- Dell pushes services for Microsoft Exchange
- Microsoft Windows Vista and IE beta stirs modest interest
- Cisco OS focus of Black Hat controversy
- IBM unveils mainframe blog
- Apple powers up iBook line
- Cisco snaps up Sheer to bolster network management
- Yahoo goes beyond the browser with widget buy
- Microsoft Virtual Earth will go head to head with Google Maps
- EMC adds to high end array line
- 3Com offers bug bounty to hackers, researchers
July 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Dell pushes services for Microsoft Exchange
Dell this week announced a new professional services program to help companies upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
The new pre-configured server, storage and software packages and professional migration services are designed for businesses running Exchange Server 5.5 who want to migrate to Exchange Server 2003. Microsoft will end support for Exchange Server 5.5 at the end of the year.
"Dell is leveraging the combined power of three - Dell, EMC and Microsoft - fully integrated server, storage and software solutions to provide customers a single, reliable source of standards-based Exchange-migration options," said Linda York, vice president of global alliances marketing in Dell’s Product Group.
The offerings are part of Dell's services business which has been growing rapidly. In the first quarter revenue was up 30 percent over the previous year's totals.
For more, see our story here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 29, 2005 08:44 AM
July 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft Windows Vista and IE beta stirs modest interest
Microsoft has been busy this week delivering a beta version of Windows Vista their next operating system plus beta versions of the next browser, Internet Explorer. But, this isn't the 90s and I'm beginning to get the feeling no one really cares.
Do you know what operating system is used to run your refrigerator? Did you even know that it had one? Well of course it does but who cares and some day the same may be said of your PCs OS and my gosh Internet browser as well.
There are signs everywhere. Do you care what OS runs your cell phone?
Sure, Microsoft would like you to care but my guess is you don't. As long as you can text message, take a picture, and maybe even hold a conversation in a subway tunnel in New York, most people would be extremely happy.
The same goes for your cell phones Internet browser. Is it Symbian, Microsoft, Palm, or do most of the above actually license the Opera browser?
When your TV converges with your PC through the cable box will you want to see or wait for Windows Vista to boot up first. Not likely.
All the hoopla over Vista, desktop Linux, Internet Explorer and Firefox will some day be a thing of the past, too.
Most likely what we will see on all devices is more or less a single application in which you can write, calculate, send and receive email, buy books, download songs and bid on an original Rolling Stones poster from 50 years ago, run by an anonymous, embedded operating system.
Mark my words.
- By Ephraim Schwartz
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 28, 2005 03:37 PM
July 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Cisco OS focus of Black Hat controversy
This week's Black Hat USA conference started with a bang Wednesday when an internet researcher quit his job in order to demonstrate a vulnerability in Cisco routers.
Michael Lynn, until Wednesday morning a research analyst with Internet Security Systems (ISS), quit his job after his company decided not to give a presentation on the vulnerability.
That led Lynn to quit because he believed the presentation was vital to the security and health of the Internet.
The flaw Lynn described has already been patched by Cisco, but older versions of the company's software remain at risk, he said. As Lynn left his presentation, several attendees shouted words of encouragement to Lynn.
For more information on the story, check out our report here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 27, 2005 05:44 PM
July 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
In addition to the z9 mainframe and virtualization technologies IBM announced yesterday, Big Blue also launched a blog dedicated to the mainframe.
"We're now hip," said Bill Zeitler, senior vice president and group executive for IBM's systems and technology group. Zeitler added that the blog "is even run by someone younger than 30" years old.
Mainframe Weblog appears to have several contributors, mostly from within IBM, but also including James Governor, co-founder of analyst firm RedMonk.
The first post, titled The Mainframe Geek, makes the point that mainframers share some distinct personality characteristics, and lists several ways to determine whether you are, in fact, a mainframe geek. But I'll let you read those for yourself.
China Martens of the IDG News Service wrote about the new hardware and software in IBM unveils new mainframe, talks up virtualization.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 27, 2005 07:30 AM
July 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new line of G4 iBooks featuring faster processors, bolstered memory, and two types of built-in wireless connectivity.
The 12-inch iBook offers a 1.33GHz PowerPC G4 processor and starts at $999, while the 14-inch notebook is powered by a 1.42GHz processor for $1,299. Both come with 512MB of memory.
The new iBooks also feature two popular Apple technologies from the PowerBook G4 line: the scrolling TrackPad, which speeds scrolling through long Web pages, and the Sudden Motion Sensor, designed to protect a spinning hard drive if the notebook is dropped.
In addition, the notebooks' wireless capabilities are improved with both built-in Bluetooth 2.0 and AirPort Extreme 54Mbps 802.11g wireless. Bluetooth 2.0 features Enhanced Data Rate technology, which promises as much as three times great data rates for connecting to peripheral devices.
The new iBooks also include built-in 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet for high-speed networking, two USB 2.0 ports, and one FireWire 400 port. The notebooks ship with Mac OS X version 10.4, also called Tiger.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on July 26, 2005 04:56 PM
July 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Cisco snaps up Sheer to bolster network management
Cisco Systems, always on the lookout for hot, new companies, said it has agreed to acquire Sheer Networks, which makes software designed to help service providers and large enterprises manage complex networks.
Sheer Networks makes a product called Sheer DNA, or Dynamic Network Abstraction, which creates a real-time, virtual representation of an actual network. This is supposed to make it easier to manage complex networks that include multiple domains and equipment from multiple vendors, IDG News Service reported.
"We are continuously investing in our business to meet our customers' needs and the Sheer Networks acquisition will strengthen our ability to provide innovative and effective network management solutions," Cliff Meltzer, senior vice president for Cisco's Network Management Technology Group, said in a statement.
"Our blueprint for Cisco network management includes a common services platform on which applications are delivered and the ability to support management applications from Cisco and other vendors," Meltzer added. "Sheer has a similar philosophy and parallel architecture which will accelerate our delivery of Cisco's next generation management platform and advanced applications to our Service Provider customers."
Cisco will pay about $97 million in cash and assumed options for the privately held company, which is based in San Jose, Calif. The price my increase by up to $25 million if Sheer Networks reaches certain development and product milestones, Cisco said.
The acquisition will flesh out Cisco's network management offerings for service providers and large businesses, Cisco said. It plans to build on Sheer Net-works' technology to develop device, network and service-level management appli-cations that work with multi-vendor networks, it said.
Sheer Networks' staff will become part of Cisco's Network Management Technology Group. The company was founded in 1999 and has 100 employees in San Jose and in Petach Tikva, Israel.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 26, 2005 04:40 PM
July 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Yahoo goes beyond the browser with widget buy
Yahoo on Monday purchased the company behind Konfabulator, a JavaScript runtime engine that lets developers create mini applications called widgets.
Konfabulator can be used to make customized desktop applications composed of clocks, calendars, lottery results, WiFi signal strength, stock prices, and traffic conditions, to name a few. Konfabulator's Widget Gallery offers thousands of downloadable widgets created by third-party developers.
As a result of the acquisition, Konfabulator will now be free and will be called Yahoo Widgets. Before Yahoo entered the picture, a single user license was priced at $19.95. According to information posted to the Konfabulator site, users who purchased Konfabulator 2.0 or later will be given a refund.
One big reason that the tiny company Pixoria piqued Yahoo's interest is that Konfabulator can free Internet content from the confines of a Web browser.
Yahoo is making moves designed to open up its platform to the developer community-- a strategy also pursued by Web search rival Google.
Widgets can be easily customized, and can blend fluidly into a user's desktop without traditional window borders. This means, for example, that an alarm clock application can be dropped into a calendar application to create an application that does both.
According to Toni Schneider, vice president of Yahoo's Developer Network, the sheer variety of existing widgets shows that Internet users want more than what Yahoo and other portals can deliver via a single Web page.
"It is letting us go beyond the browser. This is creating new ways for users to access our services rather than just [by going] to Yahoo.com," he said.
Schneider gave an example of Yahoo's online calendar, which becomes more powerful if it can be accessed in places other than Yahoo's site. If a developer can easily tie the calendar to a travel Web site, for example, booking trips can be done faster and without having to jump back and forth between multiple browser windows. Similarly, if an alarm clock widget is embedded inside an online calendar, perhaps fewer meetings will be missed.
