Daily News Archive

Please note that The Daily News is publishing (hopefully) twice a week for the foreseeable future due to time constraints.

Tuesday, July 25th

 "We know what we are, but know not what we may be.” – William Shakespeare

 

The Picks of the Day

Who's watching the watchers?

“The plans to ‘spy-chip’ your fridge belong to Procter & Gamble, which has a second patent pending to track consumers in-store. American telecommunications giant BellSouth has a patent pending on the garbage-picking. NCR is behind the shopping cart ads and also holds a patent on ‘automated monitoring of shoppers’ at grocery stores.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060722.wxtags22/BNStory/Technology/?page=rss&id=RTGAM.20060722.wxtags22

 

Amazon rainforest 'could become a desert'

“Studies by the blue-chip Woods Hole Research Centre, carried out in Amazonia, have concluded that the forest cannot withstand more than two consecutive years of drought without breaking down.  Scientists say that this would spread drought into the northern hemisphere, including Britain, and could massively accelerate global warming with incalculable consequences.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10392579

 

IT Process Improvement

Total Quality Management (TQM)

“TQM is the way of managing for the future, and is far wider in its application than just assuring product or service quality – it is a way of managing people and business processes to ensure complete customer satisfaction at every stage, internally and externally. TQM, combined with effective leadership, results in an organisation doing the right things right, first time.”

http://www.businessballs.com/dtiresources/total_quality_management_TQM.pdf

 

Customer Disservice

Some thoughts on how not to run a Service Desk.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3617256

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

A quick guide to options backdating

“Options backdating may seem outrageous to investors, who, after all, are not given the opportunity to backdate buy orders and purchase stock at old, cheap prices. But backdating isn't a slam-dunk for prosecutors and regulators because it is not necessarily illegal for companies to give such a sweet deal to their employees.”

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/060721/21options.htm

 

The long arm of US law

“Whether having to recalculate UK accounts to suit US standards, comply with America's draconian governance laws or subscribe to the Securities & Exchange Commission's listing regulations, British boardroom agendas are increasingly set on the other side of the Atlantic.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/07/23/ccxtrad23.xml

 

Security and Risk Management

The Trouble with RFID

“RFID is such a potentially dangerous technology because RFID chips can be embedded into products and clothing and covertly read without our knowledge. A small tag embedded into the heel of a shoe or the inseam of a leather jacket for inventory control could be activated every time the customer entered or left the store where the item was bought; that tag could also be read by any other business or government agency that has installed a compatible reader.”

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040216/garfinkel

 

High-tech cloning

“With the debate over genetic cloning in full swing, hackers could not have cared less at a conference in New York City, where two presenters demonstrated the electronic equivalent of making a copy of an implanted RFID or radio frequency ID chip.  The point was to show just how easy it is to fool a detection device that purports to uniquely identify any individual.”

http://blogs.reuters.com/2006/07/22/high-tech-cloning/

 

Human Error / Safety

Simulations key to Asia's bird flu preparedness: experts

“Asia Pacific nations should carry out regular exercises to test their preparedness for a bird flu pandemic, communicable disease experts said after witnessing a simulation in Singapore.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060723/hl_afp/healthflusingapore_060723215930

 

Poll suggests little confidence in tunnel safety

“The public primarily blames contractors for the fatal ceiling collapse in a Big Dig tunnel, but is deeply skeptical that anyone will be prosecuted, according to a new Boston Globe poll that indicates widespread cynicism and safety concerns about the $14.6 billion project.”

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/07/23/poll_suggests_little_confidence_in_tunnel_safety/

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

China's Schizophrenic Boom Would Baffle Keynes: William Pesek

“But then the world hasn't seen an economy like China's before -- a 1.3 billion-person one simultaneously on the verge of inflation and deflation. If noted economists like John Maynard Keynes, Adam Smith or Karl Marx were alive, China's schizophrenic boom would send them back to the drawing board. “

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&refer=columnist_pesek&sid=aOhdnwWVgEOc

 

China Mobile Firms Poised for Global Domination

“China's largest mobile phone makers are set to grow into global giants, according to industry sources.  Leading the pack is Huawei, which now has some 35,000 employees and revenue growth of more than 50 percent a year.  Huawei has been selling equipment and handsets outside China for 10 years, but passed a significant milestone last year when international sales revenue surpassed domestic sales for the first time.”

http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/51943.html

 

Is buying local always best?

