Computerworld articles from June 2009

Computerworld archives from June 2009

Evolving theory on human evolution.(Letter to the editor)
June 8, 2009... The article "Are Computers Transforming Humanity?" [May 18] was excellent. The only statement I would question is that humans take thousands of years to change biologically. That conventional wisdom is now being challenged by a number of...

Response to: can you trust the cloud? June 1, 2009.(ONLINE CHATTER)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Getting to and from the cloud is also risky. Internet service providers have more outages than cloud providers. If a company's network switches do not have flow control, or a switch is overwhelmed with traffic, it will drop packets. That is a...

Responses to: budget woes could boost government offshoring: June 1, 2009.(ONLINE CHATTER)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... We need to limit the use of H-1Bs to the primary firms and insist that the worker be employed by the company that uses his services, and not shopped out. Outsourced contract work is how these folks get their foot in the door. First they take...

Analysts: new iPhone still lacks features IT needs.(MOBILE & WIRELESS)
June 8, 2009... APPLE INC.'S new iPhone 3G S adds several features--remote data-wiping capabilities, hardware-based encryption and the ability to be tethered to a laptop--that are aimed at boosting its rank among IT executives. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

HP adds line of high-end ProLiant servers.(HARDWARE)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Hewlett-Packard Co. last week introduced a line of x86 servers for companies that operate massive computing facilities, where shaving a few dollars off each system's energy or shipping costs can add up to significant savings. [ILLUSTRATION...

Microsoft issues record 31 patches for bugs in Windows, IE, office Apps.(SECURITY)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... MICROSOFT CORP. last week issued 10 security updates that patched a record 31 vulnerabilities--18 marked "critical"--in Windows, Internet Explorer, Excel, Word and other applications. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The bugs are the largest...

Apple Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Apple Inc. has confirmed plans to build a $1 billion data center at an as-yet-undisclosed location in North Carolina. Gov. Bev Perdue said the state agreed to give Apple an estimated $46 million in tax breaks over the next 10 years as an...

Intel Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Intel Corp. has agreed to acquire Wind River Systems Inc. for about $884 million in cash. Intel said the deal will let it quickly expand its catalog of processors for embedded systems and mobile devices.

Marvell Technology Group Ltd.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Marvell Technology Group Ltd. agreed in principle to a $72 million settlement of a stock-options backdating lawsuit filed by shareholders in 2007. The agreement must be approved by the Northern California federal court.

Correction.(Correction notice)
June 8, 2009... The name of Mathew Jancsics, an IT services engineer at Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., was misspelled in the May 18 feature story "IT Recycling Pitfalls."

Golden parachutes for top sun execs are revealed.(MANAGEMENT)(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Jonathan Schwartz)(Scott McNealy)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... If Oracle Corp.'s acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. goes as planned, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz will receive a severance package of about $12 million, and co-founder and Chairman Scott McNealy will get around $9.5 million, according to a...

Lawmakers fear White House cybersecurity czar would undercut DHS role.(GOVERNMENT IT)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... SOME LAWMAKERS are questioning President Barack Obama's plan to appoint a White House cybersecurity coordinator, fearing that the new post will dilute the role of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The misgivings were expressed...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
June 8, 2009... SEE IF THIS ONE WILL STAY ON. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Benchmarks last week.(BETWEEN THE LINES)(Brief article)
June 8, 2009... Jon Rubinstein, who headed Apple Inc.'s iPod division until 2006, was named chairman and CEO of Palm Inc., succeeding Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after 16 years at the firm. Rubinstein had been Palm's executive chairman since 2007. ...

The UCLA diversity champion talks about missed opportunities, myths that justify exclusion, and the power of a simple invitation.(THE GRILL)(University of California, Los Angeles )(Interview)
June 8, 2009... Jane Margolis is now an academic and book author, with a focus on equity in education and computer science. But it was one of her first jobs--climbing poles as a telephone installer--that helped set her future course. [ILLUSTRATION...

100 best places to work in it 2009: A time-honored IT staffing strategy of hiring the best--and doing everything right to keep them--catapulted this food maker into our top spot.
June 8, 2009... WHY THEY'RE THE Best NO. 1 General Mills Inc. On-site fitness center and auto service station NO. 2 Genentech Inc. A program on mindfulness and meditation NO. 3 San Diego Gas & Electric Co. A generous noncontributory...

SharkTank: true tales of it life as told to Sharky.
June 8, 2009... That's Ergonomics! User asks if IT has the marketing department's external CD writer. Sure enough, IT does, so pilot fish walks it down there. "Hey," user asks fish, "does everyone else have a CD drive?" Yes, fish says, then adds, Your...

Sales offices.(Directory)
June 8, 2009... Publisher John Amato (508)820-8279 * NORTHWESTERN STATES * BAY AREA Director of Integrated Sales Sandra Gibson (415) 978-3306 Senior Sales Associate Chris Da Rosa (415) 978-3304 Mailing Address 501 Second...

