Steve Jobs quells deathbed rumors

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:58:06 -0500

On the heels of yet another round of deathbed rumors, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has apparently decided that enough is enough. In an open letter letter, Jobs revealed the state of his health to the Apple community at large. In the letter, he explained that his radical weight loss was the result of hormone imbalance that was only recently diagnosed. Most importantly, Jobs gave a public assurance that that he will remain CEO of Apple even as he has begins treatment for the condition.

On the flip side, I think Wall Street's fascination with the health of Steve Jobs reveals just how much Apple relies on his personality cult. Certainly, the news that Jobs will not be giving his regular keynote speech at the Macworld conference was poorly received. People are mortal though, and Apple has to think hard about how it intends to eventually survive Jobs. Having opened Pandora's box, Apple might be forced to repeatedly use the same strategy in future.

You can read the full letter below:

Dear Apple Community,

For the first time in a decade, I'm getting to spend the holiday season with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I've decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause--a hormone imbalance that has been "robbing" me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment. But, just like I didn't lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I will continue as Apple's CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple's CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I've said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from ZDNet
- check out this article from ITBusinessEdge

Salary Survey: Dot-com bubble was a cake walk compared to current job market

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:53:39 -0500

A bi-annual IT salary survey paints a gloomy outlook for IT professionals. Management consultant, Janco Associates says current conditions are create "a perfect storm," where unfavorable factors are working in tandem to depress hiring demand to its lowest level in the 15 years since the salary survey began.

Company closures, layoffs, cost cutting, outsourcing, and retirees returning to work have created a massive surplus of IT talent with few companies hiring. In a prepared statement, Janco Associates chief executive Victor Janulaitis said, "The dot-com bubble was a cake walk compared to this job market."

Just how low is the demand? The mean salary across all mid-sized enterprise IT positions has dropped 2.91 percent to $73,607. Where large enterprises are concerned, IT staff wages have dropped 0.89 percent to $65,956. Mean salary across all IT positions is down 1.2 per cent to $81,128.

On the bright side, there are positions that still command a high level of demand. These include database managers, Internet systems managers, database specialists and systems programmers. Perhaps workers who have been laid off can consider taking classes in order to retrain themselves in the areas of demand.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article at the Register
- check out the summary of the salary survey

Rumors of Microsoft layoffs persist

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:48:15 -0500

If you haven't heard about it yet, the rumor mill has been working overtime with talk of impending layoffs at the world's largest software company, Microsoft. Some speculated figures ran as high as 15,000, and there are rumors that the axe is scheduled to fall on January 15th--one week before the software giant is due to release its quarterly financial report. A late-breaking CNBC report, that cited Microsoft sources, says the cuts will only come from contractors and agencies, as well as from normal attrition. It will not whittle down the full time staff strength.

Before you dismiss layoffs by Microsoft as impossible, you might want to consider that some analysts, such as Brad Reback from Oppenheimer & Co., believe staff cuts by Microsoft would be "healthy" given the state of the economy. Reback was quoted as saying, "[the layoffs will send a] signal that profitability is more important than revenue growth during this very difficult time."

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Network World
- check out this article at Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Related Articles:
Microsoft news from FierceCIO

Internet Explorer loses more market share

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:39:10 -0500

Microsoft's venerable Internet Explorer saw a considerable dip in its market share in December, garnering just 68.15 percent of web surfers who were monitored in December. This is a steep decrease from a high of 71.27 percent in October, and just below 70 percent in November. This is based on preliminary figures from recent reports by Net Applications. Indeed, IE's share has slipped considerably from about 75 percent a year ago, at the start of 2008.

In contrast, rival Firefox saw an increase of 0.56 percent, bringing it to 21.34 percent and Safari gained 0.80 percent, bringing it to 7.93 percent. Chrome too, gained 0.21 percent to break through the 1 percent barrier at 1.04 percent. What will the percentages look like in 2009? With Opera 10 and Internet Explorer 8 slated for release in the coming months, only time will tell.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Ars Technica

China cracks down on pornography

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:32:52 -0500

The Chinese government has embarked on a major crackdown to stamp out Internet pornography. Pornography is officially banned in China, though completely blocking such websites remains a challenge. Highlighting the scale of this operation, seven government agencies will work together on the campaign, ranging from the State Council Information Office to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Baidu, the leading search engine in China, and its top rival Google, have been singled out by the government for failing to take "efficient" measures to ban pornography. According to the authorities, the companies have been issued notices from the government's Internet watchdog, saying the search engines may be linking to pornographic material. Also included in the complaint are major Chinese web portals such as Sohu and Sina, and a number of video sharing sites and online bulletin boards--which allegedly contain problematic photos, videos and blog postings. Perhaps American Airlines can take note of China's strategy to address the problem of pornography at 37,000 feet.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at PC World

Google expands lead in search

Paul Mah — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:26:46 -0500

The latest figures from Nielsen Online show that Google is widening the gap with all competitors in search. The irony is that despite paying users to use its services, rival Microsoft actually lost search users over the past year. Article

