Computerworld articles from July 2004

Computerworld archives from July 2004

Appeals court ruling silences Microsoft antitrust battlefield: defeats last effort to force changes to OS; higher appeal doubtful.(News)
July 5, 2004... Microsoft Corp. last week said it will finally be able to move forward, following a U.S. Court of Appeals decision that defeated a last stand to force the software giant to change Windows. The question for Microsoft's users and rivals is where...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
July 5, 2004... A story in last week's special report about on-demand computing misstated Sun Microsystems Inc.'s role at an Affiliated Computer Services Inc. data center. The data center is managed by ACS and uses Sun equipment. The last name of David...

Microsoft antitrust timeline.(News)(Brief Article)(Illustration)
July 5, 2004... 1998 MAY: DOJ and 20 states file antitrust suit. OCTOBER: Trial begins. 1999 JUNE: After finding that the company violated antitrust law. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson orders Microsoft split in two....

Java developers aren't buying Sun's tools pitch: although JavaOne attendees showed interest in new offerings, Sun still has bottom-dweller status.(News)
July 5, 2004... Sun Microsystems Inc. said attendance jumped to 14,000 at last week's JavaOne conference--an increase of 2,000 over last year's event and a sign that interest in the language and development platform Sun created nine years ago remains high. ...

Gosling discusses Java tools woes.(Q & A)(on Java by James Gosling)
July 5, 2004... James Gosling, the father of Java, is now chief technology officer for Sun's developer products group. He discussed the company's difficulties in the commercial tools space last week with Computerworld. Few developers use Sun's tools. How...

Real estate firm mixes IT management.(News)(Lend Lease Corporation Ltd)
July 5, 2004... Lend Lease Corp., a global construction management and real estate investment firm based in Australia, plans to go live Sept. I with an IT overhaul that will combine its worldwide network, systems and security management operations at a data...

'Net attack spurs change to Windows.(At Deadline)(Microsoft Corp. releases configuration change to protect operating systems)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Microsoft Corp. released a configuration change for Windows XP, 2000 and Server 2003 in an attempt to better protect the operating systems against an Internet attack launched two weeks ago [QuickLink 47818]. Microsoft said the update will...

CSC to modernize air traffic system.(At Deadline)(Computer Sciences Corp. won contract from Federal Aviation Administration)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Computer Sciences Corp. said it has won a contract from the Federal Aviation Administration to modernize the system that's used to manage air traffic flow in the U.S. EI Segundo, Calif.-based CSC will also network fragmented components of the...

Dell to replace notebook adapters.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Dell Inc. said it's recalling and replacing about 38,000 notebook PC power adapters that could cause an electrical shock if they're used with power cords from companies other than Mobility Electronics Inc., which makes the adapters. The...

Short takes.(At Deadline)(SYBASE INC sales, )(NETWORK ASSOCIATES INC. changes name to McAFEE INC.)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... SYBASE INC. said its second-quarter revenue will be lower than expected due to problems in its North American corporate sales unit. Steps to strengthen the unit are planned.... NETWORK ASSOCIATES INC. changed its name to McAFEE INC. as part of...

Time running out for e-voting security plan: panel calls for independent oversight of voting systems, but it may be too late.(News)
July 5, 2004... STATE AND local jurisdictions must act immediately to ensure the security of the electronic voting systems that are to be used in the November presidential election, according to an IT security panel. But the panel's recommendations may well...

3Com hits milestones but seeks path to profitability.(News)
July 5, 2004... Networking equipment vendor 3COM CORP. last week marked its 25th year in business and the one-year anniversary of relocating its headquarters from California to Massachusetts. The celebration came as 3Com is trying to rebound from 17 straight...

VAX users see the writing on the wall: though still widely used and very reliable, DEC's legacy to IT is aging.(News)
July 5, 2004... The VAX system at Triumph Components has been in use since about 1996, and information systems manager Dan Blackshear couldn't be happier with it. There's just one problem: He's got to scrap it. The system is fast, works well with Windows...

Oracle needs to grow, Ellison says.(Briefs)(Oracle Corp.'s management)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... As part of Oracle Corp.'s defense of its bid for PeopleSoft Inc., Oracle CEO Larry Ellison testified that his company needs to grow via acquisitions to remain competitive with SAP AG and Microsoft Corp. "The only way we can increase our...

