Tiscali users left screaming by lack of e-mail

Tiscali users left screaming by lack of e-mail

Some of Tiscali's users have been left screaming by a lack of e-mail for a week due to Tiscali's failure to renew a domain name used by some customers- screaming.net. Screaming.net used to provide unmetered Internet access back in dial-up Internet days and was gobbled up by Tiscali through the merger with World Online in 2000.

Full story : here

Microsoft will/won't provide a public beta for Office 2010

Microsoft will/won't provide a public beta for Office 2010

Over the past couple of days, Microsoft has indicated that they will and will not be providing a public beta for the upcoming Office 2010 suite. Is this an example of a misinformed public relations person at Microsoft spouting misinformation, an example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing, another backtrack on Microsoft's part, or just a simple mistake?

Regardless of why the initial information indicating that there would be no public beta for Office 14 was retracted with the news that Microsoft will, in fact, follow a similar development cycle as was used with Office 2007, I think Microsoft has made the right decision by including a public beta in the cycle. While the initial Technology Preview, which will be by invite-only, will include thousands of testers, those testers tend to be hard core technologists. Although the public beta is not likely to draw...

Insiders Leak Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Roadmap

Insiders Leak Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Roadmap

Apple said to prepare 'key' beta builds of Snow Leopard before final unveiling and official release

After being tipped off on Apple's pushing developers to deliver 64-bit support with a new Snow Leopard beta, AppleInsider has gained knowledge on the actual pre-release build cycles for Snow Leopard. Citing people familiar with the software, the source claims that final OS X 10.6 tests will span three 'key' build releases.

Those familiar with Apple's ongoing development of Mac OS X 10.6 have told the site that “Apple's roadmap for the final stretch of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard development currently calls for the release of three 'key' builds through the company's high-membership Apple Developer Connection.” Reportedly, “each of the builds will carry a significance in its own right, the first of which is scheduled to appear between now and the start of WWDC 2009 during the second week of June. This...

Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year

Windows 7: 83% Of Businesses Won't Deploy Next Year

Microsoft may need to keep its Windows XP operating system around a little longer—at least for its deep-pocketed corporate customers.

Mainstream support for XP ends Tuesday but, in news that bodes ill for Redmond and the broader PC industry, new data first obtained by InformationWeek indicates that only a small percentage of businesses plan to migrate to Windows 7 in its first year of availability.

Economic concerns and worries about compatibility—the bugbear that doomed Vista in the corporate market—will keep Windows 7 on the shelf for all but a handful of enterprises until at least 12 months after the OS becomes available later this year or early next, depending on Microsoft's release schedule.

"Early beta testers are providing many glowing reports about the functionality and performance of Windows 7, especially compared to Windows Vista," note market watchers at Dimensional Research, in a...

Exchange 14 Announced

Exchange 14 Announced

It's always hard to make generalizations about large organizations, and this is particularly true of Microsoft, where business units often make decisions that seem completely at odds with one another. However, as a whole, Microsoft has recently been much more tight-lipped than usual about forthcoming products. Take Windows 7 as an example; Microsoft did a great job of playing its cards close to the vest until the Professional Developers Conference last November. And you haven't seen much about the next version of Office, either, I bet! Microsoft is still nowhere near as secretive as Apple, but the company is definitely making strides in that direction—which is why you might be surprised to know that Microsoft is well into development of the next release of Exchange Server, code-named Exchange 14.

Anyway, Exchange 14 was announced this week by the release of a video on the...

IT Job seekers going nowhere

IT Job Seekers going nowhere

The economic gloom has well and truly hit the IT job market, with fewer ICT jobs advertised, fewer job seekers and a lack of interest in training, according to new research.

During the third quarter of last year, overall demand for staff in the UK fell by five per cent quarter-on-quarter, a report by IT skills body e-skills UK found. For IT, however, the picture is even bleaker: the number of positions on offer declined by 10 per cent.

Falling demand was recorded for both permanent and contract posts, with vacancy numbers dropping by nine per cent and 13 per cent quarter-on-quarter respectively.

Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board, has also noted a drop in IT jobs advertised, with both contract and permanent positions feeling the pinch.

Read the full story : Here

Microsoft begs Windows 7 testers to start from scratch

Microsoft begs Windows 7 testers to start from scratch

Microsoft is imploring millions of Windows 7 beta testers to perform a clean install of the forthcoming Release Candidate, rather than upgrade from the beta.

The company claims its telemetry shows that millions of people are running Windows 7 full time. However, it's asking those customers to go through the pain of a clean installation because it wants to test the real-world upgrade experience.

"The RC is about getting breadth coverage to validate the product in real-world scenarios," the company claims on the Engineering Windows 7 blog. "As a result, we want to encourage you to revert to a Vista image and upgrade or to do a clean install, rather than upgrade the existing Beta."

Read the rest of the article here.

Looks like I'm going to have to do this on my personal laptop...

Businesses use immigration loophole for cheap IT labour

Businesses use immigration loophole for cheap IT labour

Companies are using a loophole to bring people with IT skills in from outside the UK despite the high availability of UK workers, it was claimed today.

Companies are using intra-company transfers to bring in staff to the UK from outside the EU without advertising the vacancies in the UK, claim recruitment companies.

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (Apsco), which represents IT recruitment companies, has written to Phil Woolas, minister of state for borders and immigration, urging him to put a stop to the practice.

Ann Swain, CEO at Apsco, said there are enough workers available in the UK to fill the vast majority of vacancies.

Read the rest of the article here.

-ken

CSC to take over up to 350 IT passports staff

CSC to take over up to 350 IT passports staff

Services supplier CSC is expected to take over about 350 IT staff, and will help build new passport and ID Card systems, after winning a 10-year £385m contract this week.

CSC beat Fujitsu which had been shortlisted for the contract.

It means that CSC will later this month begin to take over the running of the Oracle-based Passport Application Support System from Siemens which has been running the technology since 1999.

Under TUPE regulations about 350 staff, most of them working for Siemens, are expected to transfer to CSC. Some were civil servants when they transferred to Siemens in 1999. As part of its deal CSC will take over the running of the passport service's desktop systems from Atos.

Read the rest of the article here.

-Ken

Dover harbour gives berth to ICTTech trio

Dover harbour gives berth to ICTTech trio

Three IT professionals from the UK’s Dover Harbour Board will be among the first in the world to receive the new ICTTech professional qualification, awarded by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).

Ben Johnston, Mark Burton, and Mike Demetriou, are all employed as systems engineers on the harbour board’s ICT systems. Established in 1606, Dover Harbour Board is responsible for the administration, maintenance, and improvement of the harbour at Dover. It operates at the heart of the UK's and Continental Europe's cross-Channel transport network, managing and piloting what has become one of today's busiest drive-on, drive-off terminals in the world.

“It’s a real achievement for Mark, Mike and Ben that they are among the first seven people in the world to achieve this brand new professional qualification,” says Roy Warden, the IET’s regional development manager for the Dover area.

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