Baseline articles from January 2007

Baseline archives from January 2007

Apple Vulnerability Project Launches with QuickTime Exploit.
January 1, 2007... An easy-to-exploit security vulnerability in Apple Computer's QuickTime media player could put millions of Macintosh and Windows users at risk of code execution attacks. The QuickTime flaw kicked off the Month of Apple Bugs project, which...

Paper: AT&T to Push Wireless, Seek Revenue in Ads.
January 2, 2007... NEW YORK (Reuters)--AT&T Inc. plans to push new wireless services and make advertising a key revenue stream following its $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp., The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday. The acquisition, which...

CheckFree to Acquire Carreker for $206M.(Brief article)
January 2, 2007... CheckFree announced Jan. 2 that it has expanded its software division with the acquisition of Carreker for $206 million. The deal is expected to close by March 31. Together, CheckFree, the Atlanta, Ga. developer of financial electronic...

Research: IM Malware Attacks on the Rise.
January 2, 2007... With 41 new attacks carried out during the month of December alone, 2006 proved to be a significant growth year for threats distributed over instant messaging systems. According to a new research report produced by security software maker...

Five Hackers Who Left a Mark on 2006.
January 2, 2007... In the security year that was 2006, zero-day attacks and exploits dominated the headlines. However, the year will be best remembered for the work of members of the hacking--er, security research--community who discovered and disclosed...

Scott Rosenberg: What Makes Software So Hard.
January 5, 2007... Scott Rosenberg has written an important and entertaining book about the way software projects work--or don't. Dreaming In Code: Two Dozen Programmers, Three Years, 4,732 Bugs, and One Quest for Transcendent Software (Crown, 2007), chronicles...

IT Productivity: Measuring the Immeasurable.
January 7, 2007... The productivity numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in October 2006 sent a shock wave around the country: After showing robust increases for several years, productivity growth had slowed to an annualized 0.0 percent (though...

Amazon at Your Service.
January 7, 2007... Thousands of businesses from around the world outsource their e-mail management chores to Webmail.us Inc., a Blacksburg, Va., company that deals with everything from maintaining mail programs to filtering spam and squishing viruses for clients....

Second Life Open-Sources Its Viewer Application.
January 8, 2007... Linden Lab, creator of the "Second Life" online virtual world, is open-sourcing the code of the site's viewer application, enabling developers to make modifications, enhancements or add new features to the Second Life Viewer. The...

Midsize Companies Show IT Pros the Money.
January 8, 2007... The IT hiring recession is over, according to a 2007 IT Salary Survey to be released in mid-January by Janco Associates. IT executive salaries were up 1.92 percent in large enterprises in the fourth quarter of 2006, but down 0.80 in midsize...

Sun Rolls Out New Blade, Services.
January 9, 2007... Sun Microsystems is looking to grow its foothold in the blade market and entice new and current customers to stay with its products by offering a unique hardware replacement and upgrade service. On Jan. 9, the Santa Clara, Calif., company...

Juniper Taps Adobe's Elop as New COO.
January 9, 2007... Almost a year to the date that Juniper Networks announced a shakeup of its executive ranks, the networking company has appointed former Macromedia CEO Stephen Elop as its new chief operating officer. Elop, who until early December had been...

Vista Upgrade Is a Long Way Off, Say IT Pros.
January 10, 2007... It might be the most publicized and monitored technology release this year, but it will be awhile before Microsoft's Windows Vista makes an enterprise mark, according to a monthly report on the state of the tech job market published Jan. 10 by...

CSC Helps the Army Muster Information.
January 10, 2007... that As the lead contractor in a mammoth 12-year project that, in a nutshell, changes the way the Army does business, Computer Sciences Corp. is putting its own methodologies and best practices to the test. Seven years into the LMP...

RSA Catches Financial Phishing Kit.
January 10, 2007... RSA, The Security Division of EMC, announced Jan. 10 that it has identified a new phishing kit that was being sold and used online by hackers to target users' personal information in real time. The phishing kit, known as a Universal...