Hallmark, ACS ink IT services deal.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Hallmark Cards Inc. said it has signed a seven-year, $230 million outsourcing and IT services deal with Affiliated Computer Services Inc. Dallas-based ACS will offer jobs to 145 Hallmark workers and take over functions such as network services,...

GE sends some coding offshore.(Briefs)(General Electric Co. contracted IT services firm MindTree Consulting Pvt)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... General Electric Co. said it has contracted with offshore IT services firm MindTree Consulting Pvt. to set up and manage a software development center in Bangalore, India. The facility initially will have about 50 workers and focus on ERP, data...

Short takes.(Briefs)(Actona Technologies Inc., Cisco Systems Inc., Infosys Technologies Ltd. )(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Bangalore-based INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LTD. had to temporarily shut down its network after being hit by an unspecified virus.... CISCO SYSTEMS INC. said it will pay $82 million to buy ACTONA TECHNOLOGIES INC., a Los Gatos, Calif., developer of...

On the mark: hot technology trends, new product news and industry gossip.(News)(Computer industry)
July 5, 2004... Dashboards can steer users in wrong... ... direction without "taking a painful exploration of underlying business processes." Sober thoughts, especially given that they come from Colin Dover, product marketing manager at Hyperion...

Version 6.5 adds to scalability, web capabilities.(News)(Business-Objects 6.5)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... In addition to providing a consistent user interface for the Business Objects and Crystal Decisions product lines, Business-Objects 6.5 includes upgraded Web reporting tools as well as server optimization and enhanced caching features designed...

Delay for FBI's virtual case file may be a blessing in disguise: mismanagement, design inflexibility cited in study.(News)
July 5, 2004... THE FACT that the FBI's long-awaited electronic case file system will not be fully deployed by the end of this year as planned may be more of a saving grace than an embarrassment. The FBI needs to take the time to get the system right, analysts...

Court blocks ISP from reclaiming IP addresses.(News)(University Communications Inc. gets restraining order against Net Access)
July 5, 2004... An initial ruling by a New Jersey state court judge in a lawsuit filed by a Web hosting firm is causing alarm among some Internet service providers, who fear that the ruling will set a dangerous precedent for letting companies retain their IP...

Microsoft to allow win CE changes.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Microsoft Corp. said it will share more of the source code for its Windows CE embedded operating system with hardware makers and allow them to modify the code for their own commercial uses. Companies won't be required to share their...

Nortel to sell off production plants.(Briefs)
July 5, 2004... Nortel Networks Ltd. said it will divest most of its remaining production facilities to Flextronics International Inc., a Singapore-based contract manufacturer. The agreement is valued at between $675 million and $725 million and includes a...

Investment firm sues CA over pay.(Briefs)(Ranger Governance Ltd. sues Computer Associates International Inc.)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Ranger Governance Ltd., the Dallas-based investment firm that tried to take control of Computer Associates International Inc. in 2001, has filed a lawsuit asking that 12 former and current CA executives be ordered to pay back more than $1...

Short takes.(Briefs)(Securities and Exchange Commission sued Siebel Systems Inc, Novell Inc.'s services )(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... The SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION sued SIEBEL SYSTEMS INC., claiming that two of its executives broke financial disclosure rules last year.... NOVELL INC. released Version 1.0 of Mono, an open-source development platform it's pitching as...

Banks, brokerages dogged by message storage rules: mandates for IM, e-mail retention pose IT challenges.(News)
July 5, 2004... INFORMATION technology managers at financial services firms are finding it increasingly difficult to comply with a bevy of regulations that require them to archive e-mail and instant messaging exchanges with customers and ensure that the...

Microsoft CRM pace frustrates users.(News)(Customer relationship management software)
July 5, 2004... After its launch in a blaze of hype early last year, Microsoft Corp.'s CRM software is on a slower-than-expected development path, frustrating some users. Microsoft now expects to have Version 2 of the software ready in mid-2005, more than...

A voter's paper trail.(Opinion)(Internet voting)
July 5, 2004... IF VOTING IS a cornerstone of democracy, so is the belief that one's vote will be properly counted. That's why the stakes--and emotions--are high as vendors, government officials and citizens groups debate the use of electronic voting machines....

