InfoWorld articles from November 2006

InfoWorld archives from November 2006

Performance, security and run-time governance - When ESBs aren't enough for your SOA, XML appliances fill in the gaps.
November 6, 2006... The question of whether or not to use an ESB devolves to the individual needs and inclinations of each organization. For example, if orchestration of distributed services is a must-have, that's pretty tough to do if those services aren't...

SOA: Under construction - Enterprises are finding building SOAs slow going because of the many technologies' dependencies. Here's what's happening on the ground.(Service oriented architecture )
November 6, 2006... As enterprises build SOAs, the going is pretty slow, thanks mainly to a vastly increasing number of dependencies. Here's what you can learn from what's happening on the ground Ask anyone in charge of constructing an SOA (service-oriented...

Open source rule management - JBoss Rules and Jess deliver solid rule tools and respectable performance at a nice price.
November 6, 2006... Considering that a high-end BRMS (Business Rule Management System) costs about $50,000 just to get started, and that annual maintenance, runtime fees, and professional services can drive the total toward a hefty half-million or more,...

IBM Global Services introduces packaged model - Company will use VMware and portal-based access for reusable services.(International Business Machines Corp.)
November 6, 2006... IBM's yen for using its prodigious Global Services organization to solve any and all manner of IT problems for customers is well- established. But for many enterprises -- especially those without bottomless IT coffers -- those Global Services...

IT industry hopes for change after midterms - IT lobbyists hope for end to legislative logjam.(information technology)
November 6, 2006... "Do-nothing Congress" is a label that's been well-worn in Washington since President Harry Truman first used it against the Republican-led 80th Congress in 1948. Congressional Democrats have dusted it off again this election season, to great...

Microsoft, Novell team on Linux - Windows integration with Suse, PHP show new Openness.
November 6, 2006... in the long-running cold war between proprietary software champion Microsoft and the open source community, last week seemed something like a Velvet Revolution. In the space of a few days, Microsoft executives climbed onstage to make two...

Skirting Microsoft's Maginot Line - Authentium CEO: We won't wait for PatchGuard fix.(Interview)
November 6, 2006... As Microsoft's Vista operating system slouches toward completion, there's been a rising chorus of criticism from independent software vendors about Vista's supposed strong suit: security. PatchGuard, a kernel-protection technology, is a...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Rebooting HTML for the Semantic Web - Seeking better standards compliance, the Web's creator faces an uphill battle.
November 6, 2006... "Making standards is hard work," writes Tim Berners-Lee in a recent blog post. And he should know. The creator of the World Wide Web, Berners-Lee is responsible for developing and popularizing some of the most significant open standards in...

EDITOR'S LETTER: SOA on display - InfoWorld's "Mr. SOA" puts together a polished, practical show.(Service oriented architecture )(Editorial)
November 6, 2006... It's not an official holiday, but around these parts, we like to think of this stretch of November as "Eric Knorr Week." As InfoWorld's Executive Editor at Large, Knorr spearheads our editorial coverage of SOA (service-oriented architecture)....

SECURITY ADVISER: Seven shortcomings of virtual security - Don't be fooled into thinking virtual security technologies are a panacea for your malware woes.
November 6, 2006... I've seen a spate of virtualization products popping up to protect your computer while you surf the Internet. Roughly similar to Sun's Java infamous sandbox environment, they use various mechanisms to prevent malware from infecting or modifying...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Oracle OpenWorld makes a splash - Block party filled with good food, live penguins, and glimpses into potential new rivalries.(Column)
November 6, 2006... It was crazy in San Francisco last week as a rumored 40,000 people swamped Oracle's OpenWorld conference -- the first time I'd ever seen a tech conference have the clout to shut down a whole city block and set up tents in the street. "Are...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: FBI sends in troopers, Microsoft clips coupons - When lack of security meets federal insecurity, bad things happen.
November 6, 2006... Chris Soghoian must be feeling much more secure now that the FBI has shut down his Web site and confiscated his computers. Last week the Indiana University grad student created a site that allowed users to generate fake Northwest Airlines...

