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The InformationWeek December 2005 Archive « November 2005 | Main | January 2006 » |
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Let's Make 2006 The Year We Wipe Out Spam
We don't care about spam anymore, and that's wrong. Spam is a crime highway that runs straight through your computer, carrying a cargo of worms, fraud, viruses and other attacks.
Security vendor Sophos reported that attacks jumped 48% in the first 11 months of 2005. The most dangerous threats were spam-distributed.
Spam has direct financial costs, as network managers are required to spend money on software and services to filter spam, and buy additional hardware and bandwidth to carry the load of unwanted e-mail. That's money and resources that could be used for something productive.
And that's just the beginning. Secondary costs of spam are even worse.
Continue reading "Let's Make 2006 The Year We Wipe Out Spam..."
Priorities Out Of Order
The beginning of a new year is a perfect time for businesses to assess their objectives and define which projects should take precedence in the coming 12 months. Unfortunately, all too often, IT professionals complain that corporate technology priorities are out of order. In the Systems Management Pipeline poll conducted over several weeks in December, only 18 percent of the respondents said their companies have the right IT projects properly prioritized in their 2006 budget.
Continue reading "Priorities Out Of Order..."
Priorities Out Of Order
The beginning of a new year is a perfect time for businesses to assess their objectives and define which projects should take precedence in the coming 12 months. Unfortunately, all too often, IT professionals complain that corporate technology priorities are out of order. In the Systems Management Pipeline poll conducted over several weeks in December, only 18 percent of the respondents said their companies have the right IT projects properly prioritized in their 2006 budget.
Continue reading "Priorities Out Of Order..."
Prediction No. 10: Continuous Controls, The Intersection of BPM, ECM And Event Monitoring
This final prediction for 2006 is a look at where the rubber will meet the road in the journey toward a sustainable, automated compliance architecture. Your goal is to create an environment of continuous controls, but what exactly is that? Continuous controls are something that analysts, consultants and auditors stress but, somehow, only vaguely describe. It will be your number one priority for compliance management but there is no silver bullet technology that gets you there.
There are no pre-packaged tools or services that will give you continuous controls across the range of regulatory requirements and internal risk management practices that govern most businesses. But more than anything else, continuous controls will make everyone's life much easier in 2006.
That means you'll have to get there the hard way, and if you haven't already started, 2006 may not be your year. I'm not talking against pre-packaged tools. The reason there are so many tools is that there are so many unique problems to address and you'll, no doubt, find some of them useful in your overall compliance and risk management environment. For a large organization to achieve continuous controls, however, they will need a way to monitor and report all events that break with accepted security, risk and compliance policies and then document any and all remediation efforts. Most continuous controls environments also provide a centralized view of the entire enterprise risk management landscape via tools we've come to call dashboards.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 10: Continuous Controls, The Intersection of BPM, ECM And Event Monitoring..."
Prediction No. 10: Continuous Controls, The Intersection of BPM, ECM And Event Monitoring
This final prediction for 2006 is a look at where the rubber will meet the road in the journey toward a sustainable, automated compliance architecture. Your goal is to create an environment of continuous controls, but what exactly is that? Continuous controls are something that analysts, consultants and auditors stress but, somehow, only vaguely describe. It will be your number one priority for compliance management but there is no silver bullet technology that gets you there.
There are no pre-packaged tools or services that will give you continuous controls across the range of regulatory requirements and internal risk management practices that govern most businesses. But more than anything else, continuous controls will make everyone's life much easier in 2006.
That means you'll have to get there the hard way, and if you haven't already started, 2006 may not be your year. I'm not talking against pre-packaged tools. The reason there are so many tools is that there are so many unique problems to address and you'll, no doubt, find some of them useful in your overall compliance and risk management environment. For a large organization to achieve continuous controls, however, they will need a way to monitor and report all events that break with accepted security, risk and compliance policies and then document any and all remediation efforts. Most continuous controls environments also provide a centralized view of the entire enterprise risk management landscape via tools we've come to call dashboards.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 10: Continuous Controls, The Intersection of BPM, ECM And Event Monitoring..."
Small Victory In Battle Against Kiddie Porn
When Dutch credit-card processor Vorotel cut ties with Bigfunhouse, the online payment site that provided access to Webcam pornography closed, a small victory was won in the war against Internet child porn.
Continue reading "Small Victory In Battle Against Kiddie Porn..."
Daily News Podcast, Friday, December 30
Listen to the current daily podcast: Lawyers involved in one of the class-action lawsuits against Sony BMG over its rootkit use have proposed a settlement that still needs to be approved by a judge; Microsoft promises to patch a worsening zero-day flaw and in the meantime experts offer advice for a workaround; XM Satellite Radio will showcase 'advanced services' including a parking-space finder in a concept car next week; and New Year's Day will be delayed by one second to accommodate changes in the earth's rotational spin.
* Read my editor's note, or leave a comment: It's Too Early To Say.
This podcast is adapted from the InformationWeek Daily Newsletter.
Background music: "Waiting Takes Time," courtesy The Cow Exchange, www.dillfrog.com, under Creative Commons License.
Breaking Up (Microsoft) Is Hard To Do
For nearly two years, Microsoft has played European antitrust regulators the same way it played U.S. regulators: as a bunch of hapless nitwits. This time, however, Microsoft has misjudged its opponents -- and instead of a slap on the wrist, it may face an executioner's ax for its trouble.
Continue reading "Breaking Up (Microsoft) Is Hard To Do..."
It's Too Early To Say
TV anchorperson's question to reporter in field: "Any word about the motivation behind these events?"
Reporter's reply to anchor: "Well, there are some theories circulating, but nothing's certain yet, Jim."
You've no doubt noticed an uptick in these types of conversations while watching most any breaking news event being covered on TV. And I'm not assigning blame, really; the only thing worse than no information is the wrong information and I can't fault them for being overly careful. And things, certainly, do change, given time and context.
That's the way I've felt watching the Internet evolve: it's WAY too early to say, for sure.
Continue reading "It's Too Early To Say..."
A Return To Confidence
We are at the point we reach every December where everyone who isn't already too busy compiling New Year's resolutions they will never keep is trying to make sense of the year that is rapidly coming to an end. And what a year 2005 turned out to be - complex, challenging, and at times frustrating but also always interesting.
Some would call it the year of the merger and acquisition -- though every year might qualify as that -- with Oracle and SAP leading the spending sprees. Just last week Systems management giant IBM snapped up event correlation software vendor Micromuse.
Continue reading "A Return To Confidence..."
A Return To Confidence
We are at the point we reach every December where everyone who isn't already too busy compiling New Year's resolutions they will never keep is trying to make sense of the year that is rapidly coming to an end. And what a year 2005 turned out to be - complex, challenging, and at times frustrating but also always interesting.
Some would call it the year of the merger and acquisition -- though every year might qualify as that -- with Oracle and SAP leading the spending sprees. Just last week Systems management giant IBM snapped up event correlation software vendor Micromuse.
Continue reading "A Return To Confidence..."
Moore's Law: 1965-2015, May It Rest In Peace
The demise of Moore's Law is in sight. Well, maybe not Moore's Law itself, but the end of the ability of the silicon chip to double computing power about every two years--Moore's Law--is a decade away.
Continue reading "Moore's Law: 1965-2015, May It Rest In Peace..."
Daily News Podcast, Dec. 29
In today's podcast, we analyze the latest cell phone developments, the most recent trends regarding Microsoft and security, and ask readers to weigh in on best practices for managing customer data.
Background Music "Tattoo" by dilvie, under Creative Commons License.
