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The InformationWeek November 2005 Archive « October 2005 | Main | December 2005 » |
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Prediction No. 2: Manpower Reductions
With more and more manual processes associated with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance activities being automated through technology, we expect the people costs for SOX to fall off dramatically in 2006.
This is actually a pretty safe bet since it will be the third year that large public companies have had to manage SOX compliance. One could assume that everyone is getting more adept, including the independent auditors, so manpower costs should go down as a percentage of overall costs associated with SOX.
But automation will be the key factor in driving down the man hours. AMR Research recently surveyed more than 300 IT and business managers and found that SOX will drive and increase in technology spending in 2006, while actual headcount numbers dedicated to compliance efforts will decrease.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 2: Manpower Reductions..."
Prediction No. 2: Manpower Reductions
With more and more manual processes associated with Sarbanes-Oxley compliance activities being automated through technology, we expect the people costs for SOX to fall off dramatically in 2006.
This is actually a pretty safe bet since it will be the third year that large public companies have had to manage SOX compliance. One could assume that everyone is getting more adept, including the independent auditors, so manpower costs should go down as a percentage of overall costs associated with SOX.
But automation will be the key factor in driving down the man hours. AMR Research recently surveyed more than 300 IT and business managers and found that SOX will drive and increase in technology spending in 2006, while actual headcount numbers dedicated to compliance efforts will decrease.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 2: Manpower Reductions..."
Google's "Space" Is (Mostly) Online
Some industry watchers have been suggesting that Google Space--a concept that the company is now testing in London's Heathrow Airport to let travelers try out its various search tools and search the Internet for free--will morph into some kind of permanent physical storefront.
I disagree.
Continue reading "Google's "Space" Is (Mostly) Online..."
Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, November 30
Listen to the current daily podcast: Hackers circulate exploit code for two Windows flaws while the FTC talks about what stops spammers, HP launches its formal utility-computing service, Firefox 1.5 release is imminent, the deadline passes for VoIP providers to offer 911 service, eBay gets taken to the woodshed.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, November 30..."
Out Of Alignment?
Getting IT and business managers on the same page is a frequent topic of conversation these days. Most IT managers I speak to bring up that desire to work closely with their business counterparts, unprompted. But efforts to achieve that alignment don't always result in the business benefits both executives and IT professionals seek to achieve. Optimize magazine's most recent survey of CIOs of Fortune 3000 companies found that too many fail to see that for that alignment to succeed, businesses need to consider the impact of projects on end users and the business as a whole.
Continue reading "Out Of Alignment?..."
Out Of Alignment?
Getting IT and business managers on the same page is a frequent topic of conversation these days. Most IT managers I speak to bring up that desire to work closely with their business counterparts, unprompted. But efforts to achieve that alignment don't always result in the business benefits both executives and IT professionals seek to achieve. Optimize magazine's most recent survey of CIOs of Fortune 3000 companies found that too many fail to see that for that alignment to succeed, businesses need to consider the impact of projects on end users and the business as a whole.
Continue reading "Out Of Alignment?..."
Necessity Is The Mother
If you've spent any length of time supporting users, you know that there is no end to the imaginative workarounds they can come up with when a system goes down and they have work that still needs to happen. Yes, necessity is the mother of invention, or some other kind of mother, but when it comes to e-mail workarounds, the inventiveness of users can cause problems.
And it's hard to quibble with their intent. Businesses can no longer build slack into their schedules as a just-in-case measure when making deals. Communications technology has made immediacy the norm, so when a critical conduit is temporarily unavailable, the show still must go on, no excuses.
In our most recent poll we asked you what your users resort to when their corporate e-mail is down. As we anticipated, a majority (51 percent) of you said they just go out on the Web and use their personal e-mail accounts. Not a pretty picture if you're monitoring e-mail for compliance and security purposes.
Continue reading "Necessity Is The Mother..."
Necessity Is The Mother
If you've spent any length of time supporting users, you know that there is no end to the imaginative workarounds they can come up with when a system goes down and they have work that still needs to happen. Yes, necessity is the mother of invention, or some other kind of mother, but when it comes to e-mail workarounds, the inventiveness of users can cause problems.
And it's hard to quibble with their intent. Businesses can no longer build slack into their schedules as a just-in-case measure when making deals. Communications technology has made immediacy the norm, so when a critical conduit is temporarily unavailable, the show still must go on, no excuses.
In our most recent poll we asked you what your users resort to when their corporate e-mail is down. As we anticipated, a majority (51 percent) of you said they just go out on the Web and use their personal e-mail accounts. Not a pretty picture if you're monitoring e-mail for compliance and security purposes.
Continue reading "Necessity Is The Mother..."
20 Whats For Windows?
From the mailbag: My tepid birthday greetings to Microsoft Windows and its smarter cousin, the Apple Macintosh OS, last week in my e-mail newsletter (what, you're not a subscriber?) drew a couple of e-mail replies -- actually less backchat than I expected.
Continue reading "20 Whats For Windows?..."
20 Whats For Windows?
From the mailbag: My tepid birthday greetings to Microsoft Windows and its smarter cousin, the Apple Macintosh OS, last week in my e-mail newsletter (what, you're not a subscriber?) drew a couple of e-mail replies -- actually less backchat than I expected.
Continue reading "20 Whats For Windows?..."
Robert Abbe at Jeffries Broadview Talks Up IT Trends
Robert Abbe, managing director at investment banking firm Jefferies Broadview unveils to TechWeb several IT communications and wireless industry trends he expects will drive significant opportunities for businesses in 2006
Podcast: Click here to download or listen to Robert Abbe.
How To Rescue Federal IT
Let the debate begin. We have a series of stories and podcasts that should have every federal IT employee thinking about how best to fix the 'system.'
Clearly, something needs to be done.
Continue reading "How To Rescue Federal IT..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, November 29
Listen to the current daily podcast: The state of Massachusetts has done a total turnaround and is now supporting Microsoft in the ongoing battle over office software formats; the Google Space program is in test mode at London's Heathrow Airport; online shopping is a bigger hit this year; and a holiday list for someone who has everything else.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, November 29..."
Too Much Time
Cell service has improved enough that enterprises are now comfortable relying on the technology to conduct business. But improved service quality has not come with corresponding advances in the cost-effectiveness of contracts. Consider your own personal cell phone contract: Are you satisfied with it or are you paying for minutes you will never use? If you have too much of a good thing, then you aren't alone.
Continue reading "Too Much Time..."
Too Much Time
Cell service has improved enough that enterprises are now comfortable relying on the technology to conduct business. But improved service quality has not come with corresponding advances in the cost-effectiveness of contracts. Consider your own personal cell phone contract: Are you satisfied with it or are you paying for minutes you will never use? If you have too much of a good thing, then you aren't alone.
Continue reading "Too Much Time..."
Let Us Predict
The holiday season is now officially out of its cage and you know what that means . . . Yup, it's time for that annual right of analysts, pundits, journalists and wags everywhere to vent their predictions for the coming year.
But rather than wait and wrap all predictions up in a nice holiday bundle, I think I'll meter out our guesswork in the time-honored tradition of seasonal marketing campaigns that dictate the emergence of flocked trees and jingle bells shortly after the back-to-school sales end. If you're like me, you just love walking into your neighborhood big-box superstore on a hot, late September day, and getting serenaded by an animated reindeer.
But the better part of taste and a disturbing lack of material have forced me to wait until Thanksgiving leftovers are finally starting to look like leftovers to begin unleashing our predictions for IT compliance management in 2006.
Why the lack of material, you ask. Well, for the most part, the issues around compliance management remain largely the same. Companies are getting off the stick and doing more to automate their compliance processes and there's a lot more products and services available to help them accomplish that, but the basic needs have changed little from year to year.
Continue reading "Let Us Predict..."
Let Us Predict
The holiday season is now officially out of its cage and you know what that means . . . Yup, it's time for that annual right of analysts, pundits, journalists and wags everywhere to vent their predictions for the coming year.
But rather than wait and wrap all predictions up in a nice holiday bundle, I think I'll meter out our guesswork in the time-honored tradition of seasonal marketing campaigns that dictate the emergence of flocked trees and jingle bells shortly after the back-to-school sales end. If you're like me, you just love walking into your neighborhood big-box superstore on a hot, late September day, and getting serenaded by an animated reindeer.
But the better part of taste and a disturbing lack of material have forced me to wait until Thanksgiving leftovers are finally starting to look like leftovers to begin unleashing our predictions for IT compliance management in 2006.
Why the lack of material, you ask. Well, for the most part, the issues around compliance management remain largely the same. Companies are getting off the stick and doing more to automate their compliance processes and there's a lot more products and services available to help them accomplish that, but the basic needs have changed little from year to year.
Continue reading "Let Us Predict..."
EBay Hears And Sees No Evil, It Just Sells It
Is eBay Adam Smith's perfect market, where prices are set by the honest interaction of buyers and sellers and everyone goes home happy--or is it simply the perfect vehicle for price gouging--and much, much worse? The short supply of Microsoft's Xbox 360 means the game system is now fetching up to $1,000 on eBay. Fair enough, if a gamester really can't wait a few more weeks to play the 360 version of Call of Duty 2 or NBA Live 06 then it's their money, right? Sure, but eBay's willingness to turn a blind eye to scalping, copyright infringement and the sale of questionable goods has a darker side that proved very convenient for a creep named Peter Braunstein.
Continue reading "EBay Hears And Sees No Evil, It Just Sells It..."
Waiting For Proof
CA is making a big play to revamp its image -- and rescue its future -- with a new name, 26 new products, a new strategy but the jury is still out on what the vendor's prospects are. In last week's Systems Management Pipeline poll, most of the respondents say they are still at least somewhat skeptical about CA's software and the company's future. Seventy-two percent said that CA's past mistakes are causing them to either reserve judgment until they see more or that that the company's past transgressions are so severe that there is little the company can do to reverse their negative opinion.
Continue reading "Waiting For Proof..."
Waiting For Proof
CA is making a big play to revamp its image -- and rescue its future -- with a new name, 26 new products, a new strategy but the jury is still out on what the vendor's prospects are. In last week's Systems Management Pipeline poll, most of the respondents say they are still at least somewhat skeptical about CA's software and the company's future. Seventy-two percent said that CA's past mistakes are causing them to either reserve judgment until they see more or that that the company's past transgressions are so severe that there is little the company can do to reverse their negative opinion.
Continue reading "Waiting For Proof..."
Semantics: Discretionary Account Or Slush Fund
In business, when a project heads south, executives pulls the plug on it. "The private sector cuts off failures before they become failures," former Department of Homeland Security CIO Steve Cooper says in an interview. Not only would the project be stopped, but the money allotted for it could easily be applied to a new program to meet the original project's goals.
But changing the government budgeting process to mirror the way business finances IT projects is highly unlikely, and many agency heads and IT executives see merits in the current system despite the big headaches it gives them. The process is aimed at protecting taxpayers money, making sure its elected leaders in Congress decide how best to spend it. Still, that didn't stop Cooper, now the American Red Cross' CIO, to suggest what he sees as reasonable workaround to the problem: Establish a discretionary fund with strict rules in which a cabinet secretary could redirect money to a new program if a major project is failing. Listen to the podcast Convergence to hear of the response Cooper got from government leaders.
IRS's Four-Step Recovery Plan
About a year and a half ago, the Internal Revenue Service tapped Richard Spires, president of a company that develops behavior detection technologies, to oversee the tax agency's business systems modernization. In a recorded interview with Spires, the IRS's associate CIO identifies four major differences with how the IRS now approaches business systems modernization than it did in its early days when it was troubled with cost and scheduled delays.
Daily News Podcast, Monday, November 28
Listen to the current daily podcast: Google has a new advertising service called "click-to-call;" AOL launched its all-in-one communications client, "Triton;" Microsoft Xboxes are fetching big bucks on eBay; and Sony's copy-protection comedy cavalcade.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Monday, November 28..."
Could The Sony Debacle Actually Be Good For Us?
