Ryan Naraine

The final piece of the MPEG-4 patent licensing puzzle has been put in place by the MPEG LA consortium. MPEG LA, a group of patent holders pushing for the adoption of the MPEG-4 digital media distribution standard, on Tuesday announced the availability of the MPEG-4 Systems Patent Portfolio License, officially paving the way for use […]

Norway-based alternative Web browser firm Opera Software has confirmed five security holes in the new Opera 7 and plans to release a new version by Wednesday. A spokesman for Opera Software confirmed that the five security vulnerabilities, three of which are considered “critical” were detected by Israeli security research firm GreyMagic and said work is […]

Collaboration software specialist Groove Networks is set to roll out Groove Workspace 2.5, a new version that features tighter integration with Microsoft Outlook and SharePoint and supports SOAP, WSDL and UDDI, the key protocols for Web Services. The Beverly, Mass.-based firm, which raked in a $51 million investment from Microsoft last October, said the marriage […]

The leadership situation at Sprint took an unusual turn this weekend with BellSouth moving to court to block its vice chairman, Gary Forsee, from accepting an offer to be Sprint’s CEO. Sprint broke the silence on reports of management changes, announcing the CEO position was offered to BellSouth’s Forsee, but the Kansas City-based firm’s public […]

U.S. government cybersecurity chief Richard Clarke Friday confirmed plans to quit the post and is bidding farewell with a warning that “sophisticated” hacker attacks could cripple the nation’s IT backbone. In an e-mail to colleagues that was leaked to sections of the media, Clarke said he is leaving to look for a job in the […]

Fresh off a legal victory and a $300 million settlement in a patent dispute with Intel Corp., chip designer Intergraph is suing Texas Instruments over alleged patent breaches. The Huntsville, Ala.-based Intergraph is alleging Texas Instruments infringed three patents, which define portions of parallel instruction computing (PIC). It said research showed PIC to be a […]

Software security consultant Next Generation Security Software (NGSS) has severed ties with the federally funded CERT Coordination Center, accusing the non-profit organization of selling early access to vulnerability warnings long before vendor fixes are made available. NGSS co-founder Mark Litchfield told internetnews.com it was “annoying” that CERT/CC gave early warning on six vulnerabilities to its […]

The U.S. government’s point man for internet security Richard Clarke will quit next month and look for work in the private sector because of dissatisfaction with positions offered to him in the new Department of Homeland Security, the Reuters news agency reported Wednesday. Quoting industry and government sources, Reuters said Clarke will step down after […]

Atlanta-based access provider EarthLink on Tuesday announced it would shut down call center operations in four U.S. cities and lay off about 1,300 employees as part of a cost-cutting move. With its dial-up subscriber base dwindling, the nation’s third largest ISP said it would close its entire call center operations in Dallas, Texas; Sacramento, Calif.; […]

The fate of Motorola’s $30 million all-cash buyout bid for Next Level Communications hung on the balance with an independent committee promising to deliver its recommendation to shareholders by February 10. Schaumburg, Ill.-based Motorola has put together a $1.04 per share offer for all the outstanding shares of Next Level that it does not already […]

IBM plans to re-enter the Web mail market later this year with an enterprise-focused e-mail product running on its WebSphere and DB2 technologies. The unnamed e-mail product from Mass.-based IBM Lotus Software Group, was announced at the Lotusphere show in Orlando, where Big Blue took center stage to hype the messaging and collaboration capabilities in […]

Just weeks after taking control of the .ORG TLD registry from VeriSign , the non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR) announced the successful transition of the registry’s technical systems. The Reston, Va.-based PIR said the transition, which took place over the weekend, was unaffected by the Slammer worm attack and by Monday morning, more than 1,800 […]