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Customers who upgrade to Windows Server 2003, developed by Redmond, Washington-based computer software developer Microsoft Corp., may have to pay more than expected, due to a host of layered add-on services scheduled to ship over the next six to nine months as of May 13, 2003.The company is considering charging users for add-on services that would be released after the initial launch of the product this week in San Francisco, California.Services provided by the company include the company's Real-Time Communications Server, Active Directory Application Mode and Windows Rights Management, among others.

The article presents an analysis of the reasons behind Silicon Valley in Santa Clara County, California still holding the number one position in the Information Technology (IT) industry. According to Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates Inc., what makes Silicon Valley still a major IT center is that it has been able to maintain a good balance between IT manufacturing and service jobs. After all the recessions and boom the market has faced, it is still on the top followed by San Francisco, California and the new entry, Washington, D.C. As noted, with time, many areas started shifting their focus towards manufacturing and consequently found a decrease in the share prices.

The article presents an interview with Umang Gupta, CEO of Keynote Systems Inc. based in San Mateo, California, regarding his vision on the future of the company. Gupta explained issues pertaining to services rendered by the company. He said that the new Internet is programmable, mobile, and broadband, which has added complexity and problems that need to be diagnosed and fixed. In response to this, Keynote developed Application Perspective 4.0, with support for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, is developed. Gupta considered the company's services as products itself. He stressed out that the primary goal of the company is to focus on subscription services.

Relates the authors views and insights on the development of new Java-based products presented at the 10th JavaOne Conference in San Francisco, California. Highlights of the conference; Evaluation of the various software presented from areas of software performance improvement, application integration, and virtualization of computing resources; Presentation of the Java Community Process' JBI (Java Business Integration) 1.0 specification which summarizes the establishment of a standard interface for interaction and management of services; Evaluation the JavaSpaces technology and GigaSpaces; Selection of Azul Systems Inc. as winner of the eWeek Excellence Award.

Siebel Systems Inc., in its latest move to attract a broader customer base, plans to enhance its fledgling Siebel CRM On-Demand hosted services with technology it is acquiring with customer relationship management application service provider UpShot Corp. Siebel plans to merge the Mountain View, California, company, which it is purchasing for $70 million, with its own forthcoming hosted offering by the second quarter of next year. UpShot's offline client is chief among the technologies Siebel intends to migrate to Siebel CRM OnDemand, its joint offering with IBM. The client, which is based on Microsoft Corp.'s Excel software, will be a second offline option along with Siebel's own offline client, according to Ken Rudin, vice president and general manager of Siebel CRM OnDemand.

Reports on plans of computer companies Opsware Inc. and Voltaire Inc. to unveil technology designed to tackle blade proliferation at the annual Server Blade Summit in San Jose, California. Automatic configuration features of the technology; Brief description of the blade center platform released by computer company Sun Microsystems Inc.

Reports developments related to computer industry during the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, California. Development of aggressive products and marketing programs by Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) and International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) ; Plan of QualTel to consolidate Sun Netra servers to IBM X33 servers; Features of HP Software Porting Express Service.

Reports the preparation of Sun Microsystems Inc. to introduce software and services complementing the hardware platform in Santa Clara, California. Announcement of the Net Effect strategy and a hardware based on UltraSPARC processor range; Plan to unveil software technological advancements; Provision of electronic commerce reliability and scalability.

Reports the annual Microprocessor Forum by Intel Corp. in Santa Clara County, California. Announcement of the mobile processor road map on the electronic business summit; Impact of the microprocessor on power consumption; Introduction of 'Deeper Sleep' mode in the operation of Intel Mobile Voltage Positioning; Details on several industrial issues discussed at the summit.

The author reflects on the two municipal efforts which slowly penetrated the computer industry in San Francisco, California. He contends that the networks provided by Meraki and FON were nearly close to being interesting. He asserts that the Meraki network claims to have 50,000 users across the Mission and Haight areas while the FON network is far less centralized. The author mentions the services offered by the two networks and the differences in both its coverage.

