eWeek articles from December 2004

eWeek archives from December 2004

Handicapping the PC Vendors.
December 1, 2004... Of the top 10 PC manufacturers, which three will be gone in 2007? Gartner says tougher times lay ahead for PC vendors and that three of the top players are likely to be squeezed out of business by lower profits and slumping sales. But Gartner...

'Critical' PNG Flaw Haunts Netscape.(Portable Network Graphic)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... America Online Inc.'s efforts to kick-start renewed interest in its Netscape browser got off to a rocky start with researchers warning of a "highly critical" flaw that could lead to remote code execution. Just 24 hours after AOL unveiled a...

Philly, Verizon Complete Wireless Deal.
December 1, 2004... HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The city of Philadelphia and Verizon Communications Inc. struck an agreement Tuesday that would allow the city to provide wireless Internet access as a municipal service even though Gov. Ed Rendell signed legislation...

Microsoft Delivers XP SP2 for Embedded Devices.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... On Wednesday, Microsoft announced it had released to manufacturing the version of its Windows XP Service Pack 2 for embedded devices. Called "Windows XP Embedded With SP2," the new release contains many of the same features and security...

Cingular to Offer Faster Wireless Service.
December 1, 2004... ATLANTA (AP) -- Cingular Wireless LLC will begin deploying a speedier wireless Internet service next year, a move made possible by the network capacity gained with the recent acquisition of AT&T Wireless as Cingular tries to catch up with to...

Overture Settles with GEICO over Search Advertising.
December 1, 2004... Overture Services Inc. has settled a trademark infringement lawsuit brought against it and search-based advertising rival Google Inc. Overture, of Pasadena, Calif., reached the settlement on Friday with GEICO, one of the nation's largest...

Wi-Fi Alliance Founder: Wireless Networking Ready for Enterprise Adoption.
December 1, 2004... Businesses skittish about jumping on the Wi-Fi bandwagon because of security and reliability concerns should stop worrying. That's the word from David Cohen, founder of the Wi-Fi Alliance, a nonprofit group charged with certifying...

Samsung Enters the US Push-to-Talk Market.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... Samsung Electronics is entering the walkie-talkie market in the United States with a push-to-talk-enabled handset, the Samsung SPH-A760. Currently available through Sprint, the clamshell design features SMS and supports Sprint's Ready Link...

HP Plans Overlay Network for Enterprise Sensor Applications.
December 1, 2004... Hewlett-Packard Co. is eyeing the creation of an "overlay network" for connecting enterprise computers with existing wireless RFID solutions, as well as with other emerging sensor technologies for package tracking, building security and...

Founders Face the Future as the Web Turns 10.
December 1, 2004... BOSTON--In a star-studded event that featured Internet luminaries including Bob Metcalfe and Tim Berners-Lee, multitudes converged here Wednesday as the World Wide Web Consortium celebrated its 10-year birthday. The world converged, and the...

Emergency IE Patch Fixes Critical Bug.
December 1, 2004... Microsoft has issued a patch, out of its normal security patch cycle, for a critical bug in Internet Explorer versions from 6.0 up to but not including Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2). According to the advisory issued by Microsoft, the bug...

EU Suspends Review of Microsoft, ContentGuard Deal.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2004... BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP)--The European Union suspended its antitrust review of Microsoft Corp.'s deal with Time Warner Inc. to develop anti-piracy software now that technology company Thomson SA has joined the proposed venture, officials said...

Sun and Microsoft: Fixing Each Other's Flats?
December 1, 2004... Some eight months have passed since Sun Microsystems and Microsoft signed their landmark settlement and technical collaboration agreement, and a number of significant milestones have already been accomplished during that time, executives from...

Full-Scale RFID Could Take a Decade.(Radio Frequency Identification)
December 1, 2004... As the year 2004 winds down, many product suppliers are looking to launch their first implementations of RFID sometime in 2005. But full-fledged RFID deployment--across outbound shipments, inbound deliveries and manufacturing for a whole...