For anyone (or should I say EVERYone) who's lapping up our latest coverage of Sony Rootkitgate, here's some mandatory--and eye-opening--reading. Michael Robertson, the man who founded MP3.com (and sold it to Universal in the early days of the digital music push for a cool $372 million), and later took on Microsoft by bringing a hybrid Linux/Windows operating system to market, has weighed in on the fiasco, and his take is quite enlightening.
Continue reading "Could The Sony Debacle Actually Be Good For Us?..."
Outsourcing: IT Threat Or Opportunity?
Just in time for the holidays come dire predictions likely to send a chill through the hearts of most U.S. IT professionals. An upcoming Congressional report is forecasting difficult times ahead for domestic IT workers, thanks in large part to the way that technology itself has helped erase geographic boundaries and make it possible for less expensive offshore workers to compete and win jobs from U.S. employees.
Continue reading "Outsourcing: IT Threat Or Opportunity?..."
Outsourcing: IT Threat Or Opportunity?
Just in time for the holidays come dire predictions likely to send a chill through the hearts of most U.S. IT professionals. An upcoming Congressional report is forecasting difficult times ahead for domestic IT workers, thanks in large part to the way that technology itself has helped erase geographic boundaries and make it possible for less expensive offshore workers to compete and win jobs from U.S. employees.
Continue reading "Outsourcing: IT Threat Or Opportunity?..."
Security's Sisyphean Situation
Did you hear that? It's the sound of your network and applications being attacked. Hear that? It just happened again. What's worse, the nature of these attacks is changing. Gone are the good old days of simply having your Web site defaced, your e-mail corrupted by indiscriminant worms, and your networks flooded by brute-force denial-of-service attacks. Sure, you'll see plenty of those in 2006, but what you should really be worried about are the attacks you can't see. Where did it all go wrong? Let's take a look.
Continue reading "Security's Sisyphean Situation..."
The Sony Copy-Protection Comedy Cavalcade
Watching Sony BMG stumble from one fiasco to another over its copy-protection technology is like watching a silent-movie comedy about a bungling waiter. He starts to lose control of a heavy tray of soups and desserts, and, in trying to regain his balance, yanks tablecloths to the floor, sends silverware, dishes, and food flying, and veers around the room, knocking over furniture and patrons, and generally spreading disaster all around.
Sony's efforts to extricate itself from its digital rights management scandal are a similarly spectacular series of pratfalls. But it's likely to have little long-term impact on Sony. Just some public embarassment that Sony will quickly overcome, and fines that Sony can afford to pay.
The effects on business are much bigger. The fiasco is another demonstraton of the power of bloggers to shape public opinion.
And the events also demonstrate yet again that consumer Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology doesn't work, and can't be made to work.
Early this month, security researchers disclosed that CDs distributed by Sony BMG used copy-protection software containing a "rootkit." A rootkit is a software toolkit designed to let hackers take control of target computers. It quite simply has no legitimate purpose.
In and of itself, that wouldn't have been any big deal. It was a grossly irresponsible error by Sony. But big corporations are human institutions and imperfect like everything else done by human beings. The story would have been forgotten in days if Sony had simply done a quick mea culpa, promised to never do it again, and moved on.
But, instead, Sony refused to admit wrongdoing, and chose to remain mostly silent, except for a moment or two insulting its critics, and taking actions to make the matter worse.
A low point of Sony's PR campaign was when Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's Global Digital Business President, said in an interview on National Public Radio: "Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
In other words: If you don't understand something, it can't be a threat. I guess that means if nobody tells you smoking is bad for you, then it's perfectly safe.
In one of the latest pratfalls in this comedy cavalcade, we discover that Sony's anti-piracy technology doesn't even work. Gartner analysts disclosed that it can be defeated by putting a sliver of Scotch tape on the right spot on the so-called "protected" disk.
Continue reading "The Sony Copy-Protection Comedy Cavalcade..."
Mollifying The Paper-Pushers Could Benefit Microsoft's Business Customers, Too
Microsoft never relinquishes control easily; this time, it buckled to the bureaucrats. But its decision, related to its upcoming Office 12 suite, should help customers, particularly those that want to customize Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Continue reading "Mollifying The Paper-Pushers Could Benefit Microsoft's Business Customers, Too..."
Ten IT Stories We'd All Love To See In 2006
Let's face it, most of the IT stories we'll write and you'll read in the next year aren't likely to be all that surprising. Oracle will buy some more companies. Consumer data will be compromised at several big companies. Microsoft will hastily patch security hole after security hole. Chips will get smaller and faster, displays will get bigger and clearer, and lots of software will get offered as Web-based services. But every once in a while, some surprising, or even shocking (one can hope!), development will spice things up.
Continue reading "Ten IT Stories We'd All Love To See In 2006..."
Rugged MP3 Player A Solid Idea
Sharp plans to ship November 26 two ruggedized mobile music players that can survive being dropped from 1.4 meters.
The Sharp MP-S200 (512MB) and MP-S300 (1GB) players' electronics are protected against damage with what the Japanese news site Nikkei.net 
Interactive describes as a "honeycomb protection structure."
The gadget looks like an ordinary music player jammed into a rock-climber's carabiner, which not only adds protection, but gives it a macho look and enables users to hook it into a belt.
Each player feature FM tuners and transmitters (for playing wirelessly over a car stereo), direct encoding, MP3 and WMA DRM support, is powered by a single AAA battery and comes in silver, red, blue and black.
Sharp has not announced pricing.
Stallman Stands Up
I get the impression that some people view Richard Stallman's run-in with U.N. security goofballs in Tunisia last week as further proof that, to put it bluntly, Stallman is a few bits short of a byte. If you share that opinion, do yourself and Stallman a favor: Read Bruce Perens' eyewitness account of the incident before you jump to any conclusions about what happened and especially about why it happened.
Continue reading "Stallman Stands Up..."
Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, Nov. 23
In today's podcast: Cyber criminals target applications; the EU mulls scrapping a passenger data-sharing agreement with the U.S.; China trials RFID technology for tracking bird flu, while separately, panelists weigh potential RFID security threats; Gartner tells Win2K users to prepare for Vista; Microsoft submits its XML Office format for standards approval; and we take a close look at online shopping expectations this holiday season.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, Nov. 23..."
In HPC, A Question Of Where Microsoft Lays Its Bets
When Microsoft officially threw its hat into the high-performance computing ring this month with a speech by chairman Bill Gates at a supercomputing conference in Seattle, some computer scientists hoped the company could help sort out an arcane but potentially important problem in the market: coaxing more performance out of commonly used programming languages. It's a challenging technical conundrum, but it also illustrates how Microsoft's entry into the market is sowing both skepticism about its influence and hope about the benefits of its deep pockets.
Continue reading "In HPC, A Question Of Where Microsoft Lays Its Bets..."
Gartner's John Pescatore on the SANS report
I spoke with John Pescatore, VP and research fellow for information security at market research firm Gartner, Inc. for this story, posted earlier today, about the SANS Institute's report on the 20 most critical Internet security vulnerabilities for 2005.
Continue reading "Gartner's John Pescatore on the SANS report..."
Something Else To Worry About, Or Not
It's right before Thanksgiving and I'm trying hard not to think curmudgeonly thoughts but just in case you haven't noticed your users downloading AOL's spiffy new IM client (which is much more than an IM client) be aware that instant messages aren't the only thing that could be breaking your compliance policies.
The new AIM Triton service, which became available for free download today, is an integrated communications client that offers instant messaging, free e-mail and SMS mobile texting as well as voice and video chat services. It also offers access to AOL's new TotalTalk VoIP calling service.
With a few clicks users can now carry on multiple conversations simultaneously and transition from desktop instant messaging to mobile text messaging, e-mail, voice or video chat.
Continue reading "Something Else To Worry About, Or Not..."
Something Else To Worry About, Or Not
It's right before Thanksgiving and I'm trying hard not to think curmudgeonly thoughts but just in case you haven't noticed your users downloading AOL's spiffy new IM client (which is much more than an IM client) be aware that instant messages aren't the only thing that could be breaking your compliance policies.
The new AIM Triton service, which became available for free download today, is an integrated communications client that offers instant messaging, free e-mail and SMS mobile texting as well as voice and video chat services. It also offers access to AOL's new TotalTalk VoIP calling service.
With a few clicks users can now carry on multiple conversations simultaneously and transition from desktop instant messaging to mobile text messaging, e-mail, voice or video chat.
Continue reading "Something Else To Worry About, Or Not..."
Ready, Set, Shop!
Don't look now, but Thanksgiving is bearing down upon us, which you probably know means that the biggest shopping weekend of the year is right around the corner. What you might not know, however, is that the Monday following that weekend, is fast becoming the biggest online shopping day of the year. This year, online retailers plan to help drive Cyber Monday shopping with special promotions and discounts, with deals ranging from free shipping to gifts with purchase to percentages off, according to an eHoliday Mood Study.
Continue reading "Ready, Set, Shop!..."
Retail Explores Emerging Technologies
Retail stores are exploring some interesting emerging technologies this holiday season from live customer service kiosks in stores to vertical search engines that can easily find the products or the travel deals you're looking for.
Laura Merling is executive director at SDForum, a Silicon Valley company that provides insight on emerging technologies
Merling said some of the interesting emerging vertical search engines include become.com and dulance.com. They allow shoppers to look for search results specific to that perfect gift. Other topic we talked about include the ability to make purchases from your cell phone.
Click here to download or listen to podcast
Peter Jackson Re-Creates 1933 King Kong Scene
Movie director Peter Jackson, most famous for his Lord of the Rings trilogy and soon to be most famous for his spectacular King Kong remake, has spearheaded a project to re-create at least one awesome scene missing from the 1933 original King Kong.
When test screening the original movie in San Bernadino, Calif., in 1933, one scene terrified the audience so much that the movie's director, Ernest Cooper, cut it the film.
The original scene has now been lost forever. But Jackson assembled a team of filmmakers and artists and, using original stop-motion 
techniques and old film equipment, have re-created the scene based on still photos, storyboards and the original script. The re-created scene has been seamlessly inserted back into the movie.
The full 1933 movie -- with the re-created scene -- was released to stores yesterday This DVD version also includes frames cut from the original movie, and has been digitally restored to remove scratches, skips and dirt on the film version. This is the first time any version of the 1933 King Kong has been officially released on DVD.
Piling On Sony
I've been as mad as anybody at Sony over its use of a rootkit as a "digital rights management" tool. It's a little like calling a sawed-off shotgun a privacy-management tool -- it's effective, but the consequences are both unpredictable and horrific.
Now both the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Texas Attorney General have filed suit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
Continue reading "Piling On Sony..."
Piling On Sony
I've been as mad as anybody at Sony over its use of a rootkit as a "digital rights management" tool. It's a little like calling a sawed-off shotgun a privacy-management tool -- it's effective, but the consequences are both unpredictable and horrific.
Now both the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Texas Attorney General have filed suit against Sony BMG Music Entertainment.
Continue reading "Piling On Sony..."
It's Just An Operating System
"The operating system doesn't matter." -- Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, keynoting the recent Harvard Cyberposium 11.
It's not the first time such a sentiment has been uttered by executives who find themselves competing against Microsoft. And many, many more of us wish it could be the case but Balsillie and the rest of us know that Microsoft continually makes the operating system matter.
At the core of his argument Balsillie is right. While Research In Motion is running into Microsoft everywhere it turns these days, and Windows Mobile 5.0 with Exchange Service Pack 2 offers the intriguing push e-mail capability, he downplayed Windows in his speech noting that "The operating system in the device is 200 kbytes in code. It's a bit element in the system. A task manager."
Continue reading "It's Just An Operating System..."
It's Just An Operating System
"The operating system doesn't matter." -- Research In Motion Co-CEO Jim Balsillie, keynoting the recent Harvard Cyberposium 11.
It's not the first time such a sentiment has been uttered by executives who find themselves competing against Microsoft. And many, many more of us wish it could be the case but Balsillie and the rest of us know that Microsoft continually makes the operating system matter.
