BANG!
Without warning, the rifle discharged, tearing a hole through the floorboard
of the car of an Army colonel. The rifle belonged to a young lieutenant who
had been invited to go hunting with the colonel.
Though no one was hurt, the incident left everyone in the car shaken. Worse,
the lieutenant hindered his own promotion, according to executive coach Bruce
Sillers, who was a member of that same battalion at the time of the incident.
You may never have committed as grave a faux pas as this lieutenant, and if
so, be thankful. Nonetheless, we're all capable of making mistakes that can
send us straight to the career doghouse. Here are five big no-nos to watch out
for.
1. Sending inappropriate e-mail
Most of us are bright enough to realize that chain letters or off-color jokes
have no place in business communications. Where most office workers get into
trouble is with the over-hasty e-mail reply.
Ever read an e-mail too quickly and fired off an angry reply, only to discover
later that you had misinterpreted the first sender's message? You end up not
only wasting everyone's time, but poisoning your work relationships -- perhaps
permanently.
Before you reply to an e-mail that has elevated your blood pressure, apply
one of these useful tests: Ask yourself, "Would I feel comfortable explaining
my response on a witness stand?" or "Would I want my response to be
published on the front page of The New York Times ?"
If the answer is no, take time to cool off. Store the message in a drafts folder
and review it later. Are you sure this is what you want to say, especially if
you're directly insulting the recipient? Can your words be interpreted more
negatively than you intended? And finally, would you want this message to find
its way to your boss -- or to the HR director?
By the way, don't rely on any "unsend" feature, either. That feature
will fail when you need it most. And be very careful of hitting Reply All --
or your supposedly personal conversation could be the talk of the office.
2. Putting down co-workers
Having done a significant amount of work for a particular client, I decided
one day to try to expand my presence there. I called an executive in another
part of that organization, introduced myself and said that "Carl"
(a fictitious name for the IT executive with whom I had been working) was pleased
with my work.
That executive responded, "Why should I care what Carl thinks?"
Not smart -- especially when said to someone outside the organization. If Carl
had heard about this remark -- and these things do get around -- it could have
created a
Friday, July 25, 2008
Microsoft to buy data-warehouse appliance vendor
Microsoft continues its shopping spree to bolster its SQL Server database platform to make it more suitable for large-scale enterprise deployments. On Thursday the company said it plans to buy DATAllegro, a privately held maker of data-warehouse appliances.
The terms of the deal, which comes on the heels of one announced last week to purchase data-quality technology vendor Zoomix, were not disclosed. Microsoft will retain most of the 93 DATAllegro employees, who will continue to work out of their existing office in Aliso Viejo, California.
DATAllegro provides data-warehouse appliances, which combine data-storage functions with business-analytics software. According to the company, its appliances allow companies to rapidly query large volumes of data and have the flexibility and scalability enterprises need, but at a cost-effective price.
The acquisition will allow Microsoft to "compete with the highest-end enterprise data-warehousing solutions," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft’s server and tools business, at the company’s analyst meeting in Redmond, Washington. "It will scale well beyond what Oracle can do today," he claimed.
Microsoft plans to use DATAllegro's technology to extend the capabilities of SQL Server for enterprise customers, making it easier and more cost-effective for them to manage and mine data. The company is expected to reveal more details about what it plans to do with DATAllegro's technology in October at its Business Intelligence Conference, according to IDC analyst Dan Vesset.
Microsoft may run into some challenges when integrating DATAllegro's technology with SQL Server. One technical challenge will be to replace the open-source Ingres database that the acquired company's appliance is based on, wrote Forrester analyst James Kobielus in a research note released Thursday.
Another will be to convince customers to use SQL Server in favor of Ingres, he wrote. "Clearly, that migration to SQL Server may alienate a substantial portion of DATAllegro’s existing customer base," Kobielus wrote, adding that it also will likely raise the price of Microsoft's version of DATAllegro's appliance.
However, on the plus side, Microsoft will provide what "DATAllegro has most critically lacked -- global sales, marketing and support -- "in spades," he wrote.
Muglia said an offering based on DATAllegro will be proof of Microsoft’s commitment to meet enterprises' high-end data-warehousing requirements at a competitive price.
Managing and getting relative business intelligence from data has always been a problem for business customers, particularly large enterprises, and customers long have used data warehouses to store and manage large quantities of data.
The data-warehouse appliance market, which combines storage and management with analytics, has been growing over the past several years because it provides an all-in-one package, Kobielus wrote.
"Over the past several years, the DW [data warehouse] appliance -- a preconfigured, pre-optimized bundle of hardware and software components -- has become the predominant go-to-market approach among both established and start-up DW solution providers," he wrote.
Microsoft's purchase of DATAllegro signals that there will be more consolidation in the data-warehouse space, with large enterprise data-warehouse vendors snapping up smaller, niche players, both Kobielus and IDC's Vesset said in separate research notes.
According to Kobielus, Forrester expects that incumbent enterprise data-warehouse vendors, such as Oracle, SAP and Hewlett-Packard, will follow Microsoft in the coming year to make strategic acquisitions in the market. Other pure-play companies still up for grabs in this space include Greenplum and Dataupia, he wrote.
Microsoft expects the deal to buy DATAllegro to close at the end of this month or the beginning of the next.
The terms of the deal, which comes on the heels of one announced last week to purchase data-quality technology vendor Zoomix, were not disclosed. Microsoft will retain most of the 93 DATAllegro employees, who will continue to work out of their existing office in Aliso Viejo, California.
DATAllegro provides data-warehouse appliances, which combine data-storage functions with business-analytics software. According to the company, its appliances allow companies to rapidly query large volumes of data and have the flexibility and scalability enterprises need, but at a cost-effective price.
The acquisition will allow Microsoft to "compete with the highest-end enterprise data-warehousing solutions," said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of Microsoft’s server and tools business, at the company’s analyst meeting in Redmond, Washington. "It will scale well beyond what Oracle can do today," he claimed.
Microsoft plans to use DATAllegro's technology to extend the capabilities of SQL Server for enterprise customers, making it easier and more cost-effective for them to manage and mine data. The company is expected to reveal more details about what it plans to do with DATAllegro's technology in October at its Business Intelligence Conference, according to IDC analyst Dan Vesset.
Microsoft may run into some challenges when integrating DATAllegro's technology with SQL Server. One technical challenge will be to replace the open-source Ingres database that the acquired company's appliance is based on, wrote Forrester analyst James Kobielus in a research note released Thursday.
Another will be to convince customers to use SQL Server in favor of Ingres, he wrote. "Clearly, that migration to SQL Server may alienate a substantial portion of DATAllegro’s existing customer base," Kobielus wrote, adding that it also will likely raise the price of Microsoft's version of DATAllegro's appliance.
However, on the plus side, Microsoft will provide what "DATAllegro has most critically lacked -- global sales, marketing and support -- "in spades," he wrote.
Muglia said an offering based on DATAllegro will be proof of Microsoft’s commitment to meet enterprises' high-end data-warehousing requirements at a competitive price.
Managing and getting relative business intelligence from data has always been a problem for business customers, particularly large enterprises, and customers long have used data warehouses to store and manage large quantities of data.
The data-warehouse appliance market, which combines storage and management with analytics, has been growing over the past several years because it provides an all-in-one package, Kobielus wrote.
"Over the past several years, the DW [data warehouse] appliance -- a preconfigured, pre-optimized bundle of hardware and software components -- has become the predominant go-to-market approach among both established and start-up DW solution providers," he wrote.
