InfoWorld articles from February 2001

InfoWorld archives from February 2001

FINANCIALS: Merged AOL-Time Warner records $1.1 billion loss.(Company Financial Information)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... FRESHLY MERGED AOL and Time Warner last week reported wide losses for the joined company, but record numbers for its America Online Internet business. The company said it expected its wide array of products and well-known brands to fuel revenue...

Pure-play e-tailers retrench - Amazon.com, Buy.com set plans for reaching profitability.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... WITH THE BLOOM off the pure-play e-commerce rose, two big name e- tailers Amazon.com and Buy.com last week announced strategies to achieve profitability sooner, including layoffs and the refocusing of resources on core business. The two...

DNS security hole spotted.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 5, 2001... A VULNERABILITY recently discovered in the software used in most DNS servers may be the most serious security threat yet found on the Internet, allowing hackers to effectively shut down ISPs and corporate Web servers and steal confidential...

Staples, other retailers sign on to Web kiosk bandwagon.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... LATCHING ON TO an emerging trend for click-and-mortar companies, Framingham, Mass.-based Staples last week announced that Web kiosks are now available in all of the company's 954 physical locations. The kiosks make the Staples.com Web site...

Linux lights up enterprise - But concerns loom about OS vendor profitability.
February 5, 2001... THE MESSAGE WAS clear at last week's LinuxWorld Expo in New York: The Penguin is ready for prime time. With the freshly minted Version 2.4 of the Linux kernel available, vendors showed off the latest advances in open-source computing as...

Skipping steps - Streamlined logistics cut e-biz costs.
February 5, 2001... AS LEADING e-businesses look beyond e-procurement to the low-hanging fruit that will drive operating costs down, inventory and logistics appear to be their biggest targets. Goods as disparate as Cisco routers and Safeway yogurt, for...

Toshiba plans PDA.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... Toshiba is planning to enter the PDA market this summer, the company said last week. Details of the new product, which is in the planning stage, are yet to be formalized, company spokeswoman Yumiko Kokubu said. Toshiba, the world's leading...

Qualcomm brews Java alternative.
February 5, 2001... Qualcomm announced last week the development of an application platform for wireless devices, which the company said is a better alternative to Java for mobile telephones. Dubbed Brew, or binary run-time environment for wireless, the new system...

WordPerfect Office update due.(Product Development)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... Corel has announced that WordPerfect Office 2002, its new suite of office applications, will be ready for release by the middle of this year. The suite will be available in two editions: standard and professional. The standard edition will...

Novell unlocks directories - Strategy banks on wireless apps, decoupled NDS apps.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... NOVELL IS preparing a dual-pronged strategy for directory services that includes wireless connectivity to its directory and enabling its own applications to access non-Novell directories, according to sources at the company. Looking to...

BEA sends b-to-b XML spec to standards group.
February 5, 2001... IN A BID to provide coordination for Web services and a model for defining and managing business-to-business interactions, BEA Systems submitted its proprietary business transaction protocol (BTP) technology to a standards body last week. ...

IP telephony pushed by major telecom vendors - AT&T, WorldCom take on upstarts.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... COURTING ENTERPRISE customers anew, megacarriers AT&T and WorldCom last week piped up with corporate VOIP (voice over IP) offerings at the ComNet trade show in Washington. The VOIP rollouts show both AT&T and WorldCom roaring back at the...

Personify debuts single-view CRM platform.
February 5, 2001... THE NOTION OF CULLING information from multiple sources to build a complete picture of a customer has existed for years, but most analytical and CRM (customer relationship management) systems continue to be nothing more than silos of...

Microsoft antitrust appeal proceeds.
February 5, 2001... Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice agreed on Friday to a schedule of topics for oral arguments in the company's appeal of the antitrust case that threatens to split it into two separate companies. The parties will appear Feb. 26 and...

Baan portal applications unveiled.
February 5, 2001... ERP (enterprise resource planning) software maker Baan has unveiled a suite of Internet-based management applications and services. The Web- enabled applications are based around the iBaan Portal, an online access point for employees to view...

RSA purchases Xcert.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... In a move to bolster its PKI (public key infrastructure) firepower and business-to-business security presence, RSA Security announced last week that it has signed an agreement to acquire Xcert International for $67.5 million. Xcert develops...

Sun readies applications strategy.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... Sun Microsystems, often criticized for only offering software as a way to sell expensive servers, will try to leave that reputation behind on Monday when company officials detail the company's new end-to-end software strategy. In a San...

