Philosophy, computing, and Republican desperation In a last-ditch attempt to spook credulous Americans into voting for John McCain, a Republican congressman and his brother-in-law have offered $10,000 to a software-wielding Oxford don, asking for proof that Barack Obama's memoir was written by former domestic terrorist William Ayers.… Full published article at: Read More »

Something about an economic something-or-other The chip industry has done OK despite global economic troubles, but the road ahead isn't looking nearly so pleasant, according to a new survey by Gartner.… Full published article at: Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 3 November 2008 at 16:46:00 Pushing back the opening date was not an option, says airline British Airways has admitted that it did not properly train workers to use new systems and equipment at Heathrow Terminal Five (T5) and compromised on the testing schedule as it did not want to delay the terminal's opening. In a report published by the House of Commons Transport Committee, BA accepted that staff were not sufficiently familiar with the systems, and that IT...Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 3 November 2008 at 16:46:00 Pushing back the opening date was not an option, says airline British Airways has admitted that it did not properly train workers to use new systems and equipment at Heathrow Terminal Five (T5) and compromised on the testing schedule as it did not want to delay the terminal's opening. In a report published by the House of Commons Transport Committee, BA accepted that staff were not sufficiently familiar with the systems, and that IT...Read More »

Angelica Mari, Computing, Monday 3 November 2008 at 15:29:00 Recapitalisation will lead to a shift in technology strategy, says research The recent £50bn liquidity injection provided by the government to banks will trigger a period of limited IT investment across the sector until the second quarter of 2009, according to research from analyst TowerGroup. The rescue plans will have long-term consequences for all banks, says the report, which predicts a "prominent business model difference" between companies that have accepted funding and those that have not. Banks that have accepted taxpayers' cash will have to adjust to...Read More »

$750m proves a bit pricey The FCC is being asked to reduce the minimum bid for the the last of the 700MHz blocks, due to be auctioned next year, as $750m is a lot of money for frequencies to which the buyers won't have exclusive access.… Full published article at: Read More »

Can real-time controls prevent fraud? A trader suspected of losing his employer as much as €751m ($940m) in ill-judged derivatives trades has been placed under investigation. The case has sparked a fresh assessment of the adequacies of compliance systems and how they might be improved and stirred up a few unhappy memories.… Full published article at: Read More »

Undercuts Sparc servers with beefier rebates Back in April, when IBM rolled out the completely refreshed Power Systems Power6-based server line, the marketeers also got a chance to play alongside the engineers with the launch of the Power Rewards rebate program. At the time, Hewlett-Packard's vintage HP 9000 server line seemed to be the main target of Power Rewards, which can cut the cost of a migration to an IBM Unix box by as much as 50 per cent over negotiated street price on the iron.… Full published article at: Read More »

Quantum of revenue solace Dell has jumped on the Quantum/EMC de-dupe bandwagon and is developing a single block-level de-dupe and replication architecture spanning its own, Quantum and EMC storage arrays.… Full published article at: Read More »

The good kind of UI theft Canonical, the developers behind Ubuntu Linux have release Intrepid Ibex, the successor to last spring's Hardy Heron release. Ibex isn't a long-term support release - which might put off some large organizations - but for Ubuntu desktop fans, version 8.10 makes a worthwhile upgrade.… Full published article at: Read More »