Computerworld articles from August 2005

Computerworld archives from August 2005

Dispute over Cisco flaw sparks criticism, debate: vendor muzzles researcher after initial router exploit disclosure.(NEWS)
August 1, 2005... Cisco Systems Inc.'s attempts last week to stop an IT security researcher from discussing a hack into its router software evoked criticism from some users and analysts, along with calls for more information from the vendor about the issues...

Delays, added costs threaten university's ERP apps rollout: project management, testing cited as issues.(Electronic Registration Program)(University of Wisconsin)
August 1, 2005... After having missed a go-live date in April because of problems in project management, software testing and other areas, the University of Wisconsin is reassessing an over-budget ERP rollout that has so far cost it $25 million. The...

FDIC warns finance firms on spyware: some IT managers say they're already taking precautions.(Federal Deposit Insurance Corp)(information technology )
August 1, 2005... Spyware is being recognized as a major security threat across the financial services industry, prompting warnings from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and analysts about the risks posed by the information-seeking software. IT managers...

Lost, stolen or strayed: the missing link in data security may have four wheels and a gas tank.(MANAGEMENT)
August 1, 2005... MOVING MAGNETIC TAPES in and out of storage would seem to be the most mundane of IT functions. Indeed, companies have traditionally seen the transportation and storage of backup media as so routine that they have relegated it to non-IT...

BPO: big political opportunity: business process outsourcing gives CIOs a chance to lead.(business process outsourcing, chief information officer)
August 1, 2005... IN THE PAST FEW MONTHS, Peter Baker has conducted interviews with a handful of business process outsourcing (BPO) providers and invited a couple of them back to Emcor Group Inc.'s head-quarters for further conversation. Emcor, a $4.7 billion...

RFID is showing up on food, tools and casino chips.(BRAIN FOOD FOR IT EXECUTIVES)(radio frequency identification)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... A RECENT REPORT from Forrester Research Inc. says that eventually, the radio frequency identification market as we know it today will disappear. Why? RFID will move beyond the supply chain and simply become a sensor technology embedded in a...

Outsourcing concerns.(BRAIN FOOD FOR IT EXECUTIVES)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... IT managers ranked these risks as their biggest worries about outsourcing: 1. Employee backlash 2. Employee severance costs 3. Customer reaction 4. Negative publicity 5. Legislation 6. Political pressure 7....

Best Bits: The most useful parts of recent business and IT management books.(an excerpt from Thomas H. Davenport's book Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results From Knowledge Workers)(Brief Article)(Excerpt)
August 1, 2005... THE BOOK: Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results From Knowledge Workers, by Thomas H. Davenport (Harvard Business School Press, 2005). They like to be left alone, you can't tell them what to do, and they don't...

The IT economy.(BRAIN FOOD FOR IT EXECUTIVES)(IT expenditures and first-rate management practices-approaches to boost corporate productivity)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... If you want to boost corporate productivity, is it better to improve management practices or to increase IT spending? The answer is both, according to research by McKinsey & Co. consultants Stephen J. Dorgan and John J. Dowdy in London. Their...

Buying intentions.(BRAIN FOOD FOR IT EXECUTIVES)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... IDC researchers say their index of business IT demand (below) shows that user spending expectations have dipped slightly. "IT professionals remain optimistic in their spending outlook, but line-of-business managers expressed more conservative...

Career watch.(MANAGEMENT)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Offshoring: Not So Fast Do you currently send work offshore? Yes 19% No 81% The public perception is that offshoring is rampant, but a 2005 study by offshore outsourcing consultancy Ventoro found that...

Gilles Bouchard.(Ask a Premier 100 IT Leader)
August 1, 2005... TITLE: CIO, executive vice president of global operations COMPANY: Hewlett-Packard Co. Bouchard is this month's guest Premier 100 IT Leader, answering readers' questions about business training and landing a first IT job. If you have a...

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.(MANAGEMENT)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Your remote workers love you. A Forrester Research Inc. study on the attitudes of remote workers found that they consistently feel greater warmth toward the IT department than on-site workers do. Forrester doesn't speculate about why the...

