- Vista and beyond (already)
- InfoWorld Daily Podcast
- The origination of a buzzword
- Quote of the day: Kicking Google's tires
- Getting through to a frustrated IT boss
- InfoWorld Daily Podcast
- Why doesn't Microsoft care about DBAs?
- Quote of the day: Novell drops Hula
- Answering another interview question
- InfoWorld Daily Podcast
November 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Operating systems: At the official unveiling of Windows Vista, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that most critical work on it happened in the last two years -- and he foreshadowed some of what IT can expect in the next desktop OS, whenever it may arrive.
Podcasts: The Federal Rules of Civil Procedures (FRCP) kick in tomorrow (Dec. 1) and that means companies, and their attorneys, had better be on top of their data -- but there are solutions available to help. Tune into Storage Sprawl.
Best of the blogs: Sean McCown came across "something that changes the way you do everything." That's the latest release of Camtasia Studio, with which he made a video of the restore procedure for an ETL process. "Think about it ... would you rather sift through tons of documents or watch a video and see exactly what you need to do, and do it at the same time? This way you can also have the important things explained to you," he asks and answers in Not just a DR plan anymore. "So use Camtasia for your DR plans. Use it for your other documentation purposes too."
The news beat: AMD touts its QUAD FX Platform, which carries two dual-core Athlon chips. Intuit reveals its intention to buy Digital Insight for $1.4 billion and plans to tie its Quicken and QuickBooks to the acquired Internet banking services. And Software AG remakes itself into an SOA company, providing products and services for building service-oriented architecture infrastructures.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 30, 2006 11:23 AM
November 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft lets Vista out into the wild, Intel details new quad-core 'Penryn' chip, Asustek adapts home phones for VoIP, and more
LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 30, 2006 08:03 AM
November 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
SOA: Please, please ... I apologize in advance for introducing yet another buzzword into the IT lexicon, but Dave Linthicum, in something of an Edgar Allen Poe moment perhaps, woke up and wrote one down: Blurring. "Blurring is the notion of blurring the line between your enterprise applications, and services and information found on the Internet. Or, blurring the lines between your SOA and the emerging Web 2.0," he explains in A buzzword is born. "The advantage of blurring is that those tasked with building enterprise applications can now leverage Web-based services that they did not have to create themselves." The downside, of course, is that zero population growth for buzzwords is not yet upon us.
Best of the blogs: Second Life now has its first virtual world millionaire, Anshe Chung, a real estate mogul whose holdings have even led to a real-life -- yes, as in outside the Secone Life realm and in the physical, concrete world -- ventures. But even her experience does not prove that Second Life will prove anything more than an escape from the real world, Ted Samson suggests. Doing business in Second Life.
The news beat: Corel says it will put a foot in both the ODF and Open XML document format camps with its WordPerfect software. Broadcom buys LVL7 Systems for its software that runs switches and routers for SMBs. And, of course, today is the day Microsoft launches Windows Vista, Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 -- and the worldwide festivities began at three locations in Asia already.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 30, 2006 04:46 AM
November 30, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Kicking Google's tires
Like many of you, probably, I tire-kicked Google Spreadsheets when it first arrived on the scene, then forgot all about it. A nice bit of AJAX hackery, I thought, but no serious competition for Excel. I was wrong, though ... Google's office apps, while collaboratively adept, are functionally lame. Microsoft's apps are adept and lame in precisely the opposite ways. Everyone needs to converge on solutions that deliver the best of both. -- Jon Udell. We need a universal canvas.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 30, 2006 04:05 AM
November 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Getting through to a frustrated IT boss
Best of the blogs: A stressed out reader seeks the sage advice of Bob Lewis regarding a demeaning boss who lets emotions get in the way of proper communication. That's not to say Mr. Lewis goes easy on our reader, though. "There are effective ways to provide employees with guidance about how they are performing and how they should be performing. It appears your manager doesn't know them," he explains. "She should, but she doesn't. That means it's up to you to make the communication between the two of you more productive."
Storage: Very fat, hybrid disk drives just might emerge in a not-too-distant future, thanks to Fujitsu, reports Mario Apicella in this Storage Network post. The company is moving toward terabit per square inch drives in the form of thermally assisted magnetic recording, aka TAMR -- a combination of magnetic and optical recording. "Sounds promising," Apicella comments.
The news beat: Google bids adieu to Google Answers, its fee-based research service, without providing a reason for the shutdown, though speculation that it's in no small part because of Yahoo Answers comes quite easily. Oracle launches the Identity Governance Framework to create specs for sharing data across applications. And Nokia is looking a bit two-faced by simultaneously creating mobile application services and technology to enable operators to deem the services a low priority.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 29, 2006 11:11 AM
November 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
HP details new datacenter cooling technology, Intel to inject pre-standard 802.11n into Centrino, YouTube goes mobile, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 29, 2006 07:26 AM
November 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Why doesn't Microsoft care about DBAs?
Best of the blogs: A sibling rivalry of sorts, perhaps, but at PASS Sean McCown came to realize that even though "developers are the bee's knees," Microsoft "really doesn't hold DBAs in much regard," he explains in this Database Underground post. In some ways, McCown notes, they are even rendered out of the equation.
Columnist's corner: Tom Yager kicks off this week's installment of Ahead of the Curve by pointing out that, through its pact with Novell, Microsoft has effectively made the use of Suse Linux the only safe means to achieve heterogeneity. "By immunizing Novell against future intellectual property actions, Microsoft tacitly notified other players in commercialized open source that Microsoft sets the rules for Windows interoperability from now on," he adds. It gets scarier than that, too. "There's no end to what Microvell can do within the law. If you let them." Microvell's big chill.
