Computer Weekly articles from September 2008

Computer Weekly archives from September 2008

Special Report.
September 2, 2008... Seven frequently asked questions about VoIP 1. What is VoIP? 2. Why should I care? 3. How does it work? 4. So what do I need? 5. What about Skype? 6. What about calls between VoIP and ordinary telephones? 7. What...

Networks.
September 2, 2008... As businesses get to grips with mobile phones for enterprise computing, the fragmented handset market is likely to consolidate. The big question is who will be the last man standing? Mobile digital devices use common hardware components,...

News.(Infosys Technologies Ltd.)(Axon)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Indian IT outsourcing company Infosys is poised to buy UK-based consultancy Axon in a [pounds sterling]407m cash deal. Axon implements and supports SAP systems for large businesses. Axon directors will unanimously recommend the company's...

News.(Tech Mahindra)(Servista)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Indian telecoms company Tech Mahindra has acquired a minority stake in London-based IT services company Servista, just a day after the Financial Times reported BT was considering selling its stake in the Indian firm. Tech Mahindra will...

News.(Manchester Airport PLC)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Manchester Airport's fleet of air-side passenger buses has been equipped with Windows XP-based automotive computers to improve operations. The computers, built and installed by Bristol-based In-CarPC, are being used to record key data...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... If you want a response from a mobile potential customer, SMS them. That is the advice from the US Direct Marketing Association, following a survey that showed texting elicits the best response from mobile phone users who respond to mobile...

News.(Carnegie Mellon University)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Carnegie-Mellon University has developed a free add-on to the Mozilla Firefox 3.0 browser to boost security for users. The Perspectives add-on was developed at the university's School of Computer Science and College of Engineering. The...

News.(Office of Communications (United Kingdom))(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Mobile data transmissions are now "critical" to the UK economy, and Ofcom aims to find new and better ways to use the technology to enhance the nation's competitiveness. Today Ofcom issued a consultation paper asking for input into how to...

News.(Federation Against Software Theft)
September 2, 2008... Computer users face more software audits, increased support costs and new licence conditions as software houses seek to shore up their revenues in the face of flat sales. The Federation Against Software theft (Fast), an anti-piracy group...

News.(Advertising Standards Authority)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... A television advert for Apple's iPhone misled consumers about internet access, the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled. Two complaints to the watchdog complained that the advert claimed that "all the parts of the internet are on the...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... A widespread spam campaign has been launched which pretends that an e-mail recipient's baby has been kidnapped in a bid to infect their computer with malware. The campaign tries to trick innocent computer users into opening a file claiming...

News.
September 2, 2008... Cybersquatting of leading pharmaceutical brands has reached an all-time high, according to the latest BrandJacking Index research by MarkMonitor. Cybersquatting is the registration of domain names containing a brand, slogan or trademark to...

Opinion and Letters.(Viewpoint essay)
September 2, 2008... Computer Weekly reported recently that merger and acquisition activity is likely to continue despite - or perhaps because of - the credit crunch, writes Marc Bray, operations director at Totalamber. We at Totalamber share that view. We...

News.(United Kingdom. Home Office)
September 2, 2008... Within a week, two outsourcing suppliers have grabbed the headlines for failing to look after client data. First, a contractor working for the Home Office lost an unencrypted memory stick containing 130,000 records on criminals. Then a...

Business & Technology.
September 2, 2008... T he name nGenera is unlikely to mean much to most UK IT directors, but many will have heard about one of the US technology start-up's management team - Don Tapscott, business guru and co-author of Wikinomics, which examines the economics of...

Business & Technology.(software as a service)
September 2, 2008... It is not often that you get a second chance in IT: a failed technology is about as enticing as fish that has passed its sell-by date. But software as a service (SaaS) seems to be the exception that proves the rule. This year, the business...

Business & Technology.
September 2, 2008... In the beginning there was customer relationship management (CRM). After years of costly implementations of applications that delivered poor return on investment (ROI) and left unused licences gathering dust on IT departments' shelves, software...

Business & Technology.(software as a service)
September 2, 2008... When people think about software as a service (SaaS) the company that often comes to mind is Salesforce.com, with its customer relationship management product, sold by monthly subscription. But while businesses such as British Gas use SaaS...

Business & Technology.
September 2, 2008... History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce, according to Karl Marx. Is software as a service a tragi-comic re-run of the application service provider (ASP) model - a lovely idea that didn't work in practice? The history of...

Features.
September 2, 2008... People, particularly on the industry side, often talk about the benefits of integrating IT systems: the nirvana of so-called end-to-end business processes. Such integration enables chief information officers and IT directors to drive through...