Free .iq now.(Opinion)(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers frozen the .iq address)
July 5, 2004... IRAQ SEEMS to be everywhere. The country is in headlines and political speeches and could affect the outcome of the U.S. presidential election in November. But it isn't on the Internet. Because of a legal dispute, the Internet...

The land of the 'free' hot spots.(Opinion)(Information technology services)
July 5, 2004... SOMETIME soon, Boingo Wireless, a Wi-Fi wireless hot-spot service provider, will launch a product I've been bugging the company about for a long time: a Macintosh client. But now that it's almost a reality, I find myself wondering if it's too...

Projects should be ongoing, never 'done'.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2004... IN THE COLUMN "Getting to Done" [QuickLink 46978], Paul Glen touched on the difficulties of development projects but didn't see the true culprit. That culprit is the concept of "done." The problem arises with his premise that all projects...

Respect for Sanjay.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2004... IKNOW IT IS fashionable to give Sanjay Kumar and CA a hard time [QuickLink 47368]. However, as a CA user from 1978 and throughout the time I was a CTO and CIO in banking, I have to say Sanjay made a tremendous change in CA. He brought it from a...

Lake Wobegon IT.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2004... IN THE June 14 issue, Frank Hayes stated, "Remember, half of all IT workers are below average" ["Wage Reality," QuickLink 47474]. This statement is incorrect. It is true that half of all IT workers are below the median. But about 80% of all IT...

Woe, Canada.(Readers' Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
July 5, 2004... THE ARTICLE "Canadian IT Execs Say U.S. Peers Are Overpaid" [QuickLink 47346] ignores several factors that in my view justify a wide difference in salaries between U.S. and Canadian IT workers. For example, many U.S. companies have decreased...

Speak easy: advances in speech recognition software are extending the utility of traditional applications--and paving the way for broader use.(Technology)(Cover Story)
July 5, 2004... THE VELVETY VOICE of that nice young woman on the other end of the phone is really just digits on a disk somewhere at Verizon Communications Inc., but "she" remembers that I spoke to her a few moments earlier, before I was interrupted by...

Big blue meets inspector Gadget: IBM shows its not-so-staid side as its lab works to develop high-tech gizmos.(Technology)
July 5, 2004... THERE'S NOTHING special anymore about a digital bathroom scale. But this one has its own IP address and a Bluetooth connection to a cell phone. And nearby is a similarly equipped pillbox. Forget your meds, and it might just e-mail you a...

Search for a view: oil field services provider Weatherford completes a companywide ERP deployment with enterprise search technology for user access.(Case Study)
July 5, 2004... WHEN WEATHERFORD INTERNATIONAL LTD. began deploying an enterprisewide ERP system in 2001, the company wanted to make sure it gained maximum benefit from the massive migration project. Specifically, the oil field products and services company...

Voice XML: definition; Voice Extended Markup Language (VoiceXML) is a scripting language for defining dialogues and specifying the exchange of information between a user and a speech-enabled application.(Quick Study)
July 5, 2004... HTML'S ABILITY to describe layouts and pages was a major factor in the rise of the World Wide Web. But HTML has a fundamental flaw: It assumes a graphical output display on a computer. Five or 10 years ago, that was the natural and obvious...

Spyware gets top billing: an infection on the CEO's home system leads to a call for new preventive measures.(Security Manager's Journal)
July 5, 2004... THIS WEEK, I was suddenly called into my boss's office for an urgent meeting. From the look on his face, I expected to hear that we had a serious security incident under way. Instead, he asked what our department was doing about spyware. ...

Fujitsu, Microsoft team on Longhorn.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Fujitsu Ltd. plans to collaborate with Microsoft Corp. to develop an Itanium-based server optimized for Windows Server 2003 and the next major Windows Server release, code-named Longhorn. A Windows Server 2003 chip is expected in the first half...

PassGo upgrades security tokens.(Briefs)(PassGo Technologies releases Defender 5.1)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... PassGo Technologies in Pittsburgh has released Version 5.1 of its Defender authentication and security tokens. Defender 5.1 provides users with a secure way to be authenticated and gain access to a secure network from any location via a Web...

