InfoWorld Daily | Tom Sullivan » TAG: Government

March 27, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Eyewitness to H-1B scammers

TAGS: Government

In the course of beat reporting and ongoing coverage of H-1B visas, Ephraim Schwartz has written about non-U.S. companies that don't even keep their employees who have the H-1B visa in the States.

"Rather, after being trained here they are sent back home to complete the task," Schwartz explains.

Well, one reader claiming first-hand knowledge of the situation wrote to Mr. Schwartz and he, in turn, published that e-mail in Eyewitness to H-1Bscammers.

The mantra: flood the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services with applications, the more that gets in, the better for the company.

"Appalling but true."

Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 27, 2008 10:22 AM

March 14, 2008 | Comments: (0)

InfoWorld News Quiz: A bizarre week

TAGS: Government

It's only fitting that this week's test kicks off with a question about NY Governor Eliot Spitzer and the online prostitution service he patronized, or was it prosecuted? Nope, definitely patronized.

Another: It's not all daisies and daffodils at Apple these days. It turns out there's a skunk in the garden. What's making that awful smell?

And for good measure here, one more: WikiLeaks is at it again, and this time it's picked an even bigger target than Swiss bankers. What confidential document has the whistle-blowing site posted now?

Think you can match wits with the InfoWorld News Quiz? Prove it right here.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 14, 2008 09:19 AM

March 03, 2008 | Comments: (0)

L-1 Visas being abused

TAGS: Government

Apparently, there's more than one way to get a visa for bringing foreign workers into the U.S.

Despite IT's cries for "more, more, more," the potential increase in H-1B visas is about as dead as that song I just referenced.

"Necessity being the mother of invention, companies are turning to another part of the alphabet, the L-1 visa, as a way to bring the same guest workers here that were unable to get in under the H-1B cap," Ephraim Schwartz explains in L-1 visas being misused, attorney says.

The original intent of the L-1 visa was to allow multinationals or foreign companies with affiliates in the U.S. to bring in managers, executives, or people with specialized knowledge not available here, Schwartz explains.

Now, one might expect the government to get wise to this and even re-think its stance on H-1Bs. (Or not, depending on point of view.)

"But with the election not until November and the new president not taking office until late January, don't expect anything to happen with a review of H-1B visas for at least eighteen months."

Posted by Tom Sullivan on March 3, 2008 09:19 AM

September 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Governors to Congress: Increase H-1B cap

TAGS: Government

Best of the blogs: One dozen governors sent an open letter to Congressional leaders requesting that the Senate and House raise the number of H-1B and permanent visas, Ephraim Schwartz reports in this Reality Check post. Problem is, the letter offered no stats to back up the claim that we have a talent shortage. "If someone can show these governors the statistics that there is no shortage, rather the call for more H-1B visas is motivated by the desire for cheap labor will they take back their letter and say, never mind?

Green IT: With it's new Barcelona chip, AMD "has the potential to make green-tech-conscious datacenter operator cheer, 'Ole!'" writes Ted Samson in AMD lays down a green chip in Barcelona. The stand-out stat Mr. Samson came across is that, "despite the power boost, it effectively uses the same amount of energy and produces the same amount of heat as a two-core."

Columnist's corner: If you've ever felt like succumbing to the lure of startups was at all romantic and thought about doing so, David Margulius would like to set you straight. "Forget about it, I'm going to save you the trouble. It's not glamorous like that. Maybe energizing on some level -- but boy, it certainly ain't pretty," he writes in Meetup madness: Slumming it in startup land. And he knows, having spent the last few months attending such pow-wows, sharing beer with entrepreneurial folk, exchanging ideas. "Now maybe I just haven't gone to the right ones, but I've gone to enough that I'm starting to see some recurring themes." Eight, to be exact.

The news beat: Sun sells it will start selling Windows operating systems pre-installed on its 64-bit servers within 90 days. The ongoing, mind-blowing data explosion rocks IT, driven by business systems as well as cell phones, digital cameras and other devices. EMC could face a class-action discrimination and harassment lawsuit if a judge opens an existing case to other female workers. And Sun scoops up Cluster File Systems to gain the open source Lustre File System for an undisclosed sum.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on September 13, 2007 10:57 AM

July 13, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Granting foreign developers 'immediate citizenship'

TAGS: Government

Columnist's corner: While simultaneously preparing for backlash, David Margulius makes a suggestion: Open the floodgates to IT immigration. Think fast-track citizenship. "Let's roll out the red carpet and try to get as many developers coming to the United States as the total number of people who normally enter the country each year. If they prove they can code, let's give them immediate citizenship, free food, coupons for free movie rentals, whatever, to get them to come and stay." Radical, indeed, Margulius admits. "The United States isn't growing enough technologists organically through our education system to compete, so let's acquire and assimilate them."