The Perfect Going-Away Gift From 2005: More Consumer Data Breaches
Any doubt that 2005 would be known as the unofficial Year of Lost Consumer Data was swept away in the past week by news of two data compromises that cast a pall over the holidays. First, acting on a tip from a reader, InformationWeek's Larry Greenemeier verified that the Department of Justice, the very agency charged with combating identity theft, had inadvertently exposed on its Web site social security numbers of people involved in DOJ-related cases. Then, a week later, Marriott Corp.'s vacation timeshare unit, Marriott Vacation Club International, revealed that it had lost backup tapes containing personal data on 206,000 employees, timeshare owners and timeshare rental customers. The reinforced message to consumers is this: You are absolutely helpless.
Continue reading "The Perfect Going-Away Gift From 2005: More Consumer Data Breaches..."
Rumor: TiVo To Announce DirecTV, Dish Partnership At CES
A rumor is circulating online that TiVo will announce at the upcoming CES show next month in Las Vegas a partnership with DirecTV and Dish Network over mobile content. The idea is to unite on a standard for supporting content that can be viewed on portable devices.
Continue reading "Rumor: TiVo To Announce DirecTV, Dish Partnership At CES..."
Data Danger
Once again, a large enterprise has had to fess up to its customers that it has lost a backup tape containing their private information. Even in a year where some of the largest- and ostentiably best run - companies reported similar mishaps, the latest incident involving Marriott's timesharing division 'misplacing' customer data is still surprising, if not exactly shocking. After the negative attention focused on similar incidents earlier this year, wouldn't you expect businesses to have better safeguards in place by now?
Continue reading "Data Danger..."
Data Danger
Once again, a large enterprise has had to fess up to its customers that it has lost a backup tape containing their private information. Even in a year where some of the largest- and ostentiably best run - companies reported similar mishaps, the latest incident involving Marriott's timesharing division 'misplacing' customer data is still surprising, if not exactly shocking. After the negative attention focused on similar incidents earlier this year, wouldn't you expect businesses to have better safeguards in place by now?
Continue reading "Data Danger..."
Daily News Podcast, Dec. 28
In today's podcast, we analyze the latest incidents involving potential loss/exposure of personal information, security issues impacting Microsoft, and the odd tech news of the day.
Background Music "Midday Dance" by Kevid MacLeod, Courtesy IncompeTech under Creative Commons License.
Why IT Execs Should Turn A Blind Eye Toward TV Shows Streamed To Desktops
Now that Yahoo has begun streaming whole, commercial-free CBS sitcoms, it's worth a moment to pause and consider the impact of the growing influx of video--not to mention podcasts and multimedia blogs--on the workplace. My guess is, there's a surprisingly large number of people who spend large chunks of their work days squeezing in every possible minute of entertainment they can. And that can mean only one thing: executives and senior managers trying to figure out how to combat the growing drain on productivity. Well, here's what I think they should do: absolutely nothing.
Continue reading "Why IT Execs Should Turn A Blind Eye Toward TV Shows Streamed To Desktops..."
Clueless In Utah
For an information junkie, Groklaw is a dangerous place -- once you start reading, there's no good place to stop. If you want to know why, look no further than an example I came across today: a snippet of dialog between a judge and a SCO Group attorney that, when you add a bit of context, takes on a life of its own.
Continue reading "Clueless In Utah..."
A Privacy Imperative For 2006
One of my lasting impressions of 2005 will be the seemingly endless parade of breaches, missteps and other blunders in handling customer data.
Continue reading "A Privacy Imperative For 2006..."
'Intel Inside' Out
India's The Economic Times reports that Intel's longstanding tag line "Intel Inside" will be dropped next month after 14 years of use, according to unnamed insiders. The company will roll out a new logo and possibly a new advertising campaign.
Continue reading "'Intel Inside' Out..."
Fixing A Fatal Flaw
In recent months, antivirus vendors have come under increasing fire for vulnerabilities in the very products that are supposed to protect against malicious software. Critics are questioning the reactive install-and-update model anti-virus vendors use currently. So naturally, there is considerable speculation that what is needed in the anti-virus market is a revolution .
Continue reading "Fixing A Fatal Flaw..."
Fixing A Fatal Flaw
In recent months, antivirus vendors have come under increasing fire for vulnerabilities in the very products that are supposed to protect against malicious software. Critics are questioning the reactive install-and-update model anti-virus vendors use currently. So naturally, there is considerable speculation that what is needed in the anti-virus market is a revolution .
Continue reading "Fixing A Fatal Flaw..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Dec. 27
Listen to the current InformationWeek daily news podcast. In this report, an exclusive story on the exposure of social security data on documents accessible through the Department of Justice web site, coupled with a story about low expectations for security legislation next year. Also discussed: online shopping trends, expectations for 2006, IBM's attack on Microsoft's proposed document format standard, a proposal for a telecom bill of rights, the latest review of the FBI's troubled IT architecture project and a look at defenders under attack.
Background Music "Atlantean Twilight" by Kevin MacLeod, Courtesy
IncompeTech, www.incompetech.com under Creative Commons License.
Social Security Numbers On The Justice Department's Web Site Could Lead To Identity Theft
I know a little something about identity theft, having spent the past four months trying to convince my bank that nearly $800 in purchases at Toy 'R' Us allegedly made using my Visa debit card were fraudulent. So when I opened an E-mail Monday morning that described an InformationWeek reader's efforts to alert the Justice Department that its Web site was revealing Social Security numbers on court documents accessible through the site, I was a bit sensitive to the issue. When the reader pointed out that he had warned the Justice Department that he would go to the media if it didn't remove the Social Security number, I called the Justice Department to find out what was going on.
Continue reading "Social Security Numbers On The Justice Department's Web Site Could Lead To Identity Theft..."
Get A Room, Already
New plot twists in the never-ending Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice saga of public messaging . . . As we spy on our free-loving foursome—Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Google—, we see them still in the throes of monogamy but don't expect that to last.
AOL has now cozied up with Google, leaving Microsoft somewhat rebuffed. I say "somewhat" because Microsoft has never been an easily discouraged suitor. Don't forget that Yahoo was also pursuing a similar deal with AOL. I guess that under the porch light only Google found AOL's charms irresistible.
For it's billion big ones, Google gets a 5-percent stake in AOL and continues to provide AOL with its search technology. In addition to some cross promotion stuff, Google also gets to run AOL-sold ads on the Google network and run AOL's video clips. So where's the gravy for Google?
I'm going to say it's in the instant messaging aspect of the deal. As long as Google's GoogleTalk customers sign up for an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screen name, they will be able to communicate directly with AIM users.
Continue reading "Get A Room, Already..."
Get A Room, Already
New plot twists in the never-ending Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice saga of public messaging . . . As we spy on our free-loving foursome—Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Google—, we see them still in the throes of monogamy but don't expect that to last.
AOL has now cozied up with Google, leaving Microsoft somewhat rebuffed. I say "somewhat" because Microsoft has never been an easily discouraged suitor. Don't forget that Yahoo was also pursuing a similar deal with AOL. I guess that under the porch light only Google found AOL's charms irresistible.
For it's billion big ones, Google gets a 5-percent stake in AOL and continues to provide AOL with its search technology. In addition to some cross promotion stuff, Google also gets to run AOL-sold ads on the Google network and run AOL's video clips. So where's the gravy for Google?
I'm going to say it's in the instant messaging aspect of the deal. As long as Google's GoogleTalk customers sign up for an AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) screen name, they will be able to communicate directly with AIM users.
Continue reading "Get A Room, Already..."
Podcast: Semiconductors Signaling M&A and IPO Deals
This year, there were 58 announced semiconductor deals, up from 54 in 2004 and 56 in 2003. Although the number has remained nearly flat, the medium size financial transaction doubled. In fact, this year's medium size deals reached $51.1 million, up from $26 million in 2004, and $18 million in 2003.
