Computerworld articles from January 2007

Computerworld archives from January 2007

Man charged in malicious code plot.(BRIEFS)(Yung-Hsun Lin sued by Medco Health Solutions Inc. )(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... A New Jersey man has been charged with planting malicious "logic bomb" code that could have damaged more than 70 servers at his employer, Medco Health Solutions Inc. Yung-Hsun Lin was charged with two counts of intending to cause fraudulent,...

HP agrees to buy software developer.(BRIEFS)(Hewlett-Packard Co., Bitfone Corp.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Hewlett-Packard Co. has agreed to buy Bitfone Corp., a software developer that allows cell phone manufacturers to manage wireless mobile devices, for an undisclosed sum. HP said it plans to use Bitfone's technology to help its business...

Oracle sales barely beat projections.(BRIEFS)(profit data)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Oracle Corp. reported a strong quarter, with revenue beating analyst estimates by 1%. However, analysts noted that there are signs that Oracle's growth spurt following its PeopleSoft and Siebel Systems acquisitions could be coming to a halt....

Citrix to buy maker of provisioning tools.(BRIEFS)(Citrix Systems Inc., Ardence Inc.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... Citrix Systems Inc. has agreed to buy Ardence Inc., a maker of real-time provisioning tools, for an undisclosed price. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter. Citrix said it will use the Ardence technology to add real-time,...

Oracle simplifies, consolidates pricing schemes for all apps: users hopeful, but some say too many questions are still mostly unanswered.(NEWS)
January 1, 2007... ORACLE CORP. is creating a unified set of pricing schemes for its myriad applications that users hope can simplify what has become a complex maze. The updated schedule, announced in mid-December, streamlines the multiple licensing options...

Cognos adds link to IBM-Yahoo search engine.(NEWS)
January 1, 2007... Cognos Inc. last month added a link between its BI search engine and a new IBM-Yahoo Inc. search tool that it said will let users gather structured and unstructured data simultaneously. IT executives said that such combined searches can help...

Data center quarantines might not be workable: keeping staffers away from home in a pandemic would be hard, IT execs say.(NEWS)(Department of Agriculture)
January 1, 2007... Among the preparations that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has made for a possible influenza pandemic is stocking its data centers with food, cots and other supplies so the facilities could house quarantined IT workers. "We've already...

Outlook 2007 gives e-mail management a boost.(NEWS)(Microsoft Corp.)
January 1, 2007... His real desk may be a mess, but Jason Clarke's virtual office is neat because he assiduously answers, files or deletes the 400-plus e-mails he gets each day. "My feeling is that if you have more than a screenful of e-mails in your in-box,...

Carrier set to fight EC over network access.(An International IT News Digest)(European Commission)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... WITH THE support of German lawmakers, Deutsche Telekom AG is headed for a clash with the European Commission over a plan to keep rival telecommunications carriers from using its new high-speed broadband network. The upper house of the...

Fujitsu tapped to build stock-trading system.(An International IT News Digest)(Tokyo Stock Exchange)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... FUJITSU LTD. beat out four other bidders for a contract to develop a new trading system for the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which has had a string of high-profile problems with its existing Fujitsu-built system. The stock exchange has budgeted...

Germany pledges funds to boost IT industry.(An International IT News Digest)(Angela Merkel)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel last month pledged to distribute [euro]1.2 billion ($1.6 billion) in grants over the next three years to support innovation in Germany's IT sector. Speaking at the German government's first-ever national IT...

ING Groep NV.(Briefly Noted)(contract with Royal KPN NV, Getronics NV, Atos Origin SA and Accenture Ltd.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... ING Groep NV in Amsterdam has signed seven-year contracts worth a total of [euro]750 million ($994 million U.S.) with a vendor consortium to provide end-user support services to its 53,000 employees in Europe. ING's contracts with Royal KPN NV,...

The National Copyright Administration of China.(Briefly Noted)(agreement with the Business Software Alliance to control software piracy)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... The National Copyright Administration of China has signed an agreement with the Business Software Alliance to cooperate in investigations of software piracy. The BSA estimates that 86% of all software used in China during 2005 was pirated,...

LM Ericsson Telephone Co.(Briefly Noted)(plans to buy Redback Networks Inc.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2007... LM Ericsson Telephone Co. plans to buy Redback Networks Inc., a San Jose-based maker of edge routers, for $2.1 billion in cash. Redback said it will become a subsidiary of Ericsson and retain its management team. Redback's routers support...