Students, Google develop 'Monkey'.(Briefs)(software developed by Google Inc. and students of the University of California)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Students at the University of California, San Diego, and developers at Google Inc. in Mountain View, Calif., have jointly created an open-source tool designed to better predict the effect on real-world server performance if changes are made to...

Sun thin-client user group formed.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Sun Microsystems Inc. has formed a user group for its thin-client system, Sun Ray. The group is being led by Jaimie Jamieson, program supervisor of technology at the Moose Jaw Catholic School Board in Saskatchewan. The user group Web site is...

CIOs must manage what's left.(Technology)(Information technology services industry's management, outsourcing)
July 5, 2004... IF ALL YOUR NEIGHBORS lose their jobs, you call that an economic recession. If you lose your job, you call it a depression. The same reasoning seems to apply to the enormous attention that computer people are suddenly giving to outsourcing. The...

Building a compliance framework: as the flow of mandates continues, CIOs who can integrate corporate compliance efforts will be ahead of the pack.(Management)(of information is being regulated)
July 5, 2004... DO YOU BREAK OUT in a cold sweat whenever you hear the phrase Section 404? When a co-worker mentions HIPAA, do you race back to your office to figure out the earliest possible date you can retire? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If so, we've...

Shareware grows up: a friendly group of Midwestern CIOs is saving money by pooling resources and software.(Management)
July 5, 2004... IN JULY 2001, Andrew Black and Scott R. Lien were having a drink after work and commiserating about the high cost of software and intellectual property development. Lien, then vice president of information services for customer-facing systems...

CIOs to manage buildings too?(Brain Food for It Executives)(IT and facilities management functions merges)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... If you've ever relocated a data center or moved a headquarters, you know how much the IT group and the facilities management group need to work together. The two departments must coordinate myriad details about electrical power, heating and...

Best bits.(Brain Food for It Executives)(IT management )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 5, 2004... The most useful parts of recent business and IT management books THE BOOK: The Future of Work, by Thomas W. Malone (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). You know how open-source software is created by a widely dispersed bunch of...

Things to ponder.(Brain Food for It Executives)(forecasts and trends of IT industry )(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... * Less is more. World-class IT organizations spend 18% less than average ones and operate with 36% fewer employees while still providing higher levels of strategic value to their companies, according to a benchmarking study by The Hackett Group...

Privacy brands.(Brain Food for It Executives)(Consumer preferences)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Consumers say these are the most trusted companies for protecting their privacy: 1. eBay Inc. 2. American Express Co. 3. Procter & Gamble Co. 4. Amazon.com Inc. BASE: Survey of 6,309 U.S. consumers SOURCE: Joint...

The IT economy.(Brain Food for It Executives)
July 5, 2004... * The IT department has taken over printer procurement from office managers, since printers are on the network, says a report by Merrill Lynch & Co. analysts. The firm's survey of 100 CIOs found that 87% are in charge of buying printers, though...

U.S. IT spending forecast.(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... 2004 SHARE Packaged software will make up only 24% of IT spending... Services 43.5% Hardware 32.1% Packaged software 24.4% Note: Table made from pie chart. 2004 GROWTH ...but it will be the...

Career watch.(Management)(Richard LeFave answers your querries)
July 5, 2004... Even though I have more than 20 years of support, development and project management training and experience, and a bachelor's degree, I haven't been able to break into management. Should I simply focus on improving my technical skills, or...

Stateside pay slide tied to offshore outsourcing.(Management)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... BASE AND PREMIUM PAY is trending downward for U.S. IT workers whose jobs are most susceptible to offshore outsourcing, according to new research conducted by Foote Partners LLC in New Caanan, Conn. Pay for both noncertified application...

Tall tales.(Management)(by job seekers on leaving the previos one)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... THE REASON FOR LEAVING a previous job is the information that executive job seekers most frequently fabricate, according to a recent survey of 300 executive recruiters at Korn/Ferry International, a Los Angeles-based executive search firm that...

Steele moves to Dentegra as CIO.(Exec Track)(Dentegra Group Inc appoints Patrick S. Steele)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Patrick S. Steele has been named senior vice president and CIO for The Dentegra Group Inc., the San Francisco-based holding company that includes Delta Dental of California and operates in 16 states plus the District of Columbia. He assumes the...

