eWeek articles from September 2004

eWeek archives from September 2004

Blu-Ray Group Selects Microsoft Codec.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2004... The Blu-Ray Disc Association said Tuesday that it will require Microsoft's VC-1 video codec, based on Windows Media, to be included in the read-only BD-ROM spec. Blu-Ray, backed by companies like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Philips and...

Intel to Redefine Performance at IDF.(Intel Developer Forum )
September 2, 2004... Intel co-founder Gordon Moore's famous law will be re-examined again next week, as Intel shifts away from pure speed to the more efficient utilization of silicon. Moore's Law, which generally states that the number of transistors will...

More Longhorn Fallout; More Technologies Delayed.(client server impacts)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... By cutting the Windows File System (WinFS) feature out of both Longhorn client and server, Microsoft Corp. didn't affect only its next-generation Windows release. It also has set back technologies designed to be dependent on WinFS. One of...

Court Revives Oracle Shareholders' Action.
September 2, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO (AP)--Citing suspicious insider stock sales, public boasting by executives and overly rosy financial forecasts, an appeals court Wednesday reinstated a class action lawsuit filed by angry shareholders against Oracle Corp. and top...

How to Realign ERP Apps and Slash Costs.
September 2, 2004... Bill O'Connor knew something was wrong when he was summoned to the chief executive's office at Zarlink Semiconductor in April 2001. The economic downturn, in particular the collapse of the technology sector, had hit the Ottawa-based chip...

Security Survey Finds Spammers Embracing Sender Authentication.(Sender Policy Framework)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... Sender authentication does little to fight spam, according to a study released this week by messaging security firm CipherTrust. The study focused on the deployment and effectiveness of a technology known as the Sender Policy Framework (SPF)....

Red Hat Names New CFO as Class-Action Suits Loom.(Chief Financial Officer )
September 2, 2004... More than two months after Red Hat's chief financial officer resigned and the company announced a change in its accounting methods, the Linux distributor on Thursday named Charles E. Peters Jr. as its new CFO. Peters, a CPA with more than...

IBM Recalls Notebook Adapters.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... WASHINGTON--IBM is recalling some 553,000 notebook computer adapters sold worldwide because they can overheat and pose fire and shock hazards, the company and the government said Thursday. IBM is not aware of any injuries caused by the...

Report: VOIP, Security Features Shore Up Router Revenue.(Voice Over Internet Protocol)
September 2, 2004... After suffering a 10 percent drop in revenue over the past quarter, the global enterprise router market is pinning its hopes on added VOIP and security features to shore up selling prices per unit, according to a report from Boston-based...

Software That Figures Out The Right Price.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... A wide range of applications that help to automate pricing are making their way through retail operations. And it's hardware improvements that are the technology enablers, with the number-crunching power to analyze warehouses of constantly...

CERT Recommends SP2 But Urges Caution.(Computer Emergency Readiness Team)(Service Pack 2)
September 2, 2004... The U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, known as CERT, this week recommended that Windows XP users install Service Pack 2 (SP2) using Windows Update or Automatic Updates from Microsoft Corp. CERT cited "significant changes to improve the...

Security Flaws In WinZip Could Allow Attacks.
September 2, 2004... WinZip Computing Inc. recently revealed that Version 9.0 of its popular WinZip file compression program is vulnerable to a variety of security attacks. The company has released a "Service Release 1" to address the security problems. The...

Intel Warns of Lower-than-Expected Revenue.
September 2, 2004... Intel said Thursday that it expects third-quarter revenues to be below forecasts, in an ominous indicator of the back-to-school and holiday season. Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel Corp. said Thursday afternoon that it expects revenue for...

Sender ID Wars Heat Up.
September 2, 2004... Has Microsoft blinked on its licensing requirements for Sender ID, making it more acceptable to the open-source community? Some open-source leaders and companies think that it has, while others vehemently disagree. Although Microsoft...

Hack To School.
September 2, 2004... School wasn't even in session, and Dartmouth College CIO Lawrence Levine was penning the kind of letter technology executives dread. To the College Community: Late Wednesday, July 28, [Dartmouth] confirmed that an unauthorized user...

Wi-Fi Alliance to Announce Interim Multimedia Spec.
September 2, 2004... Next week, the Wi-Fi Alliance will release Wi-Fi Multimedia, or WMM, an interim standard that will provide early quality-of-service functionality for multimedia equipment based on the emerging 802.11e specification. Wireless chip companies...