Microsoft releases draft API for PatchGuard.(Microsoft Corp.'s Ben Fathi interviewed about providing application programming interfaces)(Interview)
January 1, 2007... Microsoft Corp. last month released draft application programming interfaces (API) that will allow third-party security vendors to work around PatchGuard, a kernel protection technology in Windows Vista. The Vista technology has been at the...

Correction.(Correction notice)
January 1, 2007... The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is not a member of America's Health Insurance Plan, as was reported in the story "Insurance Firms Agree to Back E-health Standards" on Dec. 18. The separate trade associations both agreed to support...

No-brainers.(Microsoft Corp.'s Steve Ballmer)(Oracle Corp.'s advertisement)(Hewlett-Packard Co.'s Mark Hurd )(Editorial)
January 1, 2007... SINCE MY CRYSTAL BALL is more tarnished than Siemens' reputation (the fraud probe of the German IT giant's telecommunications unit is getting down and dirty), don't expect me to weigh in on what you're likely to see happen in 2007. As I made...

The new austerity: flat IT budgets will make 2007 a year of conservative spending with a focus on efficiency.(FORECAST 2007)
January 1, 2007... THE HOTEL INDUSTRY IS HOT, and Marriott International Inc. is one of the industry giants anticipating continued profits this year. In the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30, Marriott posted a 9.4% year-to-year increase in its worldwide revenue...

A dangerous world: new security threats demand new thinking and solid executive backing.(FORECAST 2007)
January 1, 2007... THE IT folks at Louisiana State University have had some tough tests lately. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] They survived Hurricane Katrina with their own systems in Baton Rouge intact, only to see that campus turned into an emergency work...

Igniting innovation: leading with IT.
January 1, 2007... 8th Annual COMPUTERWORLD PREMIER 100 IT LEADERS CONFERENCE March 4-6, 2007 JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort Palm Desert, California The Nation's Leading IT Executive Conference for: * CIOs, CTOs and CSOs * Vice...

Big-bang projects: tight budget? Hit the ground running in 2007 with these fast-payback, high-impact projects.(FORECAST 2007)
January 1, 2007... SPURRED BY stretched-out budgets, IT managers want to get the most business bang for their IT buck. That means delivering bottom-line impact and business value as quickly as possible. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Speed is competitive...

Sound-off: Vista; Microsoft will ship boatloads of its new OS, but our columnists agree on little else.(Microsoft Windows Vista)(Column)
January 1, 2007... Big Headache FRANK, I SURRENDER. You don't have to write another word. You're absolutely correct. Microsoft's Vista operating system will have the biggest effect of the two major new desktop operating systems headed toward IT departments...

Standout skills: with fewer IT openings expected this year, these five premium skills are job clinchers.(job market for information technology professionals)
January 1, 2007... GOLF BALLS run amok and ping around a warehouse in an amusing new DHL commercial. A distraught warehouse manager phones the shipping giant to reroute correspondence and packages, while a booming voice pledges that DHL has adopted a renewed...

Tire-kicking tech: our survey identified the top technologies queued up for testing this year. Here's how five companies are already reaping the benefits.(Virtualization (Computing), data security software and asset management software are top technologies being used)
January 1, 2007... THE TECHNOLOGIES being assessed now at companies both large and small could well turn out to be the ones to watch in 2007, with early adopters hard at work blazing the trail for others to follow. According to Computerworld's Vital Signs survey...

Hope & headaches.(Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Vista)(Microsoft Corp.'s Steve Ballmer speaks about Linux)(Sarbanes-Oxley Act)
January 1, 2007... READY FOR 2007? The new year will have you running in all directions: gazing at some new Windows, playing a familiar numbers game and giving users the business, as usual. Just stay focused on the hot-button issues you'll have to meet...

When is a Monday ... not?(maintaining mainframe computers)(using sub query language)(using spreadsheet software)(Column)
January 1, 2007... Support pilot fish at a bank gets to work on the morning after a long weekend to find one very unhappy user. "She said her program, which ran from the mainframe, put the wrong date on her transactions," says fish. "Customers were going to be...

DOJ pushes to broaden data sharing: agency will use central database to make crime info widely available.(NEWS)
January 8, 2007... The U.S. Department of Justice is pushing the FBI and its other operating units to speed up and expand their efforts to share a wide array of crime information with outside law enforcement agencies via a centralized database called OneDOJ. ...