At the core of his argument Balsillie is right. While Research In Motion is running into Microsoft everywhere it turns these days, and Windows Mobile 5.0 with Exchange Service Pack 2 offers the intriguing push e-mail capability, he downplayed Windows in his speech noting that "The operating system in the device is 200 kbytes in code. It's a bit element in the system. A task manager."
Continue reading "It's Just An Operating System..."
Windows Forever
Chicago, Cairo, Vista -- all names of Windows works in progress and all part of the amazing software spin strategy that Microsoft pioneered with so much success. By revealing tantilizing details of coming Windows versions, the software giant has kept corporate IT departments focused on Windows and hopeful about the the future even as system administrators and their end users often grumbled over their current operating system. So, now after 20 years, it is safe to say that Windows is here to stay.
Continue reading "Windows Forever..."
Windows Forever
Chicago, Cairo, Vista -- all names of Windows works in progress and all part of the amazing software spin strategy that Microsoft pioneered with so much success. By revealing tantilizing details of coming Windows versions, the software giant has kept corporate IT departments focused on Windows and hopeful about the the future even as system administrators and their end users often grumbled over their current operating system. So, now after 20 years, it is safe to say that Windows is here to stay.
Continue reading "Windows Forever..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Nov. 22
In the current podcast: Sony faces yet more problems from its copy-protection technology, as Gartner analysts describe an easy way to beat it, and Texas sues under spyware laws. Intel and AMD are the fastest-growing chip suppliers. And this am Bizarro note about Microsoft.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Nov. 22..."
This Am A Bizarro Note About Microsoft
Today's news is dominated by stories about a world where Microsoft is an also-ran, trying to steal market share away from market leader Linux, and where Microsoft is trying to enhance its users' experience by supporting the Firefox browser.
What strange world is this, you ask? Is it, perhaps, the Bizarro world, the square planet where everything is the opposite of what it is on Earth, populated by deformed duplicates of Superman and Lois Lane?
Oh, no, silly reader! These things are happening here, today!
Continue reading "This Am A Bizarro Note About Microsoft..."
The Road Ahead?
Microsoft Windows turned 20 this week. Like any 20 year-old, Windows is heading into its third decade with a swagger in its walk and a hint of arrogance in its eyes. And with good reason: The road Windows has traveled for so many years looks just as familiar as ever and still promises to take it exactly where it wants to go.
Continue reading "The Road Ahead?..."
Oracle Challenge To SAP Nets Response: We Like SQL Server
When Oracle went into the applications business, did it foresee how the move could affect its database business? Reading between the lines of Microsoft's recent SQL Server 2005 launch, maybe it underestimated the impact.
Continue reading "Oracle Challenge To SAP Nets Response: We Like SQL Server..."
Google's Book Search: Best of Times, Worst of Times For Libraries
College professors complain about the current generation of copy-and-paste students. Raised online, impatient with card catalogs and paper indices, these students use Google to do research papers, finding even obscure references and far-flung sources in seconds.
Unfortunately, their results -- and their final papers -- tend to be heavily slanted toward the knowledge and opinion in magazines, on Web sites and other resources that were first to put their offerings online. Knowledge not digitized and posted is more often than not ignored by students these days.
Books? Ha -- if Amazon.com didn't happen to publish an excerpt, it used to be off the table for most college students.
Continue reading "Google's Book Search: Best of Times, Worst of Times For Libraries..."
By The Book
There may be plenty of grumbling around water coolers about recent changes in the government regulatory environments but, like it or not, those compliance dictates are here to stay. Last week’s poll shows that regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and FISMA have affected the majority of companies. Seventy-seven percent of the survey respondents have made an investment, whether it is personnel resources or compliance monitoring software to ensure they meet government regulations.
Continue reading "By The Book..."
By The Book
There may be plenty of grumbling around water coolers about recent changes in the government regulatory environments but, like it or not, those compliance dictates are here to stay. Last week’s poll shows that regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, and FISMA have affected the majority of companies. Seventy-seven percent of the survey respondents have made an investment, whether it is personnel resources or compliance monitoring software to ensure they meet government regulations.
Continue reading "By The Book..."
Daily News Podcast, November 21
In today's podcast: our top story about former Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge talking about how IT issues prevent the agency from fulfilling its mission; an in-depth package about the twentieth anniversary of the launching of Microsoft Windows; and editorial comments about the recent spate of law enforcement efforts regarding spammers and scammers.
To listen, click here.
Two Decades Later, We Still Do Windows
It can't be possible. Has it really been 20 years since I took those 5.25-inch floppy disks and loaded a new operating system called Windows, of all things, on my PC/XT clone with the amber monitor, and remarked to myself, "Now What?"
The answer to that question was not immediately forthcoming. In fact, it took a few years to figure out why Windows would ever be important, and perhaps a decade before we all went, "A-ha." Windows in the mid-80s was essentially DOS with a graphical overlay. It came with a few utilities, a precurser to Word called Windows Write, and Windows Paint, which didn't work near as well as the Macintosh drawing and painting programs.
In those days, while DOS still ruled the business desktop and the Mac was this cool thing you could play games on and do "art stuff" with, Windows was just another PC operating system in search of applications. All the business applications ran on proprietary mainframes and minicomputers or one of the Unix derivatives. Businesses ran "personal productivity" applications like word processors, spreadsheets, and "personal" databases on DOS. That's what a PC was back then; a personal productivity tool.
Continue reading "Two Decades Later, We Still Do Windows..."
Two Decades Later, We Still Do Windows
It can't be possible. Has it really been 20 years since I took those 5.25-inch floppy disks and loaded a new operating system called Windows, of all things, on my PC/XT clone with the amber monitor, and remarked to myself, "Now What?"
The answer to that question was not immediately forthcoming. In fact, it took a few years to figure out why Windows would ever be important, and perhaps a decade before we all went, "A-ha." Windows in the mid-80s was essentially DOS with a graphical overlay. It came with a few utilities, a precurser to Word called Windows Write, and Windows Paint, which didn't work near as well as the Macintosh drawing and painting programs.
In those days, while DOS still ruled the business desktop and the Mac was this cool thing you could play games on and do "art stuff" with, Windows was just another PC operating system in search of applications. All the business applications ran on proprietary mainframes and minicomputers or one of the Unix derivatives. Businesses ran "personal productivity" applications like word processors, spreadsheets, and "personal" databases on DOS. That's what a PC was back then; a personal productivity tool.
Continue reading "Two Decades Later, We Still Do Windows..."
Lock 'Em Up!
Good news on the anti-crime front: more spammers, phishers, and other rippers-off of little old ladies are getting caught and going to jail.
Continue reading "Lock 'Em Up!..."
Style Conscious
This is the age of analyzing everything ad nauseum so why should examining management styles be any different. Consider yourself -- or own boss--what is your manager's administrative philosphy? Is your boss a micromanager who needs to weigh in on every decision or a laid back manager who may be a little too distant when you need a backup? Or does your boss employ a crisis management style where it is all about command and control, even when there is no emergency?
Continue reading "Style Conscious..."
Style Conscious
This is the age of analyzing everything ad nauseum so why should examining management styles be any different. Consider yourself -- or own boss--what is your manager's administrative philosphy? Is your boss a micromanager who needs to weigh in on every decision or a laid back manager who may be a little too distant when you need a backup? Or does your boss employ a crisis management style where it is all about command and control, even when there is no emergency?
Continue reading "Style Conscious..."
OQO: Rich And Beautiful
OQO Inc. got $20 million in venture funding this week. All that money makes OQO very attractive, but I confess, I was in love with OQO even before it was rich, because it makes an intriguingly beautiful tiny PC.
If want a little dose of computer lust (or maybe a Christmas gift suggestion) go to www.oqo.com and gaze longingly at the OQO Model 01+. It's got a 1GHz processor, a 30GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, integrated wireless networking, and FireWire and USB ports. So what's the big deal with that?
Continue reading "OQO: Rich And Beautiful..."
OQO: Rich And Beautiful
OQO Inc. got $20 million in venture funding this week. All that money makes OQO very attractive, but I confess, I was in love with OQO even before it was rich, because it makes an intriguingly beautiful tiny PC.
If want a little dose of computer lust (or maybe a Christmas gift suggestion) go to www.oqo.com and gaze longingly at the OQO Model 01+. It's got a 1GHz processor, a 30GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, integrated wireless networking, and FireWire and USB ports. So what's the big deal with that?
Continue reading "OQO: Rich And Beautiful..."
Daily News Podcast, November 18
In today's podcast, our top story examines the U.N.'s World Conference, which led to a compromise on Internet governance and a resolution from Congress. In breaking news, Microsoft warns of a New Windows 2000 exploit, industry executives are told to "Globalize or Die," the Yankee Group is sold, and consumer fears of holiday ID theft spark changes in buying behavior. The In Depth Report provides the weekly roundup of personal technology stories and reviews, while my editor's note looks at the power of collaborative problem-solving. Tune in here.
Alert To Trouble
There is always room for improvement in IT. Event notification is no exception. Yes, event management applications can send alerts to IT using a variety of mechanisms including via pagers. However, complaints about just how real-time these alerts are are common as the technology behind the event notification is often antiquated.
Continue reading "Alert To Trouble..."
Alert To Trouble
There is always room for improvement in IT. Event notification is no exception. Yes, event management applications can send alerts to IT using a variety of mechanisms including via pagers. However, complaints about just how real-time these alerts are are common as the technology behind the event notification is often antiquated.
Continue reading "Alert To Trouble..."
Ub-iquitous
Last week, IBM certified the Ubuntu Linux distro for use with its DB2 enterprise database. These types of vendor certifications are pretty routine; and as a rule, they're nothing to get worked up about. This one, however, is truly interesting: Could an obscure Linux distro with a funny name, hippy-dippy motto, crazy-commie talk about truly free software, and a Debian (ahem!) lineage soon have both Red Hat and Novell on the run?
Continue reading "Ub-iquitous..."
It Takes A Village To Solve IT's Problems
In the last couple of weeks, I've noticed an interesting trend, one I hope will not only continue, but pick up some momentum.
I'm talking about a growth in collaboration to solve technology-related problems - all kinds of problems, from addressing bad behavior, to fending off lawsuits, to figuring out a solution that can meet most of the needs of the players involved.
Continue reading "It Takes A Village To Solve IT's Problems..."
Daily News Podcast, Nov. 17
In today's report, we analyze the new Google Base service, cover adware and the Sony copy-protection debacle. Tune in here.
Videocast: California Research Center Developing Tomorrow's Off-The-Shelf Technology Today
Our video camera and I recently visited the brand-spanking-new California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, a/k/a Calit2. Check out video of robotics research, digital cinema, clean rooms, interviews with director Larry Shaw and Sony robotics researcher Fumihide Tanaka, as well as a very cool statue.
Download the video here. Size: 12 MB. Duration: 3 minutes 23 seconds.
This is my second-ever video, and I'm pretty pleased with the way it came out. The sound levels, and pacing are ok, and I did some fancy things--well, fancy to me--like overlaying audio tracks from one video segment on another video entirely, and creating my own audio tracks to narrate parts of the video. Still, there are a couple of mistakes that I'll be looking to correct next time around: As with my first video effort, I had difficulty composing shots with human subjects; Larry Smarr is too far away and, in the shots of me, my head is touching the bottom of the frame where it should be touching the top.
The close-ups of me are, arguably, too close, but that's a function of how I did them. Lacking a cameraman or even a tripod, I just put the video camera in my hand, stuck out my arm, and pointed the camera back at my face. I positioned myself so that the very cool statue (mentioned above) would be visible in the background while my face would be in closeup. I think the effect worked out pretty cool.
Now to get to work cutting this down to under a minute for The News Show.
Technology Can Help Distinguish Between Control And CONTROL
Controlling the use of the messaging infrastructure is a fight as old as business itself. The challenges today are more complex, to be sure, but essentially unchanged since the Romans, Egyptians, and Babylonians sent teams of runners covering more than 200 miles per day.