As we close out 2005, I caught up with David Creamer, managing director of the Jefferies Broadview technology investment banking group, works from the firm's Silicon Valley office and co-heads the Communications & Computing Infrastructure global practice group.
In his 13 years of transaction experience, Creamer has advised on more than 50 transactions in the semiconductor and computing hardware industries. Clients include Alphamosaic in its $125 million sale Broadcom, Nvidia in its $70 million acquisition of MediaQ, and Basis Communications in its $450 million sale to Intel.
Listen in while Creamer talks about hot tends in the live and streaming TV to the cellular phone market, ZigBee and WiMax standards, and M&A and IPO activity in the semiconductor space.
Are Alien and Impinj, both privately held venture-backed companies in the radio frequency identification space, poised for an IPO in 2006?
Podcast: David Creamer Talks Semiconductors
Rumor: Microsoft to Buy Opera
Rumor has it that Microsoft plans to buy browser rival Opera - a Norway-based company that makes a small browser with a big cult following. Opera denies the rumor.
Continue reading "Rumor: Microsoft to Buy Opera..."
Daily News Podcast, Friday, December 23
Listen to the current InformationWeek daily podcast. Topics: Microsoft and Google settle their Kai-Fu Lee lawsuit, Symantec says 63 of its products are exposed because of a security vulnerability in common code, and an editor eats crow over some of his RSS comments.
Read the rest of my editor's note on RSS feeds and syndication, and leave a comment.
Background Music "Another Continent", Courtesy Digital Riffs Music, under Creative Commons License.
Google And Microsoft Settle Bitter Lawsuit
Google said today that it has settled the lawsuit brought by Microsoft in July to enforce a noncompetition agreement against Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, a former Microsoft executive who left the company to work for Google.
In a prepared statement, Lee, president of engineering, product and public affairs for Google China, said, "I am pleased with the terms of the settlement agreement."
Continue reading "Google And Microsoft Settle Bitter Lawsuit..."
Prediction No. 9: The Watchword in 2006 Will Be Sustainability
Every organization subject to regulatory compliance needs it; every vendor of compliance tools promises it; so achieving it is a piece of cake, right?
Unfortunately, when the "it" in question is a sustainable, automated compliance management framework, its existence has been a bit hit and miss. The main problem with a promise like sustainability is that it means something different to nearly all organizations, not to mention nearly all vendors of IT products and services.
Sustainable compliance can mean the ability of a tool to easily integrate changing requirements and add new policies and controls processes, and add new stakeholders to the workflow. It can also mean the tools are built using open standards and deployed in a services oriented architecture (SOA). An SOA can also ensure reuse of the software for several different regulatory compliance and risk management initiatives.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 9: The Watchword in 2006 Will Be Sustainability..."
Prediction No. 9: The Watchword in 2006 Will Be Sustainability
Every organization subject to regulatory compliance needs it; every vendor of compliance tools promises it; so achieving it is a piece of cake, right?
Unfortunately, when the "it" in question is a sustainable, automated compliance management framework, its existence has been a bit hit and miss. The main problem with a promise like sustainability is that it means something different to nearly all organizations, not to mention nearly all vendors of IT products and services.
Sustainable compliance can mean the ability of a tool to easily integrate changing requirements and add new policies and controls processes, and add new stakeholders to the workflow. It can also mean the tools are built using open standards and deployed in a services oriented architecture (SOA). An SOA can also ensure reuse of the software for several different regulatory compliance and risk management initiatives.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 9: The Watchword in 2006 Will Be Sustainability..."
Motel 6's Jump Into Podcasting: The Light May Be On, But The Download Is Still Hard To Find
One of the numerous attributes of podcasting is its accessibility. It's the rare example of a technology that everybody can understand--The News Show's hilarious report Wednesday about how few people on the street can tell you what podcasting is notwithstanding. That's one of the big reasons it's growing so fast. The media (InformationWeek being a clear example) has picked up on how easy it is to do, and how simple it is for users to make use of. And increasingly, non-media companies are testing the waters, too, discovering a low-cost creative channel that just might help them tighten their bonds with customers. Case in point: Motel 6's recently unveiled first foray into podcasting.
Continue reading "Motel 6's Jump Into Podcasting: The Light May Be On, But The Download Is Still Hard To Find..."
RSS: The Best Technology You're Using After All
I was surprised and pleased by the interest sparked by my recent note about RSS and syndication ("Why Don't More People Use RSS Feeds?"). Surprised, because the point of that note was that hardly anybody uses RSS, and that's pretty much the same as saying nobody gives a darn about it. Turns out people do care about RSS--they're just not using it.
Or are they? Officials at KnowNow, a vendor of technology that uses RSS, say that many people use RSS and are unaware that they're doing so. They took issue with a statistic I quoted from Forrester, which found in a September study that only 6% of Internet users are using RSS. KnowNow countered with a white paper from Yahoo that says 31% of Internet users are using RSS--they just don't know it. They're using personalized start pages, such as My Yahoo and My MSN.
Only 4% of users have knowingly used RSS, according to Yahoo, and that's pretty consistent with the Forrester report, and indicates that Forrester might simply have asked the wrong question.
That's pretty encouraging news to RSS advocates.
And that's pretty consistent with our experience with the greater Internet. Ask 100 random people if they use HTTP, POP3, or IMAP, and they'll say, "Huh?" or "I have no idea what those things are" or "No, I'm sorry, I'm lactose intolerant." As them if they use the Web and E-mail and you'll get different answers. And yet those are really the same questions.
Heck, my own father was an Internet addict, but if you'd asked him if he used the Web, he might well have said no. He called it "Netscape," because that's the application he used to access the Web. Even after he switched to Internet Explorer, he still called the Web "Netscape."
I started out that editor's note by saying: "I'm flummoxed why more people aren't using RSS feeds as their primary means of accessing frequently-visited Web sites." Strike that. Forget I said it. At 31% of Internet users, that's pretty much the adoption rate I'd expect for an emerging technology that's relatively recent, and kind of difficult to understand. The benefits of RSS are real and significant, but they're not easily grasped without trying it out awhile, and they don't become apparent immediately.
Still, more than two-thirds of Internet users aren't using RSS, and I was gratified to get lots of comments from them explaining why, and discussing what needs to happen before they do. I'll include highlights of those comments throughout the rest of this note.
Continue reading "RSS: The Best Technology You're Using After All..."
2006: One Reporter's View
We InformationWeek reporters are asked to cover a lot of ground, each with several beats that we track. Keeping current on so many fronts presents quite a challenge, and we typically have to work in a sort of ad hoc rotation, cycling from one technology or vertical market to the next, hoping that we don't miss anything big on one beat while covering another. With that in mind, I thought I'd try to offer some quick takes on what I expect to see on the CRM, E-commerce, storage, and travel fronts during 2006.
Continue reading "2006: One Reporter's View..."
Who Gets Intellectual Property Rights? Everyone
Collaboration ain't always easy.
Sometimes it takes many months, occasionally more than a year, for IT vendors and university researchers to agree on who owns the intellectual property of industry-funded IT research at some of America's top schools. Such delays have prompted some vendors to direct some of their university-bound R&D funding to universities overseas, institutions less fussy about IP rights. Those concerns are voiced in a video podcast.
Continue reading "Who Gets Intellectual Property Rights? Everyone..."
More Holiday Madness
So the stockings are hung by fire with care in hopes that St. Nicholas will soon be there, but most New Yorkers are probably wishing most for one thing - the end of the transit strike. As for many of Salesforce.com 350,000 customers, they are probably longing to erase the six hours of lost access to their Salesforce apps just as they are wrapping up their year-end numbers. A database cluster error led was the underlying cause.