The news beat: Intel says it will put 802.11n into Centrino prior to the standard being ratified. Novell expands Zenworks to manage virtualization. And Apple patches a wireless bug in AirPort that could be used by attackers to run software on a victim's PC.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 29, 2006 04:44 AM
November 29, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Novell drops Hula
I remember when Hula launched a few years ago at LinuxWorld and it was all the rage--sadly the project is no longer being funded by Novell. Truth be told, Zimbra and some of the other OSS MS Exchange replacements are far better than Hula ever was. It's just disappointing to see a promising technology from Novell bite the dust. -- Dave Rosenberg. Novell drops Hula efforts.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 29, 2006 04:02 AM
November 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Answering another interview question
Best of the blogs: If like many folks you're looking around because the top brass is taking the company in a direction you don't agree with, you ought to be ready for the disqualifying question "Why are you leaving your current job?" Answer man Bob Lewis presents a pair of options. Just don't say anything negative about your employer.
Columnists' corner: There are more than a few ways to win IT contracts. One such is the military way. As our Off the Record author found out, squabbling among armed forces units, power plays and politics can lead to the squandering of, in this case, $18 million and the loss of 30 jobs. "When you're working on a government contract, going above and beyond what's expected is not always in your best interest."
The news beat: IBM nabs Vallent and plans to add the acquired network performance monitoring and service management software to its Netcool products. Through a deal with Verizon, YouTube will make a sampling of videos mobile, as in accessible via cell phone. And Trolltech details the Qtopia Greensuite to catalyze Linux-based smart phones.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 28, 2006 11:06 AM
November 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Vista to outpace XP, U.N. Summit looks at e-waste reduction, Palm forecast down, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 28, 2006 08:06 AM
November 28, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The end of DRM as we know it (and, no, I don't feel fine)
Best of the blogs: With Microsoft officially launching Windows Vista on Thursday, Ed Foster is thinking about the long-term implications. "I wonder if corporate customers won't eventually look back on the end of November 2006 as the point when they ceded control of their organizations' networks to the anti-piracy efforts of big software publishers," Foster contemplates via his keyboard in A new day for corporate DRM. It's not just Microsoft either. "November has also marked Adobe's introduction of its own anti-piracy technology for corporate customers, the Adobe License Manager."
Columnists' corner: There's no denying that healthcare in America has its share of problems, but IT is driving noteworthy changes in the field. "As health care goes high tech, IT expertise will be needed more than ever to manage all the new systems," Ephraim Schwartz writes. Take the EMR, for example. The TLA stands for Electronic Medical Record which, in effect, is a history of each individual's history. EMR goes beyond the paper-based record keeping of old in that it can be used to more effectively spot disturbing trends.
Test Center review: Ajax is all the rage in app dev circles these days, so Peter Wayner examines four tools apropos of the trend. Backbase, Bindows, JackBe NQ Suite and Tibco General Interface. A motley sounding group, to be certain, but they all offer widgets, rich tools, debuggers and platforms worthy of traditional IDEs. "Writing JavaScript used to be like taking a trip to the jungle, but now it's as plush as a five-star hotel," Wayner points out. Distinctions between the products, quite naturally, do exist. "The major differences among these packages lie not in the capabilities, but in the server support and the finer details of their approach." Read the full review.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 28, 2006 04:47 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
India's tide not rising overnight
Columnists' corner: While some are predicting doom and gloom in which India surpasses the U.S., Steve Fox thinks otherwise. The sad truth: poverty is rampant in India, even if Bangalore has become a high-tech hub. "Somehow, I think the great leveling will take a lot longer than anyone thinks," he writes. India oversimplified.
Open source: An unforeseen consequence of the Microsoft-Novell pact is that it makes GPLv3 more attractive, reports Neil McAllister in this week's installment of Open Enterprise. "If enough [projects] switch to the new license, it would become virtually impossible for Novell to maintain the Suse Linux distribution in its current form and still comply with the terms of its agreement with Microsoft," he notes. Oh yes, and at least one open source legal expert says that Microsoft and Novell's agreement would not come close to clearing GPLv3.
Best of the blogs: There's nothing quite like Thanksgiving Day to trigger an epiphany, and that's precisely what happened to Ephraim Schwartz when he tried to get his Windows PC back up and running after he packed it away to make room for dinner guests. "I suddenly got the distinct feeling Microsoft is on its way out," Schwartz explains in To Microsoft: Hurry up, please, it's time. "The truth is Microsoft carries within itself its own seeds of destruction. Built into to the very DNA of the company and its products is the need to feed off the computer to survive."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 27, 2006 10:52 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Special edition: senior editor Paul Roberts interviews Check Point CEO Gil Schwed LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 27, 2006 09:23 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
SOA: Just what is a SOA services company, anyway? Most IT folks might conjure infrastructure providers. But, clearly, there's more to it than that, as David Linthicum learned at the SOA Kongress last week in Germany. Think APIs. Google has a bunch of them, and collectively they prove that "the 'outside-in services' notion is coming true. It's just a matter of time before major enterprise-class services come out of the Web as well, not to mention semantic management, governance, security, and all of the on-demand management that's needed with those services," Linthicum explains.
Q&A: Vendor cooperation is the key to data security, explains Dennis Hoffman, EMC's vice president and general manager of enterprise solutions at the RSA division. Hoffman also headed up EMC's security efforts before the RSA acquisition. "The interesting thing is that there's no difference in the strategy before and after," he says in this interview.
Open source: Open source databases are cheaper, TCO-wise, than proprietary alternatives, right? At least that's what Forrester Research found. The analyst firm claims that no license fees and less expensive management tools mean the average savings on total cost of ownership for EnterpriseDB, Ingres, MySQL and others is at least 50 percent.
