Computer Weekly articles from August 2008

Computer Weekly archives from August 2008

News.
August 5, 2008... This week we feature two stories that show how ICT intersects with national legal systems to produce very novel scenarios of crime and punishment. A Dutch judge has given a team of security researchers from Radboud University the go-ahead...

News.(Royal Mail Group PLC)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Royal Mail has cut e-mail enquiries to its corporate and consumer websites by half using neural network-based technology to deliver better online answers to its 4.5 million monthly visitors. The system, 'Ask Sarah', uses software from...

News.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Ribbit Corporation)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Software developers who need to integrate voice with web applications might welcome BT's [pounds sterling]52.5m acquisition of Ribbit Corporation, a Silicon Valley developer of software tools. BT will add Ribbit's platform to its 21st...

News.
August 5, 2008... Self-confessed hacker Gary McKinnon lost his six-year battle to avoid standing trial in the US for hacking into military databases when the Law Lords rejected his appeal against extradition to the US. US prosecutors allege that McKinnon...

News.(Interview)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... "I feel let down by my country," said the man accused of the biggest military hack in history, Gary McKinnon. Hear the full interview with McKinnon on the podcast. The self-confessed hacker today lost his appeal in Britain's highest...

News.(British Telecommunications PLC)(Office of Communications)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Ofcom is to investigate complaints from network resellers Thus and Gamma Telecom that BT is trying to squeeze them out of the wholesale market in end-to-end voice calls. Thus and Gamma, supported by Cable & Wireless, allege that BT's...

News.(Siemens AG)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Siemens is claiming damages from 11 former executives for alleged breaches of their organisational and supervisory duties. The move is a sequel to fines imposed by a Munich court that found the company had maintained illegal business...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... The way people use communications will be under the sharpest-ever scrutiny after a programme was launched to track European consumers' network habits. TNS Comtech, the high-tech arm of consumer market researcher TNS, has sold a syndicated...

News.(Thales S.A.)(Identity and Passport Service)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... French defence systems engineering firm Thales has won the first contract for the UK's National Identity Scheme. Under the terms of the deal - signed today - Thales will work with the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) to design, build,...

News.(ContactPoint)(Barnardo's)
August 5, 2008... UK children's charity Barnardo's has upgraded the identity management capability of its IT systems to link directly to ContactPoint, the government's planned database of all children in England. Barnardo's will be one of the first...

Opinion and Letters.
August 5, 2008... Many readers will already be aware that, because A,BCD is a square number, D cannot be 2, 3, 7 or 8. However, there is also the little-known rule that a square can only have a digital root of 1, 4, 7 or 9. All this, together with the...

Opinion and Letters.
August 5, 2008... Four different digits are represented by four letters of the alphabet: AB+CD=aA,BCD which can be written as: (AB+CD)2=A,BCD has a unique solution. This week's problem is to find it. Note that neither A nor C can be zero. ...

News.
August 5, 2008... Ten things you need to know about the IT skills crisis 1. IT skills shortage in evidence across all parts of the IT industry Different parts of the IT industry have at some point over the last few years experienced difficulties in...

Business & Technology.
August 5, 2008... IT often underpins any business drive to improve efficiency, and the Nottingham Building Society has found that simplifying IT makes a big difference. With more than 30 branches and 500 employees, the Nottingham faced the challenge of...

Business & Technology.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)
August 5, 2008... You don't need a gun to rob a bank any more. Now a bank robber's most powerful weapon is a computer and an internet connection. As internet trading increases, so does the threat of organised and automated fraud. No longer does the fraudster...

Business & Technology.
August 5, 2008... IT will be a key factor in the ability of manufacturing companies to cope with a downturn by enabling them to cut costs, build longer and more complex supply chains and respond faster to changing demand. Technology already underpins the...

News.(Birmingham City Council)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Birmingham City Council's system for paying invoices is back on track, the authority's cabinet will be told today (Monday). A report to the council's cabinet will say 94% of its bills were paid on time in May - "the best figure recorded in...

Career Moves.(Nokia Corp.)(Symbian Ltd.)
August 5, 2008... What is it? According to figures from industry analyst Canalys, the Symbian operating system had 65% of the "converged device" market - smartphones and wireless handhelds - in 2007. This still isn't an enormous market. According to the...

Career Moves.(GTK+)
August 5, 2008... What is it? GTK+ is a widely-used cross-platform toolkit for building graphical user interfaces and for rapid application development. GTK is open source and freely downloadable, and available for the development of free and commercial...

Special Report.(Microsoft Ltd.)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... In this series of articles Microsoft UK offers directors of small-to-medium businesses advice and guidance on managing IT to boost business efficiency and effectiveness. CRM: happy customers = profitable customers >> Minimise the risk...

