eWeek articles from July 2002

eWeek archives from July 2002

Oracle to Ship E-Business Starter Kits.
July 1, 2002... Oracle Corp. and Mercury Interactive Corp., an enterprise software testing and application performance management vendor, announced today the availability of a starter kit that should help companies improve initial deployments and upgrades of...

JRun 4 Improves Cluster Features.
July 1, 2002... Macromedia's JRun 4 brings major changes to the Java application server. This version, which started shipping May 13, supports Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.3 standards, including EJB 2.0 and the built-in message queuing and object/relational...

Geekspeak: July 1, 2002.(11th Usenix Security Symposium)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2002... A paper titled "How to 0wn the Internet in Your Spare Time" (to be presented early next month at the 11th Usenix Security Symposium), analyzes trends in Internet worms and predicts likely future threats (go to www.eweek.com/links to access the...

Shuttling Between Cities for Sparsely Filled Shows.
July 1, 2002... Even tech trade show organizers are not immune to the hurdles facing enterprise IT staffs, thought the Puss as he jetted back to Beantown from TechXNY in New York last week. Event organizers had installed in the pressroom a WLAN for reporters,...

Don't Believe Providers' Claim.(broadband access)
July 1, 2002... More broadband access is what we need. We've said it in editorials, the government is pressing for it, businesses and content providers are banking on it, and everyone seems to agree that improved access to broadband connections is vital....

Itanium 2 to Launch to Lukewarm Reception.
July 2, 2002... Intel Corp. next week will launch its 1GHz Itanium 2 processor, code-named McKinley, sources said, with Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM to announce new servers featuring the 64-bit chip on Monday. But while HP, which co-developed the chip,...

Compuware Rolls Out Oracle Debugging Tool.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
July 2, 2002... Compuware Corp. on Tuesday announced a new product for debugging Oracle stored procedures from within the Microsoft Visual Studio .Net development environment. Compuware's DevPartnerDB Debugger for Oracle for Microsoft Visual Studio .Net...

3Com Expands Switch Line.(the SuperStack 3 Switch 4226T and the SuperStack 3 Switch 4250T)
July 2, 2002... 3Com Corp. is continuing to expand its switch line this week with two new managed switches and an addition to its unmanaged line. 3Com, of Santa Clara, Calif., on Monday launched the SuperStack 3 Switch 4200 family aimed at enterprise...

Cingular Wireless Makes New York Debut.
July 2, 2002... Cingular Wireless this week finally made its New York debut, while AT&T Wireless expanded its next-generation service into Atlanta. Cingular, of Atlanta, does not own network space in New York but rather is making use of a network-sharing...

Sidgmore: Dim Chance of UUNet Going Dark.
July 2, 2002... WorldCom Inc. President and CEO John Sidgmore today attempted to assure customers, investors, partners and the government that his company will emerge from its current financial and legal debacle as a viable business. In a press conference...

LSI to Acquire IBM's Mylex Division.
July 2, 2002... Storage subsystem maker LSI Logic Corp. will acquire IBM's Mylex division, which makes RAID technology, officials said today. Mylex, based in Fremont, Calif., will bring low-end solutions to LSI's current mid-range and high-end offerings....

i2 Predicts Second Quarter Losses.
July 2, 2002... Supply chain management software maker i2 Technologies Inc. announced today preliminary results for its second quarter, ended June 30th. Dallas-based i2 expects to report total revenues of $117 million to $120 million for the quarter, down...

New Opera Browser Takes Center Stage.(Opera 6.04)
July 2, 2002... Opera Software ASA has released the latest version of its namesake Web browser, featuring some minor improvements and bug fixes, and on Tuesday the company announced plans to work with Macromedia Inc. to develop an application programming...

EDS to Lay Off 2,000 Employees.(Electronic Data Systems Corp.)
July 2, 2002... Electronic Data Systems Corp. today said that it would lay off about 2000 workers--mostly in North America--as a result of its own customers' cutting costs and as a part of its two-year "rebalancing" effort, according to a company spokesman....