5 Questions for New Teradata CEO Michael Koehler.(interviewed about the spin off from NCR Corp.)(Interview)
January 11, 2007... NCR announced plans this week to spin off its Teradata data-warehousing subsidiary as an independent company. NCR, which is best known as a provider of ATMs and retail checkout machines, had sales of $4.5 billion in 2005, excluding Teradata....

The Ever More Diversified Face of IT.(job market for information technology professionals)(Brief article)
January 11, 2007... Just how diverse is IT in the United States today? It depends on who you ask. Some will say, "More than ever," and tell you about companies that are itching for a mixed breed of recruits, that will brag about their minority representation...

IT Management: The Changing Face of Employees.
January 12, 2007... The Ever More Diversified Face of IT From eWeek.com: Demand for IT employees from different backgrounds is growing, but statistics suggest that there is still a long way to go. Question: Do you think IT organizations are doing enough to...

SAP Reports Disappointing Preliminary Q4 2006 Numbers.
January 12, 2007... SAP AG announced late in the afternoon Jan. 11 that it will miss not only analysts' consensus estimates of its fourth quarter and full year 2006 revenues--earnings per share came in above estimates--but its own estimates as well. While the...

First Conviction in HP Board Leak Scandal Case.
January 13, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--A Colorado private investigator on Friday pleaded guilty to identity theft and conspiracy charges, the first conviction arising from the Hewlett-Packard board-room leak scandal, the U.S. Department of Justice said on...

Can Java Become an Important Linux Language?
January 14, 2007... When you think programming languages and Linux, the languages that tend to come to mind are C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python and, lately, Ruby. But, Java probably doesn't enter your mind at all--that's because until recently Java was a proprietary...

HP Tools Ease Data Center Burdens.
January 16, 2007... Hewlett-Packard on Jan. 16 is scheduled to unveil a series of software management tools designed to keep track of assets within an enterprise's data center. The new software, which includes improvements to HP's Insight Control Environment,...

The Future of I.T.: What's on Tap for 2007 and Beyond.
January 16, 2007... Finding 1 Customer Service Surges as a Top Priority for 2007 Upgrading infrastructure and improving processes remain high priorities. But many companies now appear to be ready to take it to the next level, by harnessing their improved...

Banks to Deliver Personal Health Records Online.
January 17, 2007... The Medical Banking Project plans to announce a program later this year that will use banks' Web portals to deliver personal health care information online. Advocates of online PHRs (personal health records) believe making such information...

TJX Says System Breached, Customer Data Stolen.
January 18, 2007... LOS ANGELES (Reuters)--TJX Cos Inc., which operates the T.J. Maxx and Marshalls chains, said on Wednesday that the computer systems that process its customer transactions had been breached and customer information had been stolen. The...

Execs: Telecommuting Holds Back Careers.
January 18, 2007... Telecommuters are less likely to advance in their careers than workers who toil in traditional office settings, according to survey results released Jan. 16 by Korn/Ferry International, a Los Angeles-based recruitment firm. More than half...

IBM Profit Rises 11% but Shares Drop.(Financial report)
January 18, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--IBM, the world's largest technology services company, reported 11 percent profit growth but its shares fell 5 percent as the results failed to beat the targets of some investors who had driven the stock up recently. ...

Storm Worm Hits Computers Around the World.
January 19, 2007... HELSINKI (Reuters)--Computer virus writers started to use raging European storms on Friday to attack thousands of computers in an unusual real-time assault, head of research at Finnish data security firm F-Secure told Reuters. The virus,...

IBM Renews Microsoft Rivalry with New Web Software.
January 22, 2007... SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)--IBM's Lotus unit will introduce on Monday a set of social networking services that functions like a MySpace for office workers and which analysts say marks a renewed challenge to Microsoft Corp. Lotus is going back...

Intel, Sun Expected to Announce Deal.
January 22, 2007... Sun Microsystems and Intel have scheduled a joint news conference for Jan. 22 that will likely confirm a new agreement between the two companies that will place Xeon processors in Sun's x86 servers. The announcement comes on the heels of...

Giving Applications a True Voice.
January 22, 2007... Everywhere you look today, you see small instances of voice technology being embedded in commercial applications. One example is an e-mail service that peppers its messages with links that can automatically place calls to a wide range of...

