Computerworld articles from November 2008

Computerworld archives from November 2008

What, me worry? I'M certainly not one to seek the spotlight, but perhaps you'd be interested in knowing what jerry seinfeld, ellen degeneres, dane cook, tracy morgan, joan rivers and I have in common. Besides the fact that we're all incredibly funny, talented, entertaining people, I mean.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
November 3, 2008... If you must know, the answer is that by the end of this month, we all will have been recent headliners at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. I know--pretty impressive stuff. The only difference is that while those other guys will have appeared in the...

True happiness and Asperger's syndrome.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 3, 2008... In Don Tennant's three Editor's Notes about Asperger's syndrome, he asserts that happiness would be better achieved by looking outward instead of inward. This assertion seems to have the backing of science--specifically neurogenesis. Elizabeth...

The week ahead.(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 3, 2008... MONDAY: SaaS vendor Salesforce.com begins its annual user conference in San Francisco. TUESDAY: E-voting systems will again be put to the test as voters cast their ballots in the presidential election. WEDNESDAY: Microsoft's Windows...

Microsoft: Windows 7 will fix, avoid Vista mistakes.(OPERATING SYSTEMS)
November 3, 2008... MICROSOFT Corp. last week publicly demonstrated Windows 7 for the first time, and company executives said that the planned operating system upgrade will reflect lessons learned from the rollout of Windows Vista. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

NetApp says economic woes killed user confab.(STORAGE)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... NETAPP INC. blamed the worsening economy for its decision to cancel its first ever user conference, which was scheduled to take place in San Francisco in February. Elisa Steele, NetApp's senior vice president of corporate marketing, said...

Overstock's ERP woes force it to restate results.(SOFTWARE)(enterprise resource planning)
November 3, 2008... CITING problems with an Oracle ERP implementation, Internet retailer Overstock.com Inc. last week announced that it is restating its financial results for a five-and-a-half-year period. The company blamed itself, not Oracle Corp., for the...

Sun Microsystems Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Sun Microsystems Inc. said a downturn in the financial services industry is a major reason for a $1.68 billion loss in its first quarter, which ended Sept. 28. Revenue fell to $2.99 billion, down from $3.22 billion a year ago.

Symantec Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Symantec Corp. expects to begin laying off employees next month because of an IT spending slowdown. CFO James Beer didn't disclose the number of layoffs but said the company wants to trim 4.5% from costs associated with its workforce of 17,800....

Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Hewlett-Packard Co., Dell Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are recalling Sony-made laptop batteries because of a risk that they may catch fire. Sony said users have reported 40 incidents of overheating.

Dell.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Four former Dell HR executives have filed a $500 million class-action lawsuit against the company, alleging that its salary and promotion policies discriminate against women and that recent layoffs unfairly targeted women and employees over 40...

Sysadmin sentenced for attack on firm's servers.(SECURITY)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... A SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR last week was sentenced to six months in prison for sabotaging three servers at his former workplace. Priyavrat Patel had pleaded guilty in federal court in January to knocking out the servers over the long...

Nationwide aims to cut its server count in half.(VIRTUALIZATION)(Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... NATIONWIDE Mutual Insurance Co. says it's on track to reduce its physical count of x86 servers from about 5,000 machines several years ago to 2,500, via the use of VMware Inc.'s virtualization software. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
November 3, 2008... ROOTING for an ELECTION DAY LANDSLIDE DEMOCRATS REPUBLICANS e-VOTING PROPONENTS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and Foundry Networks Inc.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Following drop-offs in their stock prices, Brocade Communications Systems Inc. and Foundry Networks Inc. agreed to reduce the price of Brocade's proposed buyout of Foundry from $3 billion to $2.6 billion.

Motorola Inc.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Also because of the economy, Motorola Inc.'s spin-off of its cell phone unit, originally planned for next year's Q3, has been postponed.

Hewlett-Packard Co.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... FIVE YEARS AGO: Hewlett-Packard Co. stopped selling its HP e3000 midrange systems, which debuted in 1972 (without the "e") and were one of the industry's top-selling minicomputer lines.

Intel investing $170M in China.(Global Dispatches)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... BEIJING-CEO Paul Otellini announced at a press briefing here last week that Intel Corp. is investing $170 million (U.S.) in projects and companies in China. Otellini said the company is investing $150 million in 67 projects around China,...

CSC expanding Chinese Operations.(Global Dispatches)(Computer Sciences Corp.)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... TIANJIN, China-Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) last week said that it has started building a new IT services delivery center here. The Falls Church, Va.-based services firm didn't disclose the size of the new IT center, but it did say that...

