- Apple iTunes phone details are eagerly awaited
- IT worker confidence plunges
- Microsoft buys VoIP startup Teleo
- Chinese cyberspy invasion
- Zotob author may have written 20 other viruses
- Microsoft WinFS file system gets early release to beta
- Zotob writer, now caught, was paid to create worm
- Public largely ignorant of Web threats, but women less so
- More takes on Google's IM
- Google Talk may spur IM interoperability
August 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple iTunes phone details are eagerly awaited
Apple Computer's expected partnership with Motorola and Cingular Wireless to introduce an iTunes mobile phone that can store and play digital music is creating a buzz as many anticipate the details will be released at a San Francisco event next week.
The companies are likely to announce the long-awaited device on Sept. 7, when Apple said it will make a major product announcement. Motorola Chairman and CEO Edward J. Zander told analysts at a conference in July that such a phone will be on sale by the end of September.
Apple is following the leads of Disney and ESPN to develop a phone service for its content, acting as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group. "This is similar to what Disney and ESPN did by contracting service from the carrier and selling it under its own brand in its Apple stores," Enderle said. "Or, it could be a cell phone deal with Cingular."
The phone most likely will have storage capacity similar to the iPod Shuffle, which is available with as much as 1G byte of flash memory, and use an online music service co-branded by both Apple and Cingular, IDG News Service reported, citing telecommunications analyst Roger Entner of Ovum.
The new service probably will offer all the music available today on Apple's iTunes Music Store, Entner said. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that users will be able to download songs onto the phone from the iTunes music collections on their PCs. It was not clear whether they would be able to download songs over the mobile phone network.
Enderle said Apple's move may indicate a leveling off of interest in the iPod. "This could indicate that the iPod, as a class of devices, is going in decline," he said. "If you have a single class that offers both an iPod and a phone function, it could indicate that MP3 players are in decline."
Apple may introduce a new line of single-purpose portable music players to replace the iPod Mini, the Journal reported. They would have flash memory and be slimmer than the iPod Mini.
Cingular, the largest mobile operator in the U.S. with about 50 million customers, is a joint venture of SBC Communications and BellSouth.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 31, 2005 02:16 PM
August 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
According to the Hudson Employment Index, confidence IT workers have in the employment market plummeted in August. For only the second time in history, the index fell below the base rate of 100 points.
Citing less optimism about personal finances, job security and job satisfaction, the index fell from 109.9 points in July to 97.5 in August.
Other findings:
47% of respondents rated their personal finances as excellent or good in August, down dramatically from 62% the previous month
36% indicated that their finances were getting worse, a jump of 8 percentage points
29% of IT employees are concerned about losing their jobs, up from 26% last month
70% stated they were happy in their current jobs, compared to 75% last month
On a more positive note, more workers anticipated that their companies would expand their workforce in the coming months, up from 32%
A PDF of the Hudson Employment Index is available for download.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 31, 2005 09:03 AM
August 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft buys VoIP startup Teleo
Microsoft purchased Teleo and plans to incorporate the acquired VoIP technology into its MSN services, including MSN Messenger.
The VoIP functionality will enable users to place calls from their PC to other PCs, as well as to landline and mobile phones. Teleo brings features such as click-to-call, which enable users to click on a phone number to initiate the call on a circuit-switched network.
The Redmond giant will join rivals Google, Yahoo and Skype in offering voice capabilities over instant messaging. Last week Google detailed its new Google Talk service, while Yahoo two months ago bought Dialpad.
The Times Online reports the viewpoints of Ovum and Forrester analysts in Is Microsoft the new BT?
My colleague Cathleen Moore blogged about how the recent IM moves might spur interoperability among the services.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 31, 2005 06:56 AM
August 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Time Magazine has an article this week on Shawn Carpenter, the "secret volunteer" who tracked a cyber-espionage ring that federal investigators dubbed Titan Rain.
This new breed of enemy was breaking into government networks and, in what Time called a "stunning breakthrough," Carpenter followed Titan Rain's trail to Guangdong, China.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 31, 2005 06:36 AM
August 30, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Zotob author may have written 20 other viruses
When Moroccan authorities arrested Farid Essebar in connection with the Zotob virus, they knew he used the alias Diabl0 and believed he also wrote the Mytob worm.
But this morning security firm Sophos is saying that Essebar may actually have created some 20 other viruses, including MyDoom-BG. For the full list, see Sophos' report. All of them, save MyDoom-BG, are Mytob variants.
Sophos determined this by finding the moniker Diabl0 inside the malicious code.
The Register reported in Zotob suspects arrested in Turkey and Morocco:
The worm, dubbed Botzor2005 by its creator Diabl0, contained both Diabl0's and Coder's handles. The worm acknowledged Coder as well as tried to connect to an IRC channel named diabl0.turkcoders.net.
Sophos also said "it's possible that more people have access to the Mytob source code, so it may not be the last we see of this Internet scourge."
Indeed, reports indicate that cyber crime fears remain despite the arrests.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 30, 2005 06:28 AM
August 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft WinFS file system gets early release to beta
Microsoft decided to release a test version of its next-generation file system, WinFS, well ahead of schedule.
The company made the first beta of the new file system available to Microsoft Developer Network subscribers. Developers had not expected to see a test version of WinFS until next year, under Microsoft's previous timeline, IDG News Service reported.
WinFS will not be a part of the next version of Windows, Windows Vista, when it ships at the end of next year, but will be available to the operating system as an add-on release sometime in 2007, said Quentin Clark, director of program management for WinFS at Microsoft.
The technology originally was scheduled to be part of Windows Vista but Microsoft cancelled that plan in August 2004. WinFS promises to make it easier for users to search and organize their files on the Windows operating system, Clark said.
"There are some exciting things with this beta including Windows XP support," Tom Rizzo, Microsoft's direcotr of product managment for SQL Server, wrote in his blog. "The end game for WinFS stays the same which is that WinFS will be in beta when Windows Vista ships. You'll learn a lot more about WinFS at PDC (Professional Developers Conference 2005).
"There is also a new WinFS Blog available up on MSDN for you to learn more about the product," he said.
"We took some people by surprise by releasing our beta early but we wanted to make sure we get it out there before PDC so developers have some time to try it out and provide feedback," Rizzo added.
When Microsoft first introduced WinFS in 2003, the company said it would include a new synchronization engine that could index a host of disparate Windows files - such as photos, e-mails, MP3s and documents - in a way that would en-able users to more easily search and catalog these files on their PC, said Joe Wilcox, senior analyst at Jupiter Research.
"Originally there were capabilities around synchronization and search - among others - that looked very promising," he said.
However, with the changes Microsoft has made to the availability of WinFS since then, it has been unclear what features will be available in the final version. The test version may answer some of these questions, Wilcox said.
The beta of WinFS includes a set of APIs and schemas that allow developers to start working with the new file system and get accustomed to the new data model, Clark said.
