's historic hands-off-the-Internet guiding principle tipped a bit in the direction of regulation Monday with the formation of an Internet policy committee at the Federal Communications Commission. Lawmakers and regulators have...

Webmasters Weary of Latest Google Tweaks.
December 1, 2003... It's known as the Google Dance among Webmasters and search-engine marketers: the semi-regular updates to the top Internet search engine's index and the tweaking of its algorithms to keep search results relevant and fresh. But the latest...

Symantec Acknowledges Activation Bug, Posts Fix.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
December 1, 2003... Symantec Corp. Monday acknowledged a problem with the activation feature included in many of its latest product releases, and posted a fix to solve the issue. In Symantec products that require activation, a bug in the activation procedure...

Chipset Makers Rally Around Athlon 64, PCI Express.(Excerpt)
December 1, 2003... Third-party chipset suppliers have given their seal of approval to the Advanced Micro Devices Athlon 64 microprocessor, based on the number of chipsets slated to be launched next year. According to a recent presentation AMD made to its...

"MiMail" Viruses Top November Infections.(according to Central Command)
December 1, 2003... The worm known as "MiMail" and its variants dominated the "Dirty Dozen" list of top email viruses released Monday by Central Command, an anti-virus vendor. The software firm noted that many versions of current viruses, such as "MiMail.I"...

Symantec Acknowledges Activation Bug, Posts Fix.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
December 1, 2003... Symantec Corp. has acknowledged a problem with the activation feature included in many of its latest product releases, and has posted a fix to solve the issue. In Symantec products which require activation, a bug in the activation...

U-Turn: Users in Control.(Column)
December 1, 2003... Wal-Mart continues to set the supply chain agenda and may soon set notebook computer and online music pricing levels. Dell has redirected some of its customer support lines from India back to the United States at the instigation of customers....

Beware Skype's Hype.
December 1, 2003... Wouldn't it be great if vendors always got their standards together before shipping products? Sometimes this happens; sometimes it doesn't. When it does, as with USB 1.0 and 2.0, adoption is rapid. You can hardly buy a PC or laptop these days...

Sun Shines on China.(sells 1 million copies of its Linux-based Java Desktop System to China )
December 1, 2003... A few years ago, a James Bond film hit the screens that centered on a scheme to secure exclusive TV broadcasting rights in China for 100 years. Aside from demonstrating just how lame the Bond series had become, the plot pointed to the enormous...

CoCreate Beefs Up Workgroup Capabilities.(OneSpace.net)(Software Review)
December 1, 2003... CoCreate Software Inc.'s OneSpace.net collaboration work space does a good job of integrating messaging and collaboration with presence awareness to help engineers collaborate on designs. eWEEK Labs' tests showed OneSpace.net's collaboration...

SonicWall Aims at Enterprise Security.(SonicWall Pro 4060)(Hardware Review)(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 1, 2003... The Pro 4060 appliance is SonicWall Inc.'s notable attempt to gain traction in the enterprise firewall/VPN appliance market. The Pro 4060 carries an affordable price and provides better functionality for complex networks than its predecessors...

This Week In Enterprise Tech.
December 1, 2003... Out of the ashes of the application service provider market has emerged hosted CRM, not only alive and well, but growing at a faster rate than the mainstream licensed CRM market, according to Giga Information Group. As Dennis Callaghan...

Mopping Up Dirty Data.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Direct marketers have long reckoned with cleaning dirty databases loaded with duplicate names, misspelled addresses and other shortcomings. Today, companies in more diverse industries--from technology to manufacturing--are jumping on the...

Walt Disney World Resorts and CRM Strategy.
December 1, 2003... Sitting on a curb with their three children one humid afternoon in October inside Magic Kingdom, the oldest of Walt Disney World's four Orlando theme parks, Jeff Pawlowski and his wife were in a sour mood. Long lines demanded waits of as long...

Expert Voices: Customer Experience Over Products.(forthcoming book, The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (Harvard Business School Press), by University of Michigan Business School professors C.K. Prahalad and Venkat Ramaswamy )
December 1, 2003... Thanks to the rapid spread of cell phones and other mobile devices, Web sites and media channels, consumers now have access to more information at greater speed and lower cost than ever before. But the information technology explosion has not...

Vendor Value 2003.
December 1, 2003... When IT professionals go shopping, they check how competing IT products compare with one another. But when CIOs buy equipment, engage a consultant or license software, they look at the big picture: Does the vendor's offering provide the...

Making Voting a Simpler Exercise.(registering voters should be simpler)(Column)
December 1, 2003... While Ed Cone, senior writer for Baseline, was deftly delving into the ways that former governor Howard Dean is employing Web technologies to capture the Democratic nomination for president, I went to vote for the first time in Connecticut. ...

Security Web Digest: Pirated Longhorn For Sale ... and More.
December 2, 2003... Intellectual Property Software pirates in Malaysia are selling the next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system years before it is supposed to be on sale. CDs containing software Microsoft has code named "Longhorn" are on...

Electronic Voting Firm Drops Legal Case.
December 2, 2003... SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)--In a major victory for free speech enthusiasts on the Internet, Diebold Inc. has agreed not to sue voting rights advocates who publish leaked documents about the alleged security breaches of electronic voting. A...

Blackouts Begin at Home.(Interim Report of the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force)(Column)
December 2, 2003... No, I did not get an advance copy of the Interim Report of the U.S.-Canada Power System Outage Task Force, released last week. Any resemblance between its conclusions and my column of two weeks ago is pure coincidence--and I'm more worried than...