Briefly noted.(Global Dispatches)(International Business Machines Corp. signs contract with Medicare Australia)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... IBM has signed a one-year, $70 million Australian ($47 million U.S.) extension to its contract to provide support services to Medicare Australia, the country's universal health insurance program. IBM provides call center support and supports...

Mobile WiMax may not make corporate connections; Sprint Nextel's Xohm network is live in one city and being rolled out in more. But WiMax technology has enterprise limitations.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
November 3, 2008... CAN MOBILE WiMax work for business users who are looking for high-speed wireless Internet access? Sprint Nextel Corp. and financial backers that include Intel Corp. and Google Inc. think it can. "We're definitely targeting businesses,"...

Microsoft takes two big leaps into the cloud: the software vendor has been something of a sleeping giant on cloud computing. but it's waking up.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
November 3, 2008... WINDOWS 7 made its public debut at Microsoft Corp.'s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last week. But it had to share the spotlight with two other technologies, both aimed at jump-starting Microsoft's cloud computing efforts....

The grill.(Interview)
November 3, 2008... Dossier Name: Rob Alexander Title: CIO and executive vice president Organization: Capital One Financial Corp. Location: McLean, Va. Most memorable job: "I was a Cobol programmer in the Pentagon for a summer job. My claim...

Will your vote count tomorrow?(OPINION)
November 3, 2008... WHAT'S INTUITIVE and simple for a system designer isn't necessarily easy and obvious for a cross-section of system users. Which brings us to tomorrow's election. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Even if you believe that voting machines are...

Stormy weather users hit turbulence on the trip to cloud computing.(Cover story)
November 3, 2008... WHEN THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY buys into a buzzword, it's like getting a pop song stuck in your head. It's all you hear. Worse, the same half-dozen questions about the hyped trend are incessantly paraded out, with responses that succeed mainly in...

Dear Mr. President: top IT luminaries demand action from the next administration.
November 3, 2008... THE CURRENT economic turmoil obscures a long-term problem that may shape the future of America long after the present crisis is over. By most measures, the U.S. is in a decade-long decline in global technological competitiveness. The...

Mobile workforce 2.0: rugged ultramobile PCs bring more features and better connections.(MOBILE & WIRELESS)
November 3, 2008... FOR YEARS, businesses have been deploying mobile software to help workers communicate wirelessly with back-office applications while on field service calls or sales visits. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Now, wireless mobility is entering a...

Getting it all 'virtually' right: it's implementation of virtualization was flawed, but the worst problems can be remediated.(SECURITY MANAGER'S JOURNAL)
November 3, 2008... Trouble Ticket ISSUE: A outside assessment of a VMware implementation finds faults aplenty. ACTION PLAN: Define fixes, and make sure they're carried out. THE RESULTS from our server virtualization assessment are back, and we...

Beware delusions in good times and bad.(OPINION)
November 3, 2008... WITH GLOOM DESCENDING on the global economy, it seems clear that we in IT will not be spared from the suffering of the financial meltdown. If history is any guide, we'll be in the vanguard of corporate cuts. When things get tough, businesses...

SharkTank: true tales of it life as told to Sharky.
November 3, 2008... Bin There, Done That It's a few years before the creation of eBay, and this IT shop is upgrading one of its oldest machines with external tape drives. "In order to do this, we had to obtain a certain type of SCSI card that had stopped...

What to do: your budget is about to be cut. Your IT shop faces a hiring freeze or layoffs. You can see a pep talk about "doing more with less" heading your way like an 18-wheeler barreling down a one-lane road. And you have no idea when things will start to get better. Does that about cover your situation?(FRANKLY SPEAKING)
November 3, 2008... Stop. Catch your breath. And get ready for the deluge. You already know your IT shop needs to become more visible to the rest of the business. You know you'll have to work faster and be a closer and more valued partner than ever to your...

Hope rising.(EDITOR'S NOTE)(Editorial)
November 10, 2008... LAST TUESDAY NIGHT, I was standing in the middle of a huge crowd in the heart of Times Square in New York. We were following the election results on the towering screens set up by the various TV networks, and there was an electricity pulsating...

Windows 7: Microsoft's secret weapon against Google.(ONLINE CHATTER)(Letter to the editor)
November 10, 2008... RESPONSES TO: Aw, Windows 7 may ruin my business plan for a franchised Vista service organization that pays house calls and improves Vista by deleting apps and installing Word 6.0-named, naturally, Garbage Out. * Submitted by: Jaynicks...

what 'suits' need to know about IT.(ONLINE CHATTER)(Letter to the editor)
November 10, 2008... RESPONSES TO: Unfortunately, most senior executives rise through the sales and marketing parts of an organization. Modern marketing types have learned some digital smarts--your basic Digital Neanderthal. Sales types are still the digital...

