Enough With the Browser Toolbars Already!

Enough With the Browser Toolbars Already!
February 10, 2009 at 8:41 pm
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Taking up space in your browser and pushing their own pay-per-click services is a great way for companies to make money. The features might be tempting but there are so many bad toolbars that you're better off browsing clean.
- Whenever I go to clean up a friend/relative's computer that they complain is too slow there's one thing I almost always find: Numerous browser toolbars, particularly in Internet Explorer. Not all browser toolbars are bad, but the bad ones do seem to get around. There is a long and disturbing histo...

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IBM's New Cloud Computing CTO Now Central Player in a Huge Trend
February 10, 2009 at 8:28 pm
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Kristof Kloeckner, formerly vice president of strategy and technology for IBM's Software Group, was appointed to his new position at the end of 2008. Previously he had been vice president of development for Tivoli. He's going to need every bit of an impressive IT background to handle this new job.
- SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Now that IBM has designated space, capital and personnel for its new Blue Cloud computing division, the newly appointed CTO of that group suddenly finds himself a central player in the hottest current IT trend in the world -- and at the world's largest IT company, no less. We...

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Sun Microsystems Discusses Changes Afoot for MySQL Database
February 10, 2009 at 8:05 pm
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Sun Microsystems spent $1 billion to buy MySQL AB early last year. In recent days, the company has had two prominent names, Marten Mickos and Monty Widenius, announce their resignations. However Sun says adoption of MySQL 5.1 is going strong, and revealed some strategic plans for the MySQL database.
- Its been roughly a year since Sun Microsystems acquired MySQL AB and brought the open source database into its portfolio. A lot has happened in the ensuing months, from the release of MySQL 5.1 to the resignations of two prominent names long associated with MySQL, Monty Widenius and Marten Mickos. ...

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IBM Blue Gene Supercomputer Looks to Break the Petaflop Mark in Europe
February 10, 2009 at 6:00 pm
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IBM, which recently announced that it would build a massive supercomputer capable of 20 petaflops of performance, may set new supercomputing records in Europe when it builds a Blue Gene/P System machine in Germany later in 2009. This water-cooled IBM Blue Gene supercomputer could be the first supercomputer in Europe to break the petaflop barrier. Right now, only IBM's Roadrunner system and Cray's Jaguar supercomputer offer petaflops of performance.
- IBM is looking to build the first supercomputer in Europe later in 2009 that passes the petaflop barrier, which will make the machine the first high-performance computer on the continent to offer a performance of more than 1 quadrillion calculations per second. On Feb. 10, IBM and the German re...

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Hackers Crack FAA
February 10, 2009 at 5:59 pm
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The personal information of more than 45,000 Federal Aviation Agency employees and retirees exposed to possible identity theft. FAA reports hacked server was not connected to air traffic control system or any other FAA operational system.
- Just a day after President Obama ordered a comprehensive review of the government's cyber security systems, the FAA (Federal Aviation Agency) reported Feb. 10 hackers illegally accessed an agency computer and stole employee personal identity information. The FAA said in a statement the hacked ser...

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Intel's 32-nm 'Westmere' Processors on Track for Late 2009
February 10, 2009 at 4:35 pm
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Intel is looking to make the next significant upgrade to its processor line with its 32-nm processors currently code-named Westmere. The next step in Intel's processor revolution includes a massive $7 billion dollar investment in its chip manufacture facilities here in the United States. Intel believes that the new processor will all it to leapfrog rivals such as AMD, which recently came out with its own 45-nm processors, although the company does have its sights set on a 32-nm chip eventually.
- Intel unveiled its new 32-nm working microprocessor for both laptops and desktops at a Feb. 10 event in San Francisco. The chip giant also plans on investing $7 billion over the next two years on its 32-nm manufacturing technology, centered on upgrading production facilities in New Mexico, Ari...

