News podcast: Network World 360
IT salaries won't be spared from the economic malaise plaguing North America. The odds are pretty good that this will never happen to you, but should a floating head of U.S. President Barack Obama pop up on your desktop Monday morning, know this: You've been hit with the Obama worm. (7:33)

Securing Super Bowl 43
Bob Cannon from Johnson Controls, a systems integrator, talks about the physical security systems at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, site of this year's Super Bowl. The network he and his team built allow multiple agencies access cameras and other systems through a single network. (11:09)

Shareholder activist targets Microsoft
Craig Montgomery of The Crandrea Group is spearheading a grassroots shareholder activism movement that aims to oust Ballmer and turn Microsoft into a telecom player.

Worm floats Obama's head on your desktop
The odds are pretty good that this will never happen to you, but should a floating head of U.S. President Barack Obama pop up on your desktop Monday morning, know this: You've been hit with the Obama worm.

State's plan to reprogram huge spectrum asset faces challenges
South Carolina wants to repurpose a big chunk of long-dormant spectrum, enough to offer high-bandwidth broadband services from border to border. But the plan faces challenges in the economy, the legislature, and ...

How carriers will weather the recession
Telecom carriers generally use three tactics to guide themselves through a recession: layoffs, capital investment cuts and an emphasis on cheaper plans.

Nortel ends mobile WiMAX agreement, exits business
Nortel this week announced that it has decided to discontinue its mobile WiMAX business and end its joint agreement with Alvarion.

Juniper Q4 grows, but falls short
Juniper posted a 14% hike in fourth-quarter sales that nonetheless fell short of Wall Street expectations.

NEC to lay off 20,000 as economy bites
NEC plans to lay off 20,000 workers, close factories and withdraw from some business areas as a result of the poor economic conditions, it said Friday.

What if my storage cloud turns stormy?
Services that store enterprise data in a "cloud" on the Internet raise questions that organizations are just beginning to ask, but for all their limitations, they may be no more risky than on-site storage platforms. Plus:
Tips for safe cloud storage

Researchers cool CPUs with nano-size fridges
Cramming ever more transistors into CPUs has not troubled chip makers Intel Corp. and AMD Inc. The problem, rather, has been how to handle the extreme heat generated by the movement of so many electrons in such a tiny ...

Taser-wielding boss? Can't get to me here
Bednarz: One advantage of working from home is not being physically present when bosses behave badly. Like the boss who used a taser gun on a subordinate; he didn't have a shot at hitting a teleworker that day. Off-site employees were also spared when a boss played show-and-tell with his kidney stone and another held a meeting from inside a locked bathroom.

Mozilla delays Firefox 3.1 again
Mozilla has delayed the third beta of Firefox 3 .1 for the second time this month, a company executive said Thursday, citing troublesome bugs in the browser's new JavaScript engine as the reason.

Windows 7 Will Not Sway XP Users
Ashley: The chances of Windows 7 suddenly winning over Windows XP users in droves are slim to none. Windows 7 is a better Vista but doesn't deliver enough advantages or differentiation from Windows XP to woo XP users from their stable, reliable and functional desktop OS. Windows 7 successes will come from new computer sales, NetBooks and Vista users treading water waiting for a lifeline out of Vista's turbulent and tragic waters.

Avaya IP Office Focuses On End-User Experience
Nickasch: Innovation in the SMB markets continues to be at the forefront with Avaya, whose IP Office product line provides unique solutions to common problems in this market. I recently had the opportunity to spend a few weeks observing the end user perspective of the IP Office platform, which offers a pioneering solution for telecommuters and those working remotely.

Are these the real reasons for the fall of Nortel?
Reese: I am personally fascinated by the following comments that were made to a previous blog story of mine. The authors appear to be former Nortel and Bay Networks employees (keep in mind that none have been verified) offering comments as to the real reasons for the fall of Nortel.

Fan starts campaign for Windows 7's immediate release
A Windows enthusiast is calling for Microsoft to release Windows 7 now, only a few weeks after the company made available the software's first public test version.

IT pay takes a hit
Pay for noncertified IT skills, which has been consistently on the rise since mid-2004, began to decline in the last quarter of 2008, research shows.

With economic slump, concerns rise over data theft
Is the worsening economic situation going to turn some employees into data thieves?

EFF-backed college student wins free-speech spat
Buzzblog: Under threat of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Michigan State has dropped disciplinary action against a student who was accused of spamming and network abuse because she sent e-mail about a campus matter to 391 faculty members. Would she have prevailed if this had happened at a private university instead of a state school? Maybe.

