News

Data centre hardware

December 12, 2006 12 Dec'06
Mixing SAS and SATA disk drives can cause problems

Mixing SAS and SATA disk drives in the same enclosure can cause interoperability issues, but vendors are finding workarounds.
December 12, 2006 12 Dec'06
Your shout: Off-the-shelf systems, net neutrality, shared services

Computer Weekly readers' give their views on the week's news
December 11, 2006 11 Dec'06
Heathrow trials herald era of biometric border checks

Heathrow Airport's test programme of biometric fingerprint readers to authenticate passengers could pave the way for wider biometric border controls in UK airports.
December 11, 2006 11 Dec'06
Rush to make the most of Web 2.0 sends developers' salaries soaring

A surge in demand for web skills, driven by the creation of second-generation websites such as MySpace and YouTube, has pushed up pay rates for top web developers.

December 11, 2006 11 Dec'06
Tube police sold on mobile benefits

British Transport Police has rolled out handheld devices and wearable printers to 400 officers in the face of initial strong opposition to boost its policing of the London Underground by ensuring officers spend less time in the office.
December 11, 2006 11 Dec'06
Notts trust to improve patient data with remote access for clinical staff

Nottinghamshire NHS Trust is rolling out technology to give its 6,500 staff secure remote access to medical records and other hospital systems.
December 10, 2006 10 Dec'06
Servers are guzzling 4% of UK energy

Servers are having a major impact on UK electricity consumption, research undertaken for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has found.
December 08, 2006 08 Dec'06
Mobile devices keep Transport Police on the beat

The British Transport Police is pioneering the use of mobile data technology to help police officers spend more time on the beat and make quicker arrests.
December 08, 2006 08 Dec'06
Power demand surges at UK datacentres

Servers are having a major impact on UK electricity consumption, research undertaken for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has found.
December 07, 2006 07 Dec'06
Heathrow tests biometric controls on passengers

Heathrow Airport is testing biometric fingerprint readers for passengers on selected flights, in a move which could pave the way for wider biometric border controls in UK airports.

December 05, 2006 05 Dec'06
Web development pay rates surge as Web 2.0 takes off

A surge in demand for web skills, driven by the creation of second generation websites including MySpace and YouTube, has pushed up pay rates for top web developers.
December 05, 2006 05 Dec'06
Dell servers go green

Dell has launched two new servers designed to offer greater energy efficiency and reduce power costs.
December 05, 2006 05 Dec'06
NHS IT schemes 'under-funded and over-ambitious', trust board is told

A confidential paper issued to the board of the UK’s largest NHS trust says that new initiatives under the £12.4bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT) are “invariably under-funded and over-ambitious”.
December 04, 2006 04 Dec'06
Ultra-thin LCD on way for mobiles

An ultra-thin flat panel screen the thickness of a credit card could revolutionise display technology and mobile devices when it arrives next year.
December 04, 2006 04 Dec'06
Simple data solutions from McDATA

McDATA, a provider of data access solutions, has launched four professional services offerings, designed to help customers justify, plan, deploy and optimise their IT environment
December 01, 2006 01 Dec'06
Lloyds TSB is first with blade workstation from HP

HP has unveiled a blade workstation solution, and Lloyds TSB is among the first companies to use it.
December 01, 2006 01 Dec'06
New York Stock Exchange suffers four-hour mobile order outage

The New York Stock Exchange suffered a four-hour technical hitch yesterday, forcing some traders to return to paper.
November 30, 2006 30 Nov'06
Symantec blames piracy for Veritas licensing snafu

Weekly compilation of storage news: Symantec says that software counterfeiting is throwing a wrench in tech support ; FRCP rules take effect.
November 30, 2006 30 Nov'06
Gartner finds growth for worldwide server shipments

Research by analyst firm Gartner has found that worldwide server shipments for the third quarter of 2006 increased 9.1% over the same quarter last year, while worldwide server revenue for the same period climbed 4.4%.
November 30, 2006 30 Nov'06
Smartbunker is first in UK to get Blade Ready