Microsoft trade exchange readied.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... Microsoft will announce this week that it will create and host a private trade exchange intended for companies that want to develop embedded solutions using either Win CE or embedded NT operating systems. The site will allow companies to post...

TO THE EDITOR.(Letter to the Editor)
February 5, 2001... Shipping and handling BARB GOMOLSKI'S Jan. 22 column, E-Business Matters, which focused on shipping and handling charges was right on the money, but I think you ought to mention another major problem: the deceptive, deceptive practices of...

FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF: Technology's agent for integration and the new IT leader is the CTO.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 5, 2001... During the last year, InfoWorld has taken great pride in helping shape and define the roles of chief technology officers. As a publication that is focused primarily on technology and the impact that technology has on today's businesses, the...

E-BUSINESS MATTERS: Going global: Some lessons from eToys and Yahoo that might help you.(Company Business and Marketing)(Column)
February 5, 2001... FIRST A WORD about last week's column on postage and handling charges associated with e-commerce: That column touched a cord with consumers and e-tailers alike. Most consumers agree that we are probably paying more than we should. But e-tailers...

NET PROPHET: Order-to-ship is important to e-tailers, but it's time-to- receipt that sells shoppers.
February 5, 2001... A KEY TO SUCCESS in selling to consumers online is making sure that they get what they order quickly. Witness the fulfillment debacle of 1999 when so many online holiday shoppers' faith in e-tailers was betrayed. It's doubtful that those...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Cisco reconsiders its new facility as Randi looks for power from the sun.
February 5, 2001... AFTER RUNNING OUT of vacation funds, Randi returned to power-strapped California last week from the spa retreat she took to escape the energy crisis. "I can't believe they haven't solved this yet, Bobby," Randi said, no doubt fretting...

THE GRIPE LINE: Reliability problems with @Home e-mail sends customers elsewhere.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... I'VE GOT GOOD NEWS and bad news. The good news is that many of @Home's cable partners now offer "free e-mail." The bad news is that by "free," @Home means it won't give customers credit on their monthly bill for lost e-mail. Excite@Home in...

FROM THE NEWS DESK: Can Novell win with service providers?
February 5, 2001... No matter what business application you bring online, the network will be at the core of it. But the demand for connectivity -- both for always-on, end-user access and for an expanding base of business partners -- means that today's network...

B-to-B pitfalls.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 5, 2001... It is back to basics for business-to-business automation as companies take a hard look at the real benefits -- and drawbacks -- of online exchanges THE BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS automation story is no longer getting the rave reviews that were...

Online success demands focused marketing.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... Home-maintenance portal partners with established utilities and recognized vendors to attract consumers TO BUILD A successful online business, technology must work hand in glove with a focused marketing and branding strategy. That's...

Blessing the call center to enterprise union.
February 5, 2001... Vendors tout back-office/call center integration for more efficient CRM MOST GOOD businesspeople realize that there's often no substitute for old-fashioned person-to-person contact. Analysts and vendors agree that as enterprises seek to...

3-D simulation: Coming soon to a Net near you.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 5, 2001... No longer just for video games, online simulations attract corporate interest VIRTUAL REALITY VIDEO games may have snagged most of the 3-D and simulation spotlight, but a steadily growing interest in using the graphics technologies for...

Deloitte & Touche, SilverStream align.
February 5, 2001... Deloitte & Touche has announced that its consultants will provide services and strategies to deliver e-business systems based on SilverStream Software's e-Business Platform. The strategic alliance, announced last month, calls for Deloitte &...

Portal deal detailed.
February 5, 2001... CrossCommerce and CoVia have joined forces in an effort to push e- commerce through CoVia's InfoPortal platform for enterprise portal customers. CrossCommerce will lend its technologies to CoVia, offering automation of e-commerce operations...

Agilera to host Frontstep e-biz suite.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... Agilera, an ASP (applications service provider), has announced that it will begin selling Frontstep's E-business Suite as a hosted solution enabling its customers to synchronize supply chains and integrate trading partners. The partnership is...

Ariba buys Agile to pave way for collaborative commerce.
February 5, 2001... WITH LAST WEEK'S announcement that Ariba will acquire Agile Software in a stock swap valued at $2.5 billion, Ariba is making it clear that it wants to marry business-to-business e-commerce and collaboration to create a single, unified b-to-b...