STORAGE INSIDER: Staying the course at SNW - Disk encryption, SAS, and iSCSI continue their quiet revolution.(Storage Networking World )
November 6, 2006... Storage Networking World Fall in Orlando is one of the never-ending storage carnival's most popular merry-go-rounds, but his time I had to pass on attending: too many things to do in my lab. Nevertheless, I've had so many vendors briefing...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Visiting Vista RC2, Part Three - System admins will find much to enjoy in the way of Vista treats for IT.
November 6, 2006... It's like I'm the producer of the Die Hard series -- or maybe Robert Jordan and the Wheel of Time and Endless Sequels -- you always need one more. My previous two columns focused on my own in-office experiences with Vista RC2. But naturally,...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Does saving computing power save money? It's not easy to calculate the cost savings from consolidation and green computing.(Column)
November 6, 2006... The green computing movement has gotten some traction; I'm glad. That was one of my earliest campaigns, a cause I fought before I had a voice. And until a few years ago, I was frustrated that others were overlooking the obvious: Corporations...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Simple, single-purpose screen sharing - Desktop collaboration applications should concentrate on doing one thing well.
November 6, 2006... There's one thing I wish screen-sharing systems would do well: screen sharing. I watch a lot of demos projected to my computer. It's always a struggle, both for the presenter and for me. Windows or Mac? IE or Firefox? Who has the latest version...

REALITY CHECK: EuP: The coming regulation storm - Sleeper EU eco-design directive due out this summer will cause monumental changes.
November 6, 2006... I've written about two European Union directives before, WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) and RoHS (Restrictions on the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment) in late 2004 and in late 2005....

OFF THE RECORD: Steal my data, please - Learning a lesson about system security can be easy -- or very, very hard.(Column)
November 6, 2006... By Anonymous Last year I landed a job as assistant IT manager at a midsize university. The network there was a typical mix of NetWare and Windows servers, with one big surprise: Our most critical database, the one that handled dorm-room...

Adopting an ESB -- or not - Should services be wrapped into an ESB? Or should they be managed and mediated some other way? Proponents, detractors face off.
November 6, 2006... The care and feeding of services is relatively straightforward. The most confusing SOA decisions involve how services communicate and what sort of mediation should sit between them. In an ideal world, each service in an SOA would be a...

Building, exposing, and monitoring services - After you've chosen your platform and have begun building services, you'll need to allow others to discover them -- and check their integrity in real time.
November 6, 2006... Choosing a platform on which to build services is probably the easiest decision IT faces. When cooking up services from scratch, most organizations simply go with their developers' strength, as Web service creation tools have matured across all...

Exclusive: Genesys caters enterprise-friendly meetings - Meeting Center 4.0 eases deployment and use, while sparing network resources.
November 13, 2006... When I'm invited to online meetings, they're often hosted with WebEx, Microsoft Live Meeting, or Adobe Breeze. More and more, however, Genesys appears in the URL -- which shouldn't surprise those in the corporate world. This company's been...

WysDM offers a smart way to manage backup applications - No more excuses for incomplete restores: WysDM manages multiple backup applications in one UI.
November 13, 2006... Large enterprises, with dozens or hundreds of servers and hundreds or thousands of workstations may have many different backup products in operation. Realistically, it's not feasible to monitor each separate app to ensure backups are completing...

Green: Sun to illuminate Web 2.0 - Company sees mission converting enterprise apps to Web platform.(Interview)
November 13, 2006... Sun Microsystems has had its share of ups and downs through the years. But since the collapse of the dot-com bubble in 2000 -- a bubble that made Sun immensely wealthy -- it has indisputably had more downs than ups. Channeling the spirit...

Juniper releases Version 2 of NAC product - Completes integration of Funk, 802.1x.(network access control)(Unified Access Control 2.0)
November 13, 2006... With all the hype and anticipation that has surrounded the NAC (network access control) space in recent years, you can forgive IT administrators for assuming that full-featured NAC solutions were just around the corner. But progress on client...