American Power Conversion (APC), a global provider of high-availability systems for network-critical physical infrastructure (NCPI), has announced the first UK hosting partner to join its Blade Ready programme.
November 29, 2006 29 Nov'06
Apple fixes over 20 security vulnerabilities in OS

Apple Computer has issued a patch to fix over 20 security vulnerabilities in its Mac OS X operating system, including a major Wi-Fi threat.
November 29, 2006 29 Nov'06
Rugged laptops brave the rainforest

Rugged laptops are said to withstand heat, cold, moisture and pretty much anything else Mother Nature can throw at them. What happens when one is taken to the tropical rainforest?
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Adware targets Mac OS X

As F-Secure notes what may be the first example of adware designed for Macs, researcher LMH reports more flaws in the operating system as part of the Month of Kernel Bugs.
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Hospitals wary of patient admin systems, admits Granger

NHS hospital trusts are increasingly reluctant to install patient administration systems that support crucial parts of the £12.4bn National Programme for IT (NPfIT), the official in charge of the scheme has admitted.
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Transport firm NYK appoints new IT chief

International transport firm NYK Logistics has appointed Myron Hrycyk as IT director.
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Forgetful staff leave businesses exposed

Corporate security is being put at risk by staff leaving their mobile phones, USB sticks, and laptop computers in London taxis.
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Apple Macs vulnerable to adware, warns F-Secure

Apple Mac computers could be vulnerable to adware installed by hackers using a new technique, security experts have warned
November 28, 2006 28 Nov'06
Bill will harm net neutrality, Cerf warns

Father of the web Vint Cerf has warned there will be "great damage to the internet as we know it" if a bill before US legislature is not strengthened to protect net neutrality.
November 27, 2006 27 Nov'06
IT's Real Time Club is still making waves 40 years on

One of the IT sector's longest running groups, the Real Time Club, is gearing up for its 40th birthday in June next year.
November 27, 2006 27 Nov'06
News in brief

Short takes on this week's news
November 27, 2006 27 Nov'06
UN meeting to address “e-waste” problem

A United Nations conference is set to debate measures to tackle the mountain of “e-waste”, the millions of tonnes of disused electronic and computer equipment generated worldwide each year.
November 23, 2006 23 Nov'06
Sock it to them - a drive of destruction

The lighter side of the IT industry
November 23, 2006 23 Nov'06
Robbers steal chips worth millions

Armed thieves have stolen computer chips worth millions of dollars from an air cargo terminal in Malaysia.
November 23, 2006 23 Nov'06
Police trial mobile fingerprinting

The police have launched roadside mobile fingerprinting trials as part of the national Lantern project.
November 22, 2006 22 Nov'06
World server shipments and sales up, but EMEA trails the field

Worldwide server shipments for the third quarter of 2006 increased 9.1% over the same quarter last year, while worldwide server sales for the same period climbed 4.4%, said analyst Gartner.
November 22, 2006 22 Nov'06
Police PDAs to have national connectivity

Airwave O2 has signed a contract with Motorola to provide personal digital assistants (PDAs) that can work on the UK police forces' national TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) network.
November 21, 2006 21 Nov'06
Microsoft still working on Vista drivers

Microsoft is continuing to create new device drivers for its Windows Vista operating system, although it has already been released to manufacture.
November 21, 2006 21 Nov'06
Novell distances itself from Ballmer IP claims

Linux distributor Novell has openly distanced itself from claims by Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer that the open source operating system uses his company’s patented intellectual property.
November 20, 2006 20 Nov'06
News in brief

Short takes on this week's news
November 20, 2006 20 Nov'06
Servers and PCs dominate IT spend

Security, disaster recovery and consolidation are top of IT directors’ infrastructure 'to do' list for the next 12 months, according to market analyst Forrester Research.
November 20, 2006 20 Nov'06
Dell expands desktop production to Chennai

