Computer Weekly articles from February 2009

Computer Weekly archives from February 2009

Networks.(broadband networking )
February 3, 2009... Consumer complacency in the face of Britain's deteriorating competitive position in broadband networking may affect government and network operators' plans to roll out high-speed broadband networks in future. British consumers are happy to...

News.(briefs)
February 3, 2009... Down the tubes The rapidly exploding, or should that be imploding, blogosphere has plenty to satisfy even the worst case of blogomania including those with a trainspotting varient of the condition. For these select few, there is now a blog...

News.(Digital Britain)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The government set out 22 recommendations to create Digital Britain. Speaking in Parliament, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham set out Lord Carter's key recommendations for: aCcents A 2mbps universal service obligation on network...

News.(Digital Britain)
February 3, 2009... Businesses and network operators reacted cautiously toLord Carter's interim review on Digital Britain, the government's plan to give every household a 2Mbps broadband connection by 2012. In the plan, the government has promised to create...

News.(Digital Britain)
February 3, 2009... The government has confirmed it will leave the investment needed fornext generation broadband to the market. The strategy emerged inLord Carter's interim review ofDigital Britain. The review, published today,contained 22 action points...

News.(Digital Britain)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Communications minister Lord Carter will release his interim report into Digital Britain at lunchtime today. The report will give the clearest indication yet of government's plans to reshape the UK's [pounds sterling]50bn communications...

News.(.Tel)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Companies that want to register their contact details on the .Tel internet domain, a specialist domain just for such information, have just six weeks left before it is open season, says Hostway, one of the 104 firms handling registrations. ...

News.(digital networks)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Digital networks are "as essential to our future prosperity in the 21st century as roads, bridges, trains and electricity were in the 20th century," said prime minister Gordon Brown at the Local Government Network annual conference this...

News.(health systems)
February 3, 2009... Today's report of the Public Accounts Committee on the [pounds sterling]12.7bn National Programme for IT, the world's largest civilian computer scheme, says it is not yet providing value for money - though the project has existed for nearly...

News.(National Programme for IT)
February 3, 2009... Seven years after the launch of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, essential technology does not meet the needs of doctors, local cost estimates are unreliable, many NHS staff remain unenthusiastic, and the programme's future is far from...

News.(Barts and the London NHS Trust)
February 3, 2009... Barts and the London NHS Trust has apologised to 442 patients who were not seen within maximum government waiting limits because of inadequate management systems. The patients waited an average of six weeks longer than the 13-week waiting...

News.(United Kingdom. Army)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Members of the British Army's 14 Signal Regiment can now get the same broadband services in their home barracks in West Wales as they are used to in Iraq and Afghanistan. The regiment, which specialises in electronic warfare, is using a...

News.(antivirus software)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... It can cost nothing to protect personal computers against virus, spam, spyware and other malware, says consumer activist group Which?. Its latest magazine explores the best PC security freeware against commercial products. It found most do...

News.(Zurich Financial Services)
February 3, 2009... Zurich Financial Services, the $56bn global insurance firm, now knows exactly how much it will pay to process each of the 400,000 documents a day it receives for the next 10 years. This is the result of an innovative deal it has struck with...

News.(spread of the Mytob computer virus at Barts and The London NHS Trust)
February 3, 2009... The spread of the Mytob computer virus at three hospitals run by Barts and The London NHS Trust was entirely avoidable and caused by a substantive failure of internal processes, Computer Weekly has learned. The virus took hold in Windows...

News.(trusting supplier account)
February 3, 2009... After the Satyam fraud and BT's [pounds sterling]340m write-off, can users trust supplier accounts? BT's announcement of a [pounds sterling]340m write-off and the possibility of more to come, raises questions about how much users can trust...

News.(data security breaches)
February 3, 2009... The economic downturn means businesses are most vulnerable to serious data security breaches at a time they can afford it least, according to a report by security firm McAfee. The study of the security of information economies warns that...

News.(Michele Heyron, chief integrator for the London 2012 Olympics)
February 3, 2009... Michele Heyron has quite a job on her hands. The chief integrator for the London 2012 Olympics is leading the team with responsibility for the event's technology, and as such is embarking on one of the world's biggest IT projects. The...