The article focuses on the 25th anniversary celebration of the Commodore 64 computer of Commodore held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The event is noted to brought together some of the founding fathers of computing, which include Commodore founder and former chief executive officer Jack Tramiel, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and International Business Machine's Entry Systems Division former president William Lowe. It includes a talk about the industry's future by Wozniak and a demonstration of collaboration technology, in which Cisco executives simulated a new product that could clean up dirty water.

The article reports on the verbal spat between Tom Perkins, former director of California-based information technology company Hewlett-Packard, and the attorney of Patricia Dunn, the company's former board chairperson. In late February 2007, Perkins told the reporters that he and Dunn led opposing factions, that Dunn had won despite being indicted of the criminal charges against her that involves spying telephone records of board members and reporters. In response, Dunn's attorney James Brosnahan issued a statement in February 28, accusing Perkins of unfairly starting the investigation that led to the charges against Dunn, and making a gratuitous attack against the former chairperson, knowing that Dunn can't respond because she is under indictment.

The article presents news briefs related to the computer industry. It is reported that the World Economic Forum has awarded technology pioneers status to about 47 companies for 2007, most of which are U.S. based. A report states that local governments in Los Angeles, California should avoid using municipal Wi-Fi and broadband services as it has full of traps and pitfalls that local officials need to negotiate. The article also includes information on the computer server virtualization.

The article reports on the new product offering of Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP), which consists of three desktop models for its HP Compaq Business PC product line. The two models offers the Core 2 Duo chip of Intel Corp., while the other one is supported by the new Athlon 64 X2 processors of Advanced Micro Devices Inc. HP has increased its focus on security and manageability and two major concerns for senior-level information technology managers. The HP Openview Configuration Management Agent is preinstalled to track and update software.

Two security vendors renowned for their vulnerability research have each developed tools designed to eliminate the panicked rush of patching that administrators face whenever a new software flaw is discovered. PivX Solutions LLC and eEye Digital Security Inc. have developed tools that automatically deploy fixes and workarounds to prevent attackers from exploiting newly discovered vulnerabilities. The products are not a replacement for patching but are intended to protect vulnerable machines until patches are available and give IT staffs the option of patching at a convenient time. PivX, of Newport Beach, California, has taken a slightly different approach with Qwik-Fix Pro, due next month. When PivX researchers discover or get word of a new vulnerability in Windows or Internet Explorer, the team analyzes the problem and develops a workaround, or interim, solution. The fix is sent automatically to Qwik-Fix users through a central management console.

Sun Microsystems Inc. is hoping to expand its services offerings by combining its managed services and utility computing groups under one umbrella. The move, which officials at the Santa Clara, California, company discussed for the first time at an event in Massachusetts last week, is an effort to attract more utility computing contracts and services engagements. Ultimately, Sun hopes this and other moves will set its services offerings apart from those of Hewlett-Packard Co. and IBM Corp.

IBM Corp.'s scaled-down version of its Blue Gene/L doesn't look like much of a supercomputer. About the size of a dishwasher, the Linux-based prototype is now the 73rd-fastest computer in the world and is just a sample of what's ahead, according to its chief architect. This version of Blue Gene/L is about 1/128th the size of the full Blue Gerie/L supercomputer that IBM is building for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and the first part of a two-pronged IBM project to create the fastest computers in the world. The Blue Gene/L system being built for the Livermore lab, run by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy, is expected to be completed by the end of next year or in early 2005, said Al Gara, chief architect for the project, being run by IBM Research, in Yorktown Heights, New York.

The number of active security researchers has grown by leaps and hounds in recent years, and for many of them, research is not just a hobby but a profession. To help legitimize this calling and impose a bit of structure in what can be a chaotic industry, a prominent researcher has proposed a kind of trade association for vulnerability researchers that would act as an advocacy organization and protect the legal and economic interests of its members. The plan is still in the formative stages. No formal blueprint for the organization exists, but the idea is being kicked around in many parts of the security community. The idea for the organization came from Thor Larholm, a senior security researcher at Pivx Solutions Inc., in Newport Beach, California.