"This is way beyond what we can do on a single Web page," he aid.
Combining Konfabulater with Yahoo's initiative to open its APIs, means that pieces of Yahoo's content and services can be combined with other applications and content to create entirely new tools, Schneider said.
Developers "can take a Yahoo service and another service, and mix and match it into a new product," he said.
Konfabulator's widgets can use content from "anywhere and everywhere," said Arlo Rose, CEO of Pixoria.
It is not just limited to using Yahoo's content, Rose added.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on July 25, 2005 05:12 PM
July 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft Virtual Earth will go head to head with Google Maps
Microsoft released MSN Virtual Earth, a online local search product designed help the company catch up with rival Google in the burgeoning search market.
MSN Virtual Earth, first announced by Microsoft in May, is similar to Google Maps in that it provides both street-map and satellite views of locations and provides driving directions between locations, Microsoft said.
Like Google Maps, Virtual Earth also allows users to find specific consumer services around a particular location, such as restaurants and hotels, by typing in keywords, IDG News Service reported.
The release is the latest action in a fast-paced battle in which several search companies are fighting for market share. "Now that Microsoft's MSN Virtual Earth is live, the comparisons to Google Maps have begun," Jon Udell wrote in his Weblog. "The blogosphere will soon sort out the relevant differences in terms of interactive controls, map coverage, and APIs."
In a later release of the product expected to come out before the end of September, Microsoft also will add a "bird's eye" view of locations that lets users view aerial images not only from directly above but also from an angle, so they not only see the tops of buildings but also view them from the side, said Mark Law, lead product manager for Virtual Earth. Google Maps does not have that capability today.
Another feature Virtual Earth has that Google Maps does not is the ability to pinpoint the location of a user on a Wi-Fi network by using the Wi-Fi access points nearby, Law said.
Through a client application called Microsoft Location Finder that can be downloaded when a user clicks a "Find Me" icon in Virtual Earth, Microsoft accesses the MAC (media access control) addresses of wireless access points that a user's device can reach, whether or not the user is logged in to any of them, he said.
Microsoft has worked with third parties to assemble a database of router MAC addresses and the latitude and longitude of those access points. Location Finder finds the access points in the database and then triangulates the location of the user's device based on the signal strength of those access points, Law said.
This location-finding service works best in urban areas where there tend to be a heavier concentrations of wireless routers than in more rural locations, but Microsoft has assembled a fairly comprehensive database of wireless access points throughout the U.S., Law said.
Joseph Laszlo, research director for Jupiter Research, said the Wi-Fi location technology in Microsoft's search product will be especially helpful when a user is accessing the search tool from a small-form-factor device such as a mobile phone or a personal digital assistant (PDA).
"It's a really important thing with smaller devices," Laszlo said. "It can take much longer on a PocketPC device or cell phone to type out [your location]. If and when [Microsoft] extends this technology to mobile devices, it may be more important as a differentiator."
Local search has been a gaping hole in the MSN search engine. In addition to Google, major search engine providers Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and America Online also have local search tabs on their search Web sites.
Local searching is becoming increasingly popular with users and online advertisers. It lets users find business listings and complementary information from a specific geographical area, while advertisers are able to aim their ads at those who are looking for services and products in their vicinity.
Jupiter's Laszlo suggested that Virtual Earth is one way for Microsoft to level the playing field in the search market as a whole by gaining users' attention.
"The theory is, if you can do really well at this particular fight -- helping people navigate geographically where things are -- you might win over more of a search customer, someone looking for something that's not as geographic," he said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 25, 2005 05:08 PM
July 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
EMC adds to high end array line
EMC today announced its next-generation product in its high-end Symmetrix storage line, the DMX-3. The new high-end system supports up to 960 disk drives and is expected to support more than 2,000 drives by the end of next year.
The DMX-3 system can store up to one petabyte of data and features increased processing power, internal bandwidth and new mirrored memory technology. The system will also support low-cost Fibre Channel (LC-FC) disk drives that are expected to hit the market next year.
“The new EMC Symmetrix DMX family delivers on the scalable design promise of the DMX architecture,” said David Donatelli, EMC executive vice president of storage platforms operations. “We introduced innovative new high-end software functionality last year and this new system can take advantage of all of our leading capabilities. This reduces costs for our customers in terms of hardware and software acquisition and maintenance and reduces operational and management expenses. We’re allowing customers to do more with less hardware, greatly enhancing total cost of ownership,” he said.
The DMX-3 is not cheap. While EMC does not release prices on high-end systems, customers can expect to fork over six figures for the new system.
EMC also announced two new data migration tools today. Open Migrator/LM is for users of Windows and Unix systems, while Logical Data Migration Facility (LDMF) is designed for mainframe users.
Open Migrator/LM will ship in August and LDMF will hit the streets in September. DMX-3 will also be available in September.
For more details, see our story here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 25, 2005 10:56 AM
July 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
3Com offers bug bounty to hackers, researchers
TippingPoint wants to turn hackers into bounty hunters. No, they're not going to send a geek squad to Navy SEAL training camp or trade their Xboxes for AK-47s, they're going to pay hackers for vital information.
3Com's security group, TippingPoint, announced a plan today to pay hackers to report vulnerabilities to head off so-called zero day attacks. Zero day attacks are attacks that occur on the same day a software vulnerability is announced.
TippingPoint's new "Zero Day Initiative" requests researchers and hackers to report vulnerabilities. If a valid bug is found, TippingPoint will notify the software manufacturer as well as update its security products to protect users against an exploitation of the flaw.
TippingPoint, which was recently acquired by 3Com, sells intrusion prevention systems.
"We are offering a legitimate way for hackers to report vulnerabilities," said David Endler, director of security research at TippingPoint. "We believe this is a responsible way to help find and eliminate what could be very damaging vulnerabilities," he said.
According to Endler, many security researchers want to be recognized for their discoveries, but often do so by posting potentially harmful information publicly, leaving businesses and vendors vulnerable to attack.
Endler said TippingPoint will notify affected vendors of security flaws so they begin working on a solution. The vulnerabilities will only be disclosed publicly once the affected vendor is able to offer a solution, he said. TippingPoint will also notify other security vendors of the flaws prior to public disclosure, he added.
Other companies, such as iDefense, also offer money for vulnerabilities, which it then passes on to its customers. IDefense was recently acquired by VeriSign.
For more information, visit the website here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 25, 2005 10:03 AM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google countersues Microsoft in battle over executive
Google fought back against Microsoft this week, filing a legal motion arguing that attempts by Microsoft to prevent Kai-Fu Lee from joining Google were illegal.
Google sought to nullify a non-compete agreement signed by Lee when he worked for Microsoft. Google filed a motion in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County, Reuters said.
Lee is slated to join Google to spearhead new research and development efforts in China. Until Monday, Lee was corporate vice president of Microsoft's Natural Interactive Services Division, IDG News Service reported.
Google wants Lee, who is known for his work in the areas of speech recognition and artificial intelligence, to expand Google's recruitment, research and devel-opment efforts in China.
Microsoft filed suit earlier this week in King County Superior Court in Washington, asking the court to prevent Lee and Google from undertaking any actions that violate Lee's non-compete employment agreement with Microsoft, as well as from "disclosing or misappropriating" any of Microsoft's trade secrets or proprietary information, according to the complaint.
"We are asking the Court to require Dr. Lee and Google to honor the confiden-tiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft," the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a press statement. "Creating intellectual property is the essence of what we do at Microsoft, and we have a responsibility to our employees and our shareholders to protect our intellectual property. As a senior executive, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft's trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies. He has accepted a position focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."
Microsoft has good reason to go to the mat to stop Lee, said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group. "The guy (Lee) was their central guy in China," Enderle said. "He knows centralized strategy and is responsible for the lab in China. Undoubtedly, Google will be doing some of the things Microsoft does. If there is a handful of people who know what Microsoft is going to be doing, he's one of them.
"The typical rule of thumb is when an executive leaves he's asked to sit out a year so the information is no longer relevant," Enderle added.