New VOIP Exploits Coming Soon.(Voice Over Internet Protocol)
December 1, 2004... Before long, VOIP systems will be filled with spam, open to hackers and taken down by worms. But security, infrastructure and VOIP vendors say it's important to get ahead of the curve, and they encouraged enterprises to consider security first...

Mobile Conferencing Should Not Boggle the Mind.
December 1, 2004... The only thing that could make you look smarter than being able to operate a VCR is being able to set up a mobile conference call. Conference calls, of course, are the application nobody thinks is worth having. There's a reason for that:...

MSN Launches Blog Service with IM Ties.(Instant Messaging)
December 1, 2004... MSN began rolling out its Weblog service late on Wednesday in a move likely to rattle the still-emerging market for blog-creation tools. With the new service, called MSN Spaces, Microsoft Corp's Internet division is closely tying blogging...

Microsoft Tests 'Brown Wrapper' Porn Rule with Spam Suits.
December 2, 2004... Microsoft on Thursday fired off seven lawsuits against a band of unknown spammers who allegedly sent millions of sexually explicit e-mails to Microsoft's MSN Hotmail user base without proper labeling, as required by the CAN-SPAM Act and FTC...

Nextel's Wireless Broadband Won't Be WiMAX.(Nextel Communications Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... A Nextel official says that although the company will probably follow its competitors to wireless broadband market, its technology will be significantly faster. What that technology will be is still up for grabs. One thing it won't be is...

Spammers in Shooting War with Lycos Europe.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Internet research firm Netcraft is reporting that most Web sites targeted by an anti-spammer campaign by Lycos Europe are being effectively taken down. The campaign uses a screen saver program distributed by Lycos Europe on its...

Motorola Falls Behind in Cell-Phone Sales.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... CHICAGO (AP)--Five years after losing the lead in world cell-phone sales to Nokia Corp., Motorola Inc. slipped to No. 3 behind Samsung Electronics Co. in third-quarter data released Wednesday by research firm Gartner Inc. The new figures...

Can Exposing Personal Info Preserve Privacy?
December 2, 2004... What if information--even information we now consider private or secret--were public and easily available? Making it subject to scrutiny by not just those who need it--lenders, law enforcement, doctors or government agencies--but everyone who's...

Google Launches Revamped E-Mail Groups.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Google Inc. turned on the switch Thursday to its new e-mail list service that combines the Usenet archive with the ability to create and manage new groups. The new Google Groups, which has been available as a Google Labs test since May,...

Wozniak's Wheels of Zeus Tackles Enterprise Data Encryption.(Steve Wozniak)
December 2, 2004... Steve Wozniak's Wheels of Zeus is beginning to roll, and enterprise data protection is one destination on the Apple Computer Inc. co-founder's mind. Wozniak offered a peek into his vision for the company on Ziff Davis Media's Security...

Desktop Search: The Ultimate Security Hole?
December 2, 2004... Desktop-search tools have become one of the industry's hottest trends, promising to extend the ease of searching for Web pages to the finding of hard-drive files and data. While end-users may jump at the chance to uncover their lost...

Intel Lifts Expectations for Fourth Quarter.
December 2, 2004... Intel said Thursday that it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be higher than anticipated, based on strong demand for its products. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip vendor made its disclosure as part of a previously scheduled business...

IBM-Led Community to Plug Power Architecture.
December 2, 2004... IBM this week announced the formation of Power.org, a collaborative community of itself and 14 partner companies with the goal of promoting hardware and software development centered on the Power architecture standard developed by IBM. The...

Fuel Cell Supply Chain Market to Hit $1 Billion by 2012.
December 2, 2004... The automotive fuel cell industry now stands out as a glimmering beacon in the supply chain's vertical landscape. Driven by factors ranging from homeland security to diminishing natural resources, the fuel cell supply chain market will explode...

