In February 1946, J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly were about to unveil, for the first time, an electronic computer to the world. Their ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, could churn 5,000 addition problems in one second, far faster than any device yet invented. The scientists knew that they had created something that would change history, but they weren’t sure how to convey their breakthrough to the public. So they painted numbers on some light bulbs and screwed the resulting "translucent spheres" into ENIAC’s panels. Dynamic, flashy lights would thereafter be associated with the computer in the public mind. That touch of showmanship would later prove fitting for the importance of the ENIAC, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this week at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical of Electrical Engineering. Many historians acknowledge that other computers came earlier–the Z3 in Germany, England’s Colossus, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer (ABC) at Iowa State. But ENIAC arguably accomplished something more important: It sparked the imagination of scientists and industrialists.

A California man has been indicted on federal charges of creating a network of hijacked computers that helped him and two others bring in $100,000 for installing unwanted ad software. The indictment on Friday from a federal grand jury in Seattle also accuses Christopher Maxwell, 20, and two unidentified conspirators of crippling Seattle’s Northwest Hospital with a botnet attack in January 2005. Authorities say the hospital attack caused $150,000 in damages, shut down the intensive care unit and disabled doctors’ pagers.

IBM announced several new Unix servers, including a midrange p5 570 system with faster Power5+ processors running at 2.2GHz. Until now, the Power5+ ran at a top speed of 1.9GHz, the same top speed as its fastest Power5 predecessor. In addition to the speed boost, IBM introduced some new models with its Quad Core Module technology, which puts two Power5+ chips in a single ceramic package that can plug into a socket that in the past would have been occupied by a single chip. IBM has put a priority on boosting clock speed. Frequencies will jump to a speed between 4GHz and 5GHz with the next major processor, Power6, due in 2007. Boosting performance is a key element of IBM’s competitive attack in the Unix server market against its top rivals, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard.

The majority of software companies now do offshore software development, but rising prices and managing far-flung teams is posing new challenges, a study has found. Consulting company Sand Hill Group last year surveyed executives from about 50 software companies and found that offshore software development has become standard practice. Eighty-four percent of companies said they use offshore developers, an increase from about 63 percent two years earlier.

Microsoft has corrected a mistake in its anti-spyware product that flagged some Symantec security tools as malicious software. The problem occurred after Microsoft pushed out an update for Windows AntiSpyware last Thursday night. The updated software identified a Windows registry key set by the Symantec products as belonging to password stealing malicious software known as Bancos, Microsoft and Symantec said in a joint statement Monday. On detection of the registry keys, Windows AntiSpyware alerted the user and suggested deletion of the keys.

And, as admistrator for 3,000 Notes 6.5 users, Nancy Hand is frequently amazed by what her users can pull off. One such user managed to lose a meeting for next Tuesday, but schedule appointments all the way out to 4004. Just what did Nancy do to clean this mess up? You’ll have to read this article to find out.

Read this DominoPower article.

IBM has issued a patch for a half dozen "highly critical" security flaws in versions of its Lotus Notes, which could allow a malicious attacker to execute arbitrary code remotely when users access files through the Notes attachment viewer. The vulnerabilities affect versions of Lotus Notes 6.5.4 and 7.0 or earlier, according to an advisory released Friday by security firm Secunia, which discovered the flaws.

Four groups have sprung up to fight the insidious software that pops up ads on screens or spies on PC users. Last month, the number of efforts to fight adware and spyware doubled with the announcement of two new initiatives: Spywaretesting.org, a consortium of antivirus companies, and StopBadware.org, an initiative led by two universities. These join the Trusted Download Program and the Anti-Spyware Coalition, both formed last year. The new initiatives were the hot hallway topic outside an event hosted by the Anti-Spyware Coalition. Some predict the efforts will collide, as each group is dedicated to helping consumers deal with the insidious software. Others say the peer pressure will keep each organization on its toes, helping the cause.

The email claims to be from a financially savvy Fidelity Investments fund manager who has "secretly extracted" money from the world’s largest fund management firm and will pass it along to you for a small fee. Boston-based Fidelity Investments is working with authorities to find the author of a mass email sent to computers around the world that claims to be written by a Fidelity fund manager. In the email, a person identifying himself as Williams Smith boasts he "secretly extracted excess maximum return capital" from one of Fidelity’s funds. He goes on to tell Fidelity investors he is ready to divide his gains with anyone who is ready to send him a little money up front.

A data security breach that has spurred at least two large banks to cancel thousands of customer debit cards appears to be connected to an older ongoing investigation in Sacramento, the FBI said Friday. Scores of Bank of America and Washington Mutual customers have received notifications from the banks that their debit cards were canceled because of a breach at a "third-party" establishment. The FBI believes the case is tied to a security breach first reported in The Sacramento Bee last November. In that case, the Golden 1 Credit Union canceled about 1,500 debit cards after being alerted to possible fraud in the Sacramento area.