Google and Microsoft have become increasingly heated rivals in the areas of email and desktop search, and Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has repeatedly expressed his intentions to unseat Google from its dominant position in the search engine space. Indeed, just Monday at the annual Microsoft Research Faculty Summit, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates referred to Google as a "faddishly hot" company, suggesting that the vendor is merely a flash in the pan.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 22, 2005 05:27 PM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Next Firefox release slated for September
The Mozilla Foundation is planning to release the next major version of its Firefox browser in September, according to information posted to the foundation's Web site. The release will be called Firefox 1.5, although in the past it had been informally dubbed Version 1.1.
Several reports circulating this week said the September release date was a delay from an earlier summer release time frame. However, Computerworld is reporting that the 1.5 release is not delayed, and will ship by "late summer" as previous roadmaps had promised.
Mozilla engineer Ben Goodger posted an updated roadmap to the Mozilla site this week, citing the September Firefox 1.5 release as well as the planned Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 versions:
"We are planning for a Firefox 2.0 and 3.0, but will divide the planned work over (at this point) three major Milestones, 1.5 (September 2005), 2.0 (unscheduled) and 3.0 (unscheduled). All major development work will be done on the Mozilla trunk, and these releases will coincide with Gecko version revs."
Although specific features of Versions 2.0 and 3.0 are still up in the air, Goodger said likely goals for the releases include improvements to Bookmarks and History; per-site options; accessibility compliance; and enhancements to the Extensions system, Find Toolbar, Software Update, and Search.
The beta release of the browser, called Firefox 1.4, is slated to go out in August just ahead of the 1.5 release.
Earlier this week the Mozilla Foundation issued fixes for recent updates to Firefox and its Thunderbird e-mail client. Both the Firefox 1.0.6 and Thunderbird 1.0.6 releases were stability updates designed to fix extensions that did not work in the recent product refreshes.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on July 22, 2005 04:43 PM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apache OK to use Web services spec
The Apache Software Foundation can use the WS-Security specification in its open source Axis SOAP stack, an Apache official said on Friday.
At issue had been a clause that may have prevented users of Axis from distributing the WS-Security technology in the stack without first getting clearance from specification developers IBM and Microsoft.
"They (both IBM and MSFT) don't have patents. So we don't need to sign the license. Since we don't sign the license, we don't have to do anything special/specific," said Apache official Davanum Srinivas in an email.
WS-Security is part of the WS-* Web services specification stack. Apache will sit back and take a breather before determining what plans it may have for use of any other WS-* specifications, Srinivas said.
Asked for comments, Microsoft referred back to its earlier statement from July 8, in which the company said that WS-Security was an open standard at OASIS and that Microsoft had made a royalty-free license commitment for WS-Security.
IBM could not be reached for comment on Friday.
Posted by Paul Krill on July 22, 2005 04:17 PM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Blogs and their power were the subject of a panel discussion at the AlwaysOn conference at Stanford University on Thursday, with panelists making some interesting observations.
"We're seeing about a million [blog] posts every single day," said Dave Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati, which tracks blogs.
"It's really taking off and it's not just a U.S. phenomenon," Sifry said. Blogs are being published in languages such as Korean, Chinese and Portuguese, he said.
Panelists discussed potential business models for blogs. "Most are going to be some kind of media model. There will have to be some kind of ad support," according to Allen Morgan, managing director at venture capitalist Mayfield.
Younger audiences have been more familiar with blogs than older persons, said Ned Desmond, executive editor at Time Interactive. With some older audiences, "We find that they barely know what a blog is," Desmond said.
Panelists noted how blogs have the potential to change the definition of who is a journalist. Coverage of the first of the London bombings this month presented a synergy of blogging and traditional journalism, with persons on the scene who were not journalists able to get photos via cellphone.
(From my vantage point, I wonder if perhaps blogs and cellphones could present a new generation of potential Abraham Zapruders. Zapruder was the amateur filmmaker who filmed the visit of President John F. Kennedy to Dallas on November 22, 1963 and ended up with vivid footage of the assassination.)
Panelists pondered the potential that something posted on someone's blog could come back to haunt them decades later. But Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media and a former columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, pointed out that people have become more forgiving.
Gillmor recalled that Douglas Ginsburg once lost a chance to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice after reports leaked out about past marijuana use. But the current president and his predecessor have had similar issues in their past but were elected anyway, Gillmor noted.
"I think we're going to learn to cut each other some slack. If we don't, we're screwed," Gillmor said.
Posted by Paul Krill on July 22, 2005 03:22 PM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft shows solid profit but growth slows
Microsoft reported solid growth in the fiscal fourth quarter with revenue increasing 9 percent to $10.2 billion, yet some analysts noted that the go-go days of double-digit growth have subsided for the software giant.
Highlighted by sales of server software, Microsoft reported net income for the period at $3.7 billion, or $0.34 per share. This compares to net income of $2.69 billion, and $0.25 per share for the year-ago quarter. Analyst had expected Microsoft to post earnings per share of $0.31, excluding special items, IDG News Service reported.
Microsoft attributed its quarterly revenue growth to strength in its server and tools business, as well as rapid customer adoption of its database, SQL Server, which the company said had sales growth of 16 percent compared to the third quarter of this year.
Strong sales of the vendor's Xbox electronic game console also contributed to 22 percent growth for Microsoft's Home and Entertainment division.
Still, Microsoft is often bumping up against itself as it sells its technology wares. "When you have the market share that Microsoft has, it's hard to grow at astronomical rates," said Gordon Haff, senior analyst at consulting company Illuminata.
"Also an issue for Microsoft is the fact that it is getting harder and harder to get people to upgrade," Haff added. "For example, Microsoft Office is a large chunk of revenue. How many people really need to upgrade to the next version of Office? Their installed base is still their competition. For most people Office XP is perfectly adequate for their needs."
"What's happened with Microsoft is after a spectacular period of super-growth, it's done what all companies inevitably must do. It has reached maturity," James Owers, professor of finance with the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, told CNNMoney.
For the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2006, the company expects revenue to be in the range of $43.7 billion to $44.5 billion, with earnings per share in the range of $1.27 and $1.32.
On a Webcast Thursday, Microsoft CFO Chris Liddell said that all global geographic segments experienced double-digit revenue growth except for Japan, which continues to grow more slowly than other parts of the world, with growth rates in the low single digits.
In terms of business segments, Microsoft's mobile products division ex-perienced some of the most significant growth, with sales up 43 percent sequentially for the fourth quarter, Liddell said. For the year, license revenue for smart phones and mobile devices experienced 130 percent growth from 2004, he added.
Liddell said that a strong PC market also contributed significantly to Mi-crosoft's revenue and earnings for the year, with PC client revenue growth of 10 percent and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) revenue growth of 14 percent over last year.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 22, 2005 02:22 PM
July 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft changes Longhorn's name to Vista
Microsoft has finally and officially christened its next generation operating system, formerly known as Longhorn, to Windows Vista.
Company officials first announced the new name at a Microsoft sales conference in Atlanta before 10,000 attendees on Thursday. Officials also confirmed that they intend to ship the first beta of Vista on Aug. 3, which will be primarily intended for third party developers and IT professionals.
The second beta of the upcoming operating system, which will be much more widely distributed, will be targeted towards consumers and corporate users. That beta is still not expected be delivered until the second half of 2006 with delivery of the finished product due around the holidays, 2006 Microsoft officials said. Microsoft did not discuss when the server version of the product would ship, which the company previously has said will be delivered sometime in 2007.
Windows Vista will not ship with the long awaited Win/FS file system, but will ship with Indigo, which gives developers a way to implement Web services, and with Avalon, the new graphics engine. Microsoft officials yesterday said they would supply much more detailed information about all three pieces at its Professional Developer's Conference in Los Angeles in Sept.
On the new Web site promoting Windows Vista, (www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/default.mspx), it says the product will bring a "new level of confidence" that users will have in their PCs as well as introducing "clear ways to organize and use information the way you want to use it," and will help seamlessly connect users to information, people and devices.
Microsoft said on Thursday it promised to offer more detailed information about Vista on Aug 3.
Posted by Ed Scannell on July 22, 2005 09:24 AM
July 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Joy imparts vision, reflections
Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy, now a venture capitalist, stressed the convergence of scientific disciplines to provide innovations, speaking at Sun's AlwaysOn conference Thursday.