Opsware to Buy Rendition Networks for $33 Million.
December 2, 2004... Opsware Inc. Thursday filled in a missing piece of the automated configuration management puzzle when it announced its pact to acquire multivendor network configuration management provider Rendition Networks Inc. The deal, valued at $33...

Berners-Lee Maps Vision of a Web Without Walls.
December 2, 2004... BOSTON--To envision the Internet of the future, W3C director and WWW founding father Tim Berners-Lee suggested during the W3C's 10-year birthday bash here Wednesday, first envision groceries--say a box of rice. On the box's side, in small,...

Iomega NAS Line Boasts Improved Speed, Capacity.
December 3, 2004... Iomega Corp. updated its network-attached storage line Friday with the NAS 400r, a rack-mounted NAS line featuring faster processors and improved capacity. The refresh also includes an increase in capacity, with options up to 1.6...

Apple Zaps 16 Mac OS X Holes.
December 3, 2004... Apple Computer Inc. late Thursday rolled out a monster update to correct 16 potentially serious vulnerabilities in the Mac OS X operating system. According to an advisory from Apple, the update corrects flaws that could lead to security...

IBM's PC Unit Retreat Is Good Business.
December 3, 2004... The big news in Friday's announcement that IBM is selling its PC business is the fact that it is still in the business at all. Let's face it. Except for its highly regarded ThinkPads, IBM hasn't been a player in the computer industry since...

Dell Gets $700M Deal From Royal Philips.(Brief Article)
December 3, 2004... DALLAS (AP)--Dell Inc. said Thursday that it has won a $700 million, 5-year contract to provide computers and services for Royal Philips Electronics. Dell said it will supply desktop and notebook computers for 75,000 workstations in 60...

Customers to Quest for Candor at Oracle OpenWorld.
December 3, 2004... The Oracle OpenWorld conference starting Monday in San Francisco will likely be more closely watched than some of the other recent renditions of this annual show. That's because this year's OpenWorld may give some hints about how the...

IBM PC Retreat Would Shift Market Balance to Asia.
December 3, 2004... Reports that IBM might spin off or sell its PC business have refocused attention on the evolving role of contract manufacturers and Asian ODMs, those companies who actually build the PCs that are later branded as "Dell" or "HP." The same...

It's About Time for IBM to Leave PCs Behind.
December 3, 2004... Almost exactly 24 years ago, IBM got into the personal computer business. Now, it's getting out, as it prepares to sell off what remains of its PC and notebook operations--which amount mostly to a team of designers and engineers and a pile of...

MS Rolls Out Second Interim Beta of SQL Server 2005.
December 3, 2004... Microsoft Corp. on Friday released its second Community Technology Preview of SQL Server 2005 and rolled out a new, free tool to manage SQL Server 2000 and MSDE (Microsoft Desktop Engine) 2000. This second preview edition, which is an...

IBM Prepares to Leave an Industry It Created.
December 3, 2004... In August 1981, the world of computing changed. When IBM launched its first IBM PC, most observers at the time simply thought it was a good move by a company that was already a leader. The new computer would help IBM stay relevant and provide a...

Lycos Pulls Anti-Spam 'Vigilante' Campaign.
December 3, 2004... Just days after Lycos Europe's launch of an anti-spam DDoS tool raised eyebrows in the security space, the company appears to have scrapped the campaign. Earlier this week, the company released a downloadable screensaver programmed to...

Apple Co-Founder 'Woz' Misses Mark with GPS Tech.
December 3, 2004... I hate to seem dense or out of the loop, but for the life of me I can't think of many really useful applications for the located-based encryption technology being touted by Steve Wozniak's company. It does, however, help me understand why...

Adobe Pursues Enterprise Goals.
December 3, 2004... When you think about enterprise software, Adobe Systems is probably not the first company you think of. But during 2005, the company best known for PhotoShop and Illustrator is hoping the change that. Of course, if Microsoft were really...

