Baseline articles from December 2007

Baseline archives from December 2007

Clash of the Titans: HP vs. IBM-Who Wins?
December 3, 2007... Nearly two years ago, Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd laid down the gauntlet to his business partners, the company's unequivocal goal was to wipe away the tagline its chief competitor-IBM-wore for the past 60 years: "The world's largest...

New Mobile Tool from Agito Networks Could Spur Dual-Mode Phone Deployment.(Company overview)
December 3, 2007... Since they hit the market four years ago, dual-mode phones that can talk to both wireless and wired networks have been stymied by a technological stalemate in handling call coverage. But things could be changing. Some analysts expect that...

The Biggest Emerging Technology Disappointments of 2007.(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Everyone in the tech industry announces their products and programs with great fanfare. That, however, doesn't mean that those emerging technologies will gain market acceptance or the accolades of users. This year saw a number of emerging...

Britney Spears, Playboy and Disney in the Same Digital Bed.(Company overview)
December 3, 2007... Who knew Disney and Playboy had something in common besides Britney Spears? Within the past month these purveyors of nice and naughty, respectively, both signed big deals with digital publishing firm Zinio to use its technology as an...

Social Networking: Collaborating Minds Are Better than One.
December 5, 2007... For many IT departments, it seemed like the laser focus on cost cutting for the better part of the last decade would never cease, but the pendulum is starting to swing. A new report cites a confluence of market, economic and organizational...

Austin Hardware Seizes Profit from Design.(Company overview)
December 5, 2007... For years the sales staff at Austin Hardware & Supply felt as though they were trapped in a box. Since 1960 the Lee's Summit, MO company has acted as a distributor of various hardware supplies, such as door locks, hinges, gas springs, and...

Study: Frequency of Data Loss Connected To Compliance Efforts.(Report)
December 5, 2007... For companies that continue to look for the business and financial value of regulatory compliance initiatives, listen up. There is a direct correlation between a company's compliance record and its ability to protect sensitive data, according...

Telepresence: Almost Like Being There.
December 7, 2007... The hallway leading to a bank of conference rooms at one of Cisco Systems' sprawling campuses in Silicon Valley was as opaque as any corridor tech building. White walls dotted with plastic plaques identifying each room with a name that's only...

AOL Realigns Ad Business, Expands HP Deal.
December 10, 2007... NEW YORK-- AOL said on Monday it has realigned its advertising business and expanded a deal with Hewlett-Packard Co beyond the United States, as part of a move to take its properties and services into more than 30 countries in two years. ...

Microsoft Starts Offering U.S. Ads on MSN Mobile.
December 10, 2007... SEATTLE-- Microsoft began on Monday to place advertisements on its U.S. MSN Mobile page, moving into the nascent mobile phone advertising business. Computer-based Web usage dwarfs mobile Internet use in the United States, but companies...

Clash of the Titans II: Microsoft Vs. Google.
December 10, 2007... If Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer always sees Google in his rearview mirror, there's good reason: Google is beating the pants off the Windows folks in terms of perceived value to customers. In a Baseline analysis of the annual CIO Insight...

How Good Are Your Service Level Agreements?
December 10, 2007... One of the most important steps when contracting an IT service provider is setting the performance metrics of the service-level agreements (SLAs). Unfortunately, many organizations treat this step as an afterthought, says Ian Hayes of...

Toyota Sees Cost Savings over $2.7 Billion Annually.
December 11, 2007... TOYOTA CITY, Japan-- Toyota Motor Corp expects to accelerate its cost-cutting efforts next year to save more than $2.7 billion annually, its president said on Tuesday, as the world's biggest carmaker seeks to offset rising commodity and...

HP Sees 2009 Revenue Up 5-6 Percent.(Financial report)
December 11, 2007... NEW YORK-- Hewlett-Packard Co., the world's largest personal computer maker, said on Tuesday it expects revenue and operating profit margins to improve in 2009. The company, which is hosting a meeting with analysts, said it sees fiscal...

Plaxo Gives Microsoft Outlook a Pulse.
December 11, 2007... Plaxo is mashing up its Pulse social network with Microsoft Outlook, allowing users to get a grip on their friends' online activities on Pulse directly from their e-mail clients. Launched Dec. 11, the refreshed Plaxo Toolbar for Microsoft...

Office Workers Confess How They Let Security Slide.
December 13, 2007... When office workers are asked to self-report anonymously on their work-related security behaviors and attitudes, a snapshot emerges that may make IT workers cringe. The research, conducted in on-the-street surveys in Boston and Washington...

Year-End U.S. IPOs Hope to Light a Spark.
December 14, 2007... NEW YORK-- Two of next week's U.S. initial public offerings hope to spark investor interest; one with celebrity appeal, while the other quite literally promises a brighter future. Next week's red carpet debut is software maker NetSuite, an...