The war of words between Oracle Corp. and PeopleSoft Inc. over Oracle's $7.3 billion hostile takeover bid for its enterprise software rival heated up last week. Oracle officials, in Redwood Shores, California, accused PeopleSoft of improperly recognizing revenue for its latest quarterly financial statement. The officials said PeopleSoft did not properly account for any payouts the company could be forced to make as a result of the Customer Assurance Program that PeopleSoft instituted last Summer to stave off the acquisition.

BEA Systems Inc. and IBM Corp. are developing three new specifications that will improve portability across the companies' competing application servers as well as other Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition application servers that comply with the specifications. BEA, of San Jose, California, and IBM of Armonk, New York, plan to publish the specifications on a royalty-free basis and will submit them to the Java Community Process for approval as standards. The specifications include Service Data Objects (SDO), which delivers a programming model for data and varied data sources. SDO supports the use of standard tools and frameworks.

Borland Software Corp. rolled out a new version of its IDE for Java, JBuilder X, last week, with more than 100 new and enhanced features. JBuilder X, which marks the 10th version of the Scotts Valley, California company's leading Java integrated development environment, is the most significant upgrade to the product since JBuilder 6 and introduces a visual designer for Web services and Web development. New features include a visual designer for the open-source Apache Struts framework for building Web applications, as well as support for the opensource JBoss application server. Borland will deliver three versions of JBuilder X: JBuilder Foundation, which allows for commercial use and redistribution; JBuilder Developer; and JBuilder Enterprise.

The article reports on the Microprocessor Forum organized in San Jose, California. Longtime forum attendees noted that things would be different this year. The forum was — for the first time within memory — an Intel-free zone. Intel was invited but chose not to attend this week. Several attendees jokingly referred to Intel's Pentium 4 EE as the "Emergency Edition" because it's thought to be a frantic response to the high-performance AMD Athlon 64 FX-51.

A new infrastructure from BEA Systems Inc., bolstered by a series of partnerships with security vendors, promises to provide a layer of security across an organization's software installations. WES (WebLogic Enterprise Security), introduced last week, is a cross-enterprise application security infrastructure that provides security services to applications — authentication, authorization and auditing, for example — through native integrations, plug-ins and partnerships with security vendors, according to officials of the San Jose, California, company.

Sybase Inc. has introduced latest version of its enterprise DBMS: Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5.1. The update, due this week, has new features aimed at improving the total cost of ownership of ASE through better manageability and 24-by-7 uptime, according to Sybase officials, in Dublin, California. All this is designed for what Sybase officials call higher operational scalability — in other words, more hands-off operation. Other new features that get humans out of the database include automated space management, automated resource management for adjustments of memory and disk needs, and automated job scheduling.

Sunnyvale, California-based manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has released a 64-bit client processor, the Athlon 64, last week. The industry is divided into three parts: the enterprise users, the people who are actually going to use the technology; the OEM, the people who make the boxes; and the software and hardware infrastructure that supports all that. "The enterprise has really embraced the whole concept; they're very excited about the product. IBM Corp,'s been a big help in signing on to start building some products," said Advanced Micro chief executive officer Hector de Ruiz.

Fujitsu Technology Solutions Inc. is learning up with Gartner Inc. to provide services to enterprises that let them set up far more efficient information technology (IT) infrastructures. Fujitsu this week will unveil its IT Optimization initiative, which combines existing server consolidation and disaster recovery services with a total-cost-of-ownership assessment from research company Gartner for analyzing how well a customer's IT resources support its business goals. The analysis, which is done by Fujitsu over two to five days at a customer's site, looks at everything from hardware, software and outsourcing to technical services and administration, said Fujitsu officials, in Sunnyvale, California.