We want our communications to be secure, accurate, and limited to the mission(s) of the enterprise. In my own experience, that quest has led to some rather extreme and unsuccessful attempts at control.
I've worked for a company that installed pay phones on the premise and forbade the use of the company phone system for personal calls. Certain classes of employees could not even receive incoming calls. Receptionists took messages and calls could be returned during scheduled breaks from the pay phones.
Continue reading "Technology Can Help Distinguish Between Control And CONTROL..."
Technology Can Help Distinguish Between Control And CONTROL
Controlling the use of the messaging infrastructure is a fight as old as business itself. The challenges today are more complex, to be sure, but essentially unchanged since the Romans, Egyptians, and Babylonians sent teams of runners covering more than 200 miles per day.
We want our communications to be secure, accurate, and limited to the mission(s) of the enterprise. In my own experience, that quest has led to some rather extreme and unsuccessful attempts at control.
I've worked for a company that installed pay phones on the premise and forbade the use of the company phone system for personal calls. Certain classes of employees could not even receive incoming calls. Receptionists took messages and calls could be returned during scheduled breaks from the pay phones.
Continue reading "Technology Can Help Distinguish Between Control And CONTROL..."
SOA Implementations Face Challenges
The news is sobering, if not surprising. According to a recent poll administered by SOA Pipeline, SOA implementations are taking longer than expected, raising more challenges than anticipated, and returning ROI later than desired.
Continue reading "SOA Implementations Face Challenges..."
SOA Implementations Face Challenges
The news is sobering, if not surprising. According to a recent poll administered by SOA Pipeline, SOA implementations are taking longer than expected, raising more challenges than anticipated, and returning ROI later than desired.
Continue reading "SOA Implementations Face Challenges..."
The Future Starts Now
Remember when 1999 sounded like the distant future? Now it is more like the distant past. In the last decade alone, we've witnessed stunning technological advances that are changing the world as the Internet makes distance disappear and wireless gives us the flexibility we need now in this always-connected age.
Continue reading "The Future Starts Now..."
The Future Starts Now
Remember when 1999 sounded like the distant future? Now it is more like the distant past. In the last decade alone, we've witnessed stunning technological advances that are changing the world as the Internet makes distance disappear and wireless gives us the flexibility we need now in this always-connected age.
Continue reading "The Future Starts Now..."
Vista: If Not Now, When?
Gartner Inc., the hotshot analyst firm, is advising its corporate clients to wait until 2008 to begin adopting Windows Vista. (That's presuming, of course, that it's shipped by then.)
The reason, according to analyst Mr. Michael Silver, is that Windows Vista will offer only "incremental, evolutionary improvements" over Windows XP and Windows 2000. If your company paid Gartner big bucks for that opinion, shame on you. I would have told you that for free.
Continue reading "Vista: If Not Now, When?..."
Vista: If Not Now, When?
Gartner Inc., the hotshot analyst firm, is advising its corporate clients to wait until 2008 to begin adopting Windows Vista. (That's presuming, of course, that it's shipped by then.)
The reason, according to analyst Mr. Michael Silver, is that Windows Vista will offer only "incremental, evolutionary improvements" over Windows XP and Windows 2000. If your company paid Gartner big bucks for that opinion, shame on you. I would have told you that for free.
Continue reading "Vista: If Not Now, When?..."
Daily News Podcast, Nov. 16
Listen to today's Daily Podcast: Sony's fix to its infected copy-protected software just makes the problem worse, Microsoft unveils supercomputer plans, and Google wants your attention.
Links from this podcast: Sony's Plan To Fix Infected Copy Protection Only Makes Matters Worse - ID Theft Numbers May Be Misleading - Google Offers Web Analytics For Free - How else can you make money selling people's attention, other than the ad business?
Technicolor Turns 90: From Film To Digital
Technicolor turned 90 years old today. And it's come a long way. The company has supported 58 films that have won Academy Awards. Dr. Herbert T. Kalmus, the company's founder, received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960, the year he retired as head of the company.
Today, Technicolor has more than 23,000 employees. It's the world’s largest manufacturer and distributor of pre-recorded videocassettes, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, and CD-ROM. Technicolor has the ability to produce more than 1.5 billion DVDs, 330 million videocassettes and 300 million CDs annually. And it just signed a deal with several motion picture studios to distribute movies to theaters digitally.
I had an opportunity to speak with actress Cammie King Conlon, who portrayed Bonnie Blue Butler, Scarlett and Rhett’s daughter in Gone with the Wind. Conlon, the step-daughter of Kalmus, recalls her teenage years growing up in the "doctor's" home as he created a technology empire.
Click on this podcast link to download or listen to Cammie King Conlon
Prove Your Worth
Sure, companies depend on their infrastructures to run their businesses but that doesn't mean IT gets a blank check. In fact, it is just the opposite as IT organizations are under constant pressure to demonstrate their value to the corporation. And in this age of "do more for less," you know the powers that be will have no problem making cuts if you can't prove your worth. The constant demand for IT to quantify its value to the company has made business service management a particularly appealing option for IT pros.
Continue reading "Prove Your Worth..."
Prove Your Worth
Sure, companies depend on their infrastructures to run their businesses but that doesn't mean IT gets a blank check. In fact, it is just the opposite as IT organizations are under constant pressure to demonstrate their value to the corporation. And in this age of "do more for less," you know the powers that be will have no problem making cuts if you can't prove your worth. The constant demand for IT to quantify its value to the company has made business service management a particularly appealing option for IT pros.
Continue reading "Prove Your Worth..."
Google Wants Your Attention
Google's latest surprise is that it's now offering enterprise-class Web analytics for free. Why would they do such a thing? They've decided that licensing fees are worth less money than the opportunity to find out what pages people are visiting, how long they're staying there, where they're coming from, and where they're going to next. Google Analytics is another microscope Google can use to peer into what people are paying attention to.
It's just an extension of the real business that Google is in, which isn't search, or e-mail, or maps, or even advertising. Rather, Google is in the attention business.
Continue reading "Google Wants Your Attention..."
Daily News Podcast , November 15
In today's report: Microsoft reacts to Sony's copy protection uproar, the "new" CA, Gartner's take on Vista, the government's interest in the Blackberry patent dispute and a look at some of the more offbeat and outrageous headlines, so far this month. Hear it all in this podcast.
New Hope That U.S. E-Health Record Effort Is Real
President Bush hasn't asked for my opinion lately, and I know he and I wouldn't see eye to eye on many important issues--like stem-cell research--even if he were the tiniest bit interested in what I had to say. However, I must admit that there is at least one subject where he and I are on the same general page--the need for this country's health-care system to rid itself of its addiction to paper.
Continue reading "New Hope That U.S. E-Health Record Effort Is Real..."
Virginia Governor Warner Opts for Onshore Outsourcing
The state of Virginia seems to have found a unique way to procure IT services economically without sending the bulk of the work offshore. Under a deal that's worth up to $2 billion over the next ten years, Virginia has hired Northrop Grumman to provide mainframe, server, desktop maintenance and application development services. But there's a catch.
Continue reading "Virginia Governor Warner Opts for Onshore Outsourcing..."
What Happens In The Clubhouse Doesn't Stay In The Clubhouse
There is a code of conduct in professional sports dictating that what happens or gets said in the locker room stays in the locker room. Well, a quick scan of the sports headlines shows how closely that honor rule is followed. And the same holds true for corporate teams with the added problem of incidental and accidental information leakage.
I've been on a bit of a harangue the last couple weeks about monitoring the internal flow of information for compliance policy violations, as well as the incoming and outgoing flow. And I'm happy to report that it seems several vendors are on the same page, understanding that there are threats that a typical firewall or security appliance are not going to detect, namely the internal data stores.
We recently saw Embarcadero Technologies offering database-monitoring software that it acquired with its buyout of SHC Ambeo Acquisition Corp., a privately held maker of database-security software. Embarcadero is selling two database tracking tools from Ambeo's product line: Activity Tracker, a database-auditing mechanism that monitors all user activity in real time, and Usage Tracker, which provides historical statistics on how data is being accessed and used.
Continue reading "What Happens In The Clubhouse Doesn't Stay In The Clubhouse..."
What Happens In The Clubhouse Doesn't Stay In The Clubhouse
There is a code of conduct in professional sports dictating that what happens or gets said in the locker room stays in the locker room. Well, a quick scan of the sports headlines shows how closely that honor rule is followed. And the same holds true for corporate teams with the added problem of incidental and accidental information leakage.
I've been on a bit of a harangue the last couple weeks about monitoring the internal flow of information for compliance policy violations, as well as the incoming and outgoing flow. And I'm happy to report that it seems several vendors are on the same page, understanding that there are threats that a typical firewall or security appliance are not going to detect, namely the internal data stores.
We recently saw Embarcadero Technologies offering database-monitoring software that it acquired with its buyout of SHC Ambeo Acquisition Corp., a privately held maker of database-security software. Embarcadero is selling two database tracking tools from Ambeo's product line: Activity Tracker, a database-auditing mechanism that monitors all user activity in real time, and Usage Tracker, which provides historical statistics on how data is being accessed and used.
Continue reading "What Happens In The Clubhouse Doesn't Stay In The Clubhouse..."
Could This Be Microsoft CRM's Last Stand?
This time, Microsoft better get it right. It's been nearly three years since Bill Gates & Co. unveiled a customer-relationship-management application for small and medium sized businesses to much fanfare and tepid market reaction. Now it's taking a second crack at CRM--replete with promises from CEO Steve Ballmer that the company will give on-demand juggernaut Salesforce.com a run for its money--and if it misses the mark, it might not get a third try.
Continue reading "Could This Be Microsoft CRM's Last Stand?..."
Today's Reminder: The Greatest Threats To Your Data May Be On Your Payroll
The steady stream of customer data breaches that have plagued financial services firms, consumer data clearing houses, and universities this year have put IT departments on alert to the vulnerability of sensitive information. Yet the bulk of reactions have centered on fortifying companies against hackers and other unwelcome intruders. Too many companies have ignored what is perhaps the greatest threat to data security: employees.
Continue reading "Today's Reminder: The Greatest Threats To Your Data May Be On Your Payroll..."
PodShow Catches iPodder Creator Grumet
PodShow Inc. co-founder and MTV VJ Adam Curry has recruited Andrew Grumet for the PodShow podcast network and services business he's building. Grumet, a software developer with a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is co-creator of iPodder, an open-source application that aggregates media content on the Web.
I caught up with Grumet last weekend at the Portable Media Expo and Podcasting Conference in Ontario, Calif., to talk about his future with PodShow.
Click here to read: PodShow Catches iPodder Creator Grumet
Click here to hear or download the podcast with Andrew Grumet.
A Phishing Top 10 List
In case you are among the lucky few who never get those annoying phishing e-mails—the ones that inform you that your account with an organization that you don't do business with is going to be suspended unless you respond and give them all your personal information— here's the top 10 phished organizations on the Internet, according to data collected by CipherTrust from thousands of customers using its IronMail gateway appliance.
Now these are all reputable organizations that would never make the requests for personal data contained in typical phishing queries, so even if you have conducted transactions with these companies, never respond to such online requests. In fact, companies with the best reputations make the best phishing fronts because unsuspecting customers are more likely to trust the brands represented in the fraudulent messages.
Continue reading "A Phishing Top 10 List..."
A Phishing Top 10 List
In case you are among the lucky few who never get those annoying phishing e-mails—the ones that inform you that your account with an organization that you don't do business with is going to be suspended unless you respond and give them all your personal information— here's the top 10 phished organizations on the Internet, according to data collected by CipherTrust from thousands of customers using its IronMail gateway appliance.
Now these are all reputable organizations that would never make the requests for personal data contained in typical phishing queries, so even if you have conducted transactions with these companies, never respond to such online requests. In fact, companies with the best reputations make the best phishing fronts because unsuspecting customers are more likely to trust the brands represented in the fraudulent messages.
