Recently, I had a chance to sit down with a few folks from Apple Computer Inc. who gave me a guided tour of Apple's upcoming server operating system, which is slated for release sometime in the spring of 2007. Mac OS X Server 10.5, or Leopard, will be the seventh release of the server operating system since 2000 and the second version to run natively on Intel processors.

What's the truth about Microsoft's controversial new antipiracy measure?

One aspect of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system that has raised users' hackles is its new antipiracy system, called Software Protection Platform (SPP). To understand SPP, it's necessary to take a few steps back. Microsoft began its aggressive campaign against software piracy in Office XP and Windows XP with functionality called Office product activation (OPA) and Windows product activation (WPA).

Problems include false positives, lack of response and legality claims

Few issues have riled Computerworld's readers as much as certain features of Microsoft's new Windows Vista, such as Windows product activation, Windows Genuine Advantage and the Software Protection Platform.

AMD demonstrated its promised "Barcelona" chip

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) showed a laboratory version of its promised "Barcelona" quad-core Opteron 8000 server chip to analysts gathered in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, and said it plans to begin selling the product in the second quarter of 2007.

AMD will pitch the chip to users of high-end, commercial workstations and servers. Customers could see performance improvements of up to 70% in database applications and 40% in floating-point applications, when compared to AMD's dual-core "Rev F" Opteron, the company said.

Apple went to great pains to deliver design and performance improvements that are evident on first look and use and will be welcomed by data center managers.

The new Xserve base model sports two 64-bit dual-core Xeon "Woodcrest" processors running at 2 GHz; 1GB of 667-MHz DDR2 ECC FB-DIMM RAM; a single 80GB 3Gbit/sec. Serial ATA (SATA) Apple Drive Module; onboard dual Ethernet; a Combo drive; single power supply; no expansion cards; a built-in ATI Radeon X1300 PCI Express graphics card with 64MB of GDDR3 synchronous dynamic RAM; and Mac OS X Server unlimited client software. Base Price: $2,999. That's quite a punch at such a low price.

'Tri-gate transistors' could also yield a speed boost
 
Researchers at Intel Corp. have found a better way to insulate circuits, enabling them to save energy as they pack more transistors onto each processor. 
 
Intel could start building chips with these new "tri-gate transistors" by 2010, enabling either a 45% increase in speed or a 35% reduction in total power used, compared to the company's current 65-nanometer process transistors, said Mike Mayberry, director of components research and vice president of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing Group.

In the past six months a disturbing trend has emerged involving the theft of laptops containing sensitive personal information -- most recently from the home of a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs data analyst.
 

TAIPEI -- Intel Corp. launched its latest family of chip sets yesterday amid high fives between workers and several whoops proclaiming "We're back," and officials promised that resources were aligned to ensure that there won't be a repeat of shortages the company ran into last year.

They're designed for mission-critical, transaction-processing workloads

Hewlett-Packard Co. today introduced a new version of its NonStop fault-tolerant servers for midsize businesses.

The NonStop servers, developed by Tandem Computers and acquired by HP through its 2002 Compaq acquisition, are fault-tolerant systems designed to run mission-critical, transaction-processing workloads

ID thieves used instant messaging to snag personal data
 
A "phishing" site that harvested the log-in and credentials of MySpace.com users was removed as of Friday from a California server, a security vendor reported. 
 
A phishing attack involves tricking users into visiting a look-alike Web page that asks for personal information, which is then sent to a hacker.

New BPM tools, stronger Office links due next week

Microsoft Corp. next week plans to unveil an updated business intelligence strategy that includes its first business process management (BPM) offerings.

Unknown software problem caused the outage, which was resolved five hours later

An unknown software problem earlier today left AOL LLC’s 27 million paid members worldwide unable to send or receive e-mails reliably for about five hours, according to the Dulles, Va.-based company.

Even nonprogrammers can 'program' with these tools.

Twenty years ago, software engineer Fred Brooks famously observed that there was no silver bullet that could slay "the monster of missed schedules, blown budgets and flawed products." Today, the creation of software might seem as expensive, trouble-prone and difficult as ever. And yet progress is being made.

Clusters of commodity processors have come to dominate supercomputing, but some users are beginning to push back.

 To IT managers, high-stakes supercomputing may seem like the land-speed record: a freak show, amusing but hardly relevant. Oh, a car broke Mach 1? And a defense lab has a 280 TFLOPS computer? Cool. Now let's get back to work.

Security-conscious attendees at Computerworld's Mobile & Wireless World conference yesterday heard a new twist on an old theme: the 10 things not to do when implementing a wireless LAN.

The hard-learned lessons came at the expense of an unnamed national retail chain with more than 1,000 stores whose sorry story was detailed by John Stehman, a consultant at Robert Frances Group Inc.

The shifting future of wireless voice

A blend of wireless broadband and VoIP is coming, but what form it will take remains to be seen

The technology is in its early stages, there's no proven business model, and there's strong disagreement about how the trend will play out. But most experts agree that voice over IP (VoIP) will eventually combine with new types of wireless broadband to change how businesses and consumers acquire and use mobile and fixed voice services.

Skype Technologies SA today said it is piloting a new community conference call service that can support as many as 100 callers. It's also offering a beta version of its new Internet calling software designed for easier use.

Start-up to ship a switch-based network-access control appliance

Start-up FireEye made its debut, announcing plans to ship a switch-based network-access control appliance next month that will let customers identify network-borne malware and attacks in order to quickly contain them.

Switch seen as boost to Microsoft's search technology

Amazon.com Inc. began using Microsoft Corp. technology to power its A9 search unit in what's an important win against rival Google Inc.

Microsoft's new Windows Live is at the core of the company's efforts to win online advertising dollars away from Google and Yahoo Inc. Amazon.com's A9 had previously been powered by Google.
 

It’s touting interoperability with existing VHF and UHF radio systems

Just a month before the official U.S. hurricane season begins on June 1, Iridium Satellite LLC today unveiled satellite telephone communications equipment that will interoperate with existing UHF and VHF radio systems already used by police, rescue agencies, firefighters and other first responders.
 

These wireless broadband technologies promise office-grade connections almost anywhere and breakthroughs for disaster recovery

The hot network technology du jour is WiMax, an informal term that covers two emerging broadband wireless standards for metropolitan-area networking. WiMax promises alternate routes to land lines for disaster recovery and relief from the price and service tyranny of the incumbent local-exchange carriers. It also has a compelling high-speed mobile component..

PCI Express and 802.11g appear to be speeding toward success in the enterprise, while power over Ethernet is making steady progress in selected situations. But it's been slow going for Bluetooth.

PCI Express was designed to eliminate I/O bottlenecks for everything from video graphics to 10Gbit/sec.