Continue reading "More Holiday Madness..."
More Holiday Madness
So the stockings are hung by fire with care in hopes that St. Nicholas will soon be there, but most New Yorkers are probably wishing most for one thing - the end of the transit strike. As for many of Salesforce.com 350,000 customers, they are probably longing to erase the six hours of lost access to their Salesforce apps just as they are wrapping up their year-end numbers. A database cluster error led was the underlying cause.
Continue reading "More Holiday Madness..."
Daily News Podcast, Thursday, December 22
Listen to the current InformationWeek daily podcast. Topics: Google is upgrading its personalized search, and Lexar is shipping its flash drives bundled with Google applications. Apple's Web traffic is riding high on iTunes. An in-depth report featuring news of the day from Microsoft. And my editorial comments on the news of the day, looking at whether Google's investment in AOL is an investment in obsolete technology.
Read the rest of my editor's note on Google and AOL, and leave a comment.
Background Music "On The River", Courtesy Digital Riffs Music, under Creative Commons License.
Is Google Investing In An Obsolete Business?
I startled myself the other day when I realized I didn't know whether my laptop computer has a modem. I had to think about it a couple of minutes. It's been that long since I've used a dial-up connection.
Not long ago, having a laptop computer without a modem was like having one without a display or keyboard--completely useless. But these days, everywhere I go, I can count on a high-speed Internet connection, and in many places I can get a Wi-Fi connection. That's been true for quite some time.
That's half of America Online's problems right there. AOL built its business on dial-up access, and dial-up is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Continue reading "Is Google Investing In An Obsolete Business?..."
Blog Confession Leads To Jail Time For Teen
How dumb can some bloggers be? That's a question 18-year-old Blake Ranking is pondering as he faces five years in prison and 10 years on probation for causing an accident that killed one friend and severely injured another. "It was me who caused it," Ranking confessed in a blog three days after the October 2004 accident.
Continue reading "Blog Confession Leads To Jail Time For Teen..."
Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, December 21
Listen to the current daily podcast: A new worm posing as an invite to a Santa Claus site is traveling across all the major instant messaging networks, a security firm warned; if you're having Firefox 1.5 stability problems, check out our story with feedback from readers and Mozilla; many New Yorkers are facing the city's first transit strike in 25 years by telecommuting; and as the federal antispam law known as CAN-SPAM comes up to its second anniversary, even the Federal Trade Commission admits it's been difficult to prove whether the law is working to slow unsolicited e-mail.
Read my editor's note, or leave a comment: Unrelated, Swirling Thoughts.
Music is "Plotting A Bank Job," Courtesy Digital Riffs Music, www.digitalriffs.ca, under Creative Commons License.
Extreme Postdating: Mail To Yourself In The Future
Remember when time capsules were all the rage. You could bury or otherwise hide objects and documents from the present time in hopes that sometime in the distant future, other beings from other worlds or maybe just future humans would uncover them to help answer questions about life "back in the day." The only problem with time capsules is that they are rather unfulfilling. You could only imagine the curiosity, confusion and shock that some distant traveler might display upon uncovering your boxer shorts with smiley faces.
But if relatively instant gratification is your bag, a Web site called FutureMe.org. is one of a handful of sites that let you send e-mail to yourself in the future.
We're not talking about sending reminder messages to yourself. What is required in this case is the ability to store a message for much longer than most e-mail providers will retain messages and then send it back to you on a specified date.
Continue reading "Extreme Postdating: Mail To Yourself In The Future..."
Extreme Postdating: Mail To Yourself In The Future
Remember when time capsules were all the rage. You could bury or otherwise hide objects and documents from the present time in hopes that sometime in the distant future, other beings from other worlds or maybe just future humans would uncover them to help answer questions about life "back in the day." The only problem with time capsules is that they are rather unfulfilling. You could only imagine the curiosity, confusion and shock that some distant traveler might display upon uncovering your boxer shorts with smiley faces.
But if relatively instant gratification is your bag, a Web site called FutureMe.org. is one of a handful of sites that let you send e-mail to yourself in the future.
We're not talking about sending reminder messages to yourself. What is required in this case is the ability to store a message for much longer than most e-mail providers will retain messages and then send it back to you on a specified date.
Continue reading "Extreme Postdating: Mail To Yourself In The Future..."
Unrelated, Swirling Thoughts
It's probably because of the holiday season, or at least I'm hoping it is, but I can't seem to focus enough to do an entire column on one topic. ("With visions of all the stuff she still has to do before Christmas dancing in her head," etc.)
Instead, I'm going to share a few thoughts about several stories.
Continue reading "Unrelated, Swirling Thoughts..."
Prediction No. 8: SMBs Forced To Wear Their Compliance Hats
With most of the regulatory focus up to this point on larger public companies, financial institutions and healthcare providers, it wasn't until the last half of 2005 that we started to see a concerted effort on the part of technology vendors to scale down compliance-related systems and tools for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
It was only a matter of time; the SMB market is huge, hot and underserved, especially when it comes to compliance. Vendors focused first on the low hanging fruit, the publicly traded companies with higher market capitalization that faced the most aggressive deadlines for complying with Sarbanes-Oxley. The SEC recently extended the deadline for smaller public companies (those with a market cap under $75 million) to 2007 for reporting their internal control processes for.
That means SOX section 404 reporting will be an across-the-board activity by the later half of 2006. But that doesn't begin to account for all the smaller and much smaller private companies that have also felt the long arm of SOX. They may not be required to attest to their own controls, but chances are they do business with companies that are. And more and more, we're seeing governance activities extended to suppliers and partners.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 8: SMBs Forced To Wear Their Compliance Hats..."
Prediction No. 8: SMBs Forced To Wear Their Compliance Hats
With most of the regulatory focus up to this point on larger public companies, financial institutions and healthcare providers, it wasn't until the last half of 2005 that we started to see a concerted effort on the part of technology vendors to scale down compliance-related systems and tools for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
It was only a matter of time; the SMB market is huge, hot and underserved, especially when it comes to compliance. Vendors focused first on the low hanging fruit, the publicly traded companies with higher market capitalization that faced the most aggressive deadlines for complying with Sarbanes-Oxley. The SEC recently extended the deadline for smaller public companies (those with a market cap under $75 million) to 2007 for reporting their internal control processes for.
That means SOX section 404 reporting will be an across-the-board activity by the later half of 2006. But that doesn't begin to account for all the smaller and much smaller private companies that have also felt the long arm of SOX. They may not be required to attest to their own controls, but chances are they do business with companies that are. And more and more, we're seeing governance activities extended to suppliers and partners.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 8: SMBs Forced To Wear Their Compliance Hats..."
Can Apple-Intel Live Up To Pre-MacWorld Hype?
People just can't wait for the new year to see what is going to come to fruition in the much anticipated partnership between Apple Computer and Intel. An announcement of the first Intel-enabled Apple product is expected at MacWorld January 10. And while the rumor mill is buzzing, it could also be most inconsequential happening of the year in terms of impact on the commercial or enterprise market.
Continue reading "Can Apple-Intel Live Up To Pre-MacWorld Hype?..."
Seven Fearless Predictions For Outsourcing In 2006
There will be a major data-security breach at an offshore firm. The resulting controversy will have no impact whatsoever on the outsourcing industry as businesses realize the same thing happens in the U.S. almost every week. And here's six more of my can't-miss prognostications for the year ahead in outsourcing.
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E-Convenience: A Willingness To Pay
Here’s further evidence that consumers are willing to pay for convenience for what they once received at a discount because of the computerization of commerce.
