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Software developers and testers are guided by different motives, pressures and perspectives. Developers are motivated to complete code quickly and accurately and move on to the next problem. Testers are required to quickly find and report problems within the system. In the course of a project, the more defects testers find and submit to developers, the less time developers have to work on them, and communication may break down. Members of the project team commonly start to rely on entering short descriptions and comments into a defect-tracking system as a means of communication. In this article, the author provides some techniques that can improve communication between testers and developers and help them in fixing problems faster. INSET: Face TO Face.

The article offers news briefs in the United States. Intel Corp. slashed more than half of the prices of some desktop microprocessors which raised its battle with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. A missing government laptop containing personal data of more than half a million New York state workers was found. Microsoft Corp. closed its acquisition of Whale Communications Ltd. and established its plan to integrate Whale's products into its security programs. A computer system glitch that connects Northwest Airlines Inc. airport systems and Worldspan Technologies global distribution system delayed more than 200 flights in the United States.

The article reports that the Top500 list of the world's fastest computers released in June 2006 showed that IBM Corp.'s Blue Gene continues to reign and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.'s Opteron processor continuing to power more systems on the list than last year. IBM supercompters accounted for about half of the list and Hewlett-Packard Co. occupying nearly one-third. The 2006 list showed fewer changes than the usual. Only 158 systems were bumped from the list compared to more than 200 systems displaced in the June 2005 list.

The article reports on the delay in the introduction of Sun Microsystems Inc.'s computer grid system. According to the article, security concerns expressed by the U.S. Department of State have further deployed the roll out of the computer grid. The implementation of the Sun Grid initiative in the early 2005 was planned by the company. Moreover, a Sun Microsystems spokesman said that the roll out of Sun Grid, which will supply processing and storage capabilities for one dollar per hour, is imminent. The State Department restrictions will also prevent the product from becoming the global grid once envisioned by Sun Microsystems.

This article reports that Microsoft Corp. made its first concerted effort to court midsize companies with a Windows Server System promotion, following the success of its software package aimed at small businesses. Companies with 25 to 250 personal computers will be targeted with the new discounted offer for a single stock-keeping unit that combines three copies of the standard edition of Windows Server 2003, one instance of Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition and the workgroup edition of Microsoft Operations Manager 2005.