Sony said today that it is recalling 440,000 Vaio laptop computers worldwide due to faulty parts that could trigger overheating.

The recall involves 19 models in the Vaio TZ series manufactured between May 2007 and July 2008. The laptops are being recalled because improperly placed wires near the hinge connecting the body of the laptop and its display could wear quickly, causing a short circuit and overheating.

Dell is trying to sell computer factories around the world in efforts to cut cost and improve profitability, the Wall Street Journal said. In recent months, Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell the plants, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

Never mind creating a password with at least eight characters, two of which are numbers, one of which is a capital letter, and one of which is a symbol. The easiest way for a hacker to weasel into your account is likely the "Forgot your password?" link.

At IBM, services are king as the IBM Global Services business leads in the company in revenue by producing consecutive quarters of increased profitability. However, it is not services alone that make the IBM unit so effective, but Big Blue’s integration of its research arm into the services mix, as well as IBM software solutions including Rational and WebSphere.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin says the new Chrome Web browser is not the Web operating system many people see it as, but acknowledges it will get more robust through the open-source community under the Chromium project. Microsoft and other search engines and Web services providers must be wary about this evolution in application development. Google may be treading lightly with Chrome now, but the browser, combined with Google’s search and Apps, could end up being a big threat to Microsoft Windows’ market share.

You may have heard of Microsoft’s Live Labs, Office Labs, adCenter Labs. Get ready to add one more Microsoft incubator that is designed to speed up the delivery of Microsoft-created innovations to market: Startup Labs.

Startup Labs falls under Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie’s organization. Like the other aforementioned Microsoft Labs, Startup Labs will incorporate multiple product-development projects. Unlike Microsoft’s other incubators, some of the Startup Labs projects will be in early prototype stage, while others will be in beta and beyond. As with Microsoft’s other labs, the focus is on building a commercial product, rather than on research for research’s sake.

Web browsers aren’t just about surfing the Web anymore. With Microsoft, Mozilla and Google introducing new browsers, the browser may just be more important than ever before. This report takes look at the current generation of Web browsers and what it means for the future of the Web and IT. Also, look below for links to reviews of all the latest Web browsers.

We continue our series of interviews with Lotus Business Partners. This week, I had the opportunity to interview Philippe Cohen, Vice President of Software and Solutions at Mainsoft. In this in-depth interview, Phil will help us understand the juggernaut that’s SharePoint and what it means for Lotus IT professionals. Mainsoft has also built on of the first commercial plug-ins for Notes 8 and 8.5, and we get some very interesting insights into their experience using the Eclipse framework.

Read this DominoPower article.

IBM announced it is making available courseware and tools for technical skill building, free of charge, to University faculty. These resources, previously only available to IBM business partners, will help educators prepare students for the IT workplace through building skills in fast-growing areas including software development, enterprise systems management and BPM.

San Jose State will be one of the first universities joining IBM’s program. If you would like to speak with IBM or SJSU for more information, please let me know and I’ll be happy to set up a call. For more background, you can also listen to a podcast on the new program by Kevin Faughnan, IBM’s director for Academic Initiative.

Eleven percent of CIOs plan to add IT workers in the fourth quarter, 3 percent plan cuts and help desk and technical support are the hot categories as customer and user support trumps projects focused on growth.

Those are a few of the notable takeaways in an IT hiring and skills report from Robert Half Technology, a technology staffing firm.