Continue reading "E-Convenience: A Willingness To Pay..."
Bracing For A Nation Of CrackBerry Addicts
I was chatting with a few people I'd just met at a holiday cocktail party Friday night, trying to do the infamous appetizer-plate-and-drink-glass balancing act, when one of them starts bemoaning his BlackBerry balancing act. He can never get away from work when he's home, he says, because he always has his BlackBerry.
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If You Use The Internet, Times’ Child-Porn Story A Must Read
The article by Kurt Eichenwald details a new side to the Internet's great shame of child pornography. It describes a 13-year-old boy who posted Web-cam pictures of himself online in an effort to meet friends, and found child predators instead. From a beginning where a man paid him $50 to sit with his shirt off in front of his Web cam, he moved to selling naked images of himself and worse.
Continue reading "If You Use The Internet, Times’ Child-Porn Story A Must Read..."
Wiki Wisdom
The recent uproar over a fake Wikipedia entry on journalist John Siegenthaler, Sr. should teach us all an important lesson: If you get the itch to libel someone, try to avoid prominent journalists from powerful families -- especially when they have carte blanche to use the USA Today editorial page to hunt you down.
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A Rearview Mirror On Steroids
A small California company called Crimestopper plans to unveil at the Consumer Electronics Show next month a rearview mirror called the NavPro NP3000 series mirror that features an embedded 4.5-inch LCD display and GPS electronics. In addition to providing GPS directions, the small screen will show live video from a camera in the bumper whenever the car is going in reverse.
Pricing has not been announced.
Continue reading "A Rearview Mirror On Steroids..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Dec. 20
Listen to the current daily podcast: In this report we cover the latest Windows Vista Preview, Time magazine naming Bono, Bill and Melinda Gates as "Persons of the Year," new lawsuits filed against music swappers, the outlook for Apple in 2006, how to send email to yourself in the future, the last shopping days before Christmas and Hannukah, and homeland insecurity.
Background Music "Carol of the Bells" by Dilvie, www.dilvie.com under Creative Commons License.
Homeland Insecurity
It's interesting that our government is so concerned about homeland security that it does not mind bypassing secret courts to even more secretly eavesdrop on citizens, and yet it cannot seem to find the time, energy, and/or dollars to successfully bring its own agencies up to snuff security-wise.
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Google's AOL Deal Undermines Its Principles
According to reports over the weekend in The New York Times and elsewhere, Time Warner is expected to announce tomorrow that it will renew its partnership with Google, which will make a $1 billion investment in AOL in exchange for a 5% stake in the company.
While the actual terms have yet to be disclosed, one aspect of the deal is troubling. The Times reports, "Google, which prides itself on the purity of its search results, agreed to give favored placement to content from AOL throughout its site, something it has never done before."
Google has gone to great pains to assure users and advertisers that it provides fair and balanced search results. "We believe you should know when someone has paid to put a message in front of you, so we always distinguish ads from the search results or other content on a page," the company says in its corporate overview. "We don't sell placement in the search results themselves, or allow people to pay for a higher ranking there."
Now, it seems that claim is open to question.
Continue reading "Google's AOL Deal Undermines Its Principles..."
Podcast: Symbol Takes RFID Into New Markets And Regions In 2006
Research firm Gartner expects the radio frequency identification technology market worldwide to reach $504 million this year, up 39 percent from last year. As more industries adopt the technology toward the end of 2006, new license revenue will climb to $751 million. By 2010, Gartner forecasts worldwide RFID spending to surpass $3 billion dollars.
Symbol Technologies, which manufacturers RFID tags and readers, is stepping up efforts in 2006, expanding operations to meet demand. It already has a wide customer base from retail stores to airports.
In fact, when techies converge in January for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, it's partially Symbol's RFID technology the Las Vegas McCarran Airport will use to track bags.
Rumor Patrol: High Cost Of Consumables?
Last week I ran a review on this page of two color laser printers aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. The reviewer liked the low price and "commendable feature set" of the HP Color LaserJet 2600n (although he liked the Lexmark C522n a little better overall). A reader liked the look of the LaserJet, too, until he found a link to a rant about its consumables costs on the Web. He wrote a note that finally reached me, and I sprang to attention, tail straight and ears alert. I've been critical of the high cost of printing consumables, and of HP's in particular. But this time, a little research shows that HP may be more sinned against than sinning . . . but only slightly.
Continue reading "Rumor Patrol: High Cost Of Consumables?..."
Rumor Patrol: High Cost Of Consumables?
Last week I ran a review on this page of two color laser printers aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. The reviewer liked the low price and "commendable feature set" of the HP Color LaserJet 2600n (although he liked the Lexmark C522n a little better overall). A reader liked the look of the LaserJet, too, until he found a link to a rant about its consumables costs on the Web. He wrote a note that finally reached me, and I sprang to attention, tail straight and ears alert. I've been critical of the high cost of printing consumables, and of HP's in particular. But this time, a little research shows that HP may be more sinned against than sinning . . . but only slightly.
Continue reading "Rumor Patrol: High Cost Of Consumables?..."
Legit Firms Aid And Abet Teen-Run Porn Sites
At age 13, Justin Berry began a five-year Net business selling images of his body for gifts and cash, at times fostered by some of the Internet's most respected and popular companies. Now, the Bakersfield, Calif., 19-year-old is working with the FBI to go after thousands of adults who encouraged him and other youngsters to perform sordid sexual acts in front of their Webcams and from behind their closed bedroom doors.
Continue reading "Legit Firms Aid And Abet Teen-Run Porn Sites..."
Music Downloads Take Over At Christmas
The BBC and the Financial Times are reporting that music downloads, more than CD sales, will determine which artist will be named number one on the charts at Christmas by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
Last year, the organization said, downloads accounted for just 25 percent of weekly singles sales. But this year, they represent 70 percent.
Daily News Podcast, Monday, Dec. 19
Listen to the current podcast, covering: Time Warner shuts out Microsoft, and enters talks with Google over $1 billion investment; an in-depth report on AMD; and why don't more people use RSS?
Read the rest of the editor's note: Why Don't More People Use RSS Feeds?
Background Music "Fluffy Park", Courtesy The Cow Exchange, under Creative Commons License.
How To Make A Gadget Gift Great
I bravely waded into an Apple Store in a Houston, Texas, mall this week -- it was like entering a cage full of rabid badgers. Holiday shoppers were ransacking the joint for Apple goodies, accessories, software, and most of all, iPods. Not coincidentally, the "record store" next door was almost empty. This holiday appears to signal the inevitable music purchasing shift from disc to download.
Continue reading "How To Make A Gadget Gift Great..."
Bah Humbug
So how is it, that with all the truly amazing technology we have today that puts the world literally at our fingertips, this time of year is still full of hassles and irritations for so many? And no, I am not referring to the annoying relatives, the stress of decking the halls only to have someone else's two year-old come and knock the tree over, or even the commercialization of a sacred time of year (though I hear you on those pains, believe me I do), but to the fact that with all even in the Internet age most people, myself included, still seem to be running, literally and figuratively, from point a to point b to get the thousand items on their to-do lists completed by Christmas (or substitute Hannukah or Kwanzaa).
Continue reading "Bah Humbug..."
Bah Humbug
So how is it, that with all the truly amazing technology we have today that puts the world literally at our fingertips, this time of year is still full of hassles and irritations for so many? And no, I am not referring to the annoying relatives, the stress of decking the halls only to have someone else's two year-old come and knock the tree over, or even the commercialization of a sacred time of year (though I hear you on those pains, believe me I do), but to the fact that with all even in the Internet age most people, myself included, still seem to be running, literally and figuratively, from point a to point b to get the thousand items on their to-do lists completed by Christmas (or substitute Hannukah or Kwanzaa).