Dell is set to being manufacturing desktop computers in Chennai, India, in the first half of next year, with laptops and other products to follow.
November 17, 2006 17 Nov'06
IBM takes gloves off in green server fight

IBM has taken the gloves off in its battle to dominate the blade server market ahead of HP.
November 16, 2006 16 Nov'06
PDA shipments up 31.9%

Worldwide PDA (personal digital assistant) shipments increased 31.9% in the third quarter, helped by widespread cellular access on devices.
November 16, 2006 16 Nov'06
Keep on networking if you want to keep on working

Advantages gained by keeping on the move
November 16, 2006 16 Nov'06
Your shout: IT careers, passport applications, green issue

Have your say at computerweekly.com
November 15, 2006 15 Nov'06
Sun shortens blade height

Sun Microsystems has announced its smaller Sun Blade 8000 P chassis to house blade servers.
November 15, 2006 15 Nov'06
Manchester court jails MP3 cash machine scammer

A man has been jailed for 32 months for attaching MP3 players to the backs of free-standing cash machines and stealing customers’ cash card data.
November 14, 2006 14 Nov'06
IBM enhances x86 servers

IBM is enhancing its line of x86 servers with the introduction of four, quad-core IBM systems and a new blade utilising the quad-core Intel Xeon 5300 processor.
November 14, 2006 14 Nov'06
PlateSpin enhances software for server consolidation

PlateSpin has enhanced its datacentre automation and optimisation software solutions, PowerConvert 6.5 and PowerRecon 2.5.
November 14, 2006 14 Nov'06
Welsh consumables procurement framework could save 70%

A Welsh minister has claimed that a new procurement framework for computer consumables could bring savings of more than 70% to public sector organisations in Wales.
November 14, 2006 14 Nov'06
Internet accountancy ‘requires business change’

A call by the “big four” accounting firms for real-time, internet-based company reporting has received a cautious response from the IT profession.
November 13, 2006 13 Nov'06
Trojan sex offender jailed for 10 years

A man has been jailed for 10 years after using Trojan Horse malware to control teenage girls’ computers and blackmailing them into posing for explicit photographs.
November 12, 2006 12 Nov'06
Wireless device flaw discovered

A Broadcom wireless device driver, common in millions of laptops, is vulnerable to an attack, according to an advisory from the Month of Kernel Bugs.
November 10, 2006 10 Nov'06
IBM launches quad-core servers

IBM has announced a range of x86-based servers to take advantage of Intel’s new quad-core processors, slated to be officially launched next week. The new Intel Xeon 5300 processor, codenamed Clovertown, has four processing cores to boost application...
November 10, 2006 10 Nov'06
Go green or get fined, warns Gartner

Gartner conference: The impace of environmental regulations and the need to squeeze more from corporate information were key themes at last week's ITxpo
November 09, 2006 09 Nov'06
Shadbolt looks to put the excitement back into IT

Improving the public perception of IT will be the theme for Nigel Shadbolt’s presidency of the British Computer Society. Shadbolt, who is professor of artificial intelligence at Southampton University, took over from Charles Hughes as president this...
November 09, 2006 09 Nov'06
Kasenna rolls out new version of MediaBase

Dallas-based IPTV company Kasenna has announced MediaBase XMP 8.2, the latest version of its video-on-demand (VOD) server software platform.
November 08, 2006 08 Nov'06
Intel to launch first quad-cores next week

Intel is expected to launch the first quad-core chips next week, stealing a march on AMD.
November 07, 2006 07 Nov'06
Year-end bug could ground space shuttle

NASA may be forced to change the launch schedule for the space shuttle discovery because on-board computers cannot recognise the year-end.
November 07, 2006 07 Nov'06
Bluetooth rockets tenfold in three years