AT&T Names New President.(William Hannigan)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2003... AT&T Corp. today named a new president, William Hannigan, formerly chairman and CEO of Sabre Holdings Corp. Hannigan replaces Betsy Bernard, who took over as president in October 2002. Bernard said in a press release today that she looks...

The Programmer As (Starving) Artist.(Column)
December 2, 2003... Discussions about code as poetry and how code and art differ from each other are not new, but the growing popularity of free software among both developers and users may make software developers more like artists than they have been in the past...

Wind River Joins Pair of Open-Source Consortia.(Eclipse Consortium and Open Source Development Labs)
December 2, 2003... Wind River Systems Inc., maker of proprietary embedded operating systems and development tools for creating embedded applications, has announced its membership in two open-source consortia. The Alameda, Calif., company announced Monday that...

Microsoft Test Drives Another Blogging Tool.(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
December 2, 2003... Microsoft Corp. may not have an official corporate policy on Web logging, or blogging. But that isn't stopping the Redmond, Wash., software vendor from setting up hosted blog communities, left and right. The latest Microsoft-sponsored...

Microsoft Revamps MSN.(MSN Premium service)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2003... On Tuesday, Microsoft Corp. announced its latest online service: MSN Premium. The new service, for use with broadband Internet connections, will be available to the general public on Jan. 8 and offer a wide range of online features including...

OASIS Approves UBL 1.0 Beta for Testing.(Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems' Universal Business Language 1.0 )
December 2, 2003... The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Systems has approved the Universal Business Language 1.0 beta for public implementation testing. Jon Bosak, chairman of the UBL technical committee at OASIS and a distinguished...

Top Security Pros Head to National Cybersecurity Summit.(National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace)
December 2, 2003... When the top security minds from the federal government and the private sector meet in Silicon Valley Wednesday, there will be no shortage of conversation topics, given the current state of security in the United States and the upheaval and...

Gordano Tackles Spam in Messaging Update.(Gordano Messaging Suite)
December 2, 2003... Gordano Ltd., a developer of Web-based messaging software, is ratcheting up its fight against unwanted e-mail with the introduction on Tuesday of new anti-spam features. The company has launched an update to its Gordano Messaging Suite...

Software Pirates Sell Longhorn Copies in Malaysia.(Microsoft's operating system still in beta testing)
December 2, 2003... KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP)--Software pirates in Malaysia are selling copies of an early version of the next generation of Microsoft Corp.'s flagship Windows operating system, company officials said Tuesday. Microsoft believes the program,...

ACCPAC Updates Warehouse Management System.(Warehouse Management System 3.4)
December 2, 2003... Tapping small and midsized businesses, ACCPAC International Inc. announced today the next iteration of its Warehouse Management System. Warehouse Management System 3.4 is designed to speed up the pick, pack and ship process. The upgraded...

Tech Execs Fight Computer Security Regulations.
December 2, 2003... WASHINGTON (AP) --Technology executives are trying to convince the Homeland Security Department that costly new computer security rules aren't needed, arguing their companies are already taking aggressive steps to defend against hackers. ...

Wireless Entrepreneur McCaw Resigns From Nextel Board.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2003... RESTON, Va. (AP)--Wireless entrepreneur Craig McCaw, whose $1.1 billion investment in 1995 helped revive Nextel Communications Inc., has resigned from the mobile phone company's board of directors. McCaw, who has reduced his Nextel...

DDNS Service To Block Faulty Linksys Routers.(Dynamic DNS Network Services )(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
December 2, 2003... A dynamic DNS server provider says it will shut off access to a specific wireless router manufactured by Linksys Corp. on Dec. 8, unless the router is patched. Dynamic DNS Network Services LLC, of Worcester, Mass., said its servers have...

Microsoft Speech Server Enters Final Beta.
December 2, 2003... Microsoft Corp., preparing for an aggressive push into the enterprise speech technology arena next year, released on Tuesday the final beta versions of its Speech Server and development kit for creating speech applications The Microsoft...

DDNS Service To Block Faulty Linksys Routers.(Dynamic DNS Network Services )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2003... A dynamic DNS server provider says it will shut off access to a specific wireless router manufactured by Linksys Corp. on Dec. 8, unless the router is patched. Dynamic DNS Network Services LLC, of Worcester, Mass., said its servers have...

Social Networking Reaches Into the Enterprise.(Contact Network's Contact Network 2.5)
December 3, 2003... An early entrant into the enterprise social networking field is unveiling an updated version of its software on Wednesday. Contact Network Corp., of Boston, is releasing Contact Network 2.5, server software that allows corporations to...

Sun Serves Another Round of Low-End Servers.
December 3, 2003... Sun Microsystems Inc. is continuing its push into the low-end server space with several new products that the company will unveil Wednesday at its SunNetwork 2003 Conference in Berlin. Included in the rollout--the latest in Sun's quarterly...

Tech Cos. Work to Stem New Security Rules.
December 3, 2003... WASHINGTON (AP)--America's largest technology companies are working to persuade the Department of Homeland Security against consideration of costly new computer-security rules, arguing that companies already are taking aggressive steps to...

Internet2 Consortium Works on Improving Internet.
December 3, 2003... ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)--A University of Michigan professor is leading a nationwide team to develop the next generation of the Internet. Concerned about the future of the World Wide Web, almost three dozen colleges joined up in 1996 to look...

Appeal of DVD Hacker's Acquittal Begins.(Jon Lech Johansen)
December 3, 2003... OSLO, Norway (AP)--The appeal of a Norwegian acquitted of piracy for making available a program that cracked DVD security codes started Tuesday in a trial observers called a key test of the country's computer protection laws. Jon Lech...