Continue reading "Bah Humbug..."
Why Don't More People Use RSS Feeds?
I'm flummoxed why more people aren't using RSS feeds as their primary means of accessing frequently-visited Web sites. It's so much faster and easier for me to check my RSS reader than it is for me to visit a sequence of bookmarks to see if there's anything that's new on my regular sites. Why doesn't everyone feel that way?
The vast majority of Internet users don't use RSS feeds. Only 6% of Internet users consume RSS, according to a Forrester study released in September. That percentage tripled year-over-year, which is enormously fast growth--but still, 6%?
I spent a couple of days this week at the Syndicate conference in San Francisco, and I asked people at the conference why they think RSS adoption is so small. Based on those discussions, and my own thinking, I've come to the following conclusions:
Continue reading "Why Don't More People Use RSS Feeds?..."
WiMax Versus Wi-Fi: Which One Will Be The King Kong Of Wireless?
A mix of testosterone, coffee, and a really hot wireless topic got everyone's blood boiling at one panel discussion during this week's Interop conference, taking place in New York City. It was a King Kong (WiMax) versus T-Rex (Wi-Fi) debate where even the most level-headed executives took a stand.
Continue reading "WiMax Versus Wi-Fi: Which One Will Be The King Kong Of Wireless?..."
Daily News Podcast, Friday, Dec. 16
Tune in to today's podcast, covering the latest developments at Google, some positive news for Wikipedia, and new services from InformationWeek.com, including automated e-mail alerts. You can sign up for the alerts here.
Background Music "After Four Before Eight", Courtesy Digital Riffs Music, under Creative Commons License.
Prediction No. 7: SOX Still Takes The Blame
The laws of physics still apply to compliance spending. In my second prediction in this series on the expected reduction in manpower costs associated with SOX compliance, I said that the funds spent in 2005 to automate SOX compliance processes would pay-off with a nice reduction in manpower costs.
But for every action there is s separate but equal reaction, unless you're Martha Stewart. Regardless of the benefit and return on the investment, the IT monies allocated to SOX will be extremely coveted for other areas of the business, and SOX will take the rap, once again for a lack of funding in business development.
A recent Gartner Group financial compliance management survey found that spending for compliance and corporate regulations are expected to account for 10 to 15 percent of enterprise IT spending in 2006. Moreover, Gartner expects the IT spending on compliance to rise five to 10 percent over last year's spending.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 7: SOX Still Takes The Blame..."
Prediction No. 7: SOX Still Takes The Blame
The laws of physics still apply to compliance spending. In my second prediction in this series on the expected reduction in manpower costs associated with SOX compliance, I said that the funds spent in 2005 to automate SOX compliance processes would pay-off with a nice reduction in manpower costs.
But for every action there is s separate but equal reaction, unless you're Martha Stewart. Regardless of the benefit and return on the investment, the IT monies allocated to SOX will be extremely coveted for other areas of the business, and SOX will take the rap, once again for a lack of funding in business development.
A recent Gartner Group financial compliance management survey found that spending for compliance and corporate regulations are expected to account for 10 to 15 percent of enterprise IT spending in 2006. Moreover, Gartner expects the IT spending on compliance to rise five to 10 percent over last year's spending.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 7: SOX Still Takes The Blame..."
Coming Into Compliance...Slowly
The other day, I was chatting with a networking vendor who spends a significant percentage of his time with financial services clients. The topic of compliance came up, and because his company makes equipment that connects data centers and storage systems, he had a lot to say on the topic. One thing that surprised me was his opinion that, for most of his clients, compliance was yesterday's news. That has not been my experience in the conversations I have had with as I IT professionals in recent months. And the Systems Management Pipeline article examining HIPAA affirms that.
Continue reading "Coming Into Compliance...Slowly..."
Coming Into Compliance...Slowly
The other day, I was chatting with a networking vendor who spends a significant percentage of his time with financial services clients. The topic of compliance came up, and because his company makes equipment that connects data centers and storage systems, he had a lot to say on the topic. One thing that surprised me was his opinion that, for most of his clients, compliance was yesterday's news. That has not been my experience in the conversations I have had with as I IT professionals in recent months. And the Systems Management Pipeline article examining HIPAA affirms that.
Continue reading "Coming Into Compliance...Slowly..."
A New Year's Eve For All To See
We tend to splurge in large amounts on New Year's Eve, so why should our messaging activity be any different? According to messaging provider Mobeon, based in Stockholm, Sweden, New Year’s Eve 2005 will see the largest number of video mail messages ever sent.
With the growing installed base of 3G phones out there, and the proclivity of teens and young adults to employ the multimedia capabilities of these handsets, Mobeon believes this younger market will use the celebration to launch the largest video mail barrage we've ever seen.
That makes sense. Last December 31st broke all records for SMS messages sent and received (111 million messages) so we already know it’s a popular time to click out a mobile missive. Mobeon predicts we'll see upwards of five million video clips making the rounds to ring in the New Year.
Continue reading "A New Year's Eve For All To See..."
A New Year's Eve For All To See
We tend to splurge in large amounts on New Year's Eve, so why should our messaging activity be any different? According to messaging provider Mobeon, based in Stockholm, Sweden, New Year’s Eve 2005 will see the largest number of video mail messages ever sent.
With the growing installed base of 3G phones out there, and the proclivity of teens and young adults to employ the multimedia capabilities of these handsets, Mobeon believes this younger market will use the celebration to launch the largest video mail barrage we've ever seen.
That makes sense. Last December 31st broke all records for SMS messages sent and received (111 million messages) so we already know it’s a popular time to click out a mobile missive. Mobeon predicts we'll see upwards of five million video clips making the rounds to ring in the New Year.
Continue reading "A New Year's Eve For All To See..."
Linux Succeeding Everywhere But On The Desktop
What ever happened to the "Linux is dead" talk that followed the SCO suit against IBM? In fact, what ever happened to the SCO suit? Linux appears to be not just alive, but living large.
IBM has announced it will create a special sales force for its hardware that runs Linux products from partners Red Hat and Novell. A new industry group, Linux Phone Standards Forum, is devoting itself to speeding the adoption of Linux in mobile devices. Only on the desktop is Linux lagging, and Linus Torvalds' Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) is digging at the whys and wherefors of that one -- but I'm not sure OSDL is on the right track.
Continue reading "Linux Succeeding Everywhere But On The Desktop..."
Linux Succeeding Everywhere But On The Desktop
What ever happened to the "Linux is dead" talk that followed the SCO suit against IBM? In fact, what ever happened to the SCO suit? Linux appears to be not just alive, but living large.
IBM has announced it will create a special sales force for its hardware that runs Linux products from partners Red Hat and Novell. A new industry group, Linux Phone Standards Forum, is devoting itself to speeding the adoption of Linux in mobile devices. Only on the desktop is Linux lagging, and Linus Torvalds' Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) is digging at the whys and wherefors of that one -- but I'm not sure OSDL is on the right track.
Continue reading "Linux Succeeding Everywhere But On The Desktop..."
Party Like It's 1993
The Syndicate conference, which was this week in San Francisco, has a lot of the great energy that I remember from the old days on the Internet, back in 1993-94.
Continue reading "Party Like It's 1993..."
Daily News Podcast, Thursday, December 15
Listen to the current daily podcast: E-tailing is doing very well this holiday season so far; MTV and Microsoft are developing an online music service even as Microsoft is running into another problem with its updates, this time with its aging Software Update Services server; and there's explosive growth expected for VoIP monitoring tools as vendors crowd the market.
Read my editor's note, or leave a comment: Productivity And Security To The Max.
