8/21/2006
09:38 AM

Travel Restrictions: The Ripple Effect

In This Issue:
1. Editor's Note: Travel Restrictions: The Ripple Effect
2. Today's Top Story
    - Microsoft Issues First Patch For Vista
3. Breaking News
    - Dell Recall May Cost Sony Up To $430 Million: Analysts
    - U.S. Agency Reviewing All Sony Laptop Batteries
    - Apple Updates Boot Camp Windows-On-Mac Software
    - Creating A Windows XP Recovery Console CD Image
    - Philadelphia CIO Resigns
    - Hewlett-Packard Net Surges After Year-Ago Tax Cost
    - Hoosier Daddy? Indiana Schools Adopt Linux
    - Seagate To Keep Maxtor Brand
    - AOL Wants Spammer's Gold
    - Safety First: Five Firewalls For Your Desktop PC
    - Lessig Seeks To Transform Linux Support Into Political Action
    - YouTube Suffers First Unplanned Site Outage
4. Grab Bag: Entanglements; A Late-Blooming YouTuber
    - Trademarking 'POD' A Bad Idea (DailyTech)
    - Pensioner Is YouTube Star (Monsters And Critics)
5. In Depth: Blogs
    - Blogs, Wikis, Forums Sway Consumer Opinion, Research Shows
    - Google Launches Blogger Upgrade In Beta
    - Microsoft Opens Beta On WYSIWYG Blog-Writing Tool
6. Voice Of Authority: Apple And Open Source
    - Are Apple's New Open Source Efforts Enough?
7. White Papers
    - Security And Risk Management
8. Get More Out Of InformationWeek
9. Manage Your Newsletter Subscription

Quote of the day:
"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow." -- Woodrow Wilson

1. Editor's Note: Travel Restrictions: The Ripple Effect

Last week's foiled airline bomb plot, and the subsequent fallout for business travelers—here and abroad—got me to thinking that necessity isn't just the mother of invention, it's also a driver of change, and sometimes, the spark needed to ignite struggling markets and launch new trends.

While the most draconian travel restrictions have so far been limited to the United Kingdom, domestically we also saw a tightening of carry-on policy and subsequent confusion about whether portable electronics, chief among them laptops, could be carried on board. After banning gels, liquids, and some solids in carry-ons last week, FAA and Homeland Security officials made it clear that more changes will likely be in the offing, though no hints were given as to what they might be or when they'd be announced.

Corporate America needs to think this through, as far in advance as it can. Remember all those passengers who showed up for their flights last Thursday, only to find out that they couldn't carry on what they had brought with them? No one wants to be caught that flat-footed-especially when expensive equipment is involved. Since we don't know when the next attack will be, we need to plan ahead.

Various scenarios and questions are already running through my head:

Will a huge window of opportunity open up for the overnight delivery companies as travelers unable to carry on their laptops and other digital tools, and unwilling to check them, mail them on ahead? It's not so far fetched. We travel with laptops for a reason: so we can give presentations and demos, crunch numbers, respond to memos, write reports and stories, etc. And if we can't fly with them in our possession, and we can't be sure they'll arrive when we do, then we'll have to find an alternative mode of delivery. The Fed-Exes, UPSes, and DHLs of the world, meanwhile, would have to come up with packaging and procedures that will guarantee the safety of all those laptops, ironically winging their way through the same airspace as their owners in many cases.

Will we see a new market opportunity open up for ruggedized or "field" laptops and other equipment? Ever watch baggage being loaded or unloaded? If laptops and other handhelds are banned, and if we have to pack them in our suitcases, it might well be prudent for companies to consider whether it's time to invest in sturdier equipment.

Will we see exploding growth in the nascent biometric security industry? With all those laptops floating around between checked luggage and overnight packages, some are bound to get lost or stolen. Companies may play it sloppy and loose with our personal data, but I'm certain they'll be a lot more interested in protecting their own information. Biometric access controls on laptops and other gadgets should keep most bad guys out and corporate risk down.

And what about virtual laptops and e-mail? From online software that gives users a desktop in the browser window through any PC (Sun is a good example) to hard drives that can be slipped into generic machines to online services that provide access to key office applications (Zimbra is one example), options already exist for travelers who don't want to deal with the hassles of traveling with a laptop. Such services could even be cheaper than outfitting everyone with a laptop and applications. This is a market opportunity that could take off regardless of whether laptops are banned on board.

Please follow this link to a more complete set of my ideas for possible outcomes, and weigh in with your own thinking on how travel—and your business productivity—will be impacted by potential new restrictions.

Patricia Keefe
[email protected]
www.informationweek.com

2. Today's Top Story: Windows Security

Microsoft Issues First Patches For Vista
Microsoft confirmed that two of last week's 12 security bulletins are for Vista, and it posted instructions for downloading security updates for the new Windows.

3. Breaking News

Dell Recall May Cost Sony Up To $430 Million: Analysts
As one industry watcher noted, until Sony management discloses details of the malfunction's cause, "the risk of a larger impact remains."

U.S. Agency Reviewing All Sony Laptop Batteries
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is reviewing all of the company's lithium-ion laptop batteries in light of Dell's recall of more than 4 million of the Sony-made devices.

