Monday, April 12, 2010

“Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville Selects Systems & Software, a Subsidiary of Constellation Software's Harris ...” plus 3 more

“Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville Selects Systems & Software, a Subsidiary of Constellation Software's Harris ...” plus 3 more

Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville Selects Systems & Software, a Subsidiary of Constellation Software's Harris ...

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 05:56 AM PDT

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - April 12, 2010) - Harris Computer Systems ("Harris"), a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX:CSU) is pleased to announce that the Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville ("MWS") has selected Systems & Software, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harris, to implement its enQuesta v4 solution.

"We are delighted to formally announce this long-lasting partnership with the great team at Metro Water Services" expressed Dave Decker, General Manager at Systems & Software. "This is an important project as it brings the rich functionality of our comprehensive solution that MWS urgently needs, deployed with our new enQuesta 4 browser-based technology. With more than 240,000 customer accounts, we are proud to add MWS to our growing base of large water, wastewater and stormwater utilities across the United States."

About Harris: 

Harris is a leading provider of utility customer information systems (CIS), billing, and financial management software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to public power and water markets as well as all levels of local government throughout North America. Harris' focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers over time. For further information on Harris Computer Systems please visit our website at www.harriscomputer.com, or call 888-847-7747.

About Constellation:

Constellation's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CSU". Constellation Software is an international provider of market leading software and services to a number of industries across both the public and private sectors. The Company acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses that provide mission­-critical software solutions to address the specific needs of its customers in those industries.

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Malicious Facebook Ad Redirects to Fake Antivirus Software

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 06:40 AM PDT

A malicious advertisement has been found within an application for Facebook that redirects users to fake antivirus software, according to a security researcher.

The banner advertisement for greeting cards is intermittently displayed with an application called Farm Town, which has more than 9 million monthly users according to information published on Facebook.

If the bad Shockwave Flash advertisement is displayed, the user is redirected from Facebook through several domains and ends up on a Web site selling fake antivirus software, said Sandi Hardmeier, who studies malicious advertisements and blogged about the issue.(See also "How to Remove Fake AV Software.")

Farm Town's developer, SlashKey, has a notice on its Web site saying it has notified its developers of the problem.

"We believe at this time that it is harmless to your computer and a result of one or more of the ads on the site, but you should not follow any links to any software claiming to 'clean your system,'" the notice reads. "Most good antivirus/malware program will catch and quarantine this malware."

Hardmeier disagrees that it is harmless. "I'm disappointed that they are trying to minimize the perception of risk," she said.

Fake antivirus sites usually tell users their computers are infected and implore them to download the software, which is often completely ineffective. Consumers are charged as much as US$70 for the software, which is also difficult to remove, and have trouble recovering their money.

There are hundreds of fake antivirus programs, and security experts estimate it is a multimillion dollar industry. Panda Security wrote in a report last year that as many as 35 million computers worldwide may be infected with fake antivirus programs each month.

Google's Chrome browser did detect the malicious domains used to redirect the user and blocked the attack. The company has "safe browsing" technology built into its browser that will block users from going to potentially harmful Web sites. Internet Explorer 8, however, did not, Hardmeier said. She was in the process of testing Firefox on Monday morning.

Hackers have been known to figure out ways to slip their malicious advertisements onto ad networks that supply advertisements to innumerable Web sites. Many ad networks have taken steps to ensure malicious ads don't circulate. But there are ways around using the ad networks.

"The bad guys are going straight to site owners and offering them advertising," Hardmeier said via instant message. "The responsible networks are monitoring for the bad stuff and catching it and will suspend the bad campaigns immediately."

Hardmeier said she has notified cubics.com, which delivered the ad to Farm Town, and is in the process of notifying Facebook. Officials at Facebook could not be immediately reached.

Social networking sites such as Facebook are a prime target for scammers due to their high number of users and potential victims.

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Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville Selects Systems & Software, a Subsidiary of Constellation Software's Harris ...

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 05:47 AM PDT

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - 04/12/10) - Harris Computer Systems ("Harris"), a subsidiary of Constellation Software Inc. (TSX:CSU - News) is pleased to announce that the Metropolitan Water Services of Nashville ("MWS") has selected Systems & Software, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Harris, to implement its enQuesta v4 solution.

"We are delighted to formally announce this long-lasting partnership with the great team at Metro Water Services" expressed Dave Decker, General Manager at Systems & Software. "This is an important project as it brings the rich functionality of our comprehensive solution that MWS urgently needs, deployed with our new enQuesta 4 browser-based technology. With more than 240,000 customer accounts, we are proud to add MWS to our growing base of large water, wastewater and stormwater utilities across the United States."

About Harris:

Harris is a leading provider of utility customer information systems (CIS), billing, and financial management software solutions. Since 1976, Harris has focused on providing feature-rich and robust turnkey solutions to public power and water markets as well as all levels of local government throughout North America. Harris' focus is on creating long-term relationships with our customers and ensuring that we meet the changing needs of our customers over time. For further information on Harris Computer Systems please visit our website at www.harriscomputer.com, or call 888-847-7747.

About Constellation:

Constellation's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol "CSU". Constellation Software is an international provider of market leading software and services to a number of industries across both the public and private sectors. The Company acquires, manages and builds vertical market software businesses that provide mission--critical software solutions to address the specific needs of its customers in those industries.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Adobe Upgrades Software to Help Defend Against Apple (Update3)

Posted: 12 Apr 2010 01:33 PM PDT

By Rochelle Garner

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- Adobe Systems Inc. Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen released an overhaul of the company's most profitable product today, bolstering defenses against mounting criticism by Apple Inc. of his flagship Flash software.