Background Music "Beethoven String Quintet" by Kevin MacLeod, Courtesy IncompeTech, www.incompetech.com, under Creative Commons License.
"Dark" Traffic Dominates
For anyone who has ever watched their email inbox get buried by spam, the findings of a messaging vendor Tumbleweed Communications' study on email traffic that shows 83 percent of all email is actually illegitimate isn't all that surprising. But it should be. After all, in the first quarter of this year the percentage of so-called "dark traffic" was closer to 60 percent.
Continue reading ""Dark" Traffic Dominates..."
"Dark" Traffic Dominates
For anyone who has ever watched their email inbox get buried by spam, the findings of a messaging vendor Tumbleweed Communications' study on email traffic that shows 83 percent of all email is actually illegitimate isn't all that surprising. But it should be. After all, in the first quarter of this year the percentage of so-called "dark traffic" was closer to 60 percent.
Continue reading ""Dark" Traffic Dominates..."
Security Is Not Insurance
What's the hardest part of a chief security officer's job? Evaluating new technologies? Establishing policies for users to follow? Actually, it's more political than that, Jim Routh, chief security officer of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., said during an Interop presentation Tuesday. "The hardest part of a CSO's job is influencing information security and practices that will be implemented throughout an organization," he said. "It's a delicate process, particularly when you're asking an IT or business manager to rethink how they operate. Education is probably the most important strategic tool for a CSO, without a doubt." And you thought wayward data tapes throwing themselves off of the back of delivery trucks were going to be your biggest challenge.
Continue reading "Security Is Not Insurance..."
Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, December 14
Listen to the current daily podcast: Microsoft patched four vulnerabilities in its Internet Explorer browser and one in its Windows 2000 operating system, Cisco is taking what it's calling a more 'granular' approach to network management, VMware is partnering with Mozilla on a virtual-machine player, and a new report says that junkyard electronics are piling up and the Environmental Protection Agency should act.
* Read my editor's note, or leave a comment: IT Clunkers We Have Known.
This podcast is adapted from the InformationWeek Daily Newsletter.
Background Music "Hotcake Syrup" by Derek K. Miller, www.penmachine.com, under Creative Commons License.
At Google, Missteps Are A Key Part Of Innovation
Sometimes, when you're trying to innovate, your best intentions can be misinterpreted. And when you're Google, and your phenomenal success results in a growing "kick me" sign on your back, you have to take this into account. So would be the lesson Google should take from a note InformationWeek received from an alert reader recently in response to our coverage of Google Transit, the latest experiment to emerge from the combination of Google Labs and the company's famous policy encouraging employees to spend 20% of their time pursuing crazy ideas.
Continue reading "At Google, Missteps Are A Key Part Of Innovation..."
Productivity And Security To The Max?
My colleague Larry Greenemeier posted a blog entry about Microsoft's plans in the collaboration arena. You might want to check it out to see what the company has in mind for us worker-bee types and, if you agree with me, hope it never comes to pass in fullest force.
Continue reading "Productivity And Security To The Max?..."
Needed: A Stronger Commitment To Rebuilding New Orleans
I don't want to trade places with Mike Centineo, the director of Safety and Permits in New Orleans. On the one hand, he must struggle to get his vital city department up and running after Katrina, conveying a lot of bad news to homeowners in the process. On the other, he goes home to a heavily damaged structure and faces the same challenges to rebuild as many of his fellow residents.
Continue reading "Needed: A Stronger Commitment To Rebuilding New Orleans..."
Yes, That's A Big Smile On The CIO's Face
CIOs are a happy bunch of men and women.
Continue reading "Yes, That's A Big Smile On The CIO's Face..."
Ho, Ho, Hold On A Minute!
Don't look now, but the holidays are coming. That means it’s time to get off your duff and get that gift shopping done. Naturally, we at Personal Tech Pipeline recommend gadgets for all your loved ones this year.
By the way, you're not planning to do your shopping at the mall again, are you? We live in an era of incredible toys and life-enhancing products that are extremely affordable (thanks to Moore's Law and price-comparison Web sites) and will be delivered directly to you -- or to the gift's recipient. Why not take full advantage of today's technology when holiday shopping?
Continue reading "Ho, Ho, Hold On A Minute!..."
IT As A Hot-Button Issue For High-Court Nominee
As political bickering escalates over President Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court, the focus is on hot-button issues such as abortion. But, the Supreme Court addresses much more, including matters that concern the IT pro, such as intellectual property and privacy. Listen to excerpts from a recent discussion on technology and the Supreme Court I had with intellectual property and high-tech lawyer John Delaney, a partner at the law firm Morrison Foerster.
Theme music by Samuel Chabrow.
Like It Or Not, You Will Be More Productive, Microsoft Says
I've seen the future, and it kind of reminds me of a Hallmark commercial. At least that's what happens when your vision is brought to you courtesy of a Microsoft keynote address. Microsoft Tuesday at Interop New York introduced its Office Communicator Web Access, a Web-based enterprise communications client based on Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, or Ajax, technologies that tie into Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. If Microsoft has its way, you may never again be able to duck another phone call or claim that your company's spam filter gobbled up an important e-mail. The horror.
Continue reading "Like It Or Not, You Will Be More Productive, Microsoft Says..."
AMD Declares Victory, But Battle Will Continue
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has declared itself the winner of its self-proclaimed "dual-core duel challenge" it issued to Intel back in August. Although the win comes in some respects by default, or TKO, as Intel has declined to be drawn into the skirmish, and is indicative of the growing momentum at AMD, the microprocessor championship belt remains in Intel's grasp.
Continue reading "AMD Declares Victory, But Battle Will Continue..."
SOA Riches Spill Forth At Gartner Summit
Gartner held its Application Integration and Web Services Summit last week, and a flurry of SOA-related news came out of it.
Top of the list was the news that Tibco now offers a way to deploy quick, "tactical" SOAs through the latest version of its PortalBuilder, which minimizes custom coding and makes it possible to connect new Web services to legacy systems and packaged applications. Then,
GT Software rolled out a set of development tools designed to leverage existing technical resources and programmer skills, hopeing to help users pull mainframes in as more active participants in SOAs.
Continue reading "SOA Riches Spill Forth At Gartner Summit..."
SOA Riches Spill Forth At Gartner Summit
Gartner held its Application Integration and Web Services Summit last week, and a flurry of SOA-related news came out of it.
Top of the list was the news that Tibco now offers a way to deploy quick, "tactical" SOAs through the latest version of its PortalBuilder, which minimizes custom coding and makes it possible to connect new Web services to legacy systems and packaged applications. Then,
GT Software rolled out a set of development tools designed to leverage existing technical resources and programmer skills, hopeing to help users pull mainframes in as more active participants in SOAs.
Continue reading "SOA Riches Spill Forth At Gartner Summit..."
Is IM Poised For Greatness, On A Microsoft Scale?
Microsoft hasn't provided much on an overall strategy for melding its instant messaging and VoIP technology yet, but the software giant is sure interested in keeping skin the game.
A week after Yahoo! announced it would add computer-to-phone calling capabilities to its instant-messaging service, Microsoft said it is expanding its VoIP offerings via a deal with MCI to let PC users place calls to land line telephones and mobile phones. Oddly enough, the service will only permit outbound calls, while Microsoft's chief competitors at this point, Yahoo! and AOL both offer services that allow IM users to receive and make calls out.
But Microsoft said it is currently just testing the service, called "MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call," so when it's ready to formally roll out next, perhaps it will go both ways. At the very least, they should shorten the name. At any rate, Microsoft gets to start making use of the Internet telephony software it acquired when it bought out Teleo Inc. in August.
Continue reading "Is IM Poised For Greatness, On A Microsoft Scale?..."
