8 February 2006 Technology News

last SG · 2006-02-09T09:55:45+00:00

Lost an IPod or Wallet? Look for It Online BOSTON - Maureen Silliman felt her empty pocket and gulped: Her new $300 iPod must have bounced out as she ran t...

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Alleged NASA hacker faces extradition hearing

The British man charged with hacking into a series of computers belonging to the U.S. government began the next stage in his fight against extradition to the United States.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition on charges of hacking and causing damage to U.S. defense sites. If found guilty, he could face 60 years in prison.

When the U.S. request for extradition was first made, McKinnon admitted that the prospect of facing court in the U.S. "terrified him." Beginning Tuesday he faces a hearing scheduled to last three days to see if he will remain a free man.

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SAP: Open-source rivals won't make the cut

SAN FRANCISCO--A wave of consolidation is sweeping the information technology industry, and many open-source business applications will be left behind when customers pare down their suppliers, an SAP executive predicted Wednesday.

SAP sells proprietary enterprise resource planning software used to track corporate finances and manage relationships with customers, but the German company faces competition from OpenMFG, SugarCRM, Compiere and others.

But those rivals are too immature to make it, said Peter Graf, SAP's executive vice president of marketing, during a speech at the Open Source Business Conference here. When major changes occur--as is happening today with customers retooling computer systems to adapt to the Internet--customers want to bet on known quantities, he said.

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Oracle tried to buy open-source MySQL

SAN FRANCISCO--Oracle tried to acquire open-source database maker MySQL, an indication of the profound changes the software giant is willing to make as it adapts to the increasingly significant collaborative programming philosophy.

Though it is increasingly diversified, Oracle's primary business is selling its own proprietary database software. MySQL, in contrast, is a leader among several companies trying to commercialize rival open-source products.

MySQL Chief Executive Marten Mickos confirmed the acquisition attempt in an interview at the Open Source Business Conference here but wouldn't provide details such as when the approach was made or how much money Oracle offered.

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Opteron price cuts pave way for new dual-core chips

Advanced Micro Devices cut prices on several Opteron processors this week as the company prepares to introduce new memory technology and a new socket for its server chips.

Multiple chips within the Opteron 200 series and Opteron 800 series processors now cost far less than they did last week, said Jane Kovacs, an AMD spokeswoman. The 200-series processors are designed for servers with two processors, while the 800-series chips are designed for four-way servers.

Prices of the most powerful chips in each class, the dual-core Opteron 280 and Opteron 880, fell 34 percent and 43 percent, respectively. The 280 now costs $851, down from $1,299, and the 880 now costs $1,514, down from $2,649. The prices are only a guide that reflect orders in quantities of 1,000 units, since server vendors often negotiate their own pricing, which can differ from published prices. Enthusiasts pay a different price for processors sold at retail stores.

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HP revenue up despite fall in services revenue

Hewlett-Packard's first-quarter revenue and earnings per share came in ahead of expecations, but revenue from its services business fell slightly.

Total revenue for the quarter, which ended Jan. 31, was $22.7 billion, up 6 percent from $21.5 billion in revenue during last year's first quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had expected the company to record $22.5 billion in revenue.

Earnings per share, excluding a one-time expense from the amortization of purchased assets, were 48 cents, ahead of Thomson's expectations of 44 cents. Net income was $1.2 billion, or 42 cents, in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

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PCs for the poor: Which design will win?

It's easy to list the benefits of bringing inexpensive computers to the billions of people who live in rural villages and urban centers in the developing world.

Village computers allow kids to take classes in areas where schools have closed and let adults learn pricing strategies for their agricultural products. A van rigged with a satellite connection and printers produces inexpensive books for kids in Uganda.

In some countries, like Egypt, a growing technology base holds the promise of a rising middle class, and eventual political stability.

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Embedded Linux company woos Red Hatter

SAN FRANCISCO--Specifix, a company that customizes Linux for embedded computing devices, has hired its new chief operating officer from Red Hat, Specifix said Wednesday.

James Prasad joined the San Jose, Calif.-based company after serving as general manager of Red Hat's European operations and the executive in charge of the company's partnership with embedded software specialist Wind River. Specifix announced the move in conjunction with the Open Source Business Conference here.

While at Red Hat, Prasad worked with Specifix co-founder Kim Knuttila--and before that both worked for a company called Cygnus Solutions that Red Hat acquired in 1999. Cygnus worked on the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), an open-source programming tool used to create countless software packages.

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Microsoft licenses video patents

Microsoft said Wednesday that it has licensed several interactive video patents from Austin, Texas-based Monkeymedia. The software maker said the "Seamless Expansion" family of patents covers means for artistically putting advertising or other additional content into Internet Protocol video streams.

"Licensing technology is an essential part of maintaining a healthy cycle of innovation in the IT industry and is a practice employed by most all high-tech companies. Microsoft respects intellectual property rights, and by so doing, is able to stand behind its products and customers," Microsoft managing director Ken Lustig said in a statement. Monkeymedia was launched in 1994 by Janna Buckmaster Bear and Eric Gould Bear, who used to work at Microsoft.

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Apple updates Tiger to fix iMac video problem

Apple Computer has released an update to the Mac operating system that it hopes will alleviate the video problems that consumers had experienced with the first Intel-based Macs.

On Tuesday, Apple released Mac OS X 10.4.5, an update to Mac OS X Tiger. Although the update offers a number of fixes for both Power PC and Intel-based Macs, the most noteworthy update is a fix Apple says solves a pesky video problem with its Front Row remote-controlled media software.

In the release notes for the update, Apple says the update "eliminates some potential video redraw issues when using Front Row on Intel-based Macs."