Applegarth named CIO at new airline.(Exec Track)(Virgin America appoints Don Applegarth )(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Don Applegarth has been named CIO at Virgin America, a new domestic airline with headquarters in New York. He previously was a vice president at Navitaire, a division of Accenture Ltd., where he focused on business development for the...

Becton Dickinson picks natale as CIO.(Exec Track)(J. Peter Natale appointed as CIO)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... J. Peter Natale has been named vice president and CIO at Becton, Dickinson and Co. in Franklin Lakes, N.J. He will have responsibility for global IT operations. Natale comes to the medical technology company from General Electric Co., where he...

May to take over IT at Digimarc.(Exec Track)(John May appointed as CIO)(Brief Article)
July 5, 2004... Digimarc Corp. in Tualatin, Ore., announced the appointment of John May as CIO. May previously served as senior vice president and CIO at Medical Management International Inc. for five years in Portland, Ore. Digimarc provides products and...

The wrong stuff.(Management )(of employee selection)
July 5, 2004... NOW THAT IT DEPARTMENTS are starting to do just a little recruiting, it's time to think about how to hire the best and brightest people. Despite having had a few years when they could be really choosy, hiring managers seem to have lost sight of...

Frankly speaking: excuses, excuses.(The Back Page)(information management of Department of Justice)(Column)
July 5, 2004... IT'S INCREDIBLE--THAT'S THE ONLY WORD FOR IT. In May, the Justice Department said it couldn't copy what's supposed to be public information in one of its databases because "implementing such a request risks a crash that cannot be fixed and...

Dial H for help desk.(Shark Tank)(on information technology management)
July 5, 2004... "Look at this here on my monitor," user says to an IT pilot fish who supports the registrar's office at a university. Fish looks and sees a dark smudge on the screen about six inches in diameter. But before fish can lean in to make a closer...

Australian firm wrestles with ERP delays, $11.5M overrun: problems lead to IT overhaul; PeopleSoft could face legal action.(Enterprise resource planning)
July 12, 2004... Problems with the installation of an ERP system at Australia-based Crane Group Ltd. have led to an estimated cost overrun of $11.5 million and a reorganization of the company's IT operations. The difficulties may also lead to financial claims...

E-mail glitch exposes flaw in privacy law: inadvertent release of county employee data to Swedish company leads to California inquiry.(Investigative Report)
July 12, 2004... IT officials in Contra Costa County, Calif., last week launched an investigation into how hundreds of internal e-mails that contained private employee data ended up in the in-box of a Swedish company. And now legal analysts say the incident has...

IT governance is on the hot seat: committees of IT and business execs oversee spending at some companies, but surveys find lots of skeptics.(Special Report)(Allstate Insurance Co management)
July 12, 2004... BEFORE Allstate Insurance Co. formed a capital spending committee with IT governance responsibilities about 18 months ago, the process of prioritizing IT projects typically was decided by "whoever spoke the loudest or whoever had the biggest...

MIT researchers tie good governance to higher profits.(Special Report)
July 12, 2004... Companies that don't have formal IT governance committees might want to take heed of the following: Businesses with superior governance practices generate 20% greater profits on average than other companies that share similar goals of making IT...

IT execs downplay role of Sarbanes-Oxley in governance.(Special Report)
July 12, 2004... The relatively low levels of interest in creating IT governance committees found by the ITGI and Meta Group surveys are alarming, considering the heightened emphasis that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has-placed on overall corporate governance, said...

Sprint taps IBM for more IT work.(At Deadline)(IBM Global Services)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Sprint Corp. announced a five-year IT services deal with IBM that expands the scope of an initial agreement the two companies signed in September. Under the new contract, which is valued at more than $400 million, IBM Global Services will take...

SAP says it will top Q2 forecast.(At Deadline)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... SAP AG said it will report second-quarter revenue of about $2.2 billion, up 9% from the year-earlier level and slightly more than financial analysts had projected. Software license sales should total $614 million, a 15% increase over last...