Business & technology.(Environmental Protection Agency)
February 3, 2009... Many people are familiar with the Energy Star rating system used to indicate the energy efficiency of monitors, PCs and consumer appliances. Energy Star qualification Early days Useful links But from this year the US rating...

Business & technology.(European Commission's Code of Conduct )
February 3, 2009... The European Commission's Code of Conduct on Data Centres' Energy Efficiency comprises a series of voluntary, light-touch measures, expected to form the basis of more stringent legislation in the future, laying out a set of minimum standards...

Business & technology.(Google Inc.'s green investment)
February 3, 2009... Google has an impressive record when it comes to green investment, but could the IT giant do more? Last month reports surfaced that two searches on Google consumes the same amount of electricity as making a cup of tea. Yet, one glance...

Business & technology.(Arne Josefsberg, general manager of infrastructure services at Global Foundation Services)
February 3, 2009... Arne Josefsberg, general manager of infrastructure services at Global Foundation Services, Microsoft, says it is vital to monitor the average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) across all the company's datacentres to understand how well datacentre...

Business & technology.(environment friendly printers)
February 3, 2009... Printers gets a rough ride when it comes to making business processes more environmentally friendly. It is not the most wasteful area, but it is the most conspicuous. IDC estimates that 60 trillion pages a year are printed worldwide and that...

Business & technology.(green initiatives in IT industry)
February 3, 2009... Green has been a buzzword for a couple of years and the IT industry has had a chance to evolve its green credentials. So how are IT companies doing, and how easy is it to develop a scorecard to evaluate their environmental efforts? ...

News.(global internet audience)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The global internet audience has now surpassed one billion visitors, according to web measurement firm comScore. The one billion figure covers those 15 and older viewing the web from home and work computers. The Asia-Pacific region...

News.(Time Warner Inc. to cut 700 jobs at its AOL web portal)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Time Warner is cutting another 700 jobs at its AOL web portal subsidiary in response to a downturn in advertising revenue. Time Warner has been touting the AOL advertising business to both Yahoo and Microsoft. The reduced headcount at...

News.(software companies to worry about sales growth)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... UK tech firms are more worried about sales growth than the credit crunch, says accountant and consultant BDO Stoy Hayward. A BDO survey of the UK's fastest-growing privately held technology companies has revealed that 40% felt that...

News.(Google Inc. to patch latest version of Chrome)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Google has patched the latest versions of Chrome to make the browser work better with Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Mail. Mark Larson, Google Chrome program manager, said in a blog posting that both webmail services were now working with...

News.(Cisco Inc. and Dell Inc. to collaborate with eachother)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Cisco and Dell are collaborating to deliver next-generation IT systems in the data centre for firms. The datacentre systems on offer pool storage, computing and networking infrastructure resources to more rapidly support business...

News.(Logica PLC to contract with Foreign and Commonwealth Office)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has selected Logica to support its Emergency Travel Document system. IT services firm Logica, along with partners De La Rue and WorldReach Software, will deliver the BRIDGE (British Identity Document...

News.(Google Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Google has delayed a stock option exchange plan aimed at creating incentives for employees to remain at the company. The company announced the plan last week with fourth quarter financial results because many of the current stock options...

News.(data security in UK organizations)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is marking European Data Protection Day today with a campaign aimed at getting UK organisations to commit to better protection of personal data. Businesses, charities and public sector bodies...

News.(Microsoft Corp. to release Internet Explorer 8)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1 available for download. The new browser can be used from Windows XP Service Pack 2 to Windows Vista. A version of the browser is also being developed for the forthcoming Windows 7....

News.(Dutch bank ING to cut 7000 jobs )(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Dutch bank ING is planning to cut 7000 jobs as it attempts to save [euro]1bn. But IT staff will not be as hard hit as those at other banks because of the company's advanced use of IT shared services. A spokesman at ING said the cuts...