Microsoft is putting a lot of thought and care into WinFS because it is the file system that will drive Windows for a whole new generation of users, he said. "As a file system technology, it’s important we get it right," Clark said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 29, 2005 04:08 PM
August 29, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Zotob writer, now caught, was paid to create worm
Now that authorities have apprehended the alleged writer of Zotob, an interesting facet of the story has emerged: Diabl0, the author, may have been paid to write the virus.
A story from Elizabeth Montalbano of the IDG News Service identifies the suspects as Atilla Ekici, 21, of Turkey and Farid Essebar, 18, of Morocco. Montalbano reports:
Ekici went under the code name of "Coder" and Essebar used the code name "Diabl0," said Louis M. Reigel III, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Division, in a conference call Friday.
Ekici apparently paid Essebar a sum of money to write the worms, but was not involved in their creation himself, Reigel said. "We believe that there was financial gain on the part of the Moroccan in the relationship," he said.
The Boston Globe reported that the FBI does not at this point know the motives of the two men, but that the investigation is ongoing. The article also quoted a security firm executive as saying that today's virus writers are likely part of organized crime.
Microsoft issued a press release congratulating Turkish and Moroccan authorities, and the company couldn't resist plugging its own contributions and how it worked with the FBI to track down the virus writers. On August 17 security firm MessageLabs identified the author as the same person who wrote the Mytob worm, though Essebar was not yet known by name.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 29, 2005 06:43 AM
August 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Public largely ignorant of Web threats, but women less so
Two studies released this morning by London-based StreamShield Networks, a provider of security products, indicate that the public is largely ignorant of online threats.
The second study demonstrates that women Internet users are less likely than men to succumb to viruses and the like.
StreamShield measured online fraud, viruses, spam, unwanted pop-up ads, spyware, phishing and keyloggers. The firm said, in fact, that in all categories women experienced fewer difficulties than men, even though a higher percentage of men are aware of computer viruses, spyware, adware, et al.
Remember: Vendor-conducted studies almost always carry a hidden agenda, such as to sell more security products. Take this one for what you will.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 26, 2005 06:49 AM
August 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
MIT's Technology Review magazine takes a look at Google's IM tool Google Talk and at first glance thinks that Skype opening up its service to third-parties will have a bigger impact on the industry.
The full story is here.
David Pogue of The New York Times writes Google gets better, what's up with that?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 26, 2005 06:46 AM
August 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google Talk may spur IM interoperability
Google's plunge this week into the IM market may cause a big enough splash to jump-start the pipe dream of IM interoperability.
Google built its Google Talk on XMPP, an open source, XML-based IM protocol that enables connectivity to other systems that support it.
According to a research note written by Gartner research director Allen Weiner, Google Talk holds the potential to bring interoperability to the MSN, Yahoo, and AOL networks. But Google first will have to boost use of Gmail and get loyal IM users to switch to its service, Weiner wrote.
Google's entry into the IM space creates "a new dynamic that could lead to a market repositioning," according to Weiner.
Google's selection of XMPP, as well as its considerable market power, could force changes, Weiner said.
"This structure could bring about IM interoperability among the major players if Google gains enough market traction to force changes," he wrote.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 25, 2005 04:55 PM
August 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Dell products, service attacked in blogosphere
Dell coming under the gun for its customer service is nothing new, but recently the company listened to at least one blogger and ostensibly even took what he wrote to heart. Or, at least provided him a refund for a PC he labeled a "lemon."
Jeff Jarvis is the blogger, and BusinessWeek has a story, Dell: In the bloghouse, about his trials and tribulations as a Dell customer.
It's too early to tell if this one will have a happy ending or not.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 25, 2005 07:26 AM
August 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Although VoIP phones are gaining traction, tens of thousands of users may find their service has been cut off next week.
The FCC set Monday as the deadline for users to formally acknowledge that they have been made aware of potential problems with dialing 911 over their VoIP phones. Those who fail to comply will have their service cut off until they do so.
Provider Vonage said that 96 percent of its users have responded, according to this story in the Miami Herald, while Qwest claimed that only about 75 percent of its business and residential customers have made the acknowledgement in a piece that ran in the Rocky Mountain News.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 25, 2005 07:15 AM
August 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
In-Stat and INS issued reports about IP PBXs and VoIP, respectively.
IP PBXs are outpacing their more traditional brethren, at least that's what In-Stat says. The firm attributes that to increased mobility both within and beyond the workplace in its report IP PBXs are eclipsing traditional PBXs.
Furthermore, combining voice with presence and instant messaging is helping IP PBX's cause, but the demand for adding video and more data to collaboration tools will bring about the more dramatic changes, In-Stat said.
On the Voice over IP (VoIP) side, INS took a VoIP survey and published data about objectives and barriers associated with the technology.
The three most important objectives companies have when considering VoIP are: increasing network flexibility, simplifying network infrastructure, and creating feature-rich, integrated applications. That said, the most important criteria for customers when selecting VoIP technologies is quality, in the form of voice, security and network reliability.
Demonstrating ROI was the biggest hurdle that INS respondents listed. Significant barriers include cost issues related to upgrading the network for QoS, acquiring products and tools, and upper management skepticism.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 25, 2005 06:43 AM
August 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple Tablet in the works -- or just a revival of the Newton?
Engadget points out that Apple has posted a job description for a handwriting recognition engineer, and that earlier this year the company received a patent for a tablet-style computer.
The site added in the fact that Apple switched to Intel earlier this year and speculates that just maybe Apple could be working on a version of the Tablet PC that would, of course, run some form of a Mac OS.
The job description is live on Apple's site.
MacRumors posted about the handwriting recognition engineer as well, and presumes that whoever takes the post would be working on the company's InkWell technology.
Lest we all get ahead of ourselves here on the tablet, Apple could just be looking for someone to resurrect the old Newton. Or perhaps not.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 24, 2005 11:11 AM
August 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google launches Google Talk IM service
Google today launched the Google Talk instant messaging service that doubles as a means to make free phone calls over the Internet.
Google Talk is currently in beta testing mode and to sign up you'll need to have a Gmail account, because the two are tightly integrated. For starters, the login will be the same for both. The Gmail interface is accessible from within Google Talk, the IM service will alert users when new e-mails arrive, and Gmail contacts will be automatically loaded into Google Talk.
The new service is bound to help the company compete with portals AOL, MSN, Skype and Yahoo. Skype, for its part, this morning said that it is opening its service to third-parties.
The Times online explains how to get talking with Google, while Search Engine Watch says Google Talk lacks the "wow factor" Google has pulled off with Google Maps and Gmail.
Google Talk, some people are saying, will do more than merely add a new service to the company's quiver.
"At a high level, this indicates that, whether it likes it or not, Google is officially a Web portal and a media company," said Allen Weiner, a Gartner analyst, in Google to launch instant messaging service by IDG News Service correspondent Juan Carlos Perez.
Gary Rivlin of The New York Times writes in Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villian about how Google has transformed itself from upstart underdog to a big company doing things people didn't expect including gaining resentment and now being seen as arrogant in its treatment of existing and prospective partners.