Hospitals seek IRS ruling on e-health software sales: nonprofits fear exemption from fraud statutes won't protect their tax status.(NEWS)
January 8, 2007... Five months after the federal government altered antikick-back laws to speed the adoption of electronic medical records, many hospitals still fear that providing EMR technology to physicians at cut-rate prices could lead to tax problems. ...

Computer theft exposes patient data.(in Electronic Registry Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... The theft of a computer from the office of health care contractor Electronic Registry Systems Inc. late last year exposed sensitive data from about 25,000 patients in five states. The compromised data includes the names, addresses, diagnoses,...

Cisco warns about software flaws.(Cisco Systems Inc.'s Cisco Clean Access has defects)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Cisco Systems Inc. has issued an advisory about two vulnerabilities in the Cisco Clean Access network access control software. The flaws could allow remote attackers to gain control of the devices or glean sensitive data from customers. Cisco...

Patch issued for OpenOffice.org app.(OpenOffice.org fixed flaw for Windows Metafile )(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... The OpenOffice.org community has released a patch to fix a vulnerability in its open-source productivity suite. The flaw can be exploited by creating a malicious file in the Windows Metafile or Enhanced Metafile formats. The flaw, rated "highly...

Seagate unveils first 1TB disk drive.(Seagate Technology L.L.C.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Seagate Technology LLC has disclosed that it plans to start shipping a hard-disk drive with 1TB of storage capacity during the first half of the year. The capacity of the new drive is one-third greater than that of Seagate's current high-end...

Storms pose power tests for data center execs: lengthy outages point to need for backup plans.(Peak 10 Inc.'s Jeff Biggs managed power outages not affecting his company)
January 8, 2007... AS VICE president of operations and engineering at data center operator Peak 10 Inc., Jeff Biggs is well versed in protecting IT facilities against power outages caused by extreme weather. For example, Biggs has taken numerous steps to...

Adobe set to issue patches for Web-based Acrobat, reader flaws: PDFs in Firefox most vulnerable; upgrading advised.(Adobe Systems Inc.)(portable document format)
January 8, 2007... Adobe Systems Inc. this week plans to issue patches for recently disclosed vulnerabilities in its widely used Adobe Reader and Acrobat software. Security analysts noted that the flaws can be easily exploited--any Web site hosting PDF files...

Census to start small on handheld rollout: in midst of $600M project, agency will deploy first 1,400 devices in May.(Bureau of the Census)(Harris Corp.)
January 8, 2007... The U.S. Census Bureau's planned $600 million rollout of handheld computers is scheduled to start in May, when the agency expects to deploy 1,400 devices for use in updating addresses in preparation for the 2010 census. A Census Bureau...

Losing candidate appeals Florida e-voting decision: judge prohibits access to source code of ES & S touch-screen machines.(Christine Jennings)(Election Systems & Software Inc.)
January 8, 2007... THE LOSING candidate in the Nov. 7 election to represent Florida's 13th Congressional District has appealed a state judge's ruling that the source code of e-voting machines used in the disputed contest cannot be examined. Democrat...

SpectraLink offers full Wi-Fi support in new line of phones.(NetLink 8000 series, NetLink 8020 and NetLink 8030 )
January 8, 2007... SpectraLink Corp. last week announced a pair of wireless telephones that support all three Wi-Fi radio standards and have double the battery life of previous models, offering end users as much as eight hours of talk time. SpectraLink has...

IBM, Siemens finally win military IT pact.(International Business Machines Corp.)(German Federal Armed Forces)(information technology)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... THE German Federal Armed Forces, or Bundeswehr, has awarded a 10-year IT modernization and management contract worth [euro]7.1 billion ($9.4 billion U.S.) to IBM and Siemens AG after more than three years of negotiations with various vendors....

Amsterdam set to test Linux on its desktops.(An International IT News Digest)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... THE CITY of Amsterdam plans to test open-source software on desktop computers in two municipal departments during the first half of this year. In a statement released late last month, the city said it doesn't plan to fully phase out the...

Taiwan allows chip investments in China.(Powerchip Semiconductor Corp., ProMOS Technologies Inc. opening new facilities)(Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc., and Global Advanced Packaging Technology Ltd.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... THE GOVERNMENT of Taiwan has approved plans by three chip makers to invest funds in China, marking a significant easing of regulations for the Taiwanese IT industry. Taiwan has long limited investments in China by domestic chip makers...