News.(Oracle Corp.)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Oracle has developed pre-built integration software to link its CRM on demand product and its on-premise Siebel CRM platform. The offering allows customers to gain a single view of their hosted on-demand CRM data and data housed in the CRM...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... BT is reacting to the growing threat of malicious botnet attacks by introducing software to detect them. BT's global Event Monitoring and Correlation service has been upgraded to include botnet detection tools that analyse firewall traffic...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The man who found the personal bank details of more than a million people on a second-hand computer he bought on eBay last week, has returned the machine to the company responsible for archiving the data. Andrew Chapman, an IT manager at...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... IBM says it has "changed the game" when it comes to disk storage performance. Engineers and researchers at the IBM Hursley development lab in England and the Almaden Research Center in California, have demonstrated "groundbreaking...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Microsoft is warning that some users will be unable to revert to an older version of its Internet Explorer browser if they upgrade to version 8. In a blog posting, Redmond said that users who were running Windows XP Service Pack 3 would be...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Microsoft has stepped up efforts to discourage pirating Windows XP. Using its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) anti-piracy program, Microsoft intends to harass users suspected of using an unofficial version of Windows XP Professional....

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The Best Western Hotel chain has launched an investigation after hackers stole the personal data of guests. Details of up to 8 million people were exposed after security information was sold by a network operated by the Russian mafia,...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Brazilian authorities have charged a man for allegedly selling access to a 100,000-PC botnet of zombie computers. The authorities have charged Abreu Neto, 35, for conspiring to cause damage to computers around the world. It is reported...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The Government has made the [pounds sterling]40m ContactPoint children's database available to the police, to the dismay of privacy campaigners. The ContactPoint system, built by Capgemini, was intended to ensure none of the 11m under-18s...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The launch of ContactPoint, a database that will contain details of every child in the country, has been delayed because of technical problems. The Department for Children, Schools and Families awarded the contract to Capgemini in July...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Scientists in Jerusalem are taking the first high-resolution digital photographs of the Dead Sea Scrolls so they can be shown on the web. The Israel Antiquities Authority this week concludes a pilot project that prepares the way for a much...

News.(financial news)(Financial report)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Dell has blamed a drop in profits in the second quarter on a slow down in IT spending in the US, western Europe and Asia. The company's US results were published today showing a 17% drop in profits from [pounds sterling]373m to [pounds...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The IT industry's skills council e-skills has called for a "radical review" of the IT curriculum, after numbers taking computing subjects at A-level and GCSE this year fell again. E-skills blames an uninspiring curriculum for putting young...

News.
September 2, 2008... Bank details of over one million people sold on eBay The personal bank details of over one million people have been found on a computer sold on eBay last week. The data included bank account information, mobile phone numbers, dates of...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Educated people are more likely to have internet access in their home, says the Office for National Statistics. In a survey, the ONS says education plays a key role as to whether people have web access in their homes or not. Almost all...

News.
September 2, 2008... Collaboration with business partners and customers is key to the future growth of global business, according to a study from the Economist Intelligence Unit. IT analysts expect IT directors and chief information officers to adapt their...

News.(Survey)
September 2, 2008... A survey of councils by the Local Government Association (LGA), shows overwhelming support for a change in the law to ban junk mail companies from gaining access to voters' details through the electoral register. In July, the Information...

News.(Google Inc.)
September 2, 2008... After ten years Google, which celebrates its birthday this week (7 Sept), has conquered search and positioned itself as the most viable alternative to Microsoft's desktop software. Its Gmail web-based e-mail service has the potential to...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Google says its web advertising deal with Yahoo is on schedule and will not be derailed by US anti-trust scrutiny. Google will place its adverts next to Yahoo search engine results from early October, as planned. The deal was announced...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Car rental firm Hertz Europe is securing its online payments by linking its website to anti-fraud systems from Visa and Mastercard. Hertz, which operates in 145 countries, has subscribed to a service from electronic payments specialist...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The Home Affairs Select Committee has asked the Home Secretary to write to them explaining what happened when a contractor lost the details of 130,000 prisoners on an unencrypted memory stick. The committee may also quiz Jacqui Smith on the...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Apple iPhone users have publicised a simple procedure to bypass the handset's access passcode protection. The flaw has been publicised on the MacRumors website. A person not authorised to use the phone can hit the device's "emergency call...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Sales of Linux-based servers decreased by 1.8% over the year, the first time this operating system has suffered a dip in revenue since the first quarter of 2002, according to analyst IDC's second quarter EMEA Quarterly Server Tracker 2008. ...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Users can now download the feature-complete version of the next version of Microsoft's web browser. The browser offers usability and security features to make web browsing faster and safer, according to Microsoft. Internet Explorer 8.0 beta...

