James Niccolai

The U.K. has updated its guidelines for government IT procurement contracts, bringing them into line with European regulations that prohibit the public sector from discriminating against vendors in invitations for bids. The move was applauded by Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD), which said it would help level the playing field in the chip market in Europe. Some governments have been scolded by the European Union for stipulating chips from AMD rival Intel Corp. in their tender offers.

Microsoft Corp. has settled a lawsuit that it filed two years ago against the self-proclaimed "King of Spam," Scott Richter, who at one time helped distribute more than 38 billion unsolicited e-mails per year, Microsoft said.

The Enterprise Grid Alliance, which includes several top vendors trying to accelerate the use of grid computing by big businesses, has published its first paper on the unique security requirements of grids, it said last month.

The Mozilla Foundation, which distributes the open source Firefox Web browser, has created a corporate subsidiary to support its money-making activities and help widen the use of its products, it announced on Wednesday. While the goals of the subsidiary, called Mozilla Corp., include generating revenue and profit, its primary interest is not in making money, the group said. Instead, its main objective is to sustain the development of Firefox and other products, and help the foundation promote its goal of driving open standards on the Web, it said.

The Enterprise Grid Alliance, which includes several top vendors trying to accelerate the use of grid computing by big businesses, has published its first paper on the unique security requirements of grids, it said. The 37-page paper aims to help end users, vendors and standards groups identify the risks associated with enterprise grid computing.

Hewlett-Packard Co. may cut thousands of jobs in the first large-scale restructuring by its new chief executive officer, Mark Hurd, according to published reports. Hurd, who took the helm at HP in March following the removal of Carly Fiorina, has said he would take steps to reduce costs at the Palo Alto, California, company.

Work is being wrapped up on the first draft of a set of new Java technologies that could bring big benefits to mobile phone applications for both work and entertainment. The technologies, embodied in a new Java specification, include management capabilities that should allow mobile operators to send software updates to phones after they have been distributed, monitor hardware resources and even troubleshoot problems remotely.

Businesses will spend more than US$50 billion on offshore and near-shore outsourcing by 2007, but many of the offshore projects will fail because of poor planning, according to a recent report from Gartner Inc.