FCC agrees to postpone next wireless license auction.(Government Activity)
February 5, 2001... THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS Commission last week postponed its March 6 auction of wireless spectrum until Sept. 12, saying more time is needed to develop bids for the 700MHz spectrum licenses. The FCC agreed with Verizon Wireless and other...

PERSONNEL: PC vendor Gateway taps founder Waitt as new CEO.
February 5, 2001... Struggling consumer PC maker Gateway named a new CEO last week. The company's board approved the appointment of Ted Waitt, Gateway founder and chairman, to the CEO position effective immediately. Waitt replaces Jeff Weitzen, who announced his...

PARTNERSHIP: Compaq, Cap Gemini team up on global services.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 5, 2001... COMPAQ COMPUTER'S global services division and Cap Gemini Ernst & Young announced last week that they would join to provide worldwide consulting and systems integration services to companies that do business on the Internet. The two will...

Fujitsu device lets users access e-mail remotely via Bluetooth.(Product Announcement)
February 5, 2001... WANT TO CHECK your e-mail from the sofa, but your PC is not within reach? Tokyo-based Fujitsu has announced a new notebook computer with a remote terminal that allows users to check their e-mail messages and to control their PCs. Looking...

U.S., Japan set for broadband competition.
February 5, 2001... SONY CHAIRMAN and CEO Nobuyuki Idei, labeling the United States as "overconfident," said that Japan and Japanese companies such as Sony, are well-placed to take a leading role in the emerging era of broadband communications. Idei used the...

LG debuts Linux-based tablet PC.(Digital iPad from LG Electronics)(Product Announcement)
February 5, 2001... SOUTH KOREA'S LG Electronics has announced the development of a Linux- based tablet PC that boasts wireless LAN connectivity. The Digital iPad is designed for applications such as basic e-mail and Internet access and word processing, and as...

Study links mobile phone use with rare form of eye cancer.(Technology Information)
February 5, 2001... A GERMAN STUDY purports to find a statistically significant link between a rare form of eye cancer and mobile telephone use, but its authors say the topic still needs more research. Scientists from the Essen University Clinic queried 118...

NTT DoCoMo launches first cell phones to support Java.
February 5, 2001... NTT DOCOMO announced the long-awaited launch of a new generation of cellular telephones with support for the Java programming language, and the company provided details of the content for the handsets. The handsets support a new service,...

Sharp tablet PC takes aim at Windows users.(Product Announcement)
February 5, 2001... SHARP HAS introduced a new Windows-based, tablet-type personal computer aimed at business applications. Based on an Intel Pentium II 266MHz processor, the RW-A230 Copernicus tablet is aimed at tasks such as data entry and at providing a...

ENTERPRISE STRATEGIES: Currency conversion, fraud prevention are hurdles to successful global commerce.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... ARE YOUR ONLINE assets ready to transact global e-commerce? Although the Internet has broken down the national boundaries of retail marketing, enabling even extremely small startups to sell their wares in channels far beyond their physical...

IS SURVIVAL GUIDE: The Internet has prompted many things, especially a lot of weird business decisions.
February 5, 2001... MANAGEMENTSPEAK: We have set an aggressive schedule, but we have faith in you. TRANSLATION: This is an impossible schedule and we are already behind. Risk of failure is high, but we plan on making you responsible. --This week's...

WIRELESS WORLD: Open letter to new chairman of FCC calls for an end to auction of public bandwidth.(Government Activity)(Editorial)
February 5, 2001... DEAR MR. MICHAEL POWELL: As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, you will be presiding over the FCC during interesting times. Among the many decisions that your agency will make are three that will have repercussions lasting far...

WINDOW MANAGER: Some Windows Me tips and tricks will save your battery and help preview graphics files.
February 5, 2001... WINDOWS ME, Microsoft's successor to Windows 98, has been available to the public for almost five months now. Although it may never be a big seller as a stand-alone upgrade, Windows Me now ships as the standard operating system on most new PCs...

THE OPEN SOURCE: It doesn't matter if Linux wins, as long as Microsoft loses its desktop dominance.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 5, 2001... LINUX IS DOING extremely well in the server market these days. But Linux needs to conquer three things next in order to stay alive in the server space: the desktop, the desktop, and the desktop. Linus Torvalds himself recently said that the...

SITE SAVVY: Did Microsoft overload its egg basket? How to avoid its DNS crisis.
February 5, 2001... IF YOU WANT to feel vulnerable simply put all your eggs in one basket. Microsoft's network design, in particular their DNS architecture, is a perfect example of an overloaded basket of eggs, and now they're walking on shells. It's sad that the...