Job surfing.(Yahoo! Inc)(Online employment search services)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Yahoo Inc. has added new search technology that crawls the Internet to help users of its HotJobs employment site find openings on sites across the Web. The technology not only scours Web sites for desired information, but it has learning...

Sybase to acquire DB, mobile vendor.(Extended Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Looking to improve its market position in Europe, Sybase Inc. said Friday that it has agreed to buy Extended Systems Inc., a vendor that focuses on database and mobile-access technology. Sybase will pay $71.3 million for Extended Systems, which...

Microsoft wins round with Google.(Microsoft Corp)(Google Inc)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... A county court judge in Seattle granted Microsoft Corp. a restraining order that prevents a former employee in China from doing competing work at Google Inc. Microsoft is suing to prevent Kai-Fu Lee, who formerly ran its Beijing research...

Sun says it plans to cut 1,000 jobs.(AT DEADLINE)
August 1, 2005... Sun Microsystems Inc.'s chief financial officer said the company plans to lay off about 1,000 workers as part of its ongoing cost-cutting strategy. CFO Steve McGowan disclosed the planned layoffs during a conference call on Sun's fourth-quarter...

Lenovo seeks lead in supercomputing.(AT DEADLINE)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Lenovo Group Ltd., the Beijing-based vendor that bought IBM's PC operations, said it's working on a supercomputer that would be nearly 10 times faster than existing systems. The system will perform up to 1,000 TFLOPS and should be ready between...

Microsoft issues OS betas, details more features for IT: Vista to include tools for software image installs, User Account Protection.(operating system, information technology)
August 1, 2005... MICROSOFT CORP. last week released the first beta copy of its recently christened Windows Vista client operating system, as well as a test version of its next server operating system. But only corporate users who are members of Microsoft's...

Shortage of mainframe skills may give IT execs gray hairs.(information technology)
August 1, 2005... Art Louise is like many mainframe professionals. He has three decades of experience with systems and programming languages such as Cobol and assembler that remain critical in data centers but aren't the skills of choice for most new IT...

Cisco to buy vendor of network tools.(Cisco Systems Inc)(Sheer Networks Inc)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to pay about $97 million to acquire Sheer Networks Inc., a maker of tools for managing complex networks. San Jose-based Sheer's products include Sheer DNA, which can be used to create realtime, virtual networks....

Alliance publishes grid security paper.(Enterprise Grid Alliance)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The vendor-backed Enterprise Grid Alliance moved to accelerate the adoption of grid computing among corporate users by publishing its first paper on the security needs of grid technology. The paper is intended to help end users, vendors and...

HP, Altiris unveil jointly built tools.(BRIEFS)
August 1, 2005... Hewlett-Packard Co. and Altiris Inc. have unveiled a pair of jointly developed client management software bundles. HP and Lindon, Utah-based Altiris had delayed the releases from early last month to avoid being overshadowed by the steady stream...

Sun reports profit, but sales fall again.(Sun Microsystems Inc)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Sun Microsystems Inc.'s quarterly revenue continued to decline in its fourth quarter, but the company posted a profit thanks to a one-time tax benefit. SUN BY THE NUMBERS REVENUE PROFIT Q4 '05 $2.98B $121M Q4 '04...

Dual-core chips can trip up ...(data security )(usage of compilers)
August 1, 2005... ... programmers in the debug phase of application development. "You still tend to think of threads as distinct tasks," says James Reinders, director of marketing and business development at Intel Corp.'s software products division. That's a...

CA to cut 800 jobs despite profit rise.(Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Computer Associates International Inc. plans to cut 800 employees, or 5% of its workforce, in a restructuring aimed at saving $75 million per year. CA also said its first-quarter profits more than doubled on an 8% sales increase. CA BY...

Indian ISP buys IT firm in Bermuda.(internet service provider)(Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.)(Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd., a Mumbai, India-based telecommunications and Internet service provider, has agreed to acquire Teleglobe International Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based provider of wholesale voice, data, IP and mobile signaling services,...

Siebel posts loss as licenses decline.(BRIEFS)(Siebel Systems Inc. )(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Siebel Systems Inc. confirmed the grim news it gave shareholders early last month, reporting that second-quarter software license sales dropped 20% from last year, contributing to another net loss. SIEBEL BY THE NUMBERS REVENUE ...

