buzzardsbay - Slashdot User

Submission + - Tech Companies that Won't Survive 2009 (channelinsider.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Monday January 12, 2009 @12:26PM

buzzardsbay writes: "Fresh off their annual market survey, eWEEK channel folks have compiled the list of tech vendors their readers think will fail, falter, or be sold off in 2009. It's important to note that these aren't the opinions of the magazine or its editors. The list comes from folks who work in IT, mostly technology resellers, who are out in the field selling, installing and maintaining this stuff. If there were ever canaries in the tech coal mine, they'd be these service and solution providers who live and die by the slightest shift in the markets. Some of the companieson this list, like Sun and AMD, are shocking because of their size. Others, like CA and Symantec, not so surprising."

Submission + - Recession Pushes IT to Find New Value in Old Gear (channelinsider.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Thursday December 18, 2008 @12:27PM

buzzardsbay writes: "Trying to put a bright spin on a gloomy subject, the folks at eWEEK unearth an emerging trend: There's a booming cottage industry of dealers in refurbished computer and networking gear serving folks on the hunt for "slightly used" and "new to you" equipment. The dealers selling the stuff tell eWEEK the equipment is paractically new, most of it less than a year old, and that the prices for things likes servers and routers are lower than they have been since the post dot-com / Sept. 11 days in 2001. Used gear isn't for everybody, obviously. Story points out that while many of these used IT dealers offer configuration services, they don't do installs, and most are not authorized resellers. They do, however, offer decent warranties, so if you can do some of the work yourself, you'll probably be OK."

Submission + - IT Workers Are Getting Fatter (channelinsider.com)

Submitted by buzzardsbay on Monday May 19, 2008 @12:17PM

buzzardsbay writes: While technologies such as virtualization, multi-threading and blade servers have made the data center leaner, those who work there are getting... well... not leaner. According to a new study by CareerBuilder.com, 34 percent of IT workers say they have gained more than ten pounds in their current jobs. A hefty 16 percent say they've gained at least twice that. That's 50 percent putting on weight. The culprits seem to be the stressful-yet-sedentary nature of tech work coupled with our famously poor eating habits. According to the survey, some 41 percent of IT workers eat out for lunch twice or more per week, making portion and calorie control difficult. A pale-looking 11 percent actually buy their lunch out of a vending machine at least once a week.

Submission + - Gen Y Workers Reinventing IT for the Better (baselinemag.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Thursday March 20, 2008 @10:22AM

buzzardsbay writes: "We all know the complaints about young employees. They depend too much on their parents' money, they need constant hand-holding, they have no job loyalty, they demand more than they're worth, they disrespect older employees, and they're naive about corporate culture. But despite this conventional wisdom, there's growing evidence that the different working styles of Gen Y workers might be causing fundamental — and beneficial — changes in the way enterprises run, especially when it comes to IT. For example, they may show better judgment when making tech purchases and are often better with green IT initiatives This is a nice counterpoint to a previous story (and resulting incendiary comments) that dubbed young tech workers a risk to corporate networks."

Submission + - Young Employees Pose Increasing Risk to Networks (baselinemag.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Monday March 17, 2008 @09:18AM

buzzardsbay writes: "Baseline is reporting on an upcoming survey from Symantec and Applied Research-West that confirms many suspicions about the generation gap in the workplace, namely that younger workers will use your corporate network to run most any device, technology or social networking software they can get their hands on. Dubbed "Millenials," these workers born after 1980 are nearly twice as likely to use cell phones and PDAs at work, and half admit to installing unauthorized software on their employer's computers. On the upside, the Millenials are more security aware than their older co-workers."

