- The Sancho Panza of public relations and other pr/marketing gambits
- AOL and the Wheel of Fortune
- Sun stockholders cry for help
- Microsoft shifts personnel
- Comparison of programmer wages between U.S. nationals and H-1B visa workers
- Secure Web services messaging eyed
- Thinking globally
- Responding to a security breach
- Found is the new search
- Motorola iTunes phone being returned at a surprising rate
October 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The Sancho Panza of public relations and other pr/marketing gambits
Maybe Halloween has something to do with it and the fact that on this day we get to hide who we really are, but there were some awfully strange events taking place today. I hope they are not representative of a trend but they probably are.
Met with a company that came with the CEO, the vice president of products and the public relations person.
I dutifully handed each my card at which point the VP turned to the PR gal and said, "do you have our cards?"
"Of course," she said, and took out a card for the vp and CEO and handed them to me.
I'm wondering if this has something to do with the bird flu.
Second meeting with president of IDS Scheer for the America's who actually came alone, without a PR person and even handed me his own card.
Three cheers for Dr. Mathias Kirchmer.
Finally, interviewed Avaya today and asked for the title of person I was talking to and was told his title was "Executive Briefer."
Not only that, it seems this is the third company he has worked for as an "executive briefer."
I must be living in a cave because I never heard of that title before.
But what is so annoying about a title like that is that the company avoids taking any responsibility.
Much as I don't like to talk to VP Marketing, preferring a CTO anytime, at least in either case I know who they are professionally and where they are coming from.
Where the heck is an executive briefer coming from? It's like the vaporware of job titles.
Well, I probed just a bit and they did admit that in the organizational chart an executive briefer is located in the marketing department.
Nuff said.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 31, 2005 03:08 PM
October 31, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Steve Case, who arguably pulled off one of the biggest whoppers in business history by engineering the merger of AOL to Time Warner, resigned from the board of directors of Time Warner Monday, IDG News Service reported.
Instead of creating the media delivery platform of the future, the merger siphoned off billions in shareholder value from Time Warner as AOL languished following the merger.
Announcing his departure from Time Warner, Case said he believes AOL "can return to its past greatness." He said he saw "a renewed focus on AOL at Time Warner" over the past few months. Not likely.
Now it is Google that is at the center of attention, using its search platform to create new advertising model that allows it to rake in billions in revenue, as seen in the New York Times report from Sunday.
AOL is said to be in play, with Time Warner rumored to be in talks with companies including Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft about selling part or all of AOL.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 31, 2005 09:58 AM
October 28, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apparently tired of Sun Microsystems' inability to get back to the glory days of the Internet boom, Sun stockholders voted to repeal the poison pill provisions in place to make it hard for a hostile bidder to take over the Santa Clara company.
The proposal to eliminate a poison pill gained 84 percent of the vote at Sun's annual shareholder meeting, despite the opposition of the Sun board, led by CEO Scott McNealy, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The stockholders all but begged a knight, black or white, to come in and take over the company, said one analyst.
"In what was one of the most impressive requests for a buyer I have ever seen, the Sun investors...voted in an anti-poison pill initiative," said Rob Enderle, president of the Enderle Group. "These are interesting times for Sun, with 'interesting' clearly not being a good thing. It is interesting to note that Gateway had strong financial results and might be interested in Sun at the right price."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 28, 2005 04:58 PM
October 27, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft is shaking up its tools group, placing veteran executive Bob Muglia as vice president of the the company's server and tools business (STB), succeeding Eric Rudder. Muglia has been senior vice president of the Windows Server division at Microsoft. according to the company's Web site.
Muglia will report to Jim Allchin, co-president of the platform, products and services division at Microsoft. Muglia will oversee business and development for Microsoft's server and developer products. As previously stated by the company, Rudder will be reporting directly to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates as part of a new role that focuses on advanced development and overall technical strategy.
Also as of today, Sanjay Parthasarathy and the developer & platform evangelism team at Microsoft will report directly to Kevin Johnson, who also is a co-president of the platform, products and services division at Microsoft. This will allow a broader focus on "winning" developers across the platform, including client, server and services, Microsoft said.
Parthasarathy is listed as corporate vice president of the developer and platform evangelism team on Microsoft's Web site.
Simon Witts and the enterprise & partner group at Microsoft will continue to have a dual reporting relationship across the sales, marketing and services Group and STB, according to Microsoft. Witts is listed as corporate vice president of the company's enterprise and partner group on the Web site.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 27, 2005 12:48 PM
October 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Comparison of programmer wages between U.S. nationals and H-1B visa workers
In my Reality Check column online this week I summarized some of the findings of John Miano, a board member of the Programmer's Guild in his study, "The Bottom of the Pay Scale: Wages for H-1B Computer Programmers -- F.Y. 2004."
In that study he compared prevailing wages for programmers and analysts paid to U.S. citizen's versus the wages for the same jobs paid to non-U.S. citizens working in the country under the H-1B visa program.
I received some praise and some pans for the column. See Slashdot for the full gamut of opinions.
One of the main criticisms Miano received was that he did not take into account worker experience and if he had the wage comparison would not have been so skewed.
Here's Miano's response:
"Years of experience was not taken into consideration. The reason for this is, according to the law, age, experience, education etc. are not supposed to be taken into account for the prevailing wage. The law says H-1B workers are supposed to be paid the prevailing wage based upon location and occupation (not occupation, age, experience, etc.)"
Here's the specific citation:
8 USC [United States Code] 1182
(n) Labor condition application
(1) No alien may be admitted or provided status as an H?1B nonimmigrant in an occupational classification unless the employer has filed with
the Secretary of Labor an application stating the following:
(A) The employer?
(i) is offering and will offer during the period of authorized
employment to aliens admitted or provided status as an H?1B
nonimmigrant wages that are at least?
(I) the actual wage level paid by the employer to all other individuals with similar experience and qualifications for the specific employment in question, or
(II) the prevailing wage level for the occupational classification in
the area of employment, whichever is greater, based on the best information available as of the time of filing the application, and
(ii) will provide working conditions for such a nonimmigrant that will not adversely affect the working conditions of workers similarly
employed.
Here's Miano's explanation of the law:
First of all, the law giving the wage requirements for H-1B worker, 8
U.S.C. § 1182(n), states that employers must pay H-1B the HIGHER of that paid to workers with similar experience and qualifications or the prevailing wage for the occupation and location. Thus under the law, H-1B workers with skills and experience greater than average should be paid based upon those skills and experience and H-1B workers with skills and experience less than average (e.g. entry-level workers) should have their salary bumped up to the prevailing wage for the location and occupation.
By not considering age, education, skills, experience, etc. factors, the report is being conservative in measuring compliance in the law because these factors should only be coming into play when dealing with workers whose attributes should command a wage greater than the prevailing wage.