Spyware Could Bungle XP SP2 Update.(Windows service pack 2)(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... SEATTLE (AP)--Though Microsoft Corp.'s new security update package is all about protecting systems from worms, viruses and spyware, it can't do much about what's already on computers--and that could pose a problem. The company is warning...

Enterprise Search Vendors Eye Emerging Markets.
September 2, 2004... Readying for battle in the emerging areas of local and desktop search, enterprise search vendors are rolling out software to counter moves by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft. FAST Search & Transfer ASA on Thursday launched an enterprise search...

Back to School with Database Encryption 101.
September 2, 2004... Database security vulnerability is finally getting a level of attention approaching that which has long been targeted at networks, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The bad part of the equation, of course, is the cause of the...

Ballmer Beats Security Drum.(Brief Article)
September 2, 2004... The software industry will create more positive change in the next 10 years than it did in the previous 10, provided that security threats are effectively handled, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said in an address to the Massachusetts...

Pity the Retail IT Pioneer.
September 3, 2004... Historically, the two most difficult technology decisions involve migration. Put simply: when to get into a technology/platform and when to get out. A senior Best Buy executive this week gave a much needed reminder that while exit/entrance...

Acacia Lowers Streaming Video Royalties.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2004... A California company that claims it owns the patents for streaming video over computer networks is lowering its royalty demands of the nation's colleges and universities. Newport Beach, Calif.-based Acacia Media Technologies Corp. has...

Research Firm Reveals Multiple Flaws in DB2.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2004... Next Generation Security Software Ltd. has announced Multiple High Risk Vulnerabilities in IBM DB2. IBM has released new "Fixpacks" to address two of the issues in DB2 Universal Database for Linux, Unix and Windows Versions 7.x and 8.1. ...

QRS Jilts JDA, Hooks Up with Inovis.
September 3, 2004... With little more than a month left for JDA Software Group Inc. to close on its $100 million acquisition of QRS Corp., QRS pulled the plug on the deal in favor of a $116 million acquisition by Inovis International Inc. QRS announced today...

IBM Debuts Low-End Storage Controllers.
September 3, 2004... IBM has launched a pair of low-end storage controllers and is pulling its disk-based storage products underneath its TotalStorage umbrella to offer customers a more scalable and cost-friendly disk-based storage product line. The...

EMC Names New CTO.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2004... EMC Corp. on Friday filled its ranks by appointing longtime IBM executive Jeffrey M. Nick to serve as the storage giant's senior vice president and chief technology officer. EMC has been without a full-time CTO for more than a year. In his...

Wireless Tools Touted for Anti-Terrorism.
September 3, 2004... Will a future terrorist act force the U.S. government to impose wireless tracking on product shipments? One expert raised this scenario in a panel discussion that delved into the pros and cons of using such technologies as RFID, Wi-Fi and...

Google, Overture Trademark Case Moves Forward.
September 3, 2004... A federal judge has let insurer GEICO's lawsuit against the two biggest providers of search-based advertising move forward, setting the stage for closer examination of whether the burgeoning form of online ads breaks trademark laws. U.S....

Florida Agencies Brace for Hurricane with Disaster Plans.
September 3, 2004... Awaiting the arrival of the state's second major hurricane in just three weeks, businesses and agencies across Florida are rolling out disaster preparedness plans to secure systems and communications infrastructure against the predicted...

3Com Lowers Q1 Revenue Forecast.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2004... 3Com Corp. on Friday warned investors that it will not meet expected revenues and gross margins that it had predicted in June during its fourth fiscal earnings report. The Marlborough, Mass., company had expected to see revenues of $183...

Check 21: Are We There Yet?
September 3, 2004... As we approach Oct. 28, the date that the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act goes into effect, are banks and their customers ready for the changes it holds? The reality is that the infrastructure for "checkless" banking isn't quite in...

Suppliers, Competitors Balk at Wal-Mart's RFID Lead.(radio frequency identification)
September 5, 2004... Many companies have queued up quickly behind retail giant's Wal-Mart's RFID mandate. But others now look much less willing to toe the line. Certainly the impact of RFID will be large, industry watchers predict, however, the technology will...

Microsoft Sees Open-Source Threat Looming Ever Larger.(10-K filing to Securities and Exchange Commission)
September 5, 2004... Microsoft Corp. is facing growing pressure from open-source software across every segment of its business--a competitive threat that could have significant consequences for its financial future going forward, the software maker said in its...

Apache Rejects Sender ID.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2004... The open-source Apache web server will not support the proposed anti-spam standard Sender ID from Microsoft Corp. The Apache Software Foundation in a letter to the Internet Engineering Task Force said Microsoft's terms for the use of its...