Microsoft's purchase of DATAllegro signals that there will be more consolidation in the data-warehouse space, with large enterprise data-warehouse vendors snapping up smaller, niche players, both Kobielus and IDC's Vesset said in separate research notes.
According to Kobielus, Forrester expects that incumbent enterprise data-warehouse vendors, such as Oracle, SAP and Hewlett-Packard, will follow Microsoft in the coming year to make strategic acquisitions in the market. Other pure-play companies still up for grabs in this space include Greenplum and Dataupia, he wrote.
Microsoft expects the deal to buy DATAllegro to close at the end of this month or the beginning of the next.
iPhone 3G Windows hack appears
Hackers have followed up the recent release of an unlocking tool for the Mac with the release of the equivalent software for Windows users.
The software - WinPwn - jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and the iPod touch.
This process which enables installation of non-Apple-approved third party applications and lets users employ the device on non-Apple-approved carrier networks.
The site offering the unlocking software for Windows users was down earlier on this morning.
The software - WinPwn - jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and the iPod touch.
This process which enables installation of non-Apple-approved third party applications and lets users employ the device on non-Apple-approved carrier networks.
The site offering the unlocking software for Windows users was down earlier on this morning.
Forrester: Vista is like 'new Coke'
Fewer than one in eleven of the PCs being used in large or very large enterprises runs Windows Vista, according to survey results released Wednesday by Forrester Research Inc.
Of the 50,000 enterprise users surveyed by the Cambridge, Mass. analyst firm, 87.1% were still running Windows XP at the end of June, compared to 8.8% for Vista. According to author Thomas Mendel, that implies that the majority of PCs upgraded to Vista were those running older versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or 98.
"Vista is 'new Coke,'" Mendel wrote, comparing Microsoft's flagship OS to the ill-fated soft drink. Enterprises still on the fence about Vista would be wise, he said, to "consider following the lead of Microsoft's important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case of Vista."
Mendel's comments undercut the momentum for Vista claimed by Microsoft, which says it has sold 180 million licenses for its 18-month-old operating system to PC makers and end users.
Vista still has double the share of Macs among big businesses, however. The share of Macs grew from to 4.5% in June from 3.7% in January 2008. 80% of those are Intel-based Macs.
Linux's share of desktops, meanwhile, fell significantly, according to Forrester, to 0.5% in June from 1.8% in January.
As a result, enterprise application developers only need to "develop exclusively for Windows XP and Vista. Forget about Macs unless you're aiming at a specific business vertical where Mac use is prevalent."
Forrester's study examined the Web browser as well as the desktop environments of the 50,000 users, spread out among 2,300 companies. It found that 19.4% of enterprise users are using FireFox, up from 16.8% at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Microsoft Internet Explorer's (IE's) share only slipped slightly, from 79.1% in January to 77.6% at the end of June.
"At least make sure that applications work on Firefox as well as IE -- this is a must," Mendel wrote.
Apple Inc.'s Safari owns only a small slice of the market -- 2.4%, according to Forrester.
Both Flash and Java were nearly ubiquitous. Flash Player version 9 was on 97% of desktops, while Java was on 99.9% of them. But application developers shouldn't try too hard to jazz up their apps with Flash elements -- "business users don't want to hunt for navigation nor do they crave excitement," Mendel wrote.
Forrester also discovered that despite ever-increasing screens and screen sizes, the largest slice -- 34.1% -- of business users are using screens between 15 and 17 inches in size with resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels; another 25.2% use screens between 17 and 19 inches in size with resolutions of 1280 by 1024 pixels.
Of the 50,000 enterprise users surveyed by the Cambridge, Mass. analyst firm, 87.1% were still running Windows XP at the end of June, compared to 8.8% for Vista. According to author Thomas Mendel, that implies that the majority of PCs upgraded to Vista were those running older versions of Windows, such as Windows 2000 or 98.
"Vista is 'new Coke,'" Mendel wrote, comparing Microsoft's flagship OS to the ill-fated soft drink. Enterprises still on the fence about Vista would be wise, he said, to "consider following the lead of Microsoft's important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case of Vista."
Mendel's comments undercut the momentum for Vista claimed by Microsoft, which says it has sold 180 million licenses for its 18-month-old operating system to PC makers and end users.
Vista still has double the share of Macs among big businesses, however. The share of Macs grew from to 4.5% in June from 3.7% in January 2008. 80% of those are Intel-based Macs.
Linux's share of desktops, meanwhile, fell significantly, according to Forrester, to 0.5% in June from 1.8% in January.
As a result, enterprise application developers only need to "develop exclusively for Windows XP and Vista. Forget about Macs unless you're aiming at a specific business vertical where Mac use is prevalent."
Forrester's study examined the Web browser as well as the desktop environments of the 50,000 users, spread out among 2,300 companies. It found that 19.4% of enterprise users are using FireFox, up from 16.8% at the beginning of the year. Meanwhile, Microsoft Internet Explorer's (IE's) share only slipped slightly, from 79.1% in January to 77.6% at the end of June.
"At least make sure that applications work on Firefox as well as IE -- this is a must," Mendel wrote.
Apple Inc.'s Safari owns only a small slice of the market -- 2.4%, according to Forrester.
Both Flash and Java were nearly ubiquitous. Flash Player version 9 was on 97% of desktops, while Java was on 99.9% of them. But application developers shouldn't try too hard to jazz up their apps with Flash elements -- "business users don't want to hunt for navigation nor do they crave excitement," Mendel wrote.
Forrester also discovered that despite ever-increasing screens and screen sizes, the largest slice -- 34.1% -- of business users are using screens between 15 and 17 inches in size with resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels; another 25.2% use screens between 17 and 19 inches in size with resolutions of 1280 by 1024 pixels.
Study: U.S. agency workers surf for porn, gambling
Employees at the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) spend significant time on sexually explicit and gambling Web sites and even more time shopping and playing online games while at work, according to a report released Wednesday.
Employee time spent at Internet auction and gaming sites cost the agency an estimated 104,221 hours in lost productivity in a year, according to the report, released by the agency's Office of Inspector General. The estimated cost in lost productivity to the DOI is more than US$2 million a year, the inspector general's report said.
In reviewing one week of computer use logs at DOI, the inspector general found more than 4,700 log entries to sexually explicit or gambling Web sites, which are prohibited in the DOI's Internet use policy. In addition, the inspector general found more than 1 million log entries, from 7,763 DOI employees who accessed online gaming and auction sites, the report said.
The continued access to porn and gambling sites is "due to a lack of consistency in department controls over Internet use," DOI Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote in the report.
Surfing porn and gambling sites not only wastes time, but it also could expose the agency's computers to malware such as viruses or keystroke loggers, said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Web security firm Finjan Inc. Porn and gambling sites "usually are the first ones to distribute malicious code," he said.
A DOI spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the report. The agency sent a memo to all employees last week, reinforcing its Internet use policy.
The DOI, the agency that focuses on protecting U.S. natural resources, does not expressly prohibit employees from going to online auction and gaming sites, the report said.
One employee computer had spent close to 14 hours at two Internet gaming sites during the week, another had spent about 12 hours at one gaming site, and a third had spent nearly 10 hours at a gaming site, the report said.
Despite three recent cases in which child pornography was found on DOI employees' computers, the agency has no system-wide infrastructure for Internet monitoring and blocking, the report said. Four of the agency's six bureaus surveyed in the report are using monitoring and blocking software programs "to varying degrees and with some success," the report said.