Microsoft to Extend Outlook with 'MOOL'.(Microsoft Office Outlook Live)(Brief Article)
December 3, 2004... BetaNews has learned that Microsoft Corp. is developing a new consumer-oriented subscription service called Microsoft Office Outlook Live, or MOOL, that is built on top of MSN Platform technologies. According to several sources close to...

Rights Management Can Protect or Offend.
December 3, 2004... Ask people about digital rights management and most will offer an opinion regarding the rights and wrongs of peer-to-peer file swapping. But ask Microsoft and you're more likely to hear about their plan to protect corporate documents, intranets...

Analysts: Is Lenovo Right for IBM's PC Biz?
December 3, 2004... A report in The New York Times that IBM is poised to sell off its PC unit has provoked mixed reactions and tentative interpretations from analysts who follow the historic company. The Times' story said negotiations of such a sale have...

The Hidden Risks of Demo Discs.
December 3, 2004... In mid-November, members of Sony's PlayStation Underground received the Holiday Demo Disc and discovered that after executing one of the game demos on the disc, their PS2 memory cards were completely erased. While that doesn't mean much to...

Sun Proposes New Open-Source License.
December 3, 2004... Sun Microsystems Inc. has proposed a new open-source license to the Open Source Initiative, but Linus Torvalds and others doubt that it will help Sun create an open-source community. The new Common Development and Distribution License, or...

Microsoft Gives NT Server 4, Exchange Server 5.5 Users a (Small) Reprieve.(Brief Article)
December 3, 2004... While Microsoft continues to emphasize that it is not extending its basic support for NT Server 4.0 beyond December 31, it is continuing to give users who've held off from upgrading slight reprieves. The latest, announced Friday, is one...

Change at Health and Human Services Department Won't Stop Health IT.(resignation of Tommy Thompson as head of the Department)(Brief Article)
December 4, 2004... The resignation of Tommy Thompson, head of the Department of Health and Human Services will probably have little effect on health IT, say industry insiders. In an interview conducted while Thompson's departure was still rumor, David...

Bush Signs Internet Tax, Special Ed Bills.
December 4, 2004... WASHINGTON (AP) -- State and local governments will be barred from taxing connections that link people to the Internet for the next three years under legislation signed Friday by President Bush. The measure blocks taxation of all types of...

Ex-CIA Chief Gates Warns on Cyberterror.(Robert Gates, Central Intelligence Agency)
December 5, 2004... HOUSTON (AP) -- Cyberterrorism could be the most devastating weapon of mass destruction yet and could cripple the U.S. economy, former CIA Director Robert Gates said at a terrorism conference Saturday. Gates, who became Texas A&M...

IBM Tools Give Developers an Assist.
December 6, 2004... IBM announced Monday a set of offerings from its Virtual Innovation Center for Hardware, including "how-to" guides and a solution sizing toolkit, all aimed at helping the company's business partners build and deploy applications on IBM...

IBM in Voice Services Deal With Lloyds.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... LONDON (AP) -- International Business Machines Corp. said Monday it will provide voice and data services to British financial-services company Lloyds TSB Group PLC for seven years in a deal worth $971.6 million. IBM, the computer giant...

Fujitsu, Cisco Form Development Alliance.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... TOKYO (AP) -- Electronics maker Fujitsu and Internet equipment giant Cisco have agreed to work together on developing high-end routers used for advanced Internet networks in Japan, the two companies announced Monday. The alliance will take...

Twists on Anti-terrorist Security Needed.
December 6, 2004... With the threat of terrorism continuing to cast shadows over airports, seaports and border crossings, the United States will require better physical security technology in 2005, according to some analysts. For vendors, homeland security...

Factories and Factions.
December 6, 2004... The eWEEK Excellence Awards for 2004 are now accepting entries. Developer productivity is critical to achieving next year's IT goals, and developer acceptance is vital to the success of any IT platform, so I hope to see developer tools well...