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Microsoft attacks EU over antitrust process

Microsoft launched an attack on the European Commission on Wednesday, accusing it of disregarding evidence and denying due process.

In a response filed to the European Commission on Wednesday afternoon, the software giant explained why it believes that it has complied with the 2004 antitrust ruling.

In the filing, Microsoft claims that the EC had not reviewed the most recent documentation submitted by Microsoft, when the commission warned in December that Microsoft faced penalties for not providing "complete and accurate" specifications for the server interoperability information.

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Desktop Java beta gallops off

Sun Microsystems said on Wednesday that the beta software for Java Platform Standard Edition 6.0, code-named Mustang, is available. The completed software, which was originally due circa midyear, will be available in the fall, Sun said. The Java Standard Edition, which is developed primarily by Sun, is software programmers use to write desktop applications.

With the Mustang release, Sun has sought to make it easier to use scripting languages such as PHP or Ruby to write portions of Java applications, said Bill Curci, product marketing manager for Java Platform Standard Edition. The update will also improve the diagnostics capabilities to spot bugs. Last year, Sun modified the license around Java to allow developers to see the source code more easily. Sun also changed its development practices so that outsiders can see and contribute to Java development.

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Oracle to sell off Siebel unit OnTarget

Enterprise software giant Oracle on Tuesday said it would divest the OnTarget business unit it acquired with the purchase of Siebel Systems, saying it was not core to its strategy.

When Siebel purchased OnTarget in 1999, it said it would combine OnTarget's suite of training programs and professional services for sales and marketing with Siebel customer relationship management, or CRM, applications. Oracle said it already has received expressions of interest and expects to complete a sell-off this spring.

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China touts recent piracy crackdown

China, often criticized by the West for doing little to tackle widespread music and film piracy from the Internet, on Wednesday touted a four-month campaign it said resulted in 76 Web sites being closed.

Ofiicials said that since September, 172 cases had been investigated--including 14 prompted by requests from overseas companies--and 76 had been shut down.

"Internet copyright infringement activities have been increasingly rampant," Yan Xiaohong, deputy director of the National Copyright Administration, told a news conference.

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Congressman wants retailer ID'd in data breach

The top Democrat on the U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday said he would consider legislation to require credit card companies to name the party responsible for consumer data breaches.

In nearly identical letters to the chief executives of Visa USA and MasterCard International, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank said a company responsible for security systems that are breached should be the one to notify customers, or should be identified publicly as the party responsible for the breach.

"If this can not be done legally at present, I feel strongly enough on this point to make legislative changes to make this a requirement," Frank wrote to the executives.

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Consumer distrust could lash e-commerce

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Symantec and VeriSign executives on Wednesday urged business leaders to protect the digital economy, warning that if online commerce doesn't become more trustworthy, consumers might fall back on old-fashioned purchasing methods.

"We can't go back to the old way of doing business; that's why creating confidence in the digital world is everybody's job," Symantec Chief Executive Officer John Thompson said during a keynote address at the annual RSA Conference here. "Unless each and every one of us, enterprises and consumers, can prove to the other that we are trusted partners, the risks associated with online transactions will become unacceptable."

Digital interactions touch almost everything consumers do, Thompson pointed out. "Even when we think we're unplugged, we're not," he said. Online transactions affect businesses as well, helping them cut costs, among other advantages. Businesses are thus heavily relying on the efficiencies of digital technologies and looking to employ them further in the future.

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The hidden threat to the digital future

The distinction between business and e-business is gone. We are all e-businesses now.

From the hot-dog cart on the corner to the multinational manufacturer, all businesses rely on the digital world for at least some part of their operation, from ordering parts to delivering products and communicating with customers and employees. The continued success of our economy depends on the enormous efficiencies made possible by the digital world.

Yet there is a hidden threat to this digital future: It's not some cyberattack, but the loss of consumer confidence in the online experience. If consumers don't believe that their critical information is protected from irreparable damage or unauthorized access, they won't continue to embrace the digital lifestyle. And that won't just hurt the digital economy, but the economy as a whole.

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Cisco's Chambers outlines security strategy

SAN JOSE, Calif.--Cisco Systems Chief Executive John Chambers says he's taking a "holistic" approach to security and that corporations should view the network as an integrated system.

The network has evolved from using "pinpoint" security technology to one that integrates a broad range of tools that communicate with each other, Chambers said Wednesday during a keynote speech here at the RSA Conference 2006. That means security can be coordinated across the entire network, from the worker at a desk to the guts of the system.

"Assume employees are going across a lot of networks," Chambers said. "So you have to build in security from the home to any number of networks."

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Beware the 'pod slurping' employee

A U.S. security expert who devised an application that can fill an iPod with business-critical data in a matter of minutes is urging companies to address the very real threat of data theft.

Abe Usher, a 10-year veteran of the security industry, created an application that runs on an iPod and can search corporate networks for files likely to contain business-critical data. At a rate of about 100MB every couple minutes, it can scan and download the files onto the portable storage units in a process dubbed "pod slurping."

To the naked eye, somebody doing this would look like any other employee listening to their iPod at their desk. Alternatively, the person stealing data need not even have access to a keyboard but can simply plug into a USB port on any active machine.

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Telecoms, cable firms take franchise fight to D.C.

Phone companies and cable operators have taken their fight over video franchising to Washington, D.C.

On Wednesday, executives on both sides of the debate testified in front of the Senate Commerce Committee to explain their positions on changing the current rules, which require video service providers to negotiate franchise agreements with local communities.

The hearing was part of a larger effort in Congress to look into the possibility of reforming the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

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A showcase for all things wireless

Service providers and handset makers are rolling out their latest offerings at the 3GSM World Congress under way this week in Barcelona.

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