Vista's completion shifts focus to deployment - OS sent to manufacturers, but deployments may lag.(operating system)(Microsoft Windows Vista)
November 13, 2006... The long-awaited update to the Windows client OS, Windows Vista, was released to manufacturers, not with a bang but a whimper. For Microsoft, getting Vista out the door was a enormous milestone, critical to the star-crossed OS's expected...

Web 2.0 Conference celebrates Web app vision - Bezos, Schmidt hail Web-based apps, services.
November 13, 2006... Like an old-time religious revival, last week's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco was packed to the rafters with the Internet faithful. And, true to form, they spent their time singing the praises of the latest buzz: user- generated content,...

EDITOR'S LETTER: An IT journey - InfoWorld 100 and SOA Executive Forum have much in common.(service oriented architecture)(information technology)(Editorial)(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... It's the journey, not the destination. That's a prime message I took away from last week's InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum. Indeed, the trope that "SOA is a journey" kept popping up in PowerPoints, panel discussions, even in Q&A sessions. ...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Microsoft's legal threats are empty - Partnering with Novell shows that Redmond knows it must play nice with the open source community.
November 13, 2006... The partnership between Microsoft and Novell has raised as many questions as it has provided answers. That's a shame, because some of those questions should have been put to rest long ago. The proposed technical collaboration between the...

SECURITY ADVISER: Password-cracking contest results - Are long, noncomplex passwords harder to crack than short, complex passwords? These results lean toward yes.
November 13, 2006... On July 17, 2006, I challenged password-cracking readers to a contest. I was looking to support my conclusion that longer, less complex passwords provided more protection compared with everyday eight- to 10-character shorter, but more complex...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Sun needs to find some sizzle - Elegant, accessible products -- for consumers and the enterprise -- are needed for Sun to redefine itself.(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Interview)(Column)
November 13, 2006... Last week I attended an interesting dinnertime event at Silicon Valley's Churchill Club. For the sake of full disclosure, I'm on the club's board of directors. The main attraction was Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz, being ably interviewed by New...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: IE7 rejected, YouTube misdirected - Guns don't kill people, browsers kill people.(internet explorer)
November 13, 2006... Microsoft may be gung ho about Internet Explorer 7, but the FBI doesn't share its enthusiasm. Cringester and gun dealer Robert B. got an e-mail from the Feds saying its NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) does not support...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Office Live a smart move - Microsoft finally shows some Web 2.0 innovation with its Web-based app suite.
November 13, 2006... Microsoft was handing out press accounts to Office Live Premium about a week ago, so we're tinkering with it. We'll do the hands-on part somewhere else, but it's worth discussing Microsoft's strategy here. Bottom line: This is the best New...

STORAGE INSIDER: Storage performance still matters - New solutions from NetApp, Panasas may fill midtier and HPC storage's need for speed.(Network Appliance Inc.)
November 13, 2006... Following last week's SNW news feed, I should probably use this week's column to discuss the implications of EMC purchasing Avamar. Well, I won't -- because it wasn't much of a surprise. Deduplication is the only major storage technology...

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Down the virtual rabbit hole - Troubleshooting and getting maximum value from a virtual enterprise are not as simple as you think.(Column)
November 13, 2006... Virtualization is designed to render differences between systems irrelevant, but this is a good-news/bad-news arrangement. The good news is that IT can treat every server as an x86, with all x86 systems being standard. The bad news relates to...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: Web apps, just give me the data - Too many Web apps present data passively, instead of providing real access to it.
November 13, 2006... If you search the Web for "fortune500.xml,?you'll find an ordered list of the Fortune 500 companies. It's just what you'd want if you were writing a custom portfolio application. But it didn't exist until last week when Doug Purdy, a Microsoft...

REALITY CHECK: EuP: The coming regulation storm, Part 2 - One expert warns EuP will require cross-enterprise information transfer, posing a big new IT challenge.(energy using product)(Column)
November 13, 2006... Welcome to Part 2 of last week's installment of Reality Check. The crux of last's week's column is that the E.U.'s EuP (energy using product) initiative will require manufacturers to track the amount of energy used in the creation of a...

