After strenuous deliberations, the European Union's antitrust regulatory authority is giving Oracle's proposed $7.4 billion acquisition of Sun Microsystems a green light. The EU's approval is the culmination of a months-long dispute between Oracle and Europe that threatened the deal's survival until...
Heart attacks are as American as hot dogs and easily more common than fast-food joints. While changes in the nation's diet are slowly under way to pre-empt the disease, scientists are scrambling to find ways to treat or cure it, in the hope of reducing the swelling numbers added daily to the body co...
To know Linux is to love Linux, aficionados would surely agree, but does one *have* to know Linux just to be able to use it at all? That question has made quite a splash in the blogosphere. "Lately, I've been noticing stories about how to use Linux you need to know half-a-hundred Linux shell command...
Aberdeen's August 2009 research "Talent Acquisition Strategies 2009" found that the top strategy organizations are pursuing in the area of recruiting today is to proactively build and expand a candidate pipeline regardless of current hiring needs. Given the continuing pressure many organizations are...
People who use social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are not known for their reticence -- many put just about any personal information imaginable out there. The risks to such openness are clear -- from inviting tailored phishing attacks to appalling potential employers with one's late...
Microsoft has said it will release a patch on Thursday to fix the Internet Explorer 6 flaw that hackers used recently to attack Google and other large companies. The attacks have triggered a slugfest between Google and the Chinese government. While the flaw can also be exploited in Internet Explorer...
Authors and publishers of select Kindle e-books will soon be able to earn royalties as high as 70 percent of a title's list price, net of delivery costs, under a new plan announced by Amazon on Wednesday. The new option will be available starting June 30 for in-copyright Kindle books whose list pric...
C-level executives and IT departments may be pleasantly surprised to find that there's a source of hidden gold that may potentially net your organization much needed licenses and other already-negotiated extras. While there are no guarantees, the chances are good that your organization's existing li...
If you are looking for a superior text editor, your search might just begin and end with a nifty program called "Geany." One of my biggest concerns when I switched from Microsoft Windows to Linux was finding an adequate replacement for my favorite text editor. I use the OpenOffice Writer for printed...
"Sustainability" has been the key issue capturing my attention this year, so it makes sense to tease apart just what that term means for CRM. To me, sustainability is about business processes that are repeatable and, more to the point, processes that both sides readily engage in. However, in addit...
Consumers are growing increasingly comfortable storing sensitive information on their computers, USB flash drives, and external hard drives, as well as using Web-based solutions to automate regular tasks such as shopping for holiday gifts, paying bills and tracking financial portfolios. At the same ...
Google's latest salvo in its dispute with China came Tuesday, with reports that it's holding off unveiling two new Android phones in that country. However, this move may hurt Google more than it does China, which has a plethora of Android phones from different manufacturers. The hacker attacks on Go...
Microsoft has said it will change Bing's search data retention policies, promising to hold users' IP address data for only six months instead of 18. The change in policy is due to a number of trends, including growing pressure from regulatory authorities, Bing Chief Privacy Strategist Peter Cullen a...
Consumers will spend $6.2 billion in 2010 at mobile application stores, while related advertising revenue is expected to generate $0.6 billion worldwide, according to new statistics from Gartner. Those numbers are expected to rapidly grow within the next few years, the analyst firm predicted: By 201...
Not surprisingly, most folks see CES as a watershed event for tracking the latest in current, emerging and future consumer electronics trends. So why did I travel to CES 2010 in search of products related to business IT? Pure contrariness is one reply, but let's also toss in the common, if sometimes...
New software from Misys Open Source Solutions promises to provide what could be the world's first fully open source, standards-based platform for exchanging health information. The Misys Connect Exchange software was demonstrated and successfully tested last week in Chicago at IHE Connectathon, the ...
As financial institutions gear up for 2010, many companies are still on the long road to recovery after facing some of the most difficult challenges in years. Mortgage defaults and foreclosures, new regulations on credit card and bank fees, and the constant barrage of related news stories sent custo...
Have you ever tried to work when you're really sick? I don't mean a little cough or sniffles. I'm talking about a genuine, drag-out, "can't get out of bed" illness -- the kind where it hurts to stand up, let alone go into the office. I hate to admit it, but I've gone to work in that condition -- you...
Following the news last week of a series of hack attacks on Google and other companies, the governments of France and Germany both issued warnings on Friday suggesting that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser is too dangerous to use. Microsoft on Thursday acknowledged that a vulnerability in Inter...
The Gray Lady may once again ask for some green if you want to view something that's black and white and read all over. Reports surfaced over the weekend that The New York Times is about to announce another attempt at a paid-access business model for its Web site, with management apparently deciding...