Computerworld, 4/29/02: Opting for Outsourcing
After almost three decades at Weyerhaeuser, an IT veteran says life as a rebadged EDS employee suits him just fine.
By STEVE ULFELDER
On Monday, March 5, 2001, Blake Self left his farm in Kirby, Ark., at the usual time. He made the familiar 40-minute commute to Hot Springs. Parked in the lot at the building he'd worked in for 15 years. Walked inside, got coffee from the same old machine and sat down at the same old desk.
But something was different.
Self had left the building the previous Friday as a regional infrastructure manager at Weyerhaeuser Co. Now, on Monday morning, his access card read "Electronic Data Systems Corp."
[more]
Informationweek, 4/29/02: Outsourcing Keeps IT Services Companies Afloat
By Larry Greenemeier
Outsourcing continues to prop up IT services companies such as EDS, Keane, and IBM amid a dearth of traditional consulting work.
The 7% sales growth EDS (EDS-NYSE) reported last week was primarily because of a 14% increase in its outsourcing business, which makes up three-fourths of its $5.34 billion in revenue for its first quarter ended March 31. In contrast, EDS's product life-cycle-management software group dropped 11% in sales, and revenue from A.T. Kearney consulting fell 15%. EDS's net income fell 21% because of several ac-counting changes, but it increased operating income 36%.
[more]
Infoworld, 4/26/02: Making hard decisions
By Chad Dickerson
DESPITE ALL THE attention given to CTOs who design and build new and innovative systems for their companies, a lot of what a CTO does these days is look at existing infrastructure and decide what can be removed from service without harming the business. During the IT boom of the past few years, a lot of hardware and software was thrown at a lot of different problems, some much-needed and others somewhat frivolous. But as staffs became leaner and resources became increasingly tight in the past 18 months, none of this infrastructure got up and left the building with the staff and the budgets (at least for companies still in business today). It had to be dealt with somehow.
[more]
c|net, 4/27/02: Esther Dyson on Internet privacy
From Knowledge@Wharton
Special to CNET News.com
Back in the heyday of the Internet in the late 1990s, Esther Dyson was often referred to as the chief guru of the tech world, a reputation enhanced by the publication of her 1997 book, "Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age."
But during a recent talk at Wharton, Dyson, chairman of EDventure Holdings, admitted embarrassment at several of her "Release 2.0" predictions and worried about some of the fallout from the coming of that digital age. She cited, among other concerns, personal security on the Internet and frustration with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the independent agency in charge of managing the Internet's address system.
"ICANN has become a real cesspool," said Dyson, who served for two years as chairman of the agency and continues to be a board member. As Dyson sees it, ICANN--whose mandate has grown to include not just approving new extensions for Web sites but also resolving disputes and setting policy--is itself mired in disputes about authority, accountability and openness.
[more]
Computerworld, 4/26/02: Microsoft patches e-mail editing hole in Outlook
Microsoft Corp. is providing a patch for a security vulnerability that could affect users of the company's Outlook 2000 and 2002 e-mail clients who use the Word application as an e-mail editor.
The vulnerability results from different security settings in the two applications used when an e-mail is being read and when it is being written, Microsoft said. When an e-mail is displayed in Outlook, the program uses the security settings of Internet Explorer, often configured to disallow the execution of scripts. But when the e-mail is replied to or forwarded using Microsoft Word as the application to write the e-mail, Word's security settings are used, which allow scripts to be run, the company said.
[more]
The New York Times, 4/29/02: Why Gates Won't Apologize
By AMY HARMON
Associated Press
Whatever the outcome of the Microsoft trial, don't expect Bill Gates to say he's sorry.
For the most part, the Bill Gates on the witness stand at the company's antitrust trial last week was a public relations dream. Gone was the uncooperative persona displayed on a videotaped deposition earlier in the case.
This time, arguing in the company's defense against the sanctions sought by a coalition of state prosecutors, Mr. Gates played by turns his familiar roles as high-technology visionary and brilliant businessman. He waxed evangelical about the wondrous potential of technology and stuck to his warnings of its sure stagnation, should the court decide to carry out the states' proposals.
[more]
ZDNet, 4/29/02: Why I trust Microsoft more than my bank
David Coursey,
A new Gartner study comes to the not-so-staggering conclusion that Mr. and Mrs. America don't like online authentication services such as Microsoft's Passport and AOL's Screen Name service. The reason: They don't trust the two companies to keep their personal information safe.
Given how the two companies are forcing their respective user name and authentication schemes down people's throats, it doesn't surprise me that consumers are choking on them. And given that consumers have a hard enough time trusting the Internet as a whole, I can certainly understand why they're unwilling to trust AOL and Microsoft.
[more]
ZDNet, 4/29/02: Microsoft warns of Outlook attacks
By Robert Vamosi
On April 26, Microsoft released a new security bulletin, MS02-021, for anyone running Microsoft Word as the default e-mail editor for Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002. (The Word option is enabled or disabled by clicking Tools > Options > Mail Format.) Users editing or creating e-mail in rich text or HTML formats with the Word option could be vulnerable to harmful scripts sent from malicious users.
[more]
Fortune, 4/29/02: XP Means Extra Pain
Microsoft Windows XP promised to usher in an era of computing in which users suffer less. Aspirin, anyone?
By Stewart Alsop
I've been looking forward to using Windows XP. I know most of the reviews say that it isn't that big a deal, that there's not enough new here to make people want to buy a new PC. But it sounded to me as if XP might be more stable and easier to use than earlier versions of Windows, and it offered cool new features for photographs and wireless networks.
[more]
8:22:15 AM 
|