The truth shall set you free.(OPINION)(management techniques for information technology leaders)(Column)
June 8, 2009... AS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY leaders, we're held accountable for infrastructure uptime, project deadlines and budgets. Sometimes bad things happen. Network outages, project delays or cancellations, and budget missteps have to be explained to...

Responses to: why is Silicon Valley being compared with Detroit?(Letter to the editor)
June 22, 2009... June 3, 2009. Silicon Valley is what it is because of its network, and not the kind that involves wires. Top universities produce top talent, who find jobs at start-ups or the R&D units of major corporations based there. At some point,...

Addressing Performance with Scorecards.
June 22, 2009... Performance management blends BI, financial data and other disciplines, then ties it all to business goals. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Find these stories at computer.com/more

Hands On: The Palm Pre.
June 22, 2009... It's better than the iPhone in many ways, but it lacks the apps and speed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Get Everyone on the Same Page.
June 22, 2009... The key to integrating several IT units is to recognize the expertise the each.

Six HD Displays, From Midsize to Massive.
June 22, 2009... Review: Does size matter when you're looking for a great monitor?

The 15-in. MacBook Pro: Faster and Cheaper.
June 22, 2009... Review: In recessionary times, who doesn't want more for less? The new midsize MacBook Pro gets and evolutionary upgrade, plus something revolutionary (for Apple): a price cut. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The week ahead.(Brief article)(Calendar)
June 22, 2009... TUESDAY: Oracle is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter and fiscal year 2009 financial results. WEDNESDAY: Red Hat is slated to hold a live webcast to release its first-quarter fiscal 2010 financial results. THURSDAY: The Armed...

AMD chips used in Iranian HPC for rocket research.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
June 22, 2009... AN IRANIAN research institute claims that it used AMD Opteron microprocessors to build a high-performance computing system, one more sign that the U.S. trade embargo on Iran isn't hindering that country's ability to import high-tech equipment....

Twitter links Iranians to outside world.(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... During the period of unrest following the disputed Iranian presidential election of June 5, the Twitter social network became something of a lifeline for the people of Iran. While the Iranian government blocked various channels of...

Heartland commended for breach response.(Heartland Payment Systems Inc.)
June 22, 2009... HEARTLAND Payment Systems Inc. CEO Robert Carr is getting high marks from some analysts for his response so far to a massive data breach discovered at the credit- and debit-card payment processor early this year. The breach may have been...

Microsoft Corp.(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... Microsoft Corp. agreed to pay $40 million to Mississippi to settle an antitrust lawsuit the state filed against the company in 2004. The state said Microsoft also agreed to offer about $60 million worth of hardware and software vouchers to...

The Mozilla foundation.(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... The Mozilla Foundation issued patches for 11 vulnerabilities in the Firefox browser, more than half of them labeled "critical." The patches are the first that Mozilla has issued since April.

Symantec Corp.(to terminate its online data sharing service)(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... Symantec Corp. has terminated its experimental GoEvery where online data-sharing service, which users have been beta-testing since January. Company officials declined to comment.

Microsoft's business startup accelerator.(Sanjay Parthasarathy)(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... Sanjay Parthasarathy, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Business Startup Accelerator, said he will retire in September after 19 years at the company. Microsoft Corporate Vice President Amit Mital will replace Parthasarathy.

IBM unveils corporate cloud services.(International Business Machines Corp)(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... IBM last week rolled out a series of cloud computing offerings designed to support specific enterprise IT tasks. The new product line, dubbed IBM Smart Business, focuses on delivering hosted tools and services for two tasks: virtual desktop...

New Mexico supercomputer expectations raise doubts.(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... ALEGISLATIVE advisory group is questioning whether a government-funded supercomputer can ever meet its goal of generating revenue and creating significant numbers of high-tech jobs in New Mexico. A report released late last month by the...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
June 22, 2009... "TO MAKE THINGS WORSE, I FOUND OUT ABOUT OUR LAYOFFS ON FACEBOOK," [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

MySpace Inc.(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... Struggling MySpace Inc. laid off nearly 30% of its workforce, leaving the social networking company with about 1,000 employees.

Microsoft Corp.
June 22, 2009... Microsoft Corp. announced that it will let computer makers continue selling Windows XP-based PCs for 18 months after the release of Windows 7, or until the release of a service pack for the new software.

U.S. Census Bureau.
June 22, 2009... 58 YEARS AGO: The U.S. Census Bureau dedicated its first Univac computer. The Univac I was the first commercial computer to attract widespread public attention.

China licenses MIPS technology.(Institute of Computing Technology )(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... BEIJING--China's Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) has licensed the MIPS32 and MIPS64 chip architectures from MIPS Technologies Inc. for use in developing the institute's Loongson family of processors, MIPS said last week. Their...

Opera unveils unite platform.(Opera Software)(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... OSLO--Opera Software ASA has released an alpha version of Unite, a technology platform that adds a compact Web server to its browser and lets users share files, photos and music without using third-party services. The collaborative...