Office of Management and Budget Offers Security Guidance.(Brief Article)
September 6, 2004... The Office of Management and Budget last week released a security and privacy how-to guide to government agencies. The administration released the Federal Enterprise Architecture Security and Privacy Profile to help agencies balance the need...

The Wireless Office: Getting It Right.
September 6, 2004... Though the mainstream corporate world is dotted with wireless networks, in general its adoption rate of wireless here has lagged behind that of other environments. According to Synergy Research Group, total worldwide sales of home and...

The VoIP Debates.(Voice over Internet Protocol)(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... Are roadblocks standing in the way of VoIP? Pioneering Voice over Internet Protocol companies like Vonage and old-school telecom companies like AT&T are racing to bring inexpensive VoIP services to consumers, and the number of VoIP users is on...

Top 10 Desktop Buying Tips.(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... 1. Match your desktop configuration to your business needs. If you buy strictly according to price, you may end up with systems that can't handle the workload. Likewise, don't overspend on options you're not likely to use. 2. Leave room...

Integration Plays Key Role in Oracle's Upcoming 11i.10.
September 7, 2004... Integration is a key factor with any large ERP implementation and ongoing maintenance, and Oracle Corp. is catching on. At its London-based OpenWorld event this week Oracle announced better integration between its namesake Enterprise...

Electronic Trading Squeezes Options Exchanges.(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... Electronic trading and listings on multiple exchanges have spurred consolidation and shrinkage among firms specializing in options trading. Since 2001, the number of specialist firms working the five major option exchanges has plummeted...

Drug Makers Fight Fraud with RFID.(radio frequency identification)
September 7, 2004... DELRAN, N.J. (AP) Big pharmaceutical companies are testing new tracking technology they hope will help them spot counterfeit drugs before they reach consumers' medicine cabinets. By putting tags that transmit radio waves on medicine bottles...

Ericsson Halts Bluetooth Development.(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... Ericsson Sverige AB, a Swedish developer of telecommunications silicon, said it has decided to stop Bluetooth development, which the company said was an indicator of the technology's mature state. The company will continue to manufacture...

Authentication Is Not an Anti-Spam System.
September 7, 2004... Even though I've already declared Sender ID dead, I maintain that some form of e-mail sender authentication is inevitable and necessary. Now we hear that spammers are embracing authentication, with the implication that they're so smart...

NAT Enough?(Network Address Translation)(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... You may have seen inexpensive home routers described as "NAT firewalls." For example, Linksys says of its BEFSR11 EtherFast Cable/DSL Router: "[T]he built-in NAT technology acts as a firewall protecting your internal network." It's an...

Intel to Add WiMax to Handsets in 2007.(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... Intel Corp. laid out more of its WiMax roadmap on Tuesday, disclosing that the company has sampled its first "Rosedale" silicon to customers and tipping plans to add the technology to handsets in 2007. Intel has been a chief promoter of...

Red Hat Releases New Linux Update.
September 7, 2004... Red Hat Inc. Tuesday released its latest patch, Update 3, to its flagship server operating system, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. RHEL(Red Hat Enterprise Linux)subscribers can download this latest update from the Red Hat Network. This latest...

Lost Hard Drive, Lack of Encryption Leaves Students Open to Identity Theft.(Brief Article)
September 7, 2004... California State University has sent letters to some 23,500 students, faculty and staff warning that a lost hard drive containing an unencrypted database could expose them to identity theft. Names, addresses and Social Security numbers are some...

HDS Targets Virtualization with TagmaStore.(Hitachi Data Systems)
September 7, 2004... NEW YORK--Hitachi Data Systems Inc. on Tuesday unveiled embedded virtualization layer technology that can aggregate up to 32 petabytes of internal and external storage into a single virtual storage pool and bolster performance by offering up to...

Yahoo Tests Travel Search Engine.
September 7, 2004... Yahoo Inc. is launching its first public beta of a travel search engine based on its recent acquisition of online travel company FareChase Inc. Yahoo plans to make the test site available late on Tuesday and is billing it as a prototype...

The Case for Mobile Advertising.(Column)
September 7, 2004... The Investing Business with Knowledge broadcast convention is coming up. It's broadcast's biggest convention in Europe. Web wireless is on the menu. But where are IBC's advertisements for it? Here's my take: Nobody's making the commercials....

UK Agency Assigns Special VOIP Area Code.
September 7, 2004... The United Kingdom telecommunications industry regulator on Tuesday unveiled its plans for Internet telephony, which include setting aside a phone area code specifically for VOIP calls. In a prepared statement, Stephen Carter, U.K. Office...