This aspect of the law makes sense. It would be contrary to public
policy for employers to drive out older workers using lower-paid
imported workers using the justification that they are less experienced.
In short, not considering age/skills/experience/education has no effect whatsoever on the validity of the report.
Finally, Miano adds this comment:
"I also point out [in the study] that the DOL [Department of Labor] does not have age data, only US Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS does.
As mentioned in the report, I would have *LOVED* to have used the actual USCIS data for visas actually issued. However, they don't put out that data (largely due to industry pressure).
Hopefully (as mentioned), this will put pressure on USCIS to start
releasing the whole thing. :-)"
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 26, 2005 03:10 PM
October 26, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Secure Web services messaging eyed
With Web services and SOA growing in importance in enterprises, OASIS continues to boost its efforts to advance Web services standardization, with security again the focus of a new initiative.
OASIS on Wednesday announced plans to define extensions to the WS-Security standard for Web services to enable the trusted exchange of multiple SOAP messages. OASIS also will define security policies that govern formats and tokens of those messages.
The newly formed OASIS Web Services Secure Exchange (WS-SX) Technical Committee features vendors and users who will finalize a set of specfications based on three initial contributions: WS-SecureConversation, WS-SecurityPolicy and WS-Trust.
The committee will advance a set of specifications to standardize concepts, WSDL documents and XML Schema renderings for trusted brokering of SOAP message exchanges, shared security contexts and security policies, OASIS said.
Among the members of the committee are companies such as Actional, Adobe, BMC Software, BEA Systems, Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Iona, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Tibco, VeriSign and webMethods.
"We continue to see increasing demand for secure Web services from our clients deploying advanced SOA solutions," said Karla Norsworthy, vice president, IBM Software Standards, in a prepared statement released by OASIS. "The specifications contributed to the OASIS WS-SX Committee provide customers the ability to establish trust relationships that span long-running exchange and provide interoperability for real world scenarios."
The committee will hold its first meeting on December 7-8.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 26, 2005 11:20 AM
October 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
It's a sign of the times that it's no big deal at all when two technology news stories of the day come out of China.
As just about everybody is telling us, globalization is here to stay.
First of all, we are now hearing about Google personnel moves in its China division, as the company has appointed a former telecommunications company executive to develop its search engine business in China, IDG News Service reports.
Johnny Chou, as president of sales and business development for Greater China, will lead the search for new partners in the region.
He will work with Kai-Fu Lee, now familiar to many readers as the former Microsoft executive Google snapped up to build a Chinese research and development center.
Also from the China desk, comes news that Foo Piau Phang, president of Dell's China operations, has resigned, IDG News Service says.
David Miller, who has worked since January with Foo in what Dell calls a "two-in-a-box" structure, will oversee the company's operations in China and Hong Kong, the news service said.
Dell has been a strong performer in China during Foo's tenure, although it has a much smaller share of the market than its Chinese competitors, including Lenovo Group, the news service said.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 25, 2005 01:50 PM
October 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Responding to a security breach
InfoWorld sister publication NetworkWorld has a feature on steps to take when your network has fallen prey to an attacker.
Responding to a security breach looks at ways in which organizations reacted once they knew a problem had occurred, including good approaches to handling the situation, as well some of the mistakes that have been made.
The piece also includes a recovery plan.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 25, 2005 09:02 AM
October 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
That's the logo for Ma.gnolia, a search-site-to-be that describes its pitch, plain and simple, as "what you mark in Ma.gnolia not only stays found but keeps coming back to you as your interests change."
A beta launch will occur in December. The temporary site, available here, boasts of enabling users to "discover the new evolution in growing or sharing information across town or across the globe."
(Thanks to Jeffery Zeldman for the link.)
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 25, 2005 06:59 AM
October 25, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Motorola iTunes phone being returned at a surprising rate
Motorola CEO Ed Zander fessed up to Bloomberg that as many as six times more customers are returning the Rokr iTunes phones than the company typically expects.
Zander is quoted in the story as saying that he thinks perhaps people are looking for it to be more like an actual iPod and that Motorola may have mixed up the marketing, but he plans to fix that.
He also said that the Rokr is only one of Motorola's music-focused phones.
The full story is here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=a6NrxjkDWJKA
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 25, 2005 05:30 AM
October 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
ObjectWeb this week plans to formally roll out its open source Petals project, which will serve as a Java Business Integration (JBI) container to complement the Iona Celtix enterprise service bus project.
Petals will provide functionality such as the ability run business-to-business services on Celtix. Its goal is to provide a lightweight service-oriented platform around JBI.
"The Petals project is an implementation of the JBI specification and it's going to actually reuse Celtix. It will complement the Celtix project," said Francois Letellier, a member of the ObjectWeb executive committee.
Already in a proof-of-concept phase, the first release of Petals is expected by the end of this year.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 24, 2005 10:32 AM
October 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Special report on communicating
Forbes has a special report on communication. Naturally, the report has a segment dedicated to technology.
Among the basic forms of communication, such as voice, facial expressions and pheromones, the package includes pieces on what we communicate through IP addresses, RFID tags, spyware and cell phones.
The technology section includes articles about cutting-edge interfaces, communication devices of the future, and what the next decade holds for the Internet.
There is also an e-mail time capsule that enables to you to compose a message today that will be delivered to you in 1,3,5,10 or 20 years, presuming you still have the same e-mail address, that is.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 24, 2005 09:49 AM
October 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
If you want to calculate one way of measuring the financial value of your blog, go to this link at Business Opportunities Weblog, paste in your URL and hit 'Submit.'
Dane Carlson created an applet that taps Technorati's API to gauge the worth in relation to the links to your blog. The value was based on how much AOL paid for the links it acquired when it bought Weblogs Inc.
I wouldn't expect to be able to use whatever number the site estimates your blog is worth, but it's interesting nonetheless.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 24, 2005 07:13 AM
October 24, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Technorati hits 20 million milestone
Blog search site Technorati registered its 20 millionth weblog today. According to this link on Kevin Mark's Weblog, the 20 millionth was Les CE2/CM2 Anquetil, a blog from an elementary school in Reims, France, that was started to celebrate some of the students running 2 miles in a relay marathon.
Technorati CEO Dave Sifry's latest State of the Blogosphere is available here. In it he writes that the total number of Weblogs continues to double every five months, and about 70,000 new blogs are tracked every day by Technorati.
(Thanks to Cory Doctorow at Boing Boing, who in this entry linked to Kevin's post.)
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 24, 2005 06:47 AM
October 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
BEA Systems has closed its $204 million acquisition of portal software vendor Plumtree Software, BEA announced late on Thursday. Plumtree's portfolio features a cross-platform portal that can run on both J2EE and .Net.