10 Gigabit Ethernet Hits the Enterprise.
December 6, 2004... Vendors Hewlett Packard, Alcatel and S2io each announced 10 Gigabit Ethernet products Monday that are aimed squarely at enterprise data centers. The products--stackable switches from HP and Alcatel and a 10 Gig server adapter from...

Oracle Eyes PeopleSoft as Meat on the Hoof.
December 6, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--These days, Oracle is looking at PeopleSoft like a live steer walking about with neatly painted lines and labels listing all of the prime cuts of meat. It's just waiting for the green light to hit it in the head with a...

Oracle Set to Expand Integration Hubs.
December 6, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--Oracle plans to further embrace its renewed effort at application integration that it began a year ago, the company's president said here Monday. The company is expanding its product options for managing data across multiple...

Oracle Lets Business Intelligence 10g Stand Alone.
December 6, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--Oracle is giving Microsoft a run for its money in the BI tools war, with an announcement at the opening day of Oracle OpenWorld here Monday that it has cut the cord between its BI (business intelligence) tools and Application...

No XP SP2 Security Fixes for Win2K: Instead An SP2-Less 'Rollup'.
December 6, 2004... Microsoft's decision to scrap plans for Windows 2000 Service Pack 5 has effectively killed all hopes that security enhancements built into Windows XP SP2 will be back-ported to Windows 2000. Following a spate of recent analyst reports...

Mass. Launches Computerized Medical Files.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... BOSTON (AP)--Doctors in Massachusetts would be able to access patients' records from any hospital or clinic in the state by computer under an initiative announced Monday. The "eHealth" project will begin as a pilot program in three...

Group Enlists Honey Pots to Catch IM Threats.(IMlogic Inc., instant messaging)
December 7, 2004... IMlogic Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to use so-called honey pots, or vulnerable machines, to track malicious virus activity on instant messaging and peer-to-peer networks. In partnership with a slew of big-name IM and anti-virus vendors,...

California Agency to Snail-Mail Warnings to 1.4M Potential Identity Theft Victims.(California Health and Human Services Agency)
December 7, 2004... California's Health and Human Services Agency will spend $691,000 to notify some 1.4 million people that their personal information may have been stolen in an August attack on a computer belonging to the University of California-Berkeley. ...

Microsoft Tightens Windows Server 2003 Security.
December 7, 2004... Microsoft Corp. has made available for download the first release candidate of a major security update to Windows Server 2003. The 316MB download contains many of the changes that Windows XP Service Pack 2 brought to that operating system...

China's Lenovo Confirms Acquisition Talks.
December 7, 2004... HONG KONG (AP)--China's biggest computer maker said Tuesday it is in acquisition talks with a major international technology company, a disclosure which comes amid reports it might buy IBM Corp.'s personal computer business. Hong...

Siebel Courts SMBs with Partner Program.(Small and Medium sized Business)
December 7, 2004... Siebel Systems Inc. on Tuesday launched a new plan of attack to go after the SMB (small to midsized business) space that has proved elusive for the market-leading enterprise CRM software developer. The strategy includes a new go-to-market...

Cisco, Juniper Making Noise in High-End Routing Space.
December 7, 2004... Dueling Cisco Systems Inc. and Juniper Networks Inc. are both jockeying for the spotlight on the high end of the routing market with announcements of new developments around their respective CRS-1 and T-series core routers. Cisco, which...

HP, Veritas Team on Virtualization, Clustering.
December 7, 2004... In a move some regarded as inevitable, Hewlett-Packard has abandoned its planned porting of Compaq's Tru64 operating system to HP-UX. The original approach, which would have integrated Tru64 Unix Server and TruCluster technology into...

SAP Readies Manufacturing Enhancements.
December 7, 2004... For better communications between the shop floor, other company divisions and trading partners, SAP AG is working on a number of manufacturing-oriented enhancements to mySAP ERP and NetWeaver, including at least two new capabilities expected to...

