Current Events and Technical News

Fedora 6 Crosses Million Mark
Is Red Hat's community distro once again the most popular Linux on Earth? (2/6/2007)

Measures Like a Teen Majority on Social Networks
Forget the soda fountain or the mall. MySpace is where it's at, yo. (2/6/2007)

SOA, Virtualization Jolt App Server Market
Application server software enjoys healthy growth in 2005, thanks to emerging computing tactics. (2/6/2007)

The Bottom Line of Offshore Development
Report finds a bottom-line benefit to outsourcing. If the project goes well, that is. (2/6/2007)

IT Spending a Trillion Dollar Deal
Latest research forecasts $1.48 trillion will be spent worldwide by 2010. (2/6/2007)

IBM Leads 2006 Patent Hike
Big Blue banks 3,651 patents as the industry sees a better than 20 percent upswing in patent grants over 2005. (2/6/2007)

Poll: Next Bill Gates Likely From China or Japan
New Zogby/463 survey finds Americans bullish on the Internet, if not the future of U.S. tech education. (2/6/2007)

Avaya Takes Ubiquity SIP
Ubiquity's software will help Avaya offer customers a foundation on which to build SIP applications. (2/6/2007)

An Ethernet Force to be Patented
Force10 is awarded a patent to support the not-yet-standard 100GbE. (2/6/2007)

Vonage Inks Earthlink to Wi-Fi Deal
Vonage seeks way out of 'VoIP 101' run, analyst said. (2/6/2007)

ECommerce Will Always Have Procrastinators
Its convenience might make Americans put off shopping just a little longer before Christmas. (2/6/2007)

Breaking Down The Network Neutrality Debate
Think-tankers, lawmakers and policy mavens preview the network neutrality debate awaiting the new Congress. (2/6/2007)

Verizon's $2.7B Wireline Spin Off
Northeast wireline accounts go to FairPoint. (2/6/2007)

6th Sense Automates Developers Progress Reports
Latest release works with most integrated development environments. (2/6/2007)

Novell's Identity 'Bandit' in Cahoots with Microsoft
Novell's open source Bandit identity management framework works with Microsoft's CardSpace ID metasystem. (2/6/2007)

Linux on Sony's Playstation, By IBM?
Not quite, but a tutorial on an IBM developer site will tell you how to do it. (2/6/2007)

Parental Controls Don't Save MySpace
Four families sue the social-networking site just one day after it implemented parental controls. (2/6/2007)

Second Life's Open Source Fairy Tale
Open source efforts in the virtual world are exceeding expectations, and a new plug-in architecture could put it over the top. (2/6/2007)

Microsoft Produces One-Way ODF Translator
Microsoft has produced a translator allowing competing word processing programs to read Open XML Word documents. (2/6/2007)

Key XML Standards Pass W3C Muster
XQuery, XSLT and XPath officially join the XML armory for Web development. (2/6/2007)

Amazon Stands Tall
Amazon.com beat Wall Street estimates, but Dell and Google got left behind on Thursday. (2/6/2007)

Is TiVo History?
Analyst group predicting stand-alone DVRs to vanish. (2/6/2007)

Analysts: Demystifying The HP, Dell Tie
UPDATED: HP enjoyed a solid Q4 and finished 2006 in a tie with Dell for worldwide PC shipments, Gartner and IDC find. (2/6/2007)

Stocks Mixed on Amazon, Jobs Data
Stocks were mixed Friday after Amazon.com's better than expected results and the government's monthly jobs data weren't quite enough to sustain the market's three-day rally. (2/6/2007)

Dell Caught Green-Handed?
Investor lawsuit claims embattled computer maker hid kickbacks from Intel. Current and former CEOs are named in allegations. (2/6/2007)

Data Breach Lawsuits Pile up on T.J Maxx
Although retailer not ready to estimate the damage, losing customer data prompts resignations, lawsuits. (2/6/2007)

Congress, White House Dinged on Cyber Security
Lawmakers' inability to pass legislation and the administration's lack of leadership earn D's in annual report card from CSIA. (2/6/2007)

Cooling is Key For HP Management Software
Power management tool highlights HP's Insight Control Environment for ProLiant ML and DL systems. (2/6/2007)

