Microsoft to Preview Windows 8 Tablet? Wednesday, December 15, 2010, 11:45:48 AM Windows have recently announced that they will be previewing their new tablet, which could potentially be running Windows 8, at next months Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

11|29|2010 4:33 pm EDT Namejet’s 3 Letter .Net and .Org Domain Auction Floods Market by Adam Strong in Categories: Domain Aftermarket – 4 Comments Shane Cultra at DomainShane pointed out earlier that Namejet is hosting an auction of 3 letter .net domains , in fact more than 1000 of them at one time. The names were originally had a backorder deadline over the Thanksgiving holiday week but it appears someone wised up an move the closing date to get in on these auctions to today 11/29/10.

IBM, 15 European partners to develop ’smart’ cloud IBM today announced that it is leading a joint research initiative with 15 European partners that include telcos, healthcare and media companies and standards bodies to develop an object-based, standardized “smart cloud” storage architecture. IBM said the goal of the collaboration is to improve delivery of rich data and storage services across national boundaries and a variety of vendors. The research project, being led by IBM’s research arm in Haifa, will tackle the major challenges facing modern storage clouds, including: cost-effectiveness, data mobility across cloud providers, security guarantees and the massive computing power demands that affect quality of service

IT pros still spooked by Office’s ribbon interface Four years after its debut, the “ribbon” interface in Microsoft’s Office suite still gives businesses the shudders, a research firm said today. The interface first appeared in Office 2007 to catcalls as users struggled with the massive redesign, which substituted a wide ribbon-like display at the top for the traditional drop-down menus, small icons and toolbars that epitomized Windows applications’ look-and-feel for decades.

Microsoft plans colossal Patch Tuesday next week Microsoft today said it will deliver a record 16 security updates next week to patch a whopping 49 vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer (IE), Office and SharePoint. Andrew Storms, director of security operations for nCircle Security, called the massive update “daunting, again.” Four of the 16 updates were tagged with Microsoft’s “critical” label, the highest threat ranking in its four-step scoring system. Another 10 were marked “important,” the second-highest rating, while the remaining pair were labeled as “moderate.” …

As Earl looms, tips to batten down IT Hurricane Earl today continues to threaten the east coast of the U.S. in the midst of what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts will be an unusually active hurricane season. As if on cue, the massive Hurricane Earl is followed closely in the Atlantic Ocean by tropical storms Fiona and Gaston, which could mean major problems for IT operations in their paths

Private Clouds To Fuel Massive Server Sales Growth It may sound contradictory, but cloud computing will actually drive an increase in server hardware sales, according to recent figures released by IDC. Cloud computing technology, by many accounts, was supposed to slow hardware sales, but the dawn of private clouds, IDC found, could fuel $6.4 billion in server hardware spending come 2014