Computerworld articles from December 2003

Computerworld archives from December 2003

Vendor-backed lobbying groups cozy up to DHS: organizations' self-serving agendas raise concerns that security burden will fall to users.(the Department of Homeland Security convenes its National Cyber Security Summit in California )
December 1, 2003... When the Department of Homeland Security convenes its National Cyber Security Summit in California on Wednesday, its stated aim will be to improve cooperation with the private sector. But the question is whether it's cooperating too closely...

Look North, workers advised; IT jobs are available in Canada, where pay is lower but so are costs.
December 1, 2003... Unemployed U.S. IT workers may be able to find work in Canada, where near-shore outsourcers take advantage of their country's lower costs. The average IT salary paid by Keane Inc. to employees at its application development center in...

Corporate users follow Mono project; running .Net apps on Linux has appeal, but Novell faces obstacles.
December 1, 2003... Plenty of corporate developers watched with great interest when Novell Inc. unveiled a road map for the open-source Mono project that it acquired with Ximian Inc. That's because Mono could give them a chance to run Microsoft Gorp.'s...

QuickPoll results.(Online: www.computerworld.com)
December 1, 2003... QuickPoll Results Do you think Microsoft's offer of a reward will help authorities track down virus authors? Yes 44.7% No 55.3% Take this week's QuickPoll at www.computerworld.com Source: COMPUTERWORLD.COM...

Scripting holes reported in IE.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Microsoft Corp. said it's investigating possible security flaws in the Active Scripting feature that's built into its Internet Explorer 6.0 Web browser. Security researchers reported the vulnerabilities and advised users to disable the feature...

Integration team leader quits HP.(At Deadline)(Jeff Clarke)
December 1, 2003... Jeff Clarke, one of the two executives who led the integration team after Hewlett-Packard Co, acquired Compaq Computer Corp., resigned from his job as executive vice president of global operations at HP. Clarke was Compaq's chief financial...

NetApp upgrades secondary storage.(At Deadline)(Network Appliance NearStore R200)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Network Appliance Inc. tomorrow plans to unveil an upgrade of its NearStore secondary-storage disk array as part of a wider announcement involving several products and partnership deals. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp said the NearStore R200,...

CRM woes persist at AT&T Wireless.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... AT&T Wireless Services Inc. said it's still struggling with CRM system glitches that have been affecting the Redmond, Wash.-based company since Nov. 1. An AT&T Wireless spokesman would not predict when the problems will be fixed. They are...

Employment agency scuttles India contract; governor orders cancellation of system redesign contract amid controversy.(News)(Indiana Department of Workforce Development)
December 1, 2003... AT THE BEHEST of Indiana's governor, a state agency that helps unemployed residents find jobs has canceled a $15.2 million IT services contract with a company that planned to import up to 65 workers from India. Gov. Joe Kernan on Nov. 20...

User complaints push Dell to return PC support to U.S.; customers say tech help in India not good enough.(News)
December 1, 2003... Dell Inc. last week said it has stopped routing most of the technical support calls from U.S.-based users of its corporate PCs to a facility in India, after some customers complained about the quality of the help they received. Support...

Aircraft maker turns to sourcing software for new military planes; Airbus says technology will manage procurement of millions of components.(News)
December 1, 2003... Continuing a staged rollout that began 19 months ago, Airbus SAS in the coming weeks will expand its use of Web-based software to support all the steps involved in sourcing goods and services for a new military transport plane. The...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2003... In the Comdex story in last week's issue, a highlighted quote on page 49 was mistakenly attributed. The quote should have been attributed to Malachy Smith of DNM Technology Ltd.

Army to test passive RFID tags on food shipments; trial will include temperature sensor devices.(News)
December 1, 2003... The U.S. Army will begin the Defense Department's first test of passive radio frequency identification (RFID) tags in February, using the same kinds of technology and electronic product code (EPC) standards that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is...

Microsoft probes exchange for flaw.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Microsoft Corp. is investigating a potential security flaw in Exchange Server 2003, which would be the first found in the software since it was launched in October. Microsoft said an initial probe indicated that a problem with the log-in...