Networks.
August 5, 2008... Your employer - a legal company - is working on a large case, involving several different regional offices. The client's chief counsel has sprung a surprise visit on you, and she's arriving from New York tomorrow. Your legal team has to collect...

Networks.
August 5, 2008... Broadband connectivity was supposed to be a revolution in digital communications. In the late 1990s, businesses that wanted high-speed internet access had to invest in expensive leased lines. Smaller firms made do with ISDN, or continued to...

News.(mobileme service)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Apple's recently launched MobileMe service has highlighted some of the problems which have increasingly been associated with web 2.0 applications. Some iPhone users who signed up for a free trial of the online e-mail, address book and...

News.
August 5, 2008... One in four people spend more time emailing or on mobile phones than talking face to face, according to a report from market researcher Ipsos Mori, sponsored by BT. The 21st Century Life Index report reveals changes in British social and...

News.(George Best Belfast City Airport)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... George Best Belfast City Airport has upgraded its internet access so it can carry real-time flight information on its website. The airport has installed a 2Mbyte managed internet link supplied by ntl:Telewest Business. The upgrade...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... San Francisco prosecutors put the computer security of the city authority at risk by making public nearly 150 usernames and passwords. The San Francisco District Attorney's Office filed the usernames and passwords as a court exhibit while...

News.(United Kingdom. Foreign and Commonwealth Office)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) lost the details of 188 people this year, in five separate incidents. Its annual resource accounts show 70 people's names, addresses, dates of birth and family details were lost from an...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... The traditional image of IT departments working away in isolated basements will have change, according to research in six different business sectors. IFF Research found that IT workers are now typically creative, world-aware, and...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Olympics 1: The IT team at the Beijing Olympics are finishing last minute preparations with just a week to go until the opening ceremony. The Technology Operations Centre - the IT hub of the Games - is already staffed 24 hours a day, with 4,000...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... More than half UK companies with a unified communications strategy say improved internal communication is the top business benefit, according to a survey by IT supplier Dimension Data. Unified communications enables users to communicate...

News.(Alfresco)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Alfresco has developed the first open-source enterprise content management (ECM) suite that is compatible with Microsoft SharePoint. It has released a beta version of Alfresco Labs 3, which the company claims is an open-source alternative...

News.
August 5, 2008... Trading Standards officers in Cardiff will begin random searches of businesses later this year in an attempt to stamp out the illegal use of software. They will be the first to use new government powers , to enforce software copyright....

News.
August 5, 2008... The recent court victory by Dutch academics, which allows them to publish how to crack the security used on London's Oyster travel card, could create significant unanticipated cost to businesses using the technology. The Oyster card uses...

News.
August 5, 2008... The next three years will see banks change online banking for small businesses through the use of Web 2.0 technologies, but technology, security and financial challenges will slow the transformation. According to research from consultancy...

News.(appointment of Peter Barron in Google Inc.)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Google has hired the editor of BBC2's Newsnight as its public relations chief. Peter Barron is joining Google as head of communications and public affairs for the UK, Ireland and Benelux regions. Barron, who will report to DJ Collins,...

News.(Patientline)
August 5, 2008... Administrators have been called in to the controversial group that supplied NHS bedside telephones and other services. Patientline, which had attracted severe criticism for charging a premium rate of 49p a minute on incoming calls, went...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Businesses are paying too little attention to securing their SAP systems, a security expert has warned. In a presentation at the Black Hat 2008 security conference in Las Vegas later this week, security researcher Mariano NuA[+ or -]ez Di...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Every police force in England and Wales will publish interactive crime maps online by the end of the year, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced. "By rolling out up-to-date, interactive crime maps, we can better inform people about...

News.(Cuil)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Google faces a challenge from a Silicon Valley start-up that claims to have launched the internet's biggest search engine. Cuil, pronounced "cool", reckons its search index is three times larger than Google's. Cuil, which is the Gaelic...

News.(DataSynapse Inc.)(VMware Inc.)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Application service management software provider DataSynapse is integrating its FabricServer management tool with VMware VirtualCenter. The integration will enable IT managers to provision, monitor and manage their virtual datacentres...

News.(BAE Systems PLC)(Detica PLC)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Software supplier Detica has agreed to a takeover by BAE Systems for more than [pounds sterling]500m. The Guildford-based group generates around two-thirds of its revenues from national security, with the rest coming from telecoms and...

News.(Google Inc.)(Digg)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Google has reportedly pulled out of talks to buy news-aggregator website Digg. The two companies were thought to be close to agreeing a [pounds sterling]100.6m deal for Digg, which would have been included in Google's news service. ...