Rivlin cites an interview in which Gates said Google is "more like us than anyone else we have ever competed with."
When used in relation to software, the term 'Evil Empire' is most associated with Microsoft, but is Google primed for a nefarious moniker of its own?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 24, 2005 07:14 AM
August 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Registration opens for InfoWorld SOA Exec Forum
InfoWorld is holding another SOA Executive Forum. This time it's a two-day event, on November 7-8, at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, New York.
The event was created with both senior technologists and business executives in mind.
Registration is now open at http://www.infoworld.com/event/soa/soa_reg.html.
On September 14, we'll be holding SOA for Government Executive Forum, a one-day conference in Washington D.C. For more information, see http://www.infoworld.com/event/soa/gov/.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 24, 2005 06:05 AM
August 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Intel's David Perlmutter outlines new chip internals
Amid speculation that its next-generation processor architecture would bring chips with as many as 16 cores, Intel unveiled a much more modest roadmap at the annual Fall Intel Developer Forum conference in San Francisco today.
Speakers at the conference confirmed that we can expect dual-core 64-bit processors across all of Intel's platform targets in 2006 -- including mobile, desktops, and servers -- based on a new, converged design that draws upon ideas from all of Intel's products, from the Pentium M to Itanium.
Following a presentation about the company's mobile initiatives, Intel chip designer David "Dadi" Perlmutter, the father of the Pentium M, took the stage to explain the inner workings of the new architecture. The new chips, he said, would feature a longer, deeper execution pipeline than the original Pentium M design, dubbed "Banias," but not as long as that seen in the NetBurst architecture used for current Pentium 4 designs.
The chips will include advanced power management capabilities, Perlmutter said, based on increase usage of "normally-off transistors," which don't draw power until they're actually in use by the processor.
The new designs will also incorporate an advanced caching subsystem that will enable the chips to make better use of scarce cache resources. As with current dual-core designs, the two cores in each next-gen CPU will share the same cache space, but the new architecture will allow them to do so more efficiently, Perlmutter said. Also, the chips will be able to dynamically allocate cache space to each core as needed. The exact amount of cache on each chip die will likely depend on whether the processor is intended for mobile, destkop, or server usage.
Finally, Perlmutter said the new chips will reduce memory access latency, using memory prefetching and other techniques that will help to bring more data to the processing units more quickly.
-- By Neil McAllister
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 23, 2005 03:06 PM
August 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)
AMD wants a dual-core duel with Intel
AMD uses the Intel Developer Forum to try to distract from Intel's message and advance its own product processor agenda. This year is no different as AMD challenged Intel to a contest to determine which company has the best-performing 64-bit dual-core server processors.
The company placed advertisements in major U.S. newspapers Tuesday proposing a contest that would pit the fastest server based on a dual-core AMD processor with the fastest server based on an equivalent chip from Intel, IDG News Service reported.
The advertisements in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other newspapers show an AMD processor standing in a boxing ring waiting for Intel to appear, AMD said. If Intel accepts, the contest will be overseen by a third-party testing lab using standard benchmarks measuring performance and energy consumption.
AMD executives fanned out in San Francisco to further the challenge. "It's clear that AMD 64-bit Opteron, with direct-connect architecture has eliminated the bottlenecks associated with a front-side bus, and Intel hasn't addressed legacy issues associated with a front-side bus," said Patrick Patla, AMD director of server and workstation marketing, speaking in a telephone interview from a hotel across the street from the IDF.
At IDF, Intel Chief Executive Officer Paul Otellini said the marketplace will determine the value of the processors. He also confirmed that Intel will introduce a new chip design architecture next year focused on delivering the best performance per watt of power consumed.
Some analysts dismiss performance benchmarks as a distraction since they rarely reflect real-world computing conditions, IDG News Service said. But ven-dors often cite them to show the performance of their chips. AMD said a head-to-head fight would allow customers to decide which company's processors best suit their needs. It will also launch an online petition, it said, presumably to pressure Intel to take part.
Dual-core chips have two processor cores on a single piece of silicon, boosting performance and reducing power consumption compared to two single-core processors. AMD released its first dual-core Opteron processors earlier this year. Intel said last week that it would release its first dual-core server chips later this year, ahead of its original schedule.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 23, 2005 12:43 PM
August 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Intel details converged chip architecture
At the Intel Developer Forum today, Intel CEO Paul Otellini announced a new, converged processor architecture that he said would fuel the next phase of the industry's growth.
The upcoming processor designs, expected to ship in the second half of 2006, combine features of Intel's traditional desktop and server chips with the power saving design of the company's Pentium M line of mobile CPUs. The entire line will be fabricated using a new 65nm manufacturing process and will feature dual processor cores, Otellini said, in addition to supporting Intel's 64-bit instruction set.
Otellini delivered his keynote presentation on a laptop powered by an early version of Intel's next-generation mobile processor, codenamed "Merom." Shipping versions of this chip will deliver twice the performance per watt as the original "Banias" Pentium-M chip design, he said, with an expected average power consumption of 5W, Otellini said.
The desktop version of the chip, codenamed "Conroe," is expected to offer three times the performance per watt of the initial Pentium 4 designs, with 65W average power consumption. The server version is codenamed "Woodcrest" and will offer up to five times the performance per watt of the first Xeon designs, Otellini said, based on 80W power consumption.
Otellini said that Intel expects shipments of 65nm, dual-core chips to surpass those of 90nm and single-core chips by Q3 of 2006.
Looking forward, Otellini said that quad-core chips were next on the horizon for Intel, while future plans would bring even more complex chips to light, with cores numbering in the dual digits. Otellini predicted that these multiple core designs would enable Intel to deliver ten times the performance per watt of current chips on the high end, while simultaneously reducing the power consumption of low end chips by a factor of ten.
These new chips could enable California to save $1 billion in power consumption costs per million units shipped, based on current power prices, he said.
Otellini also foreshadowed a new class of chips for what he called "handtop" PCs. These processors could survive on only half a watt of power, and Intel hopes to develop them by the end of the decade, Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service wrote in Intel architects fight the power for 2006.
-- By Neil McAllister, reporting live from IDF.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 23, 2005 10:28 AM
August 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)
New Intel chips to be detailed today
Reports began flowing last week that at its Intel Developer Forum (IDF) chipmaker Intel would detail its next generation architecture. Today is the day CEO Paul Otellini will take the stage, but rival AMD is not sitting idly by.
In a piece previewing the show, Tom Krazit of the IDG News Service wrote: Analysts and other sources familiar with Intel's plans expect Otellini to say that Intel's processors for the second half of 2006 will use an architecture inspired by the Pentium M notebook processor.
Many of the enhancements are expected to focus on energy savings, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
AMD, for its part, yesterday announced two new mobile Turion chips, with low-power-consumption capabilities. And today the company challenged Intel to a "dual-core duel." The company, in fact, took out ads in major newspapers today calling on Intel to polish up its fastest server and get it ready to race AMD's own speediest box. If Intel accepts, the contest will be overseen by a third-party testing lab using standard benchmarks measuring performance and energy consumption, according to James Niccolai of the IDG News Service in a story that ran this morning.
