Caron Carlson

In “Prey,” Michael Crichtons latest novel, to be released this week, the master of technology-run-amok visions sets his sights on nanotechnology and describes a horde of bacterium-size machines that break out of a lab and evolve into flesh-eating, self-reproducing predators. While even experts in nanotechnology consider it “so new that it barely exists,” the science […]

The proposed department of Homeland Security, which President Bush is expected to sign into law this week, is slated to enhance network security standards within government and throughout the country. The initiative includes provisions to make it easier for companies to turn over potentially sensitive information to the government and to sell anti-terrorism products and […]

The IT industry last week answered the Bush administrations call for comments on its draft strategy for securing the countrys computer networks. Software and hardware vendors are looking for stronger recommendations to guide them in selling their wares to the government, but they also want assurances that the strategy wont become a vehicle for costly […]

To give enterprises a closer look at the performance of the growing number of applications on their networks, Equant N.V. plans to roll out by years end a fully managed application monitoring and reporting service. With minimal hardware and software installed at the customer site and the analysis components managed by Equant, the Application Visualizer […]

The IT industry last week answered the Bush administrations call for comments on its draft strategy for securing the countrys computer networks. Software and hardware vendors are looking for stronger recommendations to guide them in selling their wares to the government, but at the same time they want assurances that the strategy wont become a […]

The WAN at Widener University in Chester, Penn., serves not only the schools own students, faculty and administrators but also users in 12 surrounding school districts and a local technology park. Acting in effect as a regional ISP, Widener requires high-level network performance and availability but at the same time must watch its costs. By […]

Noble House Hotels and Resorts recently installed a videoconferencing system at six of its properties so that company executives can cut back on their travel. Once they get the hang of it for internal use, they will offer it to their guests, who presumably will use it to cut back on some of their own […]

Projecting a warmer, gentler—if not quite contrite—corporate image, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer last week made his first public address since a federal court issued a decision in the antitrust suit that had dogged the company since 1998. Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft has learned and grown from the protracted legal dispute, and he depicted the […]

The GOPs gains in Congress this election are likely insufficient to cause major upheavals in telecommunications policy, but the slight Republican majority in the Senate could boost deregulatory efforts of RBOCs. And because Regional Bell Operating Companies still control the vast majority of the local telephone market six years after the passage of the landmark […]

The U.S. Senate late Thursday filled the Federal Communications Commissions fifth seat, which had remained vacant for more than a year largely because of partisan wrangling. Jonathan Adelstein, an aide to Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D., majority leader in this years closely divided Senate, will join one other Democrat at the Republican-led FCC. The new 2-3 […]

Projecting a warmer, gentler—if not quite contrite—corporate image, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer made his first public address since a federal court issued a decision in the antitrust suit that has dogged the company since 1998. In language bordering on therapeutic, Ballmer emphasized that Microsoft has learned and grown from the legal dispute, and he […]

The antitrust remedies imposed on Microsoft Corp. early this month are widely seen as insufficient to bring about substantive change in the software market, but some industry observers say that the ruling out of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia could indirectly affect other cases pending against the software company in the […]