Web site turns up heat on hot cars
In an effort to combat the nearly $8 billion auto fraud and theft business, everyone can now find a car’s title history, odometer data and basic vehicle info with a new online service backed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Podcast: Super Sunday means something else in Britain
Jason and Keith discuss why employees are now Security Threat #1, what we want in a new iPhone, and what Britons are doing on Sunday mornings (they're not watching sports).

IT Asked & Answered: Study aids for Cisco CCCENT
Steve Blass gives insight on online resources for Cisco's CCENT certification.

Today on Cisco Subnet
Analysts expect a solid Q2 for Cisco; Why you and your CFO speak a different language; Windows 7 IPv6 support.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

The 7 dirty secrets of the security industry Do you ever get the feeling your security providers are failing to tell you the whole truth? We entrust the industry to protect us from unacceptable risk. But we must confront the underlying truth: The goal of the security market is to make money.

Disk-drive encryption gets boost from Opal standards effort The Opal industry-standards effort unveiled this week by the Trusted Computing Group should prove a boon to information technology professionals exploring desktop encryption options.

Opal promising interoperable disk-drive security The Opal security specification from the Trusted Computing Group promises interoperable encryption, authentication and management capabilities for disk-drive manufacturers and security software vendors.

State's plan to reprogram huge spectrum asset faces challenges South Carolina wants to repurpose a big chunk of long-dormant spectrum, enough to offer high-bandwidth broadband services from border to border. But the plan faces challenges...

Groups: U.S. gov't still withholding treaty information The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has withheld more than 1,300 pages on an anticounterfeiting trade agreement being quietly negotiated after two digital rights groups filed a request for information, the groups said.

Coming soon: Full-disk encryption for all computer drives The world's six largest computer drive makers Tuesday published the final specifications (download PDF) for a single, full-disk encryption standard that can be used across all hard disk drives, solid state drives (SSD) ...

Scott Hogg on Core Networking and Security: Windows 7 IPv6 support The more some things change the more they same the same. That is certainly true for the IPv6 support in Windows 7. Even though Windows 7 is the latest Microsoft desktop operating system, its IPv6 support is very similar to the features inside Vista and Server 2008.

Comply! Compliance with regulations is a bear, but there are tools to get you there. Our revamped Product Guide can help you sort through them all.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

More from Cisco Subnet:

Analysts expect a solid Q2 for Cisco

What do you need to hook up Cisco TelePresence at home?

Cisco data center "Big Bang" announcement - YYAAWNN.....

Dell, Cisco: Frenemies?

Cisco invests in video indexing company

From our bloggers:

Brad Reese on Cisco: Are these the real reasons for the fall of Nortel?
I am personally fascinated by the following comments that were made to a previous blog story of mine. The authors appear to be former Nortel and Bay Networks employees (keep in mind that none have been verified) offering comments as to the real reasons for the fall of Nortel.

Michael Morris From the Field: Now a look at Cisco IOS XE for the ASRs
Last week I began a short blog series on the Cisco ASR 1000 series, covering the hardware components and configuration of the router line. This week I thought it would be good to transition to IOS XE, Cisco's new distributed architecture operating system for the ASRs.

Jamey Heary: Cisco Security Expert: Cisco, AT&T offer personal 3G mini cellular tower for home, small businesses
Are you having issues with AT&T 3G coverage at your house? If you are then you’ll be very interested in this new offering from AT&T and Cisco, the 3G MicroCell. It acts like a personal mini cellular tower (for voice and data) in your home or small business. It is a Cisco device that plugs into AT&T’s cell network and into your broadband service provider to provide a small 10 device 3G MicroCell at your house.

Wendell Odom's Cisco Cert Zone: Translating the theory and practice of OSPF: a CCNA-ish/CCNP puzzle
I'm going to start a series of a few more OSPF posts with a bit of a puzzle. It's not exactly like an exam question, but it'll maybe generate some thought. The initial parts will be like a complex CCNA topic, and then morph into a level you'd expected in CCNP.

Jeff Doyle on IP Routing: Why you and your CFO speak different languages
The CFO wants to hear an answer such as, “We are 85% certain that this project will reduce the network risk by 30%, resulting in an annual savings of $175,000 over the next five years.” You’re used to measuring something and deriving a definite number in which you are 100% confident. You can’t put a definite number around “risk reduction.”

Dennis Hartmann on Cisco Unified Communications: QoS application classes: Streaming video, interactive video, and mission-critical data
In the last blog, we began discussing the specific applications that are mapped into the various application classes used in a QoS deployment. The 11 application classes are as follows ...

Jimmy Ray Purser: Networking geek to geek: Searching for the digital needle in relational hackstack
Let me share a few of the tools I use to help customers identify their possible exposure to information theft.