Oracle Corp., based in Redwood Shores, California declined to comment on 10g pricing, although CEO Larry Ellison said at the Oracle World conference earlier this month that the company might move to an annual subscription model. Despite Ellison's remarks, Jacqueline Woods, Oracle's vice president of global pricing and licensing strategy, told "eWEEK" there won't be any change to licensing fees with the advent of grid computing. Carl Olofson, an analyst with International Data Corp., in Framingham, Massachusetts, said Oracle's attitude has to change if it wants to more effectively address the needs of mid-size companies and others with tight budgets.

The Palo Alto, California-based company Hewlett-Packard (HP) Co. last week rolled out its two newest thin clients, the HP Compaq t5300 and t5500, which are powered by Transmeta Corp.'s power-efficient Crusoe chips and run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE.Net operating system. The key difference is that in the thin-client environment, multiple appliances share a server with PC blades, each appliance has a dedicated server. HP's new thin clients join the t5700, introduced in May, in the company's new line of t5000-series appliances.

Having acquired four companies in the past year, synchronization software company Pumatech Inc. is done with its shopping spree and ready to integrate. Pumatech, of San Jose, California, last week announced plans to buy competitor Synchrologic Inc. for $60 million. Officials said Pumatech will immediately begin porting its enterprise customers from the Pumatech Enterprise Intellisync platform to Synchrologic's Mobile Suite platform, which will become Pumatech's primary server-based synchronization product for corporate users. Since March, Pumatech has announced the acquisitions of Motorola Inc. subsidiary Starfish Software Inc., cell phone software company Loudfire Inc. and VPN company Spontaneous Technology Inc. Now Pumatech is ready to announce products.

The article focuses on various events related to computer industry as of July 7, 2003. A picture of the recent gathering in New Orleans that was dedicated to the largest outsourcing deal ever, the Navy Marine Corps Intranet project. When the deal was first struck, lawmakers questioned whether a contract this large could be managed on time and on budget. Another fact that should be raising taxpayer blood pressure is that the contract has been shuffled under the purview of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities of the House Armed Services Committee.

Computer History Museum, which opened June 02, 2003 in Mountain View, California, uses a collection of outdated computers and computer-related artifacts to demonstrate the breadth of developments of the information age. The museum is housed in a 120,000-square-foot building and is in fund-raising mode to add exhibits and programs and to expand opening hours. Current museum holdings include software, hardware, graphics systems and early developments that made later computers and network systems possible. Lectures on computer history and technology developments are hosted in the building's 400-seat auditorium. Some of the rare items that visitors can see are a Cray-1 super-computer, an Apple I. the World War II-vintage ENIGMA and a PalmPilot prototype.

Throughout the Storage World Conference (SWC), held in Anaheim, California, earlier in May 2003, several important themes came up time after time in discussions with analysts during vendors' presentations. With price-per-gigabyte ratios that Fibre Channel-based RAIDs can't touch, ATA-based storage devices will allow smaller shops with limited budgets to buy terabytes of space at relatively low prices. One of the ATA-based storage devices observed in the SWC was Storage Technology Corp.'s BladeStore, which can scale from 4 terabytes to 160 terabytes and would be a good choice for storing fixed content or for data replication. By adding intelligence to the switch, information technology managers will be able to manage storage area networks from a central position on the network through their Fibre Channel switches.

Reports the launching of the 12 IP telephony products from Cisco Systems Inc. in San Jose, California. Software and hardware components of the IP telephony products; Features of the system; Relevance of the products on the reduction of equipment costs.

Focuses on problems faced by Santa Clara, California-based Palm Computing Inc. Scrapped merger deals; Inventory problems; Zframe Inc.'s commitment to the Palm platform.

Examines the impact of the sluggish economy of California on the computer industry. Effect of stock market plunges on dot-com companies; Efforts of companies to rebound by cutting costs; Passage of a bill by the California Public Utilities Commission to raise energy rates for residential and commercial use.

Reports the release of Winterm 3630LE, a Windows-based terminal from Wyse Technology Inc. in San Jose, California. Display of Internet 4.0 browser and 300MHzGX1 National Geode processor; Inclusion of two Universal Serial Bus ports and multimedia speakers; Availability of volume discounts.