Microsoft adds Web mapping tool.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Microsoft Corp. launched a new online local search tool that goes head to head with an offering from Google Inc. MSN Virtual Earth is similar to Google Maps, providing both street-map and satellite views, as well as driving directions. By...

High-tech tools help monitor shuttle safety: camera and laser sensors provide flight engineers with images, data.(NEWS)(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)
August 1, 2005... NASA SCIENTISTS and engineers are using specialized high-tech components to painstakingly inspect the space shuttle Discovery for any possible damage caused by a piece of insulating foam that broke away from the craft's external fuel tank...

Pentagon's IT upgrade still at risk, GAO says.(Government Accountability Office)(Department of Defense)(Information Technology Architecture)
August 1, 2005... The U.S. Department of Defense has spent $318 million trying to develop an IT architecture that supports modern business systems. But four years into the project, it doesn't have much to show for its efforts, according to a report issued last...

Faster Wi-Fi approach wins broader support: vendors to merge rival proposals for 802.11n spec.(NEWS)
August 1, 2005... Warring factions of vendors reached an agreement in July to cooperate on development of the next high-speed wireless LAN standard, and IEEE standards officials last week said that the planned joint proposal could be ready for an initial vote in...

Video monitoring system can check for bombs.(broadband Internet access)(VisualCast-SS system)(Oki Electric Industry Company Ltd)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... TOKYO OKI ELECTRIC INDUSTRY CO. last week announced a video surveillance system that can issue alerts when it detects suspicious behavior or intrusions. The system could prove useful for beefing up security at airports, factories and other...

IBM starts IT camps for aboriginal youth.(IBM Canada Ltd.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... TORONTO IBM CANADA LTD. last month began to reach out to young people in the country's aboriginal communities in hopes of interesting them in pursuing IT careers. One program launched by IBM is a series of three-day camps where young...

Third senior executive leaves India's Wipro.(GLOBAL DISPATCHES)(Rich Garnick)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... WIPRO LTD., India's third-largest software and services outsourcing company, last week announced the resignation of Rich Garnick, the company's head of sales in the Americas. It was the third departure of a senior executive from Bangalore-based...

France Telecom SA.(to acquire Amena)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... France Telecom SA last week said that it will extend its presence in Spain by acquiring 80% of the country's third-largest mobile operator, Amena, for 6.4 billion euros ($7.7 billion U.S.). Amena is the retail brand name of Retevision Movil SA...

Turkish Airlines Inc.(usage of business intelligence software)(Micro-Strategy Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Turkish Airlines Inc. in Istanbul plans to use business intelligence software developed by Micro-Strategy Inc. to analyze sales and flight data stored in its 1TB data warehouse, the Reston, Va.-based vendor announced late last month.

Vivo.(deploys voice-over-IP network)
August 1, 2005... Vivo, the largest wireless operator in Brazil, has deployed a voice-over-IP network to connect its five major call centers in an effort to improve routing, reduce wait times and virtually eliminate lost calls, vendor Nortel Networks Corp. said...

GM seeks to ease licensing burdens: signs deal to buy Sun's middleware stack.(NEWS)
August 1, 2005... General Motors Corp. is adopting Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Java Enterprise System middleware stack in what is the largest deal yet in Sun's effort to sell the software based on its per-employee licensing model, the two companies said last week....

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 1, 2005... LAST WEEK'S PAGE ONE story about the shutdown of the Interex user group ("Interex, HP World Hit by Finance woes") incorrectly reported the months in which member Kees denHartigh wrote letters to Hewlett-Packard Co. officials to express concerns...

School system uses governance apps to stretch IT staff: Chicago supports more schools on a dwindling budget.(applications, information technology, Chicago, Illinois. Public Schools)
August 1, 2005... The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) department is making use of a hosted IT governance system to help it support a growing base of end users amid continuing budget cuts. Beginning next month, the nation's third-largest public school system...

Trademark arrogance.(OPINION)
August 1, 2005... MICROSOFT'S announcement that its next version of Windows (you know, the one code-named Longhorn) will be called "Windows Vista" left a lot of people scratching their heads. Why call it Vista when there are already something on the order of 180...