Narayen announced a new version of Adobe's Creative Suite, five groupings of as many as 15 programs that rely on Flash to create Web video and make sites more interactive. His engineers spent 18 months updating the applications, which in 2009 accounted for $1.7 billion, or about 60 percent, of sales.

Getting Creative Suite right is crucial as Apple CEO Steve Jobs faults Flash as "too slow" and bars it from his company's mobile devices. Apple's efforts to persuade programmers to adopt other ways to get video to work on Web sites threatens Flash's dominance and has left Adobe on the defensive.

"Adobe can't be complacent against someone as charismatic as Steve Jobs," said Andrea "Andy" Cunningham, president of CXO Communication in Palo Alto, California, who helped create Apple's Macintosh public relations campaign in 1984. "They need to define Flash as the Kleenex of video media. The battle is theirs to lose, and if they do, it will be a real shame."

Countering Apple's criticism of Flash -- and by extension the Creative Suite programs that use it -- may be a tall order for Adobe, the No. 1 maker of graphics software. The San Jose, California-based company is fighting for the hearts of Web site developers, many of whom view Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch and newly released iPad tablet as platforms they can't ignore.

Adobe fell 45 cents to $35.02 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have dropped 4.8 percent this year.

Apple Rebuff

Apple's disdain for Flash has become more marked recently. Video and graphics created with Flash won't work on the iPad, a tablet-style computer that went on sale in April, or on the iPhone, Apple's smart phone introduced in 2007.

Last week, as Jobs showcased the latest version of the iPhone's operating system at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, he praised an emerging rival standard called HTML5. Part of his presentation included video promoting the Walt Disney Co. movie "Toy Story 3." "All this video is HTML5, which is really easy to do," he said.

Apple also updated the license to develop on the iPhone's software last week. That license now prohibits developers from using an Adobe program that converts applications written in Flash into code the iPhone can run, according to John Gruber, who writes the Daring Fireball technology blog.

During an Apple shareholder meeting in March 2008, Jobs called Flash "too slow to be useful" on mobile devices.

Potential 'Harm'

Adobe's Narayen said he is unconcerned by Apple's recommendation that video producers use HTML5. Adobe is adept at vying with companies such as Microsoft Corp., he said.

"This is not new for Adobe, in terms of competing against large companies that bring to bear different, competing tactics," Narayen said last week in an interview. "We have competed with Microsoft in the past. We've competed with Apple in the past. As long as we've driven innovation, we've demonstrated we can be successful."

Still, Adobe said that Apple's exclusion of Flash represents a threat.

"To the extent new releases of operating systems or other third-party products, platforms or devices, such as the Apple iPhone or iPad, make it more difficult for our products to perform, and our customers are persuaded to use alternative technologies, our business could be harmed," Adobe said in an April 9 regulatory filing.

Hope for CS5

A key component of Adobe's defense is Creative Suite 5, which includes programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Sales of the previous version, Creative Suite 4, fell 18 percent in 2009 as the economic crisis pinched demand.

CS4 debuted in October 2008, just as the recession started deepening, prompting many customers to forgo upgrades.

In this version, Adobe has added Flash to every application that could benefit from it, Narayen said. Graphic designers, for example, can use InDesign to lay out pages for print and, at the same time, create simple animations that will appear when those printed pages are placed on the Web.

"The knock on CS4 was people wanted more usability with Flash," Joel Fishbein, an analyst with Lazard Capital Markets, said in an interview from New York. "With CS5, it looks like Adobe listened and delivered. At the end of the day, Apple will support Flash to give customers the choice they deserve and need." He has a "hold" rating on Adobe shares and doesn't own them.

Flash: 'Incredibly Important'

Many financial analysts including Sarah Friar of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expect CS5 sales to rise this year. Friar said Adobe will generate $2.1 billion in revenue from CS5 this year, compared with $1.7 billion in Creative Suite sales in 2009, though less than $2.07 billion in 2008.

"Flash is incredibly important to Adobe," Friar said. "Apple isn't the be-all and end-all of video on the Web."

Narayen said Apple's criticism reflects an attempt to protect its way of doing business.

"This has nothing to do with the technology," he said. "It's not a technology decision, it's a business model: a closed, proprietary business model, with complete control, as opposed to having open innovation drive what happens across devices."

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris disagreed.

"Someone has it backwards," she said in an e-mailed statement. It's HTML5 and other standards supported by the iPhone and iPad "that are open and standard, while Adobe's Flash is closed and proprietary."

PCs, Phones

More than 75 percent of online videos run on Flash, and the software is installed on about 98 percent of personal computers connected to the Internet, according to Adobe. Flash also runs on more than 800 million mobile phones, manufactured by 19 of the top 20 handset makers -- all except Apple.

Some Web publishers are adding HTML5 for Apple without ditching Adobe software, said Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove Inc., which produces online videos for thousands of publisher clients.

Peaceful coexistence may prove Adobe's best defense, CXO's Cunningham said.

"Adobe should talk every day about the widespread use of Flash, because that's how you fight the battle against someone like Steve Jobs," she said. "They have numbers on their side. And if there are any issues at all -- about quality or security -- they have to be on it to fix it. Because the minute there are cracks in their seam, Apple can jump in."

To contact the reporter on this story: Rochelle Garner in San Francisco at rgarner4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 12, 2010 16:12 EDT

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