Botnet Hunters in Closed-Doors Redmond Summit.
January 22, 2007... Faced with arguably its biggest security crisis since the 2003 network worm attacks, Microsoft is throwing its support behind a high-level powwow to discuss the escalating threat from zombie botnets and zero-day malware attacks. The...

Microsoft Profit Expected to Fall in Pre-Vista Lull.(Financial report)
January 23, 2007... SEATTLE--Microsoft Corp. is expected to post its second decline in net profit in the last three quarters this week in the lull before a profit boost from new Windows and Office software debuting this month. Investors will be on the lookout...

Compatibility Concerns Hinder Vista Upgrades, IT Pros Say.
January 23, 2007... Microsoft's new operating system may be the most eagerly anticipated release of the past 10 years, but concerns over compatibility, bugs and security are keeping many IT professionals from doing so soon, according to the survey released Jan. 23...

CA Adds Lotus Domino, DB2 Support to BrightStor SRM.
January 23, 2007... Storage infrastructure maker CA on Jan. 23 introduced a new version of its BrightStor Storage Resource Manager, which extends its centralized management, automated monitoring and reporting functions to business information stored in IBM Lotus...

The Open Source Initiative Still Lives.
January 24, 2007... There was a time when the Open Source Initiative was one of the hotbeds of open-source activity. After the retirement of its co-founder and leader, Eric Raymond, in January 2005, the OSI lost much of its fire. That may be changing soon, though....

Calculator: Measuring Business Transformation.(costs for transforming to information technology)(Brief article)
January 25, 2007... Your plans for transforming information-technology operations may call for a number of dramatic improvements and be impressive. However, the question still remains: How much of a change are you making? A composite indicator that considers the...

W3C Publishes New Web Standards for XML.
January 25, 2007... The World Wide Web Consortium released eight new standards for its XML line on Jan. 23. The new Web standards are designed to help businesses request information from a database, transform and access XML data and do bond databases with the...

Federal Judge Dismisses HP Countersuit.
January 26, 2007... Hewlett-Packard won a small legal victory earlier this week, when a federal judge in Texas dismissed a lawsuit filed by a former executive with the IT giant. In his ruling, which was released late on Jan. 25, U.S. District Court Judge...

Banks Report Fraud Spurred By TJX Breach.
January 26, 2007... BOSTON--Banking industry officials in Massachusetts are reporting that a string of local companies have already observed fraudulent activity related to the massive data breach reported by retail chain TJX Companies on Jan. 17. Unlike many...

Some Companies Hesitate to Outsource.
January 28, 2007... Hiring someone outside the company to store, manage and protect all a company's data is a gutsy thing to do, for any storage executive or administrator. And this decision usually is not made in a vacuum. Virtually all companies who...

IBM Acquires Data Integrator Softek.
January 29, 2007... IBM Jan. 29 said it has agreed to acquire privately held Softek Storage Solutions, of Vienna, Va., to bolster the offerings within its Global Technology Services group. The purchase price was not disclosed. Softek, a hosted data migration...

VMware Seeks 'Virtual' Success with New Software.
January 29, 2007... After a four-month beta run, VMware is preparing to release the full version of its Converter 3 virtualization software Jan. 29. The Palo Alto, Calif., company, the leader in x86 server virtualization software, is releasing the full version...

Big Tech Firms' Sales Up 16% in Fourth Quarter.(Financial report)
January 29, 2007... Most enterprise technology companies had strong growth in the fourth quarter, with IBM and Microsoft benefiting from strong sales of software, and EMC and Citrix from acquisitions. The average sales growth among technology companies was...

Tech M&A Jumps 48%, Helped by Private Equity.
January 29, 2007... Technology mergers and acquisitions jumped 48% in 2006, helped by high liquidity worldwide and an increase in buyouts outside the U.S. Technology M&A grew to $244.1 billion from $164.6 billion in 2005. That made 2006 the biggest year for...