News.(Intel Corp.)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Intel has unveiled faster server processors and a roadmap for its multi-core processors, which it said could boost the performance of the PC's memory architecture threefold. On 17 September, Intel is planning to launch its first six-core...

News.(Apple Inc.)(Bloomberg Business News)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... The Bloomberg financial newswire has wrongly reported the death of Apple CEO Steve Jobs. Bloomberg updated a 17-page Steve Jobs obituary to be used at the time of the sad event in the future, but then wrongly distributed it over the wires....

News.(Microsoft Corp.)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Microsoft plans to integrate e-commerce website Ciao into its search engine to accelerate its search strategy following failed talks with Yahoo. Ciao, sold by Greenfield Online for $500 million, is an online shopping site. It provides...

News.(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Offshoring and the drop in IT graduates has led to huge pay increases for mid-level IT staff, according to research. The Income Data Services report said the median salary for IT user support technicians has jumped 13% to [pounds...

News.
September 2, 2008... The growth of outsourcing over the last decade has led to greater demand for mid-level IT staff than ever. Companies are racing to employ staff capable of overseeing and managing teams, while lower-level development jobs are increasingly...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Firms are failing to effectively manage their e-mail through the poor management of their staff and a lack of effective archiving. Data archiving firm GFT inboxx surveyed 260 workplace e-mail users and found the following: aCcents Over...

News.(Survey)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Few UK small businesses are ready to bounce back if they have a business disruption. An independent survey of 1,130 small business owners, commissioned by business continuity firm SunGard, shows only a third of SMEs in the UK are taking...

News.(IFS Applications)(Lockheed Martin Corp.)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... UK Ministry of Defence contractor Lockheed Martin has selected Sweden's IFS Applications to provide core enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for the MoD's James (Joint Asset Management Engineering Solution) Land project. IFS's...

Opinion and Letters.(McAfee ASaP)(Brief article)
September 2, 2008... Virtual worlds are increasingly being used by cybercriminals to launder money and steal data, says a white paper from web security firm McAfee. The paper, by Igor Muttik, a senior architect at McAfee's Avert Labs, says the in-game...

News.
September 2, 2008... Patients who need physiotherapy following a stroke or accident could soon be put through their paces in a virtual reality environment. A researcher at the University of Portsmouth is creating a rehabilitation programme that places patients...

Special Report.
September 9, 2008... Ten frequently asked questions about the Cern laboratory and Big Bang theory 1. What is the Cern physics laboratory and what does it do? 2. When was Cern set up, and what have been its achievements? 3. How did Cern help to create...

Networks.
September 9, 2008... The days are over when networking meant point to point links over shielded cables leased from BT and backed up with a dial-up modem on a telephone line. Not entirely perhaps, because these type of links still make up the central nervous system...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... The creators of virtual world Second Life have improved support for business users of the service. They have launched a voice and instant messaging client that enables Second Life residents to connect and communicate with their Second Life...

News.
September 9, 2008... Barts and The London NHS Trust said today [1 September 2008] it had underestimated the impact of going live with a new system under the NHS's [pounds sterling]12.7bn National Programme for IT [NPfIT]. Difficulties in scheduling patients for...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... IT industry charity Computer Aid International is inviting IT professionals and PC enthusiasts to join a fund-raising expedition across the remote Simien Mountains in Ethiopia next year. Every person who takes part will kit out an Ethiopian...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Fujitsu is reported to be seeking [pounds sterling]700m from the Department of Health after its [pounds sterling]1bn contract as a local service provider on the National Programme for IT was terminated. The Liberal Democrat Shadow Health...

News.(Marks and Spencer PLC)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Marks & Spencer has summarily sacked a senior IT worker who blew the whistle on the UK retailer's plans to cut redundancy benefits. The man, who has not been identified, forwarded a consultative memo from M&S to its 70,000 staff to the...

News.(Marks and Spencer PLC)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... A senior IT worker at Marks & Spencer faces the sack this week for blowing the whistle on the retailer's plans to cut redundancy pay to 70,000 workers. M&S internal investigators have traced the employee, who had sent details of the plan...

News.(NYnet)
September 9, 2008... NYnet, a six-month-old publically-owned, privately-run communications network in North Yorkshire, could provide a blueprint for extending fast broadband networks to under-served rural areas. Traditionally, rural users face high charges for...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Issuing police with PDAs has cut through bureaucracy and saved police between six to 25 minutes for each stop, according to the Home Office. Police have been able to issue a receipt from a hand-held computer rather than writing up long...