Can Apple Stop the Presses?
July 2, 2002... In the words of the immortal Bugs Bunny: Of course you know this means war! Since early this week, I've been deluged by messages from friends across the Mac Web who are hopping mad over Apple Computer's moves to lean even more heavily on...

Nokia Technology Minimizes Failover Time.(IP Clustering)
July 3, 2002... Nokia Corp. on Wednesday will introduce a new clustering technology for its firewall and VPN solutions that will preserve all user sessions if one of its security devices fails. The new technology is part of the company's alliance with...

Points to Consider When Drafting Your Virtual Meeting/Collaboration RFP.
July 3, 2002... The product or service must support the full range of client platforms with which you intend to interact: *What are the vendor's browser, hardware and operating system requirements? *If the product offers limited support for...

Fast-Talk Gets Right to the Point.(Fast-Talk's Phonetic Processing Engine)
July 3, 2002... While carrying out testing for the virtual meeting eVal extravaganza that appears in the July 1 issue of eWEEK, one of the product features that most appealed to our Corporate Partner judges was the capacity for recording meetings--presentation...

Every Job Offer Is Not a Good Job Offer.
July 3, 2002... Well, it took a while in this difficult market, but your job search finally led to some interviews. And, surprise, one of them actually led to a job offer. But, should you take it? Maybe not, even if it is for more money. Just as investing in...

SeeBeyond's 2Q Revenues Disappoint.(Tibco Software's as well)
July 3, 2002... Enterprise application integration software maker SeeBeyond Technology Corp. today announced disappointing preliminary results for its second quarter, ended June 30. The company, based in Monrovia, Calif., expects to report second quarter...

Apple Preps Early Release for Jaguar.
July 3, 2002... Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer Inc. is working overtime to beat its publicized release date for the next major upgrade to Mac OS X, according to sources. The company in May broke its tradition of secrecy by publicly previewing the...

MFN Loses Large Customer.(AT&T Corp.)
July 3, 2002... Metromedia Fiber Network Inc. lost one of its largest hosting customers to AT&T Corp. this week, but company officials said that the bankrupt metro area network provider is still delivering uninterrupted service to its customers with no...

RIM Reports First-Quarter Loss.(2002)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2002... BlackBerry e-mail device maker Research In Motion Ltd. this week reported a first quarter loss that was smaller than analysts' expectations. The Waterloo, Ontario, company reported a loss of $10.8 million, or 14 cents a share, for the...

Unisys Jumping on Itanium 2 Bandwagon.(for Unisys ES7000)(Product Announcement)
July 3, 2002... Unisys Corp. will release an upgraded version of its 32-way ES7000 on Monday featuring Intel Corp.'s new Itanium 2 processor. A representative of the computer maker disclosed the new product offering Wednesday even though Intel has yet to...

Lucent Router Enables Managed IP Services.(Lucent Technologies Access Point 1500 is)(Product Announcement)
July 3, 2002... Following a trend toward more managed IP services, Lucent Technologies Inc. this week launched a new IP service router that allows service providers to offer managed IP services to enterprise customers. With the Access Point 1500 router,...

Compuware Java Tool to Implement Model Architecture.(OptimalJ)(Product Announcement)
July 3, 2002... Compuware Corp. later this month will announce that its Java development environment will implement the Object Management Group's Model Driven Architecture, or MDA, in its entirety. Officials at Farmington Hills, Mich., company said...

Itanium 2: Power Play.(Hewlett-Packard's HP Server RX2600)
July 8, 2002... One of the first servers based on the Itanium 2 processor, Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP Server RX2600 illustrates that the Itanium 2 will be a boon for database and security applications, among other computation-intensive tasks. However, it's too...

Survey: IT Embracing Security.(Industry Overview)
July 8, 2002... Although attackers are becoming more persistent and malicious by the day, the defenses that security administrators are putting up around their networks appear to be working to reduce the number of intrusions, a new survey finds. While the...