Continue reading "A Phishing Top 10 List..."
Weird News For The Wired
It's mid-November, and already our news archives are filling up with stories about offbeat, head-scratching, and sometimes outrageous products, services, and company strategies.
Here are some thoughts on just the tip of the iceberg:
Continue reading "Weird News For The Wired..."
Fresh (Formatted!) FUD-Fighting Fodder
David A. Wheeler just announced a new version of his amazing paper, Why OSS/FS? Look At The Numbers! As some of you know, I'm a big fan: David's ongoing effort to gather quantitative evidence, from every corner of the IT world, documenting the benefits of open-source software is a remarkable feat. But there's even better news: David is releasing a presentation, in PDF and OpenDocument formats, that turns his heavyweight research into a lean, mean anti-Open Source FUD-fighting machine.
Continue reading "Fresh (Formatted!) FUD-Fighting Fodder..."
Glide Delayed
TransMedia's planned release of Glide Effortless, a suite of 12 hosted media sharing applications has been delayed until November 30th.
According to CEO Donald Leka, stories about the company -- mainly one I wrote two weeks ago -- have spurred greater than expected interest in the company's online service. To accommodate anticipated demand, TransMedia is bringing more servers online to deliver more bandwidth and to increase the amount of storage available to users.
Continue reading "Glide Delayed..."
A Brand New Day For CA
Computer Associates is no more. The vendor is shedding its name in favor of its acronym and with that change, the often-beleagured company is hoping to leave its image as a frequent subject of scandal in the past. CA's name change, announced at the company's CA World user and partner conference this week, is the least significant aspect of the company's efforts to shift direction and improve its fortunes. The company also rolled out more than two dozen new products and revealed plans to tighten integration work with third-party sofware vendors and integrators.
Continue reading "A Brand New Day For CA..."
A Brand New Day For CA
Computer Associates is no more. The vendor is shedding its name in favor of its acronym and with that change, the often-beleagured company is hoping to leave its image as a frequent subject of scandal in the past. CA's name change, announced at the company's CA World user and partner conference this week, is the least significant aspect of the company's efforts to shift direction and improve its fortunes. The company also rolled out more than two dozen new products and revealed plans to tighten integration work with third-party sofware vendors and integrators.
Continue reading "A Brand New Day For CA..."
Is Commercial Radio Dying? Long Live Podcasting!
Leo Laporte wants to revive radio drama, comedy and other audio formats that died in commercial radio. Podcasting could make that happen, he told TechWeb at the Portable Media Expo & Podcasting Conference 2005 in Ontario, Calif. But it won't happen until technology companies that design applications and services make it easier for consumers to find and download Podcasts.
The Los Angeles-based KFI radio and This Week In Tech podcast host said when people find podcasting "it will become a complete and utter renaissance of audio." Laporte began podcasting in October 2004.
Click on this link to download and listen to the podcast with Leo Laporte
Daily News Podcast, November 14
In today's podcast: our top story about Sony capitulating to customer demand, breaking news headlines including RealNetwork's need to issue some patches, an in-depth package about security for mobile data and devices, and my editorial comments on digital haves and have-nots. To listen, click here.
IBM Looks East For Innovation
While venture capitalists look to China to make a buck, IBM is teaming with VCs through its newly formed Venture Capital Advisory Council to scout out young firms from emerging markets that are developing innovative IT services, which could be exported to the West.
Continue reading "IBM Looks East For Innovation..."
The BlackBerry Just Got Edgier
Before the brand-new BlackBerry 8700c hits Cingular Wireless stores in the U.S. on Nov. 21, here's my own reviewer's guide of the latest and the greatest that the popular PDA has to offer. And believe me, it's evolving.
Continue reading "The BlackBerry Just Got Edgier..."
Narrowing The Digital Divide
There's no shortage of data about the 'digital divide'--the chasm that exists between the haves and have-nots in the computer realm. In at least one regard it seems to be getting a bit smaller, but by most other important measures it's still a large, gaping hole.
Continue reading "Narrowing The Digital Divide..."
Watch Out Redmond
You can believe the open source hype, at least if you look at the results of this week's poll on implementing alternatives to Microsoft Office. Fifty-seven percent of the Pipeline readers who responded have either already deployed an alternative to Microsoft Office or are trialing one now. Another five percent are considering other options to Microsoft Office.
Continue reading "Watch Out Redmond..."
Watch Out Redmond
You can believe the open source hype, at least if you look at the results of this week's poll on implementing alternatives to Microsoft Office. Fifty-seven percent of the Pipeline readers who responded have either already deployed an alternative to Microsoft Office or are trialing one now. Another five percent are considering other options to Microsoft Office.
Continue reading "Watch Out Redmond..."
Oops, No Microsoft in Patents Venture
It's one of the perils of blogging. Yesterday I rushed into print after reading a story saying that a joint venture formed to promote Linux by acquiring patents included Microsoft. "You're kidding me, right?" I wrote. It turns out that somebody was, if not deliberately kidding, at least mistaken. An updated version of the story removes Microsoft from the list of companies putting money into the Open Innovation Network.
Continue reading "Oops, No Microsoft in Patents Venture..."
Oops, No Microsoft in Patents Venture
It's one of the perils of blogging. Yesterday I rushed into print after reading a story saying that a joint venture formed to promote Linux by acquiring patents included Microsoft. "You're kidding me, right?" I wrote. It turns out that somebody was, if not deliberately kidding, at least mistaken. An updated version of the story removes Microsoft from the list of companies putting money into the Open Innovation Network.
Continue reading "Oops, No Microsoft in Patents Venture..."
New Linux Venture: Open Source Hero Or Patent Troll?
Although there's been no major intellectual-property challenge to the growth of open source since The SCO Group's still-unresolved multi-billion-dollar lawsuit against IBM a few years ago, several of open source's largest proponents have banded together to ensure that software patent owners won't try to take the wind out of Linux's sails. IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony this week launched the Open Invention Network, a company that plans to buy up patents to any technologies its members don't already own and that would benefit the Linux movement. In return, the new company will offer its technology royalty-free to any users who agree not to claim that Linux is infringing their own patent rights.
Continue reading "New Linux Venture: Open Source Hero Or Patent Troll?..."
Daily News Podcast, Nov. 11
In today's report: Microsoft patches, personal tech reviews, and commentary on worker productivity. Hear it all in this podcast.
Beware of Mobile Mail
Given the bad security wrap email comes with in the wired world, it seems only natural that it might cause similar, or even worse, issues when transmitted to and from a mobile device. In a recent survey of 600 IT professionals, 79 percent put mobile email at the top of their list of security risks. That makes mobile email, far and away, the biggest perceived threat to mobile devices and the enterprise nets to which they connect.
Continue reading "Beware of Mobile Mail..."
Beware of Mobile Mail
Given the bad security wrap email comes with in the wired world, it seems only natural that it might cause similar, or even worse, issues when transmitted to and from a mobile device. In a recent survey of 600 IT professionals, 79 percent put mobile email at the top of their list of security risks. That makes mobile email, far and away, the biggest perceived threat to mobile devices and the enterprise nets to which they connect.
Continue reading "Beware of Mobile Mail..."
Is E-mail Old School. . .
. . . or are IM users still in school? AOL today released the results of its annual Instant Messaging Trends Survey which reported a significant spike in IM usage over last year.
At first blush AOL's survey, conducted by independent researcher Opinion Research Corp. and based on responses from more than 4,000 Internet users in the 20 largest U.S. markets, would seem to fly in the face of comments I made in an earlier blog entry about my fear that IM usage would fall off among the teenage population unless steps were taken to quickly eliminate the spim, phishing and other malware attacks that are now plaguing IM networks.
I based that on my own anecdotal evidence of watching how the teens in my life had cut back on e-mail in favor of IM and were now enthralled with SMS messaging on their cell phones. Well, the AOL survey seems to back up the first part of that observation, noting that 66 percent of teens and young adults (ages 13-21) now send more IMs than e-mails, up from 49 percent last year.
Continue reading "Is E-mail Old School. . ...."
Is E-mail Old School. . .
. . . or are IM users still in school? AOL today released the results of its annual Instant Messaging Trends Survey which reported a significant spike in IM usage over last year.
At first blush AOL's survey, conducted by independent researcher Opinion Research Corp. and based on responses from more than 4,000 Internet users in the 20 largest U.S. markets, would seem to fly in the face of comments I made in an earlier blog entry about my fear that IM usage would fall off among the teenage population unless steps were taken to quickly eliminate the spim, phishing and other malware attacks that are now plaguing IM networks.
I based that on my own anecdotal evidence of watching how the teens in my life had cut back on e-mail in favor of IM and were now enthralled with SMS messaging on their cell phones. Well, the AOL survey seems to back up the first part of that observation, noting that 66 percent of teens and young adults (ages 13-21) now send more IMs than e-mails, up from 49 percent last year.
Continue reading "Is E-mail Old School. . ...."
At Sony, The Customer Is Captive
The problem with Sony is evident in its financial filings. No, it's not that the company expects to post a net loss of $90 million for its fiscal year ending March 2006. That's a symptom, not a cause.
The company has locked the PDF file that contains its Q2 financial results to prevent computer users from copying the data in the document. Note that these are public financial filings. Sony just can't bring itself to allow those viewing its quarterly results the convenience of being able to copy and paste its data.
Continue reading "At Sony, The Customer Is Captive..."
Productivity Killers
A new study on the productivity of the white collar workforce by training organization IBT-USA begs for commentary and further discussion. IBT-USA collected information over a five-year period on the work habits of over 1,000 employees at 30 companies.
Continue reading "Productivity Killers..."
External iPod Battery Powers 200 Hours
A $199 product called the iCel 205 Portable Power Supply gives you up to 200 hours of iPod listening enjoyment. It also comes in cheaper and less capable variants.
Continue reading "External iPod Battery Powers 200 Hours..."
Podcast: Daily Newsletter For Thursday, 11/10/05
Listen to the audio version of the Nov. 10th InformationWeek Daily Newsletter here.
Digital Cinema To Transform Theaters Into Art Centers
Bud Mayo, the chairman and CEO of Access Integrated Technologies Inc., has a vision. Digital cinema will enable every movie theater to transform into a performing arts center within the next four to five years. Digital cinema is the process of distributing movies and media content to theaters in bits and bytes rather than celluloid.
There are approximately 105,000 screens worldwide, about 36,000 in the U.S. and Canada. In the coming year, theater goers should expect more diverse content, including music concerts from artists such as Duran Duran, to sporting events, Mayo recently told TechWeb.
Universal Pictures is the latest major motion picture studio to sign a deal with the digital services and distribution company AccessIT. I recently caught up with Mayo to talk about the agreement with Universal Pictures and how digital cinema will change the entertainment industry forever.
United They Stand: Airline IT, Business Units Ally
Like many of the nation's airlines, United Airlines has been hard hit by rising fuel costs, increasing competition, lower fares and declining travel. The endless cycle of cost-cutting that the airlines have found themselves locked into did not save the company from heading into bankruptcy almost three years ago.
The carrier is still operating under Chapter 11, but one of the interesting things about United today is where the cash-strapped enterprise is spending money. Yup, on IT. Interesting, because the business side, after cutting the IT department to the bone, came to the realization on its own, that IT was actually the answer to a lot of its problems, and at the heart of many proposed solutions.
Continue reading "United They Stand: Airline IT, Business Units Ally..."
EFF Releases List Of Spyware-Infected Sony CDs
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has released a partial list of what it claims are the CDs that sony has infected with its copy-protection software.
The titles include CDs by Celine Dion, Neil Diamond, Dion, and Ricky Martin. The EFF article also has tips on how you can tell if a CD you bought from Sony contains the copy protection.
Compliance Headaches
Sarbanes-Oxley has been around for long enough to be a known nuisance. That doesn't make it much easier for companies to comply. And according to a recent Accenture study, the available software tools that are supposedly designed to help them meet SOX requirements leave a lot to be desired.