Disciplines will be linked ranging from biology and chemistry, biology and material sciences to computer networks and electrical devices, Joy said.
"It's technology coming together and being applied," said Joy.
Pacemakers will be linked to cellphones and then to the patient's doctor, he said. Shoes will talk to a PC to determine how much walking a person does.
"All these devices that have electricity will get connected," Joy said.
Joy also reflected back on the founding of Java and what he described as the six faces of the Web.
The Green project, which led to Java, originally was focused on building smarter consumer electronic devices and interactive TV. Officials at Sun discussed experience levels with the Web, he said.
These experiences include:
- The near Web, which is viewing the Web via browser.
- The networked, far Web, enabling interactivity via joysticks and gestures.
- The here Web, featuring mobile devices.
- The weird Web, allowing for voice activation for such functions as opening doors.
- The peer-to-peer (P2P) Web, for enterprise computing.
- The device-to-device (D2D) Web, with embedded systems and devices connected by sensors.
By Paul Krill
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 21, 2005 03:42 PM
July 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Mozilla: more fixes for Firefox, Thunderbird
The Mozilla Foundation this week rolled out fixes for the recently released updates to its Firefox Web browser and its Thunderbird e-mail client. The latest tweaks mark the second time in a little over a week that Mozilla has issued fixes for vulnerabilities found in the products.
Firefox 1.0.6 is a stability update that restores API compatibility for extensions and Web applications that did not work in Firefox 1.0.5, Mozilla officials said.
Mozilla is recommending that Firefox users upgrade to this latest version.
Last week Mozilla released Firefox 1.0.5, a security and stability update to the browser. Version 1.0.5 fixed a list of vulnerabilities including code execution through shared function objects, XHTML node spoofing, Javascript prompt origin spoofing, and Content-generated event vulnerabilities.
Version 1.0.6 of the Thunderbird e-mail client, also issued this week, is a stability update designed to fix extensions, such as Enigmail, which did not work in Thunderbird 1.0.5. The Enigmail extension allows users to access the authentication and encryption features provided by GnuPG. Enigmail can encrypt or sign mail, decrypt received mail, and import and export public keys.
The Thunderbird 1.0.5 update also was released last week to correct security vulnerabilities and stability, according to Mozilla officials.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on July 21, 2005 02:39 PM
July 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft plan to buy FrontBridge gets thumbs up
An agreement by Microsoft to buy FrontBridge Technologies, a provider of managed services for e-mail security, compliance and availability, is garnering rave reviews. As the need for e-mail security continues to rank highly among IT administrators, it makes sense that Microsoft would ramp up support for its services, commentators say.
David Thompson, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Exchange Server Product Group, explained the need to bulk up security. "There are basically two major dimensions that are critical to all customers," Thompson said. "E-mail has to be always available and secondly, and more complex, there are environmental factors that make it hostile in terms of virus attacks and spam, [which is] a challenge for compliance. You have to archive and store e-mail for certain types of business regulations, and to do this you need to protect the information flow with policy."
Industry analyst Matt Cain said that providing what he termed "e-mail hygiene" products and services is popular at the moment, and Microsoft and more traditional security companies are especially interested in cashing in on the trend. "There is an intense need for e-mail hygiene services that's growing all the time," said Cain, a vice president with research firm Gartner. "It's certainly a hot market, and we do expect further consolidation."
Sarah Kittmer, with Ovum, pointed out the importance of Exchange Server. "Microsoft's Exchange Server is one of the most popular email systems out there. It has been clear for some time that Microsoft hasn't done an awful lot to help customers with some of the issues they are facing, given the new wave of compli-ance requirements, and the relentless thirst of potential malefactors to target weaknesses in the email environment. This acquisition is aimed at bridging the shortfall."
"Businesses have been clamoring for the leading e-mail providers, like Microsoft, to enhance the capabilities of mail servers," Forrester Research analyst Erica Rugullies, told Sci-Tech Today. "With this acquisition, Exchange customers won't have to seek out a third-party product for archiving and e-mail management."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 21, 2005 02:27 PM
July 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Developers petition IBM to open source OS/2
Rabid developers and other fans of IBM's OS/2 refuse to let the legendary operating system die.
In the wake of IBM declaring that it is dropping support for it, over 11,000 people have signed a petition now up on the OS/2 World Web site asking the company to open source portions of it, if not the entire operating system. Supporters of the petition argue that in so doing the company's long-suffering user and development communities can continue to be well served.
"Customers that are willing to continue using OS/2 will get the benefits of an open OS that will be continuously developed by individual developers and/or software companies, their ownership fees will decrease and they will have the enhanced security of an OS that will continue to be relevant due to the open-ended nature of open source (following the BSD and Linux examples)," according to the petition.
Petitioners admit there are a number of legal barriers to overcome for IBM to release the code, but are asking that the company "release as much of the source as possible" and to list the OS/2 components that need an open source replacement. With a list of components that need to be replaced, interested companies could create open source software that would fill in the "holes," according to the petition.
The prospect of IBM releasing any code however appears dim given the legal entanglements involving third parties who have contributed to OS/2 over the years and the associated expenses.
"It's an expensive proposition given the intellectual property involved as well as the prospect of distracting anyone from Linux," according to an IBM spokesman.
Posted by Ed Scannell on July 21, 2005 01:53 PM
July 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft snaps up secure e-mail provider FrontBridge
Microsoft strengthened its position in both managed services and messaging security Wednesday, announcing plans to acquire FrontBridge Technologies, a company that provides managed services for e-mail security, compliance and availability, executives from both companies said.
Microsoft plans to integrate FrontBridge and its 160 employees as part of the Exchange Server Group, said Dave Thompson, corporate vice president of the Exchange division at Microsoft.
FrontBridge provides managed services to ensure a company's messaging infrastructure is secure, that its e-mail is always available and that e-mail archiving requirements are compliant with current government regulations, Thompson said. These services are in line with key demands Microsoft customers have made about their e-mail and messaging services, he said.
"There are basically two major dimensions that are critical to all customers," Thompson said. "E-mail has to be always available and secondly, and more com-plex, there are environmental factors that make it hostile in terms of virus at-tacks and spam, [which is] a challenge for compliance. You have to archive and store e-mail for certain types of business regulations, and to do this you need to protect the information flow with policy."
Industry analyst Matt Cain said that providing what he termed "e-mail hygiene" products and services is popular at the moment, and Microsoft and more tradi-tional security companies are especially interested in cashing in on the trend.
"There is an intense need for e-mail hygiene services that's growing all the time," said Cain, a vice president with research firm Gartner Inc. "It's certainly a hot market, and we do expect further consolidation."
Symantec recently bought two companies in this space, Brightmail and TurnTide, he added. Other companies providing similar products and services include Tumbleweed Communications and CipherTrust, IDG News Service reported.
While Microsoft is building this kind of technology into the next version of Exchange, code-named Exchange Server 12, the company also wanted to give custom-ers the option of having these services hosted and managed for them rather than having to build out a secure messaging infrastructure themselves, Thompson said. Exchange Server 12 is expected to be released in the second half of 2006.
"We realized it was important for customers to have choice, that for some the solution that might be best for them was to have a managed service that runs certain pieces of e-mail infrastructure on their behalf," he said.
Indeed, Gartner's Cain said that providing secure messaging and e-mail archiv-ing services in a hosted way is "turning out to be particularly attractive" for companies.
Selling managed services in general is becoming increasingly popular, with many major vendors and services providers embracing the business model as a way to give customers alternative ways of managing their software and hardware in-frastructure. An entire crop of new companies called managed services providers has emerged over the past several years that focus exclusively on selling these services.
Until now, Microsoft's managed services offering for businesses has been con-fined to Live Meeting, its Web conferencing service acquired from Placeware Inc. in 2003, Thompson said. However, at the recent Microsoft Worldwide Partner Con-ference in Minneapolis, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer stated that Microsoft plans to make more investments in offering managed ser-vices to its customers.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 20, 2005 05:40 PM
July 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
FTC cans porn spam for $1.16 million
Five pornography companies have agreed to pay $1.16 million in fines for sending "spam" e-mail without a warning that it contains sexually explicit material, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said on Wednesday.