OFF THE RECORD: Cash crisis in the frozen north - I had only two choices: Get the ATM back on the network by 5 p.m. -- or die.(Column)
November 13, 2006... By Anonymous One of my most exciting jobs was working as a network engineer in the far Canadian north. It was pretty rough up there! Many of the villages were accessible only by small aircraft, and when your plane landed, the Mounties...

Allegheny County maps data to an array of services - MAYA Designs helps liberate reams of data to create communities around shared information.
November 13, 2006... It takes more than technology to make some tech projects succeed. It requires diplomacy, dedication, perseverance, a willingness to embrace change, and the vision to come up with new ways to solve old problems. When the Allegheny County...

Arizona Cardinals score with advanced analytics - StratBridge gives executives granular player data to aid in contracts, negotiations, and evaluations.
November 13, 2006... It's a pity that this year's edition of the Arizona Cardinals is struggling so mightily in the field, because the organization's IT team is putting together a championship season. Through a combination of teamwork, timing, and bold strategy,...

Arvato mobile bets the server farm on virtualization - Bertelsmann division runs about 600 virtual servers, comprising nearly the entire infrastructure for critical applications.
November 13, 2006... Lots of companies these days are stretching their hardware and energy dollars by consolidating print, file, DNS, and Web servers on virtualization platforms such as VMware. But not many companies boast of running their entire production...

Capital One revitalizes service delivery systems - After more than two years of planning, the moment of truth for 37 sites worldwide.(Capital One Financial Corp.)
November 13, 2006... A decade of rapid growth has a way of making any cutting-edge enterprise feel outdated. But Rob Alexander, executive vice president of Capital One Financial, and his team rose to the challenge. From its humble origins in 1995 as the credit...

IRS eases the taxing job of patch management - Custom solution ensures that intermittent connectivity loss won't wreak havoc.(Internal Revenue Service)
November 13, 2006... Patch management, even on a departmental scale, can be one of the toughest challenges facing IT. Factor in a geographically dispersed enterprise, and the job becomes absolutely daunting. Consider the situation at the Internal Revenue...

Wave of spin-offs puts Keane to the test - Carving up Cendant's assets called for a complete overhaul, from hardware to personnel.
November 13, 2006... Think you have a lot on your plate? Consider Bob Atwell, senior vice president of Keane, the $1 billion IT services provider. Atwell headed the team that split the IT operations of Cendant, an $18 billion travel and hospitality giant whose...

Springhill Medical Center emerges from the paper age - Automated procedures and electronic processes cut some emergency room visits in half.
November 13, 2006... For software developers, a crucial metric of success is the ability of their organization's employees to get solid results from the applications the developers build, a practice known in the industry as "eating one's own dog food." Mark...

Goodwill's Support 2020 widens circle of outreach - What began as an ambitious, in-house intranet-based suite of application goes live as subscription service.(Goodwill Industries)
November 13, 2006... What does it take to run one of the nation's oldest and largest social services agencies? Ask the IT team at Goodwill Industries-Suncoast in St. Petersburg, Fla., and they'll proudly tell you about Support 2020. The name alone suggests a clear...

Nationwide ensures unified view into financials - Project Focus integrated data from 240 source systems into a central repository to better conduct reporting and analysis.(Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.)
November 13, 2006... With 30,000 employees and many semiautonomous divisions across geographic and line-of-business boundaries -- including several acquired but only partially digested business units -- Nationwide Insurance found it increasingly hard for its...

SOA Software connects mainframes to SOA - Services-oriented Legacy Architecture allows for building Web services -- SOAP stack and all -- without middleware.
November 13, 2006... Tough business conditions often give rise to ingenious solutions. That was the case at Merrill Lynch several years ago when the economic boom went bust: An urgent desire to reduce IT overhead spurred a Web services initiative that has saved the...