JDE Opening ERP Apps for Integration.(J.D. Edwards' Demand Planning 4.0)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... J.D. Edwards & Co. is working to make it easier for IT managers to extract information from the company's namesake ERP applications and to automate business processes. JDE this week will unveil Demand Planning 4.0, a collaborative...

Novell Overhauling GroupWise.(GroupWise 6.0)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... Novell Inc. is updating its GroupWise messaging and groupware platform with support for Web services and Java, as well as an enhanced client. The release, code-named Hawthorn and due in December, should make GroupWise a more viable...

Oracle Readies Guide to Clear Up License Issues.
July 8, 2002... Oracle Corp. is tackling ongoing criticism over its pricing and licensing practices by publishing a comprehensive online guide to its policies. The software maker next month will make available on its corporate Web site a Software...

GNOME 2.0 a Worthy Upgrade.(GNU Network Object Model Environment 2.0)(Evaluation)
July 8, 2002... Rewritten around a new graphical interface toolkit, Version 2.0 of GNOME stands as an attractive and important upgrade for sites that have standardized on GNOME as their desktop environment for Linux and Unix-based systems. However,...

Dell Declines Itanium 2.
July 8, 2002... Intel Corp. plans to launch its much-touted Itanium 2 processor this week, with some major computer makers unveiling workstations and servers featuring the 64-bit chip. One key player, however, Dell Computer Corp., will be missing from the...

An Era of Elastic Accounting Unfolds.(Editorial)
July 8, 2002... One of the tenets of the dot-com age was that sales didn't matter. Companies measured success by Web click-throughs, unique visitors or the number of deals with other dot-com companies. All those measures ended in ashes, along with the...

Sidgmore: UUNet Is Safe.(WorldCom CEO John Sidgmore)
July 8, 2002... A week into its financial meltdown, WorldCom Inc. officials were scrambling to assure customers that its networks--especially its UUNet Internet backbone--were not in danger of shutting down. Meanwhile, the carrier's largest business...

Moteran Aims to Help Build Wireless LANs on the Fly.(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... Mitsubishi Corp. is reviving an enterprise wireless technology once targeted at the automotive industry that would allow the formation of WLANs with nothing but client devices. Mitsubishi's Moteran software works in conjunction with the...

IBM to Update Storage Hardware.(IBM Enterprise Storage Server 800, IBM Enterprise Storage Server 800 Turbo)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... IBM's storage systems group plans to announce new versions of its high-end enterprise and low-end NAS hardware this month, according to sources. IBM, having recently exited the hard disk and RAID controller businesses and aborted its iSCSI...

Worthy Upgrade for GNOME Faithful.(GNU Network Object Model Environment 2.0)
July 8, 2002... Rewritten around a new graphical interface tool kit, Version 2.0 of GNOME stands as an attractive and important upgrade for sites that have standardized on GNOME as their desktop environment for Linux- and Unix-based systems. However,...

New Tool Aimed at Java Developers.(Microsoft Visual J#.Net application development software)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... Microsoft Corp. is making another push to attract Java developers to its .Net platform. The Redmond, Wash., software company last week announced the availability of Visual J# .Net, a Java development tool for building applications and XML...

Cable Slowly Starts to Fill Voice Void.
July 8, 2002... As the pool of telecommunications service providers shrinks, equipment manufacturers are looking to cable operators to inject competition into the entrenched telephone market. Analysts doubt, however, that cable companies will be ready to...

The Buzz: July 8, 2002.(Industry Overview)(Statistical Data Included)
July 8, 2002... Industry Ships 1 Billionth PC IT has taken the computer industry 25 years to ship 1 billion PCs, but it will take only five or six years to ship another billion. According to a report issued last week by Gartner Dataquest, the industry...

