Computerworld articles from December 2008

Computerworld archives from December 2008

Banishing ghosts.(Editorial)
December 1, 2008... AT THE CA World conference in Las Vegas last week, CA CEO John Swainson made a memorable entrance for his opening keynote address. A Swainson avatar appeared in a Second Life-like environment on the big screens, flying majestically through the...

Business technologists are already among us.(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2008... When I was an IBM systems engineer in 1967, 1 was part of a grand tradition of knowing the customer's business--sometimes better than the customer understood it himself. This wasn't altruistic behavior; it made good sense and generated business...

The week ahead.(School of the Future World Summit 2008)(Gilbane Boston 2008)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... TUESDAY: Gartner opens its 27th annual data center conference, in Las Vegas. Sessions include user roundtables on topics such as developing service-level agreements. TUESDAY: The School of the Future World Summit 2008, an annual conference...

Ballmer rebuffs talks of revisiting Yahoo acquisition.(INTERNET)(Steve Ballmer)(Microsoft Corp.)
December 1, 2008... MICROSOFT CORP. has no interest in reopening negotiations to buy Yahoo Inc., despite Jerry Yang's decision last month to resign as CEO of the troubled Internet pioneer. "Acquisition discussions are finished," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at...

Poll: millennials tend to ignore IT policies.(MANAGEMENT)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... MORE THAN HALF of working members of the millennial generation polled for an Accenture Ltd. study said that they are either unaware of their companies' IT policies or don't follow them. For example, of the 169 employed college graduates up...

Motrin aching from social media backlash.(WEB 2.0)(McNeil Consumer Healthcare)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... THE MAKER of pain reliever Motrin has a lingering headache from the social media backlash to an online video advertisement that riled a large group of bloggers and Twitter users last month. The controversy exploded into the blogosphere...

Microsoft Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Microsoft Corp. last week warned of a significant increase in exploits of a Windows security hole that it patched in October via an emergency fix. The vendor urged users to apply the patch, known as MS08-067, if they haven't done so yet.

Microsoft.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Separately, Microsoft is abandoning its consumer antivirus business and discontinuing retail sales of Windows Live OneCare next June. The tool will be replaced by a free antivirus system, code-named Morro, late next year.

Hewlett-Packard Co.(Short Takes)(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Hewlett-Packard Co. said its fourth-quarter revenue grew by 5% to $33.6 billion because of growth in its PC and services businesses. Profit was $2.1 billion, down slightly from the year-earlier total of $2.2 billion.

iSuppli Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... iSuppli Corp. has slashed its 2009 PC sales growth forecast by nearly two-thirds as a result of the declining economy. The research firm now projects that PC shipments will grow by 4.3%, down from its previous forecast of 11.9%.

Supercomputers finding their way to desktops.(HARDWARE)(NVIDIA Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... IF THE DEFINITION of a personal supercomputer is that it is inexpensive, can sit on a desk and is at least within shouting distance of the Top500 systems list, new machines equipped with Nvidia Corp.'s Testa graphics processor are among the...

Ballmer ordered to testify in 'Vista Capable' lawsuit.(OPERATING SYSTEMS)(Steve Ballmer)(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... MICROSOFT CORP. asked a federal judge on Nov. 20 to end a class-action lawsuit that has been the source of a treasure trove of embarrassing insider e-mails about changes made to the company's "Vista Capable" marketing program in 2006. U.S....

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
December 1, 2008... THEY'RE TRTING TO CURRY OUR FAVOR AGAIN. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Symantec Corp.(BENCHMARKS)(appointment of Enrique Salem)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Symantec Corp. said Chairman and CEO John Thompson will retire from his full-time job next April, Enrique Salem, the security vendor's chief operating officer, will become CEO.

IBM's Roadrunner.(BENCHMARKS)(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... IBM's Roadrunner system edged out Cray Inc.'s beefed-up XT5 Jaguar to retain the top spot on the biannual Top500 list of the fastest supercomputers.