2006 InfoWorld 100 - Innovation starts with embracing change.
November 13, 2006... It's been said that fortune favors the bold. Many of this year's recipients of InfoWorld's highest honor, those who have made the best use of technology to improve their business, would be inclined to agree. IT managers are using the word...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Computing/Tech.
November 13, 2006... ArcatoMobile www.arvato-mobile.com Virtual Server Infrastructure Project Lead: Lukas Losche, Director of IT Operations Project Description: Runs about 600 virtual servers, both Linux and Windows, comprising nearly the entire...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Distribution/Supply Chain.(Avnet Inc.'s Rebate Management System)(Con-Way Transportation Services, Application Infrastructure Transformation)
November 13, 2006... Avnet www.avnet.com Rebate Management System for SOA Environment Project Lead: Bill Chapman, CTO Project Description: Rebate Management System was conceived as a part of Avnet's enterprisewide SOA. The solution was developed using...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Education.
November 13, 2006... Open Source Lab at Oregon State University www.osuosl.org 24/7 On-Demand Systems and Applications Availability Project Lead: Corey Shields, Infrastructure Manager Project Description: Provides free hosting for the Linux Kernel...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Financial Services.
November 13, 2006... ABN Amro Sevrices (AASC) www.abnamro.com eGain Implementation, Customer Service Initiative Project Lead: Milton Santiago, Vice President, eBanking Project Description: AASC integrated eGain customer interaction system with an array...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Government.
November 13, 2006... Allegheny County Department of Human Services www.county.allegheny.pa.us/dhs Distributed Database of Human Service Programs Project Lead: Marc Cherna, Director Project Description: System aggregates multiple source data into a...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Health Care.
November 13, 2006... Alamance Regional Medical Center (ARMC) www.armc.com Transforming Care With Computerized Physician Order Entry Project Lead: Terri Andrews, R.N. (MBA); Jesse Long, CIO Project Description: Implemented Sunrise Clinical Manager, an...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Insurance.(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... The Phoenix Companies www.phoenixwm.phl.com On-Demand CRM and Application Development Project Lead: John Caine, Director, Technology Strategy, Life Insurance Division Project Description: Integrated Salesforce with legacy systems...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Manufacturing.(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Pitney Bowes www.pitneybowes.com Data Loss Prevention Initiative Project Lead: Trevor Odell, Manager of Security Administration Project Description: To better safeguard customer and corporate data, Pitney Bowes turned to Vontu's...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Media/Multimedia.
November 13, 2006... Industrial Light & Magic www.ilm.com Data Migration and Consolidation Project Lead: Mike Thompson, Senior Systems Engineer Project Description: When ILM began producing Star Wars Episode 3 it looked for a storage system that could...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Pharmaceuticals.
November 13, 2006... McKesson www.mckesson.com RFID Tracking for Pharmaceuticals Project Lead: Paul Fowler,Vice President of E-commerce and Emerging Technologies Project Description: Implemented RFID to track the shipments of certain high- value...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Retail.
November 13, 2006... BoekhandelsGroep Nederland (BGN) www.bgn.nl Item Level RFID Retail System Project Lead: Jan Vink, CIO Project Description: When BGN opened its new Selexyz bookstore on April 25, it dubbed it a "smart store," as it was the first in...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Services.
November 13, 2006... Accenturewww.accenture.com Global ERP Implementation/Business Process Transformation Project Lead: Daniel Kirner, Senior Director, SAP Program Finance Capability Project Description: Accenture completed one of the largest and...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Sports.(Brief article)
November 13, 2006... Arizona Cardinals www.azcardinals.com Fully Integrated IP Voice-Data-Video Network Project Lead: Mark Feller, Technical Director Project Description: Implemented one of the biggest, successful plays in NFL history this year....