“To buy or not to buy from local farmers, stores, and craftspeople - that is the moral question. It's stirring sharp debate about what it means to do the right thing at the cash register.”

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0724/p13s02-lifo.html

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Record power demand points to supply need

“The nationwide heat wave last week and new peak demand records for air conditioning power mean the U.S. grid should be adding more generating plants and beefing up reserve supplies to handle emergencies, analysts say.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060723/bs_nm/utilities_summer_demand_dc_1

 

N.Y. governer urged to declare power failure a disaster

“A group of political leaders urged Gov. George Pataki on Sunday to designate a section of the city suffering from a prolonged power failure a disaster area, making it eligible for federal aid.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/23/ny.blackouts.ap/index.html

 

Thursday, July 27th

"It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality." — Harold S. Geneen

 

The Picks of the Day

Why popular antivirus apps 'do not work'

“However, the actual reason why the top selling antivirus applications don't work is because malware authors are specifically testing their Trojans and viruses to make sure they can bypass these applications before releasing them in the wild.”

http://www.zdnet.com.au/blogs/securifythis/soa/Why_popular_antivirus_apps_do_not_work_/0,39033341,39264249,00.htm

 

Google and the new punk era of IT

“The capital cost of a server when spread over its lifetime is small compared to the cost of power consumption, and associated cooling. Google, which makes more money than God it seems, does so by being smart enough to notice things like that. It turns out that in building their own servers, they actually pay a premium for power units, that run cheap and cool.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/24/google_builds_own_servers/

 

Do Your Business Continuity Plans Cover Home Workers?

“My message to the telcos is to recognize that more and more people are operating from home and residential service offerings do not suitably recognize the needs of people working from home. For example, consider offering a tiered service plan to better meet the needs of people conducting business from home.”

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/columns/article.php/3622366

 

IT Process Improvement

Deming’s 14 Points

Here is a condensed version of Deming’s 14 points for management

http://www.deming.org/theman/teachings02.html

 

Deming on Wikipedia

There’s a Wikipedia page with a background of Deming and a quick overview of his System of Profound Knowledge, The Seven Deadly Sins and 14 Points for Management.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Edwards_Deming

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

SEC Names Hewitt Chief Accountant

“Conrad Hewitt, former chief financial regulator for the State of California, was named chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. He will oversee accounting interpretations, international accounting matters, and professional practice issues, for the SEC.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7216044/c_7216090?f=alerts

 

NYSE-Euronext merger deal may include ant-Sarbanes-Oxley break-up clause –report

“Lawyers and regulators are working on adding a clause to the merger agreement between Euronext NV and NYSE Group Inc which would break up the deal if any attempt was made to apply the Sarbanes-Oxley US corporate reporting rules to companies listed on the combined group's European exchanges, L'Agefi financial daily reported, citing an unidentified financier.”

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2006/07/25/afx2901492.html

 

SOX amounting to an Iron Curtain for overseas corporations

“Although it may limit the amount of capital they can raise, several UK firms have dropped plans to become listed on US stock exchanges, since they do not want to incur the cost of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance.”

http://www.itcinstitute.com/display.aspx?id=2069

 

Auditor Standards May Get a Second Look

“Until CFO.com can schedule an interview with Hewitt (he doesn't start at the SEC until mid-August), we won't be able to ask what he meant by his remark about the PCAOB. In a prepared statement, Hewitt noted that he has great respect for the role the SEC's auditor watchdog plays, and is looking forward to working with the PCAOB to eliminate ‘excessive costs and burdens both here and abroad.’

http://www.cfo.com/blogs/index.cfm/l_detail/7216570?f=alerts

 

Security and Risk Management

Eighty percent of new malware defeats antivirus

“The most popular antivirus applications on the market are rendered useless by around 80 percent of new malware, according to AusCERT.”

http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Eighty_percent_of_new_malware_defeats_antivirus/0,2000061744,39263949,00.htm

 

Companies take costly steps to secure laptops

“The actions of Ernst & Young, Fidelity Investments and other high-profile victims underscore the balancing act for executives, who must weigh the costs of additional security and customer privacy with the financial benefits of a mobile workforce.”

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-07-23-laptop-secure_x.htm?csp=34

 

License Plate Tracking for All

“Giant data-tracking firms such as ChoicePoint, Accurint and Acxiom already collect detailed personal and financial information on millions of Americans. Once they discover how lucrative it is to know where a person goes between the supermarket, for example, and the strip club, the LPR industry could explode, says Bucholz.”