Macromedia Tunes Conferencing Pricing for SMBs.(small to medium sized business)
September 7, 2004... Turning its attention to small- and mid-sized businesses, Macromedia Inc. on Tuesday introduced new monthly hosted and licensing plans for its web conferencing software. Macromedia, of San Francisco, launched two monthly pricing options...

Intel Talks Up Dual-Core, WiMax.
September 7, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--The dot-com boom-and-bust cycle will be followed by a surge, a top Intel executive said Tuesday, prompted by a shift toward multicore technologies. In turn, that surge will prompt a "Moore's Law" of data expansion, Intel...

Some Pithy Questions on CA's $1 Million Prize for Ingres Migration Tools.
September 7, 2004... Slashdot prepared a list of (unsurprisingly) irreverent questions for CA's Sam Greenblatt, senior vice president and chief architect of CA's Linux Technology Group, about the $1 million in prize money the company has pledged to give to...

Calif. Joins Electronic Voting Lawsuit.
September 8, 2004... California Attorney General Bill Lockyer joined a lawsuit Tuesday alleging that voting equipment company Diebold Inc. sold the state shoddy hardware and software, exposing elections to hackers and software bugs. California's Alameda County...

Smart Phone Market Growing More Crowded.
September 8, 2004... NEW YORK (AP)--The smart phone market will grow more crowded Wednesday with the debut of two devices directed at opposite ends of the customer spectrum: a BlackBerry for consumers with a newfangled keyboard and a Nokia phone-organizer for...

Drug Industry Should Welcome Clinical Trial Disclosure.
September 8, 2004... Recent disclosures that drug companies have suppressed results linking antidepressants to suicide have sparked outrage. Patients, scientists and politicians have called for policies to prevent drug sponsors from burying data. On Thursday,...

Apple Patches 15 Mac OS X Flaws.
September 8, 2004... Apple Computer Inc. has issued a patch for 15 security flaws in its Mac OS X operating system, including many originating in the software's open-source components. The company, however, claims most users are safe from the bugs' most dangerous...

Drug Industry Site to Share Some Clinical Trial Results.
September 8, 2004... WASHINGTON (AP) An association that represents the nation's leading drug manufacturers said Tuesday it has created a Web site where companies can list clinical trials they sponsored for drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration. ...

RIM BlackBerry 7100t.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... The BlackBerry 7100t from T-Mobile looks like no other BlackBerry and packs more power than any BlackBerry has before. If you're OK with the odd keyboard, this is an exciting and satisfying e-mail device. The 7100t is the first BlackBerry...

Health Leaders Appointed to IT Certification Board.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... A dozen clinicians, IT vendors, and health care purchasers or payers have been appointed to the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, which will certify health care information technology products including ambulatory...

Prescribing the Internet.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... More-informed patients often do better, and doctors can help make patients better informed by supplying reliable Internet sites. Researchers at University of Iowa tested out the benefits of what they call an "Internet prescription", or a...

Microsoft Sets New Deadline for SP2 Automatic Rollout.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... Microsoft began notifying customers Tuesday that it has established new deadlines regarding how long they will be able to block Windows XP Service Pack 2 from downloading automatically to their systems. Microsoft made available to customers...

Intel Vague on Processor Deliverables.
September 8, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--Asking Intel Corp. to talk about its new processor technologies is easy. Persuading the company to talk about when they'll appear in actual hardware is another matter altogether. Intel executives now call its "T's" -- the...

Sasser Worm Creator Charged with Sabotage.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... BERLIN (AP)--A German teenager who authorities say confessed to creating the Sasser computer worm in May has been charged with computer sabotage. Sven Jaschan, 18, was arrested after telling officials he originally wanted to create a...

Microsoft Set to Release Virtual Server 2005.
September 8, 2004... Microsoft Corp. is counting on next week's release of it's Virtual Server 2005 to entice users of older versions of Windows Server to migrate to Windows Server 2003. Microsoft set Sept. 13 as the date for taking the wraps off of Virtual...

AIM Update Focuses on Image Sharing.(AOL Instant Messenger 5.9)
September 8, 2004... America Online Inc. on Wednesday released an update to its instant-messaging service for Windows with an eye on digital-photo sharing and personalization features. AOL Instant Messenger 5.9 integrates AOL's "You've Got Pictures" service so...

External Storage: Little Big Drives.(Brief Article)
September 8, 2004... Backup has gotten personal: Small drives that match your lifestyle have changed the face of storage and backup. Add-in drives are out of the question now that notebooks are steadily replacing desktops. Fast interfaces such as USB 2.0 and...