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Microsoft Fixes Critical Bugs in Microsoft Exchange Server, Internet Explorer for Patch Tuesday
February 10, 2009 at 3:56 pm
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Microsoft's February Patch Tuesday release contains four security bulletins. Two are rated critical, one affecting Internet Explorer and the other Microsoft Exchange Server. The other security bulletins affect editions of SQL Server and Microsoft Office Visio.
- Microsoft issued four security bulletins for February's Patch Tuesday release in order to plug a number of remote code execution vulnerabilities in its products. Two of the bulletins are rated quot;critical. quot; Arguably the one with the greatest impact is MS09-003, which addresses two bugs a...

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Obama Orders 60-Day Cyber Security Review
February 10, 2009 at 3:35 pm
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Just how secure are the federal networks that hold large amounts of sensitive data? President Barack Obama wants to know and appoints Bush cyber security guru holdover Melissa Hathaway to head a 60-day review of federal systems.
- President Obama ordered his National Security and Homeland Security advisors Feb. 9 to conduct an immediate review of the government's cyber security pland, programs, and activities. Heading the 60-day review will be head by Melissa Hathaway, who served as the cyber security coordinator executive u...

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Adobe Creative Suite 4 a Big Upgrade for Web, Rich Media Developers
February 10, 2009 at 3:27 pm
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With its Adobe Creative Suite 4, Adobe offers signifcant enhancements over Creative Suite 3. The improvements to the graphics suite of tools include an redone interface, better component integration and upgraded 3D tools. Adobe's new offering completes the integration of the former Macromedia products with the Adobe Creative Suite. The new Adobe Creative Suite 4 also gives developers a choice of six versions to choose from.
- Adobe Creative Suite 4 adds a revamped interface, improved component integration and advanced 3D tools to the dominant graphics suite. And while some users will probably be able to get by just fine with the older versions, serious Web and rich media developers will find Creative Suite 4 to be a very...

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AMD Postpones Vote on Abu Dhabi Spinoff
February 10, 2009 at 3:21 pm
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Advanced Micro Devices is forced to postpone a vote that would spin off the desktop and notebook chip maker's manufacturing facilities into a separate company. At a special meeting of shareholders, AMD failed to obtain the required quorum for an official vote, the company says.
- SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 10 (Reuters) Advanced Micro Devices Inc said on Tuesday that it had postponed a shareholder vote to approve its plan to spin off its manufacturing plants, after failing to obtain the requisite quorum. Shares of AMD, which competes with Intel Corp in making microprocessors f...

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Salesforce.com Delivers Salesforce CRM Spring `09 Release
February 10, 2009 at 2:23 pm
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Salesforce.com expands its cloud offering by delivering a new offering: Salesforce CRM Spring 09. Built on the company's Force.com platform, Salesforce CRM Spring '09 is Salesforce.com's 28th generation release. The Salesforce CRM Spring '09 offering features both a service cloud and a sales cloud.
- Salesforce.com has delivered Salesforce CRM Spring '09, its cloud computing solution for customer service and sales. Salesforce CRM Spring '09 is available to the companys nearly 52,000 customers and is built on the company's Force.com platform. Salesforce CRM Spring '09 is Salesforce.com's 28th ge...

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Court Denies Verizon Petition on Customer Switching
February 10, 2009 at 1:40 pm
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A U.S. appeals court denies Verizon's petition to overturn another court's order that bars the telephony company from soliciting customers and trying to talk them out of switching phone service providers. Cable providers such as Comcast and Time Warner originally complained about Verizon's tactics.
- WASHINGTON (Reuters) A U.S. appeals court has denied Verizon Communication Inc's request to overturn a federal order barring the phone company from marketing to customers to talk them out of switching phone services. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected on Tuesday Veriz...

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Facebook, MySpace Sign EU Anti-bullying Pact
February 10, 2009 at 1:28 pm
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17 social networking Web sites, including Facebook and MySpace, sign a pact with the European Union in an attempt to cut down on so-called cyber-bullying. The agreement aims to protect the rights of underage users of social networking Web sites.
- BRUSSELS (Reuters) Seventeen social networking sites in Europe including Facebook and MySpace signed on Tuesday a pact aimed at curbing quot;cyber-bullying quot; and protecting the privacy of underage users, the European Commission said. The Commission, the 27-nation EU's executive arm, said th...