BenQ Mobile GmbH.(insolvency)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... BenQ Mobile GmbH failed to meet an end-of-the-year deadline to find a buyer, leading a German court to begin insolvency proceedings against the Munich-based mobile phone maker. "Production will now wind down," said a spokesman for the company's...

The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd.(planning to use Linux)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... The Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu Ltd., a government-owned provider of IT services to the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, plans to replace its Microsoft server and desktop software with Linux and other open-source products. The...

Fairchild Semiconductor Corp.(issued tender for System General Corp.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. has launched a $200 million tender offer for Taipei-based System General Corp. Both companies develop chips used to manage power in digital devices. South Portland, Maine-based Fairchild said it expects to hire all...

Another H-1B fight looms in congress.(information technology workers)
January 8, 2007... As the new, Democrat-controlled Congress took office last week, Elena Park, immigration practice leader at Philadelphia-based law firm Cozen O'Connor, had this piece of advice for companies that want to hire H-1B visa holders: Move quickly. ...

FCC approves $86B AT & T/BellSouth deal.(BRIEFS)(Federal Communications Commission)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... AT & T Inc. closed its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. after gaining approval from the Federal Communications Commission. The Dec. 29 FCC decision came a day after AT & T made concessions, including a pledge to maintain a "neutral...

Google fixes e-mail contact list flaw.(Gmail)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Google Inc. has fixed a flaw that would have allowed Web sites to harvest data from Gmail contact lists, which could have let spammers collect reams of e-mail addresses. Google fixed the problem within 30 hours of being notified, said Haochi...

Apple clears Jobs of wrongdoing.(Steve Jobs)(Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... An internal investigation into past stock-option grants at Apple Computer Inc. has found that CEO Steve Jobs was aware of procedural irregularities but did not benefit from the grants or understand the accounting implications. The results of...

Alcatel purchases Nortel UMTS unit.(Alcatel-Lucent)(Universal Mobile Telecommunications System)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Alcatel-Lucent SA has closed its $320 million acquisition of Nortel Networks Corp.'s Universal Mobile Telecommunications System unit after clearing regulatory hurdles on Dec. 31. About 1,700 Nortel employees are moving to Alcatel-Lucent,...

Cisco purchases security tool maker.(Cisco Systems Inc.)(IronPort Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Cisco Systems Inc. has agreed to buy IronPort Systems Inc., a developer of e-mail and Web security appliances, for about $830 million in cash and stock. IronPort, founded in 2000, employs about 400 people. The company will become a business...

MySQL set to ship Falcon alpha release.(BRIEFS)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... MySQL AB is set to release the alpha version of its open-source Falcon storage engine, which is designed for high-volume Web server environments. Falcon should be available for download this week, said Kaj Arno, vice president of community...

Arrow buys KeyLink for $485M in cash.(Arrow Electronics Inc., KeyLink Systems Group )(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Arrow Electronics Inc. has agreed to acquire Agilysys Inc.'s KeyLink Systems Group for $485 million in cash. KeyLink, a distributor of servers, storage systems and software in the U.S. and Canada, employs about 500 people. The sale is expected...

CheckFree agrees to buy rival firm.(Carreker Corp.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... CheckFree Corp. plans to buy payment processing rival Carreker Corp. for about $206 million in an effort to expand its software and consulting operations. CheckFree said it hopes to utilize Carreker's expertise in check conversion--the capture...

Authoring tools tussle will ...(MadCap Software Inc.'s Blaze)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Authoring Tools Tussle Will... get rowdier later this year. Few software users gripe more about their tools than writers. It doesn't matter whether they're publishing workflow-laden technical docs or The Great American Novel; writers hold...

Blogs may be destined to ...(ON THE MARK)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Blogs may be destined to... take a downward turn. Gartner Inc. predicts that blogs will reach their zenith this year, then start to slide in popularity. That gutsy forecast has made the consulting and research firm a common target for sneers...

Watch for Vista gotchas during ...(Paul Rochester about Microsoft Windows Vista)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Watch for Vista gotchas during... upcoming upgrades. Many IT managers pair an operating system upgrade with the addition of new hardware to avoid the pain of putting a new operating system on an old PC. Others try to get extra mileage from...

