Computerworld articles from August 2003

Computerworld archives from August 2003

California plots IT makeover: state CIO proposes changes after Oracle contract debacle.
August 4, 2003... Thirteen months after California's centralized IT agency collapsed amid a political scandal triggered by a $126 million Oracle database licensing deal, state CIO J. Clark Kelso said progress has been made in reorganizing the way technology is...

Feds suspend MCI from contract bids; investigators also probe call-routing allegations by rivals.
August 4, 2003... WorldCom Inc. last week was prohibited from competing for new federal contracts and found itself embroiled in yet another investigation, this one involving allegations that for years it has illegally routed phone calls to avoid paying...

Encryption mandate puts strain on financial IT; efforts by retail, banking industries to upgrade ATMs and servers will take years, cost billions.(Security Spending)
August 4, 2003... A mandate by credit card companies and related funds-transfer networks to upgrade the security of electronic transactions will cost the banking and retail industries billions of dollars in hardware and software and require several years of...

Online.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... WWW.COMPUTERWORLD.COM When to Say 'I Don't Do That Anymore' CAREERS: Columnist Johanna Rothman explains how to avoid taking on too much work after a promotion. QuickLink 40266 A Good Defense for Offense SECURITY: Ron Nabors at...

What is the best antidote for spam?(QuickPoll Results)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... QuickPoll Results What is the best antidote for spam? Legislation 28.7% Blocking technology 28.7% Changes to Internet infrastructure 31.7% Cybervigilantes ...

Sponsor pulls the plug on UCITA.(At deadline)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... WASHINGTON Citing widespread political opposition to UCITA, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) on Aug. 1 pulled its support of the controversial software licensing law and will no longer seek its...

HP uses Siebel tools to unify CRM system; project replaces earlier Oracle deal.(News)
August 4, 2003... Hewlett-Packard Co. expects to save millions of dollars in IT costs, standardize business processes and create a single view of its customers through a large-scale implementation of sales, marketing and partner management applications from...

IRS database upgrade delayed again.(News)
August 4, 2003... The U.S. Internal Revenue Service has delayed a project to modernize its taxpayer database for the second time in less than two years. The IRS last week announced it has delayed the first phase of its Customer Account Data Engine (CADE)...

Vendors offer plan for disclosing software security holes; security researchers say their concerns were ignored, slam vendor 'loopholes'.(News)
August 4, 2003... A multivendor team led by Microsoft Corp. last week released new guidelines for security vulnerability reporting and response. But critics of the effort faulted it for its lack of nonvendor buy-in. The voluntary group of 11 security...

Open-source spam-blocker gets high marks at Cornell.(News)
August 4, 2003... When the academic year begins this fall, students at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management will be armed with what its CIO sees as a powerful new weapon to battle spam. For the past two months, the school's IT...

IBM, ABB widen outsourcing deal.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... IBM announced a 10-year, $1.1 billion outsourcing agreement with The ABB Group, a Zurich-based maker of power and industrial automation products. The deal covers about 90% of ABB's IT operations and expands a pair of pilot contracts, valued at...

Sun resumes server shipments.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Sun Microsystems Inc. said it has fixed a data corruption problem on its new Sun Fire V210 and V240 servers and resumed shipments of the low-end Unix systems. Sun had stopped shipping the servers on June 23 after discovering a flaw involving...

Cisco warns of wireless flaws.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Cisco Systems Inc. warned users about two security holes that affect the software used in some versions of its Aironet wireless access-point technology. The company released a software patch designed to fix the flaws and said that attackers...

SAP AG.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... SAP AG said it has reorganized its application development teams into three product groups, plus a fourth that's responsible for overall application architecture....

Sun, Oracle Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... SUN, ORACLE CORP. and three other vendors released a proposed standard for orchestrating the use of Web services in complex transactions.

Java handhelds 'a bigger security problem ...(On The Mark)
August 4, 2003... ... than the desktop," claims Shlomo Touboul, founder and CEO of Finjan Software Inc. Given the relatively limited hardware capabilities of these small devices, he says, "when they put Java into the handset, they took out most of the security...

CERT to lead project to promote sharing of security information.(News)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Carnegie Mellon University's CERT Coordination Center, security event management software vendor ArcSight Inc. and three universities are teaming up to help improve information sharing among security organizations. The group will undertake...

Microsoft lays out tools road map; new releases to coincide with Yukon, Longhorn.(Software Development)
August 4, 2003... MICROSOFT CORP. last week at the VS Live conference in New York detailed productivity, scalability and performance enhancements that are planned for the next two versions of its Visual Studio. Net development tools. The next edition of...