Scott Hogg on core networking and security: Windows 7 IPv6 support
The more some things change the more they same the same. That is certainly true for the IPv6 support in Windows 7. Even though Windows 7 is the latest Microsoft desktop operating system, its IPv6 support is very similar to the features inside Vista and Server 2008.

Hot discussions among Cisco Subnet readers:

Padmasree Warrior as U.S. CTO: Huge win for Cisco, total disaster for America

Three reasons why Obama's BlackBerry is a national security threat

Nortel chief flying in corporate jet as company files for bankruptcy protection

Why are you trying to obtain your CCIE?

Top 10 YouTube hacking videos

Cisco distributor says customers demanding HP ProCurve

January freebies and giveaways:

Win free books:

1. Win one of 15 copies of the Cisco Press book IPv6 Security by Scott Hogg and Eric Vyncke. Deadline for entry is Jan.31. Plus, read Chapter 1: Introduction to IPv6
Enter to win by clicking here.

2. Win one of 15 copies of the Cisco Press book Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks by Andrew Whitaker, Keatron Evans, and Jack Voth. Deadline for entry is Jan.31. Plus, read Chapter 2: Multidimensional Space
Enter to win by clicking here.

Win free training:

We're also giving away two free seats to any Skyline-ATS-delivered course, worth a total of $6,990. The winner gets to select two courses, worth up to $3,495 each, or select one course and give the other seat to a friend. Entry details here.

View our library of exclusive Cisco Press book chapters here and rate your favorite Cisco Press books/exclusive chapters here.

News podcast: Network World 360
Former computer contract employee indicted on computer intrusion charges, report says. Nortel said freezing severance packages is necessary if the company is to succeed in the long term. (5:03)

This Market Needs an Intervention - and a 12 Step Plan
Richard Muirhead, CEO of Tideway, shares his take on technology and the economy from the World Economic Forum in Davos this week.

This week's top 25 most-read stories

1. Don't Fear the Penguin: A Newbie's Guide to Linux
2. Online privacy tips for teens... and the adults who ignore them
3. Tech industry's most famous Super Bowl ads
4. Downadup/Conflicker worm: When will the next shoe fall?
5. Google M-Lab provides a window into your ISP
6. HP readies for Cisco's data center assault
7. In Las Vegas, data center takes power and cooling to the limit
8. Open source identity: Linux founder Linus Torvalds
9. Cisco sets data center blast
10. iPhone to get global flat-fee voice service

11. FAQ: How to protect your PC against the Downadup worm
12. Thinking outside the storage box
13. FTC slaps Do Not Call Violators with $1.2 Million in penalties
14. Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage DLC now available
15. What's the Conficker worm got to do with NAC?
16. 10 woeful tales of data gone missing
17. Most notable IT layoffs of 2008
18. Five innovative flash-based products for enterprise storage
19. IBM confirms layoffs
20. Go fly yourself: Unmanned aircraft technology puts twist on self-flight

21. Mobile feds: We want our BlackBerries, too
22. Top 10 YouTube hacking videos
23. 2009's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries
24. Machine machinations: Smart robot capable of hunting for its own "food"
25. 10 of the Worst Moments in Network Security History

Today on Google Subnet
Google Blogoscoped: Measure your 'Net connection with Google; Skype is one carrier Google can play nicely with; Google's new 'Net neutrality toolbox; Google I/O 2009 gets enterprise-friendly; and Mark Murphy says free Android apps don’t mean zero developer revenue.

Downadup's calm before the storm The Downadup worm may have already created havoc with the estimated nine million PCs it's infected, but one security expert warns the worm is only dormant, perhaps to be unleashed at a later date with an even greater vengeance.

IE8 Focuses on Improved Security and Privacy Microsoft's updated browser, Internet Explorer 8, promises an assortment of new features designed to help make Web browsing with IE safer, easier, and more compatible with...

White House e-mail crashes The tech-savvy Obama White House is suffering the inconvenience and embarrassment of an e-mail crash that has lasted several hours this afternoon, according to published reports.

Microsoft repeats IE8 lock-in warning for XP users with SP3 Microsoft today again warned users of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) that they may not be able to uninstall either the service pack or Internet Explorer 8 (IE8).

Microsoft extends Windows 7 beta download deadline Microsoft Thursday extended the deadline for downloading the public beta of Windows 7 by more than two weeks, citing continued interest in the preview.

IT Managers: Microsoft Financial Woes Least of Our Concerns After announcing layoffs and poor earnings for Q2 2009 last week, Microsoft has to worry more about how it is perceived by Wall Street, competitors, shareholders and the press. But what about the people in the trenches? What do IT managers think about Microsoft's economic woes?

Microsoft releases new beta of its Windows Server Update Service If ever a technology caused a love/hate relationship with IT pros, WSUS is it. So here's your chance to test its next iteration.