News.(Egg)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... A customer-focused IT system, based on a service oriented architecture, has been key to the success of internet-only bank Egg. Egg, now owned by Citigroup UK, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has developed its own banking...

News.(computer vision syndrome )(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Computer users who get headaches, eye strain, dry eyes and difficulty focusing could be suffering from a form of repetitive strain injury of the eyes called Computer Vision Syndrome (CVS). David Summers an optometrist at Melina Joy...

News.(Association of Payment and Clearing Services)(KPMG)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Large-scale fraud committed against banks rose sharply in the first half of the year. KPMG's Forensic Fraud Barometer, which looks at data from court cases, revaled more than [pounds sterling]630m of alleged fraud in the past six months....

News.(national programme for IT)
August 5, 2008... The termination of Fujitsu's contract on the [pounds sterling]12.7bn NHS IT scheme is a sign of the programme's strength, says a government minister. But assurances to Parliament contrast with new uncertainties at NHS trusts. The...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Graduates looking for work in technology should not ask about salary during their job interviews, a recruitment website has warned. Although the advice that graduates should avoid asking about salary may surprise some, other guidelines...

News.(British Phonographic Industry)
August 5, 2008... The Green party has condemned a deal struck by six UK internet service providers with the record industry to clamp down on illegal file sharing. The party has warned that "draconian measures" in the government-brokered deal threaten...

News.
August 5, 2008... The government's target to make its IT estate carbon neutral from the cradle to the grave is a positive step, but businesses are leading the way in reducing carbon emissions through IT innovation. The Greening Government IT strategy,...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... US prosecutors have won their battle before law lords to extradite British computer "super-hacker" Gary McKinnon for breaking into the Pentagon network. The law lords made their ruling today after a six-year fight to force McKinnon to...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Businesses could face prohibitive costs arising from software failures as firms cut staff because of the economic slowdown. In a white paper from IDC, analyst Melinda-Carol Ballou said companies are taking risks because there are fewer...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... IBM is planning to boost its business process management expertise with the proposed acquisition of Ilog, a specialist in rules-based software. IBM said the acquisition would provide users of its business process management and...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Using gut feelings to influence decisions could improve IT directors' standing with board-level executives, says Robina Chatham, a consultant and lecturer at Cranfield School of Management. Speaking to Computer Weekly, Chatham said, "IT is...

News.
August 5, 2008... Lawyers acting for British computer hacker Gary McKinnon are planning to delay his extradition to America despite a ruling by the Law Lords today. Five Law Lords unanimously ruled this morning that a US extradition order should stand. But...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Nortel will provide BT with routers, switches and networking equipment required to build and support the network and communications infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympics. Nortel will be responsible for providing BT with the equipment...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Small online businesses not responsible for fraud? A massive 99% of small online businesses believe they are not responsible for fraud on their websites. And 87% do not expect fraud-related complaints to reduce over the next year. ...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Oracle is working to develop a patch for a major security hole in its WebLogic product that could allow anyone to gain access to affected IT systems. It has recommended that users deploy a workaround in the meantime to protect systems, while it...

News.(SAP AG)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... SAP will offer existing users a reprieve on the controversial software maintenance increase it plans to introduce at the end of the year. SAP has announced a software support contract called Enterprise Support, which replaces its existing...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... The global love affair with text messaging shows no sign of cooling off, with a 30% annual increase in the number of mobile phone messages being sent, new figures show. Some 212,616,000 SMS text messages are being sent every day, according...

News.(Trinity Mirror Newspapers)(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Publisher Trinity Mirror group has migrated to blade servers following the upgrade of its publishing infrastructure for three newspapers. The company has just replaced the publishing system for the Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and the...

News.(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... Hackers will use more sophisticated ways of targeting websites with good reputations, according to the latest internet security report from Websense. In the first six months of 2008, 75% of legitimate websites were compromised, an increase...

News.(World Wildlife Fund)(Brief article)
August 5, 2008... The World Wildlife Fund is expecting to reduce its energy consumption by 40% and lower the cost of its UK website by up to 40% using a hosted IT service from Carrenza, Carrenza's Utility Computing Service (UCS) provides dedicated servers to...

Opinion and Letters.(Column)
August 5, 2008... We live or die professionally by our contacts, brand and knowledge. If you need to find work tomorrow, how many people can you reach - how many would help? With holidays coming up and some free time on your hands, here are some useful...

Opinion and Letters.(Column)
August 5, 2008... We live or die professionally by our contacts, brand and knowledge. If you need to find work tomorrow, how many people can you reach - how many would help? With holidays coming up and some free time on your hands, here are some useful...