Continue reading "Compliance Headaches..."
Compliance Headaches
Sarbanes-Oxley has been around for long enough to be a known nuisance. That doesn't make it much easier for companies to comply. And according to a recent Accenture study, the available software tools that are supposedly designed to help them meet SOX requirements leave a lot to be desired.
Continue reading "Compliance Headaches..."
It's Time To Get The House In Order
Retailers and consumer products manufacturers need to take a more risk-based, top-down approach to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in order to increase efficiencies, eliminate unnecessary work and reduce costs, according to a recent white paper issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The document, titled "Leading Strategies: Streamlining Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance for Retail & Consumer Companies" offers three strategies that retailers and consumer products companies can utilize to lessen the financial and personnel strain of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Continue reading "It's Time To Get The House In Order..."
It's Time To Get The House In Order
Retailers and consumer products manufacturers need to take a more risk-based, top-down approach to Sarbanes-Oxley compliance in order to increase efficiencies, eliminate unnecessary work and reduce costs, according to a recent white paper issued by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The document, titled "Leading Strategies: Streamlining Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance for Retail & Consumer Companies" offers three strategies that retailers and consumer products companies can utilize to lessen the financial and personnel strain of Sarbanes-Oxley.
Continue reading "It's Time To Get The House In Order..."
Is Dell Sale of AMD Processors A Calculated Strategy?
"Curiouser and Curiouser" -- Alice in Wonderland
Logging on to Dell.com to find processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for sale might be more than curious, it may be more aligned to a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, to borrow from Winston Churchill. Whether Dell is floating a trial balloon to gauge customer interest in AMD products in anticipation of a new product launch, or is just dumping some excess inventory, anytime these two companies get linked together, the IT industry is going to sit up and take notice.
Continue reading "Is Dell Sale of AMD Processors A Calculated Strategy?..."
Initial Forum Reaction To iPod In 2001: It Won't Sell
Steve Jobs introduced the original 5-gigabyte iPod, which cost $400, in October of 2001. Sales of the device -- and the influence it has on the design of a wide range of consumer electronics and other products -- are now legendary.
But when the player was first announced, the Mac faithful were generally unimpressed. Here are some comments posted during and immediately after Jobs' announcement on the MacRumors forum. Enjoy!
"The Reality Distiortion Field is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off."
"Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!"
"I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"
"I'd call it the Cube 2.0 as it wont sell, and be killed off in a short time...and it's not really functional."
"It has good features but forget about getting it for $399!!!! Never, who gets that thing is a very stupid person. Steve Jobs is under terrible consuling or is under too much pot. This propusal is not realistic at all. If Apple does something like this again is going down. This unit may work for an audio engeneer to record some conference or rock band on the field in place of buying a expensive DAT machine, that is the only real good market this machine is gonna have."
"This Christmas you will see mp3 players be commoditized. Meaning that the players from Korea will be way less expensive tha iPod. The real money is in DRM and distribution (ala Real Musicnet). If Apple were smart they would be focusing on high gross revenue from services rather than a playback device."
Human Rights--And Wrongs (Podcast Version)
Listen to the audio version of today's daily InformationWeek newsletter here.
Continue reading "Human Rights--And Wrongs (Podcast Version)..."
Living Up To The Hype
Convergence is one technology that is living up to the hype. According to an In-Stat report released this week, the firm estimates that four million IP broadband IP lines will be in use by the end of this year. Even for a technology that is known to be powering forward at a rapid rate, this is a pretty remarkable number given that at the end of last year In-Stat put that number at 1.3 million. So what is driving IP telephony's seemingly unstoppable growth?
Continue reading "Living Up To The Hype..."
Living Up To The Hype
Convergence is one technology that is living up to the hype. According to an In-Stat report released this week, the firm estimates that four million IP broadband IP lines will be in use by the end of this year. Even for a technology that is known to be powering forward at a rapid rate, this is a pretty remarkable number given that at the end of last year In-Stat put that number at 1.3 million. So what is driving IP telephony's seemingly unstoppable growth?
Continue reading "Living Up To The Hype..."
Human Rights--And Wrongs
An interesting coalition has formed to monitor technology vendors' willingness to play ball with repressive regimes that seek to limit their citizens' ability to speak their minds on the Internet and, presumably, elsewhere.
Continue reading "Human Rights--And Wrongs..."
IBM's 'Slap At Cisco'?
This week, we had a pithy analysis of the recent IBM DataPower deal by Lorrie McVittie, which raised some key questions about how IBM will integrate the DataPower technology into its product line.
Continue reading "IBM's 'Slap At Cisco'?..."
IBM's 'Slap At Cisco'?
This week, we had a pithy analysis of the recent IBM DataPower deal by Lorrie McVittie, which raised some key questions about how IBM will integrate the DataPower technology into its product line.
Continue reading "IBM's 'Slap At Cisco'?..."
Venezuelans Should Outsource Chavez
Stop the presses: yet another demagogue who claims to be acting in the best interest of his people is in fact ensuring their continued deprivation and economic irrelevance in the global economy. This time, it's Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, whose efforts last week to torpedo a Free Trade Area of the Americas will go a long way toward guaranteeing that the technology diaspora that is slowly lifting country's like India and China will bypass Venezuela and other nations in Latin America.
Continue reading "Venezuelans Should Outsource Chavez..."
Majority Of Teens Change Identity On Net
Nearly six out of ten teenagers hide or change their identities while online, according to a new study of wired young Canadians reported in today's Globe and Mail newspaper.
The reasons vary, but a majority has pretended to be someone else online in order to flirt, pretend to be older or of a different gender -- or to "act mean" without consequences.
Online identity experimentation is "normal adolescent behavior," according to Cathy Wing, director of education for Media Awareness Network, the non-profit group that conducted the study. But that "parents should be aware" of it.
The Internet provides so many opportunities for anonymity: Online e-mail accounts can be set up anonymously, as can instant messenger accounts. Social networking sites like Friendster and multiplayer games such as The Sims Online provide an easy forum for interacting with strangers without anyone knowing who you are.
The knowledge that a majority of teens lie about their identity online is important to know for teens, who may not be chatting with the person they think they're chatting with; and for parents, who need to incorporate this awareness into their lectures to kids on online ethics. In an environment where you can get away with anything, it's important for teenagers to develop their own internal moral compass.
Recycling Electronics: Let's Get Going
Michigan recently became the first state in the country to formalize an electronics recycling plan that, best of all, does not cost the state a dime (except for some time and effort). It may be a model for others to adopt--or at least begin to think about.
Continue reading "Recycling Electronics: Let's Get Going..."
Podcast: Daily Newsletter For Tuesday 11/8/05
Sony Is Just As Bad As Music Pirates
You Know It's Getting Bad When . . .
Message technology vendors and service providers: New capabilities and features integrations in the messaging space are fine and dandy but given their druthers, users would opt for just getting rid of the plague of spam/spim and other malware. Even the Holy Grail of the "universal inbox" takes a deep back seat to once-and-for-all locking out all the junk that continuously floods our message servers.
In our most recent reader poll, 85 percent of the readers said they would take a final heave-ho to spam and spim over a unified messaging environment. Now, does that mean that the remaining 15 percent who went for the ideal feature set have found a secret solution to the junk message problem? Please share. But for now, we all know what the real messaging technology Holy Grail is.
Continue reading "You Know It's Getting Bad When . . ...."
You Know It's Getting Bad When . . .
Message technology vendors and service providers: New capabilities and features integrations in the messaging space are fine and dandy but given their druthers, users would opt for just getting rid of the plague of spam/spim and other malware. Even the Holy Grail of the "universal inbox" takes a deep back seat to once-and-for-all locking out all the junk that continuously floods our message servers.
In our most recent reader poll, 85 percent of the readers said they would take a final heave-ho to spam and spim over a unified messaging environment. Now, does that mean that the remaining 15 percent who went for the ideal feature set have found a secret solution to the junk message problem? Please share. But for now, we all know what the real messaging technology Holy Grail is.
Continue reading "You Know It's Getting Bad When . . ...."
Conspiracy Theory: Michael Lynn Negotiates Corner Office, Reserved Parking Space With Juniper
Anyone predicting that Michael Lynn did severe damage to his career might want to retract those statements now that the former ISS researcher and current Cisco nemesis has landed at Juniper Networks. Although it's unclear what Lynn's role is or how long he's been with Cisco's biggest rival, I'm sure that conspiracy theorists will have a field day with this one. Lynn, you'll remember if you weren't on Mars this summer, has become infamous for a Black Hat presentation during which he proved what most savvy network administrators already suspected: Cisco's IOS had a serious flaw that could let hackers not just take down a Cisco switch or router but also hijack networking equipment and execute code. Lynn's slideshow heroics became the centerpiece of this week's InformationWeek cover story, which quickly took on a life of its own as I dug in.
Continue reading "Conspiracy Theory: Michael Lynn Negotiates Corner Office, Reserved Parking Space With Juniper..."
Sony Is Just As Bad As Music Pirates
Sony's latest response to the threat of music piracy is to engage in behavior every bit as bad as the pirates it's trying to protect itself from.
Continue reading "Sony Is Just As Bad As Music Pirates..."
Shouldn't That 'Will' Be 'Should Have Been'?
So Microsoft is changing the name of its antispyware named "AntiSpyware" to "Defender." Why? Here's a direct quote from the story: "The new name, said Jason Garms, the group program manager for Microsoft's anti-malware team, 'is about what Windows will do for customers, defending them from spyware and other unwanted software.' "
Excuse me, Jason, shouldn't that be ". . . is about what Windows should have been doing for customers all along, defending them from spyware and other unwanted software"?
And while we're on the subject, let me bring up a question I asked a while ago but never got an answer to: why is Microsoft in the antispyware business at all?
Shouldn't That 'Will' Be 'Should Have Been'?
So Microsoft is changing the name of its antispyware named "AntiSpyware" to "Defender." Why? Here's a direct quote from the story: "The new name, said Jason Garms, the group program manager for Microsoft's anti-malware team, 'is about what Windows will do for customers, defending them from spyware and other unwanted software.' "
Excuse me, Jason, shouldn't that be ". . . is about what Windows should have been doing for customers all along, defending them from spyware and other unwanted software"?
And while we're on the subject, let me bring up a question I asked a while ago but never got an answer to: why is Microsoft in the antispyware business at all?
Watching The Web
Putting a corporate Internet use policy in place may sound basic, but many organizations don't bother with even a minimal attempt to regulate their employees Web activities. Given the current spyware/adware/phishing/pharming environment, that is a pretty big oversight. In a recent SonicWall survey of 2700 managers, more than 60 percent said there companies don't have rules about Web surfing.
Continue reading "Watching The Web..."
Watching The Web
Putting a corporate Internet use policy in place may sound basic, but many organizations don't bother with even a minimal attempt to regulate their employees Web activities. Given the current spyware/adware/phishing/pharming environment, that is a pretty big oversight. In a recent SonicWall survey of 2700 managers, more than 60 percent said there companies don't have rules about Web surfing.
Continue reading "Watching The Web..."
Radical New Camera Phone Spotted In Wild
A radically small and thin Samsung camera phone -- literally about the size of a stack of five or six credit cards -- has been spotted in the wild. More than 30 pictures posted on the Italian Cellularmania show just how amazingly tiny this upcoming phone really is.
Called the Samsung SGH-P300 phone, it sports a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and 90MB of flash memory and looks more like an old school calculator than a next-generation camera phone. (via Engadget)
Three New Treo Models Expected Next Year
Forbes magazine reported yesterday that Verizon and possibly Sprint Nextel will begin to offer the Palm OS replacement for the Treo 650 in May. The new phone will feature an EVDO radio.
The article also said that Palm would ship low-end Treos costing about $200 each sometime next year, and that the $700 Windows Mobile version previously reported would be a higher-margin product for Palm.