The news beat: Salesforce.com this week is announcing the ApexConnect tool for integrating on-demand applications with back-end systems. Analyst house Ovum predicts that Windows Vista adoption will outpace XP. And Google reaches an accord with two Belgian press groups that will allow it to use their content in ways that go beyond copyright law.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 27, 2006 05:55 AM
November 27, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Time for Wi-Fi
Many network administrators have done one of two things with wireless: either removed it entirely because they just got tired of the signal problems and security hassles, or got it working enough that they can simply forget about it and use it simply as another connection medium. -- Oliver Rist. Time to plug into Wi-Fi.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 27, 2006 04:09 AM
November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
A final, short post before the holiday.
Best of the blogs: Stepping out of his self-described 'sarcastic and easily annoyed' state, Bob Lewis offers this perspective on the inconvenience of dealing with IT issues such as bugs and security holes. "More than two billion people have no access to basic sanitation. The same number figures a bowl or two of rice a day means they're fed well. For much of the world, malaria is a fact of life, as is losing children to curable diseases. Hunger isn't something you experience because you're trying to lose weight, and trying to lose weight is a baffling concept." Something to remember not only tomorrow, but also beyond.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 22, 2006 11:03 AM
November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft to license Office UI for free, experts say Yahoo spread too thin, Google looks to test Wi-Fi in San Francisco, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 22, 2006 08:17 AM
November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The interminable saga of Microsoft and Novell
Reality Check: New best friends Microsoft and Novell are perhaps hoping that by Thanksgiving's end, the IT sector will have tired of focusing on the interoperability pact they signed recently. But there are lingering questions. "What are these deals really buying Microsoft?" Ephraim Schwartz asks in Beware Redmondians bearing gifts. Schwartz, of course, is also referring to prior agreements Microsoft has struck with AOL, Apple, BeOS, and Sun Microsystems. "Five or 10 years from now as Microsoft continues this strategy, IT will wake up and discover it is not the heterogeneous shop it thought it was." And we'll really be missing something.
Columnists' corner: Tom Yager, meanwhile, offers his take. "If you're running Linux, but you're not running Microsoft-blessed SLES (Suse Linux Enterprise Server), Microsoft won't promise not to sue the maker of your Linux distribution, one or more of the open source projects that are part of it, or you. BSD and OS X, and their users, don't get a pass, either," he explains in Microsoft and Novell pull a SCO. "The shape of this agreement suggests that Microsoft and Novell have learned from the best, the corporate strategic masterminds at The SCO Group."
The news beat: A report from Gartner explains the inevitability accompanying virtualization -- that physical hardware sales, while still growing, are slowing. The open source Castle project, for making development on .Net easier, is moving toward general release in January. And Dell beats earning estimates, citing sales of hardware running on AMD processors.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 22, 2006 04:30 AM
November 22, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Security by far too much obscurity
To patch or not to patch -- that is the question for many software customers. And it's particularly tricky to answer when the software company won't say what the patch is for, as one reader discovered with a recent Critical Patch Update released by Oracle for PeopleSoft … After all, there's no security in a security update that may cause a customer more problems than it fixes. -- Ed Foster. Oracle security patch causes insecurity.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 22, 2006 04:08 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
From the feature well: There are some regulatory rules for litigation that IT had better understand -- and some of them kick in come Dec. 1. Now, for something you might not know: the rules themselves carry names including Rule 26 (f), Rule 26 (a) (1) [B] and Rule 26 (b) (2) [B]. These address early discussion prepardness and disclosure. Ephraim Schwartz breaks down those, and a few more, in New litigation rules put IT on the front lines of data access.
Podcasts: Dave Linthicum poses this important question: Can your enterprise see the emerging Web? But that comes after he looks at how much SOA really costs. "A lot of people are trying to figure how much their service-oriented architecture will cost," he says. "Service-oriented architecture is a journey, not a destination. It's a journey not a project, but if we have to run it as a project." Tune into The SOA Report.
Best of the blogs: When an office partner moves in after the previous one spent 15 years with you, and the newbie brings a software system that demands after-hours support, one reader asks, what are your options? Well, Bob Lewis has three in Living with a bad decision, but he only really recommends one of them.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 21, 2006 10:41 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Talkback: Annual AV a headache?
In Annual charges now the rule with AV software, IDG News Service's Robert McMillan reports that automatic renewals may be convenient for vendors but are often a headache for consumers and small businesses.
Are AV subscriptions giving you a headache? Talk back to us, below.
Posted by Mike Barton on November 21, 2006 10:25 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
JBoss adds ESB to its stack, HP offers virtual house calls, AOL CEO change stirs criticism, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 21, 2006 07:25 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Special report: Reduce datacenter redundancy. You might not be able to say it three times fast, but a smart consolidation plan -- one more concerned with agility than cost savings, that is -- has helped several companies manage to pull it off. Expect your CEO to ask whether to outsource, consolidate or both. Either way, it's handy to know that some consolidation power tools are at your disposal. And, in fact, it might already be in place.
Columnists' corner: Even though Mono gave developers something they'd not before had in an open source app dev platform with modern features, Sun's open sourcing of the JDK could kill Mono, explains Neil McAllister in Goodbye Mono, hello Java? "If that happens, I fear Microsoft will have won yet another victory." That's not to say Java is unwelcome, though.
The news beat: Novell CEO Ron Havsepian, meanwhile, addresses patent concerns in an open letter stating that Novell "disagrees with the recent statements made by Microsoft on the topic of Linux and patents." Speaking of ... Alcatel sues Microsoft, claiming infringment on seven U.S. patents. Samsung touts what it calls the thinnest phone LCD ever produced. And Dell says it will report Q3 earnings despite accounting troubles.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 21, 2006 05:23 AM
November 21, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Year of virtualization, or not?
The future of Grid lies in a number of fields beyond traditional Grid computing. In retrospect, I think 2006 was the year that saw 'a break' - but not in the sense of a bust. What we saw this last year was an incredible proliferation of many different Grid-derived technologies, including Grid 2.0., SOA, and, of course Virtualization. -- Greg Nawrocki, Grid: The sum of the parts.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 21, 2006 04:02 AM
November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
How much will that SOA really cost?