SECURITY WATCH: U.S. government moves to secure Linux; will NSA's efforts shape the future of security?(Product Information)
February 5, 2001... LAST MONTH'S UNVEILING of the National Security Agency's attempt to create a truly secure Linux was the first good security news of the year. On Jan. 2 the NSA announced that it had been figuring out how to harden the popular open-source OS,...

The intelligent enterprise.
February 5, 2001... Easy portal access to corporate data sources is a good start, but no knowledge management solution is complete without the business intelligence tools to turn data into profitable decisions KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT, or KM, has become an...

K-station portal brings new life to business information.
February 5, 2001... New Lotus package lets users organize their daily work while streamlining group communications DESPITE ALL the communications technology that most organizations use, a good deal of corporate knowledge still gets passed around the...

Mobile workers rewarded with FastTrack.
February 5, 2001... Version 7.0 enables greater productivity from the road ONE MIGHT ASSUME that without traditional, PC-based project management software, customer and client projects probably would not get done on time or efficiently. But today's mobile...

A knowledge management state of mind.
February 5, 2001... Boost your company's IQ with a smart knowledge management framework KM (knowledge management) encompasses the flow of information throughout a business to create value. To be successful, companies must treat knowledge as an explicit...

Knowledge management with human smarts.
February 5, 2001... Future systems will cull hidden knowledge from seas of data KNOWLEDGE management comes naturally to humans. A 5-year-old with a bag of marbles can divide them up according to size, color, smoothness, and other familiar qualities. A child...

Source Insight develops code for less.
February 5, 2001... Version 3.0 offers impressive gains in editing and display IN TODAY'S CODE development environment, projects often span multiple platforms, languages, and even geographical boundaries. Because of the many challenges of managing people...

Driving home recruitment.
February 5, 2001... Once upon a time, economic development corporations enticed companies to help build their hometowns' economic bases. Now they have heard the pleas of high-tech and are spending big bucks to attract IT talent to their regions IN THE SUMMER...

INDUSTRY OUTLOOK: Publishing and printing.
February 5, 2001... The Internet reinvented delivery of content. However, print operations are still catching up. Print and books on-demand are evolving. By 2008, printing will largely be computerized. Industry statistics Employment Total employed in...

Avoiding workplace violence.
February 5, 2001... 'It can't happen here' is what most people say about workplace violence. Understanding high-risk behaviors can lower the odds of an unwanted incident THE WORKPLACE SHOOTINGS this past December at Edgewater Technologies, in Wakefield,...

Italian 'Love Bug' has inoffensive bite.(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2001... An Italian version of the "Love Bug" computer virus has affected a small number of European companies but appears to have a benign bite, industry sources said. The bug began spreading Wednesday night and has affected a small number of companies...

Telleo creates Internet 'cyberhoods'.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2001... Telleo, a San Jose, Calif.-based startup, is enabling everyone in the United States with phone service to have a free Web site. The company has created a database that allows users to access the company's Web site, enter their phone numbers and...

Keeping your IT partners on a short leash.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... IT consultants can bring new skills to your business but can also corner you into dependency BY NOW, EVERYONE even remotely involved in business, from CEOs to custodians, has heard about and, in some cases, suffered from the shortage of...

IT security: Keep it at home or take it outside?(Editorial)
February 12, 2001... Our security kings consider questions of control, culture, cost, and culpability As the Internet becomes an ever-more dominant medium for doing business, companies require even greater protection for their intellectual assets. Conducting...

WASPs best for balancing mobile madness.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... Outsourcing wireless infrastructure may be key to your productivity and bottom line TODAY'S MERGING of wireless communications and Internet technologies is creating a vast wireless communications market opportunity that is sure to affect...

Should outsourcers be part of your IT act?(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... Reader survey indicates that IT staff shortages, inadequate infrastructure, and expected savings are driving outsourcing decisions THE WAY THE BUSINESS SCHOOLS tell it, outsourcing is the quickest route to becoming a leaner, meaner, more...

HR e-power to the people.(Company Operations)
February 12, 2001... Increasing numbers of self-serve human resources systems are popping up in corporate America. What's the big deal? Employee control and lower HR overhead Technology isn't the big issue with self-serve human resource systems. It's culture...

JOB TITLES: App development manager.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... From ERP (enterprise resource planning) to e-business implementations, application development managers with Web application and project planning skills are still in demand. Compensation Salary Average salary: $81,591 Percent...

