eWEEK EDITORS

Now that compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a fact of life for large companies, maybe its time to shine the light of regulation on new fields—maybe its time to federally regulate software vendors. SarbOx is intended, in part, to protect the publics financial investments. But what about the investments that companies make in the […]

Since its inception in 1998, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has come under fire for its lack of openness and accountability to Internet users. On Dec. 10, ICANN tossed fresh fuel on that fire with its release of a “.NET Request for Proposals” that proposed a 75-cent annual levy for […]

Six months after drug companies promised to make results from clinical trials available on the Internet, only five unpublished studies have appeared on the web site the drug companies set up for that purpose. In the wake of revelations that the industry had not published research linking suicide and depression, politicians and medical journal editors […]

At Johns Hopkins University, bioengineered mannequins now help medical students master complicated births. Both maternal and fetal models measure the force a human uses in positioning mother or infant, providing feedback that will hopefully reduce injuries in a real delivery room. Read the full story at Technology Review.

Verbatim Corp. and its parent, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, said Monday that the media manufacturer will support both Blu-Ray and HD DVD, the two competing next-generation optical formats. The implication is that Verbatim has not determined that there is a clear winner in the next-generation DVD race. HP has chosen to include Blu-Ray drives inside its […]

Maxtor Corp. said Monday that it had entered the network-storage market with Maxtor Shared Storage, a product for the home and small office. The Shared Storage product will be available in the U.S. in February from major retailers, the company said. The drives will ship worldwide in March. Suggested pricing will be $399.95 for a […]

Publicly, Microsoft continues to be cagey about packaging and pricing plans for its anti-spyware and anti-virus solutions. But privately, Microsoft has begun informing partners of its plans for a security subscription service code-named “A1,” according to developers who requested anonymity. Microsoft bought anti-virus vendor GeCAD in the summer of 2003, and anti-spyware maker Giant Company […]

The recent spate of mergers in the IT industry makes us recall the famous quotation attributed to Albert Einstein: “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.” Merging companies often promise theyll integrate their product lines and make things simpler for IT professionals. We suggest, after Einstein, that there is […]

Some folks seem to think Microsoft was humbled by its legal and technology challenges in 2004. But I disagree. I dont see a kinder or gentler Microsoft emerging in 2005. More transparent, maybe. Down for the count? Heck, no! After watching the Softies for two decades, I can tell you they are hardly ready to […]

Remember scoffing at people who didnt know any better than to click on e-mail attachments from unknown senders, thus exposing their systems to computer viruses? Boy, has Internet crime and security gotten more complicated in the past year. In November alone, there were 8,459 new, unique phishing e-mail messages reported to the Anti-Phishing Working Group. […]

About 86 percent of consumers have a supermarket loyalty card and the majority of them say the benefits of the card are worth giving up some privacy, according to study by Boston University’s College of Communication. The cards generally offer discounts to customers and supermarkets can use them to track what customers spend. While more […]

With U.S. retailers preparing to switch their bar codes from 12 to 13 digits in January, the potential glitches—including possible bad prices and lost sales—are causing more than minimal nervousness. American retailers have been using the 12-digit UPC code on products since 1974. Foreign manufacturers, however, have used the 13-digit EAN code and have had […]