It's up to you to help users 'get' it.(OPINION)
August 1, 2005... "THEY just don't get it." I've heard that phrase over and over throughout my more than 30 years in IT. The business doesn't get IT. The developers don't get the needs of operations. The users don't get the architecture. The executives...

IT workers confront 'job shock'.(information technology workers)
August 1, 2005... THIRTY-FIVE years ago, my former boss Alvin Toffler coined the term future shock to describe the shattering stress and disorientation experienced by individuals when they are subjected to too much change in too short a time. While working on a...

AMD users rush to vendor's defense.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... I'VE BEEN on AMD for four years now. My Athlon 1400 still outper-forms the lower-end Pentium 4s. Don Tennant's article "AMD: All My Disgust" [QuickLink 55310] mirrors suspicions that I've had for the past two years. Intel has never played...

Encouraged by Open-Source effort.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... IT WAS really encouraging to read the Security Manager's Journal "Eyeing an Opening for Open-Source" [QuickLink 55015]. I have often fought for embracing open-source where integration is not as important as conformity to standards. Good luck to...

Hard drives are the weakest link.(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2005... AS AN AVID laptop user, I have seen that what really fails on laptops is the hard drive. Has Seagate managed to make its hard drives unkillable ["Seagate Preps Hard-Disk Encryption Technology," QuickLink a6560]? If not, then what do we do when...

Dear reader.(Best Practices in Mobile & Wireless Awards)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... August 1, 2005 Intel and Cingular Wireless are proud to co-sponsor this special supplement profiling the winners of Computerworld's 2005 "Best Practices in Mobile & Wireless" Awards Program. These innovators stand out as...

Maytag Corporation: business evolution through mobilizing field workers.(Special Advertising Supplement)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... For more than 98 years, Maytag has been a major player in the manufacturing of home appliances. Over the last three years, the company realized that it needed to change its current service business model of servicing only its own family of...

Saia Motor Freight.(Saia Motor Freight Line Inc. using wireless communications to improve service)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Saia Motor Freight, a $600 million revenue LTL carrier with a 30-state coverage area and 127-terminal network, recently implemented a wireless solution for its P&D (Pickup and Delivery) Drivers. The wireless solution was implemented to improve...

Cox Communications, Inc.: deploying wireless mobility in the enterprise.(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Cox Communications is devoted to creating the best customer experience possible. They found that customer satisfaction largely depends on Cox Field Operations' ability to quickly respond to customer needs through effective "truck...

pH Europe Ltd.(using radio frequency and global positioning systems)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... pH Europe Ltd. is well known for a portfolio of transport container services that a growing roster of customers employ to deliver products ranging from chemicals and pharmaceuticals to foodstuffs and industrial parts. Customers including GSK,...

Landstar System, Inc.: transforming the "brick and mortar" of the enterprise.(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Since 1999, Landstar System, Inc. has delivered an average 27 percent return on capital. A major part of that achievement is the non-asset-based transportation provider's success in leveraging wireless technology. The Challenge ...

Zipcar.(using wireless technology to remotely monitor its assets)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Zipcar is a car-sharing service based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This innovative, membership-based service uses wireless technology to remotely monitor its assets and serve its customers. Hourly fees are as little as $8.50 per hour, and...

PMI Mortgage Insurance Co.: managing cellular mobile data.(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... The Challenge PMI Mortgage Insurance Co. wanted to provide better customer service internally (better tools and support to the sales force) and externally (to increase business and, ultimately, revenue), while maintaining costs and...

Vertical horizon: opinion.(inclination in the use of wireless equipment)(Advertisement)
August 1, 2005... Overworked CIOs should refuse to support end users' wireless devices unless the handhelds are for a specific business requirement. And saving hotshot executives a few minutes of their precious time so they can thumb their way through e-mail...

Healing power: the U.S. electric grid is still years away from being intelligent enough to prevent blackouts and other disruptions. But there are existing and emerging technologies that can help it to repair itself.(TECHNOLOGY)
August 1, 2005... THE AUGUST 2003 blackout that left nearly 50 million people without electricity in much of the Northeastern U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario did have at least one positive effect: It pushed the North American power industry to work...