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Cisco Forecasts Dramatic Mobile Video Traffic Growth
February 10, 2009 at 1:15 pm
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Despite a bleak economic climate, Cisco's latest Visual Networking Index predicts global mobile traffic will increase 66 times over the next five years with mobile video accounting for nearly 64 percent of traffic by 2013. The primary driver of this surge in mobile traffic will be driven by laptops, netbooks and smartphones connecting to the network.
- Almost 64 percent of the world's mobile traffic will be video within the next five years, according to Cisco's latest VNI (Visual Networking Index) Mobile Forecast for 2008-2013 released Feb. 10. They key driver of the mobile traffic will be laptops, netbooks and smartphones connecting to the...

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Dell Latitude XT2 Tablet Offers Longer Battery Life, DDR3 Memory
February 10, 2009 at 12:40 pm
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Dell, which first began offering its Latitude XT tablet notebook in 2007, is revamping its lineup with the Latitude XT2. The updated Dell tablet is offering users up to 11 hours of battery life with a 6-cell battery along with the option of using newer DDR3 memory instead of more conventional DDR2 memory. The Dell XT2 tablet laptop also comes with Intels ultra low-volt Core 2 Duo processors.
- Dell has revamped its Latitude XT tablet PC to include a 6-cell battery that offers up to 11 hours of battery life, as well as other features such as support for newer DDR3 (double data rate 3) main memory. The Dell Latitude XT2 tablet officially went on sale Feb. 10 for a starting price of $2,...

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Intel Investing $7 Billion in U.S. Manufacturing Facilities
February 10, 2009 at 10:57 am
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In January, Intel announced plans to slow production and shutter some chip manufacturing facilities. Now, the worlds largest supplier of x86 processors for desktops, laptops and server systems is announcing that it will invest $7 billion in building facilities to manufacture its next generation of 32-nm processors – "Westmere" – which are scheduled to hit the IT market in late 2009. The news of Intels investment comes as other companies, such as Panasonic, have looked to cut both jobs and costs.
- Intel plans to invest $7 billion over the next two years to build and update its U.S. manufacturing facilities in order to ramp up production for the companys new line of 32-nanometer processors – a vital component for the still-growing "netbook" market as well as for future generations of desk...

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IBM Unveils Cloud Computing Division, Strategy and Partnership
February 10, 2009 at 10:32 am
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Until now, a potential IBM customer looking to build or refurbish a data center to supply infrastructure for cloud-type services must start with IBM Global Services and work his/her way through that formidable bureaucracy. Now there's a specific door on which to knock.
- SAN JOSE, Calif. -- It took a while longer than some of its competitors, but as of Feb. 10, it appears that big, hulking IBM finally does have the start of a cohesive cloud computing strategy in place. In 2008, Cisco Systems, Dell, Symantec, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard, EMC and dozens o...

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How to Reduce PC Costs
February 10, 2009 at 10:31 am
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As refresh cycles lengthen, IT managers must balance the costs of buying new desktops or laptops or maintaining the old one.
- At BMC Software, older corporate desktops and laptops are given new life. Theyre rehabbed and repurposed, handed down to other employees or put into test and development roles. "We basically recycle computers," said Jim Grant, senior vice president of strategy and corporate development at BMC...

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Google PowerMeter Keeps You Lean and Green
February 10, 2009 at 10:25 am
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Google wants to use open protocols and standards to give consumers a better understanding of how much electricity they use and is using social-networking-enabled software tools such as Google PowerMeter to bolster interest.
- Do you ever wonder why the electric bill you receive at home or at your business costs what it does? Most people simply do not pay attention to the amount of electricity they use, but Google (who else?) announced a new tool to make people more aware of their power-sapping ways. On Monday, Ed L...

