News


Appearance of Exploit Code Means Time Is Running Out to Apply Critical Windows Patch

Security firms warned that hackers have published exploit code to the Web that takes advantage of the latest critical security flaw in Windows. The publication of exploit code for a vulnerability is a common precursor to the outbreak of a worm based on the flaw.

Dell Still Noncommittal on 64-bit, Has Mixed Results on Linux

NEW YORK -- During his keynote kicking off the TECHXNY show, Dell’s president and COO Kevin Rollins was coy on plans to support new initiatives in the enterprise and consumer spaces, preferring instead to emphasize the computermaker’s changing role in a maturing industry.

Microsoft Advances Real-time Collaboration Technologies

Microsoft pushed ahead this week with two of its real-time communications initiatives under the Office umbrella.

Windows Small Business Server RTMs

Microsoft hit the key development milestone for the final piece in its six-month-long rollout of Windows Server 2003 on Tuesday with the release to manufacturing of Windows Small Business Server 2003.

Ballmer: Microsoft 'Humbled' by Recent Security Problems

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said in a speech Monday that the company felt "humbled" by the effects of the Blaster and Sobig.F worms.

Opinion: Dog Days of September?

It's looking like September may be a replay of August, with nearly identical threats ready to swamp IT. Hopefully this time, the painful experiences of last month will help us avoid another IT catastrophe.

Intel Introduces Less Expensive Itanium 2 Chips

Intel rolled out two new Itanium 2 processors this week that will help drive down the cost of 64-bit computing systems. Both processors are optimized for dual-processor servers and workstations, and one of the chips, previously code-named "Deerfield" has lower power requirements.

DCOM Hole That Enabled Blaster Wider Than Originally Thought

Microsoft released a critical new patch on Wednesday that fixed three new vulnerabilities in the DCOM Remote Procedure Call (RPC) on almost all supported versions of Windows.

Windows Storage Server 2003 Launches

Microsoft on Wednesday launched Windows Storage Server 2003, a version of Windows for Network Attached Storage appliances and intended for dedicated file serving.

Hardware, Software Vendors Roll Out Windows Storage Server Offerings

Hardware and software vendors jumped on the Microsoft's launch of Windows Storage Server 2003 Wednesday with a host of hardware devices shipping with the new OS and software releases that run on the Network Attached Storage solutions.

AMD Adds Opteron Models

AMD fleshed outs its line of Opteron processors on Tuesday, introducing a new model for entry-level systems and a new model for four- to eight-way systems.

Stratus Refreshes Fault-Tolerant Server Product Line

Stratus Technologies this week refreshed the mid-level and high-end versions of its fault-tolerant Windows-based servers. The company also introduced support for Windows Server 2003.

Oracle Benchmarks 10G Database on Windows

Oracle launched its Oracle 10G database this week and demonstrated slightly better benchmark scalability than SQL Server on a similar Windows-based configuration.

Microsoft Issues 5 Security Bulletins

As Microsoft prepares to formally launch the next version of Office, the company's security team issued four bulletins for security flaws -- one critical -- in existing Microsoft Office programs. Also Wednesday, Microsoft released a patch for a low-priority flaw in Windows.

IDC: Server Market Ends Nine-Quarter Skid

Windows server sales boomed, Linux sales grew even more quickly, and the Unix bleeding slowed.

Do E-mails Reveal Oracle's True Plans for PeopleSoft?

Advocates say Oracle's bid is an attempt to acquire the customer base or destroy the company, but were excerpts taken out of context?

Sobig Damage Estimate Increased

Two days after issuing an initial estimate of the Sobig worm damages, a U.K-based digital security firm has revised the damage estimate upward by nearly $1.5 billion and broken out the amount of damage resulting from the Sobig.F variant.

SQL Server's Scalability Run Stalls

SQL Server 2000 64-bit and Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition 64-bit had a great run, but it looks like Microsoft's challenge to Unix and Oracle on scalability is over for now.

Opinion: Recent Record Shows We Can Take Allchin at His Word

Microsoft group vice president of platforms Jim Allchin says Microsoft will "do right by our customers" in the event that the Longhorn release slips into late 2005 or beyond.

Intel Drops Celeron Prices

Intel Corp. this week dropped prices by between 6 percent and 14 percent on most of its desktop Celeron processors, the economy chips for desktop systems.