Shipments of equipment with bluetooth wireless technology have rocketed tenfold in three years, a report from industry analysts has revealed.
November 07, 2006 07 Nov'06
Your shout: IT jobs, mergers, security, English lesson

Have your say at computerweekly.com
November 07, 2006 07 Nov'06
VMware backup still tough

VMware backup using Consolidated Backup is easier said than done, according to users at this week's VMworld show in Los Angeles.
November 06, 2006 06 Nov'06
Web 2.0 offers a new era for business, says GM tech chief

General Motors is investigating how the next generation of web technologies, such as blogs, wikis and social networking can improve the way it runs its business.
November 06, 2006 06 Nov'06
Tony Benn helps mark NCC birthday

It is the use of technology, not technology itself, that is important, veteran politician Tony Benn told IT leaders at a dinner last month to celebrate the National Computing Centre's 40th anniversary.
November 06, 2006 06 Nov'06
Water promises cool future for chips

A novel approach to water cooling PC chips is being developed by researchers at IBM's Zurich laboratory.
November 06, 2006 06 Nov'06
Is technical expertise undervalued by UK businesses?

The Big Question is an initiative between Computer Weekly and recruitment consultancy PSD. Each week we put the Big Question to top IT professionals to get their take on a current talking point.
November 06, 2006 06 Nov'06
Boardroom never forgives basic IT bungles

The board will never forgive an IT director who fails to get basic IT right, Computer Associates has warned.
November 01, 2006 01 Nov'06
Broadband outage flummoxes BT

BT is struggling to fix a major outage in its national broadband network, which has been ongoing since yesterday afternoon.
October 31, 2006 31 Oct'06
Flaw found in Firefox 2.0

Attackers could exploit the security flaw to crash versions 1.5.0.7 and 2.0 of the browser, according to various security advisories.
October 31, 2006 31 Oct'06
40 years of Computer Weekly

To celebrate our 40th anniversary year, since May Computer Weekly has published a series of special features and other special sections in the magazine.
October 31, 2006 31 Oct'06
Server consolidation is saving energy costs

Companies are realising as much as 50% savings in energy costs in their datacentres when they consolidate servers through virtualisation technology, says a new report from Info-Tech Research Group.
October 30, 2006 30 Oct'06
IT greats: Innovation is the key to greatness

Top 10 organisations
October 30, 2006 30 Oct'06
Essential practices for securing mobile devices

In this lesson, Lisa Phifer examines inherent weaknesses in mobile messaging devices, and discusses how to lock down mobile platforms to protect against emerging threats and risky end-user behaviors and how to ensure Bluetooth-enabled handsets ...
October 30, 2006 30 Oct'06
Your IT Greats revealed for our 40th birthday

To celebrate our 40th anniversary, Computer Weekly today presents a special section revealing the results of our IT Greats reader poll and looking at how IT has changed and how it is evolving.
October 30, 2006 30 Oct'06
Map advertising goes mobile

A system that combines maps, digital photography, and the web has been developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton.
October 27, 2006 27 Oct'06
Metro Ethernet hardware booms

Metro Ethernet equipment sales are set to triple to $15bn (£8.1bn) between 2005 and 2009, according to analyst Infonetics Research.
October 26, 2006 26 Oct'06
Downtime: BT opts for a cracker of a deal

The wacky world of IT
October 26, 2006 26 Oct'06
Computer crime guide targets non-experts

The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has produced a non-experts’ guide on computer crime.
October 25, 2006 25 Oct'06
Oracle supports Red Hat Linux sales

Oracle has announced that it will provide the same enterprise-class support for Linux as it does for its database, middleware and applications products.
October 25, 2006 25 Oct'06
Laptop battery recall sees Sony's profits nosedive

Sony has seen its quarterly net profits nosedive by around 95% following a mammoth laptop battery recall.
October 24, 2006 24 Oct'06
Oracle and IBM joins forces for Linux mainframes

IBM and Oracle are to collaborate on the sale of Linux mainframes based on IBM's System z platform.
October 24, 2006 24 Oct'06
Citrix shuns Linux due to 'lack of demand'

Citrix says it has no interest in delivering native Linux support in its products, and that it will continue to rely on the Windows platform.
October 24, 2006 24 Oct'06
Mobile phone shipments set to reach one billion mark

Worldwide mobile phone shipments are on track to hit one billion units this year, industry analyst IDC has predicted.
October 24, 2006 24 Oct'06
Can flash memory survive a washing machine cycle?

