August 28, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Safe Surfing
Everyone wants to be secure while using the Internet, but tucking your enterprise into the warm, comfy blanket of safe surfing can be, at best, a significant challenge. James Borck looked at the Clearswift MIMEsweeper Web Appliance ENW10 and says that it does a job that's both reliable and broad, protecting web surfing, e-mail, IM, and ftp traffic from the various nasties that we've all come to know and loathe. It's not a perfect tool, with HTTPS contents being among the packets that remain hidden to its probing, but it could be the sort of tool that makes on-line life a bit safer and happier for your enterprise.
If your on-line duties include blogging, you'll want to check out Geeks in Paradise, where Brian Chee has been discovering the kinks, hiccups, and promise in Microsoft LiveWriter 64. Brian's managed to get it working (with significant support from Microsoft), and likes the way it helps get more rich-media bloggy goodness up and on the web.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 28, 2007 08:46 AM
August 09, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Test Center Tracker: Blogs and More Blogs
When test center analysts and editors aren't busy writing reviews, what are they doing? Blogging! There's lots of bloggy goodness today, with information that can make life in your data center more productive, more efficient, and more interesting.
First, Geeks in Paradise continues to left the curtain and show what's been going on behind the "Pimp My Data Center" series. Brian's insight is good because it's so easy to forget about all the physical infrastructure that has to be changed whenever major upgrades come to the data center.
Next Sustainable IT looks at the difference between IT and politics, and where IT professionals (and their vendors) can most profitably spend their time. Ted points out that time spent lobbying congress is time that isn't being spent developing and encouraging best practices in the industry. It's not that each isn't important: the real question is where an industry group should focus its time and efforts.
Finally, Martin Heller looks at how to set up Microsoft tools for Silverlight development work in the Strategic Developer. As with virtually all development environments, how you set up your systems will determine just how productive you can be, and Martin's made some interesting discoveries in that will make an enormous difference if Silverlight is part of your team's world.
Posted by Curt Franklin on August 9, 2007 01:40 PM
February 07, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Review: MindTouch cleverly packs wiki in a virtual appliance
I'd just finished a several-month test of enterprise wiki solutions and was looking forward to exploring new topics. But then MindTouch released a novel version of its Deki enterprise wiki that deserves honorable mention.
Deki's been available for some time as a behind-the-firewall hardware appliance called the MindTouch DekiBox. However, this latest version (1.7.1) is a complete pre-installed and configured application and Debian Linux OS - a virtual appliance that runs under VMware's free VMware Player on your Windows or Linux server. With today's focus on virtualization to consolidate hardware, this alone should be welcomed by IT managers.
True to MindTouch's promise, the initial configuration required about 15 minutes and was totally hands-off. I was very pleased with the performance of Deki and VMware on my aging Pentium III Dell PowerEdge 1650 server; for example, page updates were saved in about one second. Like other virtual appliances, you can easily move both the application and content from one machine to another - portability that would be important in large organizations when you need to quickly scale up to many users.
Deki has most hallmarks of a business wiki. The intuitive interface helped me immediately create pages, organize them in the hierarchy I wanted, and edit content with the solid rich-text editor. There's the expected text and page formatting options, easy linking to other content, and ability to edit the source HTML code if you want. Deki, additionally, let me quickly attach files and images to pages. There isn't a check-in/check-out option for files. Still, full versioning, revision comparisons, and change notifications are provided for all wiki pages.
While Deki doesn't provide a comment (blog) feature, I found customary wiki collaboration tools, which should not require more than a few minutes' training time for new users to understand. For instance, a click on the toolbar let me decide who could contribute to a particular page. Moreover, pages and sections are available as RSS feeds. I also setup a list of pages to watch for changes. The built-in indexing and search (of pages and attachments) worked very well, too.
Wiki pages are stored in XML format, which should make it easier to tie in with ERP, content management, and other enterprise applications. (An API's available for more elaborate customization needs). Further, users of the paid version can download a Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express Connector, which converts email messages and attachments into wiki pages with one step.
Deki has just the right amount of administration control, which ranges from changing sites' appearances using style sheets to managing users.
In all, I found Deki provides a very agreeable user experience, wiki features that should satisfy many workgroup (and often enterprise-wide) needs, and a forward-looking deployment method.
MindTouch Deki
Availability: Now
Pricing: Free (five-user, unsupported); starts at $995 for supported version with advanced features.
Verdict: MindTouch Deki's packaging as a VMware virtual appliance greatly reduces setup efforts and IT resources, while providing the security of in-house installation. As a business wiki, Deki's also notable, providing easy page setup and editing, multiple collaboration features, and the possibility of integration with other enterprise systems because of its XML underpinning.
Posted by Mike Heck on February 7, 2007 11:28 AM
October 16, 2006 | Comments: (0)
Review: SnipSnap 1.0's a bliki for the budget-conscious biz
In enterprise settings, wiki and blog software is often used to document projects, form a departmental community, or perhaps keep everyone across the enterprise informed and engaged. The SnipSnap project blends wiki functionality together with blogging tools to form a "bliki" that can easily address these enterprise requirements.
SnipSnap, free and licensed under GNU-GPL, is a Java-based solution that can easily be deployed in a matter of minutes. I was able to quickly deploy the SnipSnap Web archive (WAR) file using the Apache Tomcat Web container. Its user- and role-based features work well as do its blogging and wiki functions.
Sites seeking a wiki, blogging, or bliki solution should consider SnipSnap a work in progress. Its developers have a roadmap, but some features, such as categorization, are only partially implemented. Moreover, SnipSnap text editing is rudimentary when compared to other solutions, such as Confluence.
Like other solutions, SnipSnap offers the capability to attach documents. Therefore, you might use SnipSnap to organize your content, since it includes a linking feature, and actually house the detailed content in organized attachments, such as PDF files. In this way, users could create content in an editing tool of their choice.
Most blogging and wiki solutions offer a content change notification feature – usually via e-mail. In the case of SnipSnap, notifications of content changes are provided via instant messaging and this works well. However, I'd like to have the ability to receive a daily digest of SnipSnap content changes added as a feature in the future.
SnipSnap includes many of the same useful tools that are on par with its rivals. For example, a calendar function is included as an aid for locating content. Moreover, the SnipSnap search function is on par with rivals and it provides a fast way to find related content – referred to as "snips" in SnipSnap-speak. If you are evaluating wiki or blog solutions, SnipSnap is worth test-driving.
Bottom Line
SnipSnap 1.0
Platforms: Any Java-capable (tested on Windows 2000/XP, Linux, MacOS X 10.2, Solaris 9)
Cost: Free under GNU-GPL
Bottom Line: SnipSnap combines blogging and wiki functions to form a "bliki." Most sites will find it useful for departmental-level documentation projects and the like though it could be more broadly applied. While SnipSnap provides core collaboration and editing capabilities, it is not as feature-rich as some other wiki and blogging solutions. Still, SnipSnap does provide an easy way to organize content at a budget-minded price: free.
Posted by Maggie Biggs on October 16, 2006 06:14 PM
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