Customer dis-service.(ONLINE CHATTER)(Letter to the editor)
November 10, 2008... RESPONSES TO: In my view, bad customer service is always due to poor training in (1) technology (2) customer-relations handling Most of the time, (2) is not the issue. But (1) is a different story. My guess is that Bart...

The week ahead.(Brief article)(Calendar)
November 10, 2008... MONDAY: The Society for Information Management opens its annual SIMposium in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. And the Microsoft-focused DevConnections begins in Las Vegas. TUESDAY: Microsoft plans to issue two security fixes-one rated "critical"-as...

Yahoo CEO Yang reaches out to Microsoft's Ballmer.(INTERNET)(chief executive officer Jerry Yang and Steve Ballmer )
November 10, 2008... YAHOO INC. CEO Jerry Yang publicly turned to Microsoft Corp. for help last week, just hours after Google Inc. walked away from a proposed search advertising partnership with his company. Speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Yang...

ActiveX poses threat to Vista, Microsoft says.(SECURITY)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... MICROSOFT CORP.'S Windows Vista operating system is far better protected from attack code than Windows XP is. However, in a report issued last week, the company said that its own ActiveX plug-in technology is a significant threat to Vista. ...

ACS shifting 'higher-level' IT jobs to offshore sites.(OUTSOURCING)(Affiliated Computer Services Inc.)
November 10, 2008... A FFILIATED Computer Services Inc. plans to boost the capabilities of its offshore outsourcing and IT services operations--and reduce its costs--by moving some higher-level technical jobs to other countries. ACS officials said on an Oct. 30...

Dell Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Dell Inc. has launched several cost-cutting measures, including an enhanced severance package for employees who leave voluntarily. It blamed "economic uncertainty" for the moves, which also include a short-term hiring freeze and reductions in...

Mitel Networks Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Mitel Networks Corp. has laid off an unspecified number of employees in what an executive called a "modest and prudent" reaction to the poor global economy. It employs 3,000 people worldwide.

Intel Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Intel Corp. confirmed that its next-generation Core i7 processors, code-named Nehalem, will be unveiled on Nov. 17. The high-end desktop chips are an upgrade to the Core 2 chip family.

Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM jointly launched the Open Document Format Toolkit Union.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Sun Microsystems Inc. and IBM jointly launched the Open Document Format Toolkit Union, an open-source project aimed at helping developers use ODF. Sun contributed an initial set of code for an API, while IBM will donate technology later.

Wipro delays plan to open software center in Atlanta.(MANAGEMENT)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... OFFSHORE outsourcing vendor Wipro Ltd. is delaying its plan to open a software development center in Atlanta, a decision that the India-based company said was driven by the global economic downturn. Wipro announced in July 2007 that it...

SAP not wavering on pricier support plan.(ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... SAP AG last week offered a small olive branch to angry users by sweetening the features of its mandatory Enterprise Support program and extending the regular maintenance period for its core applications from five to seven years. But SAP...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
November 10, 2008... I DON'T KNOW-I'VE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS BEFORE. ARE WE SURE THIS IS THE RIGHT THING? I DON'T REALLY HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE WITH THIS... WILL SOMEONE TELL THE VENDOR TO SHUT UP? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Cisco Systems Inc.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Cisco Systems Inc. became the latest IT vendor to announce a hiring freeze. Through the freeze. and other steps, Cisco hopes to cut expenses by $1 billion in its current fiscal quarter.

Federal Communications Commission.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... The Federal Communications Commission voted to allow new broadband wire less devices to operate in unused television spectrum, or "white spaces."

Microsoft Corp.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... SIX YEARS AGO: Microsoft Corp. introduced its Windows XP Tablet PC Edition software, which lets users input data by writing on tablet systems' LCD screens with digital pens.

Economy forces Nokia to cut 600 jobs.(Global Dispatches)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... ESPOO, Finland - Nokia Corp. last week said it planned to lay off about 600 employees, blaming a weakening worldwide economy and a slew of new competitors. The total includes about 100 workers in Finland and 130 who work on long-term...

Intel, Taiwan plan to open Moblin OS research center.(Global Dispatches)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... TAIPEI - Intel Corp. and the Taiwan government last month announced plans to open a development center here that will focus on upgrading the Moblin operating system. Moblin, designed by Intel to run small devices based on its Atom...

Briefly noted.(Global Dispatches)(Microsoft Research Asia celebrates 10th anniversary )(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Microsoft Corp. last week marked the 10th anniversary of Microsoft Research Asia, the company's largest research-and-development facility outside of the U.S., during its annual Innovation Day in Beijing. Managing Director Hsiao-Wuen Hon said...