In the Bureau of Reclamation, the value of the blocking and monitoring software is "questionable," the report said. The inspector general found 148 computers in the bureau that had accessed sexually explicit Web sites during the week.
In DOI's Office of Surface Mining, it appears that Internet use reports are generated only when a supervisor requests one, "rendering the system useless for any real proactive measures," the inspector general said.
The DOI has taken only 177 disciplinary actions against employees for inappropriate Internet use since 1999, the report said. "The low number of disciplinary actions reportedly taken ... compared to the thousands of hits we found indicating user activity at inappropriate sites suggests that employees are not being held accountable," the report said.
The DOI should develop a unified approach to address inappropriate Internet use, including a more consistent use of disciplinary action, the inspector general recommended.
Employee time spent at Internet auction and gaming sites cost the agency an estimated 104,221 hours in lost productivity in a year, according to the report, released by the agency's Office of Inspector General. The estimated cost in lost productivity to the DOI is more than US$2 million a year, the inspector general's report said.
In reviewing one week of computer use logs at DOI, the inspector general found more than 4,700 log entries to sexually explicit or gambling Web sites, which are prohibited in the DOI's Internet use policy. In addition, the inspector general found more than 1 million log entries, from 7,763 DOI employees who accessed online gaming and auction sites, the report said.
The continued access to porn and gambling sites is "due to a lack of consistency in department controls over Internet use," DOI Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote in the report.
Surfing porn and gambling sites not only wastes time, but it also could expose the agency's computers to malware such as viruses or keystroke loggers, said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Web security firm Finjan Inc. Porn and gambling sites "usually are the first ones to distribute malicious code," he said.
A DOI spokeswoman didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the report. The agency sent a memo to all employees last week, reinforcing its Internet use policy.
The DOI, the agency that focuses on protecting U.S. natural resources, does not expressly prohibit employees from going to online auction and gaming sites, the report said.
One employee computer had spent close to 14 hours at two Internet gaming sites during the week, another had spent about 12 hours at one gaming site, and a third had spent nearly 10 hours at a gaming site, the report said.
Despite three recent cases in which child pornography was found on DOI employees' computers, the agency has no system-wide infrastructure for Internet monitoring and blocking, the report said. Four of the agency's six bureaus surveyed in the report are using monitoring and blocking software programs "to varying degrees and with some success," the report said.
In the Bureau of Reclamation, the value of the blocking and monitoring software is "questionable," the report said. The inspector general found 148 computers in the bureau that had accessed sexually explicit Web sites during the week.
In DOI's Office of Surface Mining, it appears that Internet use reports are generated only when a supervisor requests one, "rendering the system useless for any real proactive measures," the inspector general said.
The DOI has taken only 177 disciplinary actions against employees for inappropriate Internet use since 1999, the report said. "The low number of disciplinary actions reportedly taken ... compared to the thousands of hits we found indicating user activity at inappropriate sites suggests that employees are not being held accountable," the report said.
The DOI should develop a unified approach to address inappropriate Internet use, including a more consistent use of disciplinary action, the inspector general recommended.
Planting seeds of sustainability on Facebook
Two Canadian university students hope to plant the seeds of sustainability on Facebook with an application that monitors power consumption and uses peer pressure and the spirit of friendly competition inherent among many gardeners to foster energy conservation.
Kevin Muise and Jin Fan of Simon Fraser University in B.C. are hoping their application -- along with a strong dose of peer pressure, and a spirit of friendly competition -- will motivate people to save energy big time.
Dubbed GreeNet, the application offers users vital information about their energy consumption patterns. Metrics are generated using data from electricity providers.
But the GreeNet system does more than dish out dull facts and stats.
It has a powerful visual component.
The system creates a "virtual garden" based on energy usage patterns. So user participation in energy-saving activities actually causes the growth of virtual foliage and flowers within that space.
That way, application users can visualize -- in a very vivid way -- the impact of their "green" behavior.
Apart from everything else, using GreeNet is a lot of fun, its creators say. That's because users get to grow an online garden on their Facebook page, with each energy-saving action triggering the growth of virtual trees and flowers.
"It's just like actual gardening," says Muise. "You see other people's gardens growing beautifully and get the urge to improve your lawn."
The GreeNet application, designed by Muise, an M.A. student, along with third-year undergraduate Fan, placed second in interface design at the recently concluded Imagine Cup technology innovation competition.
The annual contest, sponsored by Microsoft Corp., brought together around 210,000 young technologists from more than 100 countries.
Participants showcased solutions to real-world problems, according to Daniel Shapiro, product manager for platforms at Microsoft.
The contest, he said, encourages young people to come up with innovative projects that go beyond current mainstream initiatives.
Muise and Fan their motivation to work on GreeNet came from an awareness that global warming is one of the most daunting issues facing humankind today.
The two students also believe social networking sites, such as Facebook, are among the most effective vehicles for reaching out to the greatest number of people, and generating viral campaigns.
In GreeNet, each community member starts by planting a virtual seedling. That seedling will be connected to a monitor that tracks the member's hydro consumption.
The tree's growth is inversely proportionate to the member's energy consumption. As consumption decreases the tree grows, as consumption grows the tree shrinks.
Rather than seeing bland figures of their kilowatt/hr. consumption, users are treated to a visual representation of their energy usage.
The students hope this visual display, as well as seeing the progress of their peers will encourage users to alter their behavior and reduce energy consumption.
Community members can also populate their page with different colored flowers representing various social networking and energy conservation efforts.
For example, pink flowers could represent messages the user posts on the site, yellow could stand for media links, and each violet flower could symbolize an energy saving device purchased by the member.
But for GreeNet to work, Muise said, it needs the buy-in of an energy service provider. "We have opened discussions with B.C. Hydro to get the application linked to their customers billing system".
Once the link is established, the students believe it will be easy to get hydro customers to go online and sign up with GreeNet, as a large number of the users already pay their hydro bills over the Internet.
The interface also provides several marketing and advertising opportunities for green-oriented businesses.
GreeNet can serve as a space for highly targeted online ads appealing to the environmentally conscious consumer.
The application's ranking feature ties in with the business model for selling environmental products and services online. Users can compete with one another in showcasing their violet flowers, which represent energy saving products they've purchased.
There are many free online energy calculators and individual consumers as well as small and large businesses have used them to cut power bills.
Leonard Machler, an independent bio-chemistry research analyst running a consulting firm in Toronto uses the EcoAction Calculator developed by Earth Day Canada.
Machler says he started using the calculator last year to track his lifestyle. The application helped him halve his green house gas emissions, from five tons to 2.5 tons a year.
"I was able to save hundreds of dollars in one year. An organization can use this tool to cut energy expenses by the thousands."
Machler believes applications such as EcoAction and GreeNet are on the right track when they use visual images to represent users' energy consumption.
"If something is presented to you in a graphical manner, it's easier to grasp its impact."
Muise and Fan believe social networking sites that engage users and encourage them to connect with other people are creative and effective channels of disseminating information and ideas.
"If you want to instigate change, you need to talk to the youth. They are the people who one day will be the decision makers," Muise said.
"And if you want to catch young people's attention, you need to speak to them where they are -- at that's in sites such as Facebook."
Facebook's appeal to youth and its potential for viral marketing, give it a big advantage over other media, according to a Toronto-based online marketing specialist.