Blood from mosquito traps Finnish suspect

Molly Bernhart — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 12:06:17 -0500

In a bizarre twist on the pervasive power of technology, a mosquito might prove to be the undoing of a car thief. Police inspecting a stolen car 25 kilometers from where it was stolen, managed to find a mosquito in the vehicle. They then cross referenced a DNA sample from the blood inside the insect with police registers. Prosecutor will have to decide whether the evidence is solid enough for formal charges to be pressed. Article

Facebook 'pokes' used for court notification

Molly Bernhart — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 10:55:15 -0500

Facebook was designed to help people connect with friends and family through messages, wall posts, status updates and a slew of quirky applications. Until now, "poking" was just a funny way to say hello or bug a friend. But it's not all fun and games in Australia, where a judge has allowed lawyers to use Facebook as a more serious communication tool.

A court recently let a lawyer for a mortgage lender use the network as a method of serving legal documents, reports Cnet News. In this case, the lawyer needed to let a couple know that they defaulted on a loan and that their home will soon be foreclosed.

Could this happen in the United States? It probably could, because judges are reluctant to rule out any method of notifying someone of legal action against them, whether that is through MySpace, Facebook or instant messages. More recently, a federal judge in California allowed documents to be served on Wikileaks through email, reports Cnet News.

"I don't see why in the proper case a judge wouldn't authorize it, as long as it was reasonably calculated to reach the defendant," Rory Ryan, a law professor at Baylor Law School in Texas told Cnet News.

For more:
- read this article

Tips for archiving digital data

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:35:55 -0500

I think many people don't realize that, while digitized data can indeed be easier to archive and retrieve, digital data is more vulnerable to destruction, whether accidental or deliberate. And the fact that digital data is easy to retrieve, is a negative trait when it comes to an attempt to deliberately erase data.

With this in mind, I was extremely interested in a recent report by Network World. In the article, Fran Berman, the director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California offered some tips for preserving data for the long haul.

I highlight some of the key tips below, and include my thoughts on the matter:

Make a detailed plan for the stewardship and preservation of your data, from its inception to the end of its lifetime.

Just because the data is not tangible does not mean that nobody has to be in charge of it. In fact, I was trying to clear out a messy corner of the office, at one organization I worked for. It took a long time to clean as nobody wanted to ‘fess up to the ownership of various over-stuffed binders lying all around the shop. For both physical and digital files, such scenarios will only result in data being lost very quickly--for the simple fact that nobody cares.
Be aware of data costs including hardware, software, support and time, and include them in your overall IT budget. Determine whether it is more cost-effective to regenerate some of your information rather than preserve it over a long period.

It does cost money to maintain data. Data medium deteriorates or wears out over time; hard disks fail eventually, and managing all that data can become a full time job requiring the hire of a person dedicated to that task. Organizations that try to discount this fact are setting themselves up for failure.
Make multiple copies of valuable data. Store some copies off site and in different systems.

While on-site RAID works great, it's completely useless against a fire, or an act of terrorism. In addition, it's also no defense against a malicious employee. Not only should there be off-site backups, another staff member should be put in charge of them as a simple precaution.

You may also want to read about 10 data storage companies to watch, or check out some of the strange data storage stories we wrote about in the past.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at NetworkWorld

The coolest hacks of the year

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:25:40 -0500

As we head into the holidays, everyone is rounding out the year with a series of lists. What caught my attention over at DarkReading--a site that focuses on security issues, was their round up of the coolest hacks of 2008.

We're not talking about web site defacement, zero-day security vulnerability or even the presence of new malware. Rather, we're talking about really innovative hacks that might just affect how we conduct our daily lives. I highlight a couple of the most interesting ones here.

Electronic Toll System hack

A researcher ripped apart one of the popular RFID-based FasTrak toll tags used for highway tolls in the San Francisco Bay Area. To his horror, Nate Lawson discovered the absence of encryption on the RFID tags, which opens the system to cloning and sniffing. Data pertaining to the remaining cash value of a FasTrack is stored at back-end servers, though there is nothing to prevent even a novice with the right equipment from reprogramming the unique identifier for nefarious gains.

If you still don't get it, imagine a shoplifter swapping barcodes at the supermarket. However, shenanigans involving barcodes are clearly visible to an alert staff, while swapping an RFID code is far more difficult to uncover. In addition, the open nature of this system makes it possible to track other drivers using this system. As I wrote earlier, I think RFID is due for an overhaul; as the successful hacking of the Mifare Classic RFID technology shows.
Remove hacking using the iPhone

In a scene reminiscent of the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight, Errata Security had an iPhone equipped with Wi-Fi auditing tools shipped to a remote site to run a penetration test of a client's wireless network. They put TCPdump and Nmap Wi-Fi auditing tools into the iPhone, then overnighted it to the required site. Citing efficiency, CEO Robert Graham noted that, "This was a simple solution that didn't [require] us going on-site."

Next time you receive an unidentified parcel, be careful--especially if it's an iPhone.

