* Welcome to the afternoon edition of Network World Daily News.
Breaking news
Using ‘offensive technologies’ to secure networks
The First Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies is coming to Boston on Aug 6. It’s hard to resist an event called WOOT, even though we weren’t quite sure what it was all about. So we shot an e-mail to Tal Garfinkel, a Ph.D graduate student in Stanford University’s computer science department and one of WOOT’s program chairs, and asked him to explain.
Top 10 things Microsoft loves and hates about open source
Over the years, Microsoft has had some pretty harsh words (and actions) for the open source community in general and for Linux in particular. And with news this week that the company reportedly wants open source software users to pay royalties on 235 …
Microsoft shows off new unified communications phones
Microsoft is launching a qualification program for phones that are compatible with its unified communications products.
Review
Midtier management tools register high marks
Argent, HP earn top honors for sophisticated monitoring and flexible alerts.
From the blogs and forums
Some people are not amused by Microsoft’s demand for royalties from a variety of open-source projects and discuss reasons to love/hate Apple. Jeff Doyle ponders the depletion of IPv4 numbers and looks at the business case for IPv6.
John Obeto explains steps for migrating to Microsoft Vista. Adam Gaffin reports that the first IS executive to make it to the last night of “Survivor” got double crossed.
Brad Reese is posting links to useful sites for Cisco professionals. James Gaskin discusses the problems Hughes satellite users have with VPNs. Keith Shaw considers a new PC game in which Weird Al Yankovic plays an IT staffer.
How to
Ron Nutter helps a user decide whether wireless access controllers are worth the cost and trouble.
In depth
Energy bills rising? These tips may help
You don’t have to be a tree hugger to want to reduce your company’s energy consumption. High energy costs and increasing power requirements are driving enterprises to pay closer attention to energy usage.
6LoWPAN: low-power IP connectivity
Until recently, extending IP out to wireless industrial networks was thought to be impractical, if not impossible. Vendors embraced proprietary protocols because they presumed that IP, which is memory- and bandwidth-intensive, couldn’t be scaled down to operate on the microcontrollers and low-power wireless links used in these environments.
More news
Interop Las Vegas 2007 planning guide
Whether you own a five-employee business or are CIO of a Fortune 500 company, almost everything you need to know about running your network can be learned at Interop.
Search technology with MIT roots takes hold
A search technology developed at the MIT Media Lab is helping some Fortune 500 companies uncover new markets and trends by examining consumer sentiment found on the Web.
Case studies
Whirlpool takes Cisco NAC for a spin
After a pilot lasting more than three months, Whirlpool is confident that network-access-control technology will not only help keep its global network more secure, but also play a role as the company implements a new generation of Web services …
Blue Shield girds for the long haul
Joining Blue Shield of California in the summer of 2005, Elinor MacKinnon found no strategic or tactical planning function inside the IT department. So she set about creating one from scratch for the San Francisco-based health insurer.