Video: Bill Gates boosts polio fight The fight to eradicate polio has been given a significant monetary boost through new funds pledged by the Bill Gates' charitable foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $255 million to Rotary International, which will match it with $100 million to be raised over the next three years. (1:30)

Microsoft to deliver first IE8 release candidate Monday Microsoft plans to deliver the first release candidate of the next version of Internet Explorer on Monday, according to sources familiar with the company's plans.

Filegroups vs. RAID for SQL Server? Microsoft Subnet blogger Brian Egler says that the old performance tradeoff may no longer hold true.

Today on Microsoft Subnet
Microsoft folds BPM product PerformancePoint after only 15 months; Microsoft wishes you a Happy Data Privacy Day 2009; U.S. government may explore standardizing on open source.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Google Launches M-Lab Measurement Tools Today Google launched a new public service aimed at testing your ISP's practices and performance. The Internet community has been struggling with the thorny topic of Net neutrality. What has been missing from the heated debate is hard data. Now you can get your own data and let your measurements be added to the common database in the cloud. The site called M-Lab hosts three cool test tools with more coming. It is also a repository of information and pointers to other performance measurement tools.

Could Cisco EnergyWise kill the thriving used Cisco gear market? Cisco's EnergyWise, its free IOS software upgrade that will allow Catalyst switches to manage the energy consumption of networked IP devices - and eventually building system assets - will not be available to customers of used or refurbished Cisco switches unless they relicense with Cisco.

Wall Street trims back Cisco Q2 expectations Tech Trader Daily is reporting that some analysts have trimmed back predictions for Cisco's Q2 earnings, which the company will report on Feb. 4.

Searching for the digital needle in a relational hackstack Let me share a few of the tools I use to help customers identify their possible exposure to information theft.

Cisco Data Center "Big Bang" Announcement - YYYAAWWNNN..... Cisco's Data Center "Blast" or "Big Bang" announcement is in one word - YAWN. I will probably blog about EnergyWise and the Nexus 2000 soon because they are good ideas and good technology. But this is not a "Big Bang" or "Blast".

Dell, Cisco: Frenemies? Cisco and Dell have extended their global Solution Technology Integrator agreement to include Cisco's Nexus 5020 data center switching systems with Dell server and storage products. How will this relationship proceed once Cisco launches its blade servers?

Book review: Did I successfully teach myself TCP/IP in 24 hours? A sysadmin and a TCP/IP novice review the book Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 hours.

Brad Reese on Cisco: Cisco to release February 2009 edition of its product quick reference guide The newest Cisco Product Quick Reference Guide, scheduled for release on Feb. 16, is available now for pre-ordering.

Video: HP alliance optimizes ProCurve switches ProCurve ONE, is aimed to bring software for security, application acceleration and other functions right into the network.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Businesses use NAC for something other than what it was designed for Few customers of network access control use it for what it was intended, preferring instead to deploy the security technology to keep guests and contractors away from corporate production networks, according to a new report.

The expanding definition of NAC The Forrester report referenced in the last newsletter says that the expanding definition of NAC will result in more features more widely adopted by NAC vendors next year.

Hybrid NAC solutions Forrester is out with another NAC report, this one urging customers not to lock in on a single architecture because they are likely to want a hybrid over time.

Getting more than you bargained for with NAC NAC is supposed to do a lot of things, and once it's installed customers are finding that often NAC does even more than they bargained for.

What's the Conficker worm got to do with NAC? The Conficker worm doesn't directly have anything to do with NAC, but as is the case when any pervasive attack becomes high profile, vendors leap in to point out how their products could have prevented the problem.

Eliminating P2P headaches with NAC Peer-to-peer music sharing is one of the biggest friends to NAC as a business.

Must-dos for evaluating NAC gear Anyone deploying NAC needs to test the products they are considering, and here are a few must-do tests for comparison.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

The hard and fast rules of renegotiating WAN contracts Today, we continue our discussion of the types of IT initiatives that will be popular in 2009. The last two newsletters on this topic discussed cutting WAN costs by moving to MPLS and by renegotiating with your WAN service provider. Today we'll continue our focus on renegotiating contracts.

Ways to cut costs: Move to MPLS In recent newsletters here and here, we discussed some of the priorities that most IT organizations will have in 2009. We are going to use the next several newsletters to suggest additional IT initiatives, such as cost cutting and moving to newer technologies, that should garner a lot of attention in 2009 given the challenging economic environment.

Tips for renegotiating with your WAN service provider Last time, we discussed a couple of ways that IT organizations can reduce their recurring WAN costs. Today, we'll focus on renegotiating contracts with WAN service providers.