From the Test Center: You can't call Silver Peak the new kid on the block any longer, Keith Schultz insists, because the WAN acceleration and optimization vendor, "raised the bar with its NX-5500 appliance. Targeting WAN speeds up to DS3, it delivers superior raw performance over varying WAN conditions." Schultz adds that the NX-5500 performs like one of the best he's ever tested. "The TCP and UDP support is first rate, providing all traffic types excellent acceleration and optimization." There is a shortcoming, though. Read the full review.

The news beat: Sun details 'Project Indiana' and plans to mimic the Linux distribution model to grow the market for Solaris. Oracle says it will release 46 security patches next week that span its database, application server and e-business suite. VeriSign's CFO resigns while the company announces it will restate earnings from 2002 to 2005. And scrutiny mounts for Google security.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 13, 2007 04:53 AM

April 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)

H-1B demand askew to quota

TAGS: Government

The news beat: H-1B visas hit their cap limit on the first day, April 2, thereby demonstrating, in one lawyer's words, that "demand is way out of sync with the quota" and that the system is a disaster. Ephraim Schwartz concurs, adding that "a lot of people will agree, but they have far different reasons for saying so." Related: Let's call Gates' bluff on H-1B.

Columnist's corner: After ignoring it for some time, Oliver Rist took a look at Windows Meeting Space, the new collaboration tool. "Armed with my phone, a shot of Knob Creek, and my Groove Server as backup, I gave it a try," Rist explains in this week's installment of Enterprise Windows. While an effective load beyond about 10 users doesn't seem realistic, configuration was easy. Security, of course, could be a concern, though Rist adds that, "unless Microsoft inexplicably built a supersecret credential-less Meeting Space access engine that can run without local knowledge, I think we're safe."

Security: Microsoft issues an emergency patch to fix seven vulnerabilities, including one that impacts .ani files and ranks as critical. Security vendor eEye Digital's CEO leaves the company. And German researchers who found a faster way to crack WEP suggest that anyone using Wi-Fi should switch to a safer encryption protocol if they need to protect sensitive information.

Hardware: Sun gives its UltraSparc a performance boost and injects the new chips into Sun Fire servers. Intel looks to bury AMD's Barcelona chip with what it hopes are superior speed to market and chip design, and it debuts a pair of new quad-core processors of its own. Special Report: Chip wars: the gloves come off.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on April 4, 2007 10:49 AM

December 26, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Eyeing '07

TAGS: Government

The news beat: Every year brings new opportunities and the coming one will be no exception. The U.S. Congress, for instance, will have the chance to concentrate on issues that the Republicans relegated to a backburner, notably privacy and software patents.

Slideshow: But 2006 is not over yet -- and there's still time for a look back at the year in IT. Highlights include: Windows Vista, Web 2.0, a new frontier in the chip wars, and more. Watch the slideshow here.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on December 26, 2006 06:35 AM

November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)

IT and litigation rules

TAGS: Government

From the feature well: There are some regulatory rules for litigation that IT had better understand -- and some of them kick in come Dec. 1. Now, for something you might not know: the rules themselves carry names including Rule 26 (f), Rule 26 (a) (1) [B] and Rule 26 (b) (2) [B]. These address early discussion prepardness and disclosure. Ephraim Schwartz breaks down those, and a few more, in New litigation rules put IT on the front lines of data access.

Podcasts: Dave Linthicum poses this important question: Can your enterprise see the emerging Web? But that comes after he looks at how much SOA really costs. "A lot of people are trying to figure how much their service-oriented architecture will cost," he says. "Service-oriented architecture is a journey, not a destination. It's a journey not a project, but if we have to run it as a project." Tune into The SOA Report.

Best of the blogs: When an office partner moves in after the previous one spent 15 years with you, and the newbie brings a software system that demands after-hours support, one reader asks, what are your options? Well, Bob Lewis has three in Living with a bad decision, but he only really recommends one of them.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 21, 2006 10:41 AM

November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Quote of the day: The irony in SKIL Bill

TAGS: Government

In truth, the issues are far from clear-cut. Yes, U.S. companies have laid off scads of employees and continue to hire foreign-born workers, sometimes at less-than-market rates; but many employers still can't seem to fill open IT positions. Then there's outsourcing: Will the availability of fewer foreign workers simply push companies to send more jobs overseas? Would it be better to have those H-1B workers here, where they pay taxes and contribute to our economy? -- Steve Fox. -- Weighing in on the H-1B debate.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 20, 2006 04:03 AM

November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)

Reader voices: Open sourcing e-voting systems

TAGS: Government

Best of the blogs: Bob Lewis sparked a storm of comments with his post-election rant, in which he wondered aloud, sort of anyway, why no one has yet pointed out how "awesomely simple" the task of e-voting machines is and, thus, theorized that the company selling them, Diebold, conjures images of complexity that scare government agencies into paying more than the systems are worth. Several folks agreed with Bob; others took great pains to explain just how complicated the whole scenario really is. And many proposed open source e-voting systems to make them transparent to all. My personal favorite, though, and I quote "My idea: Two terms per politician; one in office, and one in jail." Read more comments and add one yourself here.