Even if Intel agreed and AMD won, the shoot-out might not do much to shake Intel's dominance, BusinessWeek wrote in AMD to Intel: Let's Rumble.
Analyst firm Gartner yesterday publicized the results of a study indicating that PC revenue growth will be flat in 2005.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 23, 2005 07:52 AM
August 23, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Every day 170,000 unique PCs become spam-spitting Zombies. Shortly thereafter, those IP addresses fade away.
I had lunch with CipherTrust's CEO Jay Chaudhry yesterday and among the topics we discussed were the increasing number of zombie PCs and the spam spikes they often create.
"We see that every day there are lots and lots of zombies out there," he said, adding that each has a fresh IP address never before used for spamming. "They come, they get blacklisted and then they go away."
That puts last week's Zotob worm, which infected some 250,000 machines, into perspective. Zotob did relatively little damage, but the worm did create a 14 percent increase in spam, according to Chaudhry.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 23, 2005 07:26 AM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google desktop search 2 adds a sidebar
Google enhanced its desktop PC and Web search application by adding to it a panel that provides information from a variety of sources. Google Desktop 2.0, in beta, includes a feature called Sidebar that gives users access to e-mail, news, weather, photos, stocks and syndicated Web site feeds, IDG News Service reported.
"With Google Desktop 2.0, we want to help users sit back and watch the Web come to them," said Nikhil Bhatla, Google Desktop product manager, in an interview.
Until now, Google Desktop has been a browser-based application, but Sidebar doesn't need a browser to run, he said. Whenever necessary, browser windows will be launched from Sidebar to, for example, go to a Web site, or to access Google Desktop features not included in Sidebar, he said.
Sidebar runs on top of Google Desktop, so through Sidebar users can access any files and information that Google Desktop can index and retrieve, he said.
Gary Price, in searchenginewatch.com, rated the new features highly. "For Google Desktop Search fans, it's Christmas (or choose other holiday) in August! This is some cool stuff, especially now that Google now has quietly released its own RSS aggregator," he wrote. "And if you're a GDS fanatic and want to let others know about your fanaticism, the GoogleStore began selling a Google Desktop Search Baseball Jersey last week."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 22, 2005 05:22 PM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
W3C objects to U.S. Copyright Office's browser plan
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is protesting a proposal by the U.S. Copyright Office that may temporarily require that online forms be submitted via the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser.
"The proposed system would be contrary to at least the spirit of federal information policy adopted by the E-Government Act of 2002," said W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee and Daniel Weitzner,who is technology and society domain leader at W3C, in a letter to the office.
The office's proposal pertains to preregistration of copyright claims.
Support for Netscape, Firefox and Mozilla is planned by the office but initial support may be limited to Internet Explorer, according to a statement from the Copyright Office. While stressing that W3C was not criticizing Internet Explorer, the W3C officials said the office would be placing limitations on users of Mac OS, Linux and Unix, who may have incompatible browsers. Cellphone and PDA users and persons with disabilities also may be impacted, Berners-Lee said.
"From a practical perspective, the single-vendor restriction will deny preregistration benefits entirely to broad classes of creators of covered copyrighted works," the W3c officials said.
W3C also stressed that the Web "was born and achieved widespread use only because of a commitment to open, vendor-neutral standards."
The office's deadline for comments is today, with reply comments due by September 7.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 22, 2005 04:18 PM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Plumtree Software, one of the earliest pioneers of the market for enterprise portal software, is being acquired by BEA Systems for approximately $200 million in cash.
The companies are holding a conference call with reporters and analysts right now.
Plumtree carved out a valuable space in the portal market with a platform that supported both Microsoft's .Net and J2EE. BEA Systems has its own portal platform, which is based on J2EE.
BEA plans to keep the Plumtree and BEA portal product lines separate. Plumtree's portal is designed for business users. The Plumtree product line includes servers for collaboration, portal, search, and analytics.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 22, 2005 02:11 PM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Vendors struggle to offer coherent SOA stacks
Even if it looks as if a major vendor has a solid technology stack for creating services-oriented architectures, before purchasing you should be sure to look more closely, at least according to consultancy Macehiter Ward-Dutton.
The IT analyst firm this morning issued the first in a series of reports that will examine how vendors are having trouble aligning their SOA product offerings with what customers actually need.
The initial report looks at BEA Systems and SAP; subsequent ones will focus on IBM and Microsoft.
Service lifecycle management is the main weakness that arises from these strung together product portfolios, the firm wrote.
Macehiter Ward-Dutton also found that established vendors each have their own strengths, but "what may appear to be cohesive stacks are really marketing initiatives wrapped around mixtures of existing, newly-developed and third-party products."
What's more, the offerings "have multiple gaps and overlaps within them that are not immediately apparent and which will have a significant effect on customers' ability to efficiently tackle SOA projects."
With that in mind, the analyst firm recommends that customers thoroughly question their providers, particularly about the level of integration among their products and any requisite third-party offerings, and demand that vendors make product road maps clear to them.
The entire report is available at www.mwdadvisors.com/articles free of charge.
Perhaps it will help change some minds at Macehiter Ward-Dutton that BEA announced this morning a new iteration of its WebLogic Integration software. Version 8.5 better integrates with third-party tools and supports BPEL, according to the news story by my colleague Paul Krill.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 22, 2005 07:31 AM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
According to Gartner, Siebel Systems currently owns 4 out of every 10 CRM projects within large enterprises. The analyst house says that SAP, Oracle and others are tapping into some of that.
The full six-page report is available but if you're not a Gartner customer it will cost you $195.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 22, 2005 06:54 AM
August 22, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Technology Review on R&D in 2005
MIT's Technology Review magazine examines the state of research and development this year.
A piece in the September issue finds that spending is up and gains are unevenly distributed. But there is more to this story than just the numbers. For that reason, TR also includes "blue sky" research efforts, or R&D projects undertaken even though a payoff may not come for many years.
The article, available here, has sections on IBM: The Computer Brain; Intel: Precision Biology; and Bell Labs: Quantum Computing.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 22, 2005 06:18 AM
August 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Moveable Type blog tool to get a face lift
At the conference for business blogging attendees got an early look at a tool designed to help their businesses better manage blogs.
Six Apart's Anil Dash gave a preview of the new Moveable Type Version 3.2 Weblog publishing platform on Friday here at the Blog Business Summit in San Francisco.
According to Dash's stats, Six Apart's platform powers more than 10 million blogs around the world.
The new version of the platform coming out next week will include more features for administration, ease of use, and community management.
Version 3.2 will include a new section of the application that provides a system overview, Dash said. This is designed to help administration of multiple blogs.
"It lets you view all the information in the system no matter where you published it," he said. "Everything is in one place."
The system overview link shows every blog post title, which Weblog it was posted on, and time of post.
Comments and trackback improvements were also added in Movable Type 3.2.
The publishing tool will automatically filter comment or trackback spam and delete spam after a set period of time. The announcement of this feature drew a few shouts of appreciation from the crowd.