Four years ago.(BENCHMARKS)(appointment of John Swainson in Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... FOUR YEARS AGO Computer Associates International Inc. named IBM executive John Swainson president and CEO, anointing him as the successor to ousted CEO Sanjay Kumar.

U.K. to bolster data security.(Global Dispatches)(United Kingdom. Data Protection Act 1998)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... LONDON - A bill under consideration in Parliament would allow U.K. Information Commissioner Richard Thomas to directly impose fines on businesses for the "deliberate or reckless loss of data." The legislation would also permit Thomas'...

Tata opens BPO center in China.(Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.)(business process outsourcing)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... MUMBAI, India - Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. late last month announced that it had set up a services delivery center in Tianjin, China, its fourth in the country. The services firm said that it will use the new facility to deliver...

Briefly noted.(appointment of Simon Leung in Microsoft Corp.)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Microsoft Corp. last month hired Simon Leung, former president of Motorola Asia-Pacific, to replace Ya-Qin Zhang as chairman and CEO of its Chinese operations, which include Taiwan. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service...

The McColo takedown: online neighborhood watch, or Internet frontier justice?(NEWS ANALYSIS)
December 1, 2008... FEW TEARS were shed when McColo Corp., a San Jose-based company that allegedly hosted systems for prolific purveyors of spam, malware and child pornography, was suddenly taken offline by its upstream service providers on Nov. 11. ...

Challenges await Obama in bid to build up security: President Bush is leaving several ongoing IT security projects to his successor. But even more work is needed to protect federal systems.(NEWS ANALYSIS)(Barack Obama)
December 1, 2008... AS PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama prepares to take office, the task of upgrading the security of federal computer systems continues to be a work in progress. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Several cybersecurity initiatives launched during the...

The FFCs 'nerdy data guy' talks about maintaining security, the flow of campaign finance information and the public trust.(THE GRILL)(United States. Federal Election Commission)(dialogue with James Allen)(Interview)
December 1, 2008... THE Federal Election Com-mission (FEC) is charged with tracking, reporting on and investigating anything to do with presidential and congressional campaign finance. A big and relatively new part of its charter is to provide campaign finance...

Less (complexity) is more (flexibility).(Viewpoint essay)
December 1, 2008... WHENEVER I consider purchasing something for myself, I always think about the complexity it would add to my life. Buying more stuff can lead to short-term gratification, but also to long-term maintenance headaches The same can be said of...

Most likely to ... How does high school affect your life? Nine it leaders reflect on their glory days.(Cover story)
December 1, 2008... IS THE CHILD father to the man? Or is the woman a reaction to the child she was? Maybe each of us is the result of a combination of straight lines and U-turns on our life's journey. We asked nine IT leaders to reflect on their high school...

Global Positioning Systems: sometimes technology is indistinguishable from magic.(QUICKSTUDY)
December 1, 2008... LTIKE MANY people, I've come to take for granted the availability of navigation systems in cars and handheld devices based on the Global Positioning System. But it was all abstract until I recently acquired a modern GPS myself. My reaction...

Service-level agreements: ITs value proposition: an SLA is your chance to demonstrate IT's worth to the business. Here's how to get it right.(IT MENTOR)(service-level agreements)
December 1, 2008... OVER A career in information technology spanning multiple decades, I have observed that many IT organizations have focused process improvement and measurement almost exclusively on software development projects. This is understandable,...

When is a patch not really a patch? Answer: when the patches are dutifully installed but the servers aren't rebooted--for more than two years.(SECURITY MANAGER'S JOURNAL)
December 1, 2008... I MADE a disconcerting discovery last month when Microsoft released a security patch outside of its regular monthly routine. How disconcerting was it? I'm talking about the discovery that a lot of the patching we've done to our more than 450...

Wall Street's losses may be computer science's gain: talent migrates from IT to hedge funds and back again.(CAREERS)
December 1, 2008... THE COLLAPSE of Wall Street may help make computer science and other IT careers attractive to students who abandoned those fields in droves after the dot-com bust of 2001. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] William...