Radar.
August 5, 2008... The word "quantum" can conjure images of scientists working on technology that will one day allow time travel, or, at the very least, permit travel to alternate realities. Although such developments may currently be confined to an episode...

News.(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... 3- Are you a pointless, competitive, old school, hasty, sneaky or pedestal printer? These are the groupings of people that waste paper by printing unnecessarily, according to one government funded agency. These people all have different...

News.
August 12, 2008... The internet industry is unprepared for the fundamental change in how it sends messages that will happen on New Year's Day 2009. From the new year, the internet will use four-byte addresses (so-called 32-bit addresses), which means it can...

News.(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... Wi-Fi networks can be persuaded to lock out their legitimate users by an "autoimmune disorder" attack, researchers at the Defcon-16 security conference will show this week. Researchers from Airtight Networks will unveil how they compromised...

News.(Global Secure Systems)(Citrix Systems Inc.)
August 12, 2008... Global Secure Systems (GSS) penetration testers have found a spreadsheet that held the domain admin passwords for every server at a financial services company, plus quotations, methodologies, terms of business and reports from a number of the...

News.(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... Downtime Sexy technology feels the earth move Geeks and nerds are not exactly renowned for their ability to make the earth move, but some are at least using their laptops to measure earthy movements. The BBC reported this week...

News.(Microsoft Corp.)
August 12, 2008... Microsoft is enlisting the entire computer industry in an early-warning scheme to fight hackers who wait for its monthly security patches before releasing exploit code. At the Black Hat conference today, Microsoft unveiled two initiatives....

News.(BAE Systems Plc)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... BAE Systems has developed a three-dimensional radar system that can track a target the size of a snooker ball from a range of more than 20km. The navy will fit the new Artisan system to its two new aircraft carriers as well as Type23...

News.(United States. Secret Service)
August 12, 2008... US prosecutors last week charged 11 men from five countries with what US Attorney General Michael Mukasey called the "single largest and most complex identity theft case" ever brought in the US, revealing what businesses trying to protect...

News.(TJX Companies Inc.)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... US prosecutors yesterday charged 11 people on three continents with the theft last year of 45 million identities from credit and debit card deal with nine US retailers, including TJX. The identity theft is the biggest ever reported. ...

News.
August 12, 2008... A suitable algebraic method for solving the pyramid is to call the left-hand box, second row down, 223-x and the righthand box will be x. The third row will read, left to right, 223-x-60, 60 (as given) and x-60. Moving downwards, the...

News.
August 12, 2008... In this diagram, contributed by Chelmsford reader Ivor Smith, the original pyramid has been built up by adding together the two integers in each pair of adjacent boxes to provide the total immediately above the pair. However, to make an...

Features.
August 12, 2008... All eyes may be on the athletes at Beijing's Olympic Games, but the performance of the IT systems running the event play a critical part in ensuring its success. Despite 200,000 hours of testing and years of preparation, Jeremy Hore, Atos...

News.(British Broadcasting Corp.)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... The BBC has confirmed the theft of one laptop and several memory sticks containing child data. The equipment was stolen about a month ago from a van belonging to an independent production company, called Objective Productions, working for...

News.(appointment of Christine Connelly in United Kingdom. Department of Health)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... The Department of Health has appointed Christine Connelly, a former chief information officer at Cadbury Schweppes, as the first CIO for Health, in a job expected to carry a salary of at least [pounds sterling]200,000. The NHS's [pounds...

News.(search engine optimisation)
August 12, 2008... Businesses must implement internet usage policies to avoid leaving themselves vulnerable to search engine optimisation (SEO) attacks during the Olympics Television companies will for the first time be able to take advantage of high speed...

News.(Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd.)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... HSBC can now reduce the cost of using different bespoke software systems in different parts of the world through a technology package. The bank stressed the importance of linking up technology and processes across the banks businesses as it...

News.(Fender Musical Instruments)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... Guitar manufacturer Fender Musical Instruments Europe is strengthening its business continuity to support its European expansion. The company, which is headquartered in London, provides the applications for the entire European business...

News.(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... A*study by University College, London, has found that patients are not being offered a*choice in appointment times, dates and locations despite the advent of a "Choose and Book" system under the NHS's National Programme for IT [NPfIT]. ...

News.(appointment of Ben Verwaayen)(Brief article)
August 12, 2008... Former BT boss Ben Verwaayen has rebuffed an approach from telecoms company Alcatel-Lucent, which last month ousted its chief executive and chairman, according to the Wall Street Journal. The ex-BT Group chief executive was approached after...