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71436-0.html?tw=rss.technology

[Very interesting article with a lot of privacy implications that need to be considered.]

 

UBS Trial Aftermath: Even Great Security Can't Protect You >From The Insider

The story of the systems administrator found guilty of attacking UBS's network should stand as a warning to every company: Beware the insider you trust to protect your system--he or she could be your worst enemy.

http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=191000063 

 

Ex-UBS Sys Admin Found Guilty, Prosecutors To Seek Maximum Sentence

Prosecutors will seek an eight-year prison sentence for 63-year-old Roger Duronio, once a systems administrator for UBS PaineWebber, convicted Wednesday of launching an attack that brought down the company network.

http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190700064 

 

UBS Trial Aftermath: 5 Things UBS Did Right, And 5 Things To Improve On

The government's forensics investigator spent more than three years pouring over UBS's records and analyzing its network in preparation for the computer sabotage trial. Here are his top-five lists for what the company did right after the attack, and what it could have done better before.

http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190900365 

 

UBS Trial Aftermath: Top 10 Tips For A Successful Postmortem

The government's forensics investigator says UBS took an important step when it examined the 2002 attack on its system. Here are some tips on creating your own successful post mortem report.

http://www.informationweek.com/security/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190900697

[The four stories about UBS are from Sharon Gaudin, a great writer with CMP.]

 

Human Error / Safety

Are FEMA trailers ‘toxic tin cans’?

“Air quality tests of 44 FEMA trailers conducted by the Sierra Club since April have found formaldehyde concentrations as high as 0.34 parts per million – a level nearly equal to what a professional embalmer would be exposed to on the job, according to one study of the chemical’s workplace effects.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14011193/

 

A disaster to take everyone's breath away

“The wet Amazon Basin would turn to dry savannah at best, desert at worst. This would cause much of the world to become hotter and drier.  In the long term, it could send global warming out of control, eventually making the world uninhabitable.”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10392615

 

Report: Safety Officer Said Big Dig Tunnel Wouldn't Hold

“The on-site safety officer for the Interstate 90 connector where a motorist was crushed by falling concrete warned his superiors in 1999 that the tunnel ceiling could collapse because the bolts could not support the heavy concrete panels, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday.”

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/9577919/detail.html?rss=bos&psp=news

 

Vaccine maker announces avian flu breakthrough

“The UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline today announced a breakthrough in the development of a vaccine against the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu.”

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1830403,00.html

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

Going Mobile in Rural India

“Service providers and handset manufacturers look forward to explosive growth as India skips the copper wire and heads straight for wireless networks”

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2006/gb20060721_375326.htm?campaign_id=rss_null

 

Innocents Abroad

“Nearly 35 years after China reestablished trade with the United States, launching a foreign subsidiary there remains difficult — especially for a smaller company. Managers must come up with a business plan, translate it into Mandarin, then submit it along with a two-inch pile of forms. That's when the real work begins, with seemingly endless revisions and negotiations with Chinese officials.”

https://www.cpa2biz.com/News/Selected+Features/Innocents+Abroad.htm

 

Motorola and Wipro unveil outsourcing joint venture

“Motorola Inc is setting up a joint venture with offshore IT services vendor Wipro Technologies Ltd to target growing demand from operators for outsourcing services.”

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=9349DD45-CB62-4C4A-9B83-E542C63FB569

 

Foreign Affairs Magazine: The India Model

“The notable thing about India's rise is not that it is new, but that its path has been unique. Rather than adopting the classic Asian strategy -- exporting labor-intensive, low-priced manufactured goods to the West -- India has relied on its domestic market more than exports, consumption more than investment, services more than industry, and high-tech more than low-skilled manufacturing.”

http://www.nytimes.com/cfr/world/20060701faessay_v85n4_das.html?_r=1&ref=americas&oref=slogin

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

In Depth: In Slaying Legacy IT Costs, The Data Center Is A Good Place To Start

“Companies typically spend 80% of IT budgets on maintenance. Attacking data center costs can let companies shift more of that spending to new projects. You know the drill--you're spending way too much on maintenance, not enough on what really matters.”

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190900676

 

Toy hydrogen-powered car offers glimpse of future

“It's a dream that's been pursued for years by governments, energy companies and automakers so far without success: Mass-producing affordable hydrogen-powered cars that spew just clean water from their tailpipes.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/07/24/china.hydrogen.car.ap/index.html