Submission + - IT Labor Shortage Is Just a Myth (baselinemag.com) 1

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buzzardsbay

on Monday March 10, 2008 @10:30AM

buzzardsbay writes: "For the past few years, we've heard a number of analysts and high-profile IT industry executives, Bill Gates and Craig Barrett among them, promoting the idea that there's an ever-present shortage of skilled IT workers to fill the industry's demand. But now there's growing evidence suggesting the "shortage" is simply a self-serving myth. "It seems like every three years you've got one group or another saying, the world is going to come to an end there is going to be a shortage and so on," says Vivek Wadhwa, a professor for Duke University's Master of Engineering Management Program and a former technology CEO himself. "This whole concept of shortages is bogus, it shows a lack of understanding of the labor pool in the USA.""

Submission + - Gaffes That Keep IT Geeks from the Boardroom (baselinemag.com) 2

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buzzardsbay

on Tuesday February 26, 2008 @11:31AM

buzzardsbay writes: "Yes, it's all in good fun to point out the mismatched belt and shoes and the atrocious hairstyles, but honestly, I'm committing three of these errors right now! Is that why I can't get a key to the executive washroom? Or is it my rebellious attitude and pungent man-scent that's keeping me down. The shocker in here was pigtails on women... I LOVE pigtails on women!"

Submission + - Survey: Users Worldwide Feel Internet Is "Safe (baselinemag.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Wednesday February 06, 2008 @02:45PM

buzzardsbay writes: "Baseline Magazine is reporting on a study by Cisco that teases out the differing attitudes about online security among users across the globe. For instance, remote workers worldwide think the 'Net is getting safer... except the folks in Italy and Germany. Hmmm. These folks also have a lot of faith in their corporate IT departments as 51 percent said their work computers are more secure than their personal PCs, and nearly half (45 percent) believe they are more vulnerable to malware and hacks when they're working outside their corporate perimeter. Irony of ironies, the Brazilians hold Net security in the highest regard. Obrigado, Prime Suspectz."

Submission + - Top 12 Companies Caught Stealing Software in 2007 (baselinemag.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Thursday January 10, 2008 @02:31PM

buzzardsbay writes: "Already forgotten Major League Baseball's Mitchell Report? Here's another kind of "cheater's" list that folks will want to avoid. Baseline Magazine has compiled the top 12 companies fined by the Business Software Alliance last year for not playing by the rules of asset management. According to the report many of the BSA's busts are made possible through a BSA Reward Program, which offers up to $1 million to individuals who report offending companies."

Submission + - PI License May Be Required for Computer Forensics (baselinemag.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Friday January 04, 2008 @11:27AM

buzzardsbay writes: "The good folks over at Baseline Magazine have an intriguing — and worrisome — report on a movement to limit computer forensics work to those who have Private Investigators' licenses or those who work for licensed PI agencies. According to the story, pending legislation would limit the specialized task of probing deep into computer hard drives, network and server logs for telltale signs of hacking and data theft in the hands of the same people who advertise in the Yellow Pages for surveillance on cheating spouses, workers' compensation fraud and missing persons. Those caught practicing computer forensics without a license could face criminal prosecution, the story adds."

Submission + - New Hack Exploits Common Programming Error (techtarget.com)

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buzzardsbay

on Monday July 23, 2007 @09:37AM

buzzardsbay writes: "TechTarget's security editor, Dennis Fisher is reporting that researchers at Watchfire Inc. have discovered a reliable method for exploiting a common programming error, which until now had been considered simply a quality problem and not a security vulnerability. According to the article, the researchers stumbled upon the method for remotely exploiting dangling pointers by chance while they were running the company's AppScan software against a Web server. The good folks at Watchfire will detail the technique in a presentation at the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas in August, Fisher writes."

Submission + - Time to spike Microsoft's Patch Tuesday

Submitted by

buzzardsbay

on Thursday May 10, 2007 @11:13AM

buzzardsbay writes: "Techtarget's resident security curmudgeon, Dennis Fisher, is calling for an end to Microsoft's monthly security patching cycle. Fisher points out that 'a hacker only needs one unpatched system, one little crack in the fence in order to launch a major attack on a given network. The sheer volume of the patches Microsoft releases each month makes it quite difficult for even the most conscientious IT department to get every patch out to all of the affected systems in a reasonable amount of time.'"

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