Three other businesses also face lawsuits for sending improperly labeled e-mail, according to the FTC.
Under FTC rules, commercial e-mailers must include the phrase "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT" in the subject lines of pornographic messages to allow consumers to more easily filter them out.
Marketers also must ensure that the messages don't contain graphic sexual images when they are first opened up.
The companies targeted in the crackdown didn't actually send out the messages but are still liable because they hired others to do so, the FTC said.
According to the FTC, BangBros.com Inc. of Florida agreed to pay $650,000; the less-explicitly named MD Media of Michigan will pay $238,743, and APC Entertainment Inc. of Florida will pay $220,000. Pure Marketing Solutions and Internet Matrix Technology together will pay $50,000 to settle the charges.
The settlements bar future violations of the CAN-SPAM Act and the Adult Labeling Rule. The companies also agreed to allow the FTC to monitor their operations to make sure they comply with existing laws.
Three other companies also face lawsuits for improper labeling: TJ Web Productions, based in Nevada; Cyberheat Inc. of Arizona; and Impulse Media, of Washington State.
Microsoft Corp. helped in the investigation, the FTC said.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 20, 2005 01:55 PM
July 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft sues Google and former exec over defection
Microsoft got tough with a former top executive for defecting to rival Google, suing both him and Google for violating a noncompetition agreement signed when he was hired at Microsoft.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in the King County Superior Court in Washington, Microsoft named as a defendant Kai-Fu Lee, who joined Google Tuesday to spearhead new research and development efforts in China. Until Monday, Lee was corporate vice president of Microsoft's Natural Interactive Services Division.
"We are asking the Court to require Dr. Lee and Google to honor the confidentiality and non-competition agreements he signed when he began working for Microsoft," the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a press statement. "Creating intellectual property is the essence of what we do at Microsoft, and we have a responsibility to our employees and our shareholders to protect our intellectual property. As a senior executive, Dr. Lee has direct knowledge of Microsoft’s trade secrets concerning search technologies and China business strategies. He has accepted a position focused on the same set of technologies and strategies for a direct competitor in egregious violation of his explicit contractual obligations."
Microsoft has good reason to go to the mat to stop Lee, said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group. "The guy (Lee) was their central guy in China," Enderle said. "He knows centralized strategy and is responsible for the lab in China. Undoubtedly, Google will be doing some of the things Microsoft does. If there is a handful of people who know what Microsoft is going to be doing, he's one of them.
"The typical rule of thumb is when an executive leaves he's asked to sit out a year so the information is no longer relevant," Enderle added.
According to a Google press statement, the company aims for Lee, who is known for his work in the areas of speech recognition and artificial intelligence, to expand Google's recruitment, research and development efforts in China, IDG News Service reported. The vendor expects to open its new China facility in the third quarter of this year.
Microsoft is asking the court to prevent Lee and Google from undertaking any actions that violate Lee's noncompete employment agreement with Microsoft, as well as from "disclosing or misappropriating" any of Microsoft's trade secrets or proprietary information, according to the complaint.
Microsoft also is requesting that the court to prohibit Lee or anyone at Google from possibly luring other Microsoft employees away from the company, as well as from destroying any documents, whether written or electronic, that re-late in any way to Microsoft's and Google's employment of Lee.
In a statement, Google executives said Microsoft's claims are "completely without merit" and that the company plans to fight the suit.
"We're thrilled to have Dr. Lee on board at Google," the company said. "We will defend vigorously against these meritless claims and will fully support Dr. Lee."
Google and Microsoft have become increasingly heated rivals in the areas of email and desktop search, and Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer has repeatedly expressed his intentions to unseat Google from its dominant posi-tion in the search engine space. Indeed, just Monday at the annual Microsoft Re-search Faculty Summit, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates referred to Google as a "faddishly hot" company, suggesting that the vendor is merely a flash in the pan.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 20, 2005 01:52 PM
July 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
IBM on Tuesday announced a reorganization of its mammoth Global Services (IGS) division appointing a team of three executives who will jointly head the organization replacing the departing John Joyce who is leaving to join Silver Lake Partners, a private technology investment company.
At the same time the company announced that 31-year IBM veteran Janet Perna, who shaped and directed IBM's data base and content management strategies for well over a decade, is retiring. Under Perna's reign IBM over the past couple of years pulled even with the long time leader in the data base market, Oracle, for market share. She will be replaced by Ambuj Goyal, who has headed IBM's Lotus division. No replacement has been named for Goyal.
The three executives who will head IGS include Ginni Rometty, 47, who has the title of senior vice president of enterprise business services, Mike Daniels, 51, who is now senior vice president of IT services, and Bob Moffat, 49, who assumes the title of senior vice president of integrated operations focusing specifically on IBM's services business.
The decision to install three executives to run IGS is not a direct response to the disappointing revenue shortfall the group experienced in the first quarter of this year, according to a company spokesman. Earlier this year company executives had attributed the shortfall to trouble closing some larger Global Services deals.
"It's a natural evolution of the services business, and IBM is using these moves to help the company become more responsive and more competitive," said Ed Barbini, and IBM spokesman. "It reflects how customers choose to buy services, and it's an evolution of the way we operate and manage this business, so IBM can better take advantage of the growth opportunities in this market," Barbini said.
As a way of offering proof that IGS is in the process of making a sales comeback, Barbini said the just completed second quarter showed IGS growing 6% over the last quarter with pre-tax income up 18% as compared with last year's second. This improvement ended six consecutive quarters of declining growth rates. The group's backlog is up sequentially $3 billion over the course of the second quarter and is now at $113 billion in total, a company spokesman said.
At least one Wall St. analyst did not see the move as unexpected or one that is particularly dramatic.
"John Joyce's leaving should not come as too much of a surprise to investors in light of all the speculation about his being considered as a candidate for various CEO positions. Despite his strong contribution, Global Services has a strong enough bench that we would expect virtually no discernible impact, particularly since we imagine that IBM knew that this was in the making. Our rating remains OP/N," said Laura Conigliaro an analyst with Goldman Sachs.
All three newly appointed executives will report directly to IBM Chairman and CEO Sam Palmisano.
In a related move Marc Lautenbach, 44, who has headed IBM's small and medium-size business group (SMB), will replace Daniels who was head of IBM's sales in North America.
Lastly, IBM announced it has promoted Nick Donofrio to Executive Vice President of Technology and Innovation, although his role of "driving innovation further inside and outside of IBM," will not change, according to a company spokesman.
Posted by Ed Scannell on July 19, 2005 12:55 PM
July 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
HP to slash 14,500 jobs in major restructuring move
Hewlett-Packard said it will cut 14,500 jobs, or around 10 percent of its workforce to achieve $1.9 billion a year in savings. Under new CEO Mark Hurd, the cuts come amid a massive reorganization that will link sales and marketing efforts more closely to business units, eliminating the Customer Solutions Group which sold to enterprise customers.
HP's financial performance has been uneven in recent quarters. The company appears to have stemmed the losses in its PC and server groups, but those divisions are not as profitable as management and shareholders would like, IDG News Service reported. HP has its printer business to thank for most of its recent profits, but the company trimmed positions from that group earlier this year in order to further reduce costs.
When the Customer Solutions Group (CSG) is closed, sales staff there will transfer into three business units: Technology Solutions Group, Imaging and Printing Group, and Personal Systems Group. CSG's head, Michael Winkler, will retire at the end of this month, and senior sales positions will be created in each of the three business groups.
Dan Kuznetsky, vice president for system software research at IDC, said it is not yet clear yet how enterprise customers will benefit from the demise of the Customer Solutions Group.
"If each business unit has its own sales force, does every major company have multiple HP to deal with? If so, that goes against the trend," Kuznetsky said. "Companies are looking to standardize to lower the costs of acquisition."
Last month, Hurd separated the imaging and personal systems, undoing a change made by former CEO Carly Fiorina. The moves give each group more control over its business, HP said.
CSG was HP's point of contact with market segments such as the public sector, small and medium-size businesses, or consumers. Those relationships will also be divided between the three business segments, with the technology solutions group taking on public sector customers, the personal systems group handling small and medium-sized businesses and the imaging group dealing with consumers, Hurd said in a conference call with analysts.