"Facebook is like an Internet within the Internet. Its opportunities are limitless," said Colin Smillie, a managing partner at RefreshPartners, a boutique marketing company specializing in the use of social media.
Smillie believes larger organizations, such as banks and automakers, should develop a greater Facebook presence to gain access to the site's demographic groups.
"Imagine a young consumer inviting 50 or more of his friends to download an application that's ties in with your product and those 50 kids inviting their own friends to do the same!"
Links to vendors of environmentally friendly products and services will also open up various marketing possibilities.
Kevin Muise and Jin Fan of Simon Fraser University in B.C. are hoping their application -- along with a strong dose of peer pressure, and a spirit of friendly competition -- will motivate people to save energy big time.
Dubbed GreeNet, the application offers users vital information about their energy consumption patterns. Metrics are generated using data from electricity providers.
But the GreeNet system does more than dish out dull facts and stats.
It has a powerful visual component.
The system creates a "virtual garden" based on energy usage patterns. So user participation in energy-saving activities actually causes the growth of virtual foliage and flowers within that space.
That way, application users can visualize -- in a very vivid way -- the impact of their "green" behavior.
Apart from everything else, using GreeNet is a lot of fun, its creators say. That's because users get to grow an online garden on their Facebook page, with each energy-saving action triggering the growth of virtual trees and flowers.
"It's just like actual gardening," says Muise. "You see other people's gardens growing beautifully and get the urge to improve your lawn."
The GreeNet application, designed by Muise, an M.A. student, along with third-year undergraduate Fan, placed second in interface design at the recently concluded Imagine Cup technology innovation competition.
The annual contest, sponsored by Microsoft Corp., brought together around 210,000 young technologists from more than 100 countries.
Participants showcased solutions to real-world problems, according to Daniel Shapiro, product manager for platforms at Microsoft.
The contest, he said, encourages young people to come up with innovative projects that go beyond current mainstream initiatives.
Muise and Fan their motivation to work on GreeNet came from an awareness that global warming is one of the most daunting issues facing humankind today.
The two students also believe social networking sites, such as Facebook, are among the most effective vehicles for reaching out to the greatest number of people, and generating viral campaigns.
In GreeNet, each community member starts by planting a virtual seedling. That seedling will be connected to a monitor that tracks the member's hydro consumption.
The tree's growth is inversely proportionate to the member's energy consumption. As consumption decreases the tree grows, as consumption grows the tree shrinks.
Rather than seeing bland figures of their kilowatt/hr. consumption, users are treated to a visual representation of their energy usage.
The students hope this visual display, as well as seeing the progress of their peers will encourage users to alter their behavior and reduce energy consumption.
Community members can also populate their page with different colored flowers representing various social networking and energy conservation efforts.
For example, pink flowers could represent messages the user posts on the site, yellow could stand for media links, and each violet flower could symbolize an energy saving device purchased by the member.
But for GreeNet to work, Muise said, it needs the buy-in of an energy service provider. "We have opened discussions with B.C. Hydro to get the application linked to their customers billing system".
Once the link is established, the students believe it will be easy to get hydro customers to go online and sign up with GreeNet, as a large number of the users already pay their hydro bills over the Internet.
The interface also provides several marketing and advertising opportunities for green-oriented businesses.
GreeNet can serve as a space for highly targeted online ads appealing to the environmentally conscious consumer.
The application's ranking feature ties in with the business model for selling environmental products and services online. Users can compete with one another in showcasing their violet flowers, which represent energy saving products they've purchased.
There are many free online energy calculators and individual consumers as well as small and large businesses have used them to cut power bills.
Leonard Machler, an independent bio-chemistry research analyst running a consulting firm in Toronto uses the EcoAction Calculator developed by Earth Day Canada.
Machler says he started using the calculator last year to track his lifestyle. The application helped him halve his green house gas emissions, from five tons to 2.5 tons a year.
"I was able to save hundreds of dollars in one year. An organization can use this tool to cut energy expenses by the thousands."
Machler believes applications such as EcoAction and GreeNet are on the right track when they use visual images to represent users' energy consumption.
"If something is presented to you in a graphical manner, it's easier to grasp its impact."
Muise and Fan believe social networking sites that engage users and encourage them to connect with other people are creative and effective channels of disseminating information and ideas.
"If you want to instigate change, you need to talk to the youth. They are the people who one day will be the decision makers," Muise said.
"And if you want to catch young people's attention, you need to speak to them where they are -- at that's in sites such as Facebook."
Facebook's appeal to youth and its potential for viral marketing, give it a big advantage over other media, according to a Toronto-based online marketing specialist.
"Facebook is like an Internet within the Internet. Its opportunities are limitless," said Colin Smillie, a managing partner at RefreshPartners, a boutique marketing company specializing in the use of social media.
Smillie believes larger organizations, such as banks and automakers, should develop a greater Facebook presence to gain access to the site's demographic groups.
"Imagine a young consumer inviting 50 or more of his friends to download an application that's ties in with your product and those 50 kids inviting their own friends to do the same!"
Links to vendors of environmentally friendly products and services will also open up various marketing possibilities.
Sony announces blue-laser data storage format
Sony Corp. has announced development of a blue-laser based optical disc system for data storage and says it should be available by the end of this year.
The system, which has yet to be named, is technically similar to the Blu-ray Disc format that was developed by a consortium of nine companies led by Sony, although it is incompatible. The data storage technology was announced Tuesday by Sony and is on display at the AIIM storage and content management conference in New York this week.
"It's for professional use and Blu-ray is for consumer use so there is no compatibility," said Aki Shimazu, a spokeswoman for Sony in Tokyo. She said that because the new system was not compatible with Blu-ray, Sony would not have to consult with other members of the consortium and it would have sole control over the system.
The main difference between the two formats comes in the data transfer rate. Blu-ray, which is aimed at consumer recording of high-definition television, can record data onto the discs at a rate of up to 36M bps (bits per second) to match the data rate of digital television. However, Sony's new data storage system can record data at 9M bytes per second or double the rate of Blu-ray, said Sony in a statement.
The first version of the format will be based around a single-sided, single-layer optical disc and will have a capacity of 23.3G bytes and rewritable and write-once versions will be available, said Sony. The disc is 12 centimeters, just like CDs or DVDs, and is encased in a cartridge to protect the media.
Blue laser systems are able to store more data than DVDs because of the shorter wavelength of blue light. This means the laser, which is used to record data on the disc, makes a smaller spot on the recording layer and in turn that means that the space needed for each bit of data is smaller. Thus more data can be crammed onto the disc.
The company's roadmap extends to a 50G byte capacity version by 2005 and a 100G byte capacity version at an unspecified point in the future and data transfer rates are expected to rise too. With the second generation disc they are predicted to double to 18M bytes per second and then double again, to 36M bytes per second, when the third generation version is launched.
To support the fast data transfer, initial drives will have an Ultra-wide 160 SCSI interface, said Sony. Samples of the drive and media will be available from the middle of this year for around US$3,000 each for the drive and $45 for the media.
The Tokyo company is aiming the new system squarely at the professional market, at least initially, and users of magneto optical disc systems and in this respect they are not alone.
Plasmon said Monday it will offer drives for its new blue-laser based UDO (Ultra Density Optical) format that include legacy support for magneto optical devices. Targeted at the same market as Sony's new system, UDO is also similar to Blu-ray and based around cartridges that are dimensionally identical to current magneto optical cartridges.