News.(UK software industry to grow)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The UK high-tech market is showing resilience despite the economic crisis, with IT-revenues set to grow 1.3% this year, according to European market research organisation EITO. EITO said software and IT services were continuing to drive...

News.(Federal National Mortgage Association accused of hiding malware on the network)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... A former software engineer at troubled mortgage firm Fannie Mae has been accused of hiding malware on the company's network which could have caused millions of dollars of damage. According to court documents,the malicious scriptwould have...

News.(Fujitsu Services and Lockheed Martin to bid to win the Ministry of Defense's Future Logistic Information Services Program)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... A consortium headed by Fujitsu Services, and comprising Lockheed Martin UK and LSC Group, is bidding to win the Ministry of Defence's Future Logistic Information Services programme (FLIS) contract. The Future Logistic Information Services...

News.(Department of Defense to ban portable device in US)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... A New Zealand man has found personal details of US soldiers on an MP3 player he bought second-hand in Oklahoma. About60 files on the MP3 playercontained lists of soldiers based in Afghanistan, the names of some who have fought in Iraq and...

News.(Monster Worldwide Inc. to face legal action)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Online recruitment site Monster.com could face legal action from 4.5m UK job seekers after hackers stole personal details from users around the world. Monster this week admitted that its database had been compromised and names, passwords,...

News.(NEC Corp. to cut 20,000 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... NEC plans to cut 20,000 jobs worldwide as a result of the global downturn, it said today. The company said it is possible some jobs will go in the UK. A spokesman for the company said 40% of the jobs are likely to go in Japan, with the...

News.(Subramani Gopala Krishnan and Talluri Srinivas of PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P. to be involved in accounting fraud)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Two workers at Indian unit of accountancy firm Price Waterhousehave allegedly admitted to being involved in the $1bn accounting fraud at IT service provider Satyam. According to a report in the Financial Times, Subramani Gopala Krishnan...

News.(SAP AG to cut 3000 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The mixed results from SAP, and poor outlook for 2009 has prompted the enterprise resource planning (ERP) company to cut 3000 jobs and freeze salaries. The workforce will be cut to 48,500 by the end of 2009, from 51,536 staff, resulting in...

News.(STMicroelectronics N.V. to cut 4,500 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... European chipmaker STMicroelectronics is to cut up to 4,500 jobs around the world as part of a cost cutting plan to save over [pounds sterling]490m in 2009. The planned cuts were announced by Carlo Bozotti along with 2008 fourth quarter...

News.(Texas Instruments Inc. to axe 3,400 staff)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Texas Instruments is axing 3,400 staff after posting an annual 30% decrease in sales and a 95% fall in operating profits for its fourth quarter. "TI is making reductions in employment because demand has continued to weaken with the slowing...

News.(London Underground Ltd. and Transport for London to cut 1,000 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... London Underground and Transport for London (TfL) are shedding more than 1,000 back-office jobs, some of which will be IT jobs. A consultation has begun on plans to reduce London Underground's workforce by 1,000, and Transport for London...

News.(Carol Bartz, CEO of Yahoo! Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Yahoo's new CEO says the search portal will be better served by being kept whole rather than sold off in chunks to appease shareholders. After reporting a fourth-quarter loss, Carol Bartz said, "This is a fantastic internet property, and...

News.(AA Communications Services Inc. to extend contract with O2 Ltd.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The AA has extended a mobile services contract with O2 until 2013. The contract covers all mobile services for the AA's employees, including voice, data and Blackberry smartphone connections. In addition, the new deal will see O2...

News.(drinking during work)(Survey)
February 3, 2009... More than half of workers get drunk at work, and a third look at porn during work time. Drunken staff are causing problems for employees through inappropriate use of technology. Research, from e-mail security firm Proofpoint, said that 56%...

News.(Amazon.com Inc.'s profit to rise for fourth quarter)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Amazon has reported its "best ever" Christmas period and a 9% year-on-year rise in profits for the fourth quarter. Its results showed net income, or profit, was $225m in quarter 4 of 2008, compared to $207m in quarter 4 2007. Full year...

