The simplicity of scripting language PHP means it will be more popular than Java for building Web-based applications, Internet browser pioneer Marc Andreessen predicted in a speech at the Zend/PHP Conference. Java enjoyed great success when its inventor, Sun Microsystems, released it in 1995, largely because it was optimized better for programmers than for machines, making software development significantly easier, Andreessen said. Unfortunately, Java has acquired many of the unfavorable characteristics of its predecessors, he added.

Netscape released a new version of Netscape 8 to bring the Web browser up to date on security patches with the underlying Firefox software. Netscape 8.0.4 includes the fixes that have been made in the Firefox browser, according to the update’s release notes. That means it has all patches through Firefox version 1.0.7, which was made available by Mozilla last month.

IBM will give its U.S. employees online access to their medical records, making it one of the first large companies to put workers’ health data on the Internet. The company’s roughly 133,000 workers in the United States will have the option to enroll in the online-information system, IBM said in a memo scheduled to be sent to employees.

In the face of competition from security suite vendors, Kerio Technologies will pull the plug on its desktop firewall product at the end of this year. Kerio will stop offering its Kerio Personal Firewall product as of Dec. 31 but will continue to support existing customers until the end of next year. Kerio is pulling out of the desktop firewall space because it can’t compete with security suites that bundle a firewall with antivirus and spyware-fighting software, the company said. Such products are sold by companies including Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, and Zone Labs.

Akamai Technologies on Tuesday named a former IBM executive as its new chief financial officer. J. Donald Sherman, currently the chief financial executive of IBM’s systems and technology group, will replace the present CFO, Robert Cobuzzi, early next year, the company said. In addition, Michael M. Afergan has joined the company as its new chief technology officer.

A vulnerability in Snort, the popular open-source intrusion protection software, could open networks to cyberattack. A buffer overflow flaw exists in a Snort sensor designed to detect Back Orifice, an older remote-controlled Trojan horse, Snort developer Sourcefire said in an advisory on Tuesday. An attacker could commandeer a system running Snort 2.4.0 and higher by sending a specially crafted network packet, it warned. Sourcefire’s warning prompted security provider Symantec to raise its ThreatCon global threat index to Level 2, which means an outbreak is expected.

In an effort to attract new corporate customers, MySQL is planning to ship a major upgrade of its namesake open-source database within the next seven to 10 days. MySQL version 5.0 is in its final phases of tracking bugs, making a release imminent, said Robin Schumacher, director of product management at MySQL. The company intends to release a "community" edition for free online under the open-source General Public License, or GPL.

Cisco Press announced release of the second edition of Routing TCP/IP, Volume I, the premier text on interior routing protocols, by Jeff Doyle and Jennifer DeHaven Carroll. The original edition explains routing protocols as they existed in 1998, these will be replaced by the revised version. Routing TCP/IP, Volume I, Second Ed., includes protocol changes and Cisco features that enhance routing integrity, secure routers from attacks initiated through routing protocols, and provide greater control over the propagation of routing information for all IP interior routing protocols. The structure of the book remains the same, but each section has been enhanced and modified to include a total of more than 200 new pages. As a core text for CCIE preparation and practical reference, Routing TCP/IP, Volume I, Second Ed., includes numerous real-world examples, case studies, and configuration and troubleshooting lessons that would cost thousands to learn in a classroom.

Infuzer has added Personal Assistant to its list of features. This new service enables electronic calendar owners to assign trusted individuals the ability to "Infuze" events directly into their electronic calendaring application. Personal Assistant gives calendar owners a powerful and efficient communication tool that bridges and integrates scheduling of both personal and professional activities, adding appointments and events directly into calendaring programs like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, and Palm Desktop Calendar.

IBM announced it has acquired DataPower, a Cambridge, Mass.-based, privately-held provider of products that help improve security and speed the processing of computer transactions. Financial details were not disclosed. IBM acquired DataPower to help companies improve the performance, security, and management of business processes built of reusable, open-standards-based software components, which operate independently from the applications and computing platforms on which they run. This increasingly popular approach, called SOA (Service Oriented Architecture), combines business operations with information technology. According to Gartner, SOA will provide the basis for 80 percent of new software development projects by 2008. IBM plans to introduce a family of SOA appliances based on DataPower technology.