Mozilla issues fix to Windows users.(At Deadline)(Mozilla Foundation)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The Mozilla Foundation issued a software patch designed to plug a security hole that could affect users who run its open-source Mozilla Application Suite, Firefox browser and Thunderbird e-mail client on Windows systems. The patch disables use...

Short takes.(At Deadline)(Microsoft Corp. cases)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... A California judge approved the $1.1 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed in that state against MICROSOFT CORP. over its pricing policies [QuickLink 35711].... PEOPLESOFT INC. upgraded the manufacturing asset management module in...

On the mark: hot technology trends, new product news and industry gossip.(News)
July 12, 2004... Reach path to 'Linux nirvana'... ... with archiving tool for data center. That's the message from major software vendors that have jumped on the information life-cycle management bandwagon. SAP AG will release an ILM product, possibly...

Purchasing delays cause software sales shortfalls: vendors miss second-quarter targets, blame spending drop-off in U.S. in June.(News)
July 12, 2004... SIX TOP SOFTWARE vendors warned last week that they will report lower-than-projected revenues for the second quarter, blaming a slowdown in spending by U.S. customers last month. PeopleSoft Inc., Computer Associates International Inc.,...

MySQL, SAP plot upgrade of open-source database: MaxDB to get 64-bit capabilities.(News)
July 12, 2004... SAP AG and development partner MySQL AB are readying an upgrade to SAP's open-source database that will add support for 64-bit computing, along with new monitoring and management features. SAP inked a deal with open-source database vendor...

Sun exec discusses plans for open-source Solaris: no decisions yet about licensing model.(Q & A)
July 12, 2004... SUN MICROSYSTEMS INC. will make its Solaris operating system available under an open-source model by the end of the year, according to John Loiacono, the company's executive vice president of software. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Loiacono...

Microsoft partners get new support options.(News)
July 12, 2004... Users turning to Microsoft Corp.'s ample stable of channel partners for products, support or consulting services are getting a new point of differentiation to help them make decisions about which vendors to select. At its Worldwide Partner...

Microsoft looks to cut costs by $1B.(Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... Microsoft Corp. plans to lower expenses by nearly $1 billion in its 2005 fiscal year, CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in an e-mail message to employees. Microsoft's costs have grown faster than its revenue over the past three years, according to...

Patent ruling goes against Microsoft.(Briefs)(TypeRight Keyboard Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington reversed a lower-court ruling in Microsoft's favor as part of a patent infringement lawsuit filed in 1998 by Encinitas, Calif.-based TypeRight Keyboard Corp. The court said a decision invalidating two...

Symbian receives $93M for OS work.(Briefs)(operating system)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... The six hardware vendors that continue to own stakes in Symbian Ltd. pledged $93 million in funding to accelerate development of the London-based company's mobile operating system, which competes with software from Microsoft and PalmSource Inc....

Short takes.(Internet Services)
July 12, 2004... CISCO SYSTEMS INC. said it will pay $9 million to buy Parc Technologies Ltd., a London-based developer of network routing software.... ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE VENDORS warned about two new variants of the Bagle e-mail worm that deposit copies of...

BearingPoint move raises China's profile: but country still lags far behind India as offshore outsourcing destination.(News)
July 12, 2004... BEARINGPOINT INC. has opened its second development facility in China, a move analysts see as part of a trend by U.S. firms to expand such operations in that country. The McLean, Va.-based consulting firm said last week that it opened the...

BBC awards Siemens $3.7B outsourcing pact.(News)(British Broadcasting Corp., Siemens Business Services GmbH und Co.)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... British Broadcasting Corp. has picked Siemens Business Services Ltd. to take over its technology arm in a $3.7 billion deal that's one of the largest outsourcing pacts signed this year. The 10-year agreement, the result of a contracting...

Court upholds Calif. E-voting ban: advocates for the disabled claimed it was discriminatory.(California)
July 12, 2004... A FEDERAL JUDGE last week upheld a California directive that decertified touch-screen voting machines and withheld future certification until vendors of those systems can meet specific security requirements. The decision arose from a...

GAO says IT mismanagement at Pentagon wastes billions.(News)(General Accounting Office)
July 12, 2004... Despite years of modernization efforts that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, thousands of IT systems at the Pentagon remain "fundamentally flawed" and have led to logistics and pay problems for forces serving in Iraq, according to a new...