26th February 2007 Archive

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DfES to run first procurement review

Assessing value for money

The Department for Education and Skills is to run a pilot for the new Whitehall Procurement Capability Reviews. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which will own the reviews, announced the pilot last week. It will run during March with results being evaluated in April. The Procurement Capability Reviews were initially …

IT Channel 26 Feb 2007, 10:38
Industrial security - it's not the same as IT security

Niche market potential

In the past, equipment control for manufacturing processes on the shop floor tended to be carried out by discrete systems running arcane real time operating systems controlled by proprietary management systems that had no connection through to other systems. In essence, this meant that the systems were secure, being "air locked …

Software & Security 26 Feb 2007, 11:42
UK Open Source think tank opens doors

Great and good say Huzzah!

The UK now has its own national think tank for open source and open standard policy. The National Open Centre, which its backers hope will make for better working relationships between the open source community and government, business, and education, launched today (Monday) at the Houses of Parliament. The centre will carry …

Software & Security 26 Feb 2007, 12:12
Windows for Warships nears frontline service

Analysis The real blue screen of death

Everyone knows the differences between Windows and other operating systems. Steve Jobs has recently spent colossal sums telling us that most malware is written for Windows; also that using Windows is no fun and, even worse, seems to involve wearing a tie. Those acquainted with the more foam-lipped Linux fanciers will also be …

Software & Security 26 Feb 2007, 12:15
Swansea councillors don't like outsourced IT

Boo, hiss etc

Councillors in Swansea are reportedly ruing the day their cabinet voted to outsource their IT supply and support. Local paper The Evening Post reports that councillors are now complaining that the system costs more and does less since being outsourced to Capgemini. IT staff at Swansea protested vigorously over plans to …

IT Channel 26 Feb 2007, 12:31
Firefox fix lances memory corruption bug

Unload update stars in weekend patch release

Firefox users need to update their browser software following the discovery of multiple vulnerabilities. The flaws might be exploited to bypass security restrictions, conduct cross-site scripting or spoofing attacks, pinch sensitive information, or even gain control of vulnerable systems. The flaws affect both the 1.5 and …

Software & Security 26 Feb 2007, 14:09
VIA launches digital media chipset

Certified for Vista... er... Basic

VIA has launched its latest integrated desktop chipset, touting the part's Windows Vista friendliness and support for the chip maker's own power-efficient x86 processors. Well, it works with the various Basic versions of Vista, at least. The CN896 can drive a 16x PCI Express slot so it's possible to add a high-performance …

PC Builder 26 Feb 2007, 14:33
Microsoft's 'dirty tricks' archive turns into hot Torrent

Oscar-contender

Microsoft lawyers who believed they'd buried the most embarrassing collection of documents about the company's murky past for good, without any one noticing, were in for a surprise this weekend. The archive has become a mainstay of the Bittorrent P2P file sharing networks. A healthy 20+ seeds have been distributing the files …

Software & Security 26 Feb 2007, 18:28
VMware wallops Microsoft with white paper

Pots and kettles go flying

With an IPO and a major server virtualization battle looming, VMware has turned aggressive in its fight with Microsoft. The EMC subsidiary has published a white paper detailing its issues with Microsoft's virtual server software. Microsoft has restrictive support policies that make it difficult for customers to move virtual …

Enterprise 26 Feb 2007, 23:09