A post on Engadget reported that a leaked analyst report said a thin 3G Treo without an externally visible antenna codenamed "Hollywood" is in the works. It also referenced a lower-end device called "Lowrider," which the blog suggested might be the $200 Treo mentioned by Forbes.
RFID: Really Feeling Increasingly Defensive?
"Spychips" is a scary new book out by consumer-privacy advocates Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre, and it should be must-reading for anyone who doesn't "get" the concerns over RFID chips. Even if half of what the book says in the planning or thinking stages is true, that's more than enough to make anyone nervous about the potential -- or even planned, if the authors are to be believed -- misuse of this technology.
Continue reading "RFID: Really Feeling Increasingly Defensive?..."
Hacking Back: Cyber Counterterrorism
The recent arrest and 17-count indictment against 20-year-old accused hacker and botmaster Jeanson James Ancheta for both using and selling the tools to attack a number of networks, including some within the Defense Department, should be taken as a shot across the bow by anyone who reads this. Ancheta is accused of being part of a new breed of criminal hacker: not just in it for the fame--sure, he's getting his 15 minutes, although it could be more like 50 years--but rather after money. According to the charges against him, Ancheta even managed to collect nearly $60,000 by creating, spreading, and selling bots to the highest bidders. By all accounts, Ancheta is smart and motivated, and there was a market for his black-market guerrilla hacking tactics and tools. How do you stop a smart, motivated attacker from making your life miserable? Read carefully.
Continue reading "Hacking Back: Cyber Counterterrorism..."
Katherine Albrecht: Consumer Privacy, RFID, Religion, Trash
Podcast Two: Katherine Albrecht is founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIN). She also co-authored the book "Spychips" with Liz McIntyre. The book hit store shelves in October and already is in its fourth printing.
In this podcast, Albrecht talks about religion, RFID in retail and trash.
Click on this podcast link to download and listen to part two of the two-part series
What Ails SOA?
"Why is SOA taking so long?" asks a report by ZapThink consultants. "Pitfalls On The Path To SOA" and "Hidden Hazards In Getting To SOA" are headlines that seem to be appearing in different places at the same time. InformationWeek on Oct. 31 offered its assessment in "SOA, Work In Progress," which cited the increased complexity imposed by SOA and the slow progress toward completed projects.
Is SOA an architecture that is going to be achieved?
Continue reading "What Ails SOA?..."
Data Misuse Comes In Many Forms
Yesterday I issued a reminder that data security and compliance meant protecting the data stores as well as the network perimeter, but good compliance practices also require a consistent and thorough monitoring of the way your users are interacting with the enterprise applications, in particular your databases.
Once again we are talking mostly about internal intruders, those getting access to information they are not authorized to use or using authorized information in an unauthorized manner.
And three recent product releases could point you in the right direction or at least help you frame the issues.
Continue reading "Data Misuse Comes In Many Forms..."
Data Misuse Comes In Many Forms
Yesterday I issued a reminder that data security and compliance meant protecting the data stores as well as the network perimeter, but good compliance practices also require a consistent and thorough monitoring of the way your users are interacting with the enterprise applications, in particular your databases.
Once again we are talking mostly about internal intruders, those getting access to information they are not authorized to use or using authorized information in an unauthorized manner.
And three recent product releases could point you in the right direction or at least help you frame the issues.
Continue reading "Data Misuse Comes In Many Forms..."
A Brave, Scary New World On The Desktop
Big changes are inspiring, though sometimes what change inspires most is fear. And given that we could be on the verge of a desktop revolution, it is naturaly for system administrators to wonder what the future holds. Between the rise of Open Source software and other alternatives to Microsoft apps, companies and users now have a host of legitimate options beyond Windows.
Continue reading "A Brave, Scary New World On The Desktop..."
A Brave, Scary New World On The Desktop
Big changes are inspiring, though sometimes what change inspires most is fear. And given that we could be on the verge of a desktop revolution, it is naturaly for system administrators to wonder what the future holds. Between the rise of Open Source software and other alternatives to Microsoft apps, companies and users now have a host of legitimate options beyond Windows.
Continue reading "A Brave, Scary New World On The Desktop..."
What WAS Sony thinking?
For your own protection, do not buy or play music CDs from Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Ever. That's the only reasonable conclusion you can draw, following the revelation that Sony's CDs install a rootkit on your PC as part of their so-called "Digital Rights Management" scheme. The company is backpedaling and posting fixes, but it's way too late for that. Some companies are just too stupid to live.
Continue reading "What WAS Sony thinking?..."
What WAS Sony thinking?
For your own protection, do not buy or play music CDs from Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Ever. That's the only reasonable conclusion you can draw, following the revelation that Sony's CDs install a rootkit on your PC as part of their so-called "Digital Rights Management" scheme. The company is backpedaling and posting fixes, but it's way too late for that. Some companies are just too stupid to live.
Continue reading "What WAS Sony thinking?..."
Immerse Yourself In Quake 4 - Without Getting Blown Away
Enter the dark and violent world of Quake 4 -- if you dare. A site called VRWAY, which houses all kinds of really cool images displayed with QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panorama, has posted 15 high-resolution screens from the game.
QTVR lets you look around in 360 degrees, both vertically and horizontally. You're totally immersed in the screenshot. It's a great way to check out Quake without being killed by one of those giant ugly things.
The site also features other cool scenes, including photographs of the Grand Canyon, the Burning Man festival, and even Mars!
It's the next best thing to being there.
Mobilization By The Dashboard Light
I was chatting today with Paul Fulton, CEO of Orative, a maker of enterprise mobile telephony software, and he said something that got me thinking once again about this whole notion of presence and the intersection of enterprise applications and mobile voice and messaging technology. Fulton mentioned the old separation-of-church-and-state that has kept mobile devices from truly integrating with enterprise communications and data systems: Consumers own the devices; carriers own the networks; and enterprises own the data.
Now Orative and a handful of other vendors are starting to nibble away at that barrier without treading too heavily on the carriers' toes, and one suspects that the heavy shoes have yet to fall. Once they do, we'll notice a suspicious amount of Northwest soil stuck to the bottoms of those stompers, but that's another topic.
What players like Orative have hit on is that employees are just consumers that go to work in the morning, and those cool little consumer handsets have the potential to deliver much more value if you could bolt their mobile capabilities to the enterprise voice and data applications that are housed behind the firewalls. They're right, and some of the presence capabilities they are already providing are delivering dividends in applications like field sales, investment banking and other professional services where immediate decisions are critical.
Continue reading "Mobilization By The Dashboard Light..."
Mobilization By The Dashboard Light
I was chatting today with Paul Fulton, CEO of Orative, a maker of enterprise mobile telephony software, and he said something that got me thinking once again about this whole notion of presence and the intersection of enterprise applications and mobile voice and messaging technology. Fulton mentioned the old separation-of-church-and-state that has kept mobile devices from truly integrating with enterprise communications and data systems: Consumers own the devices; carriers own the networks; and enterprises own the data.
Now Orative and a handful of other vendors are starting to nibble away at that barrier without treading too heavily on the carriers' toes, and one suspects that the heavy shoes have yet to fall. Once they do, we'll notice a suspicious amount of Northwest soil stuck to the bottoms of those stompers, but that's another topic.
What players like Orative have hit on is that employees are just consumers that go to work in the morning, and those cool little consumer handsets have the potential to deliver much more value if you could bolt their mobile capabilities to the enterprise voice and data applications that are housed behind the firewalls. They're right, and some of the presence capabilities they are already providing are delivering dividends in applications like field sales, investment banking and other professional services where immediate decisions are critical.
Continue reading "Mobilization By The Dashboard Light..."
Vint Cerf On The Fight To Control The Internet
Vinton G. Cerf is a VP at Google Inc. and the company's chief Internet evangelist. He's better known as the co-designer of TCP/IP, one of the fundamental protocols of the Internet.
When he's not working with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to extend the Internet into outer space, he may be serving as the chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN), which oversees the the Domain Name System (DNS) and the network architecture Cerf helped invent.
In this podcast, Cerf talks about Internet governance, alternate roots, and software as a service.
Continue reading "Vint Cerf On The Fight To Control The Internet..."
Katherine Albrecht Talks Consumer Privacy & RFID
Katherine Albrecht is founder and director of Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering (CASPIN). She also co-authored the book "Spychips" with Liz McIntyre. The book hit store shelves in October, and already is in its fourth printing.
I spoke with Katherine about her doctorial work in education at Harvard University, which she plans to complete early in 2006, and her views on consumer privacy and radio frequency identification technology. We talked about RFID in business and government.
Click on this podcast link to download and listen to part one of a two-part series.
Are You Ready To Pay $2.50 For A Song Download?
As if the battle between Sony and Apple over the latest and greatest gadget that can play song downloads isn't enough, we are now faced with the decision whether to download music on PCs or have it pushed to our cell phones by wireless carriers as another "next generation" service.
Continue reading "Are You Ready To Pay $2.50 For A Song Download?..."
E-ZPass For Airports? Sign Me Up
Listen to a version of this blog -- as part of a Daily Newsletter podcast -- here.
Here in New York and other Northeastern states, we have a wonderful system called E-ZPass that lets those with prepaid accounts buzz through highway and bridge tolls with little or no wait. If you've ever driven through any of the bridges in and around New York City, you can appreciate the time this system saves.
Continue reading "E-ZPass For Airports? Sign Me Up..."
Confidence Issue
Even as the good earnings news for IT professionals keeps rolling in, there is some evidence of a disproportionate lack of job confidence among technology workers. A recent survey conducted by professional staffing firm Hudson showed system administrators and other high-tech workers lagged behind healthcare and other professions in terms of job confidence. And this job depression happened as overall job confidence rose in October. So what is putting IT pros in such poor humor?
Continue reading "Confidence Issue..."
Confidence Issue
Even as the good earnings news for IT professionals keeps rolling in, there is some evidence of a disproportionate lack of job confidence among technology workers. A recent survey conducted by professional staffing firm Hudson showed system administrators and other high-tech workers lagged behind healthcare and other professions in terms of job confidence. And this job depression happened as overall job confidence rose in October. So what is putting IT pros in such poor humor?
Continue reading "Confidence Issue..."
Asian Cell Phone Hotness Comes To U.S.
For years, we poor, neglected Americans have had to sit on the sidelines with our old-and-busted cell phones while Japanese and Korean gadget enthusiasts always got access the new hotness. It has always seemed like the coolest and wildest phones were not available here.
Now, however, Samsung is throwing us a fricken bone. The company said this week that it planned to offer for sale in the U.S. its "dual QWERTY phone" poetically named the SGH-D307.
The clamshell phone opens either like an old-school Motorola or like a laptop. The keyboard is used either like a cell phone keypad or a laptop keyboard depending on which way you open it. Cool!
The phone features IM support (AIM, ICQ, Yahoo IM), high-speed data transfer and Bluetooth. It also features voice recognition and a speaker phone.
This is exactly the kind of phone that never made it to these shores. Thanks, Samsung! What's next?
(via Textually.org)
Windows Live Screenshots Leaked Online
Just one day after being unveiled, Microsoft's "Windows Live" site screenshots, as well as screenshots from the companion "Office Live" service, have been leaked and posted on TheHotfix.net web site, and other locations.
Microsoft Windows Live? Not Yet--And Maybe Not Ever
Microsoft and its cheerleaders are all running around giving each other high-fives and throwing their hands up in the air and shouting "Hooray for us!" following the announcement of the company's Live initiative. But what, exactly, are they congratulating themselves for? So far, the Live initiative is a big ol' bucket of vaporware, combined with technology, products and service that were already available or announced quite some time ago, and are just being repackaged.
And when Microsoft talks about its future plans, they're describing a change in business model so broad and sweeping that it's completely unprecedented. I suspect Microsoft has no idea what it's letting itself in for.
The Windows Live site is your basic customizable home page. It's got e-mail. It's got online bookmarks. You can do Windows Messenger instant-messaging from that page. You can search the Web. These technologies were fresh and innovative during the Clinton Administration. Today? Not so much.
Live also includes OneCare online security services, which is pretty cool, but which was announced some time ago.