Fear: the great de-motivator.(OPINION)
December 1, 2008... WITH THE job market tanking, vendors laying off staff, and IT departments cutting contractors, employees and projects, IT managers, at best, are going to be under a lot of pressure to improve productivity. In less functional corporate...

The senior vice president of management services at technology services provider technisource discusses the types of IT skills being sought by his company's midmarket clients.(Q&A)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... What's the IT recruitment landscape like? The recruitment market is still strong. It feels like it's stronger than the overall economy. From 2001 to 2003, there was a little bit of a logjam [in labor demand] when IT spending had gone down....

Getting to know you.(Career Watch)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... Mora than ever, the people who make hiring decisions are checking out social into job candidates. According to a Career Builder survey. 22% of hiring managers said they follow the practice, up from 11% two years earlier. What are they looking...

Never enough money.(Career Watch)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... 21% Percentage of people who earn more than $100,000 annually but say they live paycheck to paycheck, according to an online survey. For all workers, the figure was 47%. The survey found that men are more likely than women to put money aside...

Shark Tank: true tales of IT life as told to Sharky.
December 1, 2008... Zzzzzzzap! Frequent-traveler IT pilot fish is at his desk filling out expense reports when he hears a desktop support tech across the way begin swearing loudly. "It seems he had returned a motherboard to the manufacturer as defective, and...

Gadget season.(FRANKLY SPEAKING)
December 1, 2008... FINALLY, THERE'S a silver lining in the ever-darker economic cloud: For once, corporate IT people are facing a gadget season in which we can honestly tell users, "I'm sorry, but we can't support corporate use of your new gadget. This year, we...

The noncommodity: there's a reason why the 100 outstanding IT professionals we honor each year aren't called the Premier 100 IT Executives or the Premier 100 IT managers or the Premier 100 IT achievers.(EDITOR'S NOTE)
December 8, 2008... They're called the Premier 100 IT Leaders. It's a name that recognizes that the contributions they make aren't so much about their execution of strategies, their management of projects or their achievement of objectives. They might do all that,...

A colorblind career.(LETTERS)(Fernando Gonzalez of Byer California)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Don Tennant's Nov. 10 Editor's Note, "Hope Rising," struck a chord for me. As you might guess from my name, I was put in the "colored" category during my growing-up years. I remember visiting friends in the Deep South as a child and having to...

Critique depended too heavily on survey.(LETTERS)
December 8, 2008... Do I think there's racism in America and specifically in corporate America? Without a doubt. Do I believe Don Tennant's column helped clear things up? Nope. Tennant relied on an unscientific survey. At the very least, he should have...

Apple's stealth business notebook.(RESPONSE TO)(Letter to the editor)
December 8, 2008... Nov, 17, 2008 Scot Finnie assumes, as many commentators do, that Apple SHOULD want to get in the enterprise. However, the business world and creative world are like oil and water. Each has its own values and set of priorities. Businesses...

The grill: JoAnne Yates.(RESPONSE TO)(Letter to the editor)
December 8, 2008... Nov. 17, 2008 About a year ago, I was helping our Exchange team test-push to my Windows Mobile device. It worked great, but after two weeks I found myself answering an e-mail from my boss's boss at 8:30 at night--she uses a CrackBerry....

Microsoft e-mails detail internal fight over 'Vista Capable' changes.(RESPONSES TO)(Letter to the editor)
December 8, 2008... Nov. 17, 2008 I can't believe that people want to file lawsuits over this. If you're stupid enough to buy Vista without knowing its hardware needs, then how are you smart enough to take Microsoft to court and expect it to admit that you...

Considering consulting? look before you leap.(RESPONSES TO)(Letter to the editor)
December 8, 2008... Nov. 17, 2008 I interviewed with a midsize, growing consulting company at one office but was offered the job at another office location. Since the interview went well, and thinking that all the offices would have a similar culture, I...

