Patch Management
Infoworld, 8/16/04: Symantec releases patching tool
Patch management product helps SMBs stay on top of software vulnerabilities
By Paul Roberts, IDG News Service August 16, 2004
Security company Symantec Corp. plans to announce the release of a patch management product on Monday that it says will enable small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to stay on top of software vulnerabilities.
Symantec ON iPatch Version 1.1 is Microsoft Corp. Windows-based software that can scan a computer network for Windows machines, determine which software patches those machines have installed and automatically download and install missing patches on machines that need them, according to a company statement.
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Microsoft
Computerworld, 8/13/04: Hunt for XP SP2 flaws seen in full swing
Hackers are picking apart the software update looking for vulnerabilities
News Story by Joris Evers
AUGUST 13, 2004 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - While users are testing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP to prevent compatibility problems, hackers are picking apart the security-focused software update looking for vulnerabilities, security experts said.
"We will see new vulnerabilities discovered in SP2 over the next few weeks. Give it a month or two, and we will also see worms that affect SP2," said Thor Larholm, senior security researcher at PivX Solutions LLC, a security services company in Newport Beach, Calif.
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The New York Times, 8/16/04: Ambitious Package to Raise Productivity (and Microsoft's Profit)
By STEVE LOHR
REDMOND, Wash. - To most of the computer-using world, Microsoft Office is the familiar workhorse of the desktop, a collection of software for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
But for Microsoft, which is starting to see its growth slow as it ages, reinventing that suite of old reliables - including Word, Excel and PowerPoint - has become nothing less than a key to its future.
"Office defines business productivity," Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, told financial analysts in July. He added that "the productivity area is probably the most important franchise that we have."
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Business Week, 8/30/04: Windows: Security Is Suddenly Job One
This upgrade should zap more viruses, worms, and other nasties
Microsoft (MSFT ) has always promoted new versions of Windows by talking up features designed to make computer use easier and more fun. The prosaically named Windows XP Service Pack 2 is starkly different. While it amounts to a major release in size and scope, it could also be called the cod liver oil of software upgrades: nasty but good for you.
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Plus ça change, …
The New York Times, 8/14/04: A French Employee's Work Celebrates the Sloth Ethic
By CRAIG S. SMITH
PARIS, Aug. 13 - Finally, instead of dissembling behind ambiguous notions of Gallic joie de vivre, someone in this leisurely land has declared outright that the French should eschew the Anglo-Saxon work ethic and openly embrace sloth.
Corinne Maier, the author of "Bonjour Paresse," a sort of slacker manifesto whose title translates as "Hello Laziness," has become a countercultural heroine almost overnight by encouraging the country's workers to adopt her strategy of "active disengagement" - calculated loafing - to escape the horrors of disinterested endeavor.
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