Daily News Archive

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

Wednesday, August 16th

"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent efforts.” – John Ruskin

 

The Picks of the Day

Managing Globalization: In a smaller world, shots echo louder

“The International Herald Tribune's global economics columnist, Daniel Altman, discusses news of the day online with an eye to how individuals, companies and governments are coping with the challenges of globalization.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/15/business/glob16.php

 

Economics 101: Demand Is the Demon

“The nation's journey to $3 per gallon gas has been more like a drag race than a meandering road trip.  With the partial shutdown of Prudhoe Bay last week, motorists who have felt the pain at the pump had more to moan about as the simple dynamics of supply and demand kept the prices hovering at a level that seemed unfathomable a few years ago.”

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060814/oil_field_gas_prices.html?.v=2

 

Consumer prices pressured by energy costs

“Consumer inflation accelerated in July as a big jump in gasoline and other energy prices offset the biggest decline in clothing costs in nearly two decades.”

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14374037/

 

IT Process Improvement

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

“The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is the backbone of the entire business continuity exercise or, at least, it should be if handled correctly. Even so, it cannot stand alone and without full support, approval and backing from the highest level of management, the exercise will not achieve its full potential. A well-executed BIA can make the difference between a fully developed, robust business continuity plan, and a mediocre one.”

http://www.sorm.state.tx.us/Risk_Management/Business_Continuity/bus_impact.php

 

Business Impact Analysis

http://www.vccs.edu/its/models/bia.htm

 

BIA Templates at CCEP

http://www.ccep.ca/ccepbcp3.html

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Republican fires Sarbanes-Oxley warning

“A US congressman has voiced concerns over the effect Sarbanes-Oxley legislation is having on the country's economy.  Tom Feeney, a Republican, was reported as saying that the accountancy compliance law had led to an ‘outsourcing of America's 100-year lead in capital formation’, in the Financial Times.”

http://www.mikrofax.com/news/Republican-fires-Sarbanes-Oxley-warning/430021579/17479933.html

 

Is there a 'silver lining' to the Sarbanes Oxley Act?

“Beyond a doubt, there has been budgetary fallout from Sarbanes Oxley work in IT. However, unlike the Y2K effort, there is increasing evidence that Sarbanes Oxley has delivered some unexpected by-products to technology organizations that are making them stronger and more efficient.”

http://www.enterprisenetworksandservers.com/monthly/art.php?2479

 

AIIM Survey Finds Compliance Real, Relevant, and More Than Just Records

“The study of over 700+ end users found that organizations DO believe that compliance concerns related to information management are here to stay and that they are not just a passing fad. Yet, awareness of what constitutes "compliance" is extremely narrow.”

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=153718

 

More Rules, Higher Profits?

“All too often, the drive for corporate-governance reform feels like a costly exercise in wishful thinking. After all, can you really find a strong correlation between a mandatory retirement age for directors and a bigger net profit margin?  You can, as it happens.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7239621?f=Metrics081606

 

SEC Tweaks Sarbanes-Oxley Rules

“The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 9 granted smaller companies and many foreign private issuers extra time to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's internal control reporting and auditing provisions.”

http://www.forbes.com/leadership/careers/2006/08/15/sec-sarbanes-oxley-cx_0816oxford.html

[This is a summary of an Oxford Analytica article.  It summarizes that the changes are insignificant and that foreign markets, such as London, are more attractive.]

 

 

Security and Risk Management

Windows Mobile Security Software Fails the Test

“Microsoft claims that the Windows Mobile operating system is secure enough for the enterprise. That’s not quite true, since unlike Windows XP, handhelds don’t have advanced security architecture. For example, Pocket PC has no Kerberos authentication, Encrypting Filesystem, or a built-in firewall. In fact, even the much-touted Mobile2Mobile ‘secure’ signing process for .DLLs and .exes can be bypassed with a simple buffer overflow, thus potentially allowing malware to take over your device.”

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/5474.html

 

Veterans Affairs upgrades data security

“Following a series of embarrassing data security breaches, the Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday announced it would upgrade all the agency's computers with a new encryption technology to be first installed on the agency's laptops within a month.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060815/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/va_data_protection_3

 

Human Error / Safety

NASA: Original Moon Landing Tapes Lost

“According to a NASA spokesman, the famous moonwalk seen by millions of viewers on July 20, 1969, is among the transmissions that NASA has had trouble finding for the last year.”

http://cbs4.com/topstories/local_story_227132606.html

http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/feeds/ap/2006/08/15/ap2952087.html

http://voanews.com/english/2006-08-15-voa79.cfm

 

USDA says bird flu case no risk to humans

“Routine tests conducted in a Michigan gaming area found two of 20 swans have what government officials believe is likely a low-pathogenic strain of H5N1. Confirmatory test results are underway and will be available in about two weeks, but officials stressed there is no threat to human health.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060814/us_nm/birdflu_usa_dc_21

 

Global warming affects hurricane intensity-US study

“If the Earth is, in fact, engaged in a long-term warming cycle -- and if humanity is partly responsible -- can it be reversed?”

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-15-voa67.cfm

 

Who's Going to Halt Global Warming?

“Forest fires, droughts and floods are all likely to become more severe and more common if global warming continues to heat the planet at the rate most scientists predict, reports an article in today's Independent by science editor Steve Connor.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/thenation/20060815/cm_thenation/4112287

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

Leader of India warns nation on cost of oil

“Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday that the government would do everything possible to keep inflation in check but that there were limits to what it could do to insulate people from the effects of record oil prices.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/15/business/singh.php

 

Japan-China: Nationalism on the rise

“With China and South Korea expressing anger after the visit Tuesday by Japan's prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, to the Yasukuni war shrine, it will be tempting for the rest of the world to draw a simplistic message. A halt to such pilgrimages, one might think, could put an end to strategic antagonisms in East Asia.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/15/opinion/edchell.php

 

Russia’s Globalization Choice

“Last month’s successful G8 summit in St. Petersburg — which approved a record number of statements and communiques — confirmed that our shared interests, the challenges we face, and the solutions that are needed are all genuinely global in nature. But globalization does not, of course, happen just once a year. And it does not just happen from above, at the level of political leaders. It is a continuous and rapidly developing set of processes bringing economies and societies ever closer together.”

http://www.sptimesrussia.com/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=18543

 

'Outsourcing' isn't the scare word it used to be

“In the years since Mankiw's encounter with the buzz machine, economists have been crunching data on short-term trends in outsourcing in the vast service sector, which accounts for about 80 percent of domestic jobs. While there are some exceptions, they generally find more reason for concern than alarm.”

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/15/business/outsource.php

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

Why I Hate Web 2.0

“Hidden beneath all the new stuff collecting under the Web 2.0 umbrella is a simple fact: All that coolness exists to do an even better and more invasive job of marketing goods and services to Web users.”

http://www.intelligententerprise.com/channels/appmanagement/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=190400347

 

NASA goes back to the future

“Jim Snoddy and other NASA engineers did not just go to the drawing board or a warehouse when they needed ideas -- and parts -- for America's next lunar rocket. They went to space museums.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/space/08/15/nasa.looking.back.ap/index.html

 

U.S. could learn a thing or two from Singapore

“So what is it that the Singaporean government has crafted as its comprehensive policy approach to the auto? The first thing you need to know is, if you want to buy a car in Singapore, you first must buy a permit to buy a car.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060815/cm_usatoday/uscouldlearnathingortwofromsingapore