App Delivers Censored Content.(Hacktivismo's Camera/Shy)(Product Announcement)(Brief Article)
July 8, 2002... After more than a year of development and untold confusion over its intentions, Hacktivismo later this week will finally unveil a new application designed to deliver censored content over the Internet. The application, once called...

Startup to Combine Object Storage, Traditional Backup.(Avamar Technologies)
July 8, 2002... A startup storage company plans to roll out its first product this fall in a strategy that will focus on merging the traits of object-based storage and enterprise backup. By identifying data as objects instead of as blocks or files, Avamar...

Who's Watching Whom?(Internet Security Systems, Apache Software Foundation find security flaw in Apache)
July 8, 2002... The long-running dispute over when to release vulnerability information escalated last month into a bitter turf war among several security companies, all of which claimed to have their customers' best interests at heart. And while it might have...

Manugistics Sharpens Focus.
July 8, 2002... Reeling from a slumping economy and the inability to predict and substantially close sales, Manugistics Group Inc. is realigning its supply chain management software development focus. After reporting sinking sales and a net loss in its...

Companies to Deliver Devices Built on Palm OS.(Kyocera 7135 smart phone, Sony PEG-T665C PDA)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Sony Corp. last month announced devices based on Version 4.1 of Palm OS, just as PalmSource Inc. was announcing new features for Version 5. The Kyocera 7135 is a clamshell-shaped smart phone with a color screen...

Ilog Integrates Business Rules Technology With Other Products.
July 8, 2002... Ilog Inc. wants to push its business rules technology into Web services, a move that could make it easier for business users to manage and change policies without the help of programmers. To do it, Ilog is integrating its product lines....

CRM to Link Biz Systems.
July 8, 2002... The days of stand-alone CRM systems are numbered. More and more, users of the software want to tie data from customer-facing applications to data from back-office applications, such as supply chain and inventory management, as quickly and...

Dell Snubs Itanium 2.(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... Intel Corp. today launched its new and improved Itanium 2 processor, with major computer makers -- aside from one key vendor -- unveiling workstations and servers featuring the 64-bit chip. Itanium 2 comes in three flavors, a 1GHz version...

Software Links Users Virtually.
July 8, 2002... Tandberg Asa, Pixion Inc. and a host of other developers are rolling out new and enhanced multimedia collaboration tools that officials from these companies said will improve the quality of virtual meetings while helping enterprises keep down...

Microsoft Accelerator Upgrade Gets B2B Partners Collaborating.(BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet 2.0)
July 8, 2002... Enhancements in an upgrade to Microsoft Corp.'s BizTalk Accelerator for RosettaNet address companies' demands for speedier business-to-business trading software implementations, more flexible change management options and support for standards,...

Jockeying for 64-Bit Server Position.(Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc.)
July 8, 2002... Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM and Sun Microsystems Inc. late last month rolled out 64-bit mainframe servers in a renewed battle to control a space that features some of the most expensive systems on the market. HP improved its 64-processor...

Using CRM to Aid Client Relations.
July 8, 2002... Maximizing the value of an enterprise's customer relationships has long been the value proposition of customer relationship management software. But companies in the business of selling services, not products, have been largely left out of the...

It's Time to Abandon Insecure Languages.
July 8, 2002... The security of the internet took a one-two combo to the gut last month when we learned of remotely exploitable security holes in Apache HTTP Server and OpenSSH. The costs of these two problems could be enormous--the foundation of the worst...

The Hierarchy of Needs in High Tech.
July 8, 2002... Last week, a public relations agency asked me if I were still interested in a topic that I've been covering for more than 10 years--"or are you now all security, all the time?" I assured them that development tools, emerging technologies and...

Connectix Breathes New Life Into OS/2.(Virtual PC for Windows with OS/2 Guest Support)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... OS/2 lives. The erstwhile Windows desktop challenger is due to be shelved within a few years, but copies are still available, and IBM continues to maintain existing installations. Despite its inevitable demise, enterprise users,...

