IT Management
Computerworld, 9/29/03: NetIQ enhances network management product
It's including support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Story by Matt Hamblen
NetIQ Corp. in San Jose today announced enhancements to its network management product line, including support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, which is due out next month.
The company also announced AppAnalyzer for Exchange 3.0, a Web-based reporting and analysis tool to help IT shops analyze usage on Exchange servers. New features include Outlook Web Access usage reporting capability and a status page.
[more]
Security
Computerworld, 9/29/03: Unpatched Microsoft browser hole a gold mine for hackers
It could lead to hijacked instant messaging accounts
Story by Paul Roberts
A long-ignored security hole in Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer (IE) is proving to be a gold mine for hackers, providing an easy way for them to plant malicious programs on vulnerable machines through hacker Web sites and instant messaging applications, security experts warn.
New attacks using the vulnerability include a worm that spreads through America Online Inc.'s Instant Messenger (AIM) and a malicious Web site that silently loads snooping software on victims' machines, according to independent security expert Richard Smith.
[more]
Utility Computing
C|net, 9/30/03: IBM serves up virtual computing
By Ed Frauenheim
In its latest step toward utility computing, IBM is offering to let customers use the Internet to tap into the horsepower of servers that run a variety of operating systems.
The company's new "virtual server services," announced Tuesday, involve letting customers access the computing power of IBM xSeries, pSeries and iSeries machines. These servers run, respectively, Windows; AIX, IBM's version of Unix; and OS/400, another IBM operating system.
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Microsoft
Infoworld, 9/30/03: Microsoft to lift lid on Longhorn OS
New user interface likely won't be included in pre-beta release of Longhorn
By Joris Evers
Microsoft Corp. will share more details on the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC) next month. However, the company likely will keep the new user interface, dubbed Aero, under wraps.
Aero may make a cameo appearance in Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' opening keynote, but is not finished yet and likely won't be included in the pre-beta release of Longhorn that will be handed out to PDC attendees, according to sources familiar with Microsoft's PDC plans. Also, Aero is not on the calendar of sessions at the show.
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PC Magazine, 9/29/03: XP Decay
By John C. Dvorak
PC Magazine vice president of editorial development and fellow columnist Bill Machrone started an interesting e-mail thread recently asking people at the magazine about whether some of the newer XP patches might have screwed up VPN access. This thread evolved into various complaints about XP changing with each new patch. (I should mention that, ironically, I was flooded with fake Microsoft e-mail today asking me to patch the OS as part of some new virus ploy).
Anyway, I got to wondering whether or not anyone at Microsoft or anywhere else actually knows how these patches work. Are these fixes just huge blocks of code that replace other huge blocks of code? Are they true patches or are they module replacements? The size tends to be formidable. I have to assume entire chunks of the OS are replaced with recompiled code giving us new anomalies each time. Why is this? The worst part about all this is that the new anomalies always seem to be a form of OS deterioration or XP decay—never improvement. You dread each patch. You never look forward to one. Bad things always happen.
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The New York Times, 9/30/03: The Level of Discourse Continues to Slide
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Is there anything so deadening to the soul as a PowerPoint presentation?
Critics have complained about the computerized slide shows, produced with the ubiquitous software from Microsoft, since the technology was first introduced 10 years ago. Last week, The New Yorker magazine included a cartoon showing a job interview in hell: "I need someone well versed in the art of torture," the interviewer says. "Do you know PowerPoint?"
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Collaborative Technologies
The Wall Street Journal, 9/30/03: Setting Up Your Own Weblog
By REED ALBERGOTTI
Why would anyone want to write a diary -- then let everyone in the world read it?
Surprising as it may seem, it's one of the fastest growing activities on the Web. Online diaries known as blogs (for "Web log"), are proliferating as people build these personalized Web pages to do everything from chronicle their adventure vacations, to wax poetic about cross-stitching. In the spring, Iraqis blogged about life in Baghdad during wartime. This fall, the U.S. presidential hopefuls are blogging.
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