Flash drives are a godsend for moving around large amounts of data in a small and convenient format.
October 24, 2006 24 Oct'06
Blackbox turns Sun green

Sun Microsystems’s latest bid to win its green spurs is an energy-efficient portable datacentre.
October 23, 2006 23 Oct'06
Does your company view IT as an asset?

The Big Question is an initiative between Computer Weekly and recruitment consultancy PSD. Each week we put the Big Question to top IT professionals to get their take on a current talking point.
October 23, 2006 23 Oct'06
Surf's up for all of you goggle eyed web addicts

The wacky world of IT
October 23, 2006 23 Oct'06
Force chiefs on board for new police IT era

Senior officers sign up to IT strategy for inter-force collaboration
October 23, 2006 23 Oct'06
What storage managers are buying and why, page 6

What storage managers are buying and why
October 23, 2006 23 Oct'06
Virtual Iron 3.0 is launched

In a bid to wrest the virtualisation initiative from VMware by setting a new price point for virtualisation, Virtual Iron has launched version 3.0 of its virtualisation system.
October 19, 2006 19 Oct'06
Apple may have to re-state impressive results

Apple has increased sales, net profits and gross margins for the fourth quarter, but it may have to re-state the results as a result of its ongoing investigation into wrongly accounted for stock options.
October 19, 2006 19 Oct'06
Manchester Airport cuts admin with wireless roaming

Runway engineers and other staff at Manchester Airport are to get wireless handheld computers to help reduce the number of paper-based reports they are required to fill in.
October 17, 2006 17 Oct'06
Lenovo laptops incorporate encryption-by-fingerprint

Lenovo has launched a laptop computer that allows users to fully encrypt the contents of the hard drive by swiping a fingerprint reader.
October 16, 2006 16 Oct'06
Hospital blames IT for fall in status

Executives at a hospital that pioneered systems under the £12.4bn National Programme for IT in the NHS have blamed their new technology for contributing to the trust's loss of status as top performing health service site.
October 16, 2006 16 Oct'06
Ministers back legal fight to hide ID cards findings

Treasury ministers have approved a costly, cross-government legal case to stop the publication of Gateway reviews on identity cards - although the UK's information commissioner and three committees of the House of Commons want information on the ...
October 16, 2006 16 Oct'06
Fujitsu launches flash-memory laptops

Fujitsu has launched laptops that use lightweight flash memory – like that used in portable MP3 players - instead of a traditional hard drive.
October 16, 2006 16 Oct'06
Malware forces McDonald’s recall of giveaway MP3s

Fast food giant McDonald’s is understood to have launched a recall of MP3 players given as prizes in a soft drinks promotion after finding that they were infected with spyware.
October 12, 2006 12 Oct'06
Palm OS brand hands over to Access

The Palm operating system brand for mobile devices is to be officially dumped by its new owner, which is now concentrating on Linux-based software systems.
October 12, 2006 12 Oct'06
Lloydspharmacy rolls out computer dispensing across UK

Lloydspharmacy is to implement a new computer-based dispensing system designed and built by Capgemini at all of its 1,540 branches across the UK.
October 11, 2006 11 Oct'06
Virtual tape library specifications

VTL systems use disk storage to improve backup and restore processes, allowing many organizations to move from tape to disk backups without disrupting current practices. High-end VTL systems can utilize almost 1,000 SATA drives, offering hundreds of...