Digital New Year's Resolutions.
December 17, 2007... As the New Year approaches, we'll all be making our annual resolutions for self-improvement. Eat better. Exercise regularly. Lose weight. Quit smoking. Be more courteous. Refrain from using profanity. But let's face facts; few of us actually...

8 Ways To Save Your Next Project.
December 17, 2007... Technology projects bare a striking similarity to home renovations. Both are surrounded by wildly high hopes at the start and often end up causing financial and emotional heartache. There are some new numbers to back up the unfortunate...

Forrester: Economic Slowdown Should Not Hurt IT Jobs, Salaries.
December 17, 2007... Given the darkening U.S. economic outlook, Forrester Research is updating its IT spending outlook for 2008. However, as long as the U.S. economy has only two to three quarters of very weak real GDP (gross domestic product) growth--1 to 2...

Bush's Phone Immunity Demand Wins Initial Senate Vote.(George W. Bush)
December 17, 2007... WASHINGTON -- President George W. Bush's demand for immunity for telephone companies that participated in his warrantless domestic spying program won an initial vote on Monday in the Senate. On a vote of 76-10, far more than the 60 votes...

Google Aims to Be the Platform For Businesses.
December 17, 2007... Google executives are prone to preaching about technologies from the consumer market that cross over to the business side of the house to become business productivity tools. As Vice President and General Manager of Google's Enterprise...

NetSuite Files to Raise Up to $118 Million in IPO.
December 18, 2007... NEW YORK -- NetSuite Inc, a software maker majority-owned by Oracle Corp Chief Executive Larry Ellison, on Tuesday raised the proceeds it expects from its initial public offering, which is due later this week. The San Mateo, California...

Sprint Names Embarq Chief as New CEO.
December 18, 2007... NEW YORK--Sprint Nextel Corp on Tuesday named the head of Embarq Corp, its fixed-line spin-off, as its chief executive, hoping the telecom industry veteran can turn the No. 3 U.S. mobile service provider around. Analysts welcomed the...

L.A. Cops Tap GPS to Nab Drive-By Killers.
December 19, 2007... Dick Tracy, eat your heart out! If ever there were a classic case for the famous lantern-jawed cartoon detective's "Crimestoppers Textbook," this is it. On December 10, an alert Los Angeles Police Sgt. Ruby Malachi noticed a radio call...

Gartner: Phishing Attacks Still on the Rise.
December 19, 2007... A report released by Gartner this week found that in spite of industry efforts to combat phishing, the problem grew worse than ever this year. Analysts surveyed more than 4,000 online adults to draw their conclusions, finding that the...

SIM to Skyrocket Within the SMB.(Security Information Management)
December 19, 2007... As midsize companies continue to struggle with the same security concerns as larger enterprises using drastically fewer resources, some analysts believe that in the coming years they will begin to turn en masse to security information...

Will Enterprise Architects Get Any REST in 2008?
December 20, 2007... Will this be the year that the Web development architecture known as REST invades the enterprise, derailing or fundamentally altering the orthodox approach to web services and service oriented architecture (SOA) that's been built up over the...

Opera CEO Sets Up New Browser War with Microsoft.
December 20, 2007... BRUSSELS-- A small Norwegian software company says with a level playing field it can take on mighty Microsoft Corp. in a new battle of the browsers because it has a better product, picking up where the now-defunct Netscape left off in the...

Greatest Hits of Baseline 2007.
December 20, 2007... As another year of information technology management quickly fades from what is to what was, it's time to take a step back from your projects, stress, spilled coffee and half-uneaten salads. It's time to reconnect with the most engaging...

The Pitfalls, and Potential, of Corporate Social Networks.
December 21, 2007... It could be tempting to conclude that because your employees enjoy keeping a personal blog or spending time with contacts on social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, that they would want to participate in an internal corporate...

5 Secure Reasons for Thin Clients.
December 21, 2007... Access to Web applications is typically the most frequent use of a personal computer. Whether this should be done by means of a "fat" computer or by the increasingly available "thin" client is a question on many enterprises' agendas. The...

Inside a Modern Malware Distribution System.
December 21, 2007... SecureWorks anti-malware guru Joe Stewart is not one to be intimidated by advances in online crime activity. But, when he reversed the backend code associated with the Pushdo Trojan downloader, he discovered a modern malware distribution...

IT Spend 2008: Some Wiggle Room for Innovation.
December 26, 2007... Just when 2008 was shaping up to be another minimal-growth year for corporate investment in information technology, along comes a fresh report from AMR Research predicting a fairly robust IT spending increase of 8 percent next year. Aha,...

Apple and Fox Plan Movie Rental Deal - Reports.
December 27, 2007... LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Twentieth Century Fox are set to announce a deal that will allow consumers to rent Fox movies through Apple's digital iTunes Store, according to media reports on Thursday. The agreement will allow...