First generation UDO will support discs with a capacity of 30G bytes and a transfer rate of 8M bytes per second. Like Sony, Plasmon is also trying to sell the system based on future promises of higher capacity discs. Its roadmap extends to 60G byte and 120G byte discs.
The system, which has yet to be named, is technically similar to the Blu-ray Disc format that was developed by a consortium of nine companies led by Sony, although it is incompatible. The data storage technology was announced Tuesday by Sony and is on display at the AIIM storage and content management conference in New York this week.
"It's for professional use and Blu-ray is for consumer use so there is no compatibility," said Aki Shimazu, a spokeswoman for Sony in Tokyo. She said that because the new system was not compatible with Blu-ray, Sony would not have to consult with other members of the consortium and it would have sole control over the system.
The main difference between the two formats comes in the data transfer rate. Blu-ray, which is aimed at consumer recording of high-definition television, can record data onto the discs at a rate of up to 36M bps (bits per second) to match the data rate of digital television. However, Sony's new data storage system can record data at 9M bytes per second or double the rate of Blu-ray, said Sony in a statement.
The first version of the format will be based around a single-sided, single-layer optical disc and will have a capacity of 23.3G bytes and rewritable and write-once versions will be available, said Sony. The disc is 12 centimeters, just like CDs or DVDs, and is encased in a cartridge to protect the media.
Blue laser systems are able to store more data than DVDs because of the shorter wavelength of blue light. This means the laser, which is used to record data on the disc, makes a smaller spot on the recording layer and in turn that means that the space needed for each bit of data is smaller. Thus more data can be crammed onto the disc.
The company's roadmap extends to a 50G byte capacity version by 2005 and a 100G byte capacity version at an unspecified point in the future and data transfer rates are expected to rise too. With the second generation disc they are predicted to double to 18M bytes per second and then double again, to 36M bytes per second, when the third generation version is launched.
To support the fast data transfer, initial drives will have an Ultra-wide 160 SCSI interface, said Sony. Samples of the drive and media will be available from the middle of this year for around US$3,000 each for the drive and $45 for the media.
The Tokyo company is aiming the new system squarely at the professional market, at least initially, and users of magneto optical disc systems and in this respect they are not alone.
Plasmon said Monday it will offer drives for its new blue-laser based UDO (Ultra Density Optical) format that include legacy support for magneto optical devices. Targeted at the same market as Sony's new system, UDO is also similar to Blu-ray and based around cartridges that are dimensionally identical to current magneto optical cartridges.
First generation UDO will support discs with a capacity of 30G bytes and a transfer rate of 8M bytes per second. Like Sony, Plasmon is also trying to sell the system based on future promises of higher capacity discs. Its roadmap extends to 60G byte and 120G byte discs.
CG girls gone wild
It's the latest in augmented reality - where computer images and the real world mix - but for many Japanese otaku, or geeks, it's destined to become another way they can interact with virtual girls. [ Watch the video ]
This system is from Geisha Tokyo Entertainment and involves a Web cam recognizing a 2D bar code on a small cube. When it sees the cube a CG-character appears on screen. Leave her alone and she'll get bored, sit around and even clean your desktop if you're lucky...
But bring another coded cube close-by and you can interact with the character. You can poke her and annoy her in various ways and even strip her down to a skimpy bikini. She'll complain at this abuse but still comply so if you're feeling guilty you can give her a present represented by another coded cube. She get happier when she sees the present and positively adore you when she finds out its a teddy bear.
If you think its too low-brow consider this: the company was formed and is largely staffed by graduates of the University of Tokyo, Japan's top university, and this first software is more about exploring the market and perfecting the technology before they go on to tackle bigger entertainment projects using augmented reality.
Alice should be arriving in October in Japan and the company has plans to put the software on-sale overseas including the US and China.
This system is from Geisha Tokyo Entertainment and involves a Web cam recognizing a 2D bar code on a small cube. When it sees the cube a CG-character appears on screen. Leave her alone and she'll get bored, sit around and even clean your desktop if you're lucky...
But bring another coded cube close-by and you can interact with the character. You can poke her and annoy her in various ways and even strip her down to a skimpy bikini. She'll complain at this abuse but still comply so if you're feeling guilty you can give her a present represented by another coded cube. She get happier when she sees the present and positively adore you when she finds out its a teddy bear.
If you think its too low-brow consider this: the company was formed and is largely staffed by graduates of the University of Tokyo, Japan's top university, and this first software is more about exploring the market and perfecting the technology before they go on to tackle bigger entertainment projects using augmented reality.
Alice should be arriving in October in Japan and the company has plans to put the software on-sale overseas including the US and China.
Pwnage 2.0 iPhone jailbreak software calls
The iPhone Dev team has managed to create unlocking/jailbreaking software for iPhone 3G within a few days of that product's release.
The team has published software - Pwnage 2.0 - which lets any iPhone or iPod touch user unlock the device, a process which enables installation of non-Apple-approved third party applications.
The Pwnage software can also unlock the iPhone for use with other networks, the team said, "Just to clear up some confusion over what this actually does: yes, it jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and iPod touches. We only support the 2.0 firmwares," the team explained.
The scale of international demand for the iPhone in countries in which the device isn't available is illustrated by the fact that by February 2008, estimates of the number of unlocked iPhones in circulation around the world ranged from 800,000 to 1.5 million.
Installing unauthorized firmware on an iPhone voids the warranty and can render the device useless.
The team has published software - Pwnage 2.0 - which lets any iPhone or iPod touch user unlock the device, a process which enables installation of non-Apple-approved third party applications.
The Pwnage software can also unlock the iPhone for use with other networks, the team said, "Just to clear up some confusion over what this actually does: yes, it jailbreaks and unlocks older iPhones, and jailbreaks iPhone 3Gs and iPod touches. We only support the 2.0 firmwares," the team explained.
The scale of international demand for the iPhone in countries in which the device isn't available is illustrated by the fact that by February 2008, estimates of the number of unlocked iPhones in circulation around the world ranged from 800,000 to 1.5 million.
Installing unauthorized firmware on an iPhone voids the warranty and can render the device useless.
Software group weighs piracy lawsuit against eBay
A trade group representing hundreds of software vendors is considering a lawsuit against eBay for what it calls widespread sales of counterfeit software on the auction site.
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) has offered eBay several suggestions for stemming the sale of pirated software on its site, but the auction giant has rejected most of those ideas, said Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of the SIIA's antipiracy division. "We are at our last straw here," Kupferschmid said Friday. "If eBay continues to stiff-arm us ... then we will certainly consider litigation as an option."
The SIIA doesn't have immediate plans to file a lawsuit, but its members talked about the possibility during a meeting in May, Kupferschmid said. The lawsuit would likely accuse eBay of secondary copyright infringement, he said.
An eBay spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment, but eBay has defended its efforts to police against software piracy. EBay has put volume restrictions on software sellers, and it has eliminated most short-term software auctions, Nichola Sharpe, an eBay spokeswoman, said in March.
EBay's VERO (Verified Rights Owner) program, in place since 1998, allows rights owners to contact eBay and have items removed from auction listings. "We can't be the experts on what's fake or not," Sharpe said in March. "We're not the experts on counterfeits."
Earlier this month, in a similar lawsuit against eBay, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that eBay has taken sufficient steps to protect against sales of fake Tiffany jewelry items.
EBay pulled Tiffany items suspected of being counterfeit as soon as they were reported to the auction site, Judge Richard Sullivan said in his ruling. Trademark law does not require eBay to preemptively remove listings of Tiffany jewelry suspected of being fake, the judge said.