News.(AstraZeneca PLC to cut 6,000 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is cutting a further 6,000 jobs, taking the total planned job losses to 15,000 by 2013. The cost cutting programme includes outsourcing IT and cutting back on business support. This will see a further...

News.(British Airways PLC to launch mobile service)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... British Airways plans to launch text and mobile services for customers on its new all business class route from London City Airport to New York JFK later this year. It means customers will be able to stay in touch via their own mobile...

News.(J. Barbour and Sons Ltd. to use ERP system from Lawson Software)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Clothing firm J Barbour & Sons is deploying a new ERP and supply chain system from Lawson Software to improve its operations. Barbour is implementing Lawson Quickstep Fashion, which runs on an IBM System i platform. It will help the company...

News.(Intel Corp. chairman Craig Barrett to retire)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Intel chairman Craig Barrett will retire in May at the company's annual shareholders' meeting. Craig Barrett joined Intel in 1974 and has served in many capacities, including CEO from 1998 to 2005. He handed the CEO job to Paul Otellini....

News.(survey on work environment in IT industry)(Survey)
February 3, 2009... The shortlist has been drawn up for Computer Weekly's sixth annual Best Places to Work in IT competition. Congratulations are due to those teams who made it on to the shortlist, beating plenty of good companies to the top spots. ...

News.(data loss)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... A computer data disk containing the personal and financial details of around 2,000 members of the British Council has been lost. The data lost includes names, national insurance numbers and salary and bank account details of the Council's...

News.(UK broadband consumers to pay more)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... UK broadband consumers could have to pay more if the government acts on proposals to set up a copyright protection agency. Communications minister Lord Carterhas proposed a 'rights agency' to co-ordinate the fight against online copyright...

News.(broadband)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Industry commentators have said the Carter Review represents a step in the right direction for Digital Britain, but broadband speeds may not be enough to support the government's grand vision. Becta chief executive Stephen Crowne, said,...

News.(internet service providers)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The report sets out a plan to introduce legislation requiringISPs to notify alleged infringers ofdigital content copyright that their conduct is unlawful. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security firm Sophos said the...

News.(Citrix Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Citrix is axing around 10% of its staff in response to falling profits. Citrix says the headcount reduction will result in annual pre-tax savings of around $50m. It expects to incur a pre-tax charge of up to $23m on the cost of the...

News.(customer relationship management)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... More than three quarters of European customer relationship management (CRM) users are planning to enhance their investments this year despite the recession, says analyst Gartner. These projects will focus on improving customer retention and...

News.(Information Technology)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The IT department will not disappear by 2013 after all, but actually two years earlier because of the recession, says the head of software as a service (SaaS) supplier Nasstar, who predicted the IT department's demise. The recession will...

News.(Dell Inc. to axe 2,000 staff)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Dell's decision to axe almost 2,000 staff in Ireland will prove costly when the company announces its fourth quarter results next month, and more job cuts could follow. The company expects to take a $135m charge on the redundancies and a...

News.(broadband to be delivered 2mbps broadband by 2012)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... [pix of Russ in pix for journos] The government will ensure that 2mbps broadband is delivered to every home in Britain by 2012, communications minister Lord Carter confirmed today. The pledge is one of 22 recommendations in the...

News.(growth of digital economy)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Access to the latest technology has an important role in supporting people through the economic downturn, says minister for Digital Inclusion Paul Murphy. Murphy was speaking after the government published its interim report on "Digital...

News.(murder case)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... A teenager murdered a man just hours after posting on his Facebook page "I feel like killin some1". Leon Crain Ramsden, 19, wrote on his Facebook wall on the evening of July 12 last year, "I'm twisted at home. My head's up my a***. I feel...

News.
February 3, 2009... London's first centre for financial computing could be just what the UK's financial services industry needs after the turmoil of the past year. The UK Doctoral Training Centre in Financial Computing, based at University College London...

News.(government funding IT workers)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The government and major banks are backing an IT training centre that will produce up to 20 PhD students specialised in financial services computing. But the current economic turbulence could leave graduates without jobs to go to. The...

