Daily News Archive

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

Tuesday, October 3rd

"Accept the fact that we have to treat almost anybody as a volunteer.” -- Peter F. Drucker

 

The Picks of the Day

America is living beyond its means

“The US has struck a Faustian bargain with its trading partners, particularly China, responsible for about one third of the $700bn-plus trade total last year. As the American economist Tom Palley puts it: ‘US consumers get lots of cheap goods in return for which they give over paper IOUs that cost less to print. Meanwhile, China creates millions of jobs and builds modern factories that are transforming it into an industrial superpower, and it also accumulates billions of dollars in financial claims against the US.’”

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1885259,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=24

[Excellent article.  We are borrowing ourselves into a hole.  Military and economic might are not severable.]

 

Execs Unsure About Tech's ROI

“Most finance chiefs and managing directors at U.S. multinational companies believe their investments in technology have had a positive impact, yet only about one-third are convinced that they are getting an optimum return on their technology dollars.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7992495/c_7992765?f=alerts

 

Solving the Audit Gap

“When it comes to keeping IT-related control deficiencies to a minimum, it's more important to improve communication than it is to improve your technology.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7992600?f=FinancialSoftware100306

[This is a great article.  Just the first two paragraphs alone make it work reading.]

 

IT Process Improvement / Quality Management

Cost vs. Value

“One of the challenges with business executives, and senior IT management for that matter, is a constant fixation on the costs of the IT function. In senior management circles ‘IT sure is expensive’ is a constant refrain followed all to quickly with attempts to downsize, outsource, cut budgets and so on.  The problem is that IT and the business are often fixated only on costs, but what about value?”

http://www.cioupdate.com/insights/article.php/11049_3634891_1

 

MEPol helps companies improve capacity, grow sales

“To improve capacity and grow sales simultaneously, three strategies must be implemented: (1) Theory of Constraint -- treat the root cause, not the symptoms, (2) Throughput Decision Making --increase sales while decreasing operating expenses and inventory, and (3) Sales Growth -- adding new products and/or new customers.”

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061002/NEWS05/609300334

 

Legal and Regulatory Compliance

Small Biz: Regulation a Roadblock to Capital

“Regulation is the biggest challenge to small businesses that want to raise capital, investment bankers and attorneys told the Securities and Exchange Commission at an SEC government-business forum on small business capital formation on Friday.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7989552?f=alerts

 

On Second Thought...

“Former Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Alan Greenspan said this week that the Sarbanes-Oxley corporate governance rules are stifling. Strong words from a man who once supported the law.”

http://www.investors.com/editorial/editorialcontent.asp?secid=1501&status=article&id=244336193221472

 

Security and Risk Management

New Survey Shows Physical and Information Security Convergence is Increasing; India Lags But is Closing Gaps in Security

“Organizations are increasingly integrating physical and information security as they become more aware of the impact of privacy breaches, according to the Global State of Information Security 2006, a worldwide study by CIO magazine, CSO magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Forty percent of respondents state their physical and IT security functions report to the same executive leader versus 31 percent last year. Further, only 25 percent say the two functions are separate, down significantly from 47 percent in last year’s survey. The survey, the largest of its kind, represents the responses of almost 7800 senior executives at companies in more than 50 countries across all industries.”

http://www.pwc.com/extweb/ncpressrelease.nsf/docid/ACE3B75B1B91492E852571EA0050DE76

 

IIA GTAG Guide 6: Managing and Auditing IT Vulnerabilities

“The 24-page guide was developed to help CAEs and internal auditors ask the right questions of IT security staff when assessing the effectiveness of their vulnerability management processes. The guide recommends specific management practices to help an organization achieve and sustain higher levels of effectiveness and efficiency and illustrates the differences between high- and low-performing vulnerability management efforts.”

http://www.theiia.org/index.cfm?doc_id=5596

 

Idaho lab a prime defender of nation's SCADA networks

“As lead cybersecurity researcher at the Idaho National Laboratory here, Larsen - with help from fellow researchers like Schaeffer - spends his days trying to hack into networks like the ones that run the nation's electricity grids, water and oil pipelines and chemical plants.”

http://www.western-star.com/search/content/shared/news/stories/2006/09/SCADA_LAB_ADV01_COX_A7738.html

 

The benefits of unified threat management

“Network security, traditionally handled by a collection of separate boxes, is evolving into unified threat management (UTM). ‘The driving force behind UTM is the need to simplify the environment,’ says Mike Rothman . . .”

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9003822&source=NLT_NET&nlid=27

 

Human Error / Safety

Global warming divides scientists

“The words ‘global warming’ provoke a sharp retort from Colorado State University meteorology professor emeritus William Gray: ‘It's a big scam.’”

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2006/10/02/news/regional/d66a40186f75caaf872571f900210059.txt

 

Bird flu update: 2 October 2006

This web page has a number of links to news stories as of 10/2 on the Bird Flu.

http://www.scidev.net/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=readnews&itemid=3126&language=1

 

Regular Flu Shot May Help Fight Bird Flu

“A leading flu expert says an encouraging but small study in mice gives more reason to hope that ordinary flu shots might help protect people if bird flu starts spreading among humans and causes a pandemic.”

http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/7228/491967.html

 

Outsourcing / Globalization / International

As India gets too costly, BPOs turn to Philippines

“HIGH salary and transfer rates in India are making that country less appealing to business process outsourcing (BPO) firms --a trend the Philippines can take advantage of by accelerating information technology (IT) training among students, an executive of a US firm said Monday.”

http://business.inq7.net/money/topstories/view_article.php?article_id=24405

 

Globalization Increasing Risk Of Supply Chain Disruptions: Survey

“Many supply chain managers queried in the survey believe that their supply chains are secure from possible disruptions. But that confidence is belied by the fact that nearly-two-thirds plan risk-mitigation measures such as boosting spending for improved supply chain management technology, increasing logistics capacity, and developing more accurate forecasting and planning processes, according to the May survey of 151 supply chain executives at U.S. companies with more than $1 billion in revenue.”

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193101249&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

 

Getting Intellectual Property Right

“As the globalization of manufacturing continues, few issues have raised as much concern as intellectual property rights, particularly as it relates to China. Indeed, the United States spars with the World Trade Organization on a regular basis over China’s lack of successful IP enforcement.”

http://www.manufacturing.net/article/CA6377140.html

 

China Three Gorges dam to displace 1.4M

“The total number of people who will be displaced by China's massive Three Gorges dam has been raised by 270,000, to 1.4 million people, state media said.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061002/ap_on_re_as/china_three_gorges_1

 

Economics / Business / Misc.

XBRL Will Keep Investors Wanting More

“Be prepared for hard questions.  If Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Christopher Cox gets his wish and companies universally adopt XBRL to file their financial statements, investors and analysts will be asking CFOs tougher questions.”

http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/7989298/c_7989907?f=alerts

 

Rebuilding shop classes in U.S. high schools

“Vocational education classes, once commonplace, began to languish as standardized tests started to determine success and failure and college became a singular goal. Now called career technical education courses, they are beginning to enjoy a renaissance.”

http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/10/02/career.tech.rise.ap/index.html

 

Tackling globalization

“The leaders of both parties in the Senate joined together on Sept. 26, to introduce the American Competitiveness Innovation Act -- the summation of a year-long quest for laws that will maintain the country’s position as a leading power in science and engineering.”

http://www.dailylocal.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17271385&BRD=1671&PAG=461&dept_id=17779&rfi=6