News


Flaw Lets Attackers Run Code on Windows XP

Microsoft alerted users Wednesday night to a critical flaw arising from an unchecked buffer in the Windows XP Shell that could be used to run code of an attacker's choice. The flaw occurs when opening or even hovering over malicious audio files.

Support Deadline Looms for Windows NT

Mainstream support for Windows NT 4.0 Server ends on Dec. 31, a deadline Microsoft formally set a year ago and reaffirmed with a new support retirement policy in October. Support for several other more minor server products will also expire at the end of this year.

Aberdeen Predicts Rise in IT Spending in 2003

Analyst firm Aberdeen Group predicts an increase in worldwide IT spending in 2003 and beyond but researchers say they don't expect to see the kind of IT spending growth of the late '90s to happen again.

Veritas to Buy Precise

Storage software giant Veritas is buying application performance management vendor Precise in a $537 million deal.

IBM Shipping 16-Way in Volume

IBM is shipping 16-processor Xeon MP-based servers in volume. The servers, which are five months behind schedule, broaden the options for customers who are looking to run powerful Windows-based systems with more than eight processors for server consolidation or large database projects.

Netcraft: 1% of ASP.NET Sites are Linux-Based

You'd think the existence of ASP.NET on a Web site would make it a safe bet that it's a Windows server, right? Not so fast. Internet researchers at U.K.-based consultancy Netcraft find that about 1 percent of ASP.NET Internet sites on the Web are running Linux.

Microsoft Offers 2003 Product Preview

Microsoft issued a roadmap on its Web site this week of the software and technologies it plans to deliver for the enterprise in 2003.

Unisys Points to Price Performance in New Benchmark Run

Unisys this week touted a new set of benchmarks that it says demonstrates the scalability and the price/performance of its flagship ES7000 Intel servers.

Microsoft Adds to Library of Prescriptive Guidance Docs

Microsoft this week announced the newest edition to its Microsoft Systems Architecture configurations, Microsoft Systems Architecture for the Enterprise Data Center.

IBM to Acquire Rational Software

IBM last week agreed to acquire development tools vendor Rational Software Corp. for $2.1 billion. The deal is the second largest software acquisition in Big Blue's history and brings up interesting issues surrounding Rational's support for .NET.

Microsoft Puts Out 2 Security Bulletins

Microsoft issued new security bulletins warning users of moderate threats due to vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook 2002.

Intel Releases Compilers that Help Build Hyper Threaded Apps

Intel took a step this week to make it easier for developers to use the Hyper Threading technology in its newest processors. The chipmaker released new compilers for translating C++ and Fortran code into the machine language understood by the processors.

Microsoft Group Policy Tool Enters Broad Beta

In rolling out Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 on Thursday, Microsoft also offered the bulk of its user base a first look at a new tool for the prickly problems of Group Policy management.

Windows .NET Server 2003 RC2 Officially Posted

Microsoft officially posted Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 to the Web for download on Thursday.

Microsoft Changes CAL Options

As Microsoft puts the finishing touches on Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 for posting later this week, the software giant also previewed new options for Client Access Licenses that should give customers a little more power to match CALs to their needs.

RC2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 Coming This Week

Microsoft will post Release Candidate 2 of Windows .NET Server 2003 this week, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. RC2 will probably be the last widely distributed test version of the server operating system before it is released to manufacturing sometime in the first quarter of 2003. General availability of Windows .NET Server 2003 is scheduled for April.

West Virginia, Massachusetts Appeal Antitrust Ruling

Two of the nine states that sought tougher antitrust remedies for Microsoft will appeal a federal judge's decision last month to accept Microsoft's settlement with the Justice Department and reject the harsher penalties.

HP Unveils Three ProLiant Rack Servers

HP updated its line of ProLiant-branded, Intel-based servers this week by making available a rack-dense, four-processor system and announcing a pair of 1U servers that will ship later this month. All three servers feature remote management and fault resilient technologies.

Netcraft: MDAC Vulnerability Affects Small Number of IIS Servers

Netcraft is trying to correct a misimpression surrounding Microsoft's two-week-old security bulletin involving Microsoft Data Access Components.

Security Firm: Digital Attacks Against U.S. Rise in November

The number of digital attacks in the United States rose by 13 percent in November despite an 8 percent decline worldwide, according to a London-based security firm.