Older blogging tools had a problem with what Dash calls "silent data loss." This is when valuable trackbacks and comments were mistakenly filtered as junk.
"In the old days silent data loss was a big management burden; you had no way to know who's building your community," he said.
The new version also lets users retrieve false positives from the junk folder.
The context sensitive search feature knows where you are in the application and lets you search for and replace any item across all your blogs.
For example, in one step you can update the look and feel across all your blogs.
Another cool feature is that the user manual is a living document that allows comments from bloggers, which are subsequently reviewed and used to help improve the document.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 19, 2005 03:47 PM
August 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Share stills walks the walk with IBM
With more than 20,000 members, Share at 50 is still a vital player in IBM product development.
Share President Robert Rosen tells IDG News Service that IBM nowadays gets feedback from more diverse channels than in 1955 when the user group was formed.
"Now IBM has customer councils, Web logs, a lot more sources of information," Rosen said. "But one of the problems with getting information is that you need to validate it. How good is it? Who is this person, a crank or a CIO? Share offers a measure of quality of input."
Rosen says Share members still provide real expertise and feedback on IBM projects that is just not easy to come by. "If you look at a scientific paper, they'll list experiments and why they were a success. What you never hear them saying is, 'Boy, that was a mistake. It didn't work.' You do hear that at Share," he said.
As many as 3,000 people are expected at Share's user event in Boston Aug. 21-25.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 19, 2005 02:11 PM
August 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Chipmaker Intel plans to help cities establish Wi-Fi networks. The company publicly sided with municipal wireless networking projects and partnered with hardware, software and networking vendors to offer what it hopes will entice cities to build Wi-Fi networks.
Intel lined up with IBM, Dell, Cisco, CheckPoint and British Telecom for the Digital Communities Initiative. The companies are running pilot programs in 13 cities, including Philadelphia, Cleveland, and Portland, Ore., as well as several abroad.
Although municipal Wi-Fi holds the promise of myriad benefits, the idea has come under attack since its inception, mostly from the service providers who could end up competing with the government.
Earlier this week, for instance, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome said establishing Wi-Fi will be tougher than the brawl over gay marriage.
Philadelphia's Wi-Fi plans have been met with opposition, though some progess has been made.
The San Jose Mercury News, however, quoted Jeff Kagan, an independent telecom analyst, as saying municipal Wi-Fi is gaining steam, in a story on its site.
"We are on the cusp of a revolution of bringing WiFi to city after city after city. The companies are trying to stick their flag in the ground and say that they're there. Intel is trying to do that -- trying to say they're one of the key players. Companies want cities to think of them as part of the process," Kagan said.
To boil the issue down, and perhaps even oversimplify: Municipal Wi-Fi a good idea that city governments are backing, it can shrink the digital divide by bringing broadband to people who otherwise cannot afford it, and it will benefit the rest of citizenry by improving many services, but the main verbal opponents are telecom providers who might lose out on some revenue.
Sounds to me like it's only a matter of time.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 19, 2005 08:14 AM
August 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Windows worm variants spawn more spam
Even people with PCs not directly infected by Zotob may be feeling the worm's impact.
The Zotob virus has done more than just infect some 250,000 PCs and engage in a botwar with Bozori and Ircbot this week: Zotob has generated spam.
CipherTrust, in fact, issued findings this morning that indicate Zotob spurred a 14 percent increase in spam during the past 24 hours.
The security vendor determined that Zotob and its dozen variants have transformed infected PCs into zombies that send spam, as well as viruses and other malware.
The influx of new zombies connected to more than two dozen distinct zombie command and control centers, CipherTrust said.
All told, that means there are literally billions more spam messages flooding inboxes today.
The overall damage caused by Zotob and its variants, however, has thus far been relatively minor. But experts are still watching the worm.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 19, 2005 06:48 AM
August 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Compuware creates developer blogs
Tools provider Compuware created what it is calling the Compuware Blogsphere.
The various blogs are authored by Compuware DevPartner and OptimalJ product team members, who will "look into the future and identify promising technologies that are being used in our labs," the company said.
Also, field technical personnel will offer up examples of how the company's products are being used among customers.
The blog's main page has links to 17 bloggers in various stages.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 19, 2005 06:12 AM
August 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Quick tip for driving traffic to your blog
I'm here Thursday and Friday at the Blog Business Summit in San Francisco, absorbing all that I can about, you guessed it, blogs.
Topics being explored here range from blog design, blog monitoring tools, to building blog traffic. One mantra that's been repeated in a number of different ways this morning is: in order to build a successful blog it is not enough just to post. It is about smart posting.
Venerable bloggers Robert Scoble and Dave Taylor just shared the stage here in a session about how to drive traffic to your blog.
One gem of wisdom (among many) shared is that bloggers should be active blog discussion participants. Driving traffic to your blog often occurs as a result of contributing to someone else's blog.
The process of finding what to write about can lead you to other blog sites that you can contribute to, and that is the one of the biggest drivers of traffic to your own blog, said Taylor.
"Being involved in other people's blogs is the best way to drive traffic to your own blog. Spend time on someone else's blog; add comments," he said.
According to Scoble, it's all about getting on the radar screen of other influential bloggers.
"When I am in the comments of other people's blogs, they see it and appreciate what you have to say. You are on their radar screen," he said.
In fact, when Scoble started blogging he didn't expect his blog to become the phenomenon it is today.
"I just started writing about other bloggers," he said.
But if you can convince other bloggers to link to you, a discussion is launched, and you will be talked about as the information is spread through the blogosphere.
All of this may sound obvious, but hearing two of the blogosphere's gurus pound the point home really makes it clear. It's not just a matter of jumping into the blogging world it is how and where you take your steps.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on August 18, 2005 01:55 PM
August 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft's Xbox 360 coming in two-tiered pricing scheme
Microsoft's Xbox 360 will be available in two versions costing $300 and $400 when it is launched later this year, allowing consumers to choose between a more expensive, powerful version and a somewhat scaled back console.
The Xbox 360, capable of high-definition video, is considerably more powerful than any gaming console available at present, Martyn Williams of IDG News Service reports. At a recent event in Tokyo the company showed previews of several Xbox 360 games and all featured stunning graphics that bring a new level of realism to computer gaming.
At the heart of the console will be a three-core Power PC chip custom-produced for the console by IBM and a graphics chip from ATI Technologies. It also has a 12X dual-layer DVD-ROM drive and the more expensive version includes a 20G-byte hard-disk drive, wireless controller, headset, Ethernet cable and wireless remote control.
It's promised to put the Xbox 360 on sale in North America, Europe and Japan before the end of this year.
That launch schedule should put the console in the shops several months before Sony Computer Entertainment launches its PlayStation 3 console. The Play-Station 3 has an equally impressive specification sheet that includes an eight-core processor that boasts a total performance of 218G FLOPS (floating point operations per second) - 35 times the performance of the PlayStation 2.