News.(Dassault Systemes S.A.)(Siemens AG)(product lifecycle management)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Dassault Systames (DS), a French manufacturing software house, has confirmed German media reports that a rival Siemens subsidiary had obtained a confidential database containing details thousands of Dassault customers. Dassault Systame...

News.
September 9, 2008... Most users would be happy to pay for travel and buy goods using a mobile phone, says mobile operator O2. O2 has announced the results of a trial which saw 500 London customers given mobile phones equipped with near field communications...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Jim Moyles, a new contributor from Crowthorne in Berkshire, has been analysing the Puzzler of 5 August. This was based on (AB+CD)2 = A,BCD, where both sides of the equation had the same four different digits in the same order. Mr Moyles...

News.
September 9, 2008... Over the last ten years, Google has become a poster child for successful internet businesses. Much of its success derives from a business strategy which CEO Eric Schmidt has described as "ubiquity first, revenues later". What is the secret...

Radar.
September 9, 2008... IBM has developed a tool to reduce errors in programming. Its Rational Software Analyser is designed to detect errors in software while the code is being written. The product is basically a static code analyser, which is bit like a word...

News.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Google Chrome ups the ante The launch of Google's web browser has prompted much speculation about another round of browser wars as we saw between Microsoft and Netcape. There is little doubt that Google is gearing up for battle, but it...

Career Moves.
September 9, 2008... What is it? IBM's Domino server and Notes client are frequently treated as direct competitors to Microsoft's Exchange Server and Outlook. But while Exchange began as a messaging server, Notes and Domino originated as collaboration and...

Career Moves.(Microsoft Corp.)
September 9, 2008... What is it? Long experience has taught Microsoft customers to regard any new release as a beta until the first service pack (SP1) arrives. Microsoft Exchange 2007 shipped late in in 2006, and SP1 was released in August last year. But...

Opinion and Letters.(Letter to the editor)
September 9, 2008... Many companies have tried to take on Microsoft and many have failed, from the might of IBM with its OS/2 operating system to Netscape and its internet browser. Google has steadily developed a portfolio of products that seems to make it...

News.(Royal Bank of Scotland PLC)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Three large businesses will this month start using a service that enables them to automate the distribution and payment of invoices. The companies have signed up to use an e-invoicing service from Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) which links...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Google's surprise launch of its first web browser will increase competition, but is unlikely to pose any real threat to any of the established players. Google claims that Chrome is more stable and secure, faster and easier to use than...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... The High Court has ruled against an IT consultant who was fighting a [pounds sterling]99,000 tax demand for work he completed on behalf of motoring organisation the AA. The Professional Contractors Group (PCG), which represents UK IT...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... BT has extended its IT service support and development contract with Steria in a six-year [pounds sterling]75.5m deal. The new BPO (business process outsourcing) deal lasts until March 2014, and Steria will continue to support the key...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the replacement for the failed Child Support Agency, has started a tender for a [pounds sterling]50m integrated IT system. The body will use the system for case management, the automated...

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Google is to launch a beta version of a web browser, dubbed Chrome, in 100 countries today as it steps up competition against Microsoft. Chrome was designed to be stable, fast and secure in a clear challenge to Microsoft's dominant Internet...

News.(Google Inc.)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... Google has downplayed reports of a security vulnerability in its newly-launched Chrome web browser. Within a day of Chrome's launch, security researchers reported that Chrome had the same auto-download flaw as Apple's Safari web browser....

News.(Brief article)
September 9, 2008... The Federation Against Software Theft and Investors in Software have joined forces to improve their advice to users about software asset management and compliance. They said the partnership will help users reduce their licensing costs and...

News.(acquisitions)
September 9, 2008... Commerzbank aims to make [pounds sterling]4.1bn savings by 2011 following the announcement of its plans to buy Dresdner Bank for [pounds sterling]8bn. The merged bank will make savings by reducing headcount and selling parts of its...

News.
September 9, 2008... HSBC is boosting its green credentials by introducing virtual conference rooms to reduce the amount of air travel by employees. The virtual conference rooms, which use Cisco technology, will enable people in remote locations to participate...

News.(Information Commissioner's Office)(United Kingdom. Data Protection Act 1998)
September 9, 2008... The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is urging organisations not to hide behind the Data Protection Act unnecessarily when dealing with data requests from individuals. The ICO's call comes during Stupid Aid Week (1-5 September),...