Companies looking for new ways to measure Web 2.0: IT managers are looking to use data studied by new analytics tools to improve customer loyalty.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
November 10, 2008... LARGE companies are slowly starting to install upgraded Web analytics tools to gather and scrutinize data from their growing numbers of second-generation online applications. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] For years, enterprises have used...

E-voting backers, watchdogs hope to smooth out bumps next time: no big e-voting problems were reported last week. But the systems can still be improved.(NEWS ANALYSIS)
November 10, 2008... LAST TUESDAY'S presidential election wasn't marred by widespread problems with electronic voting systems. Even e-voting watchdog groups said the election went relatively smoothly, without any reports of major technology failures. ...

The Ning CEO talks about social networking, privacy and the rise of women in hot new companies.(THE GRILL)(chief executive officer Gina Bianchini)(Interview)
November 10, 2008... Ning offers a Web-based service that lets users create their own social networks. Founded in 2004, Ning claims that its service now hosts more than 500,000 social networks, 65% of which are described as "active"--meaning they've been used in...

The next windows: 7up or New Vista?(OPINION)
November 10, 2008... RUNNING AWAY as fast as it can from Vista, Microsoft rolled out an alpha version of Windows 7 at its recent Professional Developers Conference. But is Windows 7 going to be 7Up, the Un-Vista, or is it going to be (gag) New Vista? Microsoft...

Fixed income: there's more work and less bonus money, and salaries aren't keeping pace with inflation. Here's how some it professionals are coping with tough times.(22nd Annual SALARY SURVEY 2008)
November 10, 2008... WALTER SCOTT may not be your typical IT professional. But the circumstances around his current compensation have become all too familiar. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Scott, a 20-year IT veteran, is a solutions architect at Verizon Business...

12 ways to plump up your paycheck: minimize your expenses and maximize your pay with these salary-stretching strategies.
November 10, 2008... 1. Dig Into Your Benefits BY MARY BRANDEL MAKING the most of the benefits your company offers is a great way to earn what some human resources professionals call a "hidden paycheck." By taking advantage of benefits such as tuition...

Sit tight or jump ship?(SALARY SURVEY 2008)
November 10, 2008... IT'S THE AGE-OLD CYCLE: When the economy heads down, job anxiety kicks up. So here's the question: Is the smart career play to wait it out or dust off your resume and start looking elsewhere? As a career and executive coach, I've been asked...

We're all in this together.(Career Watch)(Table)
November 10, 2008... We're All in This Together More than 300 business executives were asked, "What is your staff's reaction to recent economic changes?" Exceptional 27% Better than expected 26% Not too bad 37% Less than...

You can't spell 'disgruntled' without 'IT'.(Career Watch)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... When it comes to employee engagement, IT professionals are at the bottom of the pack. According to a survey conducted by consulting firm BlessingWhite Inc. in Princeton, N.J., less than a quarter of IT workers said they are fully engaged in...

A Focus on IT leaders.(CAMPUS WATCH)(information technology)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Techno-MBA degrees for CIOs are nothing new. As the CIO role has evolved, such programs have entered the curricula of several U.S. universities and even become "a path to the CEO" post, says Andres Fortino, associate provost at the Polytechnic...

Bright spots.(Career Watch)(Statistical table)
November 10, 2008... Bright Spots Cities that saw the largest increases in tech job postings in the first 8 months of 2008 over the same period in 2007. 1 Hartford 30% 2 Cincinnati 28% 3 Miami 23% 4 Pittsburgh 22% 5...

Shark Tank: true tales of it life as told to sharky.
November 10, 2008... Certifiable This IT pilot fish's wife moves to a new classroom at the school where she teaches, and she wants her desk to be in a different spot than where the network jack is. Fortunately, there's a wireless hub in the room. "Come to find...

Grass-roots IT.(FRANKLY SPEAKING)(information technology)
November 10, 2008... I WORKED ON MY FIRST local political campaign when I was 16, and it left a mark. Ever since then, I've never thought of politics as a spectator sport. So watching Barack Obama over the past two years as he went from underrated wunderkind to...

Acceptance and denial.(Editorial)
November 17, 2008... WHEN I wrote last week about the inequities confronting African-Americans in the IT workforce and cited the election of our first African-American president as a bright sign of hope for the future, I knew full well what was in store. There...

You have to scrawl before you can type.(Letter to the editor)
November 17, 2008... Like Don Tennant, I am appalled by my sons' handwriting, and I find it almost painful to watch them try to write ["A Dimension Lost," Oct. 20]. Like Tennant's son, they are very smart, but put a writing instrument in their hands, and they...