Sullivan's ruling came two weeks after Tribunal de Commerce in Paris fined eBay €40 million (US $62.7 million) for allowing the sale of Louis Vuitton Malletier and Christian Dior Couture counterfeit goods. EBay has said it will appeal the decision and spends about $20 million a year on efforts to remove counterfeit products from its site.
An SIIA lawsuit would likely focus on copyright infringement instead of trademark infringement, unlike the Tiffany case, and there's a more established track record of secondary copyright infringement lawsuits, Kupferschmid said. Trade groups representing the U.S. music and movie industries successfully sued peer-to-peer services Grokster and Morpheus in a case that ended up with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, and the music industry was successful in its attempt to shut down the original Napster music-sharing service.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 and other copyright law sets out strong standards for secondary copyright infringement, Kupferschmid said. U.S. copyright law allows lawsuits for vicarious infringement, when the defendant has the ability to stop infringing activity and has a direct financial interest in the infringement.
The SIIA has asked eBay to end one-day and buy-it-now auctions of software, and the group has asked to buy a banner ad on eBay aimed at educating consumers about software piracy. EBay has so far rejected both of those ideas, but it has recently told SIIA it is reconsidering some of the trade group's suggestions, Kupferschmid said.
Ending buy-it-now and one-day auctions would allow SIIA to better track software sales on eBay, he said. SIIA has several staff members and a proprietary software program that attempt to flag infringing software on eBay.
Ending short-term auctions on software "would go a long way toward addressing most of our concerns," Kupferschmid said. "Until they actually do what we're requesting them to do, I still consider it a rejections."
This year, the SIIA has filed 32 lawsuits against eBay sellers accused of marketing counterfeit software. This week, an Oregon man was sentenced to four years in prison for identity theft and for selling counterfeit software on eBay, after the SIIA complained about him.
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) has offered eBay several suggestions for stemming the sale of pirated software on its site, but the auction giant has rejected most of those ideas, said Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of the SIIA's antipiracy division. "We are at our last straw here," Kupferschmid said Friday. "If eBay continues to stiff-arm us ... then we will certainly consider litigation as an option."
The SIIA doesn't have immediate plans to file a lawsuit, but its members talked about the possibility during a meeting in May, Kupferschmid said. The lawsuit would likely accuse eBay of secondary copyright infringement, he said.
An eBay spokeswoman wasn't immediately available for comment, but eBay has defended its efforts to police against software piracy. EBay has put volume restrictions on software sellers, and it has eliminated most short-term software auctions, Nichola Sharpe, an eBay spokeswoman, said in March.
EBay's VERO (Verified Rights Owner) program, in place since 1998, allows rights owners to contact eBay and have items removed from auction listings. "We can't be the experts on what's fake or not," Sharpe said in March. "We're not the experts on counterfeits."
Earlier this month, in a similar lawsuit against eBay, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that eBay has taken sufficient steps to protect against sales of fake Tiffany jewelry items.
EBay pulled Tiffany items suspected of being counterfeit as soon as they were reported to the auction site, Judge Richard Sullivan said in his ruling. Trademark law does not require eBay to preemptively remove listings of Tiffany jewelry suspected of being fake, the judge said.
Sullivan's ruling came two weeks after Tribunal de Commerce in Paris fined eBay €40 million (US $62.7 million) for allowing the sale of Louis Vuitton Malletier and Christian Dior Couture counterfeit goods. EBay has said it will appeal the decision and spends about $20 million a year on efforts to remove counterfeit products from its site.
An SIIA lawsuit would likely focus on copyright infringement instead of trademark infringement, unlike the Tiffany case, and there's a more established track record of secondary copyright infringement lawsuits, Kupferschmid said. Trade groups representing the U.S. music and movie industries successfully sued peer-to-peer services Grokster and Morpheus in a case that ended up with the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, and the music industry was successful in its attempt to shut down the original Napster music-sharing service.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) of 1998 and other copyright law sets out strong standards for secondary copyright infringement, Kupferschmid said. U.S. copyright law allows lawsuits for vicarious infringement, when the defendant has the ability to stop infringing activity and has a direct financial interest in the infringement.
The SIIA has asked eBay to end one-day and buy-it-now auctions of software, and the group has asked to buy a banner ad on eBay aimed at educating consumers about software piracy. EBay has so far rejected both of those ideas, but it has recently told SIIA it is reconsidering some of the trade group's suggestions, Kupferschmid said.
Ending buy-it-now and one-day auctions would allow SIIA to better track software sales on eBay, he said. SIIA has several staff members and a proprietary software program that attempt to flag infringing software on eBay.
Ending short-term auctions on software "would go a long way toward addressing most of our concerns," Kupferschmid said. "Until they actually do what we're requesting them to do, I still consider it a rejections."
This year, the SIIA has filed 32 lawsuits against eBay sellers accused of marketing counterfeit software. This week, an Oregon man was sentenced to four years in prison for identity theft and for selling counterfeit software on eBay, after the SIIA complained about him.
AOL to shut down Xdrive, other services
AOL will phase out several online services as the Time Warner unit continues to struggle in its transition from a business model based on subscription fees to one based on advertising revenue.
AOL will put out to pasture Xdrive, a hosted-storage service for individuals; AOL Pictures, a photo sharing and management site; and Bluestring, designed for sharing photos, music and videos, according to an internal memo obtained by technology news site TechCrunch.
In the memo, AOL Executive Vice President Kevin Conroy said these and mobile services AIM World and MyMobile will be "sunset" because they haven't gained enough popularity. A source close to AOL said the leaked memo is legit and that it was intended solely for Conroy's team.
AOL's popularity problem among end users and advertisers seems widespread, judging by the anemic growth AOL achieved in advertising revenues in the first quarter: 1 percent, when compared with the same quarter last year.
AOL has been on a years-long shift away from its traditional business, based on charging people for dial-up Internet access service and for exclusive online content. It has been trying to move to a model based on online advertising, which has been experiencing strong growth in the past five years.
However, while some of its services are undeniably popular, like its AIM instant messaging, AOL has failed to develop innovative services in growth areas, resorting to acquiring or creating many "me-too" services in markets where dominant players are already entrenched.
For example, AOL Pictures, its original photo upload and management service, couldn't compete against more technically advanced competitors like Flickr, which was founded in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo the following year. Meanwhile, Bluestring seems very similar to much more popular services like Photobucket, Slide and RockYou.
Unable to gain an edge through technical innovation, AOL has been investing heavily on acquiring advertising service providers like Advertising.com, Tacoda, Third Screen Media, Quigo, Lightningcast and AdTech, hoping to capture a piece of the action that way, but that strategy doesn't seem to be working too well either.
In its first-quarter earnings announcement, Time Warner stated that AOL's ad business had done well in sales to external sites and in paid search, but that it had been hurt by a decline in display ads.
AOL's ad revenue growth fell way below the U.S. rate. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), U.S. online ad revenue grew 18.2 percent in the first quarter.
This is the latest trimming of online services at AOL, which last year eliminated about 50 of them, as the company has become much more selective about maintaining only products that directly support the online advertising strategy, the source said.
AOL will try to sell Xdrive, AOL Pictures and Bluestring so that existing users of those services will be able to transition to a new provider, but if no buyer is found, the products will be shut down by the end of the year, according to the source.
If the services are closed, AOL plans to either burn end users' content into CDs and DVDs and send it to them or walk them through how to save the photos, videos and other media to local hard drives, the source said.