Best of the blogs: Undertaking a project the scope of SOA almost always raises questions about money -- namely, how much will it take? "Most organizations building a SOA don't have a clue how to approach this, and in many cases grossly underestimate ... hoping that their bosses and accountants won't notice later," David Linthicum explains, and offers some guidelines for calculating the cost of SOA.
Podcasts: Jon Udell speaks with Rajiv Gupta, CEO of Securent, fresh-from-stealth mode startup tackling "the thorny problem of fine-grained access control." In this podcast, the two discuss XACML, how to "wrap or intercept legacy security policies to hoist them out of application logic" as well as the relationship between fine- and coarse-grained security.
The news beat: EMC reveals plans for an embedded version of its Documentum content management software tailored specifically so applications vendors can build it into their programs. Yahoo inks an online deal with seven newspaper publishers to deliver local advertising and search to readers. And Microsoft ramps up its software-as-a-service efforts in Europe.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 20, 2006 10:59 AM
November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Check Point antes up at data protection table, AMD to layoff 375, U.S. gov’t approves Lucent-Alcatel merger, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 20, 2006 08:42 AM
November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Passwords: easier to guess than you think
Security: If there is a silver lining in the phishing attack that let 34,000 MySpace passwords loose, it's that Roger Grimes got to analyze them. "Being able to collect and analyze such a large number of passwords from a wide range of users doesn't usually happen when you're on the white-hat side of things," he explains in this installment of Security Adviser. One of the lessons learned: "An exploited Web site that's completely unrelated to your company could still put your company at risk. Remind all employees not to use their company passwords on noncompany Web sites, if at all." Another is that "Cuss words were very popular. Boy, there's a lot of aggression out there."
Notes from the field: Word that Bill Gates' investment group put in a bid for the Four Seasons Hotel chain has Cringe a bit spooked this week. He might even have to start opting for Motel 6's if Microsoft's product support philosophy rubs off on the Four Seasons. And, what's more, he can no longer even take solace in PamelaPoker.com as his favorite gambling site, run by none other than Pamela Anderson, is shutting down. Gates wants to play host, AOL may soon be toast.
The news beat: AMD is set to cut 375 jobs as it integrates ATI into its culture. CA sues in an effort to recover the $14.9 million it spent on the legal defense for former CEO Sanjay Kumar; the Judge's 'attachment order' covers many novelties, including a 57-foot yacht, two Ferrari cars and more automobiles. And the H-1B SKIL Bill creates a need vs. greed scenario in which IT workers face off with IT executives.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 20, 2006 04:47 AM
November 20, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: The irony in SKIL Bill
In truth, the issues are far from clear-cut. Yes, U.S. companies have laid off scads of employees and continue to hire foreign-born workers, sometimes at less-than-market rates; but many employers still can't seem to fill open IT positions. Then there's outsourcing: Will the availability of fewer foreign workers simply push companies to send more jobs overseas? Would it be better to have those H-1B workers here, where they pay taxes and contribute to our economy? -- Steve Fox. -- Weighing in on the H-1B debate.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 20, 2006 04:03 AM
November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: The virtual world Second Life is beginning to look a lot like, umm, First Life, suggests Dave Rosenberg in this post. "What happens when avatars start stealing each other's stuff? Or playing each other's music (without permission)? Or writing free software and giving it away to lobotomize others' businesses?" he poses.
From the analysts: If you're expecting that certification you're pursuing to pay off, you might want to think again. Certifications are losing respect. Perhaps it's because anyone can track down a tech tutorial anytime, or maybe just a refocusing of priorities. "The IT labor market's like one big auction, and rather than bidding based on a single skill set, employers are starting to look more at bundles of skills, of which a certification may not be the most important feature," writes David Margulius in Will IT certification pay off in the long run? He's not the only asking that question, either.
The news beat: Yahoo says it will buy Bix.com, an online contest site, in efforts to broaden its array of social media services. Dell establishes a fourth support center in India. And Avaya acquires Traverse saying with the purchased technology it hopes to make voice mail easier.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2006 11:07 AM
November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
IBM, HP duke it out over energy-efficiency, Sype goes mobile, hackers post attack code for Windows and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2006 09:29 AM
November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
A contrarian's view of Metro Wi-Fi
Best of the blogs: Municipal Wi-Fi certainly has its advantages and a plethora of backers, including me, but Ephraim Schwartz does have a point when he writes that with e-mail, IM and obviously voice all accessible via cell phone, ubiquitous Internet access begins to lose its luster. "Besides giving advertisers another way to reach into my wallet, I am wondering what the real benefit is to the citizens of a city? My guess is when it comes down to it, not much," he posits in Who needs Metro Wi-Fi?. At least one reader comments in dissent.
Podcasts: Girding up for grids. In this cast: For storage grids to emerge from the confusion cloud surrounding them, definitions and boundaries need to be sculpted, and soon. Tune into Storage Sprawl.
The news beat: Big guns including Microsoft, Novell, Oracle and Sun are putting open source into turmoil and Red Hat investors are scared. In the continuing energy-efficient hardware battles, IBM says its servers use less power than Hewlett-Packard's, a claim the latter of course denies. And Google recruits the founders of iRows, a browser-based spreadsheet service.
Gripe Line: Having trouble tracking down a rebate? You're not the only one. Ed Foster shares the experience of one reader who is taking a complaint all the way to the State Attorney General's office regarding two Home Depot rebates that remain unfulfilled. And Foster has an idea to put rebate companies into a deep freeze. "Try to deal with retailers like Office Max and Best Buy that are generally eliminating mail-in rebates."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2006 04:41 AM
November 17, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Zune the next Bob?
