Sonys Blu-ray high-definition optical disc format way have won the so-called high-def format war when Toshiba threw in the towel on its competing HD DVD format back in February but, so far, Blu-ray sales do not show it. New sales figures from market research firm NPD show that sales of Blu-ray standalone players dropped a stunning 40 percent between January and February (presumably as many potential customers were waiting out the high-def war), but rose only 2 percent from February to March once Toshiba gave up on HD DVD. And the sales figures are still so low that NPD refused to publish specific numbers because it might be too easy to identify specific retailers from the figures.

The general wisdom was that once the high-definition disc field was winnowed down to one technology, consumers would embrace it in droves, particularly as conflicting marketing messages vanished and the library of compatible movie titles grew.

However, instead, consumers appear to be bypassing Blu-ray media in favor of high-definition downloadable content or embracing inexpensive standard DVD players that can upscale content to 1080p resolution. Where Blu-ray players are still priced over $300, upconverting DVD players can be had for around $50, and they're compatible with consumer's existing DVD collections. In fact, upconverting DVD players have seen a five percent increase in sales during the first quarter of 2008, compared to the same quarter in 2007.

Some industry watchers project that Blu-ray player prices will drop below $200 in time for the end-of-year holidays, and consumers will begin adopting the technology at that point. However, ABI Research forecasts it will take even longer for Blu-ray to gain significant market share, with the market only embracing Blu-ray in another 12 to 18 months, perhaps just in time for the 2009 end-of-year holiday season.

ACTE filed an Amicus brief contending that a travellers laptop was essentially intellectual property and not the same as luggage nor freight, the ACTE Global Executive Director, said. The court has disagreed and this decision will have significant impact on business travellers who have no idea their data is subject to search and seizure.

The association also argued there were no published guidelines as to what might trigger a secondary inspection, or the seizure of data or possibly the entire computer. According to Gurley, the expectation of privacy at the border is considerably less than one can expect in their home or office.

A 2008 ACTE survey indicated that 81 percent of responding travel managers were unaware that laptops and other electronic devices that were seized could be held indefinitely. Sixty-five percent of respondents stated that their companies have now instituted a policy restricting the amount of sensitive or proprietary data that could be carried on a laptop. That number is expected to grow in the wake of this ruling.

ACTEs advice to business travellers states:

• That you should not carry any confidential, personal information that you do not want examined by third parties on your computer – or other electronic devices. This includes financial data, photographs, and email stored on computers, wireless phones, Blackberries, or iPod-type devices.
• That you should limit the amount of proprietary business information you carry on your computer, and that it be transmitted before crossing the border so you have access to it in the event your unit is seized.
• If your laptop also serves as your major home computer, get another one for travel purposes.
• The Association of Corporate Travel Executives is not advising travellers to hide data from U.S. border authorities, but to take steps to minimize the impact of its loss, or the inability to access it, in the event it is seized.

The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which had granted a motion seeking to suppress evidence gathered from such a search in a case involving child pornography. In arriving at that decision, the district court ruled that customs officers indeed did need to have reasonable or particularized suspicion for searching through laptops at U.S. borders.

They seemed absolutely blithe about making the 10 million number, said an analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., referring to comments made by Apple executives during the earnings conference call. And I get the funny sense that ultimately the whole idea of locked iPhones and the revenue almost does not interest them.

Several times during the call the Apple chief operating officer, and the company's chief financial officer, stood by the 10 million iPhone goal.

According to the sales figures Apple released for the first three months of 2008 -- its second fiscal quarter -- the company sold 1.7 million iPhones worldwide, leaving 8.3 million more to go if it is to reach its iPhone sales goal.

• Encryption Software
• Password Protection
• Biometric Authentication
• VPN 
• Client AntiVirus
• Firewall Hardware
• Firewall Software
• Monitoring & Reporting
  Security Policies

In May 2006, Jeanson James Ancheta became the first hacker successfully prosecuted for the creation and use of a botnet. Ancheta wrote a worm that infected unprotected computers with a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The RAT listened for instructions over an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel, essentially turning the compromised system into a bot. At its peak, AnchetaÂ’s network of bots included more than 400,000 systems. On command, all of them could be used to launch denial-of-service attacks or download adware (Ancheta was charging clients for this service).