According to the memo, AOL also plans to merge its Video Portal with its AOL Programming Video Experiences by the beginning of the fourth quarter, as well as try to boost the online ad revenue generated by the AOL browser toolbar, desktop software, Webmail service and Truveo video search engine.
AOL will put out to pasture Xdrive, a hosted-storage service for individuals; AOL Pictures, a photo sharing and management site; and Bluestring, designed for sharing photos, music and videos, according to an internal memo obtained by technology news site TechCrunch.
In the memo, AOL Executive Vice President Kevin Conroy said these and mobile services AIM World and MyMobile will be "sunset" because they haven't gained enough popularity. A source close to AOL said the leaked memo is legit and that it was intended solely for Conroy's team.
AOL's popularity problem among end users and advertisers seems widespread, judging by the anemic growth AOL achieved in advertising revenues in the first quarter: 1 percent, when compared with the same quarter last year.
AOL has been on a years-long shift away from its traditional business, based on charging people for dial-up Internet access service and for exclusive online content. It has been trying to move to a model based on online advertising, which has been experiencing strong growth in the past five years.
However, while some of its services are undeniably popular, like its AIM instant messaging, AOL has failed to develop innovative services in growth areas, resorting to acquiring or creating many "me-too" services in markets where dominant players are already entrenched.
For example, AOL Pictures, its original photo upload and management service, couldn't compete against more technically advanced competitors like Flickr, which was founded in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo the following year. Meanwhile, Bluestring seems very similar to much more popular services like Photobucket, Slide and RockYou.
Unable to gain an edge through technical innovation, AOL has been investing heavily on acquiring advertising service providers like Advertising.com, Tacoda, Third Screen Media, Quigo, Lightningcast and AdTech, hoping to capture a piece of the action that way, but that strategy doesn't seem to be working too well either.
In its first-quarter earnings announcement, Time Warner stated that AOL's ad business had done well in sales to external sites and in paid search, but that it had been hurt by a decline in display ads.
AOL's ad revenue growth fell way below the U.S. rate. According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), U.S. online ad revenue grew 18.2 percent in the first quarter.
This is the latest trimming of online services at AOL, which last year eliminated about 50 of them, as the company has become much more selective about maintaining only products that directly support the online advertising strategy, the source said.
AOL will try to sell Xdrive, AOL Pictures and Bluestring so that existing users of those services will be able to transition to a new provider, but if no buyer is found, the products will be shut down by the end of the year, according to the source.
If the services are closed, AOL plans to either burn end users' content into CDs and DVDs and send it to them or walk them through how to save the photos, videos and other media to local hard drives, the source said.
According to the memo, AOL also plans to merge its Video Portal with its AOL Programming Video Experiences by the beginning of the fourth quarter, as well as try to boost the online ad revenue generated by the AOL browser toolbar, desktop software, Webmail service and Truveo video search engine.
Open Web Foundation formed
InfoWorld — The Open Web Foundation, a non-profit organization intended to help create an "Open Web," was announced Thursday at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON) in Portland, Ore. Specifically, the organization is dedicated to the development and protection of non-proprietary specifications for Web technologies. The effort was announced by David Recordon of blogging tools maker Six Apart.
As described on its Web page, the foundation "is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification."
The foundation is attempting to break the trend of building separation foundations for each specification. Details regarding membership, governance, and intellectual property rights will be posted in the coming weeks.
Individuals such as Geir Magnusson, a vice president and board member at Apache, and Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, are participating in the Open Web Foundation. Organizations that support the foundation include Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, BBC, O'Reilly, Plaxo, Six Apart, SourceForce, and Vidoop.
As described on its Web page, the foundation "is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification."
The foundation is attempting to break the trend of building separation foundations for each specification. Details regarding membership, governance, and intellectual property rights will be posted in the coming weeks.
Individuals such as Geir Magnusson, a vice president and board member at Apache, and Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media, are participating in the Open Web Foundation. Organizations that support the foundation include Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MySpace, BBC, O'Reilly, Plaxo, Six Apart, SourceForce, and Vidoop.
AdaptiveMobile sees Sharp Rise in Volume of Mobile Network Virus Attacks
http://www.adaptivemobile.com/ — AdaptiveMobile today recommended to mobile operators that they step-up security for their subscribers, as they witness a steady rise in attacks. Recent analysis of data from AdaptiveMobile’s mobile operator customers suggests that two virus variants – CommWarrior and Beselo – are causing particular damage. While CommWarrior only affects Nokia Series 60 phones, Beselo attacks all smartphones, spreading via Bluetooth and MMS as a Symbian SIS installation file and is growing at four times the rate of CommWarrior.
One major operator has seen a rise in virus attacks from 0.5 percent of all messages to six percent over the last 12 months. On average, this operator receives 100,000 virus incidences a day, up from 70,000 in just one year.
Gareth Maclachlan, COO of AdaptiveMobile, comments: “It’s a worrying trend that’s not going to slow down yet. Fortunately, most subscribers are not infected as viruses are still immature and of limited virulence; but those who do get infected can lose up to 100 EUR a day from the MMS being sent by the virus. As these are typically corporate users with the latest phones, and who do not scrutinize their bills, operators are concerned that their best customers will churn if a competitor offers a solution.
“Protecting its users should be the first priority for any mobile phone provider. As infection rates continue to rise and higher proportions of customers are left at risk, mobile phone security will become a key differentiator for customer creation and retention – particularly among large organizations keen to ensure their staff is properly protected. The battle is heating up – and mobile operators have to make sure they are competing effectively.”
About AdaptiveMobile:
AdaptiveMobile (www.adaptivemobile.com) is the leading mobile security provider of unified customer protection for enterprises and individuals. The company offers comprehensive proactive protection from the increasingly prominent threat of mobile viruses, malware, inappropriate content, unsolicited communications and spam at a corporate and consumer level. AdaptiveMobile’s software works across all bearers, all technologies and all media.
AdaptiveMobile was founded in 2003 and boasts some of the world's largest mobile operators as customers and the leading security and telecom equipment vendors as partners. The company is headquartered in Dublin with offices in the North America, Europe, South Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
One major operator has seen a rise in virus attacks from 0.5 percent of all messages to six percent over the last 12 months. On average, this operator receives 100,000 virus incidences a day, up from 70,000 in just one year.
Gareth Maclachlan, COO of AdaptiveMobile, comments: “It’s a worrying trend that’s not going to slow down yet. Fortunately, most subscribers are not infected as viruses are still immature and of limited virulence; but those who do get infected can lose up to 100 EUR a day from the MMS being sent by the virus. As these are typically corporate users with the latest phones, and who do not scrutinize their bills, operators are concerned that their best customers will churn if a competitor offers a solution.
“Protecting its users should be the first priority for any mobile phone provider. As infection rates continue to rise and higher proportions of customers are left at risk, mobile phone security will become a key differentiator for customer creation and retention – particularly among large organizations keen to ensure their staff is properly protected. The battle is heating up – and mobile operators have to make sure they are competing effectively.”
About AdaptiveMobile:
AdaptiveMobile (www.adaptivemobile.com) is the leading mobile security provider of unified customer protection for enterprises and individuals. The company offers comprehensive proactive protection from the increasingly prominent threat of mobile viruses, malware, inappropriate content, unsolicited communications and spam at a corporate and consumer level. AdaptiveMobile’s software works across all bearers, all technologies and all media.
