Web Headlines

Headlines from around the Web for Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008
Compiled by Melanie Bender

IT Can Manage Nation's Energy Demand, says Energy Dept.

ComputerWorld

A yearlong U.S. Department of Energy pilot program that equipped houses with "smart" thermostats, water heaters and even clothes driers -- all linked to the information highway -- has saved participating homeowners about 10 percent in energy costs.

Former Virginia Gov: Nation at ‘Critical Tipping Point’

Washington Technology

Making the United States more competitive on the world stage will require, in part, a renewed focus on information technology and how it can transform government and the private sector, former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner told attendees at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show Government conference.

Teleworkers Can Damage Main Office Work Environment, Study Says

NetworkWorld

Timothy Golden, associate professor in the Lally School of Management & Technology at Rensselaer, studied 240 professional employees from a midsize company. He found the greater the number of teleworkers in an office, the less others in the office are apt to be satisfied with their jobs and remain with the company.

White House Faces More Questions About Missing E-Mails

eWeek

The Bush administration has five business days to answer lingering questions about the backup copies of millions of missing White House e-mails. Covering more than a two-year period between 2003 and 2005, the missing e-mails came to light as part of congressional inquiries into the White House's firing of U.S. attorneys.

Researcher Shows How Network Printers Can Be Spammed

ComputerWorld

By using a little-known capability found in most Web browsers, a researcher can make Web pages launch print jobs on just about any printer on a victim's network. The Web site could print annoying ads on the printer and theoretically issue more dangerous commands, such as telling the printer to send a fax, format its hard drive or download new firmware.

Glitches Found in Florida's Electronic Initiative Petition Reporting

The Tallahassee Democrat

Glitches in how counties link with Florida's new $23 million computer voter system are skewing petition signature counts, threatening to knock two initiatives off the November ballot. Secretary of State Kurt Browning told lawyers for half a dozen ballot initiatives that he is abandoning the state's electronic tally in favor of the old system of paper counts.

Antiquated Water Line Waylays Opening of Bioterror Lab

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Allegheny County's $5 million state-of-the-art bioterror lab in Lawrenceville took more than five years to build and is finally finished, but the county can't move in because the water line to the sophisticated laboratory is too small to support the building's sprinkler system.

Justices Question Timing of Voter ID Challenge

Stateline

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday questioned whether it’s too early to consider striking down an Indiana law requiring voters to show photo identification, especially because there is limited evidence showing whether the rules are discouraging voters.

Suit Alleges Illegal Destruction of State E-Mails in Iowa

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Two of Gov. Matt Blunt's (R) top aides last summer ordered all departments in the administration to regularly delete e-mails so potentially damaging messages wouldn't be available to the public, a new lawsuit claims.

Book's Claim that IT Department is Dying Exaggerated, Industry Pros Say

NetworkWorld

IT professionals are mad about Nicholas Carr's new book, which predicts the demise of the corporate IT department and its replacement by utility computing. Reader-submitted comments on NetworkWorld's site are running 8 to 1 against Carr's premise that IT departments will have little work left to do once business computing moves out of corporate-run data centers into utility computing facilities.