Red Hat Brings Linux to Unisys.
September 8, 2004... Unisys is offering Red Hat Inc.'s Red Hat Enterprise Linux across its entire line of Unisys servers, the two companies announced Tuesday. Further, by announcing an array of initiatives Red Hat and Unisys made it clear that this isn't just...

Intel Adds "Napa" To Centrino Road Map.
September 8, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO--Intel will move forward on its Centrino wireless solution with "Napa," executives said Wednesday. The company also demonstrated its first desktop dual-core chip running on an Intel 915 motherboard at the Intel Developer Forum...

RFID to Spark Supply Chain Sector Growth.(Radio Frequency Identification)
September 8, 2004... The prospering survivors of the supply chain technology shakeout are likely to gain a significant growth boost from RFID, according to industry analysts. One vendor that's kicking up sparks, Yantra Corp., boasts both Best Buy Inc. and...

Tiny Hard Drives Need New Plug.(Serial Advanced Technology Attachment)(Brief Article)
September 9, 2004... As expected, Intel announced CE-ATA today at the Intel Developer Forum. CE-ATA is an initiative to design a new storage interface for handheld and portable consumer electronics (CE). Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, Marvell Semiconductor...

Analysts: Oracle's Fight for PeopleSoft Just Beginning.
September 9, 2004... Oracle Corp. overcame a major hurdle in winning a favorable verdict in the government's antitrust lawsuit against it, but observers said its battle to buy competitor PeopleSoft Inc. remains far from won. A federal judge on Thursday in...

Oracle vs. PeopleSoft: When Bad Things Happen to Good Companies.(Column)
September 9, 2004... When considering Oracle it is often difficult to separate the company and its business from its charismatic leader, Larry Ellison. This feeling must be a shared by many following Thursday's ruling on the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust...

Nokia and Six Apart Team on Mobile Blogging.
September 9, 2004... LA JOLLA, Calif.--Cell phone giant Nokia on Thursday teamed up with blogging powerhouse Six Apart at the DemoMobile show here to unveil an integrated phone and blog product that lets mobile phone users easily and quickly blog photos while on...

Defense Department Urged to Converge.(Brief Article)
September 9, 2004... Defense Information Systems Agency officials are looking at converging voice and data in many Department of Defense (DOD)installations, according to a recently completed study announced during the Army Directorate of Information Management...

Fidelity, Standard & Poor's Acquire Financial Tech Firms.
September 9, 2004... 'Tis the season for technology transactions in the financial industry. Fidelity National Financial Inc., a Fortune 500 provider of products and outsourced services and solutions to financial institutions and the real estate industry,...

Plaxo Reconsidered.(Column)
September 9, 2004... For as long as there's been a Plaxo, the free service that promises to keep your contact list up-to-date, I've been recommending that people avoid it. My fear has been that, lacking an obvious revenue model, Plaxo would eventually do...

IBM to Roll Out New Two-Way Opteron Server.
September 9, 2004... IBM later this month will begin shipping the second generation of its two-way server powered by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s 64-bit Opteron processor. The eServer 326 will come about 18 months after IBM, of Armonk, N.Y., became the first...

Is Bush Good for the Tech Worker?
September 9, 2004... The Republican Party, the party of lower taxes and less government, has always been aligned with the nation's business interests. So you'd think the tech community--an industry growing in importance in the United States and globally--would...

IBM Takes Sting Out of Database Management.
September 9, 2004... IBM announced Thursday the general availability of the "Stinger" version of its DB2 Universal Database, which delivers to database administrators a host of new autonomic database self-management and self-healing capabilities designed to...

Sybase Offers Free Linux Database.(Adaptive Server Enterprise )(Brief Article)
September 9, 2004... Sybase Inc. this week released Adaptive Server Enterprise Express Edition for Linux, a free version of its enterprise-class database for deployment on Linux systems. Sybase ASE has been available on Linux since 1999, making Sybase one of...

AMD Preps 'Pacifica' Virtualization Technology.(Advanced Micro Devices)
September 9, 2004... Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is countering Intel's "Silvervale" virtualization technology with its own initiative, executives said late Wednesday. "Pacifica" is being internally developed within AMD as an "advanced virtualization"...

IBM, Brazil Partner to Promote Open Source.
September 9, 2004... IBM and the Brazilian government announced Thursday that they have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a knowledge and technology center, known as CDTC, which will promote and develop open-source and Linux solutions in Brazil. This...