GigaOM

Folks over at SANS have warned of a recent antivirus update that blocks access to servers and generates lots of false positives. One system administrator at a large financial services firm told us, on condition of anonymity, that the new Trend Micro pattern file took down 300 systems within his organization.

“A pattern file caused slower performance for users attempting to access large files,” was all Christina Sarracino, a media contact at Trend, would tell us. So it’s unclear why people are reporting that the patch affected Oracle and Domino servers. Trend also wouldn’t explain what kinds of testing their patches undergo before release (though as a security firm, that’s probably a good thing.) Trend fixed the problem, which existed in a patch released on Feb. 12, with two patch updates later that day.

In the face of computer security threats, the world has automated all its security, from antivirus checking to spyware scanning to OS updates. And each of us has dozens of computing devices around us every day, from iPhones to Internet Tablets to game consoles. The bad guys have a lot more connected devices in which to hide their code.

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India lost half its Internet capacity on Wednesday when two strands of fiber as thick as a thumb snapped. While service is returning to normal, it may be weeks before the cables are repaired. The fact that a pair of central Internet paths are just 2 km apart should serve as a cautionary tale as to just how fragile the Internet can be.

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DEMO 2008 brought 78 companies to the stage for six minutes each. It’s speed dating for venture capitalists, and a testament to the short attention spans of today’s market. After not quite three days, here are four themes:

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Startup Vidyo took the stage at DEMO today to demonstrate a new approach to videoconferencing, following the announcement of their new offering and a licensing relationship with Cisco Systems.

The Hackensack, N.J.-based startup has implemented a newly minted standard, called scalable video coding (SVC), that enables video streaming at multiple resolutions, quality levels and bit rates. H.264/SVC, as the standard is known, fundamentally changes the way videoconferencing is delivered. And while the standard is public, implementing it is what makes Vidyo special.

“The standard allows you to have layers of encoded video, and if you’re intelligent about how you do that you can do lots of things,” Marty Hollander, SVP of marketing, told me.

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Does the world need another database? If it’s easier to use than a spreadsheet and available online, Blist thinks so.

The company, which is launching in beta this week at DEMO, makes a collaborative, web-based tool for building databases that can contain everything from contact information to videos. While the web is full of database-building tools (like GoogleBase) and roll-your-own-portal sites, Blist is banking on its simple, intuitive UI to win over users. “GoogleBase isn’t easy enough for mainstream users in terms of creating databases or sharing them,” says Kevin Merritt, Blist’s CEO.

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Standout Jobs, a recruiting portal aimed at facilitating relationship-building between mid-sized companies and star job candidates, launched at DEMO today. The site borrows heavily from social media portals like Ning, and backs it up with a modern Content Management System (CMS) and candidate tracking system.

Back in early 2007, the company’s founders saw an opportunity to revitalize the recruiting process: Instead of static job descriptions, employers could entertain and engage their prospects. “We started experimenting with video as a way for companies to open up and let a candidate say, ‘Could I see myself working there?’” says founder and CEO Benjamin Yoskovitz (who is also author of the popular startup blog Instigatorblog.)

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