International News »

• Sterling to Be Swallowed by Even Bigger CA

  News of the $4 billion bid by Computer Associates International Inc. to acquire Dallas-based Sterling Software Inc. took some Sterling users by surprise, but most are taking a wait-and-see stance.

  Written by SAMI LAIS • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Briefs

  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency shut down its Internet connection last week after receiving word that its main computer systems were easily hacked into by investigators from the General Accounting Office. The vulnerability, if left unchecked, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars and expose trade secrets, the GAO said. Members of the House Commerce Committee made the incident public.

  Written by Computerworld Staff • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Telstra not involved in HK takeover

  Despite admitting it is looking for opportunities to increase its presence in the Asia-Pacific region, Telstra has denied any involvement in the buyout of Cable & Wireless HKT by Hong Kong Internet company Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW).

  Written by Luisa Bustos • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Liberia to Launch Government-Run Online Casino

  The Republic of Liberia looks set to become one of the first countries in the world to boast a government-run online casino.

  Written by Laura Rohde • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Amazon Investment May Portend Move Into Asia

  Amazon.com Inc. has made a minority investment in Basis Technology Corp., a U.S. firm that helps Internet companies localize their products for Asian markets.

  Written by James Niccolai • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Y2K Patent Holder Still Seeks Fees, Forms Company

  His first move was to patent a popular Y2K software patch that has been around for decades. Then he asked hundreds of corporations to pay him for the privilege of using the patch.

  Written by Christine McGeever • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Dot-coms Appear Happy With Oracle8i

  Customers seeking to build a robust presence on the Web report that they're pleased with several of the speed-boosting features of Oracle Corp.'s 8i database.

  Written by Robin Robinson • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Driving the Deal: Start with Team Effort

  Using a multidisciplinary negotiating team can go a long way toward ensuring that your high-tech procurement process is a success. There's no better way to counter what you'll face on the other side of the bargaining table: the supplier's highly trained team of full-time sales and negotiation professionals, who are working to make sure the supplier assumes as little risk as possible and maximizes its financial gain.

  Written by Joe Auer • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Developers Get a Peek at Visual Studio 7.0

  Microsoft Corp. laid out its long-awaited plans for a Web-friendly Visual Studio 7.0 this week and found a receptive audience among the developers at the Visual Basic Insiders Technical Summit here.

  Written by Lee Copeland • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Briefs

  Hewlett-Packard Co. posted first-quarter revenue of $11.7 billion, up 14 percent from the same quarter last year. Net income for the quarter, ended Jan. 31, was $794 million, down from $882 million in the same period last year. The results include charges related to HP's spin-off of testing equipment division Agilent Technologies Inc. in Palo Alto, Calif. Those charges will be calculated when the spin-off is complete, HP said. It said its computer business grew 15 percent for the quarter in year-over-year terms.

  Written by Computerworld Staff • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Tracking Stocks

  A tracking stock is created by a company that wants a separate market valuation for a business unit whose operations are somehow separate from the main company's core business. Typically, the tracking stock is in a growth industry, such as an e-commerce unit spun off from a traditional company. The parent company continues to control the assets of the business unit, while benefiting from investors' heightened interest in the tracking stock's industry and expected growth.

  Written by Robin Robinson • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Product Watch

  Epson America Inc. (800/463-7766, http://www.epson.com) and Umax Technologies Inc. (800/562-0311, http://www.umax.com) have announced FireWire scanners. Epson's Expression 1600 is available in a Pro FireWire configuration. The scanner features 1,600-dpi true resolution and retails for $1,399. Umax's dedicated FireWire PowerLook 1100 has 1,200-by-2,400-dpi resolution and is available with various software bundles starting at $999.

  Written by Frith Breitzer • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Shark Tank

  LIVING DANGEROUSLY IT operations pilot fish, counting the hours till his "mucho fantastic date," is interrupted by a request: Could he process and print user reports urgently needed Monday morning? Pilot fish dutifully cancels hot date, and at 4 a.m. Sunday, finishes printing a small mountain of reports. Bright and early Monday, user shows up, selects one slim file and discards the rest - duplicates. Seems the programmer running the reports repeatedly canceled jobs but failed to kill them in the printer queue.

  Written by Computerworld Staff • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• E-Commerce Poses Fraud Challenge, Baycorp Says

  Companies are slowly learning the problems of customers using fraudulent identities to obtain credit, but the world of e-commerce provides them with another challenge, says Paul Stewart, credit agency Baycorp's general manager for group strategy.

  Written by Paul Brislen • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Any Color as Long as It's iMac

  Henry Ford had it all wrong. If this week's MacWorld Expo Tokyo exhibition is anything to go by, he'd have sold a lot more cars had he only opted for tangerine.

  Written by Martyn Williams • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• StuffIt Deluxe 5.5

  Aladdin Systems Inc.'s StuffIt Deluxe, plagued by bugs and a lack of backward compatibility in version 5.0, is back on track with an update that offers far greater stability and a handful of helpful new options. Version 5.5 of the file-compression utility still won't let you save files in earlier StuffIt formats, but the new features make it worth considering if you have an earlier version.

  Written by Christopher Breen • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Bogus Web Site Solicits Funds for McCain

  Unsolicited e-mail, or spam, purporting to support U.S. Senator John McCain in his bid for the presidency is soliciting donations via a Web site that has nothing to do with the Arizona Republican.

  Written by Nancy Weil • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• From the News Desk

  Microsoft learns to fit the enterprise bill

  Written by Martin LaMonica • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Microsoft Stock Rises as Win 2000 Launches

  There's nothing like a glitzy product launch to boost a company's stock price - but history shows Microsoft Corp. lucked out this time.

  Written by Kim S. Nash • 18 Feb. 00 12:01

• Government, Industry Tie Up

  President Clinton and other high-profile government officials weighed in this week on the series of distributed DoS (denial of service) attacks lobbed at e-commerce giants.

  Written by Jennifer Jones • 18 Feb. 00 12:01