Sprint sets plan to cut 2,000 jobs.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Sprint Corp. said it plans to lay off about 2,000 workers by year's end, including some of its IT staffers. The cuts will affect Sprint's corporate and consumer business units. They're being made in addition to workforce reductions that will...

HP adds storage for small users.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Hewlett-Packard Co. announced a consolidated line of disk storage devices aimed at small and midsize users in a bid to make its product offerings for such customers less confusing. HP also added a series of packaged systems that combine its...

Linux lab takes sides against SCO.(Open Source Development Labs Inc)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Open Source Development Labs Inc., which is funded by a group of Linux vendors, published a paper opposing The SCO Group Inc.'s legal attacks against Linux. The paper was written by Columbia University professor Eben Moglen and presented at an...

Spam Exterminator project kills 99% ...(On The Mark)(from Mirapointe)
December 1, 2003... ... of incoming nuisance e-mails, and that's before you begin applying basic spam-filtering techniques such as blacklists or subject-line analysis, brags Jeff Brainard, product marketing director at Mirapoint Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif. The...

Oracle plans proxy fight with PeopleSoft.(News)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Executives at Oracle Corp. last week reaffirmed their intention to pursue the company's hostile bid to buy PeopleSoft Inc. and said Oracle will propose its own slate of pro-acquisition directors as an alternative to PeopleSoft's board. Oracle...

Fears of online fraud rise as shopping season begins; merchants expect growth in cybercrime to keep pace with increase in Web sales.(News)
December 1, 2003... THE HOLIDAY shopping season promises to be a busy one, not just for Internet retailers, but for opportunistic online fraudsters and identity thieves as well. As a result, Internet merchants--especially the smaller ones--will need to make...

Users proceed cautiously on Web services track; concerns remain about security, interoperability, performance.(News)
December 1, 2003... IBM, Microsoft Corp. and other vendors that have been pounding the Web services drum for more than two years claim that more and more of their customers are building Web services. And to a degree, they're right. But the spotty levels of...

Corel searching for a new CEO.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Corel Corp. said it's looking for a new CEO to replace Derek Burney, who was named chairman of the software vendor. Amish Mehta, an executive from the venture capital firm that bought Ottawa-based Corel in August, is taking over as interim CEO...

Linux group hit by server attacks.(the open-source Debian Linux development project)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The group that organizes the open-source Debian Linux development project said four of its servers were compromised in a hacking incident. The intrusions prompted the group to suspend e-mail service through the Debian.org domain and lock user...

SUSE upgrades versions of Linux.(SUSE Linux AG)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... SUSE Linux AG in Nuremburg, Germany, released a free upgrade of its Linux distribution for servers, adding an updated operating system kernel and other features. SUSE, which last month agreed to be acquired by Novell Inc., also made available a...

Pivotal in talks with Hong Kong vendor.(Hong Kong-based Chinadotcom Corp.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Pivotal Corp., a CRM software vendor in Vancouver, British Columbia, today plans to announce whether it has agreed to a buyout by Hong Kong-based Chinadotcom Corp. To give itself more time to negotiate with Chinadotcom, Pivotal postponed a...

Ottawa's pitch: 'come to Canada'.(Q&A)(Keith Parsonage, director general of Industry Canada's Information and Communications Technologies branch)(Interview)
December 1, 2003... U.S. IT workers are needed and encouraged to take jobs in Canada, said Keith Parsonage, director general of Industry Canada's Information and Communications Technologies branch. In an interview last week with Computerworld's Patrick Thibodeau,...

Users struggle to pinpoint Sarbanes-Oxley IT costs; many see it as an ongoing effort with no real end in sight.(News)
December 1, 2003... SARBANES-OXLEY readiness costs can be hard for companies to pin down, partly because complying with the new financial reporting law isn't a one-time event like Y2k. For instance, Eastman Chemical Co. hasn't even tried to evaluate the IT...

