Sun, Microsoft Legal Minds Put Windows ...

Computerworld - ... users at risk but have thankfully delayed the dangerous days until Sept. 2004. That's when lingering unsecure Microsoft Java Virtual Machines will become hackers' target of choice. While the JVM agreement between Microsoft Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. . But this potential swap raises an interesting issue. Users that were thinking about moving away from a Java approach to application development and deployment and going with .Net instead might not want to make the shift while they're in crisis mode, ripping and replacing JVMs everywhere. Then again, it may be the motivation that pushes the .Net transition higher on IT's to-do list.

• When you're done worrying about security (yeah, right), you might want to mull over why your global network is so sluggish. Doug Brent, CEO of Packet Design LLC in Palo Alto, Calif., thinks the best way to get to the bottom of the problem is to start at Level 3, where, he claims, 30% to 50% of network problems originate. That's where packets get routed and where his company's Route Explorer 2.0 gathers data on how those packets are flying around your seven-layer TCP/IP network. The appliance, which ships today, can present a topology map of actual packet routes, not just device interconnections. Route Explorer can display routing data in real time or for user-defined periods. It supports a variety of Internet routing protocols such as BGP, IS-IS and OSPF. Later this quarter, Packet Design will ship support for Cisco Systems Inc.'s EIGRP. Prices start at $19,000.
  

• With your well-tuned network, users can <b>buzz on over to Buzzsaw</b>, a global online collaboration service for construction project managers, from AutoDesk Inc. Version 5 of the service is available today, offering modules with dashboard monitors designed for builders in industries such as retail, manufacturing and health care.
  

• But if you're going to sign an ASP agreement to support employees, partners or customers overseas, John Duncan has a word of caution. Duncan is counsel at Nixon Peabody LLP in New York, and in reviewing ASP contracts for his clients, he's noticed something. "They use the terms royalty and license," he says. Makes sense. ASPs are just software guys with Internet access. Still, that set off Duncan's tax-law radar because royalties and licenses can be subject to nations' tax whims. It's best to "substitute the word service for royalty or license in a contract, to protect yourself from rate-hike surprises of tax changes in a nation where you do business," he says.
  

• Kelvin Burton, CTO at Mercy Ships, a nonprofit medical relief agency, has concluded that time spent with the beta version of Reactor 5.5, a process control management application from Oak Grove Systems Inc. in Calabasas, Calif., was worthwhile. He says the new version integrated smoothly with his LDAP directory and is the best way he has found to keep track of who's doing what among the ever-changing list of staffers and volunteers on projects worldwide. Reactor 5.5 is available for everyone else today at $10,000 per CPU.