How to Improve Effective Throughput It may surprise you to learn that more bandwidth does not necessarily mean higher effective WAN throughput. If you transfer a lot of data over a high-capacity WAN, we bet you are not getting the effective throughput you think you are--and upgrading bandwidth won't help because technical and physical constraints stack the cards against you. We describe why this is and what you can do to about it in a free report you can download here--and Peter Sevcik will discuss it in an upcoming Webinar. Here's a quick synopsis.

Router roll call Need an access router? Use our revamped Product Guide to compare access routers and get in-depth Network World reviews.

Brad Reese on Cisco: Cisco to release February 2009 edition of its product quick reference guide The newest Cisco Product Quick Reference Guide, scheduled for release on Feb. 16, is available now for pre-ordering.

Book review: Did I successfully teach myself TCP/IP in 24 hours? A sysadmin and a TCP/IP novice review the book Teach Yourself TCP/IP in 24 hours.

Dell, Cisco: Frenemies? Cisco and Dell have extended their global Solution Technology Integrator agreement to include Cisco's Nexus 5020 data center switching systems with Dell server and storage products. How will this relationship proceed once Cisco launches its blade servers?

Could Cisco EnergyWise kill the thriving used Cisco gear market? Cisco's EnergyWise, its free IOS software upgrade that will allow Catalyst switches to manage the energy consumption of networked IP devices - and eventually building system assets - will not be available to customers of used or refurbished Cisco switches unless they relicense with Cisco.

Wall Street trims back Cisco Q2 expectations Tech Trader Daily is reporting that some analysts have trimmed back predictions for Cisco's Q2 earnings, which the company will report on Feb. 4.

Searching for the digital needle in a relational hackstack Let me share a few of the tools I use to help customers identify their possible exposure to information theft.

Cisco Data Center "Big Bang" Announcement - YYYAAWWNNN..... Cisco's Data Center "Blast" or "Big Bang" announcement is in one word - YAWN. I will probably blog about EnergyWise and the Nexus 2000 soon because they are good ideas and good technology. But this is not a "Big Bang" or "Blast".

What do you need to hook up Cisco TelePresence at home? Ever wanted to set up Cisco TelePresence in your own home? One blogger has done just that.

QoS Application Classes: Streaming video, interactive video, mission-critical data In the last blog, we began discussing the specific applications that are mapped into the various application classes used in a QoS deployment. The 11 application classes are as follows...

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Google Launches M-Lab Measurement Tools Today Google launched a new public service aimed at testing your ISP's practices and performance. The Internet community has been struggling with the thorny topic of Net neutrality. What has been missing from the heated debate is hard data. Now you can get your own data and let your measurements be added to the common database in the cloud. The site called M-Lab hosts three cool test tools with more coming. It is also a repository of information and pointers to other performance measurement tools.

The hard and fast rules of renegotiating WAN contracts Today, we continue our discussion of the types of IT initiatives that will be popular in 2009. The last two newsletters on this topic discussed cutting WAN costs by moving to MPLS and by renegotiating with your WAN service provider. Today we'll continue our focus on renegotiating contracts.

Tandberg announces Profile, a high-quality videoconference system Tandberg is introducing a high-definition videoconferencing system that falls short of the total-immersion telepresence experience provided by some of its other products, but it also costs significantly less.

Juniper names ex-Nortel exec CMO Juniper this week named its third chief marketing officer in as many years with the appointment of former Nortel executive Lauren Flaherty.

Cisco launches major green push with EnergyWise Cisco launched a major green initiative Tuesday that includes free software to help customers use their networks to automatically turn off computers and network gear at night and whenever they aren't being used.

Net management earnings show promise As many companies gird for difficult economic times, a handful of network and application performance management vendors continue to report positive news.

Video: HP alliance optimizes ProCurve switches ProCurve ONE, is aimed to bring software for security, application acceleration and other functions right into the network.

How to Improve Effective Throughput It may surprise you to learn that more bandwidth does not necessarily mean higher effective WAN throughput. If you transfer a lot of data over a high-capacity WAN, we bet you are not getting the effective throughput you think you are--and upgrading bandwidth won't help because technical and physical constraints stack the cards against you. We describe why this is and what you can do to about it in a free report you can download here--and Peter Sevcik will discuss it in an upcoming Webinar. Here's a quick synopsis.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Laid-off Nortel workers lobby for severance
Workers laid off from Nortel are pleading with the company to restore their severance packages. Nortel froze severance packages for laid-off employees when it filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks ago.

Could Cisco EnergyWise kill the thriving used Cisco gear market?
Cisco's EnergyWise, its free IOS software upgrade that will allow Catalyst switches to manage the energy consumption of networked IP devices - and eventually building system assets - will not be available to customers of used or refurbished Cisco switches unless they relicense with Cisco.