Service management and client relations.(Letter to the editor)
November 17, 2008... I enjoyed Don Tennant's Editor's Note regarding service management ["Of Varying Degrees," Oct. 27]. I started as a contractor at a large financial institution that brought me in because the regular help desk was very slow at executing, and it...

The weeks ahead.(briefs)(PCI Security Standards)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... NOV. 18: General sessions begin at the SC08 supercomputing conference in Austin, following three days of tutorials. NOV. 19: The U.S. Census Bureau is scheduled to issue its report on third-quarter e-commerce sales. NOV. 20:...

AMD hopes Shanghai quiets Barcelona critics.(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)
November 17, 2008... ADVANCED MICRO Devices Inc. last week released its next-generation Opteron quad-core processor, code-named Shanghai, ahead of schedule as it moves to divert attention from its ill-fated Barcelona chip. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The early...

Microsoft: first exploit ratings show success.(SECURITY)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Microsoft Corp. last week called its first crack at predicting whether hackers would create exploit code for its software flaws a success--even through its forecasts were less than 50% accurate. "I think we did really well," said Mike...

IT execs put ethics, morals at top of hiring checklists.(MANAGEMENT)(information technology)
November 17, 2008... Information technology leaders are hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders, according to an online survey conducted in June by the Society for Information Management. [ILLUSTRATION...

Sun Microsystems Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... * Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to lay off up to 6,000 employees as part of a restructuring aimed at saving $800 million annually (see related story, page 18). In addition, top software executive Rich Green is leaving amid a realignment of his...

San Jose.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... * A former San Jose network administrator faces 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to hacking, identity theft, burglary and drug charges. Officials said Andrew Madrid used his IT skills to commit crimes between 2006 and 2008.

Nortel Networks Corp.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... * Having already eliminated 2,100 positions this year, Nortel Networks Corp. said it plans to cut another 1,300 jobs. The company recently reported a $3.4 billion third-quarter loss.

Cisco systems Inc.(Short Takes)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... * Cisco Systems Inc. introduced the Aggregation Services Router 9000 to handle the onslaught of data coming in what it calls the "Zetta-byte Era." The router, priced from $80,000, offers up to 6.4Tbit/sec. of total throughput.

Laid-off sysadmin arrested for threats to harm servers.(SECURITY)(systems administrator)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... A systems administrator who was laid off this month by a New York-based financial services firm was arrested in New Jersey last week for allegedly threatening to damage the company's servers if it didn't increase his severance pay. Viktor...

With $100M upgrade, Jaguar set to lead Top500.(SUPERCOMPUTING)(Cray Inc.)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... AFTER a $100 million upgrade, Cray Inc.'s XT Jaguar supercomputer this week may displace IBM's Roadrunner as the fastest computer in the world. The U.S. Department of Energy announced last week that the XT Jaguar, housed at its Oak Ridge...

Between the lines.(Cartoon)
November 17, 2008... WHY WINDOWS STEVE? BECAUSE" ANOTHER STAB AT TRANSITIONING FROM XP" WOULDN'T FIT ON THE B0X. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] By John Klossner

Microsoft Corp.(Benchmarks last week)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Microsoft Corp. patched a security hole in its Server Message Block protocol that was first reported in 2001. The vendor said it only recently found a fix that wouldn't break applications.

McColo corp.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Spam volumes fell by more than 40% after ISPs cut off a hosting company named McColo Corp. from the Web. But the reprieve is expected to be short-lived.

One year ago: Intel corp.(BENCHMARKS LAST WEEK)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... ONE YEAR AGO: Intel Corp. released its Penryn processors, a high-end line of Xeon and Core 2 chips that were the first products built by the company using a 45-nanometer process.

BT group cutting 10,000 jobs.(Global Dispatches)(Financial report)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... LONDON - BTGroup PLC last week said it is laying off 10,000 people as part of an effort to improve the profitability of its services business. The telecommunications operator said that 4,000 jobs have already been cut and that the...

Nasscom expects hiring slowdown.(Global Dispatches)(National Association of Software and Service Companies)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... NEW DELHI-India's National Association of Software and Service Companies has slashed its job growth projections for the country's IT ser vices and call center industry for the Indian government's fiscal year, which ends March 31. Nasscom...

Briefly noted.(Global Dispatches)(International Business Machines Corp.)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Looking to offset a shortage of researchers in India, IBM's India Research Laboratory this month unveiled an initiative called the Blue Scholar Program. The program is intended to provide internships to encourage Indian computer science...