"The objective is to create a simpler, nimbler HP with fewer matrices," Hurd said. "I don't have very high affection for matrices."
The restructuring will reduce the number of people involved in each decision, and shorten the path from idea to customer, he said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 19, 2005 11:54 AM
July 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple iTunes success paves way for videos
The news that Apple Computer sold its 500 millionth song through its iTunes music store fueled speculation that the company has plans to add video features to iTunes and its iPod music players.
Always stylish, Apple gave the purchaser of the half-billionth iTune 10 iPods, a gift card for 10,000 songs, and an all-expense-paid trip for four to attend a Coldplay concert as well as back stage passes to meet the band.
Apple now dominates the online music market, and last week reported third quarter that were the best quarter in the company's history.
Net income was $320 million, up a whopping 425 percent from the year-ago period. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.37, six cents better than analyst estimates of $0.31 earnings per share.
"We are delighted to report Apple's best quarter ever in both revenue and earnings," Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and chief executive officer, said last week.
Attention is now focused on reports that the company is in talks with music companies to produce music videos.
"The vPod is coming," said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Goroup. "They've been negotiating with the record industry to show music videos," Enderle said. "Steve (Jobs) is not convinced people will want just videos but they will want videos with music.
"iTunes would be the central (videos-music) depository," Endele added. "The target price will be sub-$500."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 18, 2005 04:41 PM
July 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The Mozilla Foundation got a bitter taste of the fruit of success last week when a website used to promote the Firefox Web browser was hacked, potentially compromising the personal information about many of the volunteer supporters of the popular open-source software.
The attack shut down the spreadfirefox.com Web site for several days last week. The attackers accessed the site by exploiting a previously undisclosed vulnerability in a piece of content management software that runs the site, according to Mozilla Foundation officials.
Spread Firefox is the organization that ran a two-page Firefox advertisement in the New York Times last December to encourage users to abandon Microsoft's Internet Explorer and run Firefox as their web browser instead.
That encouragement appears to be working: Last week the NetApplications.com Web site said the Firefox browser had increased its market share to 8.71 percent.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 18, 2005 02:15 PM
July 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser upped its market share to 8.71 percent in June, continuing its steady march upward.
The figures were released this week by NetApplications.com, a Web site measuring and monitoring application provider.
While Firefox's market share climbed, approaching the milestone of 10 percent, Microsoft's Internet Explorer lost ground, slipping to 86.56 percent in June, from 87.23 percent in May.
At first glance the numbers may not seem earth shattering, but the monthly trend reveals that IE is losing an average of .5 to 1 percent of users each month, according to NetApplications officials.
The numbers were compiled with NetApplication's HitsLink Web site traffic analysis product.
FireFox reached 8 percent during May, which was up from 7.38 percent in April.
The upstart browser's success has also brought it some unwanted attention. The Firefox marketing and support site Spread Firefox was hacked this week. According to information posted on Spread Firefox, the site was down for a few days when a hacker accessed part of the site in an attempt to send out spam.
It isn't known whether any personal information was taken, according to Spread Firefox, but the site's organizers are encouraging users to change passwords anyway.
WebProNews posted a copy of the e-mail that Spread Firefox administrators sent to its members about the attack.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on July 15, 2005 03:23 PM
July 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
SCO e-mail casts new light on Linux infringement lawsuit
The release of an e-mail from a SCO consultant that found "no evidence of any copyright infringement whatsoever" of SCO's code by Linux companies has focused a spotlight on SCO's copyright lawsuit against IBM.
The e-mail, published by the legal Website, Groklaw, was from SCO Senior Vice President Reg Broughton to SCO's Chief Executive Officer Darl McBride, and included a message from SCO engineer Michael Davidson to Broughton titled "Re: Patents and IP Investigation."
In his e-mail, Davidson describes a previous SCO investigation headed by outside consultant Bob Swartz to determine whether any Linux companies had used copied pieces of SCO's Unix source code, said China Martens, in a report from IDG News Service.
Daividson concluded in the email, "At the end, we had found absolutely *nothing*, ie no evidence of any copyright infringement whatsoever."
The investigation came about as "a result of SCO's executive management refus-ing to believe that it was possible for Linux and much of the GNU software to have come into existence without *someone* *somewhere* having copied pieces of proprietary Unix source code to which SCO owned the copyright," Davidson wrote in the e-mail. "The hope was that we would find a 'smoking gun' somewhere in [the] code that was being used by Red Hat and/or the other Linux companies that would give us some leverage."
Dan Kusnetzky, vice president for system software for IDC, cautioned that the e-mail did not address all possibilities of code copyright infringement. ""I'm not sure it's a complete analysis," he said. "The case still needs to be judged by competent people and they need all the information to do it."
SCO responded to the e-mail with a statement and a memo from Oct. 4, 1999, to Senior Vice President Steve Sabbath from Swartz. Doug Michels, SCO CEO and president at the time, was copied on the message.
"This memo shows that Mr. Davidson's e-mail is referring to an investigation limited to literal copying, which is not the standard for copyright violations," SCO said in its statement. "Even more importantly, this memo shows that there *are* problems with Linux. It also notes that additional investigation is required to locate all of the problems, which SCO has been continuing in discovery in the IBM and Autozone one cases." The company added using Davidson's e-mail to suggest SCO's internal investigation revealed no problems would be "inaccurate and misleading."
In Swartz's memo, he talks of trying to determine whether there was "any material from Unix in the Red Hat Linux release 5.2" and buying a copy of Red Hat from Best Buy Co. and comparing it against multiple copies of Unix including SCO's OpenServer 5.0. He notes, "We found two kinds of copying, the first where there were a number of lines that were identical, on a character by character basis, and those where the code was different, but where the code or its struc-ture were substantially similar."
He concludes that such similarities are "clearly disturbing," adding, "It is also clear that in certain instances whoever wrote the code started with Unix source and modified it. Thus there can [be] no doubt that parts of the Linux distribution were derived from Unix."
SCO and Groklaw are old adversaries, with the online legal site providing cov-erage that was often highly critical of every stage of the software vendor's litigation. At one time, SCO even planned to set up a Prosco.net web site to counter Groklaw's coverage and tell its own side of its legal battles, but the company ultimately decided to do that within the www.sco.com site, according to Blake Stowell, a SCO spokesman.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 15, 2005 02:32 PM
July 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Thin clients are getting bigger
IDC this week released a report indicating that thin client shipments grew nearly 20 percent in the first quarter of this year.
IDC's report also stated that customers continued to favor the top suppliers: Wyse, Neoware and HP, with those three constituting nearly 76 percent of the market.
As Dan Tynan pointed out in Think Thin, thin clients currently comprise less than 1 percent of today's desktop machines, but IDC projects they could make up 10 percent by 2008. Tynan's story was part of our online package Is the desktop PC history?
It's a bit early to draw a conclusion like that, but the package contains several stories about companies that are embracing the thin client approach, among both vendors and customers.
Microsoft and Sun are also in the thin client fray. Team Redmond is working on a version of Windows XP, code-named Eiger, that it's building specifically for thin clients, while Sun offers Sun Ray systems.
And the Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP) is working on a way for open source users to tie thin clients to Linux servers.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on July 15, 2005 07:12 AM
July 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft signs Marvel and Superheroes for Xbox 360
Microsoft and Marvel Enterprises announced a licensing agreement giving Microsoft exclusive rights to develop and publish massively multiplayer online games using some of the some of world's most popular superheroes.
With the deal, Microsoft will get a stable of stars such as Spider-Man and Hulk for its next-generation Xbox 360 system as it does battle with arch rival Sony, with PlayStation 3.
In the fan-based world of gaming, grabbing a superhero or two can make a huge difference, said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Gourp. "It's believed that because there is so much interest in Superheroes, and that Microsoft is such a strong player in the space, a game based on Microsoft's heroes will be a powerful draw. Of, course, it all depends on how good the game is," Enderle said.
Massively multiplayer games (MMOGs), which thousands of players can play online simultaneously, is a significant growth area of the burgeoning, multi-billion-dollar interactive entertainment industry, Microsoft said in a statement. The addition of Spider-Man and X-Man can only enhance Xbox, the company said.