Senior vp outlines Longhorn server release plan.(Q&A)
August 4, 2003... Eric Rudder, senior vice president of servers and tools at Microsoft Corp., last week spoke with Computerworld about the direction for the next version of the Windows operating system, codenamed Longhorn. Excerpts from that interview...

Gartner says 5% of corporate IT jobs could go offshore by 2005; most workers whose positions are shifted won't be redeployed, firm says.(News)
August 4, 2003... GARTNER INC. last week predicted that between now and the end of next year, one out of every 20 corporate IT jobs that now exist in the U.S. will be moved offshore, along with 10% of the positions at U.S.-based IT vendors and technology...

EMC adds high-end array, new connectivity options; DMX3000 model doubles capacity in Symmetrix line.(News)
August 4, 2003... EMC Corp. last week upgraded its Symmetrix DMX disk array line by announcing plans to add a new high-end model plus native support for IBM's Ficon mainframe connectivity technology and the low-cost Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage interconnect....

Dell posts, pulls handheld PC patch.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Dell Inc. posted a software patch for its Axim handheld PCs but then quickly pulled the code from its Web site after hackers used the patch to download free copies of Microsoft Corp.'s Pocket PC 2003 operating system. Dell did not say when it...

Microsoft says NT patch needs fix....(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Microsoft acknowledged that a software patch released July 23 can cause problems on servers running Windows NT 4.0 and its Routing and Remote Access Service software. The routing code fails when IT managers reboot systems after installing the...

...And signs deal to settle lawsuit.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... In another matter, Microsoft said it has agreed to settle a patent-infringement lawsuit filed by San Jose-based Immersion Corp. The deal calls for Microsoft to pay $26 million to license Immersion's interactive touch technology and to buy an...

BMC cuts jobs following Q1 loss.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... BMC Software Inc. reported a $6.1 million net loss for its first quarter and said it's laying off about 900 employees, or 13% of its work-force. Houston-based BMC said it had revenue of $309.9 million in the quarter, which ended June 30. That...

Unisys expands partitioning with upgraded mainframe; may have greatest appeal among existing users.(News)
August 4, 2003... UNISYS CORP. has released a new mainframe, its most powerful to date, aimed at IT organizations that are consolidating servers and moving to Web services. The ClearPath Plus Libra 185 can operate at 10,500 MIPS, a processing speed that's...

Private companies feel effects of Sarbanes-Oxley; financial reporting law could force IT changes even at nonpublic businesses.(News)
August 4, 2003... When Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in July 2002, the mandates to put more stringent controls on corporate accounting practices were primarily aimed at public companies.' But executives, consultants and lawyers are starting to realize...

Avaya CEO sounds hopeful note, but looks for ways to drive sales; networking vendor reports profit after seven straight losses.
August 4, 2003... Avaya Inc. on July 24 ended a string of seven straight quarterly losses by reporting an $8 million profit on revenue of $1.07 billion for its third quarter, which ended June 30. Several days before the results were announced, Donald...

IBM readies portal software upgrade; new version adds data-sharing, document management tools.
August 4, 2003... IBM last week unveiled planned enhancements to its WebSphere Portal software that are designed to let IT managers and end users set up data-sharing capabilities between applications without resorting to the use of customized connectors. ...

Comdex Fall 2003 to target IT professionals.
August 4, 2003... You won't find booths pitching massage chairs, refrigerator magnets or shoe insoles this November on the exhibition floor at Comdex Fall 2003 in Las Vegas. Eric Faurot, vice president and general manager of Comdex, said late last month...

Skirmishing with spam.(Opinion)
August 4, 2003... WHEN I cranked up my spam filter settings to "aggressive" not long ago, I saw a gratifying drop in the number of junk e-mails sneaking through Computerworld's filtering service. But I quickly discovered the downside of my e-mail tinkering: one...

WYSIWYG for color.(Opinion)
August 4, 2003... WHAT YOU SEE isn't what you get. That's the problem with color. Although inexpensive desktop printers, monitors, scanners and digital cameras have made color widespread inside businesses today, they haven't ensured color fidelity or...

Sharing is nice, but it's also a crime.(Opinion)
August 4, 2003... COURTS in the U.S. are reportedly issuing about 75 subpoenas per day at the request of the music industry in its fight against anonymous users of peer-to-peer software. The question now is, When will grand juries begin handing down indictments?...

DHS didn't have to choose Microsoft.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 4, 2003... ACCORDING TO the headline of your July 21 article, "DHS Had Little Choice but to Sign Microsoft Deal, Despite Security Flaws" [QuickLink 39989]. What about Mac OS X on the desktop and the National Security Agency's security-enhanced Linux...