"The portal is becoming the point of integration in the enterprise," said Alfred Chuang, BEA chairman and CEO, in a prepared statement released by the company. "Plumtree is a leader in the market for collaborative portals that enhance enterprise connectivity and productivity. BEA is a leader in high-volume, transactional portals for customer and partner interaction as well as internal operations. Today, BEA provides the most complete portal portfolio that spans J2EE and .Net, providing a balanced perspective or view within the enterprise on both the people and operational side of the business."
BEA announced the acquisition in August.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 21, 2005 01:57 PM
October 21, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Voice over WLANs erodes traditional calling models
The growth of wireless VoIP is leading enterprises to deploy voice over WLANs at a rapid pace, according to Infonetics Research. The market research and consulting company, in a new study says the number of organizations deploying voice over WLANs will triple over the next two years, from 10 percent currently to 31 percent in 2007, driven by the growing avail-ability of wireless VoIP handsets and voice-enabling wireless infrastructure.
The study, "User Plans for Wireless LANs: North America 2005," is based on interviews with 240 small, medium, and large organizations using WLANs by 2006, including analysis of 5 vertical markets, as well as surveys of 450 organizations for WLAN adoption rates.
"Whilst increasing employee mobility and productivity are currently the top reasons for deploying WLANs, voice over WLAN is a growing driver and is potentially disruptive," Infonetics Research analyst Richard Webb, who is based in London, said in a statement. "The traditional model of time- and distance-based pricing for voice calls is being eroded by VoIP, and as VoIP goes wireless, it presents an opportunity for enterprise users and a challenge for operators."
Highlights include:
- WLAN adoption will grow over the next 3 years, with Infonetics projecting 57 percent of small, 62 percent of medium, and 72 percent of large organizations in North America using them by 2009.
- The leading barriers to WLAN adoption are security and privacy.
- Forty four percent deploy and manage their access points separately, with-out the use of WLAN switches; this approach declines by 2007, as centralized control architectures gain traction and the number of WLAN switch ports deployed grows significantly.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 21, 2005 12:26 PM
October 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Wal-Mart says RFID is helping the retail giant make dramatic improvements in delivering goods to customers. However, IT research company Gartner says potential RFID adopters still need to proceed with caution.
Wal-Mart has announced a study conducted for Wal-Mart by the University of Arkansas that found a 16 percent drop in out-of-stock (OOS) merchandise at RFID-equipped stores due to better in-store stock management. OOS items with elec-tronic product codes (EPCs) were replenished three times faster than comparable items using standard bar-code technology.
Gartner praised the work, with reservations. "Gartner believes that Wal-Mart's analysis of its RFID project is the most vital work now being done in retail RFID," Gartner said. "Interest has centered on RFID's potential to transform retail - if the technology works. Now, with Wal-Mart's systematic business-case analysis about what RFID can actually do, we believe the industry will move from fascination with RFID to justifying its intrinsic worth to the business."
Still, Gartner had some questions about the study, such a lack of information on how much of the OOS reduction occurred in control groups.
"If Wal-Mart addresses these issues, we expect manufacturer resistance to this RFID project to decrease substantially, though not to disappear completely," Gartner said. "Don't accelerate RFID adoption time frames based on this data. The study will advance RFID, but movement won't be dramatic and has already been built into most adoption time frames."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 20, 2005 01:37 PM
October 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
PC Magazine columnist John Dvorak wrote an opinion piece claiming that the technology writers at major news outlets -- namely The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Fortune and Forbes -- are strongly biased to covering Apple news, and notably more so than they write about Apple competitors, even Microsoft.
The reason, Dvorak espouses, is that the tech writers at those publications all use the Mac. Thus, their familiarity with Apple and, in some cases, favoritism of the platform tends to cloud their objectivity. And because they use Macs that OS has become the de facto standard by which all other operating systems, including Windows, are now judged.
I don't wholeheartedly agree with Dvorak about this bias, but he does raise a number of interesting points that make Media Bias and Technology Reporting worth reading.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 20, 2005 08:32 AM
October 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Second Syndicate conference slated for December
IDG announced that it will host another Syndicate conference on RSS, blogging, podcasts and general content syndication trends.
This year, the show will be held from December 12-14 at the Hilton San Francisco.
Doc Searls is the event's chair, and representatives from Yahoo, Google, Knight Ridder, CNet, Dow Jones, Microsoft, and Technorati comprise the list of speakers.
For more information visit the Syndicate Web page.
Full disclosure: Syndicate is hosted by IDG, the parent company of InfoWorld.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 20, 2005 07:07 AM
October 20, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Municipal Wi-Fi catching on in other countries
Ours is not the only nation in which city governments are working to offer citizens free wireless Internet access. Cameroon is another, according to the article Cities unleash free Wi-Fi, on Wired News.
The story has quotes from Dianah Neff, the CIO behind Philadelphia's muncipal wireless initiative. Neff, who is going to Africa to work with officails there, said in the piece: "We're not as competitive as you see in the private sector. We tend to share and help each other. I have spoken personally with over 75 cities and counties about this, as well as some foreign countries."
Good news for those who stand to benefit from municipal wireless, but perhaps bad news for its opponents.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 20, 2005 05:07 AM
October 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Andreessen: PHP is what Java was 10 years ago
Browser pioneer Marc Andreessen, now the chairman of Opsware, classifies the PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) open source scripting language as the new Java.
"PHP is to 2005 what Java was to 1995," Andreessen said during a keynote presentation at the Zend/PHP Conference & Expo 2005 on Wednesday in Burlingame, Calif.
Java, Andreessen said, has gotten more complex. "PHP is clearly a better way to build Web applications than Java in 2005," he said. Andreessen, who serves on the board of directors of conference presenter Zend Technologies, did say that Java led the way for programming languages to be built for programmers rather than being geared to specific machines. This is how programming languages were developed for 50 years, he said.
The industry still is in the early days of using scripting languages, Andreessen said. This movement could go on for another 20 years, according to Andreessen. But developers are more likely to be writing new applications in PHP rather than converting Java applications over to PHP, he said. And don't look for PHP to take over from Java in the embedded applications space in the short term, Andreessen said.
Andreessen also said Macromedia's Flash technology should be supported on mobile phones. "The fact that Flash isn't on here is just tragic," said Andreessen.
Flash, he said, is "always on the verge of great success and never quite achieving it."
Andreessen said the proliferation of PC hardware, technologies like PHP and easy access to programming tools and guidance open up programming to the masses. "We're also on the verge of a huge explosion of the numbers of programmers in the world," he said.
Andreessen also noted the commoditization in the server marketplace. "Server hardware used to be exotic and expensive and proprietary," but now anyone can configure a server on Web site such as Dell's and pay $800 to $1,000, he said.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 19, 2005 04:19 PM
October 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
IBM blade VMware bundle could be death knell for PCs
The deal between IBM and VMware that will give companies the power to create virtual desktops from blade servers may mean the death knell of the personal computer.