"Marvel has created some of the most iconic and exciting characters and stories in the past century. We’re thrilled to bring this universe to interac-tive entertainment," said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of Worldwide Marketing and Publishing for Xbox at Microsoft. "With this next generation of gaming, Marvel fans will finally have the ability to create choices with their favorite Super Heroes, villains and creatures in unbelievable detail - all with the power of Marvel’s incredible vision and the Xbox platform."
The Marvel-based titles will be developed for the Xbox 360 console platform. "The alliance with Microsoft catapults us into the games category in an unprecedented way. Microsoft is an acknowledged leader in the interactive game space, and backed by their technology, creative and marketing clout, Marvel will establish a strong presence in the burgeoning online gaming arena," said Tim Rothwell, worldwide president of the Consumer Media Group at Marvel Enterprises.
Marvel has a library of more than 5,000 characters, and has operations fo-cused in licensing and entertainment, comic book publishing and toys. Marvel's products include feature films, DVD/home video, video games and television programming based on its characters. The company also licenses its characters for use in a wide range of consumer products and services including apparel, collectibles, snack foods and promotions.
Microsoft's Xbox 360 is expected to be available near the holiday season in North America, Europe and Japan.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 14, 2005 05:37 PM
July 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
VMware throws its support behind dual-core servers
VMware, Inc. on Thursday said it will support dual-core processors across its entire line of virtual infrastructure software without any additional licensing costs. According to Jeffrey Engleman, VMware's executive vice president of marketing, dual core systems represent "a sweet spot for virtualization" technology for believing that it can help users can pull more capabilities out of new or existing hardware systems.
VMware earlier this month released its GSX Server 3.2, which is the first VMware product to support dual-core servers. The company plans to deliver its data center-level products, to be called ESX Server and VirtualCenter, later this year which company officials say will complete the delivery of their systems that will support dual-core servers.
More information about the company's line of virtual infrastructure software can be seen at www.vmware.com.
Posted by Ed Scannell on July 14, 2005 11:31 AM
July 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Spam, spam, spam: Users buy spam a lot
For all the jokes everyone makes about how lame most spam e-mails are, you would think no one believed that some oddly named company was a good investment or that one's bank account needs a bit of updating with oddles of personal data.
Not according to a survey conducted by secure messaging provider Mirapoint and consulting company Radicati Group. According to the survey of nearly 800 end-users, 11 percent of users have purchased products and services from spam e-mails and nine percent of users have lost money due to an e-mail scam.
Even if they aren't buying products, 39 percent of users admit to clicking on embedded links within spam (not counting the unsubscribe link). Furthermore, 57 percent of respondents that click on spam links say they receive more spam. That's pretty much like a deer painting on a target symbol during hunting season.
Clicking links within spam email not only alerts the spammer that the email address is active, it can direct users to web sites that then install viruses, spyware and other malicious code. In a corporate environment, spam and security threats can also spread to other users in the organization, their partners and customers.
In other security news today, VeriSign has added security research and consulting firm iDefense for $40 million. Read more here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 14, 2005 08:03 AM
July 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft releases critical patches for IE, Word, Windows
In its monthly security report, Microsoft issued three software updates that patch important security flaws, including a patch for an Internet Explorer vulnerability first reported last week. The company also released patches for Microsoft Word and for a feature of the Windows operating system that is used by a number of applications.
All three of the patches, which Microsoft calls "updates," are rated "critical," meaning that the flaws they fix could allow malicious code to be installed on a user's computer with very little user action, IDG News Service reported.
While the Microsoft's regular reports point to a seemingly continuous trail of security problems, the company is actually making much progress reinforcing its security profile, said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group.
"They are patching at a high rate of speed and in some cases they are patching vulnerabilities that people didn't even know existed," Enderle said. "We are seeing the impact of a much more potent identification and corrective process."
The updates affect current versions of Windows and Internet Explorer as well as certain older versions of Word, according to Stephen Toulouse, security program manager with Microsoft's security response center.
Internet Explorer (IE) and Windows patches appear to be the most significant, as the flaws they address could both be used by an attacker to take control of a user's system via a maliciously encoded Web page, said Neel Mehta, team leader of X-Force research with security vendor Internet Security Systems (ISS). The IE bug is significant because security experts have already shown a way that it could be exploited by an attacker, he said.
Last week, Microsoft issued a work-around to this problem, which concerns a file used by IE called Javaprxy.dll. However, Tuesday's patch fixes the underlying problem, Metha said.
ISS is also concerned about the Windows vulnerability, which relates to a feature called the Microsoft Color Management Module. This software is used to ensure that colors look the same when they are being rendered on different types of hardware, and is employed by a number of widely used applications, including Microsoft Outlook and IE, Metha said.
"Our initial analysis shows it being pretty conducive to exploitation," Metha said. "Any application that uses the built-in Windows facilities to show JPEG images, or possibly some other images, could be an attack vector for this vulnerability."
In fact, Microsoft has already privately been made aware of exploits of this flaw, Toulouse said.
The Word vulnerability, which could allow an attacker to gain control of a user's system when a maliciously encoded Word document is opened, does not affect the most recent version of the word processor. However, users of Word 2000, 2002 will need to install the patch, Toulouse said.
The three patches are detailed in Microsoft Security Bulletins MS05-35, MS05-36 and MS05-37. A new version of a previously released bulletin, entitled MS05-33 was also released Tuesday after Microsoft discovered that the Windows bug that it addresses also affects the company's Services for Unix 2.0 and 2.1. products, Toulouse said.
All three of the patches will probably require a reboot in order to take effect, Toulouse said. "If the files are in use when the update is applied, and in these cases they're pretty much going to be, that is what forces a reboot," he said.
Microsoft's Security Bulletins can be found here. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms05-jul.mspx
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 13, 2005 05:24 PM
July 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Borland Software last week quietly acknowledged the departure of its CEO, Dale Fuller. The announcement was made during the generally quiet week of July 4, which perhaps gave Borland some assistance in not drawing too much attention to itself over this.
While trying to serve both the .Net and Java markets, Borland nonetheless has been caught in the Eclipse juggernaut, which is resulting in a commoditization of the Java IDE market. Borland's JBuilder has been a player in this space.
Fuller's departure was made in conjunction with the revelation that the company was not meeting financial expectations. I always found Fuller to be an upbeat individual optimistic about Borland's chances. His exit was a bit of a surprise to me, although he remains on the company's board of directors.
Borland offers developers an alternative to Microsoft for developing Windows applications and an alternative to Sun Microsystems, BEA Systems and IBM for developing on Java. The company's neutrality is further enhanced by its not being a player in the hardware market, like Sun and IBM.
It will be interesting to observe whether Borland can grow its market share in both .Net and Java, as well to watch its progress in the emerging application lifecycle management market.
The company in recent years gone from being named Borland, then Inprise and back to Borland. Like the earthquake country of northern California, where the company is based, Borland remains subject to quaking of its own.
Posted by Paul Krill on July 13, 2005 04:34 PM
July 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple Computer's iPod music player was joined by strong growth in Mac shipments during the company's third quarter, leading Apple to the best financial quarter in its history, the company announced Wednesday.
Overall revenue was $3.5 billion, up 75 percent compared to last year's third fiscal quarter, or the period ending June 25. This exceeded the estimates of analysts compiled by Thomson First Call for $3.33 billion in revenue, IDG News Service reported.
Net income was $320 million, up a whopping 425 percent from the year-ago period. This resulted in earnings per share of $0.37, six cents better than analyst estimates of $0.31 earnings per share.
"We are delighted to report Apple's best quarter ever in both revenue and earnings," said Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and chief executive officer, in a press release.
But how do you account for a 35 percent jump in Apple sales? Are they fueled by current users upgrading or is it incremental sales from first time Apple buyers?
The numbers don't lie.
Apple sold 687,000 desktops in third quarter 2005 compared to 416,000 desktops in third quarter 2004. Portables sold 495,000 compared to 460,000 in third quarter 2004.
According to Bloomberg, Apple's "computer sales are growing twice as fast as the market."