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Flawed Intel Chip Technology Leads to Processor Breakthrough
February 10, 2009 at 10:21 am
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A flaw that had been identified in Intels Pentium processor more than a decade ago may show the way to greater power efficiency when it comes to building tomorrows processors, according to new research from Rice University. This discovery could change the way chip makers such as Intel and AMD create their CMOS test chips.
- A group of Rice University researchers are trying to show that a flaw within Intels Pentium processor might actually lead to a major breakthrough in creating more energy-efficient chips in the future. To read more about this discovery and how it may affect chip makers, click here for the full sto...

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Lenovo Chairman Promises PC Maker Will Be Profitable Again
February 10, 2009 at 10:04 am
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Lenovo posted the smallest growth last year of the world's top four PC makers. Its shipments grew 8 percent, compared with a 53 percent gain for Acer, 13 percent for Hewlett-Packard and 11 percent for Dell.
- BEIJING, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Lenovo Group, the world's fourth-largest PC maker, said on Tuesday it would focus on China and other emerging markets and low-cost personal computers as the route back to profitability in 2010. Chairman Liu ChuanzhiHe forecast further losses this calendar year and...

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Challenging Oracle
February 10, 2009 at 9:52 am
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In this eWEEK podcast hosted by Mike Vizard, EnterpriseDB CEO Ed Boyajian explains why during these tough economic times so many customers are now investing in an open-source Postgres database alternative to run their Oracle-based applications.
- Audio Podcast Content....

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Slow Moving Clouds
February 10, 2009 at 9:49 am
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In this eWEEK podcast hosted by Mike Vizard, Rackspace CTO John Engates explains why so many small-to-midsize customers are moving slowly when it comes to embracing all the concepts associated with cloud computing.
- Audio Podcast Content....

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Spansion Japan Files for Bankruptcy Protection
February 10, 2009 at 9:42 am
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Spansion, owned 11.4 percent by Fujitsu and 8.7 percent by Advanced Micro Devices, is the world's biggest maker of NOR-type flash memory with a market share of about 40 percent. The Japanese unit of flash memory maker Spansion said it filed for bankruptcy protection with total liabilities of $810 million.
- TOKYO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The Japanese unit of flash memory maker Spansion said it filed for bankruptcy protection on Tuesday with total liabilities of $810 million, the latest victim of the chip sector's global downturn. Sharp price falls and weak demand in the chip market, which are also ...

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eWeek Newsbreak, Feb. 9, 2009
February 10, 2009 at 9:15 am
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Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is rolling out five new Phenom II processors for high-end desktops and gaming PCs. Included in the release is a set of energy-efficient tri-core and quad-core chips AMD says these will consume 50 percent less power than previous versions. Microsoft says its Environmental Sustainability Dashboard for Microsoft Dynamics AX can help execs and IT administrators interested in green IT reduce their carbon footprint and save money by monitoring everything from energy costs and consumption to greenhouse gas emissions. Over the weekend the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft will soon launch its own cell phone software store. This news comes on the tail of Microsofts limited release of its My Phone service, which syncs information like contacts and calendar appointments on a cell phone to a password protected website. According to Reuters, business computer maker Sun Microsystems recently announced that two top executives with its mySQL open-source database unit are leaving the company. The two include, Marten Mickos, now former senior vice president who was chief executive of MySQL and MySQL founder Monty Widenius New information is out, urging companies to keep an eye of Flash security. With hackers increasingly targeting Web 2.0 sites, knowing how to develop secure Adobe Flash applications can be a difference maker when it comes to avoiding mass compromises.
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Doyenz Announces Automated Virtual IT for SMBs
February 10, 2009 at 7:18 am
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Doyenz aims to provide midmarket virtualization and cloud computing solutions with its Automated Virtual IT service.
- As more and more midmarket companies look to virtualization as a cost-effective solution to business IT challenges, an increasing selection of vendors are offering services geared at small and medium-size businesses. Doyenzs Automated Virtual IT, a managed service for IT consultants that leverag...