Thanks for the future memories: chip makers are searching for the Holy Grail: cheap, fast, 'universal' memories to replace DRAM, SRAM and flash.
August 1, 2005... FOR COMPUTER manufacturers, Moore's Law has been about getting something for nothing, and not just in processor chips. For 40 years, systems designers have seen memory densities double every 18 to 24 months while memory chip prices have...

No more playing chicken with bacteria.(Geek's Garden)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... RESEARCHERS AT THE U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service are working to improve computer models that help ensure that the chicken salad you buy from your local market is safe--and save food processing companies a lot of...

Whaddaya gonna do? Getting used to spam.(TECHNOLOGY)(Pew Internet and American Life Project reports on Email users)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... E-MAIL USERS are getting more spam, but they don't seem to mind it as much as they once did, according to a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. In a nationwide survey of 1,421 Internet users conducted earlier this year, 21%...

It all started with Babbage.(DIFFERENCE ENGINES)(Charles Babbage )(invention of analytical engines)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... THIS CORNER OF GEEK'S GARDEN will explore milestones in the history of computing--technologies that have made a significant difference. It seems appropriate to start with the original Difference Engine, first conceived in 1822 by the eccentric...

Berkeley leads the way to little, liquid computing.(University of California)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... AT THE University of California, Berkeley, researchers have created the first "nanofluidic" transistor, a device that allows them to control the movement of ions through submicroscopic, water-filled channels. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

User's end run around VPN leads to new push: a worm crawls into the network when the VPN is accessed improperly. What can be done to avoid a repeat?(SECURITY MANAGER'S JOURNAL)
August 1, 2005... ONCE AGAIN, I spent most of my week dealing with an outbreak of malicious code, and I'm now taking steps to avoid a similar problem in the future. This time, we were hit with the W32.Mytob.HH@mm worm. We had been hit with a similar worm a few...

Security Bookshelf.(The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (Fourth Edition))(Brief Article)(Book Review)
August 1, 2005... The Essential Guide to Telecommunications (Fourth Edition), by Annabel Z. Dodd (Prentice Hall PTR, 2005). To be a good information security practitioner, you have to know a little about a lot of subjects. This book provides a reasonable amount...

Oracle encryption questioned.(SECURITY LOG)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... The standard encryption mechanism used by Oracle Corp.'s database products can be easily circumvented, according to German security researcher Alexander Kornbrust. The encryption features that come standard with Oracle's database are called...

CA acquires Qurb.(Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Computer Associates International Inc. bolstered its security product line by acquiring e-mail security software vendor Qurb Inc. CA said it bought Qurb in an all-cash deal that will enable it to add Qurb's antispam, antiphishing and antifraud...

Symbol announces wireless bridge.(Symbol Technologies Inc.)(CB3000 Client Bridge)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Symbol Technologies Inc. in Holtsville, N.Y., has announced the CB3000 Client Bridge, a device aimed at providing large companies with wireless connectivity in areas where installing Ethernet cable isn't an option. The bridge can link 16...

BEA enhances SOA in Tuxedo 9.0.(BEA Systems Inc.)(service-oriented architecture)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... BEA Systems Inc. has announced the general availability of BEA Tuxedo 9.0, which enhances security and support for service-oriented architectures to its high-end transaction-processing software. New features include tighter integration with...

Mobius updates integration tool.(Mobius Management Systems Inc.)(ViewDirect Total Content Integrator 2.2)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2005... Mobius Management Systems Inc. has unveiled Version 2.2 of its ViewDirect Total Content Integrator Web-services-based software, which allows access to content in any format from any source. The update adds connectors that allow ViewDirect to be...

A convert with a crush on his Mac.(Mac OS X)
August 1, 2005... THIS MONTH, I celebrate an anniversary. No, not my wedding anniversary; that was last month. This anniversary marks my second as a Mac convert. Over the past two years, my Mac has lived up to all its promises and has never ceased to delight me....

