Security: Sometimes, things need to be said over and over. So Roger Grimes comes back around to the sad state of computer security. “Last week, a class of mine asked which vendor had the best security. I responded that they all are pretty bad,” Grimes begins. “As more and more of the world goes online, and as more of our important infrastructure goes ‘e-something,’ it would appear that we are on a collision course headed toward a tipping point event. And when it does, the sheep will stand aghast wondering how it happened.” Columnists’ corner: The old-fashioned, long white coat model of R&D might just be crumbling. Even though corporate America spends some $200 billion on research and development every year, the problem is they’re not keeping up with the fast-changing consumer well enough to get that ROI. Of course, there are some inventive companies out there, such as Netflix, David Margulius reports in The uncertain future of R&D. Q&A: David Boloker, a distinguished engineer and CTO of emerging Internet technologies at IBM, who also serves on the OpenAjax Alliance’s steering committee, speaks with Paul Krill in this interview about trying to get Apple and Microsoft to join, the impact of them not participating in the alliance, and the security issues around Ajax. The news beat: TippingPoint today will officially announce a phishing research tool called Monkeyspaw that is built to leverage the Greasemonkey plug-in for Firefox. Mercury today will unveil its BTO (Business Technology Optimization) strategy to help customers control SOA services that violate compliance standards. And former Hewlett-Packard chairmen Carly Fiorina and Patricia Dunn each pointed a finger at Thomas Perkins, an HP board member, blaming him for getting them removed from the board and setting “the mindset for basically everything that’s believed about this case right now.” Technology Industry