Symantec Buys Asset Management Specialist Altiris.
January 29, 2007... Symantec has added to the slew of technologies it will offer as part of its unified security architecture, announcing a deal on Jan. 29 to acquire endpoint management specialist Altiris for approximately $830 million in cash. Altiris, of...

Vendors Begin Plugging Products for RSA Show.(RSA Conference 2007 )(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... The avalanche of new security products launched for the RSA Conference 2007 has already begun, even though the show itself does not kick off for another week. A collection of security companies introduced new products, or announced other...

Symantec Unveils e-Discovery Control Suite.
January 29, 2007... Data storage and security vendor Symantec Jan. 29 introduced a new integrated information security and archiving suite of applications that offers consistent enforcement of content control policies across a Microsoft-centric enterprise--from...

The Basics of BPM.
January 29, 2007... Opportunity Improving outdated budgeting-and-planning processes is a critical starting point, and pre-requisite, for BPM--but it's not the endgame. Over time, a carefully conceived and well-implemented business performance management...

Changes to Office UI 'Far from Done'.(user interface, Microsoft Office 2007)(Brief article)
January 30, 2007... While Windows Vista and Office 2007 officially hit the streets today after years of development, Microsoft is far from done with innovating and changing the new user interface in the Office System family of products. Going forward, the new...

December 2006 Online Extras.
January 30, 2007... BASELINE ONLINE *The 30 Most Important IT Trends for 2007 Thousands of IT executives contributed to a year's worth of data that reveals the direction of the industry. *3 Tips for Intrusion Security Planning Find out how your company...

November 2006 Online Extras.
January 30, 2007... BASELINE ONLINE *Primer: E-Discovery What is e-discovery and why should you care? *Calculater: The ROI on Business Intelligence Software Figure the return on your company's business intelligence software investment. *3 Metrics To...

Google's Bosworth: Why AJAX Failed (Then Succeeded).(Adam Bosworth speaks about Asynchronous JavaScript and XML)(Brief article)
January 30, 2007... NEW YORK--When it comes to software development, Google's Adam Bosworth has a need for speed. In a talk entitled "Physics, Speed and Psychology: What Works and What Doesn't in Software, and Why," Bosworth, a vice president at Google,...

IBM Researchers Predict More Vulnerabilities in '07.
January 30, 2007... New research indicates that enterprises will continue to grapple with long lists of dangerous software vulnerabilities during 2007, with experts at IBM predicting continued growth in the number of flaws found in popular products over the next...

Salesforce.com, Deloitte Announce Alliance to Bring Apex to the Enterprise.
January 30, 2007... Salesforce.com and Deloitte Consulting are going global with on-demand development capabilities. The two companies announced Jan. 30 a strategic alliance that has Deloitte building out its customer relationship management practice around...

TomTom Pulls Windows Malware into Autos.
January 31, 2007... The long-running joke about cars breaking down and getting infected by viruses if they ran on Microsoft software appears to have grown closer to reality, as navigation device maker TomTom has admitted the inclusion of two Windows malware...

SSOs Reduce HR Process Costs, Research Shows.(Shared Services Organizations)
January 31, 2007... Shared Services Organizations can help HR organizations reduce process costs by up to 80 percent, while generating similar improvements in internal customer satisfaction, productivity and quality, according to the 2006 Enterprise Book of...

Linux Hackers Offer to Create Device Drivers for Free.
January 31, 2007... Ask Linux users what they find most annoying about Linux, and many will complain about device drivers. While the vast majority of PC components and peripherals work with Linux, some don't work at all, and others are marginal. A leading Linux...

Rollins Out; Michael Dell Returns as CEO.
January 31, 2007... Dell, which has watched as rival Hewlett-Packard has drained away its once dominant market share, announced late on Jan. 31 that its namesake founder will return as the company's CEO. Michael Dell will return as the company's CEO...

Oracle Announces Upgrades to E-Biz, PeopleSoft, JDE, Siebel.
January 31, 2007... NEW YORK--The historic Hudson Theatre was home to a new sort of show Jan. 31--more technology-focused than Broadway-focused--and with a little less fanfare. Oracle hosted its Applications Unlimited road show here to unveil the next...