IBM, LSI Aim Low
IBM and LSI partner on new entry-level storage systems that feature SAS drives and 4Gb Fibre Channel connectivity. (2/6/2007)

SGI to Resell Microsoft Server Goods
SGI to offer Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 as an option to power its Altix XE clusters. (2/6/2007)

Permabit Takes Storage Road to The Grid
Permabit seeks to redefine itself as a major software player in the market for protecting and storing data. (2/6/2007)

Backing Up on VMware
VMware Consolidated Backup promises to make backup easier for virtual environments, but time will tell if it lives up to that promise. (2/6/2007)

Microsoft Gains Storage Traction
With a range of products to seemingly suit any storage environment, easy integration with industry standard products, low TCO and some 50 OEM partners, can Microsoft be stopped? (2/6/2007)

Icahn Has Motorola in His Sites
News Wall Street trader Carl Icahn wants a spot on Motorola’s board sent tongues wagging and stock prices up. (2/6/2007)

Learning From Sprint's Stumble
Is there a lesson for carriers in Sprint Nextel's current woes? (2/6/2007)

Verizon's Video Alert
Live TV is coming to VCAST phones; Cingular is getting into the video game, too. (2/6/2007)

Motorola Falls on Cell Phone Slump
Handset maker points to geography and products for glum financial report. Or was it 'arrogance'? (2/6/2007)

TomTom GPS Gets A VirusVirus
Why did our GPS just say to stop and ask for directions? (2/6/2007)

Intel Speeds Faster Wireless to Market
Chips based on draft 802.11n spec added to Intel Centrino Duo mobile offering. (2/6/2007)

Take Two: 802.11n Up For Approval Again
IEEE sends the second draft of the spec to its membership. Will they give it thumbs up this time? (2/6/2007)

Could Vista Save Dell?
Analysts say increased PC sales could help Dell dig its way out of a financial hole. (2/6/2007)

Google Shows Why It Leads The Pack
Profit almost tripled amid soaring revenues in the fourth quarter. (2/6/2007)

Vista's Hello; Gates' Last Hurrah?
Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer may have shared a stage for the last time in birthing Vista for consumers. (2/6/2007)

Vendors Prepare For The March of RSA
New and old security vendors prepare to play at RSA Conference 2007. (2/6/2007)

Holding The Internet Accountable
An IronPort executive criticizes ISPs for helping 'pollute' the Internet. (2/6/2007)

Viacom: Start Yanking, YouTube
The demand for YouTube to remove videos 'holds a hammer over Google's head,' says analyst. (2/6/2007)

DTV Bill Pushes Educational Outreach
New legislation would mandate consumer programs by broadcasters, retailers and the FCC. (2/6/2007)

BrocData Cleared for Takeoff
The Federal Trade Commission has signed off on the merger of Brocade and McData, clearing the way for the Fibre Channel switch vendors to take on Cisco. (2/6/2007)

EMC Gets Results
EMC ended 2006 on a strong note, with better than expected earnings and sales across all product lines. (2/6/2007)

Midrange Storage Gets an Overhaul
Adaptec, Isilon and HDS unveil new products and enhancements for midrange storage customers. (2/6/2007)

MonoSphere Maximizes Storage
The SRM startup claims it can reduce storage costs by 40 percent or more. (2/6/2007)

Brocade Gets Busy
A day after completing its acquisition of McData, Brocade issued pink slips and a product roadmap. (2/6/2007)

IBM Scoops Up Softek
Big Blue moves to bolster its data services unit by acquiring the data mobility specialist. (2/6/2007)

Broadband Connections: How Fast Does Your Data Swim Upstream?
Browsing isn't the only thing people use the Internet these days. In fact, for just about any Internet-based application other than Web browsing, the speed of your upstream connection is sometimes more important than your downstream connection. (2/6/2007)

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser Review
It's next to never that we give a product a perfect score — and never when one feature blundered or backfired. But, the Logitech's $100 desk set isn't your average mouse and keyboard bundle. (2/6/2007)

Belkin Wi-Fi Phone for Skype
This phone promises to really cut Skype's umbilical cord to the PC—and it does, albeit with some room for improvement. (2/6/2007)