Combined with an Nvidia graphics system the Sony console should pack about double the power of the Xbox 360, although how much of that can be translated into a better gaming experience will depend on the game programmers.
"Sony is expected to ramp a spoiler campaign against his product with a sharp price reduction for the Playstation 2 given the Playstation 3 is now rumored to have slipped into 2007," Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group, wrote on his Website. "If this slip is true and the Xbox 360 is successful, Sony could find itself where Sega was a few years ago. Regardless, this should make for an interesting few months."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 18, 2005 12:24 PM
August 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple's patches and patent issues
Apple issued a security update to fix, well, to correct a security update it posted earlier this week.
On Monday, Apple released a patch for MAC OS X that updated several components of the operating system. Problem is, it also broke 64-bit apps on Apple's OS.
So now the company made a new patch available for download at its Web site.
While I was scooping up those links from InfoWorld sister site MacWorld, I noticed Inside Apple's iPod patent problems.
The piece looks at patent issues, and paraphrases IDC analyst Roger Kay suggesting that even if Microsoft were to win, the chances of it having any significant effect on Apple's future business are slim.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 18, 2005 09:44 AM
August 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Little doubt exists that content management is becoming increasingly important. Backing that up, AIIM released a study with some findings about the perception of ECM.
For starters, AIIM said that the awareness of ECM and even the term itself are still in the early stages, thus there is work for vendors and AIIM to do in terms of educating business users.
Other stats AIIM came up with:
77 percent of respondents believe that effective management of documents is more important now than two years ago
82 percent of end users see ECM solutions as a core element in their IT infrastructure as opposed to a point solution to a particular problem (18 percent)
72 percent of end-users believe that the ROI of their ECM implementations has met or exceeded expectations; 44 percent of those who measure ROI do so within 12 months of deployment
34 percent of end users at large organizations believe that there are more than 25 discrete information repositories in their organization; 73 percent declare a business need to unify access to and management of these disparate repositories
56 percent of large organizations list the CIO or head of the IT department as the most critical person in ECM purchasing decisions
You can download a PDF of the survey at AIIM's Web site.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 18, 2005 09:17 AM
August 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
RSA survey: Consumers care about authentication
Vendor surveys are always a bit funky because more often than not there is a poorly hidden agenda within. So take this one under that phrase of caution.
RSA security this morning released the results of a study it conducted about consumer confidence in online transactions. The survey showed that despite widespread fears of ID theft and fraud, consumers are open to increasing the amount of business they conduct online, so long as the banks and other services give them strong authentication.
Further, half of the respondents indicated that they would switch to a bank or business that offered better authentication than the one they currently use.
The study released today marks a change from one RSA conducted earlier this year.
In RSA's words: The findings provide a telling counterpoint to a February 2005 RSA Security study that showed security concerns were perpetuating consumer reluctance to conduct personal business online; in that survey, nearly one-fourth of respondents were reducing their online shopping and one-fifth refused to work with their financial institutions over the Internet.
Based on a previous conversation I had with Art Coviello, RSA's CEO, I'd say that results from a survey like this one could swing right back toward RSA's February study results with one or two serious spyware attacks.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 18, 2005 08:52 AM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Yahoo search goes to the neighborhood
Yahoo heated up the battle to take over Internet search Wednesday, going live with an expanded version of its local search that highlights specific city neighborhoods by adding user reviews and maps for local establishments.
IDG News Service says enhancements to what Yahoo calls the next generation of its local search engine provide a new "search by neighborhood" function that allows users to search for information by neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas.
The competition is pushing advances in search features at breakneck speed. Out front now in the search leader race are Google and Yahoo, according to recent data by Hitwise.
Google has integrated its popular mapping tools into its local search service. It also has added business information, such as hours of operation, accepted forms of payment and, in the case of some restaurants, menus, Reuters says.
Amazon.com's A9 Web search unit in January launched a Yellow Pages that lets users take a virtual walk down a commercial street and see photos of its businesses, the Reuters adds, while Ask Jeeves' service will be adding a Citysearch local information service.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 17, 2005 03:00 PM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Developers are clamoring for a third beta release of the planned Visual Studio 2005 development tools platform, citing bugs and performance issues. But Microsoft appears set to stick to its November 7 date for the product's general release.
If enough developers feel there is a problem with the product, it certainly is a gamble for Microsoft to try to remain on schedule with the hope of ironing out any kinks in the next two-and-a-one-half months.
But opting for a third beta release for a product that's been delayed so much already certainly wouldn't do much for Microsoft's credibility. The company is vying for the hearts of developers being wooed heavily by Java tools suppliers and open source tools providers. Doing another beta and letting the general release slip on into 2006 is a gamble in and of itself.
The dissatisfaction with the current betas should keep Microsoft's developers working overtime if the company is to resolve issues in time for a November 7 general release.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 17, 2005 01:47 PM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Security firm IDs Zotob's author
MessageLabs issued a statement today saying it knows who wrote the Zotob virus.
Putting a digital name to the person, the company said the perpetrator is Diab10, the same author who created the Mydoom/MyTob viruses.
The company added that its research suggests Diabl0 could be based in Turkey, but the availability of source code for various versions of Mydoom and MyTob makes it difficult to pinpoint a precise location.
MessageLabs also agreed with assessments that Zotob is in a botwar with Bozori and IRCbot.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 17, 2005 11:27 AM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Windows worms now attacking each other
The most recent crop of Windows worms continue to circulate and, what's more, security firm F-Secure said that Zotob, Bozori and IRCbot are engaged in botwarfare.
"We seem to have a botwar on our hands. There appears to be three different virus writing gangs turning out new worms at an alarming rate -- as if they would be competing who would build the biggest network of infected machines," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure, in a statement. "The latest variants of Bozori even remove competing viruses like Zotob from the machines."
F-Secure also said that as of this morning it had found nine malware instances in addition to the previously reported Zotob and exploit code from a Russian who operates under the name Houseofdabus.
The worms, meahwile, are spreading to media companies, and other security firms are chiming in about them as well.
InfoWorld sister magazine NetworkWorld takes a close look at Microsoft's patching day and finds that it is still a work in progress.
But don't wait for Patch Tuesday to reach perfection. A fix for the Windows hole is available at www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS05-039.mspx
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 17, 2005 09:54 AM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Compensation for highly skilled technology professionals remained stable during the second quarter of this year, at least according to the Yoh Index of Technology Wages.
A chart of the index can he found here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 17, 2005 09:15 AM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Symantec has declared intentions to purchase Sygate Technologies. The company said that it plans to boost its end-point security wares with the addition of intrusion prevention and network access control products.
Symantec said that it plans to integrate Sygate's Enterprise Protection software, which includes the firewall and intrusion prevention products, into its Symantec Client Security software.
That could prove a wise move on Symantec's part since Sygate's technology will help fill in some missing pieces of Symantec's lineup.
InfoWorld Test Center contributing editor Victor Garza explains that many people are confused about end-point security these days.