Bill Clinton Helps Launch Search Engine.(Brief Article)
December 7, 2004... NEW YORK (AP)--Former president Bill Clinton on Monday helped launch a new Internet search company backed by the Chinese government which says its technology uses artificial intelligence to produce better results than Google Inc. "I hope...

Getting a Head Start on App Security.(Interview)
December 7, 2004... With security on the minds of IT managers more than ever, some companies are addressing the issue even before applications are developed. Microsoft Corp. is delivering technology, advice and best practices to enable developers to write more...

HP Focuses on Software, Storage.
December 7, 2004... BOSTON--Hewlett-Packard Co. officials have completed the reorganization of the company, have their product portfolios in place and have developed strong roadmaps for those products. Now they have to execute on them. That was the message...

Intel Firms Up Dual-Core Plans.
December 7, 2004... Intel Corp. updated its 2005 product plans at its analyst meeting in New York Tuesday, including a timetable for its so-called "Ts," the processor technologies that are beginning to take precedence over clock-speed increases. Intel, of...

Built-In 10 Gigabit Beckons to Enterprise Sites.
December 7, 2004... S2io's announcement this week that HP would be using its 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapters in two of its enterprise server lines was the proverbial "other shoe." 10 Gig has been around for a couple of years, but because the equipment required...

Nomadix Co-founder Passes Away.(Brief Article)
December 7, 2004... Joel Short, co-founder, senior vice president and chief Technology officer of Nomadix, died November 21 in Los Angeles. He was 34. Short founded Nomadix with Dr. Len Kleinrock in 1998. The company manufactures gateways and provides...

'E-Junk' Recycling Still in Its Infancy.
December 7, 2004... NEW YORK (AP) -- When Office Depot, Inc. stores ran an electronics recycling drive last summer that accepted everything from cell phones to televisions, some stores were overwhelmed by the amount of e-trash they received. Contrast that...

Trend Micro Offers Virus Scanning for Smart Phones.
December 7, 2004... Amid reports of Trojans and worms squirming through mobile devices, Trend Micro Inc. says it will roll out anti-virus and anti-spam protection for users of data-centric smart phones. The company's Trend Micro Mobile Security suite, which is...

Security 'Honey Pots' May Snare Private Details.
December 7, 2004... Though some legal issues still surround "honey pots," their use within the security industry is fairly common and is considered a critical weapon in fighting malicious hackers and viruses. "They're an incredibly valuable tool," said Rich...

A Pair of Linux Stocking Stuffers.
December 7, 2004... All I want for Christmas is a Linux for everyone to enjoy. And I found it. You can find it, too, in Robin "Roblimo" Miller's new book, "Point & Click Linux!" I've often recommended CD-bootable Linux distributions such as Knoppix and...

Mozilla Takes Aim at E-mail with Thunderbird 1.0.(Email software)(Product/Service Evaluation)
December 7, 2004... Based on our initial impressions, the new open-source e-mail client from Mozilla, called Thunderbird, is well worth exploring. It seems to work quite well, both on Web-based mail like Gmail and on POP3 accounts. It also supports IMAP for...

HP Plans 10 Gigabit Ethernet One-Stop Shop.
December 8, 2004... Hewlett-Packard Co. made strides this week in its plan to provide a complete 10 Gigabit Ethernet solution to customers. On Monday, HP announced that it would sell S2io Inc.'s 10 Gigabit Ethernet adapter as an OEM product, and also...

Pop-up Loophole Opens Browsers to Phishing Attacks.(Secunia Ltd's warnings)
December 8, 2004... Security firm Secunia has warned that most Web browsers are vulnerable to a simple "phishing" technique that could make fraudulent content appear genuine. The Copenhagen, Denmark, company on Wednesday published five advisories on the...

Commerce One Patents Auctioned Off.(JGR Acquisition Inc.)
December 8, 2004... In a move that sparked some controversy, Commerce One Inc. held a fire sale in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, auctioning off not only the company, but the company's intellectual assets. The sale of 39...