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Telecommunications.
November 13, 2006... Bell Mobility www.bell.ca Solution for Direct Marketing Response Rates Project Lead: John Walker, Associate Director of Customer Insights and Analysis Project Description: Bell Mobility chose dfPower Studio from DataFlux, an...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Transportation.
November 13, 2006... BNSF Railway Co. www.bnsf.com Data Consolidation and Business Forecasting Project Lead: Charla Moore, Manager Business Intelligence Project Description: Following a merger, BNSF implemented the OnTrack forecasting and budgeting...

2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards: Unspecified.
November 13, 2006... Corrections Corporation of America www.correctionscorp.com Storage Virtualization Project Lead: Brad Wood, Senior Director of Enterprise Technology Operations Project Description: Storage virtualization project involving 100TB of...

Exclusive: WAN optimization, the Cisco WAE - Cisco unwraps an impressive array of appliances for boosting WAN performance.(wide area networks)(Wide Area Application Engine)
November 13, 2006... As the enterprise becomes more dispersed and applications continue to greedily gobble up precious WAN bandwidth, IT struggles to find ways to coax just a little more performance out of its existing circuits. All of the bandwidth in the world...

Enterprise RSS channels your information streams - Attensa, NewsGator, and KnowNow target feeds to knowledge workers.(Attensa Feed Server 1.1.7)(NewsGator Enterprise Server 1.4.1)(KnowNow 3 Enterprise Syndication Solution 3.1.8)(Product/service evaluation)
November 20, 2006... RSS (really simple syndication) is a favored XML format for individuals to get information from sources such as news sites and blogs. In fact, a recent Pew Internet Foundation survey found nearly one in three individuals consumes RSS feeds. But...

Ripple effect of court cases means new rules for IT - Unless your company's legal division and IT play as a team, everyone stands to lose.
November 20, 2006... If you work for a large corporation -- in any department, not just IT - - you're probably aware of the new FRCP (Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) that go into effect on Dec. 1. The new FRCP outlines the "how, what, and wherefore" of electronic...

H-1B SKIL Bill pits IT workers against IT execs - Need vs. greed best describes the tone of debate.(Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006)
November 20, 2006... The contentious SKIL bill -- or Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Act of 2006 -- is about to set off an old-fashioned donnybrook between immigration supporters and opponents before the lame-duck Congress fades into history. At...

Intel bids for rebound with quad-core chips - Hardware makers jump onboard, despite dearth of software.(Xeon 5300 processor)(Brief article)
November 20, 2006... Can there be too much of a good thing? When it comes to Intel's effort to claw its way out of an earnings hole, the answer is no. Despite a paucity of software that can even use the extra horsepower, the microchip giant last week released its...

Rearden partners with American Express - Out-of-control travel expenses are target of new service.
November 20, 2006... Despite today's draconian efforts to cut company costs, one area typically remains out of control: off-purchase order spending. Rearden Commerce's deal last week with American Express could change that. Two years ago, Rearden Commerce...

Sun surprises with GPL for open source Java - Developers, compatibility eyed in use of GNU.(General Public License)(Sun Microsystems Inc.)(Brief article)
November 20, 2006... With wealthy companies increasingly eyeing the advantages of going open source with their proprietary wares these days, the caveats are multiplying around open source promises. And yet there was Sun Microsystems last week, doing things the...

FedEx Kinko's and our connected future - CIO says move to Web Apps is slow, but vital.(Rob Carter of FedEx Express)(Web 2.0 Summit)(Interview)
November 20, 2006... As the big name CIO keynoting at this year's Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Rob Carter of Federal Express could have been forgiven for doing a deep dive on how his 7,000-person IT team is using AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), mashups,...

OPEN ENTERPRISE: Goodbye Mono, hello Java? Sun's decision to open source the JDK could kill the momentum of Novell's .Net clone.
November 20, 2006... Just when the Mono Project was beginning to gain traction, along comes Sun Microsystems to take the wind from its sails. I can't help but feel it's a mixed blessing. Mono gave Linux developers something they'd never had before. It's a full...

