Lotusphere 2008 attendees will be among the first to preview the release of PistolStar’s Web Set Password 8. This latest upgrade of PistolStar’s browser-based password authentication and security solution enhances security for IBM Lotus Domino 8 by offering strong authentication capabilities, designed for banking and financial services applications but also relevant to the government, military and other industries that deal with highly sensitive data. PistolStar’s booth will also highlight its newest Password Power Plug-Ins and solutions offering Microsoft Active Directory integration, enterprise single sign-on and adaptive authentication–best practices for ensuring consistently strong authentication.

Market researchers with the Burton Group have issued a 37-page study–not commissioned by Microsoft or any other tech vendor–that finds Microsoft’s OOXML document format to be more useful than the rival ODF format backed by Microsoft’s competitors. The new study, freely downloadble Burton’s Web site is entitled "What’s Up, .DOC? ODF, OOXML, and the Revolutionary Implications of XML in Productivity Applications."

Office Open XML (OOXML) is Microsoft’s XML file format that it made the default in its Office 2007 suite. Open Document Format (ODF) is the file format championed by Sun Microsystems, IBM, Google and other Microsoft competitors. Microsoft is seeking ISO standards approval for OOXML, largely to appease customers who prefer/require standards-compliant products, as well as to head off ODF momentum, especially in developing nations.

Integra for Notes, the Notes to Office integration and reporting product, has released a Personal Edition which delivers functionality for users that wish to extract data from their Lotus Notes personal address book to create mail merges, labels, email shots, lists etc. The FREE tool also includes the ability to produce powerful graphical Excel reports and pivot tables from the data held within users address books. Full features and benefits and FREE download is available immediately.

PC vendor Lenovo has promised ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for some time now. Lenovo will deliver the goods the week of Jan. 14.

Lenovo will release pre-installed SLED 10 on its Intel Centrino processor-powered ThinkPad T61 and R61 14-inch-wide notebooks. In February, Lenovo’s pre-integrated Novell Linux offering will expand to include some Penryn-based ThinkPads.

Anyone who’s ever had to manage a rack of servers knows just how much of a headache dealing with ISPs, hosting providers, and co-lo providers can be. We certainly do. And, with one exception, dealing with ISPs and hosting providers could be characterized by a non-stop series of seemingly unnecessary headaches. The one exception is our current co-location provider, Prominic.NET. In this review, we share with you our good experiences with Prominic.NET.

Read this DominoPower article.

Telecommuting may boost morale, and cut stress, but it can have the opposite effect on those left behind in the office, according to a new study. When a number of their co-workers toil away from the office by using computers, cell phones, or other electronic equipment, those who do not telecommute are more likely to be dissatisfied with their job and leave the company, said Timothy Golden, a management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Telecommuting has been a growing trend in the United States since about 2000. About 37 percent of U.S.-based and international companies now offer flexible work arrangements, with the number of those programs growing at a rate of 11 percent per year, according to the Society of Human Resource Management.

PC Dynamics announced the release of its new SafeHouse 3.0 data privacy and encryption software with dozens of new features including greatly-enhanced support for USB memory sticks. SafeHouse locks, hides and encrypts sensitive files and folders using passwords and super-strong encryption. SafeHouse is completely transparent to the way users work and is compatible with all Windows applications by masquerading as a password-protected Windows drive letter.

UK businesses hope they will not be called before the court to share email evidence. They are simply not confident of their email integrity. The news comes from an independent survey by market research company Vanson Bourne who surveyed IT decision makers in the financial services, manufacturing, retail, distribution, transport, utility and other markets in organizations across the UK. Respondents to the survey commissioned by Forensic & Compliance Systems, maker of the Cryoserver email archiving and compliance appliance, reported that nearly half (44%) could not prove whether their email had been changed or tampered. Over a third (35%) simply did not know whether any changes had occurred to their email.

The results lead to the staggering conclusion that more than three of every four UK businesses might not be able to rely on email as legal evidence, for example in cases of unlawful dismissal or harassment.

For those of you who have been following the ongoing discussion about White House email and David’s series of interviews promoting Where Have All The Emails Gone?, we have two new interviews for you to listen to and enjoy.

On Tuesday, David will be on 1140 AM KSOO radio, "The TALK of Sioux Falls!". He’ll be doing Viewpoint University with Rick and Ruth at 4:15 Central. Unfortunately, KSOO doesn’t have a Web broadcast, so you’ll only be able to tune in if you’re in or near Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

For those of you in other areas, you can listen to an NPR podcast, broadcast through KCBX FM. The full interview can be downloaded from the An Evening With… program. Just right click the link and save the file. It’s a clean MP3 that you can listen to anywhere.

Spammers have found another great place to hide spam URLs in plain sight–on Microsoft’s Live SkyDrive file sharing service. According to McAfee, the beta service, previously known as Windows Live Folders, is hosting html files used by an active spam campaign to link people to a generic website pushing pharmaceutical products.