Some IT purse strings may be loosened next year: forecasters predict small increase overall but say spending plans differ by industry.(News)
December 1, 2003... IT managers who have quickly reacted to demands for cost-cutting over the past three years could see a payback in the form of discretionary spending increases next year, according to several reports and interviews with CIOs. But 2004 IT...

EMC taps database archiving tool for its information life-cycle suite: OuterBay deal gives users software for migrating old data.(News)(OuterBay Technologies Inc.)
December 1, 2003... In a bid to shore up a key piece of its information life-cycle management (ILM) strategy, EMC Corp. today will announce a software partnership aimed at letting IT managers reduce the size of databases by moving old data to other storage...

Satisfying supergeeks.(Opinion)(holiday gift for the supertechie )(Column)
December 1, 2003... "DID YOU REALIZE," my daughter asked me one day, "that Dad has about 20 computer keyboards in the basement? What's up with that?" Great question, I thought. Too bad I'll never get a straight answer. To my eternal chagrin, I've found that...

Novell + SUSE = problems.(opinion)(Novell's $210 million cash deal to purchase SUSE Linux)
December 1, 2003... CONVENTIONAL wisdom about IT vendor takeovers is completely missing in Novell's $210 million cash deal to purchase SUSE Linux. That makes me uneasy. The bright side of the picture, as painted by Novell, is clear. The move is a signal that...

IT economy: half-empty, and leaking.(Opinion)(Column)
December 1, 2003... SO THE ECONOMY is finally improving. But is this the real thing--a significant, long-lasting recovery--or just a false dawn? For IT, the answer to that question isn't trivial. The enormous tax cuts have begun to make a difference. So has a...

Future of analysts.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... THE COLUMN "Businessy IT" [QuickLink 42467] is complete nonsense. Analysts are a connecting link between business and technology, and they grow on technology soil. Eliminating all technology jobs will quickly eliminate all analysts. We can see...

Bounty hunt.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... ACCORDING to your headline, "Experts, IT Managers Say Microsoft Should Forget Bounty, Focus on Security" [QuickLink 42619]. Well, experts and IT managers are wrong. Microsoft has the money to do both, and it should. Hank Guckes Senior...

'It's the GUI, stupid!'.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... IF NOVELL has any chance, this is it ["Linux Infusion Gives Novell a Needed Boost," QuickLink 42677]. The Linux kernel should give it the strong application server that it has always lacked. But Novell still needs to post a banner in its...

Getting alignment.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... AS A CONSULTANT working with Fortune 500 companies to quantify the costs and benefits of IT decisions, I have found that there are a few areas where a gap between IT and business almost always exists ["Corporate Execs Try New Ways to Align IT...

Cool stuff 2004: perhaps it's a sign of a revitalized economy. There are gadgets and gizmos aplenty for geeks of all ages on your gift list.(Technology)
December 1, 2003... Super-Geek Specials Grand Canyon Display Series MANUFACTURER: Liebermann Inc., Los Angeles WEB SITE: www.go-L.com PRICE: Starting at $8,500 Except in a hot dance club or a humongous trade show exhibit, the most...

Disaster recovery: to be or not to be.(Keep IT Safe)
December 1, 2003... The great power outage of 2003 cut the juice on 50 million people and left many businesses groping in the dark. Considering the other challenges arrayed against uptime, it's apparent that a solid recovery plan--and proven backup, storage and...

7 steps to licensing Nirvana.(Keeping Pace)
December 1, 2003... Keeping pace with technology--and your competitors--starts with having the latest products, but it's more than just this. Maintaining your edge also means ensuring users take full advantage of the technology at their disposal. Microsoft's...

Pumped up PDAs for the enterprise.(Tech On The Go)
December 1, 2003... At the most basic level, handheld devices offer an all-in-one replacement for virtually any personal information tool you can imagine. But they can be so much more! Wireless features can give your corridor warriors in-house instant messaging,...