Stolen fingerprints no security threat.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 4, 2003... IT IS CURIOUS that Malcolm Mac-Taggart, who was quoted regarding the danger that fingerprints and other bioprints could be stolen by hackers, is president and CEO of a company that makes smart cards with encryption keys ["The Next Chapter: IT...

Mobile Insights.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
August 4, 2003... I ENJOYED RUSSELL KAY'S recent article on Centrino notebooks ["Laptops for the Long Haul," QuickLink 39397]. However, the "standard" pricing quoted in the article is somewhat misleading. We recently performed an evaluation for our...

Avoid config policy potholes: configuration tools without solid how-to policy guides will hinder server management.(Technology)
August 4, 2003... FOR GEORGE GEDDIS, choosing software to help him configure his servers was easy. The hard part was using that tool with different types of systems. Geddis, a business analyst at cable operator Time Warner Cable Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., ran...

Simulations revitalize e-learning; e-learning simulation frameworks have become cheaper and easier to deploy,leading many companies to apply them to on-the-job training.(Technology)
August 4, 2003... WHEN ONE OF THE 250 customer service representatives in Time Warner Cable Inc.'s Western Ohio division is unsure how to enter a customer service work order into the company's subscriber management database, he clicks on an e-learning simulation...

Putting the pieces together: IBM's software strategy chief looks for a way to integrate five product groups and provide a common architecture for users.(Q&A)
August 4, 2003... As vice president of strategy for IBM's $13 billion software group, Jeanette Horan says her prime mission is unifying the company's software product groups under a single architecture. Horan had served as vice president for development at...

Smart rooms: IT-assisted workspaces can boost design productivity.(Future Watch)
August 4, 2003... IN JUST FOUR MONTHS, students at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have built an "interactive physical and digital workspace," a prototype meeting room that could herald the future of interactive collaboration by design teams. At first...

Data center IDS project a nonstarter: policies, product limitations trip up plans for intrusion-detection system monitoring.(Security Manager's Journal)
August 4, 2003... MY COMPANY has good security, but at times it's too good. Occasionally users complain that the level of security is too high. When that happens, we try to work with them to find a way that they can still get their jobs done. But despite our...

Security bookshelf.(Security log)(Book Review)
August 4, 2003... The Practice of Network Security, by Allan Liska, Prentice Hall PTR, 2002. Many books on network security are either so broad that they don't provide any details or they're so focused that they miss important issues. Liska has produced a...

Mailblocks offers antispam service.(Security log)(Challenge/Response 2.0)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Los Altos, Calif.-based start-up Mailblocks Inc. has announced Challenge/Response 2.0. The service collects valid responses from legitimate e-mail senders in a master list, according to Phil Goldman, Mailblocks' CEO. Senders who complete a...

ArcSight adds XML.(Security log)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Sunnyvale, Calif.-based software vendor ArcSight Inc. has announced support for the Intrusion Detection Message Exchange Format and the Incident Object Description and Exchange Format within its Distributed Security Architecture. The standards...

Voyence offers net configuration tool.(Extensible Device Configuration Management Engine)(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Voyence Inc. in Richardson, Texas, this week plans to announce its integrated Extensible Device Configuration Management Engine, which is designed to help manage the configuration of network devices from more than 20 vendors. The appliance runs...

Compuware updates Java tools.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Detroit-based Compuware Corp. last month announced Version 3.0 of its OptimalJ development environment for enterprise Java applications. New features include plug-ins for IBM's Web-Sphere Studio Application Developer and Sun Microsystems Inc.'s...

Unisys, EMC offer recovery services.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Unisys Corp. in Blue Bell, Pa., has partnered with EMC Corp. in Hopkinton, Mass., to provide Unisys ES7000 and ClearPath mainframe customers with disaster recovery services based on EMC software. Unisys said it has also become a member of EMC's...

Software helps with compliance.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Colorado Springs-based Optika Inc. last week introduced its Acorde Compliance Suite, which is designed to help companies comply with legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

The search for synergy through consolidation.(Technology)
August 4, 2003... THE WORDS synergy and consolidation are always linked with mergers or acquisitions. Public announcements promise huge cost savings. Magazine articles celebrate success. There is, however, no evidence that the promises are actually kept. I don't...

Time to outsource ERP.(Outsourcing Watch 2003)
August 4, 2003... OUTSOURCING WATCH 2003 ERP systems aren't much fun to buy, install, deploy or maintain. In fact, some of the biggest horror stories in corporate IT have involved ERP systems. And since they're widely used in large corporations, they hardly...