We all remember Microsoft BOB -- right? That disastrous effort to change the whole desktop GUI metaphor to something more cute and family friendly? Well, Bob didn't go over so well and the project, plus its 'shoot me in the forehead, please' smiley face logo have become synonymous for ambitious Redmond projects that flopped. Barring a major re-think from Microsoft (something they didn't give to Bob) Zune may be a Bob for the gadget world. -- Paul Roberts. Is Zune the next Bob?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 17, 2006 04:11 AM
November 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
On semantics, ontologies and standards
SOA: Diving into Part 2 of his latest series, Managing SOA Semantics Using Ontologies and Supporting W3C Standards, David Linthicum offers his take on RDF and OWL. "Using these Web-based standards as the jumping-off point for ontology and SOA, it's possible to define and automate the use of ontologies in both intra- and intercompany SOA domains," he explains. "We have a standards set of tools to define, manage, and share application semantics from domain to domain, including from the enterprise to the Internet, and back. It's time we started to use them."
Columnists' corner: Playing with Windows Vista has led Oliver Rist to understand why the security vendors are upset with Microsoft these days. "It's got little to do with how the OS is architected. It's got everything to do with how Forefront is a direct competitor to their enterprise products," he writes in Forefont security out and about. Rist predicts: "If this stuff doesn't slip up in keeping your signature protection up-to-date, it's going to make a big dent in the AV market next year."
The news beat: Skype launches its first mobile VoIP service, which enables customers to use Skype anywhere. Tyan Computers says that new, more powerful Typhoon servers running quad-core Xeon chips will be available in January. And Quest unwraps the Public Folder Migrator for SharePoint.
Best of the blogs: Following his column this week about the success XQuery has had with use-cases, Jon Udell shares some responses in this post. "Even at this late data a canonical set of XBRL use cases would be a great resource."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2006 11:12 AM
November 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Google, MS, Yahoo back search protocol, CA exec gets 7 years in the slammer, MS details vision for wireless Portland, Ore. and more Listen!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2006 07:48 AM
November 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: Buzzwords have a tendency to get ahead of themselves. Indeed, Web 3.0 is today's example. The term is being linked to the Semantic Web, reports Dave Linthicum. "If you want to see a ton of hype in the making, just Google 'semantic web and Web 3.0,' and you'll see that both the Web 2.0 and SOA bloggers are alive and kicking about this 'new concept.' Truth be told, I've been linking the semantic web to SOA for a long time. To be honest, however, not a lot of people cared until now."
Columnists' corner: Use-cases have proven critical to XQuery's success, Jon Udell stresses in this week's installment of Strategic Developer. These "weren't just slapped on after the fact," he explains. "They actually came first, and they guided the long and difficult process of developing XQuery." But this case is an exception. "Software technologists, as a rule, undervalue examples. The Unix man page is a classic illustration of this mind-set."
The news beat: Microsoft says it is working on a CardSpace plug-in for Firefox that will enable the browser to work with its identity management technology. Rumors are circulating that Apple will unveil a mobile phone that plays music. And Google, Microsoft and Yahoo partner in support of an open source search protocol that makes it easier for webmasters to get content indexed by search engines.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2006 04:50 AM
November 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Apple's fling with Linux
When asked to explain why I had to find out about this by reading it in some damn book, Apple made the following statement: 'I can't believe you're throwing this in my face ten years after the fact. We agreed never to talk about our pasts. Look, Linux was really getting around back then. Everybody was doing it, and I was rebelling against my whole Happy Mac image. I was like, I'm a grown up now, I can make my own choices, and I demand the freedom to be a brooding Mac, a wasted Mac, and yeah, a shallow Mac'. -- Tom Yager. Tell-all author dishes about Apple's fling with Linux
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 16, 2006 04:03 AM
November 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Negative feedback, collapse and chaos
Best of the blogs: After a friend suggested that negative feedback loops act to prevent collapse, Bob Lewis realized something. "The mathematics of negative feedback covers the Collapse effect nicely," he postulates in this entry. "The lesson is clear, really pretty obvious, and applies to a wide variety of situations: Make decisions based on current information, not what was true a year or two ago."
Columnists' corner: Windows catches most of the heat for security problems and virtualization is no exception to that rule. That's a pity, writes Tom Yager. But the bigger issue is that "some of the characteristics that make virtualization so convenient could conceivably make virtualized assets easier prey than physical ones," Yager explains.
Open source: Linux just might be behind the electoral victory by the Democratic Party last week. Indeed, the The DNC "tapped a new generation of low-cost, Linux-based data warehouse technology to improve the quantity, quality, and availability of voter information used by state Democratic parties during the election turn-out effort," according to the story Dems score with better data.
The news beat: Microsoft says that the pirated copies of Vista and Office 2007 already circulating are not final and, even with the available product code and activation keys, won't work for long. SaaS provider Entellium boosts its offline functionality. And former CA sales executive Stephen Richards gets a 7-year prison sentence for fraud charges.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 15, 2006 10:56 AM
November 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Borland opts for tools spin-off, EU may hit Microsoft with another fine, AOL upgrades AIM, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 15, 2006 06:35 AM
November 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Gas pedals, software and Machiavelli
Columnists' corner: How, prey tell, could a patent case over adjustable gas pedals impact the software industry? Well, for starters, Microsoft and Cisco jump in and file a friends-of-the-court brief regarding KSR v. Teleflex. "It is not what you think," writes Ephraim Schwartz in this week's installment of Reality Check. "Microsoft and Cisco have forgotten their roots. Now that they are the giants of the industry they want to make it harder for the 'little guy' to obtain patents and to protect themselves from the big guys."
Best of the blogs: Revisiting Niccolo Machiavelli, Matt Asay came across a passage applicable to open source in general. "One person's disease (i.e., proprietary vendors and open source) is another person's cure (i.e., enterprises adopting open source)," Asay explains.
Podcasts: David Linthicum presents 5 surefire ways to make your SOA a success. (For those of you who attended our SOA Executive Forum, please note that this is the presentation he delivered.) Tune into SOA Report.
