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A papoose named Geronimo is venturing out of the teepee this week, and the Apache Software Foundation says it might be ready for its rite of passage later this summer. The organization's effort to develop an open-source version of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) became a full-fledged project this week and is expected to produce a certified product later this summer...

The global server market continues to show strong signs of coming back to life as IT customers increasingly regard Linux as a feasible, scalable and reliable player in more parts of the enterprise. Linux is taking hold in places previously reserved for the highest end of computing requirements "High-performance computing isn't just for government l...

Seagate Technology, a maker of hard-disk drives, plans to cut nearly 3,000 jobs in a bid to save US$150 million as it deals with what it described as fiercer-than-expected pressure to lower prices. The company said it will eliminate 2,940 jobs through attrition or layoffs, shedding about 7 percent of its worldwide workforce of about 42,000. Making...

Microsoft released a "technical beta" of Windows Media Player 10 yesterday, and while the target date for the prime-time version isn't until later this year, there's little doubt now who is in the crosshairs with this incarnation of the software According to Michael Gartenberg, vice president and research director at Jupiter Research in New York Ci...

Driving is a time-consuming activity for many: Salespersons spend hours journeying from customer site to customer site; maintenance technicians weave through traffic as they go from office to office; and families spend time traveling to soccer games, relatives' homes and school activities. Ideally, individuals would like to transform those treks from monotonous, time-consuming events into entertaining or useful exercises, a preference that soon might be realized...

This week's column is about the nature of the software needed to go with the elections administration hardware laid out in last week's column [Paul Murphy, "Using Tech To Fix Elections," LinuxInsider, May 27, 2004]. In brief, the idea was to ignore political reality long enough to imagine a system in which: 17-inch Sunray 1g Smart Displays with cus...

An affiliate of a global acquisitions firm, Platinum Equity, LLC, has agreed to purchase a controlling interest in CompuCom Systems. Safeguard Scientifics, which has a 58 percent voting interest in CompuCom, has agreed to vote for the acquisition The Platinum Equity affiliate will acquire CompuCom for US$4.60 per common share in cash. In addition, ...

Without hiking license fees, Microsoft will roll out its next upgrade to Microsoft CRM software in August, the company announced Tuesday. The new version, Microsoft CRM 1.2, will have several key improvements, including closer integration with Microsoft Office 2003, a new mobile component, reporting enhancements and a tool to ease the redeployment process for IT administrators...

When Mel Karmazin on Tuesday announced that he had resigned his position as president of Viacom, the media giant responded by appointing Tom Freston and Leslie Moonves as co-presidents and co-chief operating officers, effective immediately. The two new appointees were Viacom's two most influential division heads: Freston was CEO of MTV Networks, and Moonves was CEO of CBS Television...

In a move seen as adding further legitimacy to open-source computing, Hewlett-Packard has announced it will support MySQL and JBoss, two popular open-source programs The announcement helps round out HP's open-source-based offerings but is seen as a big win for the two smaller companies involved in the announcement, The JBoss Group, a limited-liabil...

Intel is moving Pentium 4 and Celeron processor technology and capabilities into the mobile space with four new chips aimed at the desktop-replacement and value-mobile markets The newest mobile chips from Intel -- three Mobile Pentium 4s and a Celeron M -- are not cutting edge and not intended for the mainstream mobile market, but rather take some ...

A group of technology and consulting companies led by Accenture has landed a U.S. federal contract that could be worth as much as US$10 billion. The contract calls for them to implement a border access system that will rely heavily on biometrics and other technologies to track foreign visitors to the United States. The Department of Homeland Secur...

Sooner or later, the entertainment industry will realize that the only effective way to deal with peer-to-peer file-sharing technology is to embrace it. It's not going to go away But until that happens, the file-sharers of the world will continue to provide all kinds of lucrative opportunities for lawyers to get into Hollywood's bottomless pockets,...

Sophos has announced its monthly top-ten virus and hoax list. The report, which examines virus and hoax reports in the month of May 2004, shows the Sasser worm dominating the chart, accounting for more than half the reports received by Sophos. "Sasser was the major pain in the neck this month, affecting far more users than even the prevalent Netsk...

In a David-swallows-Goliath merger on a mid-market scale, Cincinnati, Ohio-based Conexio, which has 10 employees, has acquired Dallas, Texas-based Enterprise Computer Solutions (ECS), which has 25 employees. Conexio is one of the top GoldMine partners and ECS one of the top resellers of FrontRange Solutions' Heat, a service management product that includes help desk, knowledge management, asset management and service-level management...

As the new Medicare drug discount card program begins today, Medicare consumers should be aware of three common frauds including identity theft and "bait and switch" tactics, according to the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights "Seniors should read the fine the print of drug discount card contracts and watch for fraud and identity theft," s...

Reallocation of treatment resources could substantially decrease the problem of unmet need for treatment of mental disorders among serious cases in developed and developing countries, according to the findings from The World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health Surveys published in the June 2nd issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), a theme issue on Global Health...

ATI kicked off the official transition to the faster PCI Express graphics-connection standard this week as it unveiled graphics chips aimed at breaking open the computing bottleneck that can be caused by existing technology, such as AGP and the older PCI format Markham, Ontario-based ATI touted its introduction of the Radeon X800, X600 and X300 Vis...

Online sales grew more than 50 percent in 2003, soaring past the US$100 billion level and turning increasingly profitable, according to a new report from Shop.org and Forrester Research. The "State of Retailing Online 7.0" says sales reached $114 billion in 2003, a 51 percent year-over-year increase, and are poised to post double-digit growth rate...

In a move that keeps it competitive with rival Intel, chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices announced four new desktop processors based on a new 939-pin package that the company said will bolster memory support and boost performance AMD said its four new Athlon 64 processors, which now have memory capabilities similar to its successful Opteron server pr...