For more on this story:
- check out this article from DarkReading

U.S. firms join forces to regain tech lead in making batteries

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:17:02 -0500

The United States has lost the lead in battery manufacturing. This is the sobering message as 14 U.S. companies join forces to build a plant capable of making advanced batteries for next-generation electric cars. Companies in this coalition include 3M and Johnson Controls, and they are seeking $1 billion in federal aid as they try to catch up with Asian rivals. The gap is wide due to the high cost of such a plant--estimates range from $1 billion to $2 billion. It doesn't help that the United States does not currently have a single plant of this type, compared to the "more than four dozen" advanced battery factories being built in China alone.

Ironically, it appears that much of the advanced battery technology was developed in the United States, but was abandoned by American companies due to the low returns. At least part of the reason is related to the manufacturing supply chain; after all, it doesn't make sense to manufacture a battery in the United States and then ship it to China, for example, for packing with a consumer electronic product.

Experts, including former Intel chairman Andrew Grove, believe that battery technology and the ability to manufacture them could eventually parallel the strategic importance of oil today. As such, the formation of a consortium would be the best bet to launch the initiative.

The consortium will be modeled after Sematech, another consortium formed over 20 years ago, which successfully allowed the computer-chip companies in the United States to compete with the Japanese. Not surprisingly, the goal this time will be to manufacture batteries that are lighter and cheaper, yet more powerful than batteries that are made elsewhere.

To read more about this story:
- check out this article from the Wall Street Journal

Mozilla plugs 13 holes in Firefox

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:09:08 -0500

Microsoft's Internet Explorer was not the only browser needing a patch this week. Mozilla patched a total of 13 bugs in the Firefox browser, with a large number--almost half--of them listed as "critical." Most of the bugs listed as critical make the browser susceptible to remote code injection, or for malicious parties to crash the browser.

At the same time, Mozilla issued the final patch to the deprecated Firefox 2.0, fixing a total of 10 vulnerabilities and bringing the version number to 2.0.0.19. First released in October 2006, Firefox 2.0 will no longer be maintained. According to Mozilla engineer Samuel Sidler, the recommendation would be that users upgrade to Firefox 3 "as soon as possible." The next version of Firefox is currently in beta, and will come with a privacy mode.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at ComputerWorld

Microsoft releases emergency patch for critical IE flaw

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:05:42 -0500

Microsoft released an emergency patch yesterday that fixes a critical hole in its flagship Internet Explorer web browser. Despite a dip in market share recently, Internet Explorer is still the clear leader in the web browser market. As such, security analysts are breathing a sigh of relief. They hope this patch will counter the increase in attacks that leverage this serious vulnerability via hacked websites.

Paul Henry, a forensic analyst at Lumension Security, noted that this is the second time in 18 months that Microsoft has released an emergency patch. In a statement, Henry wrote, "There were over 100 websites on the 11th hosting some type of malware associated with this vulnerability. Today, that has grown to thousands of sites now hosting the malware." This shows that the concept code to exploit this particular flaw has been spotted since the December 11. IT professionals are urged to patch this as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the next version of Internet Explorer--IE 8--is expected to be out in the first quarter of 2009.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at TG Daily

No Steve Jobs at Macworld 2009

Paul Mah — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:01:17 -0500

Earlier this week, Apple said that the regular keynote speech at next month's Macworld Conference and Expo will be delivered by senior product marketing executive Philip Schiller, instead of Steve Jobs. As expected, the announcement sparked off renewed questions about Jobs' health, as well as intense discussion about whether Apple will be the same without him around. Article

The top 10 products of 2008

Paul Mah — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 07:21:17 -0500

As we near the week leading up to Christmas and the New Year, it is hard not to think about the technology and gadgets that were unveiled or shipped in 2008. By looking back on the products they reviewed over the course of the year, the analysts at eWeek Labs came up with a list of 2008's best.

They believe that these products, combined, will form the foundation of the enterprise moving ahead. I sifted through the list, and did a quick round up. What do you think? Do you agree that these are some of the best?

Adobe AIR - An evolution of Flash, AIR will make it possible to build powerful and interactive applications for both the web and desktops.
Agito RoamAnywhere - This solution by Agito allows enterprise level integration such as line-side PBX integration and fingerprint location deterministics.
Cisco Catalyst 4900M - This has a modular network chassis for the ultimate in versatility, all the way to 10 GB Ethernet.
Firefox 3 - A premier open sourced browser, although Chrome is rising fast.
iPhone 2.0 + the App Store - You must have heard of this one.
IXA iSimCity - A test center for network testing, the lab is expected to scale to host data center performance benchmarks.
Nokia E71 - It's a smartphone with QWERTY keypad, now with better Exchange support.
Ubuntu 8.04 - The new(ish) Linux operating system; now, Ubuntu 8.10 is out.
VMware VI3 - It's VMware's flagship Virtual Infrastructure virtualization product.
Windows Server 2008 - This is Microsoft's latest Windows server operating system.

To read the full list with the original comments:
- check out this article at eWeek