While IT departments may love the idea of diskless, emasculated, but more secure and manageable PCs that they can control, I predict users will soon feel differently.
At the risk of too many analogies, I see virtual desktops as the high tech version of the Stepford Wives. It walks and talks like the real thing but it actually has no mind of its own.
Corporate big brother will soon be limiting where a worker bee can roam on the Internet, monitor emails far more easily, and even measure how long someone's PC, excuse me, desktop, has been idle.
"What were you doing?" your boss may ask after receiving an alert that tells him your PC was not computing for a full 45 minutes.
"And don't tell me you were thinking!"
As wasteful as a fat client, aka a personal computer, can be, there are benefits to giving employees a certain amount of independence to think and act freely.
The IBM, VMware deal may mark the beginning of the end of computing as we know it.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 19, 2005 03:47 PM
October 19, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Schmidt responds to Google Print dustup
Google's CEO Eric Schmidt defended his company's controversial Google Print program in an op-ed piece that ran in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal. Google reprinted it here.
In the commentary, Schmidt explains the vision behind the program, which seeks to create "one giant electronic card catalog that makes all the world's books discoverable with just a few keystrokes by anyone, anywhere, anytime."
He goes on to argue that Google Print respects copyright law and actually enhances the value of copyrighted works.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 19, 2005 02:33 PM
October 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Google has updated its privacy policy. According to a Google blog post written by Nicole Wong, Associate General Counsel at Google, two key changes are that the policy is now summarized in a way Google officials hope is easier to understand and more details are provided about the company's privacy practices in a full-text privacy policy page and an accompanying FAQ list.
CBS has an Associated Press analysis of the new policy here. A key issue not spelled out in the new policy, according to the AP story, is how long Google keeps personal information, which is a rising concern due to the large of amount of personal data Google is amassing through its numerous services.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 18, 2005 03:58 PM
October 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Virtualization ramp up is real - IDC
Enterprise technology managers are moving toward virtual servers and vendors are following the trend, IDC says in a new report out Tuesday.
Spending on virtualization is expected to reach almost $15 billion worldwide by 2009, the research and consulting company says.
Customers are adopting virtualized servers - partitioning smaller 2-4 way x86 systems, using software developed specifically for the volume server space - in an attempt to contain costs, leverage existing IT resources, and handle growing workloads.
"Growth is particularly strong in the volume server space," said Matt Eastwood, vice president of IDC's Worldwide Server research. "The risky, higher value IT projects, once reserved for more scalable servers, are now being addressed by lower-cost alternatives."
The ability to host multiple applications per server and create a tiered-architecture "within-a-box" is driving server virtualization adoption and will continue to affect future hardware deployments, IDC says.
"For many years IBM has been the perceived leader in server virtualization with its mainframe legacy. Now that virtualization is undergoing broad adoption in the volume server markets. Vendors such as HP and Dell are well positioned to garner significant market share in this space," said Michelle Bailey, director of Enterprise Server research at IDC.
Additional findings from this study include:
* IDC estimates that more than three-quarters of all companies with more than 500 employees are deploying virtual servers.
* Customer satisfaction is high. Survey respondents currently using server virtualization technologies says they expect 45 percent of new servers purchased next year will be virtualized.
* More than 50 percent of all virtual servers are running production-level applications, including the most business critical workloads.
* Unix, S390, and OS400 systems account for the bulk of customer spending on virtualized servers today. However, rapid growth is occurring on Windows and Linux servers.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 18, 2005 01:43 PM
October 18, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Time Magazine takes a look inside Apple and its practice of churning out innovative new products.
From the article:
Stop and look at Apple for a second, since it's an odd company. It has been around long enough and has a high enough profile that it's easy to forget that. While most high-tech firms focus on one or two sectors, Apple does all of them at once. It makes its own hardware (iBooks and iMacs), it makes the operating system that runs on that hardware (Mac OS X), and it makes programs that run on that operating system (iTunes, iMovie, Safari Web browser, etc.). It also makes the consumer-electronics devices that connect to all those things (the rapidly multiplying iPod family), and it runs the online service that furnishes content to those devices (iTunes Music Store). If you smooshed together Microsoft, Dell and Sony into one company, you would have something like the diversity of the Apple technological biosphere.
Why would anybody run a business like that? If you follow conventional wisdom, Apple is doing it all wrong.
The writer then goes on to address those points but, alas, I'll let you read the rest for yourself.
How Apple Does It is available online or in this week's print issue. Either place you look, note the picture with some of the company's top execs. More than one of them looks eerily like CEO Steve Jobs.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 18, 2005 06:22 AM
October 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
RIM deal with Palm outflanks bigger rivals
Is it too soon to declare Research In Motion [RIM] a winner?
The latest RIM announcement is a deal with Palm to incorporate RIM Blackberry email service for both Exchange Server and Lotus Domino into the popular Treo 650.
The deal with Palm follows a similar deal with Nokia to deploy the Blackberry service on its handsets.
While Microsoft promises to offer push email real soon, and Palm says it has it, sort of, RIM it appears is the reigning champion. Their email push technology obviously cannot be easily duplicated and so if you can't fight join'em appears to be the order of the day.
After years of being put down by its bigger rivals, Microsoft and Palm, and by its smaller rivals too, Good Technology, RIM, the Canadian company with a better idea and a tenacious drive to succeed, keeps on chugging along.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 17, 2005 01:03 PM
October 17, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft hosts 'blue hat' summit
Last week, Microsoft opened its doors to about a dozen independent security specialists, at least some of whom are not exactly known as Microsoft's devout.
But they made presentations about vulnerabilities in Windows, first to Microsoft executives, and then again to more than 500 Microsoft programmers, according to a story in The New York Times.
The article states that during the meetings some of those blue hats pointed out fundamental design errors, telling Microsoft it is too trusting, and that the company erred in assertions about how secure its forthcoming Xbox 360 game console will be.
At least one blue hat said that even though Microsoft is not perfect security-wise, the company has made noteworthy progress.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 17, 2005 06:02 AM
October 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Adobe-Macromedia merger gets thumbs-up
Adobe Systems's proposed merger with Macromedia cleared a hurdle this week with the U.S. Department of Justice giving its stamp of approval to the acquisition. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals in several European jurisdictions. Adobe and Macromedia expect the transaction to close this fall. Announced on April 18, the all-stock deal has been valued at $3.4 billion.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 14, 2005 04:33 PM
October 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Now Yahoo wants a piece of AOL
Rumors and reports have been circulating for more than a week about a variety of suitors for AOL. First, Microsoft was rumored to be in talks with Time Warner, then Google and Comcast were reportedly interested in buying a joint stake of AOL.
