The IT Week Insider, Volume 9, Number 11

The IT Week Insider offers a round-up of key stories from the upcoming print edition of IT Week, published on Monday 20 March

Welcome to the IT Week Insider.

This week we learned some new things about monkeys - not our own of course. The only recent surprise we had from our resident troop is that the big, ugly one we call Kevin won't eat sandals.

Other monkeys, however, seem not to spend their days, indeed lives, looking for people to bite, harass, and sign up to second mortgages. Some actually try and do a bit of good. In this blog report we learned that some simians will rush to pick things up that people drop in order to help them out. Altruism, it appears, is not confined to the human race: 

If you drop anything in our office, it's best not to look down, or indeed slow down. It's best to look straight ahead and keep on walking, not letting the terror show.

Editor's choice:
Timelord tips on Web 2.0
David Neal, the gym, David's dad, Celine Dion, Dr Who... No, it's not a collection of night terrors, but some sort of comment about the internet. More specifically: the internet, where it is going, and where it has been. (For crying out loud - it says specifically! Who writes this stuff? - Ed.) Never mind that - who edits it?!

IT Week Podcast
This week News Editor Madeline Bennett wrestled the podcast microphone away from Kevin long enough to discuss the need for RFID standards with James Murray, hear from Dave Bailey about a new security risk involving virtual machines, and talk to Phil Muncaster about the worst thing that can happen to your network servers. And it's not monkeys. That's the second worst thing.

News:
Study highlights flaws in virtual platform security
Research staff from Microsoft and the University of Michigan put down their cute white mice, large syringes, shaved monkey heads, pine-nuts, clipboards and lab coats this week to tell us that virtualised operating systems are vulnerable to rootkits running at the hypervisor level. It sounds a virtual nightmare - a bit like that third Matrix movie. Actually, the similarities end there, because this research is useful, makes sense, and doesn't involve Keanu Reeves.

More News:
USB device controls smarten up
Do your USB devices act up, chucking paper around the office and pouring stale coffee into the pot plants? Did they get drunk at the Xmas party and make an outrageous pass at that lovely girl from accounts? Or break wind in the boardroom just minutes before you were due to use it for an important summit? Well, come on then, it is time to get these unruly peripherals under control. Lucky for you, since it appears you are losing your marbles, Centennial software has this week updated its USB-centric security products.

This is news too:
Rival tipped to squeeze out WiMax
You see a headline like that? That's the sort of thing to pique extraterrestrial interest. Think about it: Slaarg the Uneventful spends his days waiting for his chance to steal control of Oooglebron from WiMax the Belligerent. He checks Google News, sees the headline, and thinks, "Now is the moment to act!" He changes his trousers, sticks his electrostaff on the passenger seat of his hoversaucer, checks his tentacles in the ultramirror and zooms off. Ten minutes later he's crawling to a terminal to actually read the story. How he'll laugh as it dawns that the headline means faster 3G access in the UK may relegate fixed-wireless to the sidelines. Well, we say laugh, it will probably be more of a gurgle.

Interview:
Outside help lifts IT performance
Robert May, the founder of outsourcing services firm Ramsac - wasn't that a character in He-Man? - popped into the office the other day and found that Phil Muncaster had almost chewed through the cabling that secures him to his desk. Seeing that Phil was close to freedom, May wasted no time. He removed the binds, dragged Phil into a meeting room, and started going on about how calling in a specialist IT squad at times of need can improve your business. About an hour later Phil emerged into our net with the story. Good work Phil; now leave the cables alone. There's a good fellow. 

Editor's blog
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This week IT Week editor Lem Bingley discovers how to acquire more than one date of birth.

IT Sneak blog
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Odds and ends from the weird world of IT.