The week ahead.(SRI International to host an event in Palo Alto)(Microsoft Corp. plans to issue security fixes and conference)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... MONDAY: SRI International, originally known as the Stanford Research Institute, holds an event in Palo Alto, Calif., to mark the 40th anniversary of the first public demo of a mouse. TUESDAY: Microsoft plans to issue eight security fixes,...

Site glitches mar start of online holiday shopping.(INTERNET COMMERCE)
December 8, 2008... DESPITE malfunctions on the Websites of numerous top retailers, online shoppers spent 13% more during the four days after Thanksgiving than they did during the same period last year. In fact, online shoppers spend $846 million last Monday...

Tech job ads falling along with economy.(CAREERS)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... In another sign of the recession's effect on IT budgets, online job listings for technology workers are down. For example, the Conference Board Inc., which gathers data from about 1,200 job sites, reported last week that the number of...

SonicWall users exposed by license server glitch.(SECURITY)(Sonicwall Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... A TECHNICAL problem in a license management server at Sonic Wall Inc. created havoc last week for users of the company's firewall and e-mail security products, leaving many companies temporarily unprotected against spam, phishing and malware...

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.(Short Takes)(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... * Advanced Micro Devices Inc. cut its fourth-quarter forecast, saying it now expects revenue to be 25% lower than its third-quarter total of $1.6 billion. The chip maker had previously predicted that its Q4 revenue would be similar to the Q3...

Adobe Systems Inc.(Short Takes)(Financial report)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... * Adobe Systems Inc. also lowered its Q4 revenue forecast because of the worldwide economic woes and said it plans to cut 600 jobs, or 8% of its workforce. The software vendor cited lower-than-expected sales of its new Creative Suite 4 bundle.

AT&T Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... * AT&T Inc. blamed the recession for its plan to lay off 12,000 workers, or 4% of its workforce, by the end of 2009. AT&T said it will take a $600 million charge in the current quarter to cover severance payments.

As part of a plan to offer Microsoft-free PC alternatives.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... As part of a plan to offer Microsoft-free PC alternatives, IBM announced a desktop bundle that combines its Lotus applications with Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu Linux, and virtualization software from Virtual Bridges Inc.

Feds nab more members of alleged identity theft gang.(CYBERCRIME)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... FEDERAL AUTHORITIES say they have taken another step toward busting a multinational identity-theft ring that allegedly used stolen personal data to withdraw millions of dollars from home equity line-of-credit accounts at U.S. banks. Four...

Apple deletes antivirus advice from its Web site.(SECURITY)(Apple Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... APPLE INC. last week pulled from its Web site a contro-versial tech support document that urged Macintosh computer users to run antivirus software. The recommendation was yanked because it was "old and inaccurate," an Apple spokesman said. ...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
December 8, 2008... THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT THE STORES ARE CROWDED. THE BAD NEWS IS THAT IT'S BECAUSE THE WEB SITES ARE DOWN. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Microsoft Corp.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Microsoft Corp. released the first public beta of the Service Pack 2 update for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Shipments are expected in the first half of next year.

Net Applications Inc.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Web metrics vendor Net Applications Inc. said that on the sites it monitors, the percentage of visitors using Internet Explorer dipped below 70% last month.

Four years ago.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Lenovo Group Ltd. to buy a unit of International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... FOUR YEARS AGO: IBM agreed to sell its PC unit to Lenovo Group Ltd. for $1.25 billion in cash and stock. The deal made Lenovo, then based in China, the No. 3 PC maker.

Intel accused of stalling EC probe.(Global Dispatches)(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)(Intel Corp.)(European Commission)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... BRUSSELS-Advanced Micro Devices Inc. last week accused rival chip maker Intel Corp. of deliberately stalling the European Commission's investigation into charges that Intel attempted to shut AMD out of the processor business. Jens Drews,...