Now, according to the Associated Press, Yahoo reportedly is licking its chops over the once downtrodden AOL.
Although the original reports came from the reputable publications the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, according to a Reuters story, the CEO of Time Warner dismissed talk of AOL's sale as "market rumor."
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 14, 2005 02:49 PM
October 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Apple, a trusted name in consumer electronics
It looks like Apple and Steve Jobs have done what Microsoft and Bill Gates have been unable to do for lo these many years.
It was almost ten years ago that Bill Gates stood before an audience of reporters at Comdex and promised an age where consumer electronics and high tech merged.
Back then Gates told the audience of skeptics that within a year computers would have 'instant on' just like your television.
Gates and company are still just talking and talking. Read the Forbes article, "Bill Gates joins Intel, Dell to push digital TV" .
Meanwhile, Apple is doing more than talk. The video iPod, or I should say, iPod with video, will cement Apple's name as a major consumer electronics company, right up there with Sony, Sharp, Panasonic and Samsung.
See the Motley Fool "You're Watching the iTunes Network" for an interersting take on Apple and televisionland.
As consumer electronics tilts more and more toward high tech
devices, the Apple brand will become the trusted name for consumer buyers who want to be assured that the electronic equipment they purchase can be easily integrated with their high tech equipment.
If I were the above named CE companies, I'd be worried.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 14, 2005 01:39 PM
October 14, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Are corporate CIOs a doomed breed?
In working on next week's column, "Is the CIO an Endangered Species?" I spoke with Steve Lerner, the IS director for Merial, a company in the animal healthcare business. Merial is jointly owned by Merck and sanofi aventis.
What Lerner had to say about why Merial decided not to rehire a CIO after the old one retired may keep the current crop of CIOs up at night. Or at least convince them to get an MBA.
Perhaps you'll consider Lerner old school when you hear how he defines IT: "IT is a call center. We sell no product, provide no revenue."
Nevertheless, many of the largest global enterprises think like Lerner and still don't see the stategic, as opposed to the operational, importance of IT.
Lerner and Merial believe that Sarbanes-Oxley makes the CFO, not the CIO the gatekeeper of a company's vital data. This is a major shift in the axis of power.
Just when CIOs were being invited to the boardroom table along comes compliance regulations that place the real authority with the CFO.
By the way, I also spoke to many industry analysts all of whom
agree with Lerner.
If the CFO can go to jail for reporting inaccurate financials, no matter what the cause, he is not going to be content with just assurances from the CIO that the systems used to create and aggregate vital financial data is accurate.
So, because the CFO is now so involved on the IT side, Merial changed their organizational chart. The org chart draws a line from the IT director and senior IT managers directly to the CFO.
Will other companies follow suit? Time will tell.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 14, 2005 10:30 AM
October 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
OASIS eyeing Web services transaction standards
OASIS is focusing on Web services transactions standards with the formation of a committee to define a set of protocols for coodinating the outcome of distributed application actions.
The OASIS Web Services Transaction (WS-TX) Technical Commitee will finalize a set of specifications based on WS-Coordination, WS-AtomicTransaction and WS-BusinessActivity technologies. Among the supporters of WS-TX are BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP.
This latest effort joins a myriad of other Web services standardization activity already going on at OASIS and the World Wide Web Consortium.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 13, 2005 01:23 PM
October 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Roundup: Early reviews of Apple's video iPod
Another Apple rumor ripened into truth yesterday when the company unveiled the video iPod. And the reviews and opinions have been sprouting around the Web these last two days.
Wired News wrote: "I don't think this was quite the device many iPod nuts were hoping for." The post goes on that there are, however, some significant enhancements to the iPod.
A story from IDG News Service quotes an industry analyst referring to the move as conservative because Apple is replacing its high-end iPod at the same price point, but with more functionality and additional capacity.
Mac Observer writer Andy Ihnatko fears that the Purple Cloud of Insanity could become a factor with the video iPod. Yes, that's the same purple cloud that is responsible for the fact that "Ricky Martin once was a pop star," and the reality that "in any major city, there are no shortages of places where you can hand a total stranger $100 dollars and they'll cheerfully stick pieces of metal through your nipples, expecting you to thank them for the service," Ihnatko wrote in So: It's a video iPod, Sweet!
Fortune, in The video iPod: It rocks weighs in on the bigger picture:
Based on my brief hands-on experience with Apple's new Front Row software, I'd say Apple has done a better job with content-management software than Microsoft has with its Media Center PC. This may not be enough to give Apple the edge in the battle for the digital living room, since Microsoft has a huge headstart. But Microsoft doesn't have Disney, and that's a huge plus for Apple.
The Motley Fool points out that the deal between Apple and Disney was set just days after CEO Michael Eisner left Disney. (Registration required.)
The San Francisco Chronicle speculates that Apple has created the potential to do for video what it did for music, in a very complete look at the new device, with the piece As Apple unveils video iPod, it hints at a media-focused future.
Tim Bajarin of Technology Pundits summed up the impact of the new player in writing that Apple and Steve Jobs brought to market much more than a video player. "In a sense, he has shown the tech world what it means to create a total consumer eco-system for integrating images, music and video into a digital lifestyle."
Jack McCarthy contributed to this blog post.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 13, 2005 10:52 AM
October 13, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Want further proof that the CAN-SPAM Act is bunk?
Okay, so maybe that is just a bit harsh, but according to statistics released by security firm Sophos, the U.S. is responsible for some 26 percent of the entire world's spam.
The good news: That 26 percent of spam created on American soil is down from 42 percent in 2004, Sophos stated.
Unfortunately, that doesn't mean there is that much less spam in the galaxy, only that it is being created elsewhere. Like South Korea and China, which jumped from 12 to 20 percent and 9 to 16 percent, respectively.
The top 5 spamming countries are:
1. United States -- 26.35%
2. South Korea -- 19.73%
3. China -- 15.70%
4. France -- 3.46%
5. Brazil -- 2.67%
The 'other' category for that list constitutes the remaining one-third of spam, which originates in a variety of other countries, each of which contributes less than Brazil. Personally, I was surprised that Nigeria is not among the top five.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 13, 2005 05:46 AM
October 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Steve Jobs ended wide-spread speculation Wednesday and unveiled two video iPods at a special media-only event in San Jose, Calif., and announced revisions to its existing line of iPods, Mathew Honan reports for MacCentral.
Honan wrote:
The long-rumored and highly anticipated new iPods play video on a 2.5-inch, 320 x 240 pixel color TFT display. The new iPod features realtime decoding of MPEG 4 and H.264 video. The video iPods come in two configurations. A 30GB model with a $299 price tag, and a 60GB for $399.
