Stories by Joab Jackson

Heartland moves to encrypted payment system

Responding to its widely reported and massive data breach that took place a year ago, Heartland Payment Systems will be moving to an end-to-end encryption system for payment transactions, according to Chairman and CEO Robert Carr.

Survey: Social media not useful for BI yet

While the number of users on Twitter, Facebook and other social-networking sites continues to grow, business intelligence practitioners remain skeptical about the value of knowledge such services could generate, if one survey by a data warehousing firm is any indication.

SAP plays up sustainability angle

Organizations seeking ways to conserve energy and profit from being green may find the true gains won’t come from "greening" their data centers, but rather by maximizing the efficiency of their supply chains, said Peter Graf, the chief sustainability officer for SAP.

New Groovy cozies up to Java, SQL

The new version of the Groovy programming language aims to make life easier for programmers who work with Java and SQL, the language's developers note.

OpenStreetMap attracts 200,000 volunteers

A volunteer-led project to create an open-source map of the entire earth, called OpenStreetMap, has amassed over 200,000 contributors since its inception, the founder announced in a blog entry.

Firefox 3.5 edges ahead in browser race

In the unceasing race for market share, Mozilla's Firefox has edged ahead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, at least according to one statistical snapshot of which browser versions Web surfers use.

Canonical CEO steps aside

Mark Shuttleworth, the South African-born entrepreneur who founded Linux distribution provider Canonical, will be stepping down from his post as company CEO, Canonical announced. Jane Silber, currently the chief operating officer and director of online services for the company, will take the role of CEO by March 1.

Dell launches dedicated services organization

Dell has launched a dedicated services organization, appropriately named Dell Services, that will focus on midmarket enterprise customers. The company formed the unit by integrating Perot Systems, purchased Nov. 3 for US$3.9 billion, with the enterprise services operation from its own Large Enterprise business unit.

Citrix debuts disaster recovery app

Citrix has developed disaster recovery software that uses Microsoft Hyper-V virtualization technology to help automate and speed the recovery process.

Multiple consumer electronics companies hit with GPL lawsuit

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) has brought a copyright lawsuit against 14 consumer electronics companies for allegedly violating GNU General Public License (GPL) in the use of GPL-licensed software in their products. Among those named in the suit are Best Buy, JVC, Western Digital Technologies and Westinghouse.

Red Hat open sources desktop application protocol

Red Hat has open sourced a virtual desktop protocol it acquired last year, called the Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environment (SPICE), in the hope of fostering its wider adoption.

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