In Sygate strengthens end-point defenses, Garza reviews Sygate Enterprise Protection 5.0 (SEP), and lists the integration of Determina's "memory firewall" for host-based intrusion prevention, more granular control of USB devices and increased scalability as positives of the new version. The only downside he found was a small increase in the per-seat pricing.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 17, 2005 06:36 AM
August 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Virtualization, grids and blogging
Although PC virtualization has been catching on this month, InfoWorld Test Center chief technologist Tom Yager writes that it remains "one of the most challenging tasks facing system software developers."
In PC virtualization on the move, Yager discusses solutions from Microsoft and VMware on the software side, and hardware vendors Intel and AMD.
He also foreshadows what he calls two pending eras: the dawn of CPU-assisted virtualization and paravirtualization.
InfoWorld Test Center Lead Analyst Jon Udell also details two strategies that he anticipates emerging in the near future. Social tagging and microformats, Udell writes in IBM's new search framework and the blogosphere, will present themselves as blogging plays a bigger role in enterprise knowledge management.
In his column, Udell pointed to Irving Wladawsky-Berger's blog. Wladawsky-Berger, for those of you who don't know, is the vice president of technology and strategy for IBM's server group, which means he is involved with Big Blue's on-demand, open source, and grid computing efforts, to name a few.
Ian Foster is another grid computing pioneer. In our Open Resource blog, Dave Rosenberg points to a column of Foster's that argues grid computing wares -- and open source grid technologies specifically -- are becoming victim to FUD.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 17, 2005 06:08 AM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
SF mayor says fight for free wireless access tougher than brawl over gay marriage
It looks like San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is spoiling for another fight.
In a press conference held this afternoon [Tuesday, August 16], Newsom unveiled a Request for Information and Comment [RFI/C] for what the mayor called the most comprehensive initiative by any city in the country for free or low-cost wireless broadband access, in the home, office, and out of doors.
Newsom depicted the
opposition from business interests who do not believe a municipality should offer its residents Internet access in the most drastic of terms saying "the fight over gay marriage was nothing compared to this."
The mayor outlined a number of goals for the project dubbed TechConnect, among them bridging the digital divide between
low-income households and middle class households which are more likely to have broadband access to the Internet.
Newsom equated access to increased job and educational opportunities.
The mayor also said ubiquitous broadband access is essential to compete globally.
The RFI/C seeks any combination of public and private organizations to help deploy a wireless network, like, but not limited to wi-fi technology.
The proposal also calls on bidders to include a design that can maintain 1Mb per second performance and offer the ability to be upgraded as new technology becomes available.
Referring to the strong opposition by Verizon to the City of Philadelphia's plans to roll out a wi-fi network, the mayor said, the opposition will come from companies that have a financial stake in the game.
"I know for a fact that they [wireless companies] can't do it better and cheaper than we can. We want to be a model for the rest of the country," Newsom said.
Gearing up for a fight in the courts the mayor said, "bring it on."
As to claims by private business that they would offer broadband access to low-income neighborhoods the mayor said, "where have they been."
In response to a question from the press, Newsom said if the city were to do it by itself it would cost in the range of $10 million to $18 million to reach every resident, small business, tourist and government agency.
The mayor claimed that no city the size of San Francisco has ever put together a more comprehensive proposal.
The deadline for any organization to respond to the RFI/C is September 28, 2005 and the mayor promised that a network will be deployed 90 days to 120 days after that.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on August 16, 2005 03:58 PM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Tussle over iPod patent between Apple and Microsoft may resolve itself
Apple Computer lost out to Microsoft in its attempt to patent technology relating to its top-selling iPod music players, but many believe Apple's miscue will ultimately result in embarassment rather than monetary loss.
Microsoft developer John Platt filed a patent application five months before Apple, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office documents. Apple's application, filed by CEO Steve Jobs and other officials in October 2002, was turned down by patent officials in July.
But due to the intricacies of patent law and to the complex relationship between Apple and Microsoft, Apple will probably not be forced to pay significant fees to Microsoft for sales of the product it developed and popularized.
Macworld cites longtime industry analyst, Roger Kay, as saying that even if Microsoft were to win a patent challenge from Apple, the chances of it having any significant effect on Apple’s future business are slim.
“I think that in practical terms, no judge will allow Microsoft to stop Apple’s iPod business from going forward,” Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, told Macworld. “I think that if Microsoft makes a narrow claim stick, the settlement will be a cross-licensing deal with little or no money changing hands.”
Microsoft’s Director of Intellectual Property Licensing, David Kaefer, said in a statement last week the two companies close relationship and that Microsoft does tend to license its patents to other companies.
“In general, our policy is to allow others to license our patents so they can use our innovative methods in their products,” Kaefer said. “Microsoft and Apple have previously licensed their respective patent portfolios to one another and we maintain a good working relationship with Apple.”
Additionally, Apple has other legal protections to iPods' use, one analyst said. "While this (patent issue) may point to a weakness in Apple’s IP ownership there are other patents that surround the iPod and may still protect it," Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group, wrote on his Website. "In addition the Microsoft patent, depending on how you read it, may not be all that similar to Apple's application further protecting Apple.
There is also a personal element involving Jobs and Gates, Enderle said. "Yes, it appears that Apple’s need for secrecy really got them in trouble because, instead of filing for a patent before the iPod was released they waited for a year and then recently discovered Microsoft had filed one first," he said. "If Microsoft’s patent is upheld Apple will have to get license a from Microsoft. I'm guessing Bill Gates couldn't be more pleased."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 16, 2005 03:42 PM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
IDC says IT to stay strong through 2009
Spending on IT will continue to grow for at least four more years, according to research firm IDC.
The analyst house predicted that worldwide spending will reach $1.34 trillion in 2009, up from $1.06 trillion this year, IDG News Service correspondent James Niccolai reported in this story.
The article quotes Anne Songtao Lu, program manager for IDC's Worldwide Vertical Markets research service: "There's no longer the double-digit growth they saw before 2000, but this growth rate, for a lot of quite mature technologies, is very healthy."
She explained that industries currently thought of as "IT laggards" will fuel the spending uptick, including media, communications and healthcare, while government, manufacturing and banking will continue to account for a significant chunk of overall spending.
Full disclosure: IDC is owned by IDG, the parent company of InfoWorld.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 16, 2005 10:59 AM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple shines, Dell declines in customer service study
Apple led the pack in terms of customer satisfaction for the second year in a row, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, a.k.a ACSI.
Dell, on the other hand, dipped in its customer service ratings. Dell's products were not the primary problem. Instead, respondents mostly complained about customer service, such as length of time on hold with representatives and the quality of help they received.
The full story about the survey is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 16, 2005 10:18 AM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Yahoo is now claiming its engine can search through more than twice as many pages as rival Google's.
In specific, Yahoo claims 19 billion Web pages to Google's 8.2 billion.
Google barked back that as of now it has not been able to verify Yahoo's claims.
The Wall Street Journal cited researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who ran approximately 10,000 queries and said Yahoo's claim looks "suspicious."
Chalk this one up to a mere spat for bragging rights that doesn't even matter when it comes time to run a basic search on just about anything.
