Sean Michael Kerner

According to reports out today, MCI may have lost 16,500 names and Social Security numbers belonging to current and former employees. The data loss, according to a Wall Street Journal report, occurred when an employee’s laptop containing the data was stolen from inside a vehicle parked in a garage. MCI did not elaborate in the […]

Ten years ago today, Sun Microsystems announced Java. Since then, it has become one of the most successful programming languages in history. Several milestones along the way helped propel it to success and spawn a Java economy that extends far beyond its birthplace at Sun. The official Java announcement was made at the SunWorld Conference […]

Most people don’t know what all the fuss is about software patents. Software patents have become a regular topic of discussion in the media and elsewhere, as legal challenges and calls for reform of the patent system in the U.S. and abroad have increased from varying organizations. In this ongoing series of executive summaries called […]

Theaters weren’t the only places overflowing with “Star Wars” traffic this week as fans of the movie series flocked to the last installment, “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.” Web sites, search engines and P2P networks all are feeling the power of “the force” as fans sought information, even bootleg copies of the movie, online. […]

Momentum in retail e-commerce sales continues to grow, according to stats released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. Preliminary first-quarter 2005 retail e-commerce statistics show a growth of 24 percent on a year-over-year basis. First-quarter retail sales of all stripes usually are less than those for the boisterous holiday fourth-quarter period. On a non-adjusted basis, […]

According to Sun Microsystems, the newly announced IBM and Red Hat Solaris migration initiatives are an “act of desperation” in response to the momentum behind Solaris 10. On Tuesday, IBM and Red Hat unveiled a series of new initiatives, including their “Solaris to Linux Migration Factory,” which are geared to help drive business away from […]

According to a new report from Forrester Research, most IT users are not satisfied with their company’s IT support, and users are “less than satisfied with their relationships with their IT departments.” Forrester surveyed 2,000 IT business users as part of the survey “How Do Users Feel About Technology?” At the bottom of the list […]

In a growing age of identity theft via rampant phishing attacks, protecting an organization’s online brand is a tougher call. Security software firm VeriSign said it wants to help with a polished up spate of products. The company just launched an updated version of its Digital Brand Management services to help advertising, law firms and […]

IBM and Linux distributor Red Hat have Sun Microsystems’ Solaris in their sites with an aggressive new “Solaris to Linux Migration Factory” program. In the process, IBM might even rustle up some sales of its own Power5 server systems, which compete with Sun’s server system architecture. Scott Handy, vice president of worldwide Linux for IBM, […]

AOL today announced a new kit that promises to make it easier to integrate its AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) into video games. The new AOL Messaging Software Developer Kit (SDK) offers developers the opportunity to AIM- or ICQ-enable their games. An integrated buddy list will let gamers see when their friends are online and ping […]

Almost five years after the first tabbed browsers appeared on the market, Microsoft is finally getting in on the feature. Early this morning, Dean Hachamovitch, IE product unit manager, announced on the IE blog that Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) will include tabbed browsing. “Some people have asked why we didn’t put tabs in IE sooner,” […]

It should come as no great surprise that small and medium-sized businesses view the Internet and e-commerce as important business elements. But a new study from the ISP Interland is providing a measure of how e-commerce affects SMBs. According to the Interland Spring 2005 Business Barometer, e-mail is critical to 70 percent of SMB’s, 94 […]