(CIO Insight) What is the essence of the CIOs role? It is an important question because the definition of the CIO is morphing and fracturing. Our surveys say fewer than half of CIOs report to CEOs while more report to CFOs. Does that mean the CIO role has been downgraded, or that Sarbanes-Oxley is changing the CFOs role? In our April 2007 CIO Role survey, three quarters of CIOs say helping set their companys strategy will be one of their most important responsibilities in the future, yet just one-third say their role is creating business strategy.

Defining the CIOs role has never been simple.

• The Cyclical CIO When a CEO believes the IT organization needs a shakeup, he or she hires a CIO who thrives on radical visions and changes. When the shakeup is over, out goes the visionary and in comes a chief information offier with a more operational bent. Repeat ad infinitum
• The Band-Aid CIO Sometimes job No. 1 is fixing what your predecessor broke. Couldn't deliver projects on time? Get a project manager. IT out of alignment? Put in someone with more business experience.
• The Rotational CIO Some companies believe potential CEOs need to be well rounded. The CIO job can be just a stop on the Grand Tour.
• The Multitasking CIO CIOs frequently run other functions besides IT, such as strategy, administration and e-commerce. What a mish-mash. Try making a Myers Briggs-style categorization scheme out of this and you'll wind up with scores of possible roles.

• How do you know who can access this folder with financial/customer/sensitive data in it?
• Who authorized a user to have access permission to a file and how?
• If a key file was deleted, how would you know it happened, or who did it?
• Who were the last people to access a critical folder, and what did they do?
• How do you make sure that the right people have access to your data?

If your organization still spends hours trying to get answers to seemingly simple questions about file access settings and activity, you are not alone. IT managers are challenged to find a consistent way to quickly account for the activities of users and other IT personnel when it comes to unstructured data access.

How do you develop a good business case?

A key takeaway from the Citigroup analysts: In February, clicks on Google's U.S. search ads grew 3.1% year-on-year. Considering that February had 29 days, the growth rate would probably have been flat without the extra day, Mahaney and Samford wrote.

Coupled with a 0.3% year-on-year decline in January, also per comScore, a trend is emerging that Google's pay-per-click (PPC) ad business may be losing steam, after powering the search company to mindblowing levels of revenue and profit growth for years.

In a recent study by Global Knowledge the major concerns of IT professionals were identified.  The top concern was keeping current with technology followed by limited IT budgets and the impact of the recession.

This confirms the findings of eJobDescription.com in its latest IT Salary Survey.

This recent

• Nationwide inflight broadband Internet service
• Coast-to-coast, border-to-border, U.S. coverage, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the Canadian to the Mexican borders - day 1
• Usable by passengers equipped with 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi enabled devices
• Real-time access to the Internet (using the passengerÂ’s own browser, bookmarks, etc.)
• An array of context and destination-related content

With the Vodafone service, users can also receive calls abroad using a PC, effectively making roaming charges a thing of the past. However, for it to work you need an Internet connection -- which is not always free.

Carriers are facing pressure on two fronts. The European Union is pressuring carriers to lower roaming fees. And IP telephony is being integrated into some mobile phones.

The roaming market is changing, and you also have the IP offers. So we have to do something for our customers, said the press officer at Vodafone Germany.

Incoming calls are routed to both the mobile phone and the PC -- the user then decides where to pick up.

There are two versions of the service, Messenger PC for consumers and IP-Phone Pro professionals. The functionality is the same, but clients have different menus and design.

Users can also send SMS from their PCs using Internet Explorer or Firefox.

So far, Messenger PC and IP-Phone Pro, which was developed in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard Co., are only available in Germany. But Vodafone has a history of trying things out in Germany, and then expanding to other countries.

1.       Look like you can be employed – Have a job or at least work part time as a contractor or consultant.  If you have been out of work for a while be able to explain what professional things you have been working on since your last full time job.

2.       Stay current – Know what the hot topics of the day are and have the skills to work on those items.

3.       Use your professional network – Your peers who work with other companies or are consultants/recruiters know what is going on and what positions are open – use them.

4.       Have a well written resume that is current – Have others read and review your resume.  Encourage critical comments.