Judge set to rule on hacker's appeal.(Global Dispatches)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... LONDON - On Jan. 20, a High Court of Justice judge is stated to rule on the question of whether a British systems administrator who hacked U.S. military computers in 2001 and 2002 will get a new extradition hearing. Garay McKinnon was...

Briefly noted.(Research in Motion Ltd. to launch bid for Certicom Corp.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... BlackBerry vendor Research In Motion Ltd. launched a hostile takeover bid for Certicom Corp., a Mississauga, Ontario-based maker of encryption tools. Certicom's board rejected the offer. which is valued at $66 million Canadian ($51 million...

Economic rescue: can supercomputers help save the day? a push to broaden access to high-performance systems could help U.S. companies become more competitive.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
December 8, 2008... ON THE SURFACE, all looks well with high-performance computing. Federal agencies in particular continue to fund the development of massive HPC systems, such as IBM's Roadrunner, which last spring became the first supercomputer to reach the...

Model T inspires Microsoft plan for modular IT: the company sees factory assembly lines as the model for data center construction.(NEWS ANALYSIS)(Microsoft Corp.)
December 8, 2008... MICROSOFT CORP. plans a broad, five-year rollout of its container-based modular data center infrastructure, which executives last week called the foundation of the company's cloud computing effort. Michael Manos, general manager of...

Breakaway IT leadership: learn from the best and brightest in the IT field.(Special Report 100 PREMIER IT LEADERS 2009)(information technology)
December 8, 2008... IF INSANITY is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results, as Albert Einstein mused, then CIO Viji Murali, 52, is the picture of mental health. She's also known as an original, if not contrarian, thinker--and a bit...

The innovation imperative.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 1009)(Jay Srini from UPMC Health Plan Inc.)
December 8, 2008... EXPECT the unexpected from Jay Srini, chief innovation officer at UPMC Health Plan Inc. 'In health care," she says, "you need to have breakaway ideas because the current way of doing things is untenable." As Srini sees it, one of the...

The Power of the Premier 100: The Premier 100 IT leaders' 2009 budgeting, purchasing and project plans.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)
December 8, 2008... PEOPLE POWER * Average size of IT staff: 1,277 * Average size of IT staff for which each honoree is responsible: 758 * Average percentage of IT staffers who have their workspaces within business units: 31% * Average...

Anthony L. Abbattista.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(Allstate Insurance Co.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... "EXPLOSIVE." That's how senior vice president and CIO Cathy Brune describes the impact Anthony Abbattista has had over the past five years at Allstate Insurance. After more than 18 years in consulting, Abbattista, 44, came to Allstate with...

Anne S. Agee.(PREMIR 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... What do you love about IT? "It has a new challenge every day." Passion outside of work: Genealogy research What's in your MP3 Player? Paul Simon, The Beach Boys and Yo-Yo Ma Twenty years ago, I was... "Teaching American literature."...

Robert M. Alexander.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(Capital One Financial Corp.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Favorite TV shows: "Battlestar Galactica and Lost; I TiVo both and watch them with my 14-year-old son". Energy-smart initiative: "Today, work is what you do not a place you go," says Alexander. As part of an optional flexible work program...

Andres J. Andreu.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... First job: Mural graffiti artist Most valuable career advice: "Don't ever leave yourself vulnerable to take the blame for the blunders of someone else." Favorite vice: "Reverse-engineering anything that seems to be a black box." What do...

Thaddeus Arroyo.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(AT&T Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Best mentoring relationship: "The relationship between my father and me." Passions outside of work: "Spending time with my daughter, and running.:" Favorite book: The Art of Possibility, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander...

Jackie A. Barretta.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(Conway Corp.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... HOW IS IT that a freight business with tight margins and a focus on efficiency is attracting the best programmers in IT? Jackie Barretta, vice president and CIO at Portland, Ore.-based Con-way, did it by moving to an agile development model and...