SQL Server 2005 Integration Services - Part 41 - XML Task
This installment of our series describes the properties and functionality of the XML Control Flow task, which provides assistance with processing XML-formatted documents. (2/6/2007)

Product Review: SQL Refactor
Danny Lesandrini reviews SQL Refactor, a SQL Server Add-In that works with the new SQL Server Management Studio. (2/6/2007)

Living in a Virtual World Gets a Little Easier
Virtualization leader VMware today announced VirtualCenter for VMware Server. The new product bundle is designed to provide small and mid-sized businesses with a low-cost way to manage and provision virtual servers. (2/6/2007)

WebEx Adds Web-based E-mail to On-Demand Apps
WebEx adds e-mail to its WebOffice online application suite. The company claims it delivers what Microsoft only talks about. (2/6/2007)

Dell's To-Do List: Find New Channels
Dude, you gotta get into the Chinese market. (2/6/2007)

Arena Runs The PLM Collaboration Race
Competition is heating up, and vendors are consolidating and trying to stir confusion among rivals' customers. (2/6/2007)

Newsgator Offers RSS Management On Demand
Information is power, but managing all of it can be tricky in the Internet era. To help you stay on top on incoming info, the RSS company announced NewsGator Enterprise On-Demand and a partnership to tie RSS to Salesforce.com. (2/6/2007)

Viva Las Vegas — The Hardware Story
In Vegas, it's not all dollar slots and Texas Hold 'Em. At least not when the Consumer Electronics Show comes to town. Here's a look at some of the latest products that could help small businesses rake in the chips. (2/6/2007)

Google Revs Its Mini
The search engine king rolls out Google Mini 2.2, which boasts better security, search capabilities across all internal business content and more powerful search features for public-facing Web sites. (2/6/2007)

Review: Oracle Performance Tuning for 10gR2, Second Edition
Steve Callan offers an in depth look into Gavin Powell's Oracle Performance Tuning for 10gR2, Second Edition. The first article of this series covers Identifying Tools, Explain Plan, Other tools and Performance views. (2/6/2007)

SPI Lets 'Phoenix' Fly For Web Security
Web application security software performs a simultaneous crawl and audit to improve bug scanning speed and accuracy. (2/6/2007)

Mobile Storage On Speed Dial
EIT Toolkit: Seagate's new technology offers relief to application-laden and storage-strapped cell phones. (2/6/2007)

NAS or SAN?
Knowing each technology's role and how it fits into your company's goals can clear way for a wise purchasing decision. (2/6/2007)

Perimeter Offers Free Security Scan
Firm offers businesses a free vulnerability assessment with an added dash of security expertise. (2/6/2007)

IBM, Oracle Co-Market Linux on Mainframes
The deal doesn't extend to Oracle's Unbreakable Linux strategy; that doesn't mean IBM customers aren't interested. (2/6/2007)

Workgroup Server Sheds Workhorse Image
Review Roundup: IBM's latest workgroup server inherits features from its upper crust kin to the benefit of small businesses. Also, "sling"-ing digital media to Windows Mobile devices, Skype v.3, Logitech's latest cordless desktop and a trio of feature-laden digicams. (2/6/2007)

SqlCredit – Developing a Complete SQL Server OLTP Database Project
The SqlCredit series demonstrates the database design and development portion of a complete, functioning, tested credit card database to illustrate the complete software development lifecycle. (2/6/2007)

Oracle 10gR2 Security, Part 4: Securing Data Extracts, Exports and Recovery Files
This article discusses and illustrates how to implement an unprecedented level of database security by encrypting DataPump Export dump sets and Recovery Manager (RMAN) backup sets. (2/6/2007)

Queries on Steroids ... Part III
This month we discuss Fancy Filtering Techniques for Queries on Steroids. Before we're done, we will have shown you three ways to return a filtered query. (2/6/2007)

Logical Functions: IsAncestor(): Conditional Logic within Calculations
Use IsAncestor() to support conditional logic within calculations. BI Architect Bill Pearson introduces IsAncestor(), and then leads a hands-on practice session with this valuable MDX function. (2/6/2007)