Cashing in on document management.(Smart Money)
December 1, 2003... When was the last time a dash to the printer made you think about saving money? The truth is effective document management can make a huge difference to your bottom line. And we're not just talking toner! Check out the host of new tools...

Fight spam: become king of the ring.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2003... Sometimes the best offence is a good defense. Nothing could be truer when you're going toe-to-toe with one of the biggest epidemics of the 21st century. According to several recent reports, there's more spare cruising around the internet these...

Get with the system.(Horse Power)(the new Microsoft Office System)
December 1, 2003... 300 million users worldwide rely on Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint to do their jobs. Now Microsoft has taken those oh-so-familiar Office productivity tools and extended their reach to provide a comprehensive, integrated system--the new...

New technology: good things come in shrink-wrap.(News Arrivals)(Macromedia MX 2004)
December 1, 2003... In the world of IT, there's nothing more exciting than a new addition to the family. Check out these latest and greatest arrivals with pricing, specifications and more at www.softchoice.com/browser. Macromedia MX 2004. Run with it. ...

Collaboration solutions: get on the same page.(Collaborate)
December 1, 2003... Businesses today often incorporate a widely dispersed network of co-workers, suppliers, partners and customers. With this far flung web of associations comes the challenge of working together effectively. Good thing the latest electronic...

High tech horoscopes.
December 1, 2003... Sagittarius Nov. 22-Dec. 21 Despite your sleek new wireless keyboard and mouse, scores of programmable shortcuts keys, and the comfort of ergonomic design, co-workers still refuse to address you by your proper title, "Starship Captain,...

WiMax.(Technology)
December 1, 2003... DEFINITION WiMax is the popular name of the 802.16 wireless metropolitan-area network standard that's currently being developed. WiMax, which will have a range of up to 31 miles, is primarily aimed at making broad-band network access...

Bad policy makes for weak passwords: easily guessed passwords and sloppy security practices leave end-user accounts vulnerable to attackers in more ways than one.(Security Manager's Journal)
December 1, 2003... IT'S UNPROFESSIONAL to break down and sob during a meeting, but I came pretty close a few times this week as I finally began to understand the details of the IT security systems and processes my new company uses to protect itself. I'm...

Security bookshelf.(Security Log)
December 1, 2003... Firewalls and Internet Security: Repelling the Wily Hacker, Second Edition, by William R. Cheswick, Steven M. Bellovin and Avid D. Robin; Addison-Wesley, 2003. The book isn't about firewalls so much as it is about the authors' philosophy...

LAN access-policy appliance debuts.(Security Log)
December 1, 2003... InfoExpress Inc. announced CyberGatekeeper LAN, an access-policy enforcement appliance for LAN-attached users. The appliance enforces policies created with the Mountain View, Calif.-based vendor's CyberGatekeeper Policy Manager software. It...

Toshiba boosts tablet PC's power.
December 1, 2003... Toshiba Corp. in Tokyo has introduced a new tablet PC with beefed up processing power. The Portege M200/205 features an Intel Pentium M chip that operates at 1.5 GHz. The M200/205 also features an advanced video card from Nvidia Corp., the...

MCI enhances VPN service portfolio.
December 1, 2003... WorldCom Inc., operating under the name MCI, has announced that its new IP VPN Broadband service is available in 55 cities. With the service in an Internet DSL Office scenario, users would pay $100 to install a Cisca VPN 831 router, plus about...

WebLogic Platform ported to Sun OS.
December 1, 2003... BEA Systems Inc. in San Jose will port its WebLogic Platform 8.1 to Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Solaris x86 operating system, the two companies said last week. WebLogic Platform is Java server software for developing and integrating business...

Wild River joins Linux project.
December 1, 2003... Wind River Systems Inc. in Alameda, Calif., has joined the Carrier Grade Linux project being put together by Open Source Development Labs Inc. to develop Linux for use in networking and telecommunications equipment and applications. Wind River...

New weapons of information warfare.(Technology)
December 1, 2003... THE OCTOBER ISSUE of communications of the ACM featured papers about future robots capable of performing self-organizing tasks. The authors showed how acceleration in the processing power of computers means that machines could soon reach the...