Mike Baker.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(managing director of Citadel Investment Group )(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Your recreational best: "Going 169 mph in an Enzo." What about you would surprise the people you work with? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I think most people would be surprised that I own and ride horses". Leadership philosophy in a...

Christopher C. Barron.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(vice president of CPS Energy)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... What do you love about IT? "IT is one of the few divisions that can see across an entire company." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Favorite book: The lliad by Homer Most valuable career advice: "You will fail at 100% of the things you...

Larry J. Bonfante.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(chief information officer of American Tennis Association)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... First job: Human resources analyst Best mentoring relationship: "I mentor master's degree students at Columbia University." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Favorite sport: Hockey What about you would surprise the people you work with? "I...

Ronald Charles Bonig.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(vice president of George Washington University)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Favorite vice: "Very, very dark and peaty scotch." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] People you'd invite to your dream dinner party: Teddy Roosevelt. Ronald Reagan. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson Your recreational best: "Double diamonds in...

Jim Burns.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(chief information officer of State of Alabama)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... IF AGENCIES that require a common set of IT services aren't able to share data as well as they should, what should you do? For Jim Burns, 52, CIO for the state of Alabama, the answer was to bake a cake. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Of...

Emanuel Brady Jr.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(vice president of Raytheon Co. Space and Airborne Systems)
December 8, 2008... What do you love about IT? "I love positively impacting the way business gets done, knowing the work we do is reflected in the quality of work life, the end product and, increasingly, enabling work/life balance." "Aha" leadership moment:...

Mark Burnette.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(executive director of Gaylord Entertainment Co. )(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... First job: "Selling Cokes in Neyland Stadium in Knoxville during University of Tennes-see Vols games." Most valuable career advice: "Remember that we're all free agents." Best mentoring relationship: "I'm proud to say my children."...

Stephen J. Byrne.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(vice president of Harleysville Insurance Group)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Passion outside of work: "My family." what do you love about IT? "Solving business problems." Favorite sport: Golf Leadership philosophy in a nutshell: "Establish respect with your superiors, peers and staff. To do so, hustle with...

Laura E. Campbell.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(associate librarian of Library of Congress)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... What do you love about IT? "Technology as a catalyst for change." Write your own epitaph: "Life was good!" People you'd invite to your dream dinner party" Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Barack Obama. Favorite ice...

Manoj S. Chouthai.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(chief information officer of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... THREE YEARS AGO, Public Service Enterprise Group was in the throes of a planned merger, IT budgets were flat, and employees were leaving. "There was a lot of second-guessing during the merger effort, but that didn't help anyone," says Manoj...

Brian Cobb.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(senior vice president of Federal National Mortgage Association)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Twenty years ago I was..."Installing computer systems in Melbourne, Australia." Favorite book: Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy and Larry Bond Energy-smart initiative: [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "I led a multimillion-dollar...

Michael H. Collison.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(director of Auto Warehousing Co.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Favorite vice: "Playing too many video games." Passion outside of work: "Spending time with my kids." Twenty years ago, I was..."Moving and replacing Wyse terminals [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] leadership philosophy in a nutshell:...

Baron Concors.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(chief information officer of Pizza Hut Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... Most valuable career advice: "Never compromise your integrity. It's the only thing that no one can take away from you. Always do the right thing, and you'll be just fine." Your recreational best: "I ran with the bulls in Pamplona,...

Sam Coursen.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS 2009)(vice president of Freescale Semiconductor Inc.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... First job: "'Student engineer' for AT&T in Atlanta, a co-op student assignment." Favorite TV show: Seinfeld Best mentoring relationship: "Mentored two Fortune 500 CIOs and several CIOs of smaller companies." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]...

Timothy P. Cox.(PREMIER 100 IT LEADER)(chief information officer of Onstar Corp.)(Brief article)
December 8, 2008... DESPITE a slowing global economy, General Motors Corp.'s OnStar unit has been growing by leaps and bounds as its in-vehicle technology has been extended to GM'S entire automotive line. OnStar is also working to expand its offerings to China...