News.(Google Inc. to offer offline Gmail system)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Google is now offering its offline Gmail system to enable email users to carry on working on their webmail even when they don't have an internet connection. Google said, "Once you turn on this feature, Gmail uses Gears technology to...

News.(Heartland Payment Systems Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The head of Heartland Payment Systems, which washit by a massive data breach last year, has called for industry collaboration to combat cyber-crime attacks. Cyber-criminals gained access to potentially millions of credit card transaction...

News.(cloud computing)
February 3, 2009... Cloud computing is not suitable for today's mission critical enterprise applications, Hewlett-Packard chief technology officer Russ Daniels has warned. Although there has been a lot of industry buzz around cloud computing, Daniels does not...

News.(Hewlett-Packard Co.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Hewlett-Packard staff have held a protest outside the company's City of London headquarters in Wood Street today. Organised by the Unite union, the demonstration follows HP's decision to cull 3,400 jobs. Unite national officer Peter Skyte...

News.(cloud computing)
February 3, 2009... Cloud computing is only suitable for enterprise applications, which have less stringent data accuracy requirements, according to Hewlett-Packard chief technology officer Russ Daniels. In an interview with Computer Weekly, Daniels said that...

News.(IT job vacancies)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Investment banks account for more than a third of new IT job vacancies in the financial services sector despite major cutbacks. However, the number of new IT job vacancies in investment banking has fallen by 39%. This compares to a 47%...

News.(Lloyds TSB Group PLC to contract with Cable & Wireless B.V.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Lloyds TSB Asset Finance has awarded Cable & Wireless a three-year, multi-million pound contract to deliver a next generation contact centre platform. The updated contact centre will help Lloyds TSB Asset Finance better serve the needs of...

News.(Marks and Spencer PLC to contract with International Business Machines Corp. and SAP AG)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Marks & Spencer has signed a deal with IBM and SAP in a bid to use IT to improve stock visibility and management of information. The retailer will implement a range of SAP retail applications, which will provide it with accurate business...

News.(government ministers)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Government ministers are going online in an attempt to communicate directly with university students, Toby Young, minister for students revealed on Wednesday. The government will develop online discussions and a blog. The move is a...

News.(Monster Worldwide Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... All users of jobs websites Monster.com and USAJobs.gov - the official jobsite of the US Federal Government - are being urged to change their passwords after hackers compromised log-in details. As research shows that 41% of people use the...

News.(Morgan Stanley and The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to cut jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs could soon announce thousands more job cuts, which will include back office and technology jobs. According to the Wall Street Journal, the banks are considering the cuts, which could hit...

News.(Morrisons to sign contract with ZETES Industries S.A.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Morrisons has signed a [pounds sterling]6m-plus contract with Zetes to provide an automatic voice-based goods picking system in its warhouses. Morrisons' system is based on Zetes' 3iV voice software and more than 2,000 Vocollect Talkman...

News.(NEC Corp. to cut 20,000 jobs)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Loss-making NEC is slashing 20,000 jobs worldwide in an attempt to cut $895m in costs over the next two years. The jobs are going on the back of third-quarter losses that increased to $1.46bn. All segments of NEC have been affected by...

News.(survey on fraud in business)(Survey)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... One in eight online businesses had 5% of revenues stolen by fraudsters last year, according to research from security supplier Cybersource. More than a third of these firms lost at least 1% of revenue to fraud. The losses are the result of...

News.(Carphone Warehouse Group PLC)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... The business-to-business division of Carphone Warehouse-owned TalkTalk is launching a business broadband package for [pounds sterling]10 per month. The company claims this is 58% cheaper thanBT's equivalent service and it is targeting 20%...

News.(Orange A/S to offer BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... Orange is the first operator in the UK to offer the BlackBerry mobile data service on a pay-as-you-go basis - for [pounds sterling]5 a month. Orange is offering the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 smartphone to PAYG customers. The phone, which...

News.(PayPal Inc. to join force with VeriSign Inc.)(Brief article)
February 3, 2009... PayPal in the UK has joined forces with VeriSign to give local users greater protection with two-factor authentication when making online purchases. In addition to the usual username and password, PayPal users can add another layer of...