Extreme Personalization Is Scariest Part of 'Minority Report'.
July 8, 2002... The concept of Big Brother following our every move is one of the most common cliches in literature and film. However, unlike other classic sci-fi themes like an invasion of UFOs or an attack of giant mutant insects, the threat that technology...

Net Might Need Help From Feds.
July 8, 2002... There hasn't been a lot of good news on the Internet security front lately. Major security holes have been found in popular commercial and open-source applications, security software companies have been failing, and many businesses are cutting...

Time Warner Tries to Nip Illegal Cable Access in Bud.
July 8, 2002... A furball fan relayed to el gato a copy of a cease-and-desist letter that Time Warner Cable sent to folks it suspected were transmitting the company's broadband cable service over wireless networks in and around New York. Although wireless...

Business Logic Can't Begin With Lies.
July 8, 2002... We're really good at building IT systems that remember what we told them: "If 'A' today, then 'A' tomorrow." We're fairly good at building systems that can combine facts according to rules: "If 'A' and 'B," then 'C.'" But we're terrible at...

FileMaker Pro 6 Adds XML Support.(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... FileMaker Inc. on Tuesday will announce FileMaker Pro 6, a new version of its database software featuring XML import and export, new templates and tools, and enhanced capabilities to gather, manage and share information, the company's president...

Itanium 2 Powers Four HP Systems to New Heights.
July 8, 2002... Hewlett-Packard Co. today announced four new workstations and servers featuring Intel Corp.'s Itanium 2 processor and touted record-setting performance results that it contends supports its decision to migrate all of its high-end systems to the...

Lucent Hones in on Service Providers.(agreement with International Network Services Inc.)
July 8, 2002... Lucent Technologies Inc. is continuing its push to focus on the service provider instead of the enterprise networking business by selling part of its professional services unit. Lucent has entered into an agreement to sell its Enhanced...

Open-Source Enterprise.
July 8, 2002... When eWeek Labs was getting ready to publish its 1999 review of the Linux 2.2 kernel, we struggled with the headline. Would "Linux: Enterprise-ready" be too strong? We decided then that Linux was enterprise-ready, and open source's reach...

Open Source Gets IT Scrutiny.
July 8, 2002... Once smuggled through back doors into the stolid world of corporate computing, open-source software is now beginning to get the full red carpet treatment at enterprises such as Visa International Inc. and Edmunds.com Inc. As open-source...

Broaden Options, With Caution.
July 8, 2002... We at eWeek Labs believe that the exploration of open source should be broadened but with caution. For example, while open-source options in the Web server and server operating system space are pretty safe bets, emerging ERP and CRM options...

Power Savings vs. Notebook Muscle.
July 8, 2002... Most of us once judged notebook computers using a certain set of criteria in a fairly standard order: comfort, cost, power and battery life. Now that costs are within expectations and power is generally adequate across the board, my entire...

NEC Builds World's Fastest System.(NEC Earth Simulator supercomputer)
July 8, 2002... There's a new big dog on the block. On June 20, this year's first update of the top 500 supercomputers list (which is updated twice a year) has a new first-place entry, an NEC-built vector processing system (see photo) that is 5 times faster...

IT Training Funds Dry Up.
July 8, 2002... In these dog days of summer, David Delp's lawn isn't the only thing drying up. As the economy languishes and tech budgets remain stagnant, company funds for IT training and certification have shrunken to a trickle. As a result, IT professionals...

BEA Rolls Out WebLogic 7.(BEA Systems ships BEA WebLogic Portal 7.0)(Product Announcement)
July 8, 2002... BEA Systems Inc. Monday announced BEA WebLogic Portal 7.0, the latest version of its portal software, which features native support for Web services. The San Jose, Calif., company said new administration tools in BEA WebLogic Portal 7.0...

Lights ... Camera ... Veepers!(Pulse Entertainment's Pulse Veepers)(Column)(Evaluation)
July 8, 2002... Whether it's a powerful tool for improving training, presentation and customer support--or a creator of freaky talking images reminiscent of late-night comedy shows--Pulse Veepers is undeniably cool technology. This very easy-to-use...