Quick hits.(survey on open-source software)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
August 1, 2005... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] OPEN-SOURCE: PLUSES, MINUSES What are the biggest benefits of open-source software? Low acquisition costs 85% Low total cost of ownership 68% Hardware choice 55% Better security...

Killing zombies.(managing undead departments)
August 1, 2005... DOES YOUR DEPARTMENT host a congregation of the undead? Every so often, I find zombies lurking in the conference rooms and kitchens of IT departments, harassing managers and staff. The undead are remarkably resilient. They are the bane of the...

Consultant sees 'disconnect' on software licensing plans.(David Marston)(Interview)
August 1, 2005... In June, Pricewater-houseCoopers published a report on software licensing that was based on interviews with 112 CIOs and chief financial officers at U.S. technology vendors. Among the findings: Half of the companies expect to lose revenue this...

Reinventing EHR.(Electronic Health Records)(VistA)(Column)
August 1, 2005... HOW WOULD YOU reinvent part of the software industry? Back in March, I suggested that Medicare--the 800-pound gorilla of health care--could break the logjam in electronic health records by requiring EHR for all doctors who do business with it,...

Running with scissors.(SHARK TANK)(information technology life)
August 1, 2005... Consultant pilot fish is hard at work fabricating network cables when site manager bursts in. "Our whole network is down!" manager howls. "Is this something you - er..." It takes fish a second to realize what manager is seeing: "I'm sitting...

Cisco flaw raises concerns, but attacks deemed difficult: IT managers put trust in defensive measures; router vulnerability seen as complex to exploit.(NEWS)
August 8, 2005... The public demonstration of an attack against a Cisco Systems Inc. router at last month's Black Hat USA conference showed that a core part of corporate networks may be more vulnerable to hackers than many users had assumed. But, IT...

Sarbanes-Oxley trumps IM at some firms: concerns about security, archiving prompt companies to unplug instant messaging systems.(NEWS)
August 8, 2005... In another case of fallout from the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, some companies are disabling their instant messaging systems because of concerns that the technology's security and archival controls aren't strong enough to comply with the...

Users speed feeds to data warehouses.(NEWS)
August 8, 2005... As business intelligence becomes a critical component of daily operations, real-time data warehouses that can provide end users with rapid updates from transactional systems are increasingly sprouting up at companies. For example, online...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
August 8, 2005... LAST WEEK'S cover story on the risks involved in transporting data backup and archive tapes to external storage facilities ("Lost, Stolen or Strayed") incorrectly spelled the name of Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. IN THE "Ask a Premier...

Microsoft goes to Wal-Mart for exec.(AT DEADLINE)
August 8, 2005... Microsoft Corp. named Kevin Turner, a 40-year-old executive from Wal-Mart Stores Inc., to fill its chief operating officer position. Turner will join Microsoft on Sept. 8 and take over responsibility for the company's sales, marketing and...

Security vendor: ID theft ring at work.(AT DEADLINE)(Sunbelt Software Distribution Inc stumbles upon an identity theft ring )(Brief Article)
August 8, 2005... Sunbelt Software Distribution Inc., a vendor of antispyware tools in Clearwater, Fla., said it stumbled upon an identity theft ring that's using a spyware program to systematically break into and steal confidential information from computers....

Six security fixes due for Windows.(AT DEADLINE)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2005... Microsoft said it plans to release six software patches to address security flaws in Windows tomorrow as part of its monthly update process. The company didn't release details, except to say that some of the vulnerabilities will be given...

Short takes.(AT DEADLINE)(NEC CORP introduces battery made from organic compounds)(Sprint Corp merges with Nextal Communications Inc)(Brief Article)
August 8, 2005... NEC CORP. said it has developed a rechargeable battery made from organic compounds instead of hazardous materials like lithium.... SPRINT CORP. and NEXTEL COMMUNICATIONS INC. said the Federal Communications Commission approved their merger.

IT gets more packaged options for Linux, grid: Dell, IBM, HP aim to improve ease of use for technology.(NEWS)
August 8, 2005... CORPORATE users who may have been hesitant to take the open-source plunge will get new packaged options this week from major vendors that are continuing to try to make it easier to acquire, use and manage Linux-based systems. Dell Inc.,...