The announcements came in conjunction with the news that the new version of the iTunes Music store in iTunes 6, Apple’s popular music-playing software, will sell both music videos and television shows from ABC Disney.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 12, 2005 11:22 AM
October 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Why bloggers blog: Firm offers some answers
The number one reason people begin blogging is to establish themselves as a visible authority in their field, according to a study by public relations firm Edelman.
Blogger Survey 2005 lists the above reason as the mindset of 33.8 percent of respondents. A close second, 'to create a record of my thoughts,' is why 31.5 percent of bloggers blog.
Less than five percent, meanwhile, blog to generate revenue.
The survey also presents findings about other blogging-related issues, such as how often people blog (the number one answer was every few days), how bloggers correct factual errors in previous posts (striking through the error and inserting a correction is the most common practice), and several questions relating to trust, e.g. who bloggers trust for product information (other bloggers, overwhelmingly), and how trustworthy corporate blogs are in comparison to those written by individual employees.
Edelman has the results in graphical form at https://extranet.edelman.com/bloggerstudy/.
Unlike most surveys, this one has a lot of valuable information for current bloggers, be they of the corporate or individual ilk, as well as companies considering instituting blogs.
Within the survey there was, by the by, one interesting finding I commend Edelman for revealing: Bloggers trust messages coming directly from a company one percentage point more than if that same message comes from a PR firm.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 12, 2005 07:34 AM
October 12, 2005 | Comments: (0)
No connection between R&D spending and corporate performance
A study by Booz Allen Hamilton found that spending big bucks on research and development does not drive corporate competitiveness, earnings, or shareholder value. The reason: few companies have a fast or effective innovation engine.
The study realized that the top 1,000 R&D spenders increased their sum total to $384 billion in 2004, which is up 11 percent from 2002.
Related findings include:
-- Computing & electronics, health and auto constitute 63 percent of the total amount allocated to innovation.
-- Individual investments in R&D among the top 1,000 spanned the gamut from $39 million to the $8 billion invested by Microsoft.
The real surprise, though, is that Booz Allen Hamilton determined there are no quantifiable statistics that demonstrate a marked difference between the financial results achieved by companies it considers average R&D spenders, and those listed as above-average.
There were, of course, a few noteworthy exceptions, such as Apple Computer.
For more on the study, either follow this link, or you can download the PDF.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 12, 2005 06:44 AM
October 11, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Gartner says Sun-Google too little, too soon
Just about everybody agrees that the Google-Sun news conference earlier this month offered more smoke and mirrors than substance.
But many, including InfoWorld's Ephraim Schwartz, are examining the possibility of Web-based, Office-like applications will gain traction.
Gartner also weighed in, dissing the joint announcement, but holding out the promise of future developments.
"There is a broader trend among vendors offering Office-like, rich-but-lightweight desktop tools, delivered as services. Yahoo's new mail client is based on AJAX, as are www.writely.com's collaborative editor (with spell check-ing), Google's Gmail and Maps applications, and MSN's upcoming, unofficially un-announced work on a new Hotmail client (see http://spaces.msn.com/members/mailcall/)," Gartner analysts wrote.
"Before year-end 2006, at least two vendors (such as Yahoo, Google and Microsoft) will offer lightweight, office-like Web-based tools that will eventually undermine usage of heavyweight office suites like Microsoft Office (0.8 probability). IT departments will exploit this new class of technology, even as they continue to buy, install and integrate Microsoft Office.
"Recommendation: Start evaluating how and when to exploit lighterweight, Internet-sourced "office" tools like those from Google, www.writely.com, Yahoo and others," Gartner said. "They are unlikely to replace heavyweight office suites that require local installations, but they will serve as intermittently used temporary alter-natives to these suites."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 11, 2005 04:31 PM
October 11, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Forrester expects major IT spending slow down
Taking a rather unusual tack, Forrester Research analyzed the past 60 years and deduced that "technology spending growth will shrink from 7 percent increases in 2005 and 2006 to a 2 percent increase in 2007," the company wrote in a statement releasing its findings.
Forrester's analysis found that investment in new computers, communications equipment and software is largely driven by changes in overall economic growth and the state of new technology introduction or adoption. Projecting that businesses and consumers will "pause spending" as concern grows about rising interest rates, high energy prices and the possibility of a drop in the housing market, Forrester's research found that when the GDP stalls, IT spending drops even more.
Companies tend to cutback on buying equipment, which results in less spent on services and staffing.
In specific, the company predicted:
-- Computer equipment sets the pace with a CAGR of 9 percent through 2008
-- Software spending holds tights at 6 percent
-- Services spending dips to 1 percent in 2007
-- IT outsourcing will reach saturation at 6 percent
But the pending dip should be relatively short-lived. The analyst firm also contends that by the close of this decade tech spending will rebound to double-digit growth.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 11, 2005 06:20 AM
October 10, 2005 | Comments: (0)
WebEx to launch 'Exchange' on demand
WebEx on Tuesday is planning an SMB-focused services launch that will include a hosted offering designed to give small companies a sort of "virtual Exchange server," including calendaring, database apps and the ability to build content databases, and online meetings.
The services are rebranded and enhanced versions of Intranets.com offerings (WebEx completed its acquisition of Intranets.com in September).
The new services will be aimed at small businesses and individual users, according to Subrah Iyar, WebEx CEO.
In addition to the "virtual Exchange" offering, WebEx will introduce a new service targeted at individuals. That service will be a lightweight screen sharing offering designed to make it very easy to launch a meeting from an e-mail message or from within an IM chat window, according to the company.
The services will also shake up typical WebEx pricing models. The services will offer different price points including unlimited minutes packages.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 10, 2005 04:16 PM
October 10, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Yahoo joined the pod people Monday, releasing a pubic beta of a service which will let users find and listen to podcasts.
Lee Ott, of the Yahoo! Podcasts Team, announced the service on a Yahoo blog.
"Our Web-based player makes it simple and painless to listen right through your web browser," Ott wrote. "An accelerated playback feature (IE only) lets you "scan" a program at 2x speed to get the gist of it faster. You can use Yahoo! Podcasts with aggregators like iPodder (thanks to Andrew Grumet), with desktop media players like the Yahoo! Music Engine (the integration is beautiful!), iTunes, and with the latest version of iPodder, the Windows Media Player and even Winamp. Or, you can download the shows you want to any mp3 player, such as the iPod, iRiver, Dell DJ, Creative Zen, etc.
"We're already working on personalized podcast recommendations and friendly, easy-to-use tools so that anyone can create and publish a podcast or audio blog and share it with friends, family, coworkers, and the World Wide Web," Ott added.