Killer [clauses]: software contracts are full of hot spots. Here are some tips for not getting burned.(Management)
December 1, 2003... "SOME VENDORS ARE LIKE DISNEY VILLAINS," says Brad Peterson. "They're manifestly evil, and you have to watch them." The villains among vendors dont make their big money on initial software licenses, he says, but once you start building your...

Thinking like a manager: today's obsession with 'leadership' has taken the focus off the critical importance of good management.(Q&A)
December 1, 2003... Everyone wants to be a great leader, but nobody aspires to be a good manager anymore, says Jonathan Gosling and co-author Henry Mintzberg in November's Harvard Business Review. But leadership without the foundation of good management can be...

CIO on board: joining a board of directors looks good, but today it carries new liabilities, too.(Management)
December 1, 2003... FOR MANY CIOS, being asked to serve on an outside board of directors is evidence that they've finally arrived. And why not? Board membership is public recognition that a CIO has experience that another company craves. It's also an opportunity...

Newsmaker.(Q&A)
December 1, 2003... MARK QUINLAN went to work in October am CIO at Cleveland-based Charter One Financial Inc., one of the 25 largest bank holding companies in the country, after spending over two years at Union Central Insurance and Investments. "I love banking,...

Transform the year-end planning ritual.(Management)
December 1, 2003... ONCE AGAIN, 'tis the season for annual planning, an exercise that fills managers with hope, dread, despair and anticipation. It's a time when we contemplate the future of our organizations, technology and personal fortunes. For most...

Gadget guy.(Frankly Speaking)
December 1, 2003... YOU KNOW WHO HE IS. (It's almost always a guy.) He's the user who loves gadgets. He's the first one to have every new high-tech toy, from the Apple Newton to a wireless modem to a camera phone. He used to ask you to support his gadgets when he...

It's easier that way.(Shark Tank)
December 1, 2003... IT director pilot fish orders up a new cell phone for on-call support staffers to use for after-hours emergencies, and he has the voice-mail system configured to page the phone whenever a message is left for the help desk. "Three days later, I...

Patience.(Shark Tank)
December 1, 2003... User has trouble attaching a document to an e-mail message--she keeps getting two or three copies. Show me, says support pilot fish. User clicks once to attach, but the attachment doesn't appear quickly, so she keeps clicking. Be patient, fish...

That'll do it.(Shark Tank)
December 1, 2003... In this factory, coaxial cable connects 200 terminals to the mainframe. When another 100 are added, the old connections start going flaky, and IT pilot fish can't spot why--until he has someone trace the cables. "The hole coming into the...

Next time, trust me.(Shark Tank)
December 1, 2003... Boss comes to this IT pilot fish with a floppy disk that's completely unreadable, and fish spots the problem immediately. You have a brand of floppy drive that routinely fails and destroys disks, fish tells her, so don't use it. "Later that...

Well spent.(Shark Tank)
December 1, 2003... When support pilot fish gets a request to fix a malfunctioning server, he has trouble finding it. "It was actually one room over from the server room, sitting on top of a huge, well-marked transformer," fish says. "When I did get it up and...

HP plans thin-client system with PC blades: sees, new, technology as PC replacement that could cut companies' desktop TCO in half.
December 8, 2003... Hewlett-Packard Co. last week detailed a plan to market thin-client systems based on PC blades, which it claims have the potential to replace up to half of the existing, desktops in midsize and larger companies. The PC blade system, called...

Feds say IT security lacking: regulation likely if private sector doesn't protect infrastructure.
December 8, 2003... Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge last week warned the IT industry that the nation's critical infrastructure presents an attractive target for terrorists"--a target that his top cybersecurity advisers said will be protected by government...

Offshore support questioned: vendors must balance user satisfaction with desire to curb costs.(Industry Overview)
December 8, 2003... Offshore technical support services have become a fact of life for many technology vendors and their customers. But both vendors and users last week said support operations have to balance their desire to reduce labor costs with customer...