Venture investments plummet for seed-phase network startups
Investors gave $27 million to startup and seed companies in the networking space in Q4 2008, a fraction of previous investment levels.

Juniper names ex-Nortel exec CMO
Juniper this week named its third chief marketing officer in as many years with the appointment of former Nortel executive Lauren Flaherty.

3G networks don't deliver speeds users expect, Gartner says
The 3G networks of all four major U.S. wireless carriers deliver slower speeds than customers expect, according to Gartner.

Google launches M-Lab measurement tools
Sevcik and Wetzel: Today Google launched a new public service aimed at testing your ISP's practices and performance. The Internet community has been struggling with the thorny topic of Net neutrality. What has been missing from the heated debate is hard data. Now you can get your own data and let your measurements be added to the common database in the cloud.

Wall Street trims back Cisco Q2 expectations
Tech Trader Daily is reporting that some analysts have trimmed back predictions for Cisco's Q2 earnings, which the company will report on Feb. 4.

3 Reasons IE 8 Won't Close The Door On Firefox or Chrome Microsoft Subnet blogger Mitchell Ashley says the days of IE's dominance are over as IE8 suffers from the same old Web site compatibility problems of earlier releases.

Today on Cisco Subnet
What do you need to hook up Cisco TelePresence at home?; Searching for the digital needle in relational hackstack; Cisco "Big Bang" announcement - YYYAAAWWWN; QoS Application Classes: Streaming video, interactive video, mission-critical data.

Today on Microsoft Subnet
Microsoft folds BPM product PerformancePoint after only 15 months; Microsoft wishes you a Happy Data Privacy Day 2009; U.S. government may explore standardizing on open source.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Bull castration, snake eaters, opium and a whorehouse: the life of storage guru Dave Hitz If you're surprised that the founder of an IT company is familiar with the intimate details of bull castration, then you haven't read the life story of Dave Hitz.

NetApp founder: Creating a start-up is like castrating bulls NetApp founder and executive vice president, Dave Hitz, recently published a book with an intriquing title - How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business - that screamed out "pick me up and read." I spoke to Hitz about the book, why he felt compelled to write it, his experiences of castrating bulls and founding NetApp.

10 woeful tales of data gone missing Backup tapes, the repositories of millions upon millions of personal data records, are slippery little devils. Here are 10 examples of backup tape disappearances – the recent, the classic and one just plain unusual.

Podcast: Know your storage efficiency quotient URL to come With storage growth tracking at 60% annually, optimizing capacity and finding efficiencies are prime enterprise concerns. Get pointers on how to increase storage capacity but not space or energy used in this special New Data Center podcast with Mike Workman, CEO of Pillar Data Systems.

Filegroups vs. RAID for SQL Server? Microsoft Subnet blogger Brian Egler says that the old performance tradeoff may no longer hold true.

Dell, Cisco: Frenemies? Cisco and Dell have extended their global Solution Technology Integrator agreement to include Cisco's Nexus 5020 data center switching systems with Dell server and storage products. How will this relationship proceed once Cisco launches its blade servers?

Replay DSM: Easy email recovery that can ease your mind AppAssure’s Replay DSM is beloved by Microsoft Subnet blogger Ron Barrett for restoring items to an active Exchange server.

Podcast: Why data deduplication makes sense in a tight economy IT departments have had to place lots of projects on the backburner till better days. Sepaton’s Fidelma Russo, executive vice president of engineering and development, tells why data deduplication shouldn’t be one of them in this special New Data Center podcast.

Cisco delivers security, storage and unified communications for small business Cisco this week unveiled products specifically for small companies as part of its recently announced $100 million commitment to that business market.

Five innovative flash-based products for enterprise storage Flash memory quickly is becoming part of the enterprise's storage arsenal, and for good reason: Although it's more expensive than rotating disk drives, flash offers faster performance and consumes far less energy. View a product slide show.

In-depth: Pack rat nation As they play in the global information economy, U.S companies stash away more data than they can handle effectively. The six-part 2009 New Data Center series opens with a look at how they're coping with the escalating problem.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Latest Cool Tools column:

Octiv Air an impressive iPod streamer
If being able to play music in one location and have the music emanate from another location appeals to you, Octiv Air is a very impressive system.

Google Launches M-Lab Measurement Tools
Today Google launched a new public service aimed at testing your ISP's practices and performance. The Internet community has been struggling with the thorny topic of Net neutrality. What has been missing from the heated debate is hard data. Now you can get your own data and let your measurements be added to the common database in the cloud. The site called M-Lab hosts three cool test tools with more coming. It is also a repository of information and pointers to other performance measurement tools.

