http://www.itjungle.com/two/twoindex.html Description Citrix Systems this week unveiled a new release of XenApp (formerly Presentation Server) that addresses performance concerns users have expressed when remotely accessing their Windows desktop applications. With XenApp 5, which ships September 10, Citrix says it has improved application start-up times, added a new 'preferential load balancing' feature to ensure critical applications get the most resources, and simplified maintenance of user account settings. Citrix claims the improvements combine to make a 'better than installed' experience when combined with other Citrix products. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story01.html If the economies of the Western countries are heading into recession, the purchase orders for servers at companies sure don't seem to be a reflection of this yet. And the Asia/Pacific, Eastern European, and South American markets still seem to be booming, despite more than a year of jittery economies where their indigenous companies have their own customers. And so, the second quarter looked pretty good in terms of server sales, according to research from box counter Gartner, with server sales up 5.7 percent to $13.8 billion and shipments up 12.2 percent to 2.34 million units. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story02.html Since waking up after being asleep for enough years to let Advanced Micro Devices have the driver's seat in the X64 chip market, in terms of design elegance, the top brass at Intel have been espousing their so-called 'tick-tock' rhythm of process and microarchitecture developments for Xeon and Itanium server processors. Maybe 'left jab-right hook' would be a more accurate description, since Intel is in position to keep pounding on a substantially weakened AMD. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story03.html Isaac Newton's contributions to science and mathematics were monumental. They elevated English technology to a state of great prominence and helped usher in the Age of Enlightenment. More than three centuries later, every teenager studying science is taught classical mechanics, and Newton's principles provides food for thought in other disciplines, too. IBM's recent financial results, a sunny patch on a graying economic landscape, beg for analysis as well as praise, and Newton's laws might offer just the metaphorical basis required to examine Big Blue's blooming. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story04.html Microsoft last week issued an update to a Web server tool designed to thwart SQL injection attacks, an attack vector that has caught on with hackers over the last couple of years. With UrlScan 3.0, Microsoft developers say they finally have a method of blocking automated SQL injection attacks, and thereby protecting its customers' Web sites long enough for them to address the underlying programming flaws that are making them vulnerable. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story05.html Microsoft's Windows Server customers have not yet burned through all of the $240 million in certificates that allow them to get Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system and a year's worth of tech support from Microsoft instead of buying it through Novell. These Windows-Linux shops apparently want to acquire extended service contracts for SLES, and that is why Microsoft has coughed up another $100 million check for Novell. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story06.html Comedian Jerry Seinfeld will reportedly accept $10 million in exchange for being Microsoft's next celebrity spokesman. The TV funnyman is expected to appear in ads with chairman Bill Gates pushing Windows Vista, and will be part of a larger $300 million campaign to combat Apple and its aggressive anti-Windows marketing. The question for Microsoft is: Can Seinfeld bring the 'Wow' back to Vista marketing? http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story07.html This bit of news will come as no surprise to any IT Jungle readers who have run their own businesses or who work for small companies where money is a lot tighter than at larger enterprises, which always seem to have a lot more dough to spare for IT projects that may or may not pan out. According to research performed recently by IDC, SMB shops, which have IT budgets that are growing at least twice as fast as spending among larger companies, are more worried about the state of the economy than all the latest gadgetry or hot buzzword ideas. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story08.html With the onslaught of identity theft and the increase in instances of corporate data loss these days, forensics is becoming a word more IT administrators are becoming familiar with. In the world of log management solutions, however, most vendors make users choose between speedy log collection and the capability to forensically mine for important system events. With the addition of 'forensics on the fly' to its Security Information Event Management (SEIM) system, ArcSight claims users can now do both without compromise. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story09.html Stop me if you've heard this one before. A guy walks into a bar wearing a Microsoft .NET T-shirt and challenges any Java-loving pansy to fight. The place gets deathly quiet, and one guy in the back of the room slides his chair back from a table, stands up, and glares at the intruder. http://www.itjungle.com/two/two082708-story10.html