How to Fast-Talk Through Meetings.(Fast-Talk Communications' Fast-Talk 2.0 text processing software)(Brief Article)(Evaluation)
July 8, 2002... If you've brought together your employees and partners for a meeting of the minds, why shouldn't those not in attendance benefit from the productivity-packed proceedings? For one thing, employees who initially didn't have the time to attend the...

NetLedger Names New President.(Zach Nelson)
July 8, 2002... NetLedger, the small and mid-sized business [SMB] arm of Oracle Corp., announced today it named a new president and CEO to help the company grow its business. Zach Nelson, former chief strategy officer at Network Associates Inc. was named...

Pace of Tech Layoffs Eases--Except in Telecom.
July 8, 2002... While the pace of layoffs in much of the technology sector slowed dramatically in the first half of the year, the telecommunications industry continued to set job-cut records, according to recently released research from Challenger, Gray &...

Former WorldCom CEO, CFO Take the Fifth.(House Committee on Financial Services investigates Bernard Ebbers and Scott Sullivan)
July 8, 2002... Former WorldCom Inc. CEO Bernard Ebbers, who today refused to answer questions about the company's alleged mammoth accounting fraud, became the brunt of angry politicians' frustration with the recent spate of scandal in corporate America....

The Future of H1-B: More Readers Respond.(Letter to the Editor)
July 8, 2002... More response from readers to "Storm clouds rise over H1-B" Dear eWeek: Wow you hit the nail on the head. I was just discussing this topic with my co-workers recently not knowing that this was something that had been brewin in others'...

Business Objects Upgrades Analytic Framework.(Business Objects' Application Foundation 3.0 and Supply Chain Intelligence)(Product Announcement)
July 9, 2002... Business Objects SA on Monday announced a new version of its analytic framework, incorporating predictive analytics for the first time. Separately, the Paris-based company, with North American headquarters in San Jose, Calif., announced three...

Macromedia Server Brings Life to Web Sites.(Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX)(Product Announcement)
July 9, 2002... Macromedia Inc. Tuesday announced the availability of Macromedia Flash Communication Server MX, its new server that unites communications and applications. Peter Ryce, San Francisco-based Macromedia's senior director of product management...

Guidant Signs On With Model N.
July 9, 2002... Model N Inc., a provider of contract life cycle management solutions, Tuesday announced a new customer win for its contract life cycle management solution. Model N, of South San Francisco, Calif., announced that Guidant Corp., an...

Deal Links Visa, MasterCard Accounts to Passport.
July 9, 2002... Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a partnership with a security software vendor that will enable consumers to link some Visa and MasterCard accounts to their .Net Passports. Consumers shopping online with cards issued by banks that...

Microsoft Content Manager Gets Upgrade.(Microsoft Content Management Server 2002)
July 9, 2002... Microsoft Corp. Tuesday announced the availability of the beta version of its Content Management Server (CMS) 2002. The software giant said CMS 2002 offers significant enhancements over Content Management Server 2001, with key enhancements...

Nokia, IBM Team to Deliver Digital Content.
July 9, 2002... Nokia Corp. and IBM on Tuesday announced plans to team up on digital content delivery for mobile applications and services. The companies are combining the Nokia Delivery Server with the IBM Digital Media Factory framework and selling them...

Business Objects to Buy Acta.(Acta Technology)
July 9, 2002... Business Objects SA moved Tuesday to expand into the data warehouse building space with the acquisition of Acta Technology Inc. The acquisition will bring Acta's data integration technology to the business intelligence platform and analytic...

QLogic Eases SAN Management.(SANsurfer Tool Kit software)
July 9, 2002... QLogic Corp., which makes storage switches and host-bus adapters, on Tuesday announced new software to help users manage both products at once. SANsurfer Tool Kit, which is available now, will let the Aliso Viejo, Calif., company's...