eWEEK EDITORS

Despite a proposed merger that has clouded Compaq Computer Corp.s future, the U.S. Postal Service has left no doubt that it still expects the company to deliver the goods for years to come. The Houston-based computer maker announced late Thursday that the government agency awarded it a new five-year contract to supply PCs, servers and […]

Microsoft Corp. is building new Web-services middleware meant to take the Microsoft .Net platform to the next level. But the crux of that services infrastructure, code-named Indigo, is still two years away from delivery. Indigo, according to sources recently briefed by Microsoft, is the middleware that will pro-vide some of the high-availability, distributed features that […]

Qwest is the first of the local telephone companies to make plans to junk its old circuit switched network in favor of voice over IP pipes. The Denver-based carrier announced Thursday that its customers in Boise, Idaho are already getting their phone calls routed via a data network using voice-over-IP technology. The Next six cities […]

Compaq Computer Corp., which last week warned that its sales fell dramatically following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has announced a new program to let enterprise customers defer their payments until next year. Essentially, any company that signs a new lease agreement with Compaq for either products or services can deferred their payments for up […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Bush administration is calling for a closed IP network for government agencies that will be secure and impervious to external attack. The General Services Administration yesterday put out a request for information from network vendors for a protected government network dubbed Govnet. “Govnet will be a private Internet Protocol network shared […]

You might not be getting an Internet connection with your latte anymore. MobileStar, the company that Starbucks hired to build wireless local area networks in its coffee shops nationwide, may be close to shutting down. “The company is considering ceasing operations due to deteriorating market conditions,” said Dan Skaff, managing partner with Sienna Ventures. Sienna […]

Stung by a flood of criticism, a key Web standards group next week will consider significant changes to its proposal to establish a formal process for accepting patented, royalty fee-generating technologies as official Internet standards. Among other changes to its original proposal, the World Wide Web Consortiums (W3C) patent policy working group will consider granting […]

Data storage giant EMC Corp. is suing a former employee in an attempt to enforce a non-compete agreement that is signed by all EMC employees. The Hopkinton, Mass., company on Wednesday filed suit against Doron Kempel, CEO and chairman of start-up SANgate Systems Inc., asking the court to issue an injunction spiking Kempels employment at […]

Yesterday, IBM, Pfizer and Microsoft announced the creation of a new software and services company, Amicore, that will target the health care IT industry. While the sector is enormous, with some $22 billion in annual sales, some industry analysts are skeptical about Amicores prospects. The formation of Amicore comes about six months after the three […]

The Hewlett-Packard-Compaq Computer merger doesnt need any more challenges. But it got another one yesterday when IBM announced a suite of new features for its notebook and desktop computers. The new technologies include the PC industrys first embedded security subsystem that automatically encrypts user keys, files and e-mails; integrated wireless capabilities for local area networking; […]