'What'd ya do in school today?'...(SchoolMax Enterprise software from Maximus Inc.)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... 'What'd ya do in school today?'... doesn't cut it for parental involvement anymore. At least not in school districts that use software from vendors such as Maximus Inc. in Reston, Va. Tom Funk, the company's president, touts his Web-based...

The real you.(Time Inc.'s issue)(Column)
January 8, 2007... YOU'RE probably aware that "You" made the cover of Time magazine's latest "Person of the Year" issue, and you may well be pleased with yourself that you made it. Don't be. The fact is, you don't belong there. I hate to burst the bubble that...

Lessons of a corporate blogger.(OPINION)
January 8, 2007... BLOGGING is no longer the cutting-edge phenomenon it was a few years ago. In fact, many executives (including CEOs) at mainstream companies have been blogging for some time, some more successfully than others. At Jupiter, we've been blogging...

Like elections, e-voting must be open.(electronic voting)(Column)
January 8, 2007... MUCH OF the debate over e-voting stemming from November's elections has been like the elections themselves: partisan. The pro-e-voting camp focuses on the need to get away from feeble mechanical voting machines. The other side focuses on how...

Google sets record straight on desktop.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... AS PRODUCT manager for Google Desktop, I wanted to offer some information that was not included in the Dec. 4 Security Manager's Journal ["Stopping Data From Flying Off to Google"]. Both privacy and security were important considerations in the...

No study needed.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... SOMEONE NEEDED to conduct a study to learn this ["Study: Customers Don't Want Data Handled by Outside Vendors," Computerworld.com, Oct. 24]? In my company, our data is our life. We've spent millions collecting and culling it. We've banned USB...

How to succeed at publishing e-books.(Letter to the editor)
January 8, 2007... IN THE article "Experts Debate: Is DRM Good or Bad for Consumers?" [Computerworld.com, Nov. 8], James Delong states that instead of paying $30 for a new book, consumers may soon be able to pay $3 for a digital copy that lets them read it once....

Heads in the sand: if there's a bird flu pandemic, IT will be critical to business continuity. So why haven't more organizations started planning?(TECHNOLOGY)(Deloitte & Touche LLP survey)
January 8, 2007... MONDAY MORNING, 9 A.M. The CEO calls you into an executive meeting as word comes that a full-blown H5N1 avian influenza pandemic is spreading rapidly from central Asia. Your job: Keep mission-critical IT systems working despite staff...

Adapt or die: as security threats evolve, systems will have to become adaptive and resilient.(Distributed Detection and Inference of Intel Corp.)
January 8, 2007... INTEL CORP. is developing a way for networked computers to "gossip" among themselves, sharing their experiences and "beliefs." The idea is to stay a step ahead of hackers. For years, the backbone of computer security has been the use of...

Incipient unveils SAN virtualization.(Incipient Inc. introduced Incipient Network Storage Platform)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Incipient Inc. announced that its flagship product, the Incipient Network Storage Platform software suite for storage virtualization, began shipping commercially last month. The software runs on Cisco Systems Inc.'s MDS 9000 series of Fibre...

Heroix enhances central monitor.(LongitudeV4)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Heroix Corp. in Newton, Mass., last month unveiled the latest version of its IT infrastructure monitoring and reporting product, LongitudeV4. It includes a centralized event monitor for diagnosis of system problems and a dashboard that displays...

RTime upgrade adds dashboard.(QAVantage Inc introduced RTime 4.0)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... QAVantage Inc. in Parsippany, N.J., recently released an update to its application development life-cycle management software. The vendor says RTime Version 4.0's new features include a Web-based reporting dashboard, better control over budget...

Moving beyond hope as a backup strategy.(protecting data in laptop computers )(Column)
January 8, 2007... YOU can find volumes of information about mobile data security--everyone knows that data on mobile devices, especially laptops, is at risk. But almost every article describes how to protect your company financially and legally from data loss....

Sabre's web services journey: a three-year effort transforms customers' businesses.(Sabre Holdings Corp.)
January 8, 2007... TO GET A SENSE OF HOW Web services is radiating throughout the travel industry, check out Abacus International Pte. Two years ago, the Singapore-based travel facilitator, which runs 15,000 travel agencies in the Asia-Pacific region, generated...