The news beat: The European Commission may slap Microsoft with another daily fine of nearly $4 million if it doesn't provide details about Windows this month. Borland has decided against selling its tools unit and, instead, opted to spin the group off into a subsidiary. And ex-PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway joins the board of Kazeon Systems, an enterprise search startup.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 15, 2006 04:49 AM
November 15, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: VC not like the '90's
Over the past few years, the amount of VC money pouring into the open source world has exploded. And I have had, at times, lingering concerns about how this money would be spent by the start-up vendors. I was hoping this wouldn't lead to the excessive spending and burn-rates of the late 90's. But I have to say, it's been a very pleasant surprise to see open source vendors using their VC capital in creative ways to help developers and projects. -- Harper Mann. Working with open source developers and communities.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 15, 2006 04:03 AM
November 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: Just about everybody but IBM takes Sun's open sourcing of Java under the GPL as a good thing. Big Blue, however, is complaining about the decision. "This is a bold, welcome move by Sun, and effectively prevents IBM or any other Sun competitor from hijacking Java. It's the community's way or no way," writes Matt Asay. The Apache Software Foundation, meanwhile, says that if Sun wants to contribute Java to the group, "Apache would be glad to have it," Paul Krill reports in this TechWatch post.
Columnists' corner: The accidental boss. That's how this week's Off the Record author describes himself. Once the second-in-command and, for all purposes, the department techie, he was forced to become a manager when his left. "Unless we put one of the mainframe folks in charge, I was the only reasonable choice." You get the picture, I'm certain, though it was never to be permanent. Until Naomi showed up, that is. A little unintended sandbagging later and, voila, our writer was back on top. "I swear, taking over was the last thing I had in mind."
Podcasts: David Linthicum recaps our SOA Executive Forum, before returning to basics and talking about semantics. "Users are becoming more progressed," he explains. "SOA ultimately has a lot of value. The value is in reuse and making the company agile. However, in order to get the value an awful lot of work has to be done and an awful lot of money has to be spent." Tune into the SOA Report.
The news beat: Hewlett-Packard unwraps three new servers using Intel's quad-core Xeon chips and, in so doing, joins IBM and Dell in giving Intel a head start over AMD in the quad-core realm. Microsoft says that the third and final beta of Longhorn will become available in the first half of next year, insisting that the server remains on pace for its oft-postponed release by the end of 2007. And IBM reveals plans to invest $100 million in 10 new business opportunities.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 14, 2006 10:52 AM
November 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft details Longhorn and Forefront betas, IBM retains supercomputing throne, DT appoints new CEO and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 14, 2006 07:54 AM
November 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
SOA semantics and ontologies week
SOA: Kicking off another series, David Linthicum posts Managing SOA semantics using ontologies and supporting W3C standards, Part 1. Okay, long headline but, then again, he asserts that "semantics and ontologies are making a comeback, and SOA is driving the push forward." So this is hereby crowned 'semantics and ontologies week.'
Special report: The 2006 InfoWorld 100 Awards are in. Think bold transformations, including SOA and rip-and-replace upgrades. Such projects span education, financial services, government, health care, pharmaceutical industries and more. Congratulations to all the top finalists. Also, check out the accompanying slideshow.
Gripe Line: Ed Foster reports that Lenovo downgrades its return policy. "Manufacturers can usually make the terms in their fine print harsher without anybody noticing. That's not the case for Lenovo this time, though, because a sharp-eyed reader just spotted the fact that the company's policy on product returns has gone from being one of the best in the laptop business to one of the worst."
The news beat: Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz calls the open sourcing of Java a 'momentous' change. Microsoft makes its corporate antivirus software, Forefront Client Security, widely available to beta testers for the first time; it can be downloaded here. And IBM retains its throne on the Top 500 Supercomputers list.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 14, 2006 04:36 AM
November 14, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: The Java trap
It'll be very good that the Java trap won't exist anymore. It'll be a thing of the past. --Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, as quoted in Sun CEO: Open source Java is momentus.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 14, 2006 04:03 AM
November 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
The emergence of open source ESBs
SOA: David Linthicum, who considers the open source notion a strange one, reports that open source ESBs have emerged. "What is clear is that end users like buying software this way, and what's more it seems to be much less expensive than the same products sold in non-open source ways."
Columnists' corner: While Microsoft's partnership with Novell to improve interoperability between Windows and SuSE Linux has created its share of commotion, particulary concerning the potential for Microsoft to enforce infringement claims against customers, Neil McAllister explains that Microsoft's legal threats are empty. "The mere suggestion of legal trouble is enough to cast the shadow of doubt over many IT managers' Linux plans," he writes. "Nonetheless, the only sensible strategy is to resist succumbing to that doubt."
Best of the blogs: The Samba development team is not happy about the Microsoft-Novell pact. Evidence: It drafted an open letter to Novell asking the company to reconsider, notes Dave Rosenberg in this post. "It would be interesting to see what would happen if all the projects banded together against the Novell/MS deal."
The news beat: Tibco, Savvion, and Cape Clear all release new or upgraded products that focus on BAM or BPM. Samsung presents a look at the future of mobile phones, suggesting some dramatic changes. And Microsoft partners with Bharti Airtel, an Indian telecom services provider, to sell hosted applications there.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 13, 2006 10:53 AM
November 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Sun open sources Java, Microsoft says Novell deal not exclusive, hacker gets prison sentence, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 13, 2006 07:49 AM
November 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Podcasts: I hate to be among the first to jump on the ol' holiday sled, but Oliver Rist discusses how to give your boss the gift of a do-it-yourself ultra-custom business dashboard. Then, he delves into how SMBs can make sense of all the commotion surrounding notebook evolution. Tune into Emerging Enterprise.