IDG News Service reports that Yahoo thus joins a crowded space of providers that offer podcast searching, including RapidSolution Software, TVEyes, Blinkx , Active8, Perpetual Advancement ,PodcastAlley ,Podcast Networks ,and Odeo.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 10, 2005 03:06 PM
October 07, 2005 | Comments: (0)
A blog has emerged that protests JBoss business activities, even using the word, "monopoly," to describe the company's practices. Called The JBoss Issue, the blog features an open letter to JBoss chief Marc Fleury that objects to JBoss's trademark usage. Contacted on Friday afternoon, a JBoss representative declined to comment on the blog. The blog is being conducted by Rickard Oberg, who is cited as a former co-founder of JBoss, but the company's representative would not comment on whether Oberg had ever been affiliated with JBoss.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 7, 2005 03:02 PM
October 07, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Microsoft and AOL resume merger talks
The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner and Microsoft have restarted discussions about potentially marrying AOL and MSN.
Exact plans are not clear at this point, and many obstacles remain, WSJ wrote.
The two companies, in fact, were reportedly in talks earlier this year, but those stalled over questions about control and technical issues, the story said.
Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference, AOL CEO Jonathan Miller admittedly avoided answering the question, according to this story written by John Blau of the IDG News Service.
One source in the WSJ article said that if Microsoft and Time Warner can't get an agreement ironed out in 2005, then it's probably never going to happen.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 7, 2005 07:16 AM
October 06, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Ballmer sobers in face of Microsoft's security challenge
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was unusually subdued during a press conference in Munich, Germany, on Thursday, during which the software company outlined its security roadmap.
According to IDG reporter Martin Seiler, after introducing several new security products and outlining Microsoft's plans to tackle IT security in the coming months, Ballmer was noticeably quiet as he seemed to ponder the scope of the software giant's security challenge.
From Seiler's Computerwoche story:
In the light of the announcements, Ballmer was unusually quiet and reserved: That was emphasized by his closing remark that Microsoft "still has a lot of work to do."
"We have the talent, the skill and the will to provide more secure systems," Ballmer said, going on to announce several new products and initiatives.
"We will for the first time in our history deliver this sort of comprehensive protection," said Ballmer.
During the event on Thursday Microsoft announced antivirus and antispyware technology dubbed Microsoft Client Protection, an antivirus tool for Exchange, plans to offer "prescriptive guidance" to customers, and a new global security alliance.
According to the Computerwoche story, Ballmer also commented on security in the future age of Windows Vista:
Looking into the future, [Ballmer] emphasized that Windows Vista will be "yet another important milestone in security development." Vista will be based on the three main principles of isolation, least privilege and least connectivity: Processes will be isolated from others in order to reduce the risk of one damaging the other. Apart from that, they will only have a minimum of rights and connectivity.
Internet Explorer 7 is one example of an application that will benefit from that. The browser will execute on machines with Windows XP SP2, but the full set of security features will only be available on Vista.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 6, 2005 02:14 PM
October 06, 2005 | Comments: (0)
FTC wants to shut spyware site
The FTC has requested that a U.S. District judge stop a Web site that allegedly installs spyware onto visitor's PCs.
The group claims that Odysseusmarketing.com offered free software that would enable users to anonymously share files in a peer-to-peer fashion. But along with the software came spyware and adware, unbeknownst to those downloading the P2P program. In the request, the FTC claimed that the company's P2P software did not even allow such file sharing, according to a story on InfoWorld sister publication PC World, FTC seeks to halt alleged spyware site.
The Register reported in its story:
Adding insult to injury, an uninstall feature did not actually uninstall the software, but actually downloaded more programs, the FTC said.
The San Diego Tribune quoted an expert on the importance of the suit:
The lawsuit is an encouraging step because it can be difficult to track down distributors of spyware, said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy advocacy group that researches and investigates spyware.
"It's a big deal," he said. "It shows the FTC can work its way backward down the chain."
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 6, 2005 06:15 AM
October 06, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Jeremy Allaire taking on TV industry
The architect of Macromedia's Flash has turned on to television. His latest venture, Brightcove, will allow "all types of video producers, from media giants to anyone who has a camcorder, [to] put their work on the Internet and make money if anyone watches it," according to a story in The New York Times.
From the article:
Set in an office building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brightcove will offer three interrelated online services. It has tools that let television producers load their video onto its servers, arrange them into programs and display them to Internet users. It will help producers charge fees for their video, if they choose, or sell advertising on their behalf to insert into the programs. And it will broker deals between video creators and Web sites that want to display the video, arranging for the profits from such arrangements to be split any number of ways.
An industry analyst in The Times' story likened Brightcove to Google, saying the former could do for video programming what the latter has done for Web pages.
The full story is here.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 6, 2005 06:09 AM
October 05, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Once again, speculation is growing around a looming Apple product announcement. This time the rumor is that Apple will unveil a much-anticipated video iPod at an event next week in San Jose.
Apple sent out invitations to the event, which read simply, "One more thing..."
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs has in recent years at conferences and events saved the largest products that most delight the Apple faithful toward the end of his keynote speech, prefacing the announcement with the phrase, "Oh, and one more thing" or a variant, Reuters reported.
Most models of the current iPods, in addition to playing music, can also display photos and perform other functions with accessories that are sold separately.
AppleInsider said that, although details are scarce, sources who claim to have seen the new iPod describe it as being similar to Apple's 60GB iPod photo player, but several millimeters thinner.
The device reportedly sports a smaller click-wheel akin to that of the iPod nano's, making way for a larger, higher-resolution color display that extends further down the face of the device, according to AppleInsider.
PC World Editor in Chief Harry McCracken weighs in as well. "If a video iPod is indeed imminent, maybe it will have particularly clever options for getting the videos it contains onto TVs and other big displays. That would help address Steve Jobs's frequent dismissal of video handhelds for having teeny-tiny screens."
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 5, 2005 02:32 PM
October 05, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Sun Google deal worth a second look
Although the esteemed Forbes magazine says the Google Sun news is much ado about nothing, I say it is worth a second look.
With all the rumors that Google would soon launch an on demand or software as a service version of Sun's Star/OpenOffice productivity suite, following the Google Sun joint press conference, I thought it would be interesting to talk to the product manager at Star Office, Iyer Venkatesan.
Venkatesan has a lot of interesting things to say and unlike many others in this industry he was honest, not trying to convince me that StarOffice was perfect.
The first thing Venkatesan said was that no one should expect 100 percent compatibility with all of Microsoft marcos, espcially in Excel.
There are some more advanced macros that just do not translate easily. However, using the 80-20 rule, 80 percent of the users will access only 20 percent of the features, for many users StarOffice is an inexpensive alternative to Microsoft Office.
And Venkatesan added, "we have removed a large barrier for enterprise adoption with a Microsoft Office macro converter."
The converter translates both Word and Excel macros. Also included in StarOffice version 8 is a document analyzer which takes centrally stored documents, for example, an analyzes them to tell you how long it has been since they were accessed.
This is handy tool to have before anyone bothers to convert a file that nobody uses anyway.