Why new IT managers fail: common misconceptions about the role often doom novices.(Harvard University. Graduate School of Business Administration's Linda A. Hill interviewed)(Interview)
January 8, 2007... It's an old story: Brilliant individual contributor gets promoted to IT manager, then crashes and burns. But why? For 15 years, Harvard Business School professor Linda A. Hill has studied workers struggling with the transition to management....

'Thanks' doesn't pay the rent.(survey of human resource directors on employee incentives)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... A LOT OF human resource managers believe that a bonus can consist of one or two words: "Thanks" or "Thank you." According to Sirota Survey Intelligence in Purchase, N.Y., 74% of the 150 HR managers it surveyed last month said they believe...

Southampton University.(women in computer science)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Most of the computer products or devices that we use are designed by men, although half of the users are women. People ask why we need more women in computer science, and it is because we need more women who can build and design technology...

Paul Taylor.(of Hudson IT & Telecommunications interviewed)(Interview)
January 8, 2007... TITLE: Regional vice president [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COMPANY: Hudson IT & Telecommunications, Chicago Veteran IT recruiter Paul Taylor keeps his finger on the pulse of IT hiring trends in the field. He spoke with contributing...

Developer city.(forecasting number of software developers)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... BY 2009, THERE WILL BE 17 MILLION developers worldwide, according to projections by Evans Data Corp. in Santa Cruz, Calif. That's nearly equal to the entire population of metropolitan New York, a sprawling area that includes New York City, its...

Schuckenbrock to lead Dell services.(Steve Schuckenbrock)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... STEVE SCHUCKENBROCK has been named senior vice president of global services at Dell Inc. He will report to CEO Kevin Rollins and serve as a member of the Dell Global Executive Management Committee. Previously, Schuckenbrock was co-chief...

Parexel International names Rieder CIO.(Christopher Reider)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Parexel International Corp., a Waltham, Mass.-based global biotechnology and pharmaceutical company, has appointed CHRISTOPHER RIEDER to the newly created post of CIO. Previously, Rieder was vice president of IT at Kos Pharmaceuticals Inc. He...

Cliburn is tapped to be Ceridian's CTO.(Perry Cliburn)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Ceridian Corp., a Minneapolis-based human resources outsourcing company, has named PERRY CLIBURN executive vice president and chief technology officer. He will report to CEO Kathryn V. Marinello. Previously, Cliburn was senior vice president...

Market research firm picks Micali for CIO.(Taylor Nelson Sofres, Enzo Micali)(Brief article)
January 8, 2007... Taylor Nelson Sofres PLC, a London-based market research company, has appointed ENZO MICALI CIO of its North American custom research business in New York. Previously, Micali was CIO at 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. and chief technology officer at...

Managing the path to wisdom.(management techniques)(Column)
January 8, 2007... EACH OF US wants to work for, be and/or become a wise manager. One of the most important yet frequently neglected responsibilities of leadership is developing managerial capacities--our own, those of managers who work for us and those of future...

DARPA pushes to bring supercomputers to the masses: $650M defense development effort also aims to gain commercial users.(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contracts with International Business Machines Corp. and Cray Inc.)
January 8, 2007... The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's multi-year, $650 million mission to develop high-performance supercomputers is more than just a hardware project, said DARPA officials. The contractors must ensure that the systems are productive...

Don't just say no.(sales managers using speadsheet software)(Column)
January 8, 2007... IT'S AN OLD STORY: A sales manager comes up with a great system for squeezing maximum results from his salespeople and uses spreadsheets to support the process. Another sales manager thinks this is a great idea and proposes scaling the whole...

Learning experience.(personal computer maintenance)(Column)
January 8, 2007... User complains that his PC sometimes makes "a sound like thunder." And for three months, the problem has this pilot fish stumped. "I check for speaker interference, knees against the keyboard tray, error dialogs, malware--no luck," fish says....

Philly flushes Oracle out of water bill project: city switches vendors to revive Project Ocean; Oracle will cover $6.9M in costs.(NEWS)(city of Philadelphia CIO Terry Phillis)
January 15, 2007... The city of Philadelphia has restarted a water billing system project after a 14-month shutdown, although it is replacing most of the Oracle applications it planned to use with new software. Citing figures released by the city solicitor,...

Farmers fear livestock ID mandate: tracking animals with RFID could prove pricey, they say.(NEWS)
January 15, 2007... Independent livestock ranchers last week were quick to criticize signals that the new Congress may soon mandate implementation of the RFID-based National Animal Identification System. Signing on to the NAIS program has been voluntary since...