Best of the blogs: After three weeks with Apple's new Xserve and OS X Server Tiger 10.4.8, Tom Yager posts his Apple Xserve: The final review. "Apple is taking a road that pundits will likely insist will lead Apple nowhere: It is doing a server appliance play, but not of a flavor that the market's seen before," he explains. "The sum of Xserve's flaws is overwhelmed by the system's unique leading-edge, user and administrator-centric engineering. Xserve is far better than the commodity server that the Intel x86 market expects."
From the analysts: David Margulius reports on a dinner at the Churchill Club, where Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz was interviewed by a reporter from the New York Times. "Only one problem -- [Sun] couldn't seem to articulate a coherent strategy." Margulius lists what he sees as Sun's top three challenges and, of course, weighs in with some suggestions of his own.
The news beat: Sun open sources Java under the GPL. Google offers a start page for its hosted apps suite that enables users to centrally locate the various applications. And Samsung claims that DDR3 will be mainstream by 2009.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 13, 2006 04:51 AM
November 13, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Zen and the art of SOA
A single-minded focus on the endgame -- the completion of an SOA initiative -- can be counterproductive. SOA is a philosophy, a 'best-process approach,' a way of thinking about development as a means for furthering business goals. Very Zen. -- Steve Fox. An IT journey.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 13, 2006 04:20 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Security: The results of Security Adviser Roger Grimes' password-cracking contest are in and, while Anthony Adamo took approximately three weeks to reveal the first challenge, the other two remain intact. "I had several writers tell me that my $100 main prize wasn't enough to motivate them, and if they just had enough monetary motivation they would do it. They said that $1,000 or $10,000 would better motivate them. In every case, I pledged in writing to give them the money they wanted, and still none of them delivered," Grimes explains.
Notes from the field: Cavorting with gun dealers, Robert X. Cringely comes to understand that not everyone is ready for IE 7. Then he gets seduced by Ms. Dewey, who rather quickly and predictably turns into a nag, albeit one Cringe fancies more than the fax news channel. IE 7 rejected, YouTube misdirected.
Best of the blogs: The fiery discussion over at Bob Lewis' Advice Line keeps on kicking, as he answers back with three points for those who dispute his assertion that making e-voting machines that actually tally, sans problems, is quite simple. "For all of those who suggested that mark-sense paper ballots will do the trick just fine ... they probably will. They also chop down an awful lot of trees," he writes.
The news beat: A wrapup analysis of the Web 2.0 Summit that took place this week reveals long tails and forgotten trails. Symbol bids the Palm OS adieu by discontinuing its two devices that run the software. And hacker Adrian Ringland gets 10 years in prison.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 11:01 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Your favorite stories this week
These are the five most popular InfoWorld.com stories for the week beginning Nov. 6, 2006.
5 Customers: Open source's only true friend
4 Cash crisis in the frozen north
3 Microsoft releases .Net Framework 3.0
2 FBI sends in troopers, Microsoft clips coupons
And...
Have at 'em.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 09:30 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Results of password-cracking contest, Intel adds privacy license to location-aware software, Adobe CFO resigns, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 07:03 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Reader voices: Open sourcing e-voting systems
Best of the blogs: Bob Lewis sparked a storm of comments with his post-election rant, in which he wondered aloud, sort of anyway, why no one has yet pointed out how "awesomely simple" the task of e-voting machines is and, thus, theorized that the company selling them, Diebold, conjures images of complexity that scare government agencies into paying more than the systems are worth. Several folks agreed with Bob; others took great pains to explain just how complicated the whole scenario really is. And many proposed open source e-voting systems to make them transparent to all. My personal favorite, though, and I quote "My idea: Two terms per politician; one in office, and one in jail." Read more comments and add one yourself here.
Podcasts: New products from Network Appliance and Panasas fill storage's need for speed. Plus, the week in storage with news from EMC, Oracle and others. Tune into Storage Sprawl.
Operating systems: Tooling around with the Vista RTM edition leads Oliver Rist to ask Does Vista kill third-party disk encryption? "I've got to say that the partition installation piece means that certain third-party disk encryption products still have a future. TrueCrypt or Cryptainer, for example, simply create an encrypted file volume with an ultra-strong password," he writes. "On the other hand, for SMBs looking to centrally manage a whole series of encrypted drives, BitLocker offers a lot of sophistication right there in the OS."
The news beat: A report by analyst firm Forrester suggests that consumers and enterprises alike will take to Windows Vista after the same fashion in which they adopted XP: they'll buy new PCs when existing ones break. IBM introduces four new rack servers that run on Intel quad-core Xeon chips. And MySQL says it wants to build what it calls a database in the sky.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 05:09 AM
November 10, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: MS, Novell and potential lawsuits
I think it's going to be very hard for Novell to keep from using the patent-safety stick with its customers. If its fortunes start to turn (and there are signs that this is the case), then it will be easy to avoid doing so. But if it's struggling...all bets are off. -- Matt Asay. Microsoft covenant not to sue 'worse than useless'?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 10, 2006 04:07 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Bringing .Net to a Linux desktop near you
Open source: Novell has upgraded Mono to make porting .Net apps to Linux desktops easier. Mono 1.2 now supports Windows Forms, the GUI APIs in .Net and applications written in C# 2.0. And it's available as a free download.
Columnists' corner: "This is the best New Economy, Web 2.0 Internet move I've seen Microsoft make in a long time," begins Oliver Rist in Office Live a smart move. "Until I saw Office Live, I thought that all of Microsoft's Web services efforts had a serious 'We're-chasing-Google' flavor to them." Not so anymore.
Best of the blogs: A convenient truth (at least for Big Blue) Matt Asay reveals is that IBM, not Al Gore, invented the Internet and could tax you more heavily. "IBM is basically suing Amazon for even thinking the word 'Internet.' It appears that IBM has patents on such things as web-based advertising, website navigation, and other things that every website on the planet uses without IBM collecting a dime," Asay reports. "Amazing, the cheekiness of it all."
