Jim Wagner

UPDATED: Yahoo and Microsoft are linking up their IM networks to allow MSN and Yahoo Messenger users to communicate across the two platforms, creating a global network of more than 275 million strong. The agreement brings actual federated IM to the industry after years of mostly talk about the prospect. During a press conference today, […]

Microsoft released nine security bulletins, three rated critical, on its regularly scheduled Patch Tuesday, officials announced. The patches include one that was pulled at the last minute in September because officials deemed it not ready to be installed on user systems. The security bulletin, a critical fix to Internet Explorer (IE), involves a problem in […]

The Liberty Alliance released suggested guidelines for deploying a federated identification (ID) system on the network, officials announced Tuesday. Officials said that while they expect to see 1 billion Liberty-enabled identities and devices globally by the end of 2006, they understand policy makers within an organization need tools to help them identify and manage the […]

Professional open source vendor JBoss has enhanced what it says is the only open source SOA platform. Officials announced Tuesday at the company’s JBoss World Barcelona 2005 user conference in Barcelona, that it will assimilate the Drools Project, an open source business rules engine project. The announcement is a part of an overall effort by […]

Firewall vendor Imperva is launching a database protection appliance later this year geared to protect organizations from attack or misuse. The SecureSphereT Database Security Gateway sits between the firewall and database, monitoring information requests and comparing them against dynamically-generated profiles generated by user traffic metrics, Imperva said. When a suspect request is noticed, such as […]

Microsoft is changing its licensing model for customers that virtualize their software on enterprise servers. Customers opting for the new licensing scheme, which goes into effect Dec. 1, will be able to run up to four virtual instances of Microsoft Server 2003 R2 on one physical server at no additional cost, the company said today. […]

Officials at software tools vendor Borland have combined their Windows IDEs and will release the integrated software later this year. The Borland Developer Studio (BDS) combines the Win32-based IDEs of Delphi and C++ Builder with the .NET-based C# Builder and Delphi .NET development platforms, as well as support for C. The move to an all-encompassing […]

CipherTrust is taking its experience with e-mail security and applying it to manage instant messaging traffic on the enterprise network. The CipherTrust IronIM appliance, announced today, encrypts, logs and provides policy control over all IM traffic on the network as well as prevents viruses and spim from polluting the network. The hardware is available today, […]

UPDATED: Microsoft is expanding its security protection services with the upcoming launch of two new products, officials announced Thursday. The security offerings are part of a two-pronged strategy of partnerships and products outlined by Steve Ballmer, the software giant’s CEO, and Mike Nash, Microsoft’s security technology unit corporate vice president. “At Microsoft, we’re investing heavily […]

Macromedia is revamping its upcoming product line as part of its goal to inspire the hearts and minds of a million Flex developers. Flex is the programming platform for the development of rich Internet applications (RIA) on the Flash platform. The company wants to blend the popularity of the Flash Player, the Web presentation technology […]

UPDATED: Yahoo acquired social calendar site Upcoming.org to spruce up its local content fare, according to a company executive Tuesday evening. Upcoming.org is a social event calendar, a Web resource where individuals create and manage events that can be tracked by friends and family, as well as people looking for something new in their area. […]

PC manufacturer Dell launched a mid-range PC for consumers aimed at the open source community, officials announced Tuesday. The Dell Dimension E510n desktop is an Intel Pentium 4-based PC with a base configuration featuring 512MB of RAM, a 128MB ATI Radeon video card, a 80GB SATA hard drive, a Sound Blaster Live sound card and […]