Take action on poor performance.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... When an employee not meeting performance standards needs to be fired, managers should take steps to prevent claims of wrongful termination. DESPITE DIFFICULTIES IN filling some high tech positions, few managers can afford to support an...

Homemade apps make life sweet at Dan's Chocolates.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... When the e-tailer's business plan changed, so did its decision to use large-scale software packages WHEN DAN Cunningham, CEO of Dan's Chocolates, launched the online gourmet chocolate e-tail site, he made technology decisions based on the...

Covad cuts DSL connections.(Company Operations)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2001... DSL provider Covad Communications last week disconnected broadband Internet services leased to two ISPs for lack of payment, Covad officials confirmed. The connections were severed because DSLnetworks and Internet Express had fallen behind in...

MS offers chipmakers access to WinCE code.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... Move will help in design of new chips SEEKING TO POSITION itself more competitively in the embedded operating system market, Microsoft last week formed the Windows Embedded Strategic Silicon Alliance (WESSA). WESSA will allow member...

Interoperability an issue as first Infiniband products ship.(Product Announcement)
February 12, 2001... THE FIRST INFINIBAND products have begun to arrive following last October's release of Version 1.0 of the Infiniband specification. With the first wave of Infiniband products, the switched fabric I/O solution will undergo the critical test...

Appeals court to survey judge's conduct in Microsoft case.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... THE U.S. COURT of Appeals will dedicate a portion of the oral arguments in the Microsoft antitrust case to reviewing the conduct of U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, who ruled that the company should be split in two. "This...

Oracle updates application server.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 2001... Oracle has released the first update to its 9i Application Server. Due later this month, the application server includes new features for business intelligence, business-to-business, enterprise integration, and directory integration. John...

BizTalk Server module detailed.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
February 12, 2001... Microsoft last week unveiled the first vertical solution built with its BizTalk Server. Called BizTalk Server Accelerator for HIPAA, the product is designed to help health care organizations comply with the federal Health Insurance Portability...

TSMC to supply Transmeta chips.(Product Information)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2001... Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is set to become the second supplier of Transmeta's power-saving Crusoe chips, joining IBM, Transmeta's CEO David Ditzel said last week. Transmeta expects TSMC, the world's largest contract chip...

VPNs said to offer protection from WEP flaws.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... ENTERPRISES SHOULD LOOK toward VPNs for protection against recently uncovered security flaws that threaten popular corporate wireless computer networks, according to industry observers. The flaws could allow signal disruption or...

Netegrity, VeriSign push b-to-b payments.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS online market participants got a nod last week from vendors pushing for faster adoption of online b-to-b payment technologies by incorporating better management, security, and hosted services features into the marketplaces....

Telecoms extend reach.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... Verizon, Sprint reveal plans for international networks AS ENTERPRISES RACE to set up or bolster their international presence, local phone giant Verizon and long-distance carrier Sprint last week detailed plans to build overseas networks to...

Products, ideas launched at Demo show.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... Microsoft, Palm, and others present offerings to further their wireless strategies FROM THE HANDHELD heavyweights to the high-tech wannabies, this week's Demo 2001 in Phoenix will be ground zero for the introduction of consumer and...

Exchanges must retool.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... Offering services might keep public marketplaces afloat AS COMPANIES continue to pass over public exchanges in favor of private marketplaces, exchanges must evolve into service providers offering tailored, value-added services to survive in...

P-to-P boosts Web services.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... System-level components provide network foundation TWO MAJOR emerging technology trends will converge this week when a number of startup companies move to link peer-to-peer computing architectures with evolving Web services platforms from...

SUN takes ONE giant step into Web services.(Company Business and Marketing)
February 12, 2001... SUN MICROSYSTEMS officially entered the Web services market last week when it pulled together a number of current software offerings, along with upgraded servers from iPlanet E-Commerce Solutions. The company revealed that it, too, has a Web...

Latest version of Windows to get a face-lift.(Product Announcement)
February 12, 2001... MICROSOFT WILL GIVE its flagship product, Windows, a new name and look this week. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates and other officials from the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant will preview the second beta of Windows XP,...

Microsoft joins IM group to challenge AOL.(Industry Trend or Event)
February 12, 2001... A NUMBER OF companies will soon use a unified protocol in their IM (instant messaging) services as part of an attempt to pull some IM market share away from dominant player America Online, according to an IMUnified spokeswoman. Yahoo and...