Briefly noted.(Bull AB to introduce water cooled supercomputer)(Brief article)
June 22, 2009... Bull unveiled an energy-efficient, water-cooled supercomputer that can run up to 18 blade servers, each running two quad-core Intel Xeon 5500 processors, in a single chassis. The Bullx supercomputer can run either Red Hat Enterprise Linux or...

University picks 3Com switches over Cisco's: video is a major driver of network growth on the Quinnipiac campus.
June 22, 2009... QUINNIPIAC University in Hamden, Conn., is using 3Com Corp.'s new H3C core and edge switches in a total network upgrade that will replace and expand upon a system based on gear from Cisco Systems Inc. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The...

Open-source routers are becoming an it option: the technology is slowly gaining the confidence of some early adopters.
June 22, 2009... MANY LARGE IT operations are extensively using open-source technology--in operating systems, applications, development tools and databases. So why not in routers, too? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's a question Sam Noble, senior network...

Bruce Bueno de Mesquita: his computer model can predict the outcomes of international conflicts. He explains how it works, and the reaction from the political science community.(Interview)
June 22, 2009... Bruce Bueno de Mesquita teaches international politics at New York University and consults for the Pentagon and the private sector. He applies his predictive computer models to national security issues, public policy debates, mergers and...

Corporate it done 'lite': CIOs are turning to cheap, lightweight web 2.0 and open-source tools to get the job done fast.(Cover story)
June 22, 2009... SAN ANTONIO-BASED CPS Energy, the largest municipality-owned gas and electric company in the country, needed to get a better grip on its budget and its budgeting process. Since CPS Energy was an enterprise SAP user, more SAP AG software was the...

Enlisting in it: veterans fight the unemployment odds with help of free certifications through the camptia educational foundation.
June 22, 2009... MIKE ADAMS' Story is a good-news one. After 20 years in the U.S. Navy, he was forced to retire in September 2006 after a herniated disk and knee problems left him unable to lift heavy objects or climb steps. Having served in the military since...

Used gear: buying used it hardware can save big bucks. Here's how to kick the tires.
June 22, 2009... WHEN Cox Ohio Media needed to buy 600 laptops, it decided to buy used gear--and saved about 70% of the cost of going with new units. Brand-new laptops would have cost about $600,000, says Catherine Bates, asset and configuration manager at...

Nonprofits share tech expertise: cutting-edge IT applications include a solar-powered MacBook for a trek across the desert.
June 22, 2009... CASH-STRAPPED nonprofits may not be the first place you'd look for advanced IT applications, but it turns out that some nonprofits are out on technology's cutting edge. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Nature Conservancy, for example,...

Emulation or Virtualization? Don't be confused! Virtualization and emulation aren't the same. Here's how they differ.
June 22, 2009... EMULATION IS what we do when we try to make one system behave like or imitate a different system. We want to take System A (something we already have) and give it the inputs we would normally use for System B (which we may not have) and have...

We've been blind to attacks on our sites: a newly installed firewall uncovers site scraping by competitors. And who knows how long this has been going on?
June 22, 2009... OUR WEB sites are under attack! And my company's firewall and intrusion-detection systems seem to have been giving a lot of people around here a false sense of security. Of course, as the security manager, I can't afford a false sense of...

The benefits of working together.(Viewpoint essay)
June 22, 2009... IN DIFFICULT ECONOMIC TIMES, every company seeks cost reductions and process improvements. But now an entire industry has banded together to help its constituents maximize their IT-based assets. By developing an industry architecture (IA), the...

Which jobs are growing?
June 22, 2009... [GRAPHIC OMITTED] Caption: SOURCE: FORRESTER RESEARCH INC. REPORT "DON'T PANICI THE IT JOSS PICTURE ISN'T AS BAD AS YOU THINK." BY SIMON VATES, MARCH 2009. PROJECTIONS BASED IN PART ON U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR SATATISTICS FIGURES FOR THE YEARS...

Reading all about it.
June 22, 2009... THE LIBRARY JOURNAL asked library book supplier Baker & Taylor Inc. which job-hunting titles were most in demand in the six months prior to March 14,2009. Here are the top 10: * What Color Is Your Parachute? 2009: A Practical Manual for...

To the class of 2009: good luck!(Survey)
June 22, 2009... This year's graduates seem well aware that they face a challenging career landscape, with companies much more likely to be making job cuts than hiring. Some quantification is lent to that perception by CareerBuilder's Annual College Job...

SharkTank: true tales of it life as told to Sharky.
June 22, 2009... IT the Hard Way A server has gotten flaky, and it's still under a support contract, so this pilot fish calls the vendor. "Please, tell me the express support code on the front," says vendor tech. Fish reads off the number. "That server is...

Dazzle your CEO with hard facts.(Viewpoint essay)
June 22, 2009... WHEN THE CEO asks the CIO, "What is the value of IT?" the answer is usually something like, "We keep the company running," "We automate most of the functions of the company," "We contribute to the company's efficiency," or "We improve sales."...