The Apache Software Foundation has announced the release of Beehive 1.0, its component toolkit for J2EE and Struts. Beehive is aimed at making it easier to develop Web applications in Java by reducing the amount of coding needed to produce a working application.

A serious security flaw in part of Symantec’s antivirus products puts enterprise systems running the software at risk of intrusion. A buffer overflow flaw in the Symantec AntiVirus Scan Engine could let remote attackers run code on vulnerable machines, Symantec said in an advisory. The problem affects various versions of the engine, which is the part of the security software that actually scans for threats. Security patches are available to correct the problem, which Symantec rates "high" on its risk impact scale.

Government regulators are trying to shut down a company they say secretly downloaded spyware onto the computers of unwitting Internet users, rendering them helpless to a flood of pop-up ads, computer crashes and other annoyances. The Federal Trade Commission accused Walter Rines of Stratham, N.H., and his company, Odysseus Marketing, of luring computer users with the promise of free software that would make peer-to-peer file sharing anonymous. The claim was bogus, the agency said, and the software was bundled with spyware that was secretly downloaded onto computers.

Borland Software’s chief technology officer is calling it quits after five years with the company. Patrick Kerpan, Borland’s CTO since early last year, said he is leaving the software ALM (application lifecycle management) tools maker to take "time to look into a few other things." According to Kerpan, those other things could include starting a new venture or getting involved at the ground floor level of a startup.

The US and the EU are headed for a showdown over future control of the Internet, if recent statements at a UN meeting are any indication. Noting that "the Internet is a global resource," EU spokesman Martin Selmayr called for a new cooperation model, AP reported. "The EU…is very firm on this position," he said. Meanwhile, a senior U.S. official reiterated Thursday that the country wants to remain the Internet’s ultimate authority, AP reported.

IBM has partnered with start-up Univa to include Globus grid software with its Linux and Unix servers. The agreement, announced Monday, calls for Univa to provide IBM with a commercial version of the Globus Toolkit, which is open-source software for building grid applications. With the software, developers can write software that distributes computing jobs across several machines, or grids.

The Learning Continuum Company has released a new course for Notes and Domino developers and administrators who want to learn about Domino 7. DB2 for Domino 7 Administrators and Developers is designed to teach both administrators and developers about the biggest change in Notes Domino 7, the ability to store Domino data in DB2. This distance learning course is a great introduction to DB2, including how to install DB2, administer DB2 and write SQL queries. Once the student learns DB2 basics the course covers how to setup a Domino 7 server with DB2. Students then learn how to create new kinds of applications that combine DB2 data in Domino views (Query Views) and how to allow DB2 applications to access Domino data (Access Views.)

TLCC’s newest course, Notes Domino 7 Application Development Update, allows experienced Notes Domino 6 developers to learn all the new features in Notes Domino 7 in their own office and/or home. Easy, convenient and cost-effective, it will thoroughly prepares the student for the Notes Domino 7 Application Development Update Exam required to become a IBM Certified Application Developer-Lotus Notes and Domino 7. The student will learn about the changes in the Notes 7 and Domino Designer 7 clients, including how to enable auto-saving of documents, input-enabled fields, shared columns, and right-click menu actions. They will discover how Web services work and how Domino 7 makes it easy to create a Web service. Students also learn about the new @functions and methods introduced in Domino 7, the Java remote debugger, agent profiling, and application probes.

Hewlett-Packard is adding to its server arsenal with the purchase of blade pioneer RLX Technologies. With the acquisition, HP gains the RLX Control Tower, a software suite designed for managing Linux-based blade server environments. Linux’s penetration into the blade server market is greater than for the overall server market, analysts and computer makers say. The RLX Control Tower software will join a lineup of infrastructure management applications for Unix and Windows systems. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Sun Microsystems and Google announced a multi-year partnership Tuesday to help spread and develop each other’s software, a deal that includes OpenOffice.org, Java, and OpenSolaris from Sun, and Google’s Toolbar. The partnership begins with a modest step: Within 30 days, the Google toolbar will become a standard part of the software people get when they download Java from Sun’s Web site. The partnership matches two companies with a shared vision of a world being remade by ubiquitous computer networks. Where Sun wants to provide the back-end infrastructure such as servers at Google, eBay, and SalesForce.com, Google wants to be part of the daily lives of everyday computer users.