Podcasts: New products from Network Appliance and Panasas fill storage's need for speed. Plus, the week in storage with news from EMC, Oracle and others. Tune into Storage Sprawl.

Operating systems: Tooling around with the Vista RTM edition leads Oliver Rist to ask Does Vista kill third-party disk encryption? "I've got to say that the partition installation piece means that certain third-party disk encryption products still have a future. TrueCrypt or Cryptainer, for example, simply create an encrypted file volume with an ultra-strong password," he writes. "On the other hand, for SMBs looking to centrally manage a whole series of encrypted drives, BitLocker offers a lot of sophistication right there in the OS."

The news beat: A report by analyst firm Forrester suggests that consumers and enterprises alike will take to Windows Vista after the same fashion in which they adopted XP: they'll buy new PCs when existing ones break. IBM introduces four new rack servers that run on Intel quad-core Xeon chips. And MySQL says it wants to build what it calls a database in the sky.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 05:09 AM

July 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)

House passes IT energy study

TAGS: Government

Hardware: The U.S. House of Representatives approves a bill that charges the EPA with studying energy consumption of servers to determine potential cost-savings the federal government could achieve by moving to energy-efficient hardware.

One I simply could not resist: Jeans + Sportcoat = Business mullet. That headline pretty much says it all.

Podcasts: The summer storage tournament begins: Charged with new products, purchases, and alliances, storage vendors including EMC, Exanet, Sun, and NetApp mount up to joust. Listen to Storage Sprawl.

The news beat: Firefox 2.0 beta stokes browser wars, and according to developer docs it includes all the new features for version 2.0. AMD says it will file a complaint against Intel relating to anticompetitive behavior in Germany. And researchers in Europe are developing a prototype Super Firewall for stopping DDoS attacks that uses hardware and software on the edge of a provider's network, rather than within.

SMB: Fresh from a phoner with Avalara CEO Jared Vogt, Oliver Rist reports on Managing Internet sales tax. "The bad news is that state budgets can no longer afford to ignore the revenue they could be making if they simply enforced the sales tax laws that exist today -- to say nothing of creating new dollar-sucking legislation," Rist explains. There is good news in his post, though, even if in the end, "We're paying more money both to the states as well as Avalara, but at least it won't slow business down."

Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 13, 2006 10:25 AM

July 11, 2006 | Comments: (0)

The many sides of Net neutrality

TAGS: Government

Special report: There is no question that battle lines are being drawn over Net neutrality. Experts are debating whether the infrastructure is already in place, and if the advantages are worthwhile. This package also looks at intensified lobbying, how one think tank is saying that Net neutrality is property theft, and voices of support, including R.E.M. and the Christian Coalition.

Columnists' corner: In Windows apps cross over to the Mac, Neil McAllister explains that "Apple's code translation technology is a marvel, but it's no substitute for software that runs natively on the x86 platform." But CodeWeaver has a solution: CrossOver Office enables Windows apps to run within Mac OS X. Of course, as McAllister points out, "Reverse-engineering software that can bridge the gaps between incompatible proprietary software platforms isn't really revolutionary. What's revolutionary is not having to."

Podcasts: Bob Garza speaks with Cisco about its newly-released NAC 4.0 appliance, in particular how it integrates with existing infrastructure better than similar products from competing vendors. At least if your infrastructure is already Cisco. Listen to Zero Day.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 11, 2006 04:28 AM

June 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)

DC's CTO on open government

TAGS: Government

Podcasts: Jon Udell speaks with Suzanne Peck, CTO of Washington D.C. and Dan Thomas, who directs DC's DCStat program, about open government, live data feeds that enable citizens to track the performance of agencies, and Udell offers a link to a mashup proof-of-concept he created. Listen here.

Columnists' corner: The devil is in the details, perhaps nowhere more so than software development. And when the details involve bids so low that his company could not actually pull in a profit, it's not just Lucifer that's evil, recounts our Off the Record author. "Because writing code wasn't in my job description, the company agreed to pay me a small wage for writing it on my own time, and I'd retain 30 percent ownership. We expected the product to sell widely in the printing industry, so my cut would be quite valuable. The number of variables was mind-numbing. I had to develop a suite of front-end programs to handle paper size, drying time, and dozens of other expenses. As we passed the 18-month mark, I had written nearly 40,000 lines of code."

The news beat: Google to kick off an online payment service that potentially could compete head on with eBay's PayPal unit. SugarCRM will unveil a commercial portal next month. And Nortel, chasing profits, says it will cut pensions and jobs.

Posted by Tom Sullivan on June 28, 2006 05:15 AM