Security: Many IT managers vowed to avoid WEP some time ago. “The problem is that swearing off WEP for our personal geek machines and swearing it off for a fleet desktops and laptops are two different things,” Oliver Rist explains. WEP security is mere clicks away, in Windows. This tale, folks, has spine-chilling twists, repartee fit for dinner vegetables and, of course, violence. But it finally ends with a resolution residing in a place disguised only as itself: Active Directory. Columnist’s corner: The numbers and schemes behind quarterly earnings are often enough to make any techie’s head spin until it hurts. “Earnings season is a jargon-laden obfuscation fest. Companies try to smell like a rose even after they’ve stunk up the joint,” David Margulius explains in this quick guide to earnings gibberish. This list includes tactics such as the ‘pre-announce’ and acronyms GAAP vs. non-GAAP net income, not to mention the ominous terms ‘accounting irregularities’ and ‘alpha’ which does not at all resemble the word’s usage for software testing cycles. Good luck! Open source: Call it the acquisition/confusion syndrome. “It can be severely damaging, and anyone exposed to it is susceptible to infection. The point of exposure occurs when a ‘Big 4’ vendor acquires a smaller, focused start-up in hopes of expanding their offerings,” writes Harper Mann in Open source, stat! Symptoms include claustrophobia, cold sweats due to vendor lock-in, dissatisfaction, anger, confusion, disorientation. “But there is a treatment.” The news beat: IBM details plans to stack processors atop memory or power components then drill holes to connect them, thereby improving efficiency. Oracle makes its CRM reach out to BlackBerry devices via Siebel Wireless. And Vonage Holdings CEO Michael Snyder resigns amid efforts to cut costs by some $140 million. Security