In addition, the analyzer will tell you how many macros are in the file and classifies the conversion process into easy, moderate or advanced categories.
This tool can help a manager calculate man hours to conversion in order to decide whether they should bother to move it over or not.
Before anyone decides Star/OpenOffice is not meant for serious users, I suggest you take a look and decide for yourself.
Posted by Ephraim. Schwartz on October 5, 2005 02:27 PM
October 05, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Those CIOs or CTOs who think they have a handle on their company's IT operations might not want their bosses to see the results of a new survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit. That's because the report finds that IT risk has become one of the most significant corporate threats according to CEOs, CFOs and chief risk officers, and, what's more, it boldly suggests that "digital risk is too important to leave to IT management."
The survey found that 60 percent of respondents incurred significant financial damage as a result of systems failure in the past year, 33 percent suffered monetary losses due to cyber-crime, hacking or phishing, and just under half now see IT risk as a high or very high risk to their business.
In preparing the report, Digital risk: The challenge for the CRO, the Economist Intelligence Unit (subscriptioin required) collected information from 218 "senior risk managers," though it did not list CIO, CTO or any IT-related title among those. Forty percent of respondents work in financial services, and 18 other industries are represented, the company said.
It might help to point out that ACE, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Bank, IBM and KPMG all sponsored the study.
The obvious question this study brings up: If not the CIO, then who will be responsible IT and its associated risks?
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 5, 2005 06:59 AM
October 05, 2005 | Comments: (0)
The term extortion might conjure images of mafia-types walking from store to store in the Bronx.
"How ya doooin'? Got 'da protection payment for us today?"
While that practice likely still exists, today's extortionists are using a newer, tech-savvy but far more cowardly approach: threatening e-mails carrying demands for payment in exchange for protection from Denial of Service attacks.
As is the case when dealing with mobsters, the primary protection companies really need is from the very people offering it.
The New Yorker has a colorful story, The Zombie Hunters, about this new breed of cyber gangs, the companies they target, and the grueling process of trying to protect the would-be victims. Legitimate and legal protection, that is.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 5, 2005 06:30 AM
October 04, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Beehive apps framework is buzzing
The Apache Software Foundation this week released version 1.0 of the open source Apache Beehive application framework, which is based on the server runtime from the BEA WebLogic Workshop 8 development platform for Java.
Beehive is intended to make Java programming easier by providing an object model based on J2EE and Struts. Three pieces comprise Beehive: NetUI, which is an annotation-driven Web application framework; Controls, providing a lightweight metadata-driven component framework, and Web Service meta Data, offering a simplified annotation model for building Java Web services.
"Developers are using Beehive for building applications at various points in the enterprise," said Eddie O'Neil, vice president of the Apache Beehive project and a staff engineer at BEA, in an email. Beehive is being used to build Web applciations and for access to databases, Java messaging and EJBs, he said.
Web services authoring is not yet included in Beehive but will be added later.
Beehive is available free of charge under the Apache Software License.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 4, 2005 05:29 PM
October 04, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Andreessen launches developer 'playground'
Stealth start-up Ning unveiled itself on Monday, offering a free online service for creating and using social applications.
Co-founders Gina Bianchini and former Netscape exec Marc Andreessen refer to Ning as a Playground, by which they mean a "sphere of unrestricted pleasurable activity" or a place to build fun, interactive applications.
Many bloggers have been waiting for the project, code-named 24 Hour Laundry, to emerge from stealth mode.
According to the Ning site, social apps are web applications that let people match, transact, and communicate with other people. Social apps can include listings, reviews, ratings, recommendations, discussion boards, photo sharing, social bookmarking, wishlists, events, people matching, and maps.
The Ning Playground lets developers create applications by viewing the source code of similar applications, or by cloning another application and modifying, according to Ning officials.
Examples shown on Ning include personalized takes on sites such as Craigslist, Flickr, del.icio.us, Match.com, or Zagat.
The site offers application creation tools, including the ability to view the source code or clone any of the applications on the Ning Playground. Other services on the site are application management, hosting, and security; example applications that can be cloned easily, user registration, user profile, and role management, tag creation, and search.
The social apps Ning is talking about can stand alone or use web services to pull in information from sites such as Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, or others that offer API services for developers.
Although there's plenty of information on the site in the form of FAQs, exactly what the free service offers aside from a "wow" factor - as well as how Ning plans to make money - are a little fuzzy. Ning's site says the company hopes to make enough money from advertising and premium services to support free services for the foreseeable future.
In addition to CEO Bianchini and Andreessen, Ning has about 14 full-time employees.
Posted by Cathleen Moore on October 4, 2005 03:47 PM
October 04, 2005 | Comments: (0)
For some folks, being on Google is a boon to visibility and communications with the outside world. Others, though, are saying that they prefer not to be found within the search engine's massive index because being so also means leaving "an accidental trail of digital bread crumbs on the Web."
Wired News reports on some of the people who prefer to disassociate themselves with Google in UnGoogleables hide from search.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 4, 2005 06:23 AM
October 04, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Digital downtime on flights may disappear
What with efforts underway to legalize cell phone usage on airplanes, most people's initial reaction was that they didn't want to be subjected to hearing the guy next to them cooing and wooing his girlfriend via phone.
Count me as one of those people, by all means, but also include me among those who think that plane rides -- at least for the duration of being trapped in that tube -- offer an increasingly rarer respite from digital communications. There's no e-mail, you can't be reached via phone, and there is nothing within reason one can or even has to do about it.
In Silence aloft is threatened, The New York Times reports that a new concern is growing among like-minded individuals: "the dread of hearing one's own voice on a cell phone" during a plane ride.
Some travelers claim they need to the downtime for relaxation or contemplating strategy, others say they are more productive without the disruption, while at least one said rather than offering cell phone usage, a better option would be to just provide passengers with e-mail access.
Posted by Tom Sullivan on October 4, 2005 06:03 AM
October 03, 2005 | Comments: (0)
Sun and Google to partner up Tuesday
Sun Microsystems and Google plan to make a joint announcement Tuesday to discuss a "new collaborative effort."
Sun released a media note on the initiative on its Website, saying Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems Chairman and CEO, and Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO and Chairman of the Executive Committee, will discuss the effort at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.
Schmidt is no stranger to Sun, as a former CTO who also headed development of the Java programming language at the company.
The announcement is intriguing, particularly in light of recent reports that Google is gunning to ultimately knock off Microsoft as the leading computing platform. What better partner to have in that effort than Sun, at one time Microsoft's arch enemy.
Google continues to make waves. On Friday, it offered to test local Wi-Fi services for the city of San Francisco.
It also announced last week that it will expand office to NASA's research center in Silicon Valley.
Posted by Jack McCarthy on October 3, 2005 01:53 PM
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