5.       Communicate your talents – Do not be shy – rather make sure that others know what you have done.  Do not brag just communicate.

6.       Prepare for each interview – Learn about the company and the person who is conducting the interview.  If at all possible have a clear idea of the position that you are interviewing for and be prepared to address the key requirement of that position and how you can exceed their needs.

7.       Focus on the business -  Do not get lost in technical minutia rather apply the technology to how it applies to the business

8.       Keep all options open – If this is the right company for you at the least have the option to work as a contractor or consultant for the company so they can see you shine.

The Microsoft senior vice president who took charge of Windows development the day after Vistas retail release, was among the top officials who said some of their hardware would not work with the new operating system. 

The system would alert authorities to persons overstaying the length of their visa. Biometric data would be submitted by travelers from outside the EU when applying for a visa, while those not needing a permit would be checked on arrival.

Automated border-control systems and guards would be able to check visitors' identities using the biometric data, with EU and trusted travelers from outside the EU able to speed up the process by using automated gates. The Commission is also investigating the possibility of requiring electronic authorization for outside travelers as an alternative to requiring a visa.

From 2009, all EU passports will feature a digital fingerprint and photograph and, from 2011, non-EU citizens who apply for a visa will have to give their biometric details. The measures would apply to the 24 nations within the EUs Schengen zone for passport-free travel. All EU states except Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania, and the U.K. are part of the border-free area, to which non-EU members Norway and Iceland also belong. The U.K. is believed to be studying whether to opt into the arrangements.

The Commission is also looking at creating a European border surveillance system to help prevent unauthorized border crossings, reduce the number of illegal immigrants dying at sea, and reduce cross-border crime within the EU. The Commission said the system would use state-of-the-art technology for border-surveillance purposes and focus first on the Mediterranean Sea, the Canary Islands, and the Black Sea before being widened to the "whole maritime domain" of the EU.

Data gathered for the system would be protected by security regulations and would be kept for no longer than five years.

Planning unified communications requires focusing on making communications more efficient, both within the company and with outsiders, but not everybody has to be doing everything, says Art Rosenberg, principal analyst for the Unified-View and an affiliate of UC Strategies. The first step is analysis of business processes. That information will lead to identification of pilot programs that target high-value applications and high-value end users. Once in the midst of tests and trials, Rosenberg advises, do not be fooled into thinking that any one vendor can provide every facet of what your company requires. Plan to work with vendors at the network, server and client

Yahoo touches so many customers and there is so much advertising potential in this deal, said .an independent analyst.

Although Microsoft is a big, strong company, it can still find it difficult to reach out to markets such as advertising, but Yahoo has an estimated 500 million global monthly users of Internet access, he said. It is the kind of world Microsoft loves.

Symantec recently purchased Altiris and Vontu. There is nothing new about entrepreneurial firms in security (or elsewhere) being snapped up by bigger companies. Whether and how consolidation proceeds is entirely dependent on the nature of threats. That's why the first iPhone virus is important. In the short term, it will be possible for Apple to figure out a way to protect its hip new device. In the bigger picture, however, smart service providers and vendors no doubt took the iPhone firmware 1.1.3 prep hack as a big yellow flag and will far more seriously look for ways to protect smartphones.

A Taiwanese news service yesterday reported that Vista SP1 will be released Feb. 15, but that date is as good as any other, said an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. For all we know, they could make it available tomorrow.

Microsoft, through its public relations agency, declined to comment on the Feb. 15 date beyond reiterating that the software will be available in the first quarter. Still, several sources who work closely with Microsoft said that a mid-February release is not unlikely and that they expect the software to be out before the end of March.

The company uses enterprise system buses (ESB) for message transformation, routing and other tasks. Sabre is implementing an open-source-based ESB within multiple systems including its Supplier Side Gateway product, which is used by all Sabre systems that need content from external sources. Other open-source software in use at Sabre includes Subversion and Concurrent Versions System (version control systems), Eclipse (a Java development environment), JUnit (unit test), Hibernate (object/relational mapping to abstract services from the underlying database calls) and Apache Ant, a Java-based tool.

Sabre started using open-source products about six years ago, as the quality and flexibility of open source began to increase, mainly because of the lower cost. But for them, it had to be low cost and high quality. Stability and high performance are the most important requirements.