The news beat: Google's filings with the SEC reveal that the search engine may face a copyright infringement suit relating to its video-sharing service, as well as Google News and Book Search. Gartner predicts that consumers will lose $2.8 billion to phishing scams in 2006 alone. And AOL's CEO says it wanted to buy YouTube, but Google was the only company that could pull together the offer.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2006 10:54 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Phishing attacks to rob consumers of $2.8B, Vista goes to RTM, Google mistakenly sends out worm, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2006 08:18 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: Virtualizing your databases certainly brings distinct advantages. But, writes Sean McCown, "know when and where to use [it]." He recommends keeping them to developers, testing environments or quality assurance teams. "And at least try to be aware of the boxes that are real and virtual. From there on out, I asked them if a new server was real or not." Virtualizing DBs.
Columnists' corner: The catalyst for Mr. McCown's post was not just his own experience, but also this week's installment of Ahead of the Curve, titled Down the virtual rabbit hole. Within, Tom Yager cautions that "we're enjoying the final days of the era of simple virtualization." As that era wanes, "problems that take IT staff and developers down a rabbit hole now will take them down deeper, more complicated ones when virtualization becomes the de facto means of placing new capacity online."
SOA: The InfoWorld SOA Executive Forum is taking place this week and David Linthicum found at least one surprise. "I was taken back by somebody putting forth the fact that the hype curve of SOA was fading, and that in 2007 or 2008, SOA would not be as relevant," he notes in this post. "While I do a agree there is a hype curve with any notion, and the hype can't last forever, the concept of SOA is more complex and far reaching and it's going to take years to get it right within the enterprise."
Applications: SAP co-founder Hasso Plattner backs the Open Source Forum, which has attendees mulling what the vendor's intentions are for non-proprietary software. Sure, the two most obvious attempts to answer that question make sense but exactly "where open source fits into SAP's long-term strategy is a well-kept secret, and understandably so."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2006 04:54 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Keeping up with cybercriminals
What we need, I believe, is free, open communication. The criminals are working together in this, but it's hard for us to work together. -- Paul Laudanski, owner of Computer Cops and the leader of the Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination squad project. Consumers to lost $2.8B to phishers in 2006.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2006 04:08 AM
November 09, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Those tech support blues
All too often, getting support for a software product can turn into a grueling experience. In fact, just getting back to where you were before you bought the product can be a small triumph in itself. -- Ed Foster. A McAfee marathon.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 9, 2006 04:00 AM
November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Best of the blogs: Casting conspiracy theories about the Republican Party's ties to Diebold aside, Bob Lewis has a notion of his own -- and at its foundation is technological chicanery of sorts. The companies that sell e-voting machines, Lewis asserts, have duped the agencies that buy them into believing the systems are far more complicated than they actually are, and done so to charge more money. "Over the past six years or so I've read all manner of experts weigh in on this subject, and haven't yet read one who has pointed out what I think is obvious to readers of this blog (and anyone competent to read any blog): We're talking about an awesomely simple programming task," he writes in Advice Line.
Podcast: In the words of Ed Foster, just getting tech support can be akin to running a marathon. McAfee tech support, for instance, wins the disfavor of one GripeLine reader, Dave, who recounts his headaches with the security vendor, including instructions to delete files that ultimately disable his Internet connection and disarm the Windows search capability. After all that, promised return calls never came -- but attempts to charge Dave extra for tech support sure did. Tune into the Gripe Line podcast.
Columnists' corner: What with the Web 2.0 conference and all the associated chatter this week, the reality is that the current crop of Web applications still conduct an all-too-passive existence. "Mere access to data does not, of course, yield meaningful interpretation," explains Jon Udell in Web apps, just give me the data. Udell provides seemingly simple listings of the Fortune 500 as one example of how you can read the data, just not get a hold of or query it yourself.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 8, 2006 11:03 AM
November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Intel unwraps Web 2.0 suite, e-voting machine problems arise, Microsoft hops in domain registration game, and more LISTEN!
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 8, 2006 07:32 AM
November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Security: Election day may be over, but the doubts and bona fide problems with Diebold e-voting machines are decidedly not. Bob Garza explains one such lingering issue: "The Diebold system passes all these tests, page after page of approval checkmarks, then on the last page there's one small comment on how computer system penetration testing was not performed. Hummm, this is a computer, right?" he asks in this Zero Day post. Problems with the e-voting machines are being reported to wathdog groups, in fact.
Columnists' corner: EuP will demand cross-enterprise information transfer of IT, reports Eprhaim Schwartz in the second installation of The coming regulation storm. "IT will have to find a data 'container' that keeps information in a coherent form for analysis, and to generate reports in a form that's usable by engineers, marketing departments, and regulators," he writes. The upside? "Once companies realize that they can't actively ignore environmental attributes, they will develop standards and it will become part of how they operate. In time, it will reduce waste and the need for new raw materials and ultimately reduce cost."
SMB IT: Putting a new spin on an old tongue twister, Oliver Rist shares How to pick a pack of pickled POS systems. Technically, of course, they're not pickled. But who knows, if you're in the right business these point-of-sale systems might just help you track sales of dill, sour, or sweet ones. "With a little care, you can turn your cash register into a fount of information -- and if you're using it in more than one location, that information bennie just multiplies," Rist explains. The question he addresses is which one to choose.
The news beat: Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells attendees at the Web 2.0 conference that the search engine wants to make the data it stores portable enough that users could export it to a competing service if they so choose. Intel, meanwhile, says it is leading the assembly of SuiteTwo, a bundle that houses blogging, wiki and content syndication software. And Microsoft details AJAX-friendly facets of the upcoming Visual Studio toolbox code-named Orcas.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on November 8, 2006 04:58 AM
November 08, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Quote of the day: Know your customers
Too many times I see technology companies who have great technology, but can't link it to their customer's pain points. They don't understand their customer's issues and can't provide a true