AdaptiveMobile was founded in 2003 and boasts some of the world's largest mobile operators as customers and the leading security and telecom equipment vendors as partners. The company is headquartered in Dublin with offices in the North America, Europe, South Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
MobileMe fracas continues
Macworld.co.uk —
Apple's MobileMe migration continues to be troublesome, with the company last night confirming at least some problems that could be attributed to one of the MobileMe email servers.
In a note distributed last night, the company admits: "On Friday, July 18, 2008 (2008-07-18) we experienced a serious issue with one of our MobileMe mail servers. This issue is currently affecting approximately 1% of MobileMe members. Affected members are unable to send or receive email at www.me.com or access email using any email client software such as Mail on a Mac or Microsoft Outlook on a PC."
The company - which recently offered 30-day extensions on the period paid for by existing subscribers to compensate for the seriously troublesome migration - has also been forced to apologise for this all-new problem.
"We understand this is a serious issue and apologize for this service interruption. We are working hard to restore your service," the company informs.
The company claims all other MobileMe services are functional, but complaints continue to emerge from service users.
Apple's MobileMe migration continues to be troublesome, with the company last night confirming at least some problems that could be attributed to one of the MobileMe email servers.
In a note distributed last night, the company admits: "On Friday, July 18, 2008 (2008-07-18) we experienced a serious issue with one of our MobileMe mail servers. This issue is currently affecting approximately 1% of MobileMe members. Affected members are unable to send or receive email at www.me.com or access email using any email client software such as Mail on a Mac or Microsoft Outlook on a PC."
The company - which recently offered 30-day extensions on the period paid for by existing subscribers to compensate for the seriously troublesome migration - has also been forced to apologise for this all-new problem.
"We understand this is a serious issue and apologize for this service interruption. We are working hard to restore your service," the company informs.
The company claims all other MobileMe services are functional, but complaints continue to emerge from service users.
Parts of San Francisco network still locked out
The high-profile troubles on the city of San Francisco's computer network continue, despite a dramatic jailhouse intervention by the city's mayor this week.
While the city has regained control of the five devices at the heart of its FiberWAN network, which carries data between city government buildings, administrators are still locked out of the city's voice over Internet Protocol system and local area networks within the Sheriff's Department and the Recreation & Park Department. Assistant District Attorney Conrad Del Rosario revealed the ongoing problems Wednesday at a bail hearing for Terry Childs, the former network administrator with the city's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) who is accused of holding the city's networks hostage for the past 10 days.
[ Related reading: San Francisco's mayor gets back keys to the network ]
During that time, the networks have functioned normally, but IT staffers have been unable to make administrative changes to some of the city's critical routers and switches.
Childs' attorney, Erin Crane, had moved for a reduction in the US$5 million bail set in the case. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe denied that motion Wednesday.
[ Related reading: IT admin locks up San Francisco's network ]
Childs' defense has portrayed him as a capable engineer, surrounded by incompetent management, who simply didn't trust anyone with the administrative passwords to the five network devices at the heart of the FiberWAN. On Monday, Childs had a secret meeting with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom where Childs turned over the passwords.
Del Rosario argued against any reduction of bail, noting that Childs handed over the passwords only after a scheduled July 19 power outage at the city's One Market Street data center failed to take down the FiberWAN. Because Childs did not store network configuration files on the routers' hard drives, a power outage would wipe this information out of memory, disabling the network until it was reconfigured, he said.
[Related reading: IT administrator pleads not guilty to network tampering ]
The assistant DA said it was "extremely suspicious" that Childs only communicated with the mayor after the network did not go out of service.
In court filings, prosecutors say they do not know where these critical router configuration files are located.
As the city's principal network engineer, Childs worked on about 1,100 networking devices throughout the city, Del Rosario said. Even with the FiberWAN passwords, there are still questions about the rest of these systems. "We do not know whether we have control of these devices," he said.
Crane said that her client was the victim of jealous co-workers who were upset because his good work made them look bad. "I think the entire thing is specious," she told the judge. "This is a DTIS management problem."
This is not Childs' first time in criminal court. He also served four years in Kansas prison on aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary charges, prosecutors said. Those charges stem from an incident that occurred when Childs was 16 years old, Crane said.
The court also ordered Childs to stay away from several of his former co-workers, including Jeana Pieralde, the DTIS director of security who was allegedly so afraid of Childs that she locked herself in a room in the data center, and his former supervisor Herb Tong, whom Childs felt was undermining his work at the department.
Prosecutors say that police found bullets when they searched his Pittsburg, California, home on July 13.
In a brief appearance before reporters after the hearing, Crane said that she and Childs were "deeply disappointed that bail had not been reduced."
Childs' next scheduled court date is a Sept. 24 pretrial hearing.
While the city has regained control of the five devices at the heart of its FiberWAN network, which carries data between city government buildings, administrators are still locked out of the city's voice over Internet Protocol system and local area networks within the Sheriff's Department and the Recreation & Park Department. Assistant District Attorney Conrad Del Rosario revealed the ongoing problems Wednesday at a bail hearing for Terry Childs, the former network administrator with the city's Department of Telecommunications and Information Services (DTIS) who is accused of holding the city's networks hostage for the past 10 days.
[ Related reading: San Francisco's mayor gets back keys to the network ]
During that time, the networks have functioned normally, but IT staffers have been unable to make administrative changes to some of the city's critical routers and switches.
Childs' attorney, Erin Crane, had moved for a reduction in the US$5 million bail set in the case. San Francisco Superior Court Judge Lucy McCabe denied that motion Wednesday.
[ Related reading: IT admin locks up San Francisco's network ]
Childs' defense has portrayed him as a capable engineer, surrounded by incompetent management, who simply didn't trust anyone with the administrative passwords to the five network devices at the heart of the FiberWAN. On Monday, Childs had a secret meeting with San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom where Childs turned over the passwords.
Del Rosario argued against any reduction of bail, noting that Childs handed over the passwords only after a scheduled July 19 power outage at the city's One Market Street data center failed to take down the FiberWAN. Because Childs did not store network configuration files on the routers' hard drives, a power outage would wipe this information out of memory, disabling the network until it was reconfigured, he said.
[Related reading: IT administrator pleads not guilty to network tampering ]
The assistant DA said it was "extremely suspicious" that Childs only communicated with the mayor after the network did not go out of service.
In court filings, prosecutors say they do not know where these critical router configuration files are located.
As the city's principal network engineer, Childs worked on about 1,100 networking devices throughout the city, Del Rosario said. Even with the FiberWAN passwords, there are still questions about the rest of these systems. "We do not know whether we have control of these devices," he said.
Crane said that her client was the victim of jealous co-workers who were upset because his good work made them look bad. "I think the entire thing is specious," she told the judge. "This is a DTIS management problem."
This is not Childs' first time in criminal court. He also served four years in Kansas prison on aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary charges, prosecutors said. Those charges stem from an incident that occurred when Childs was 16 years old, Crane said.
The court also ordered Childs to stay away from several of his former co-workers, including Jeana Pieralde, the DTIS director of security who was allegedly so afraid of Childs that she locked herself in a room in the data center, and his former supervisor Herb Tong, whom Childs felt was undermining his work at the department.
Prosecutors say that police found bullets when they searched his Pittsburg, California, home on July 13.
In a brief appearance before reporters after the hearing, Crane said that she and Childs were "deeply disappointed that bail had not been reduced."
Childs' next scheduled court date is a Sept. 24 pretrial hearing.
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