Breaking the paper habit: IT replaced 200,000 pieces of paper with a Web database and reporting tool. But employees missed their monthly paper reports.(Management)
August 4, 2003... WHEN EMPLOYEES at Huntington Bancshares Inc. heard that their beloved paper report--called the balance sheet income report--was going to be transformed into a Web-based database, they weren't happy about it. Complaints came flooding in:...

Readiness relies on talent.(Case Study)
August 4, 2003... The Navy is giving, its workforce the technical tools and information to plan successful careers. A U.S. NAVY effort launched two years ago is revolutionizing the way sailors plan their careers. It's also ensuring that the Navy puts the...

'Team Schein': saves the day.(Case Study)
August 4, 2003... Its consulting firm went bankrupt six months into the project. So Henry Schein Inc. hired its own team of experts to complete a data warehouse. MOST COMPANIES store reams of data about their customers. The IT challenge has been how to...

Kozik starts newly created CTO job.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Susan S. Kozik, former vice president of IT operations and services at Lucent Technologies Inc., today starts her new job as the first chief technology officer at the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund...

Security spending may grow about 4%.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... Total spending for security products and services for 2003 will increase to approximately $17 billion, Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston predicted in a report last month. Annual spending flattened at $16.3 billion during the past two years, the...

DOD uses unique ID tags to track assets.(Brief Article)
August 4, 2003... The Department of Defense last week implemented a unique-identification program to track all new equipment and parts using a standard and universal code tagging system. The mandatory policy will help produce clean audit reports and ensure...

Nurture the new project manager.(Management)
August 4, 2003... CAN YOU IMAGINE a subordinate lending a sympathetic ear to his newly promoted supervisor? What would he say? "Well, boss, I see that you're having a difficult time adjusting to your new power. That must be tough. I can really empathize with...

How to Compete.(Frankly Speaking)
August 4, 2003... CAN YOU COMPETE AGAINST OUTSOURCING? Sure you can. Are you competing against outsourcing? Probably not. Why not? Probably because you think the decision to outsource or not to outsource is one that's outside your control. You figure no one will...

There's always an explanation.(Shark Tank)
August 4, 2003... "The bottom half of all my printouts are blurry," user complains to support pilot fish. He orders a replacement drum for the printer, but it doesn't help. Neither does a new printer. So he goes to her desk and asks her to print something. "As...

Microsoft plans foray into web services management.
August 11, 2003... Microsoft Corp.'s effort to become a bigger player in the systems management market will extend to Web services as early as next year, but more likely around 2006 with the next Windows server release, company executives disclosed. Eric...

IBM, bankers at odds over OS/2 migration path: vendor advises OS/2 users to switch to Linux, but ATM makers are leading push to Windows.(Migration Strategies)
August 11, 2003... IBM, which will end support of its aging OS/2 operating system after 2006, is recommending that OS/2 customers migrate to Linux instead of Windows. But there's little likelihood that IBM's advice will be widely heeded. The last bastion of...

Jobless push for visa reform: Conn. activist group behind several H-1B, L-1 bills in Congress.
August 11, 2003... The controversial L-1 and H-1B visas are under assault in Congress, in large part because of the activism of a group of laid-off Connecticut IT workers. Of the five bills that have been introduced this year to reform the two visa programs,...

Acxiom confirms breach by hacker.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Acxiom Corp., which maintains a database of information about consumers, confirmed that a hacker downloaded a small amount of data as it was being transmitted between the company and some of its corporate clients. Little Rock, Ark.-based Acxiom...

Sun to acquire provisioning tools.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Sun Microsystems Inc. said it has signed a deal to acquire CenterRun Inc., a Redwood City, Calif.-based developer of application provisioning software. Sun didn't disclose the cost of the acquisition, which is due to be completed by the end of...

Antitrust review ends on Palm deal.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Palm Inc. in Milpitas, Calif., said the antitrust-related waiting period on its proposed acquisition of handheld device rival Handspring Inc. has expired without the companies being asked to provide more information to federal regulators. Palm...

Peregrine Systems Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... San Diego-based software vendor PEREGRINE SYSTEMS INC. said it has completed a Chapter 11 reorganization and emerged from bankruptcy protection....

Broadcom Corp. in Irvine, Calif., agreed to pay Intel Corp. $60 million.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... BROADCOM CORP. in Irvine, Calif., agreed to pay INTEL CORP. $60 million to settle a series of patent-infringement lawsuits.