Notebook sales climbed to $720 million from $696 million and desktop Mac sales increased to $845 million from $567 million, quarter over quarter.
With iPod sales increasing to record levels, 860,000 units third quarter 2004 versus 6,155,000 this quarter, some say it is a case of the tail wagging the dog as the sale of the diminutive MP3 players pushes consumers toward Apple's higher ticket items.
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies attributes Apple's third quarter growth to three important factors, the unprecedented effect of its "switch" campaign, the fact that Mac's ease of use in managing pictures, music and video in iLife is resonating with consumers and the halo effect coming from sales of iPods.
"The mythical halo effect has legs," said Bajarin.
Bajarin said the great growth numbers are coming from the consumer market not business buyers.
"In looking at volume buys [made by the enterprise] we don't see the Mac in those type of buys," Bajarin said.
- By Ephraim Schwartz
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 13, 2005 04:25 PM
July 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Spyware definitions open to public comment
The Anti-Spyware Coalition (ASC), a group of IT companies and public interest organizations, is hoping to succeed where a previous organization fell short in dealing with the problem of spyware.
The ASC has released a draft definition of spyware it hopes will bring on public comment and result in users being better educated about the dangers of spyware.
A previous organization, the Consortium of Anti-Spyware Technology Vendors (Coast), with members primarily from the security software vendor community, failed to deal with member's conflicting goals.
The ASC is asking for public comment on documents it has released, such as a list of spyware, a glossary defining commonly used terms relating to spyware and advice on how to protect against spyware.
For more information on the organization and its documents, check out our story here.
Posted by Bob Francis on July 13, 2005 10:14 AM
July 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
IBM and Zend deliver PHP-based environment
IBM and Zend on Tuesday made good on their promise made this past February to jointly deliver Zend Core for IBM, an integrated solution to developers deploy data base applications and services using the Web-based PHP language.
In a related development the two companies also announced they are jointly working to enhance PHP by including better high-level database integration frameworks and enhanced PHP-based Web services standards. In a third announcement Zend separately announced its Zend Network, a service and support system that offers enterprise-class updates and support for PHP developers.
Zend Core for IBM weaves IBM's DB2 Universal Database and Cloudscape, which is based on the Apache Software Foundation's Derby project, with Zend's open source PHP environment. By combining the two officials from both companies believe they can offer an out-of-the-box PHP development environment that makes it easier to create exploitive applications.
Zend Core for IBM is built on PHP 5 technology and has native support for XML and Web services, which IBM and Zend both contend are becoming more mainstream as corporate users gravitate increasingly to Service Oriented Architectures.
IBM’s online resource for developers can be found at www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/top-projects/php.html.
Posted by Ed Scannell on July 12, 2005 02:20 PM
July 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
New .mobi domain gets approval from ICANN
The Internet's governing body, ICANN, has approved the creation of the ".mobi" domain suffix, for use by Websites designed for cell phones and other mobile devices. The initiative is aimed at improving ease of use of Internet-based mobile services, although some question whether creating separate domain for mobile devices is necessary.
A joint venture of mobile technology companies, mTLD Top Level Domain, next year will start issuing Internet domain names under a new .mobi top-level domain name, the company said.
The company, which was formed by Microsoft, Nokia, the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) Association, Vodafone Group PLC and other heavy hitters, has completed a contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that formalized the creation of the .mobi domain, IDG News Service reported. After it creates a registry service, mTLD expects to begin issuing .mobi domain names in the first half of next year. It has been contracted to provide the registry service for .mobi for the next ten years, mTLD said.
The company hopes to foster more mobile use of the Internet, said Rick Fant, a member of the board of mTLD.
"The issue we are trying to solve is that the average mobile user has mobile Internet access but doesn't know it or doesn't want to try it," Fant said. Fant expects users to find out about .mobi sites through advertising and search engines.
"When you see .mobi at the end of a service, you know it's designed to work with a mobile device," he said. Fant sees phones eventually appending the .mobi suffix to site addresses automatically, saving users the trouble of entering it via a numeric keypad.
One analyst said that regardless of the coming of the new domain name, mobile applications and devices are appearing which will give access to increasingly sophisticated content.
"There is a concern (with .mobi) that we push off into Internet space a category of mobile-only data," said Gerry Purdy, principal at MobileTrax. "The challenge we have technologically is we have to find a way to enable the full Internet for all mobile users."
The initiative is also aimed at creating opportunities for content providers, ISVs and ASPs to extend new and existing Internet-based services to their customers, according to mTLD.
As part of its contracts with companies that use the domain names, mTLD will require they follow a style guide that includes requirements such as the ability to use a site on a low-bandwidth connection, Fant said. Those requirements will be largely self-policed, but it will be in the best interests of all parties for site operators to follow the guidelines, Fant said. The style guide should in-clude rules about flagging adult content, he said.
"In cases of very flagrant violation, I'm sure we will pull them from the namespace," he said.
For the first three months after they become available, there will be a "sunrise" period in which trademark owners can reserve their names.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 12, 2005 01:48 PM
July 11, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft says no exceptions made for adware maker Claria
Microsoft acted quickly to dispel speculation that it gave preferential treatment to Claria after it was in reportedly acquisition talks with the adware maker.
After a report surfaced earlier this month that Microsoft downgraded the threat level of Claria from "Quarantine" to "Ignore" and noted reports that Microsoft was in talks to acquire Claria, Microsoft responded quickly.
Microsoft published a lenghtly response, saying that although no exceptions were made in Claria's case, "adjustments should be made to the classification of Claria software in order to be fair and consistent with how Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) handles similar software from other vendors."
The case drew some wary reactions from bloggers on Slashdot.org.
But Microsoft said it has strict criteria in place to judge threat levels. In its response, Microsoft said in part:
"...We received some questions around Microsoft's classification of Claria software in our Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware (Beta). We wanted to take this op-portunity to clear up any misconceptions and explain our current policies and practices.
"As you may know, the analysis of software is based on a single set of objective criteria, which can be found on our web site: Windows AntiSpyware (Beta): Analysis approach and categories.
"Microsoft offers all software companies the opportunity to request a review of how Microsoft classifies their products through our vendor dispute process," Microsoft said in its response. "In January, Claria filed a request for Microsoft to reevaluate some of its products. Upon review of their software against our criteria, we determined that continued detection of Claria's products was indeed appropriate. We also decided that adjustments should be made to the classification of Claria software in order to be fair and consistent with how Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) handles similar software from other vendors. At the end of March, we communicated to Claria the result of our analysis through our standard process.
"We take software analysis for Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) very seriously and handle all vendor requests in the same manner. All software is reviewed under the same objective criteria, detection policies, and analysis process," Microsoft said. "Absolutely no exceptions were made for Claria. Windows AntiSpyware (Beta) continues to notify our users when Claria software is found on a computer, and it offers our users the option to remove the software if they desire."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on July 11, 2005 03:09 PM
July 08, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft debuts server and licensing bundle for the midmarket
Microsoft rolled out the red carpet for midmarket companies at its Worldwide Partner Conference 2005, being held in Minneapolis this weekend, debuting a Windows software and licensing package called the Windows Server System, aimed at making it easier to implement basic Microsoft infrastructure software.
Also at the show, Microsoft will unveil a new version of its Open License Program aimed at midmarket customers, John Lauer, vice president of midmarket in the small, midmarket, and partner solutions business at Microsoft, told IDG News Service.
The changes will "resonate" with customers in this space, which Microsoft defines as those with between 50 and 1,000 employees, Lauer told the News Service's Elizabeth Montalbano.
Steven Van Roekel, Microsoft's director of midmarket solutions for Windows Server, acknowledged that Microsoft's software licensing leaves midmarket customers "in the vortex" where they end up paying more than enterprise customers and small business customers for the Microsoft infrastructure they need to run their businesses.
"What tends to happen with the midmarket is [the companies] aren't large enough to take advantage of the preferential enterprise pricing, but they can't take advantage of small business pricing," he said. Promotions like the new Windows Server System Offer are designed to alleviate some of those licensing woes, Van Roekel said.
The new promotion runs for a year and includes three copies of Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, one copy of Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition, one copy of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Workgroup Edition, and 50 client access licenses (CALs) each for Windows Server and Excha