Apple Updates Boot Camp Windows-On-Mac Software
Boot Camp beta 1.1 adds support for the newest Apple desktop and allows support for the Windows XP partition on any internal drive.

Creating A Windows XP Recovery Console CD Image
The only way to get a "skinny" version of the Windows XP Recovery Console onto a custom CD is to copy the necessary files from an installation disc to your rescue media. Here's how.

Philadelphia CIO Resigns
Dianah Neff is joining a consulting firm to help spread her knowledge about municipal Wi-Fi around the globe.

Hewlett-Packard Net Surges After Year-Ago Tax Cost
Revenue grew in all its major business units, leading one analyst to say the company is "on a roll."

Hoosier Daddy? Indiana Schools Adopt Linux
A state program deploys low-cost, easy-to-manage workstations to 22,000 Indiana students.

Seagate To Keep Maxtor Brand
Seagate will use the Maxtor brand for desktop and notebook drives.

AOL Wants Spammer's Gold
AOL says there's gold buried on a big-time spammer family's property and wants to dig it up. The family says AOL is nuts.

Safety First: Five Firewalls For Your Desktop PC
It's a dangerous world out there—but which firewall should you use? We rate the five top software firewalls and let you know which is the best.

Lessig Seeks To Transform Linux Support Into Political Action
"Only you can teach the world about the balance that can be created around a free infrastructure," Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig said, in telling Linux supporters to raise their voices in favor of net neutrality.

YouTube Suffers First Unplanned Site Outage
The six-hour outage was caused by a database glitch, the company said.

All Our Latest News

Watch The News Show

In the current episode:

Power Play

Musical Interlude

----- The latest research, polls, and tools -----

VoIP Challenges
Are you encountering obstacles in your VoIP installation? Learn the three most cited obstacles of installing VoIP beyond the pilot stage in this recent report by InformationWeek Research.

Business Priorities
Increasing customer satisfaction is a key business priority for three out of five companies, as reported in this recent InformationWeek Research report, IT Priorities 3Q.
-----------------------------------------

4. Grab Bag: POD Entanglements; A Late-Blooming YouTuber

Trademarking 'POD' A Bad Idea (DailyTech)
In an effort to protect its very well known iPod brand, Apple has begun sending out legal threats to companies that use the letters P, O and D together in any service or product.

Pensioner Is YouTube Star (Monsters And Critics)
A British pensioner has become an international online star thanks to the global popularity of video-sharing site YouTube. The pensioner, whose first name is Peter, has attracted hoards of fans after posting his own homemade videos on the site with the aim of having a general grumble about life from the perspective of an old person.

5. In Depth: Blogs

Blogs, Wikis, Forums Sway Consumer Opinion, Research Shows
Manufacturers are studying the growing phenomenon of consumer-generated reviews and other types of content and are trying to find ways to use this trend to their advantage, a new report says.

Google Launches Blogger Upgrade In Beta
The new version, launched this week, lets bloggers decide whether they want their tomes to be available publicly or to only a select number of readers.

Microsoft Opens Beta On WYSIWYG Blog-Writing Tool
Windows Live Writer lets bloggers see what their posts will look like before publishing it.

6. Voice Of Authority: Apple And Open Source

Are Apple's New Open Source Efforts Enough?
Apple recently announced a handful of initiatives aimed at revitalizing its open source development efforts. In particular, the company stated that Darwin on Intel would be released as open source (something Apple had thus far refused to do) and also said that it would put up a hosting system for Mac open source projects. This follows on the fairly public breakdown between Apple and some parts of the Mac open source community, and it's probably safe to assume that these announcements represent some kind of outreach to that community. But are the efforts enough to salve the wounds and bring those developers back into the fold?

7. White Papers: Remote Access In Disaster Recovery

5 Things Every CISO Needs To Know About Information Security And Risk Management
CISOs must understand what level of risk exposure they have, how the latest threats impact their exposure, and which vulnerabilities represent an actual risk. Most importantly, they need to know what security measures have the highest payoff. This guide poses five questions that every CISO should have an answer to, as well as ways to address them.

8. Get More Out Of InformationWeek

Try InformationWeek's RSS Feed

Discover all InformationWeek's sites and newsletters

Recommend This Newsletter To A Friend
Do you have friends or colleagues who might enjoy this newsletter? Please forward it to them and point out the subscription page.

9. Manage Your Newsletter Subscription

To unsubscribe from, subscribe to, or change your E-mail address for this newsletter, please visit the InformationWeek Subscription Center.

Note: To change your E-mail address, please subscribe your new address and unsubscribe your old one.

Keep Getting This Newsletter
Don't let future editions of InformationWeek Daily go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam white list:
[email protected]

If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks.

We take your privacy very seriously. Please review our Privacy Policy.

InformationWeek Daily Newsletter
A free service of InformationWeek and the TechWeb Network.
Copyright (c) 2006 CMP Media LLC
600 Community Drive
Manhasset, N.Y. 11030

We welcome your comments on this topic on our social media channels, or [contact us directly] with questions about the site.