Oracle to embrace grid computing in upgrades: user interest in upcoming rollouts tempered by reliability, pricing concerns.(News)
August 11, 2003... AT ITS ORACLEWORLD user conference in San Francisco next month, Oracle Corp. plans to take the wraps off the next generation of its flagship database, which is being upgraded to support more extensive clustering and grid-computing capabilities....

Microsoft Office users get 'step-up' license option.(News)
August 11, 2003... Companies planning to upgrade to the standard version of Microsoft Corp.'s new Office System applications will find a new licensing option to enable them to switch to the Professional Edition at a lower cost than in the past. Microsoft...

Sponsor's surrender won't end UCITA battle: related licensing issues still expected to surface in new vendor contracts.(News)
August 11, 2003... UCITA is far from dead in David Lewis' world. The CIO of Deseret Mutual Benefits Administrators in Salt Lake City continues to see the act's provisions--including a vendor's right to remotely disable users' software--appearing in software...

New privacy rules could mean headaches for financial services IT: ballot initiative, judge's ruling may reach beyond Calif.(News)
August 11, 2003... A consumer-privacy-related ballot initiative by a political group in California could complicate matters for financial services companies that are already scrambling to comply with other regional and federal privacy mandates. And just like...

EC details Microsoft antitrust remedies.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... The European Commission outlined a series of proposed anti-trust remedies against Microsoft Corp. and said the company may be fined as much as 10% of its annual worldwide sales. The commission sent Microsoft an updated "statement of objections"...

Equifax, IBM sign expanded IT deal.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Equifax Inc., an Atlanta-based company that compiles credit reports and sells business management tools, said it has expanded an IT services deal under which IBM manages its mainframes, midrange servers and networks. The new 10-year contract is...

Intel may owe $600M in taxes.(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Intel Corp. has been notified by the Internal Revenue Service that it may have to pay $600 million in back taxes for 1999 and 2000. In a regulatory filing, Intel said that the IRS is proposing adjustments to tax benefits taken by the company on...

Ascential Software Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... ASCENTIAL SOFTWARE CORP. in Westboro, Mass., announced a $106 million deal to buy Mercator Software Inc., a Wilton, Conn., vendor of application integration software.

Agile Software Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... AGILE SOFTWARE CORP. in San Jose said it's buying Waltham, Mass.-based Eigner Inc. for an undisclosed price, combining two makers of product lifecycle management tools.

Spam + outsourcing = peace of mind ...(On The Mark)
August 11, 2003... ... for e-mail users, according to Ashok Kalle, president of Pathway Communications in Toronto. He claims that better than 99% of spam can be filtered by a combination of his company's NetPulse appliance, which becomes generally available on...

Wireless workflow.(On the Mark)(Dexterra Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Bothell, Wash.-based Dexterra Inc. promises that field service technicians with Pocket PCs or Windows Tablets will get improved wireless access to back-end applications such as CRM and ERP systems; better workflow operations; new print services...

Grocer consolidates IT management tools.(News)(Brief Article)
August 11, 2003... Albertsons Inc. today will announce that it's close to finishing a rollout of Marimba Inc.'s desktop and server management software throughout the 2,300 food and drug retail stores it operates in 31 states. Albertsons began deploying the...

New products bolster remote system security: managers turn focus to client-side risks.(News)
August 11, 2003... RISING CONCERNS that remote computers could compromise network security are prompting some companies to lock down such systems and enforce strict compliance with remote access security policies. And several vendors are stepping up with products...

Postal service pursues 'intelligent mail' despite privacy concerns: critics decry use in antiterror efforts.(News)
August 11, 2003... A presidential commission tasked with studying ways to make the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) more efficient has recommended that it work with the Department of Homeland Security to develop sender identification technology for all U.S. mail. ...

Avaya rushes to set up women's world cup network: last-minute move of soccer tourney to the U.S. poses challenges for IT staff.(News)
August 11, 2003... With the SARS virus forcing soccer officials to move this year's Women's World Cup finals from China to the U.S. at the eleventh hour, workers at Avaya Inc. are scrambling to set up a promised voice and data network in time for the tournament....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 11, 2003... In a box profiling Huntington Bancshares Inc. that was included with the Aug. 4 Management section feature "Breaking the Paper Habit" the bank holding company's 2002 sales total was incorrect. The correct figure is $2.2 billion.

Judge approves MCI deal; sprint faces possible ban: MCI gets OK for fraud settlement with SEC, denies call-routing claims.(News)
August 11, 2003... WorldCom Inc. last week received approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court judge for a Financial fraud settlement deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission and denied in a court filing that it has engaged in illegal call-routing, as some of...