The New York Times looks as the same story from a different angle: How big is the World Wide Web?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 16, 2005 07:45 AM
August 16, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The cell phone and handset OS terrain is still an undecided battle ground, as Ephraim Schwartz discusses in Cell phones: The next big frontier for Linux.
Schwartz examines the impact that PalmSource's move to Linux could have on the entire handset OS landscape and points out that PalmSource has twice the number of devices running its OS than Microsoft.
Linuxdevices.com reports that Linux is poised to dominate the worldwide handset market and lists several reasons, some more convincing than others.
On the subject of handsets and wireless technology in general, VeriSign today said it is piloting Wi-Fi and wide-area roaming services.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 16, 2005 06:31 AM
August 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Has the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser run out of steam in its heretofore explosive growth at the expense of Microsoft's Internet Explorer?
Last month, Firefox actually lost ground to Microsoft IE for the first time since version 1.0 of the open source browser debuted late last year, IDG News Service reported, citing NetApplications.com, a Web site monitoring company.
Firefox's share shrunk to 8.07 percent from 8.71 percent in June, while IE grew its market slice to 87.20 percent in July from 86.56 percent last month.
Dan Shapero, NetApplications.com's Chief Operating Officer, said the surprising results may be just one data point in Firefox overall rise in popularity.
"It's just one data point, Shapero said. "It's a little preliminary to say it's a trend."
He pointed out that Apple Computer's Safari browser grew most, increasing its market share 2.13 percent from 1.93 percent. America Online's Netscape, which once ruled this market, slid a bit to 1.50 percent from 1.55 percent. Opera Software ASA's Opera came in fifth with a 0.49 percent market share.
Between January and June of this year, Firefox had posted monthly market share gains of between 0.5 percent and 1 percent at the expense of IE, said NetApplications.com, which compiles its browser usage data from more than 40,000 Web sites monitored by its HitsLink.com service.
Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Reaearch, an IT market research com-pany, said news of security problems in Firefox could have undermined Firefox growth. But Shapero disagreed, saying IE's security problems continue to be far worse. "You hear about daily breaks from Microsoft," he said.
"I'm really anxious to see what happens in the month of August," Shapero said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on August 15, 2005 04:05 PM
August 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Intel bumps up delivery date for next Xeon chips
Intel this morning announced that it will deliver its next generation of Xeon and Xeon MP chips, code-named Paxville, earlier than it initially expected.
Whereas the dual-core, hyperthreading chips were slated to become available in 2006, they will now ship later this year, due to what one company exec boasted was exquisite execution on the part of Intel's engineers.
Intel also has said it will unveil its next generation architecture at IDF next week.
On the desktop PC front, an analyst firm said that although the price of components is on the rise, PCs themselves are still getting less expensive. IT should expect, however, to get less bang for the buck.
InfoWorld sister publication PCWorld looked at living with non-Windows desktops, namely Linux and Mac, and "came away impressed."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 15, 2005 11:39 AM
August 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
You might not expect to see four-letter words on InfoWorld.com, but editor-in-chief Steve Fox this morning dropped one in his column: silo.
Silo is the last in a list of seven dirty words Fox compiled. He described them as terms that if you say in polite IT conversation "someone will hand you a bar of soap to wash your mouth out."
Fox's complete list is available here.
You won't find asset management on that list of dirty words, but IT is a business: Run it like one offers guidance on how to better manage your IT assets and portfolio.
Writer Leon Erlanger explains the category:
Today, asset management suites go much further than inventory and software metering, storing financial and ownership information -- or integrating with existing financial, service management, and HR systems -- so asset data is associated with users, warranties, service contracts, leasing agreements, help desk calls, tax and depreciation information, and change management solutions.
Another two words you might not expect to see on InfoWorld are Tiger Woods, but Jon Udell blogs about him in a post on using tools to visualize distance and accuracy data for the golfer.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 15, 2005 06:45 AM
August 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Linux, chips and dotcoms in China
In this morning's top story, Red flag flying over LinuxWorld expo, my colleague Neil McAllister recounts a sales pitch he attended at the show that was designed to convince reporters that Beijing is "Asia's Linux Capital."
McAllister collected some interesting facts on Beijing at the show:
Beijing is now home to some 150,000 software development facilities, serving about 5,500 software and IT service industry companies.
In 2004, software development was a $6.4 billion industry in Beijing, the result of an annual growth of roughly 30 percent since the year 2000. Exports currently account for $227 million of that figure.
China is certainly landing in a lot of tech-related headlines recently. The New York Times this morning ran a story about Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba.com, which Yahoo turned over $1.7 billion to in what some are calling the largest Internet investment made to date in China.
China gripped by Internet revival looks at the growing interest in China among U.S. venture capitalists. Further proving that interest, Intel this morning announced that its VC arm invested undisclosed amounts in a semiconductor design firm, a chip maker and a broadband entertainment company.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 15, 2005 06:12 AM
August 15, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Zotob worm spreading via Windows
A new worm that targets three critical holes discovered in Windows last week has emerged.
The Zotob worm is spreading like sasser, and has been called faster than previous computer worms.
Zotob is known to exploit holes in Windows 95, 98, ME, NE, 2000 and XP, and could allow hackers to remotely access PCs running those operating systems.
Once it has infected a PC, Zotob also has the ability to prevent a user from getting online assistance.
Prior to Zotob, Microsoft last week issued patches for six vulnerabilities, three of which were branded as critical. Researchers are most worried about the hole that affects Windows Plug and Play system, which Microsoft outlined in this bulletin.
Researchers are also growing increasingly concerned about mobile viruses. Last week, Cabir circulated around the World Athletic Championships in Finland, infecting mobile phones. In Mobile viruses could score big at soccer World Cup, John Blau of the IDG News Service looks at the potential for mobile viruses to spread at mass gatherings.
Meanwhile, attacks were reported for a critical flaw in Veritas' Backup Exec software.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on August 15, 2005 06:03 AM
August 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google suspends ambitious Library Project
Google revealed yesterday that it will heed critics of its Google Print Library Project and delay scanning copyrighted texts until November.
When announced late in 2004, the Library Project aimed to index book collections of major research libraries to make the content searchable through Google Print.
However, the ambitious plan came under attack from several publishers and publishing groups, including the Association of American University Presses, which sent a letter of concern to Google back in May.
In a blog post yesterday, Google Print Product Manager Adam M. Smith said that company made changes to the project designed to better meet the needs of publishers. Google now allows both its publishing partners and other book publishers to upload a list of books they don't want included in Google Print.
Publishers can also request that a book be removed at any time from Google's search results.
Smith wrote:
"We think most publishers and authors will choose to participate in the publisher program in order to introduce their work to countless readers around the world. But we know that not everyone agrees, and we want to do our best to respect their views too. So now, any and all copyright holders - both Google Print partners and non-partners - can tell us which books they'd prefer that we not scan if we find them in a library."
To allow time to review the new options it is offering publishers, Google will refrain from scanning any copyrighted books until November, Smith wrote.