EDITOR'S LETTER: Weighing in on the H-1B debate - The SKIL Bill's proposed increase in foreign IT workers stirs passionate reponse.(Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership Bill)(Editorial)(Brief article)
November 20, 2006... Ephraim Schwartz, InfoWorld's fearless editor at large, has waded into roiling waters once again. I'm talking about his ongoing coverage of the SKIL (Securing Knowledge, Innovation and Leadership) Bill, which would raise the yearly cap on H-1B...

SECURITY ADVISER: MySpace password exploit: Crunching the numbers (and letters) - Analysis of 34,000 real examples backs up theories that it's not hard to guess most end-users' passwords.(Column)
November 20, 2006... I didn't intend to discuss passwords again this week, but a unique opportunity presented itself. A major phishing attack occurred at MySpace, and I got over 34,000 real passwords to analyze for character frequency. The phishing attack...

NOTES FROM THE FIELD: Gates wants to play host, AOL may soon be toast - Just in time for Thanksgiving, Microsoft serves up a turkey.(Bill Gates bidding for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts)(Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0)(PamelaPoker.com closed its service)
November 20, 2006... Bill Gates may soon be joining Leona Helmsley and Donald Trump among the world's elite hoteliers. Sir Bill's investment group is part of a consortium bidding to take over the Four Seasons Hotel chain. One can only imagine what may happen if the...

FROM THE ANALYSTS: Will IT certifications pay off in the long run? Study suggests their relevance and cash value may be in decline.(Foote Partners)(Editorial)
November 20, 2006... A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the U.S. is losing momentum in IT certifications growth, compared with emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, India, and Latin America. Now comes a report from researchers at Foote Partners that average...

ENTERPRISE WINDOWS: Forefront client security out and about - Third- party anti-virus vendors are peeved at Vista -- and it's not about the OS's architecture.
November 20, 2006... It's good to hear people laugh. Like when I asked the InfoWorld editors if I could go to Barcelona to attend the Microsoft IT Forum that's going on there right now. At first, it felt good to give them some stress relief, but then they just kept...

STORAGE INSIDER: Girding up for storage grids? Storage grids are intriguing, but SNIA and vendors must clarify the technology's boundaries.(Vincent Franceschini of Storage Networking Industry Association)
November 20, 2006... It went by rather quietly during the vendors' announcement fracas, but the recent changing of the guard at the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) means the group has a new board of directors and a new Chairman, Vincent Franceschini....

AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Virtualization and security - There are unique theoretical risks associated with a virtual enterprise that merit consideration.(VMware Virtual Center)
November 20, 2006... It's a pity that discussions on the subject of security vulnerabilities associated with virtual servers tend to focus on Windows: If a virtual machine is running as a guest on a Windows host, an exploit on the guest VM can climb up to the...

STRATEGIC DEVELOPER: XQuery and the power of learning by example - XQuery owes some of its success to its excellent use-case documentation for developers.
November 20, 2006... If you set out to explore XQuery, the XML query language, you'll soon encounter a collection of examples, or use-cases, that show how XQuery can query and transform XML data. These scenarios are elaborated in a W3C document that presents a...

OFF THE RECORD: How I became the IT boss by accident - The last thing I wanted was a coup d'etat. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
November 20, 2006... By Anonymous Back in the mid-'80s, I was the No. 2 guy in a small tech-support and implementation group, working out of the headquarters of a company with offices spread across the country. Mainframes still ruled back then, and...

REALITY CHECK: Microsoft and Cisco file friends-of-the-court brief - When it comes to patent infringement, a friend of the court may not be a friend of yours.(Cisco Systems Inc.)
November 20, 2006... Who would have thought that a fight over a patent on an adjustable gas pedal could result in a shake-up to the entire software industry? But such is the case -- pardon the pun -- as the Supreme Court readies to hear oral arguments in KSR...

Consolidate, outsource, or both? The question isn't "consolidate or outsource," it's how to integrate the two.
November 20, 2006... Datacenter consolidation is the mega-solution for bringing IT costs, man-agement, and disaster recovery under control, but depending on a company's goals and size, outsourcing can also play a useful complementary role. "Outsourcing should...