Microsoft's future plans involve online, hosted versions of all its applications, including subscription and advertiser-supported Office, and, possibly, hosted enterprise apps such as CRM.
If all of this sounds familiar, that's because it is. It all sounds a lot like Microsoft's .Net initiative, which it announced with a similar level of fanfare in 2000. Like Live, .Net involved Microsoft hosting a lot of applications, which would run across a range of devices, from smart phones to traditional PCs. That initiative fizzled, perhaps because it was simply too early. Or perhaps because customers simply aren't interested.
Update 11/03: Several readers in the comments section, below, point out that .Net isn't a hosted application business, it's a software development technology. They're half-right. .Net was originally launched in 2000 as both a technology and hosted applications business. The hosted applications business never went anywhere. The fact that people today don't remember that part of the business sort of underscores my point.
Continue reading "Microsoft Windows Live? Not Yet--And Maybe Not Ever..."
Stop Making It So Easy
An out-of-site, out-of-mind attitude toward data protection should leave most corporate exectives with that insecure, non-compliant feeling in the pit of their archives. And guess what? It does, but not enough take action—at least not yet.
The threat is still perceived to be at the barriers, while stored data remains relatively unprotected. The reason for this continued problem remains relatively simple. Companies set up policies and systems and then monitor activity at the borders with the mistaken notion that sensitive data going out or dangerous incoming threats have to pass through those defenses.
Leaving stored data unprotected, however, invites even low-tech and no-tech tampering, and the results can be just as harmful as external assaults.
Continue reading "Stop Making It So Easy..."
Stop Making It So Easy
An out-of-site, out-of-mind attitude toward data protection should leave most corporate exectives with that insecure, non-compliant feeling in the pit of their archives. And guess what? It does, but not enough take action—at least not yet.
The threat is still perceived to be at the barriers, while stored data remains relatively unprotected. The reason for this continued problem remains relatively simple. Companies set up policies and systems and then monitor activity at the borders with the mistaken notion that sensitive data going out or dangerous incoming threats have to pass through those defenses.
Leaving stored data unprotected, however, invites even low-tech and no-tech tampering, and the results can be just as harmful as external assaults.
Continue reading "Stop Making It So Easy..."
Little Holiday Time for Offshore Workers as India Celebrates Diwali
If your offshore IT support staff sound unusually festive this week, or uncharacteristically glum for being at work, that's because this week is, for all intents and purposes, Christmas in India.
Continue reading "Little Holiday Time for Offshore Workers as India Celebrates Diwali..."
Are You Being Web-Served?
Bill Gates' announcement that Microsoft is charging into software-as-a-service shouldn't come as any surprise. It's late to the game, as usual, and Google is already way ahead. It's a really big deal for Microsoft, but is it a really big deal for the rest of us? Yes it is, and I'll tell you why: Microsoft can make it work.
We're already using a ton of Web-delivered software every day -- if you use IM, write a blog, pay bills online, use Web-based conferencing services, have a photo site you share with your family, or even check your e-mail in a browser you're doing it.
(I know some of these apps install software on your PC, but they wouldn't work without the Web. Stop being so small-minded.)
Continue reading "Are You Being Web-Served?..."
Are You Being Web-Served?
Bill Gates' announcement that Microsoft is charging into software-as-a-service shouldn't come as any surprise. It's late to the game, as usual, and Google is already way ahead. It's a really big deal for Microsoft, but is it a really big deal for the rest of us? Yes it is, and I'll tell you why: Microsoft can make it work.
We're already using a ton of Web-delivered software every day -- if you use IM, write a blog, pay bills online, use Web-based conferencing services, have a photo site you share with your family, or even check your e-mail in a browser you're doing it.
(I know some of these apps install software on your PC, but they wouldn't work without the Web. Stop being so small-minded.)
Continue reading "Are You Being Web-Served?..."
An 'Ignition Key' For Your PC
Here's a great idea for security minded users. The I-O Data ToteBag is a USB flash storage device that doubles as a key to lock and unlock your laptop or desktop PC. The unit comes with special software that locks your system when it doesn't detect the ToteBag in a USB port. To unlock, just insert the ToteBag. It also functions as a normal flash storage device, and comes in 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB versions. (via Gizmodo)
Sorry, Satchel, But We Should Look Back
"Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." That aphorism from baseball Hall of Famer and sage Satchel Paige might be sound advice in baseball, but not necessarily for our economic future.
Continue reading "Sorry, Satchel, But We Should Look Back..."
See What Being Nice Gets You?
In my last post here, I praised Microsoft for not being a bunch of arrogant boneheads. No good deed goes unpunished: When I posted my kind words last week, Microsoft was already back to playing its favorite game -- FUD-ball -- with its distinctive mix of strategic brilliance and gutter-sucking sleazeball tactics.
Continue reading "See What Being Nice Gets You?..."
Podcast: Video IPod -- Milestone Or Sinker Stone?
Here's something a little different for us--I'm not interviewing someone else; rather I'm being interviewed. Check out the podcast, entitled "Video IPod: Milestone Or Sinker Stone? InformationWeek Weighs In," by The Marketing Edge. Host Albert Maruggi and I discuss why the video iPod is likely to be successful, and how it will deliver customization, personalization and portability for online video. The interview sprang from my recent blog entry on the video iPod. The 16 MB podcast runs 17 minutes and 15 seconds.
Truth Is Stranger Than (Science) Fiction
FaceTime Communications says it has some good news for you. The company feels so confident about some new patent pending technology that it is offering a "worm-free guarantee" to users of its IMAuditor 6.5. FaceTime's confidence stems from new discovery techniques that utilize behavioral attributes such as message frequency, content matching and URL identification, in addition to traditional threat signatures. The thought being that once the threat signatures become available, it's often too late and you're in extermination mode rather than protection mode.
Gee, I hope it works. It's an interesting idea, to look at all the attributes that make up a threat profile in addition to the actual code. But I wonder how long it will be before the schmucks out there learn to develop patternless worms. Oh that's right, for the most part they already have. That's the Catch-22 of this fight against malware—there is never any pattern and there is always a pattern, once one is discovered, that is.
Continue reading "Truth Is Stranger Than (Science) Fiction..."
Truth Is Stranger Than (Science) Fiction
FaceTime Communications says it has some good news for you. The company feels so confident about some new patent pending technology that it is offering a "worm-free guarantee" to users of its IMAuditor 6.5. FaceTime's confidence stems from new discovery techniques that utilize behavioral attributes such as message frequency, content matching and URL identification, in addition to traditional threat signatures. The thought being that once the threat signatures become available, it's often too late and you're in extermination mode rather than protection mode.
Gee, I hope it works. It's an interesting idea, to look at all the attributes that make up a threat profile in addition to the actual code. But I wonder how long it will be before the schmucks out there learn to develop patternless worms. Oh that's right, for the most part they already have. That's the Catch-22 of this fight against malware—there is never any pattern and there is always a pattern, once one is discovered, that is.
Continue reading "Truth Is Stranger Than (Science) Fiction..."
Reincarnation, IT-Style
In the world of IT, great ideas don't ever *really* die. Rights are acquired by another company that incorporates the idea into its own product, or the notion comes back under another name entirely, biding its time until market demand catches up with the invention.
Continue reading "Reincarnation, IT-Style..."
Education Key To SOA Success
We have the results of two surveys from SOA Pipeline for you this week. The first one asked, why consider implementing an SOA? Not surprisingly, more than half of you (53 percent) said you were seeking to lower integration costs. After all, analysts report that the majority of IT budgets these days are going toward integration efforts, and an SOA does promise to enable easier connections between applications and data.
Continue reading "Education Key To SOA Success..."
Education Key To SOA Success
We have the results of two surveys from SOA Pipeline for you this week. The first one asked, why consider implementing an SOA? Not surprisingly, more than half of you (53 percent) said you were seeking to lower integration costs. After all, analysts report that the majority of IT budgets these days are going toward integration efforts, and an SOA does promise to enable easier connections between applications and data.
Continue reading "Education Key To SOA Success..."
Open To Change?
A monopoly is never a good thing so it is always great news when someone launches a legitimate challenge to Microsoft. In this case, I am talking about some renewed rebellion in Office apps arena.
Continue reading "Open To Change?..."
Open To Change?
A monopoly is never a good thing so it is always great news when someone launches a legitimate challenge to Microsoft. In this case, I am talking about some renewed rebellion in Office apps arena.
Continue reading "Open To Change?..."
Found: A Very Interesting Search
I hadn't thought a lot about search engines lately. I mean, I know there's a lot of ferment in the marketplace over search programs -- Google's success has people theorizing that search could replace directory navigation as a way of managing files on a PC, "desktop search is a buzzword for security advocates, "enterprise search" is a business plan for software companies, and so on.
But search was just . . . search. You put in a search term, and you got back a list, you looked at the top two or three hits and if you didn't find what you wanted you started over, right? Lather, rinse, repeat.
Continue reading "Found: A Very Interesting Search..."
Found: A Very Interesting Search
I hadn't thought a lot about search engines lately. I mean, I know there's a lot of ferment in the marketplace over search programs -- Google's success has people theorizing that search could replace directory navigation as a way of managing files on a PC, "desktop search is a buzzword for security advocates, "enterprise search" is a business plan for software companies, and so on.
But search was just . . . search. You put in a search term, and you got back a list, you looked at the top two or three hits and if you didn't find what you wanted you started over, right? Lather, rinse, repeat.
Continue reading "Found: A Very Interesting Search..."
Electrify Your Digital Music
An innovative product called the MicroLink dLAN Audio system streams music from your PC throughout your house using the building's 
electrical system.
To use it, you plug a MicroLink dLAN Ethernet adapter to a PC on one end, and any wall socket in the house on the other. Then, anywhere in the house where you have some kind of speaker system, plug a stereo or even standalone speakers into any nearby wall outlet using the included gadget.
You can even extend music throughout the house by simply adding additional adaptors.
MicroLink dLAN Audio isn't new or technologically all that bleeding edge. But it's cool and useful. The big question is: Can you buy one that supports American electrical sockets in the U.S.? If YOU know, let ME know: mikeptp@elgan.com
(via The Red Ferret Journal)
Regs Aren't Putting The Hurt On Fraud
We would never get a chance to be a fly on the wall during something as sensitive as a fraud examination, but Oversight Systems provides us with the next best thing. The company released today the results of a survey of 204 U.S. fraud examiners identifying current institutional fraud trends. And the findings are, well, eye-opening, to say the least.
Despite the increase in regulatory oversight, only seven percent of the respondents felt that institutional fraud is less prevalent today than it was five years ago. Of course, that backs up one of the major arguments put forward when the Sarbanes-Oxley act was first introduced: that the SOX requirements wouldn't reduce unethical and fraudulent business practices, it would just force the practitioners to get better at what they do.
I never fully bought into that argument. It's a bit like the argument against banning handguns, that if you make the guns illegal, only criminals will own guns. But this survey makes one wonder just how uniformly the mandates are being followed.
Continue reading "Regs Aren't Putting The Hurt On Fraud..."
Regs Aren't Putting The Hurt On Fraud
We would never get a chance to be a fly on the wall during something as sensitive as a fraud examination, but Oversight Systems provides us with the next best thing. The company released today the results of a survey of 204 U.S. fraud examiners identifying current institutional fraud trends. And the findings are, well, eye-opening, to say the least.
Despite the increase in regulatory oversight, only seven percent of the respondents felt that institutional fraud is less prevalent today than it was five years ago. Of course, that backs up one of the major arguments put forward when the Sarbanes-Oxley act was first introduced: that the SOX requirements wouldn't reduce unethical and fraudulent business practices, it would just force the practitioners to get better at what they do.
I never fully bought into that argument. It's a bit like the argument against banning handguns, that if you make the guns illegal, only criminals will own guns. But this survey makes one wonder just how uniformly the mandates are being followed.
Continue reading "Regs Aren't Putting The Hurt On Fraud..."
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