Microsoft upgrades CRM applications.(At Deadline)(Microsoft CRM 1.2)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Microsoft Corp. today plans to announce an upgrade of its CRM software that's designed to provide tighter security and simplified installation. Version 1.2 of Microsoft CRM also supports more languages and will be offered outside of North...

Intel sees strong revenue in Q4.(At Deadline)(2003)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Intel Corp. said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to come in at the high end of the range it projected earlier in the quarter. Citing strong microprocessor sales, Intel said business should total between $8.5 billion and $8.7 billion. However,...

Software AG trims development focus.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Darmstadt, Germany-based Software AG said it's narrowing the focus of its software development operations to two product lines in a cost-cutting move. The company will concentrate on XML-based integration tools and its mainframe software, which...

Yahoo Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... YAHOO INC. upgraded its instant messaging software to plug a buffer overrun security vulnerability that attackers could use to run malicious code on unprotected systems....

Dell Inc.(Short Takes)
December 8, 2003... DELL INC. is offering a Linux distribution developed by Beijing-based Red Flag Software Co. on most models of the Power-Edge servers it sells in China.

Guidelines released to craft CSO position: job requires understanding of a wide range of IT and other risks, group says.(News)
December 8, 2003... AKNOWLEDGE of information security risk management is just one of the many skills that a chief security officer needs for crafting, influencing and directing an effective organizationwide protection strategy. Increasingly, the job also...

IBM lures EMC users with new data-migration offering: piper technology allows for transfers of data while systems remain online.(News)
December 8, 2003... IBM last week announced a data migration technology and services designed to lure EMC Corp. storage users to switch to IBM disk arrays, with the promise that corporate information can be transferred in a nondisruptive way. IBM's migration...

NetApp signs partnering deals to broaden data tools: adds hardware, looks for help on life-cycle software.(News)
December 8, 2003... Network Appliance Inc. last week announced partnerships with Cisco Systems Inc., Veritas Software Corp. and FileNet Corp. as part eta plan to offer integrated storage systems for information life-cycle management, regulatory compliance and...

IBM shifts focus on software sales.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... IBM said it's reorganizing and retraining the sales force in its $13.1 billion software group to increase the unit's focus on industry-specific sots of products. More than half of IBM's 13,000 software sales workers will be assigned to vertical...

Sun ends talks over Java Deal ...
December 8, 2003... Sun Microsystems Inc. said it has ended negotiations over a deal to merge its NetBeans Java development framework with the open-source Eclipse technology backed by IBM. Sun said it withdrew from the talks because the company wasn't offered "an...

... And rolls out blades, software.(Sun Microssytem)(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... In other Sun news, the company announced a series of products at its European SunNetwork conference, including a blade server offering that supports devices based on both its UltraSparc processors and Intel Corp.'s x86 chips. Sun also released...

Linux kernel flaw blamed for attack.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... The developers of the open-source Debian Linux software said a recent intrusion into four of its servers was enabled by a flaw in the Linux 2.4 kernel. The vulnerability affects versions of the kernel prior to Linux 2.4.23. Patches were posted...

SonicWall boomed at the Comdex show ...(On The Mark)
December 8, 2003... ... says marketing VP Douglas Brockett, who acknowledged that his experiences might be contrary to those of other companies reported in this paper and elsewhere. Even given his satisfaction, he's not sure whether the venerable trade show, or...

CA offers new option for Web services management.(Unicenter Web Services Distributed Management )(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Companies that have reached the stage where they need to manage Web services have typically had to turn to small, specialty vendors for assistance. But they will get a new option today when Computer Associates International Inc. releases the...

DOD, corporate RFID backers seek standard: Pentagon official says two sides are close to deal on common specifications.(News)(working with EPCglobal)
December 8, 2003... A KEY PENTAGON supply chain official last week said the U.S. Department of Defense is working with EPC-global Inc. to develop radio frequency identification (RFID) standards that could satisfy the needs of both corporate and military users. ...