Posted 03/12/10 at 07:36:24 AM by Paul Lilly

Summer is almost here, and that spells good news for millions of non-profit organizations. Why is that? Starting in June, the Public Interest Registry plans to add another layer of security known as DSN Security Extensions to the .org domain, eWeek.com reports.

The move will protect .org websites from "cache poisoning," which is a method whereby traffic is redirected from a legitimate website to a fake one.

"When we first announced last year the signing of our zone, we showed that DNSSEC was not a utopian vision, but that it was needed for the future of the Internet," says Alexa Raad, CEO of The Public Interest Registry. "Everything runs on DNS. If you believe that there are going to continue to be more applications that run on DNS, then you have to think about DNSSEC."

The move should go off without a hitch. According to Jim Galvin, director of strategic partnerships and technical standards with Afilias, the back-end services provider for the Public Interest Registry, testing has gone smoothly.

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Posted 03/12/10 at 07:36:19 AM by Paul Lilly

Opera Software on Thursday announced the immediate availability of Opera Mini 5 in beta form for the Android platform. According to Opera Software, you can expect significantly improved page loading and speed with the latest browser.

"Android users should not have to compromise when it comes to surfing the Web on their phones. Opera Mini will give Android users a fast and cost-efficient access to their favorite websites and services," said Dag Olav Norem, Vice President of Opera Products, Opera Software.

Opera Mini boasts a streamlined interface with a "desktop-like Web browsing experience." It includes features such as Speed Dial, tabbed browsing, password manager, and bookmarks.

We gave it a whirl on our HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) and found it to be as good as we remember it, and a definite improvement over Android's stock browser.

You can download Opera Mini by visiting m.opera.com/next on your Android smartphone, though you might have better luck (we did) by searching for Opera Mini 5 in the Android Marketplace.

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Posted 03/12/10 at 07:36:17 AM by Paul Lilly

Network and storage vendor Buffalo Technology said it is getting in the saddle with NovaStor, a data protection and backup software specialist. The plan is to bundle NovaStor's NovaBackup data protection software with all of Buffalo's network attached storage (NAS) products.

"Data protection is extremely important and providing first-class, cost-effective backup solutions has always been a top priority for Buffalo," said Ralph Spagnola, vice president of sales at Buffalo. "This strategic partnership with NovaStor not only strengthens our product portfolio, but it strengthens our committment to delivering useful, all-in-one solutions that exceed our customers' expectations."

This is the second partnership this month for Buffalo, who earlier announced it was teaming up with NewMedia-NET to bring DD-WRT based software as part of the standard configuration for all of Buffalo's high-power routers and access points.

Buffalo said NovaBackup will be offered on all TerraStation and LinkStation NAS solutions beginning in May, 2010.

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Posted 03/11/10 at 07:22:24 AM by Paul Lilly

Popular online computer parts vendor Newegg this week gave one of its suppliers, IPEX, the boot. The reason, says Newegg, is that IPEX was the one who supplied the vendor with fake Core i7 chips.

"Initial information we received from our supplier, IPEX, stated that they had mistakenly shipped us 'demo units.' We have since come to discover that the CPUs were counterfeit and are terminating our relationship with this supplier," Newegg said in a statement.

Initial reports had pegged D&H Distributing as the culprit, but the supplier has since been cleared of any wrongdoing.

"Contrary to any speculation, D&H Distributing is not the vendor that supplied us with the Intel Core i7 920 CPUs in question," Newegg added.

Fake CPUs weren't terribly difficult to spot. There were several misspelled words on the retail packaging, including a sticker that spelled "socket" as "sochet," eWeek.com reports. In some cases, the user manual inside the box was blank.

As for customers who were affected, Newegg said it is sending out replacement chips.

See here for an unboxing video of one of the counterfeit chips.

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Posted 03/11/10 at 07:22:21 AM by Paul Lilly

What a difference an OS makes. Whereas those in charge of IT took a very cautious approach to Vista, Windows 7 is enjoying a much warmer reception and more rapid adoption rate.

"We have 50 percent of our users, that's 2,500 machines, deployed on Windows 7 in 2010," said Jim Thomas, CIO at Pella.

By the end of next year, Thomas says that number will likely rise to 90 percent. That's quite the contrast to Vista, in which some 80 percent of IT organizations shunned, according to Gartner.

There are big benefits to be had in moving to Windows 7, suggests Thomas, who says that upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 has resulted in a 80 percent reduction in the number of system images he'll need.

"It has to do with drivers and Windows 7 being able to understand and adapt to them versus having a specific image built," Thomas explained.

IT execs are also drawn to Windows 7's faster boot times, though the redesigned task bar can go either way, depending on who you ask.

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Posted 03/11/10 at 07:22:19 AM by Paul Lilly

Want to make waves in the mobile market? Slap a Core i7 Extreme Edition processor into a 15.6-inch chassis and call it the "world's most powerful" mobile workstation in its size class.

That's exactly what Dell has done with its just-announced Precision M4500. In addition to the super fast processor, the M4500 also boasts Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M graphics, an optional SSD MiniCard (another first for 15.6-inch mobile workstations), an optional HD+ sRGB LED screen, optional 3MP camera, and support for 32-bit and 74-bit versions of Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, and XP, as well as Red Hat Linux 5.3 64-bit support.

"The Dell Precision M4500 establishes new heights for performance and mobility for a workstation," said Greg Weir, senior manager, Dell Precision workstations. "This system provides the freedom to discover, create and imagine on your terms, wherever creativity takes you. Top that off with the assurance that you are backed by our robust ‘eco system’ of ISV partners and our ability to deliver the application performance you need to be productive…now that’s getting it done!"

No word yet on price or availability.

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Posted 03/10/10 at 07:25:24 AM by Paul Lilly

In the highly competitive enterprise storage sector, IBM this week had reason to celebrate, saying it achieved the highest growth among the top three storage vendors.

According to a market share report by IDC, IBM's external disk storage systems revenue grew by 9 percent year-over-year during the fourth quarter of 2009, putting the company's growth rate well ahead of the competition. By contrast, EMC stayed relatively flat with a 0.7 percent decline, while Hewlett Packard's revenue took a backwards slide to the tune of 7.3 percent during the same quarter.

Big Blue also noted gains in the Windows and Linux OS segments in 2009, boasting a 24 percent increase in Linux storage. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that the overall Linux storage market was down 4 percent.

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Posted 03/10/10 at 07:25:21 AM by Paul Lilly

Networking specialist Cisco on Tuesday announced what it claims is a "major advancement in Internet networking" in its CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (CRS).

"With more than 12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system, the Cisco CRS-3 is designed to transform the broadband communication and entertainment industry by accelerating the delivery of compelling new experiences for consumers, new revenue opportunities for service providers, and new ways to collaborate in the workplace," Cisco said.

Sound pretty ambitious, and Cisco has the numbers to match. The CRS-3 delivers up to 322Tbps (that's Terabits per second), which Cisco says is enough to enable the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second. It's also more than triple the capacity of the 92Tbps CRS-1, and 12 times the capacity of any other core router in the industry.

"The next generation Internet is upon us and we are confident that the Cisco CRS-3 will play a crucial role as service providers like AT&T deliver an exciting, new array of video, mobile, data center, and cloud services," said Pankaj Patel, senior VP and GM, Service Provider Business, Cisco.

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