Articles by Jack M. Germain

Despite their discovery of a direct link to the funding sources behind the infamous Storm Virus, IronPort Systems researchers are doubtful law enforcement will ever nail the perpetrators. Still, improving technologies may help to block its continuing spread In its latest Security Trends Report, released Wednesday, Cisco-owned IronPort exposes links...

Bhaskar Rao is known for his discoveries in the realm of space exploration. However, he's never ventured beyond the atmosphere of Mother Earth. His space-related technology expertise lies in innovative advances in the world of signal processing. His explorations resulted in the emergence of MIMO, or multiple input multiple output An electrical engi...

When Eric Aubertin, founder and CEO of the e-commerce loyalty firm OneBigPlanet, sold his last company, eFundraising, to Reader's Digest, he had time on his hands to shape the idea behind his next online innovation. He had a notion to develop a new type of consumer platform that would bring communities, corporations, organizations and social networks together in a new approach to a benefits program...

Steve Sams, IBM vice president for site and facilities services worldwide, is waging a war against energy-hogging data centers worldwide. He will carry his assault to the Computer Measurement Group's (CMG) international conference later this year CMG is a not-for-profit, worldwide organization of IT professionals. Its members share information and ...

You might call Randal Vaughn the Botnet Slayer. After all, he spends much of his time researching the intricacies of cybercrime carried out through malware marauders perpetrating their evil deeds with robotized computers around the globe When Vaughn is not peering through sinuous Internet traffic reports looking for botnet trails, he is lecturing t...

HP kicked off a new effort Thursday to expand its green computing influence with the release of a series of products, tools, services and initiatives to help customers reduce their environmental impact when imaging and printing The product releases target the differing needs of enterprise, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), consumers, and gr...

Open source mobile messaging software developer Funambol has created a new open source software (OSS) forge as a central collaboration site for mobile OSS developers around the world The Web site pulls together some 50,000 global developers to a combination of wikis, blogs and forums in addition to discussions and code for 30 open source mobile pro...

Virtualization is one of the most significant hot-button topics in enterprise today. Linux server virtualization has allowed enterprises to leverage resources more efficiently. It also is giving CIOs and IT managers a tool to address growing corporate concerns over environmental issues and rising energy costs Running virtualized servers cuts down o...

In early 2002, the founders of Azul Systems wagered that Java was going to become a prominent enterprise platform. If that happened, they suspected enterprise customers of Java would soon need relief from the pain points caused by poor scaling and disappointing deployment costs Azul Systems CEO and President Scott Sellers, along with two longtime b...

Daniel Allen sees a problem faced by Web surfers: How to share long URLs (universal resource locators) with others and quickly locate favorite Web pages or documents without wading through lists of browser bookmarks? Allen and his wife, Mary Jane, are both self-taught programmers, among other professions. Their answer to the above problem is Quest...

Part 1 of this two-part feature explores the threats and potential damages cyber attacks on civil and government systems pose to nations' security. In Late April last year, about 1 million computers under botnet control started attacking the Estonian government's computers in a denial of service (DoS) assault. The onslaught continued for three wee...

New-age warfare is here. Governments and Internet security firms are quietly gearing up for the potential onslaught. Don't think that cyber warfare is merely fuel for novel writers. Cyber attacks are being waged in increasing numbers Computer network attacks are often perpetrated by gangs of criminal hackers attempting to break into a system for fi...

For enterprises, the primary reason for adopting Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service is money. Long-distance phone calls placed over the Internet typically cost a mere fraction of those placed under the business rate plans offered by traditional telephone companies As a result, the business world is embracing VoIP phone systems for th...

Japanese Linux computer firm Plat'Home in March released a palm-sized, full-featured Linux-based server dubbed "OpenBlockS." This tiny marvel is no lightweight wanna-be replacement for a real Linux server. It can run most server applications that you would expect to run on a "normal" full-sized Linux box Despite their tiny size, OpenBlockS servers ...

Having an interest in computers and the Internet is one thing, but can going overboard with it qualify you for a deviant behavior diagnosis from a clinical therapists? That may depend on how much time you sit at the keyboard and how much that impacts your job, your family and your other important interests Jennifer Hall Goodwin, president of busine...

OpenLogic, a provider of open source packages, kicked off the data-gathering second phase of a global project aiming to collect and share quantitative data on the use of open source software. The company on Wednesday announced an initial list of 10 survey sponsors and launched a census designed to survey the land of open source Companies and indivi...

Mid-market companies often have few choices when it comes to ensuring compliance with federal regulatory edicts for customer identity and financial records. Big companies use business process management (BPM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to track everything their employees do. Mid-size companies have to spend a small fortune or manage with manual spreadsheets and homegrown solutions...

One interpretation of the term "green computing" focuses on the machine's energy consumption. The less power a computer needs, the less harm to the environment it does -- and the less the owner has to spend on energy costs Are those energy savings enough of a reason to make major enterprise buying decisions based in part on how green a computer is?...

What does a systems engineer in charge of a computer network for a major medical facility do to trim expenses and administer much-needed performance medicine to mission-critical applications? In the case of Orlando's Florida Hospital, network administrators surgically removed failing proprietary software and hardware and implanted open source technology...

How green is your computer equipment? The answer could provide insight into how much electricity you aren't buying each month to run your computers and peripherals. It can also provide a clue to how much long-term harm your computing activity is having on the world around you The question of green computing becomes more intense as energy issues mov...