SQL 2005 Maintenance Wizard Part 1
The SQL Server 2005 Maintenance Plan Wizard offers many core tasks and options for database housekeeping. In addition, the wizard will roll all of your selected tasks into a reusable and customizable package. Read on to learn more. (2/6/2007)

Dealing With Upper and Lower Case Data
Gregory Larsen demonstrates several examples of how to deal with different situations related to the case of character strings. (2/6/2007)

Travel Companies, Cingular Settle Adware Case
Cingular, Priceline and Travelocity pay up and promise to reform policies. (2/6/2007)

Let's Get Ready to DEMO
'Science fair for grownups' features cool new products and lots of buzz. (2/6/2007)

LinkedIn Takes Funding for Global Expansion
Company's business model is still evolving, but has profitability arrived? (2/6/2007)

HP Adds New Storage Bricks to Consolidation Road
The systems vendor introduces new storage hardware and software to put more data on fewer machines. (2/6/2007)

No Super Sunday For Online Gamblers
U.S. campaign is making a dent in offshore operations and folding more than a few hands of online Texas Holdem. (2/6/2007)

House Bill Would Ban Connection Taxes
Eshoo legislation calls for permanent bar on Internet access taxes. (2/6/2007)

MySpace Sues 'Spam King'
The social-networking site's CAN-SPAM lawsuit puts Scott Richter back in the news. (2/6/2007)

Senate: Write Away, Bloggers
Republicans force changes in language calling for greater reporting requirements for grassroots groups and political bloggers. (2/6/2007)

The Social Network Difference
People use them to stay in touch and share media. But what makes people choose one over another? (2/6/2007)

MySpace Makes Offer on Offender Database
Sentinel Safe database can help law enforcement track online predators, child advocacy groups say. (2/6/2007)

Antigua Takes Upper Gambling Hand Over U.S.
Interim WTO report says U.S. has not closed horse-racing loophole in online gambling ban. (2/6/2007)

Yahoo Feels a Growth Pinch in '06
Yahoo closes books on a wild ride of a year with lower profits and high hopes for a new ad platform. (2/6/2007)

A USB Token Minus The Infrastructure
Gemalto creates a self-contained USB token to make it easier for consumers to access the Web. (2/6/2007)

HP Buys Some Mainframe Management
Bristol buy seen helping HP add mainframe transaction management to its offerings. (2/6/2007)

Apple Inc. Settles with Apple Corps Ltd.
Settlement with Beatles recording company clears way for 'the holy grail of digital music.' (2/6/2007)

FTC Imposes DRAM Royalty Rates on Rambus
The remedy decision follows the 2006 FTC ruling that chipmaker engaged in deceptive conduct. (2/6/2007)

EMC Locks Up Symmetrix Box With RSA Security
EMC tucks security technologies into its Symmetrix arrays just six months after the RSA purchase. (2/6/2007)

Cisco On Deck
Cisco will report quarterly results late Tuesday, and analysts expect another solid quarter from the networking giant. (2/6/2007)

Technical Analysis: Cisco Paints a Mixed Picture
Bulls and bears can both make a case based on the stock's choppy action. (2/6/2007)

Federated Search Getting More Crowded
Oracle now wants to help customers securely federate and extend search into various content buckets. (2/6/2007)

Akamai Serves Up Netli
Merger agreement adds to Akamai's Web acceleration portfolio. (2/6/2007)

Security Luminaries Start RSA on a Data Tip
Symantec and McAfee make some noise about their data protection lines as RSA gets under way. (2/6/2007)

Peering Into Darknets to Spotlight Threats
Arbor Networks asks: What brings you to this neck of the woods, Mr. Virus? (2/6/2007)

Dell: 'We'll Fix This Business'
In a memo to employees, Michael Dell presents his plan for the near future. ' (2/6/2007)

An Extreme Solution for NAC
Extreme Networks claims that its new network operating systems has the cure for some of what ails DHCP implementations of NAC. (2/6/2007)

Microsoft Security Advisory (932553): Vulnerability in Microsoft Office Could Allow Remote Code Execution
Revision Note: Advisory Published: February 2, 2007Summary: Security Advisory (2/2/2007)