Latest Cool Tool blogs:

Hate your in-laws? Not if they have high-def
Apparently the lure of a high-definition television can mend the wounds of a dysfunctional family. According to a Samsung-sponsored survey, 43% of football fans say they would be more likely to visit their in-laws if they had an HDTV to watch "the big game" (aka Super Bowl). Among those respondents, men were more likely than women to visit their high-def-owning in-laws (50% of men vs. 34% of women).

Songs I'd like to see available for Rock Band, Guitar Hero
Hoo boy: Activision today announced three new "Track Packs" for its Guitar Hero World Tour video game, which should be available next month. On Feb. 12, players can download songs from Incubus ("Drive"), The Shins ("New Slang") and Ryan Adams (his version of Oasis' "Wonderwall"). On Feb. 19, the Wings Track Pack is available, featuring the songs "Junior's Farm", "Hi Hi Hi" and "Jet" – the song "Band on the Run" is already available in the game. Then, on Feb. 26, Bob Seger fans get to finally sing "Old Time Rock and Roll", in addition to "Her Strut" and "Get Out of Denver" with the three-song Bob Seger Track Pack.

Blogger back-pedals on Storm's "dominance"
I'm usually not the person who says, "I told you so", but in this case I couldn't resist at least granting myself some satisfaction points after reading that fellow Network World blogger Mitchell Ashley is disappointed in the BlackBerry Storm from Verizon Wireless.

Video: MIT portable device gives sight, hope to visually impaired
Most of the time I'm commenting on consumer devices like digital cameras, smart phones and other gizmos that are aimed to entertain us or improve our productivity, but not necessarily will change the world. So it's cool when I find something that will change the lives of people, such as the video below.

Latest from The video library:

Bill Gates boosts polio fight
The fight to eradicate polio has been given a significant monetary boost through new funds pledged by the Bill Gates' charitable foundation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded $255 million to Rotary International, which will match it with $100 million to be raised over the next three years. (1:30)

Robots go gaming
A Japanese company has a new idea for its robots - let users control them in a crane-game-like arcade machine.

TV that watches you
New Sony TV includes a sensor that can tell if it's being watched -- if not, it powers down.

Bicycle built for hills
Schwinn's new electric bicycle includes pedal-assist features to help you up those big hills.

Latest Twisted Pair podcast:

Obama: Yes He Can have a BlackBerry
Keith and Jason discuss yet another massive credit card data breach, layoff woes at Microsoft and of a major executive office that may be as technologically behind the times as they are. (44:22)

Latest Newsmaker of the Week podcast:

Heartland hit by massive data breach
Heartland Payment Systems, a New Jersey based provider of credit and debit card processing services this week said unknown intruders planted malicious software to steal card data on as many as 100 million accounts sometime last year. Derek Manky, who leads the global threat research team at Fortinet, shares his take on what may be the biggest data fraud scheme of all time. (11:15)

Latest Network World Panorama podcast:

Putting business intelligence tools to work
Don Campbell, CTO of for business intelligence and performance management at IBM, talks with Jason Meserve about how business intelligence (CI) tools can be used to dig deeper into organization's operations. Who is BI right for and could it have been used to help avert the current economic crisis? Campell explains. (15:19)

Latest from Ron Nutter's Help Desk Tool Chest:

Idiots guide to the perfect resume, rattoo removal and other job search skills
With the economy still in rough shape for the time being, I have wanted to bring some additional tools up for discussion. Our first conversation is with Susan Ireland, author of the Idiots Guide to the Perfect Resume. What you will find here is that there is no one resume format that will work for everyone. Next up is Dr. Mitchell Chasin, Director of the Center for Reflections discussing Tattoo Removal. With more companies starting to establish policies about the presence of tattoos, this is a conversation worth hearing. It seems like more resumes are starting to become works of fiction more than they are a record of your employment history. We talk with Josh Levy and Ross Cohen, co-founders of BeenVerified.com, a service that can help you and potential employers save time by having an independent source of employment verification. (63:40)

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

News podcast: Network World 360
Google Tuesday made available in beta an offline capability for its Gmail platform so business and consumer users can work with e-mail and eventually calendar items while disconnected from the network. Websense has acquired start-up Defensio for an undisclosed price, gaining tools to clean out spam and malware that gets posted as comments to blogs, user forums and social-networking sites. (6:12)

Products of the Week
Cool new announcements from Nexsan, Sun and Coyote Point and others.

Google unveils beta of offline Gmail option
Google Tuesday made available in beta an offline capability for its Gmail platform so business and consumer users can work with e-mail and eventually calendar items while disconnected from the network.
Plus: Google Mail gets its missing piece

Obama to tap Symantec CEO Thompson for commerce secretary?
A big fundraiser for President Barack Obama, Symantec CEO John Thompson is in the running for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, according to published reports.

