'Surprised' Western Digital to revisit multimedia file-sharing limits

Prompted by user concerns, Western Digital plans to take another look at the file-sharing restrictions it places on its Anywhere Access software. But it offered no promises that it would loosen the limits anytime soon.

Cost-cutting remains crucial for HP's growth

HP CEO Mark Hurd said cost-cutting continues to be a challenge as the company aims to capitalize on the explosion of digital content.

Cisco creates Entertainment Operating System

Cisco surprised some analysts at an annual conference Tuesday by announcing a new Software-as-a-Service called the Entertainment Operating System.

Got a knack for network systems? You're in demand

Five IT jobs are among the "30 fastest-growing occupations" expected from 2006 through 2016 in a new forecast from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

SAP Unveils Web 2.0 Look for Its CRM Tool

Analysts said that SAPs updated CRM 2007 offering adds Web 2.0 support but is still harder to use than rival offerings from Microsoft, Oracle and Salesforce.com.

Benchmarks Last Week

Brief items about notable IT developments, both present and past.

Microsoft, Testing Firm Bicker Over Benchmark

Microsoft and a performance testing firm are trading barbs over recent benchmarks showing that an unreleased upgrade for Windows XP runs an Office test suite faster than the upcoming Vista SP1 does.

It's Simply Politics

Frank Hayes observes that this year's crop of Premier 100 Leaders have learned that the best way to innovate is to keep IT projects simple by staying on top of them politically.

Microsoft uses new XBRL data tags in SEC filing

Microsoft is the first company to submit data to the SEC using a new taxonomy for XBRL, a financial reporting language.

Dynamsoft ties developer tools to Visual Studio

Dynamsoft is creating a deeper link between Microsoft's IDE system and its software for tracking version control through the application-development process.

Microsoft reschedules PDC for October 2008

Microsoft has scheduled its Professional Developers Conference for next year after canceling a meeting that was to be held in October.

A back-to-the-future strategy for Software-as-a-Service

Santa's delivering a lot of "empty boxes" this year as Software-as-a-Service makes a surprising run up the retail greatest-hits charts for December.

Senate passes extension of R&D tax credit

The U.S. Senate passes an extension of a research and development tax credit favored by many technology trade groups.

Google Docs easily tops online rivals in visitors, research firm says

Google's online office applications are still in beta. But they attracted more than 1.4 million unique visitors to the Google Docs site in October, according to Compete Inc.

AJAX benefits, issues cited by Zimbra exec

Scott Dietzen, CTO, charts and champions his company's use of JavaScript as base of its open source Web 2.0 platform

Opinion: Don't plan your IT strategy around HP's trans-Atlantic bridge

HP is trying to integrate multiple lines of its management software under one common management console. But to pull these different software components together and deliver on this ideal HP will require clearing a couple of major hurdles.

Santa bot run by Microsoft turns naughty online

Microsoft has turned off a Windows Live Messenger "Santa" bot that wound up saying things he shouldn't while chatting with online users.

The Tao of managing virtualized servers

There are some similarities to managing physical servers, of course. But for full cost savings and other benefits, the virtualization layer has to be managed independently of either the application or the physical server. Here's what to think about.

Real-time Linux launched by Red Hat

The software includes high-speed messaging and lets users 'steal' processing cycles for other workloads.

Microsoft also removing antipiracy 'kill switch' from Windows Server 2008

A decision by Microsoft to turn off the reduced-functionality antipiracy mechanism in Windows Vista will also be extended to Windows Server 2008 when it ships early next year.