Articles by Jennifer LeClaire

Open source technologies may not be taking over the world, but they are finding a niche and a large one at that. To be sure, companies large and small are becoming more comfortable deploying open source technologies on the server Now, an an increasing number of firms are looking into the possibility of mission-critical Enterprise Resource Planning ...

Microsoft may have missed the Web 2.0 bandwagon's first go-round, but the software giant is emerging with a set of new tools designed to deliver better customer experiences online. The company also released a test version of the new Internet Explorer browser The announcements came during MIX06, a conference intended to stir excitement among Web des...

The Mozilla Foundation is preparing to launch yet another version of its open-source Web browser -- ahead of Internet Explorer 7 The Mozilla development team freezed the code for Firefox 2.0a1 last Thursday, according to the minutes of a March 14 Firefox 3 status meeting at the foundation's headquarters. The latest update, however, indicates that t...

More and more companies are jumping into the Web analytics arena. In fact, Jupiter Research estimates the size of the Web analytics market will reach US$565 million in 2006 Choosing a Web analytics firm, however, is not merely a matter of brand name or even price. There are three distinct options in the analytics world: client-side, server-side and...

In the wake of a string of high profile data breaches reported by banks, retailers and credit card companies, a U.S. House panel on Thursday approved a bill drafted to protect consumers from identity theft and credit card fraud The House Financial Services Committee cleared the Financial Data Protect Act of 2005, which spells out requirements for c...

High-speed chip interface designer Rambus on Friday said it has signed a technology licensing agreement with IBM. The agreement allows IBM to building Cell Broadband Engine (Cell BE) processors and companion chips using Rambus' technology Terms of the deal were not disclosed....

Blogging software and services provider Six Apart on Thursday said it received US$12 million in third round financing The round was led by Focus Ventures. Intel Capital and prior round lead August Capital also participated in the funding....

Microsoft is introducing an entertainment franchise including games and television programming featuring characters that appeal to young consumers The software giant on Wednesday revealed plans for "Viva Pinata." More than just a video game title, Microsoft plans to bring living pinata animals to Saturday morning television. The new series will be ...

SophosLabs is warning computer users about Troj/Zippo-A, also known as Cryzip, this week, and offering the secret code to crack the scam. The Trojan horse encrypts computer data and attempts to extort a US$300 ransom Zippo-A searches for files, such as Word documents, databases and spreadsheets, and moves them into password-encrypted ZIP files on ...

Microsoft on Tuesday issued a series of security patches to fix multiple problems in its Windows operating system and Microsoft Office productivity suite This is one of the more significant "patch Tuesdays" in terms of number and severity of included fixes, according to Ed Moyle, a manager in CTG's Information Security Services Practice. The number...

Red Hat on Tuesday announced details of its integrated virtualization strategy. The timing is a preemptive strike against rival Novell, which comes only a week before that company's annual Brainshare conference Red Hat plans to work with AMD, Intel, Network Appliance and XenSource to make virtualization technology a mainstay of the Linux market thi...

VeriSign on Monday declared its entrance into the broadband content services market, announcing its US$62 million acquisition of Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Kontiki to help establish its presence in the field VeriSign plans to provide rich digital media over IP networks and has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Kontiki, a provider of managed pee...

The battle over the next generation of DVD players just got another entrant: the virtual multilayer disc (VMD). VMD is a high quality format with built-in copyright protection designed for next-generation optical media New Medium Enterprises demonstrated its VMD technology at the CeBIT trade show in Germany. The 20GB high definition VMD uses red l...

The Web analytics market is heating up, as evidenced by at least two recent high-profile business deals in this area. Google entered the picture with a successful US$30 million bid for Urchin last spring, and NetIQ sold WebTrends to a group of company executives for more than $90 million. The name of the game in e-commerce environments is in increasing conversions, and Web analytics plays a key role in measuring initiatives...

Motorola's popular Razr phones are cutting off some callers. Now, the company's stock prices are taking a slashing Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile last week stopped selling the Motorola model because of a defect in some handsets that causes calls to disconnect when the flip phones are opened. The glitch is due to a faulty component from one supplie...

Google has gobbled up yet another Web 2.0 startup. The search giant has acquired Upstartle, maker of Writely, software that allows you to edit documents online, then publish them online via blogs and other Web sites Writely users can upload Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text documents, or create a document from scratch. A WYSIWYG editor ...

Google has gobbled up yet another Web 2.0 startup. The search giant has acquired Upstartle, maker of Writely, software that allows you to edit documents online, then publish them online via blogs and other Web sites Writely users can upload Microsoft Word, OpenOffice, RTF, HTML or text documents, or create a document from scratch. A WYSIWYG editor ...

Amazon is in talks with three Hollywood studios about starting a service that would allow consumers to download movies and TV shows for a fee and burn them onto DVDs The online retailer is reportedly in talks with Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Bros. If the negotiations are successful, Amazon would become a titan in the world of d...

Taking aim at rival Microsoft, its Windows platform and its Office suite, Novell on Thursday unveiled SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 at CeBIT 2006 in Hanover, Germany The new Linux desktop software suite features enhanced power management, integrated desktop search, graphical interfaces and numerous application improvements based on open source i...

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates is expected to demonstrate the company's first wave of Ultra-Mobile PCs at the CeBIT information and telecommunications trade show in Hannover, Germany on Thursday Developed under the code name Origami, the portable devices will be available next month at prices ranging from US$600 to $1,000, are expected to weigh less...