Coming soon: Full-disk encryption for all computer drives
The world's six largest computer drive makers Tuesday published the final specifications (download PDF) for a single, full-disk encryption standard that can be used across all hard disk drives, solid state drives (SSD) and encryption key management applications.

Union: IBM layoffs now 4,200 -- may go higher
IBM's not-so-secret layoffs may have reached 4,200 Tuesday, according to Alliance@IBM, which believes that thousands of other employees will be loosing their jobs as well before the cuts end.

AT&T sees income dip in fourth quarter of 2008
AT&T saw its income dip in the fourth quarter of 2008 as its $2.4 billion in earnings marked a 23% decline from the fourth quarter of 2007.

Start-up VMops aims to ease cloud deployments
VMops' cloud-computing infrastructure stack, built to be like "EC2 in a box," includes a hardened version of the Xen hypervisor plus storage and network virtualization.

London mayor asks Obama to drop case against British hacker
In a column published Tuesday in London's Telegraph newspaper, the mayor of London called upon President Barack Obama to call off the U.S. effort to extradite and prosecute the British hacker who in 2001 broke ...

VA to pay $20M to settle data theft case
The Department of Veterans Affairs has agreed to pay $20 million to military personnel to settle one of the government’s most high profile and embarrassing data theft cases. The VA data theft in 2006 involved the theft of a laptop from an employee’s home that contained the unencrypted personal records of 26.5 million military veterans and their spouses. The breach lead to several new laws concerning how the government and public companies are to treat such breaches. The laptop was ultimately recovered and the VA maintains that no personal data was ever compromised.

Enterprise on a blade and the risk of putting all your eggs into one basket We received several reader responses to last week's discussion about "enterprise on a blade" as a trend in convergence. Today we'll address readers' concerns with reliability, ASIC design demands, and enterprise infrastructure supplier approaches to the 'godbox.' For the purposes of discussion, we'll assume that enterprise on a blade - in which discrete boxes such as routers, switches and PBXs will be replaced by services on a blade server - will happen, although as we pointed out last week, we also think the enterprise-on-a-blade will co-exist with hosted services, software-as-a-service and cloud computing.

Is the future of convergence 'enterprise on a blade'? In reply to our newsletter last week titled "VoIP is not dead", we heard from Steve Hegg with a well written and insightful reply. Hegg is an independent consultant and is currently based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We'd like to share some of Hegg's points and respond to his views. Hegg believes that the industry is "heading for the era of the 'enterprise on a blade'...[that will] impact not only small, medium and large enterprises, but also the larger carriers that provide services to the home as well as the enterprise."

Innovation drives up productivity and drives down costs Following our newsletter predicting VoIP and convergence trends for 2009, we heard back from IntelePeer regarding our points about the importance of execution in a down market. IntelePeer added that innovation also drives productivity and reduces operational costs and that innovation serves as a key differentiator not only among infrastructure suppliers, but also for vendors and solution providers.

Dennis Hartmann on Cisco Unified Communications: QoS application classes Cisco pioneered a QoS baseline for DSCP markings in 2002. The DSCP decimal value and per hop behavior (PHB) for each of the 11 identified application classes is as follows ...

Cisco delivers security, storage and unified communications for small business Cisco this week unveiled products specifically for small companies as part of its recently announced $100 million commitment to that business market.

UC, you say? Get a crash course on unified communications with market trends, buying tips and a how-to for implementation.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details here.

Competitors sound off on pending NetScout/Network General deal NetScout last week announced its plans to acquire Network General in a deal worth about $205 million.

NetQoS updates network performance dashboard NetQoS this week is expected to make available an enhanced version of its suite of network traffic analysis, systems monitoring and reporting products. The vendor says the upgrades will help enterprise network managers more easily correlate events and solve performance issues across distributed networks.

NetScout buying Network General for $205 million Network- and application-performance management vendor NetScout Thursday announced plans to acquire Sniffer maker Network General for roughly $205 million.

NetScout buying Network General for $205 million Network- and application-performance management vendor NetScout Thursday announced plans to acquire Sniffer maker Network General for roughly $205 million.

Networking Geek to Geek with Jimmy Ray Purser: 10 Tips for creating your own small hackers group 1. Be of like interest. 2. Keep it small. 3. Define an objective.  More tips.

January giveaways from Cisco Subnet and Microsoft Subnet
Up for grabs: Two Cisco training courses from Skyline-ATS worth up to $6,990, a Microsoft training course from New Horizons worth up to $2,500, 15 copies each of the hot book titles Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management and Administration, IPv6 Security and Chained Exploits: Advanced Hacking Attacks. Get all the entry details