Is IM Poised For Greatness, On A Microsoft Scale?
Microsoft hasn't provided much on an overall strategy for melding its instant messaging and VoIP technology yet, but the software giant is sure interested in keeping skin the game.
A week after Yahoo! announced it would add computer-to-phone calling capabilities to its instant-messaging service, Microsoft said it is expanding its VoIP offerings via a deal with MCI to let PC users place calls to land line telephones and mobile phones. Oddly enough, the service will only permit outbound calls, while Microsoft's chief competitors at this point, Yahoo! and AOL both offer services that allow IM users to receive and make calls out.
But Microsoft said it is currently just testing the service, called "MCI Web Calling for Windows Live Call," so when it's ready to formally roll out next, perhaps it will go both ways. At the very least, they should shorten the name. At any rate, Microsoft gets to start making use of the Internet telephony software it acquired when it bought out Teleo Inc. in August.
Continue reading "Is IM Poised For Greatness, On A Microsoft Scale?..."
IT Clunkers We Have Known
The holidays are often a time of reflection, when thoughts turn to joys and sorrows of years past. So naturally I've been thinking about some products that were introduced to ITers with great fanfare, only to meet, shall we say, with less than success in the market.
Continue reading "IT Clunkers We Have Known..."
Outsourcing Has Paved Way for GM's India Push
General Motors' announcement this week that it intends to triple the number of cars it produces and sells in India while substantially adding to its labor force there provides another example of how outsourcing will help boost the U.S. economy. Yes, you heard that right.
Continue reading "Outsourcing Has Paved Way for GM's India Push..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Dec. 13
Listen to the current daily news podcast: AOL-co-founder Steve Case says it's time to "undo" the AOL-Time Warner coupling, the tech sector faces an up and down next two years, an apology follows a fake Wikipedia post, SCO's new funding has analysts abuzz, the iPod tops search requests for this holiday season, and we dream about an ideal 2006 for IT.
Background Music "The Misadventures of the Purple Sine" by Dilvie, www.dilvie.com, under Creative Commons License.
IT Dreams for 2006
I can't believe we're halfway through December, though the almost two feet of snow outside my window is proof enough! Where did the year go? How did we get here? Realizing that it's almost 2006 got me to thinking. Wouldn't it be nice, if for a change, in the new year:
Continue reading "IT Dreams for 2006..."
Golly, Was I Too Cynical?
Ten days ago I wrote about the state of Massachusetts' reversed its position on rejecting Microsoft Office in favor of the Open Document Format. I've lived in the state long enough to be extremely cynical about Massachusetts state politics -- although I prefer to think of it as "realistic."
I am shocked by the latest development in the controversy. The good guys actually appear to have won one. Maybe I was TOO cynical?
Continue reading "Golly, Was I Too Cynical?..."
Golly, Was I Too Cynical?
Ten days ago I wrote about the state of Massachusetts' reversed its position on rejecting Microsoft Office in favor of the Open Document Format. I've lived in the state long enough to be extremely cynical about Massachusetts state politics -- although I prefer to think of it as "realistic."
I am shocked by the latest development in the controversy. The good guys actually appear to have won one. Maybe I was TOO cynical?
Continue reading "Golly, Was I Too Cynical?..."
Seriously Unfunny Internet Hoax Mystery Solved
What started as a joke on a colleague has ended without any laughter --some serious questions being raised about the future of Internet posting regulations. John Seigenthaler Sr., one of the founders of USA Today and a former assistant attorney general, reportedly received a handwritten apology from the man who anonymously posted a false biography of him on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia that said Seigenthaler was implicated in the assasinations of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. John Chase, the perpetrator, has since resigned from his position, from where he posted the "scurrilous text" that ran on the site for months before being removed.
Continue reading "Seriously Unfunny Internet Hoax Mystery Solved..."
Seriously Unfunny Internet Hoax Mystery Solved
What started as a joke on a colleague has ended without any laughter --some serious questions being raised about the future of Internet posting regulations. John Seigenthaler Sr., one of the founders of USA Today and a former assistant attorney general, reportedly received a handwritten apology from the man who anonymously posted a false biography of him on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia that said Seigenthaler was implicated in the assasinations of Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. John Chase, the perpetrator, has since resigned from his position, from where he posted the "scurrilous text" that ran on the site for months before being removed.
Continue reading "Seriously Unfunny Internet Hoax Mystery Solved..."
Prediction No. 6: The IT Hand-Off Brings Focus On Cost
I've already discussed in an earlier prediction the biggest and most annoying cost of compliance; the manpower dedicated to manual compliance processes, including human auditors. But there's more to consider than people costs. Some companies have used Sarbanes-Oxley as an excuse to re-examine their core business processes for ways to drive out cost.
In fact, cost reduction and return on investment will be the focus of SOX compliance activity in 2006. Why? Because it's time to complete the hand-off of compliance processes to IT, and IT's goal is always to drive costs out of business processes, increase performance and demonstrate ROI.
Documenting a collection of sustainable best practices is the first step in driving down costs associated with regulatory compliance. By now, organizations should have a much clearer picture of how they can best respond to the SOX requirements. If nothing else, SOX has forced everyone to examine their business processes and figure out which controls are really necessary and which controls are expensive overkill.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 6: The IT Hand-Off Brings Focus On Cost..."
Prediction No. 6: The IT Hand-Off Brings Focus On Cost
I've already discussed in an earlier prediction the biggest and most annoying cost of compliance; the manpower dedicated to manual compliance processes, including human auditors. But there's more to consider than people costs. Some companies have used Sarbanes-Oxley as an excuse to re-examine their core business processes for ways to drive out cost.
In fact, cost reduction and return on investment will be the focus of SOX compliance activity in 2006. Why? Because it's time to complete the hand-off of compliance processes to IT, and IT's goal is always to drive costs out of business processes, increase performance and demonstrate ROI.
Documenting a collection of sustainable best practices is the first step in driving down costs associated with regulatory compliance. By now, organizations should have a much clearer picture of how they can best respond to the SOX requirements. If nothing else, SOX has forced everyone to examine their business processes and figure out which controls are really necessary and which controls are expensive overkill.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 6: The IT Hand-Off Brings Focus On Cost..."
Managing Content In An Information Digital Overload Era
Having the software tools to manage content across the enterprise, as well as connect with suppliers and customers is becoming more important.
I recently caught up with Conleth O’Connell, chief technology officer at Vignette, to talk about how companies will manage and share digital content in 2006.
Some emerging trends O'Connell identified were personalizing content management and digital rights management. But the most interesting topic is at the end of the interview. That's where he talks about the ability to record Web transactions for quality assurance similar to the way customer service calls are recorded on the telephone.
Podcast: Click here to listen or download interview with O'Connell.
Daily News Podcast, Monday, Dec. 12
Listen to the current daily news podcast: Learn about how security vendors are struggling to keep up with threats; how Chinese electronics managers are similar to their counterparts everywhere, except they work for a lot lower pay; why you shouldn't upgrade to Firefox 1.5 just yet; and favorite Firefox extensions.
Background Music "Tattoo" by Dilvie, www.dilvie.com, under Creative Commons License.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Monday, Dec. 12..."
Firefox: Why You Shouldn't Upgrade Yet, And Best Extensions
My colleague Scot Finnie has a surprising recommendation about Firefox 1.5: Don't.
Or, rather, not yet.
He's recommending against upgrading to the latest version of Firefox, at least temporarily.
That's surprising because Scot is, like me, a huge Firefox advocate. He loves it, and so do I.
Another reason it's surprising is because, back last month, Scot recommended the opposite.
So what's changed? Stability, compatibility and performance. Somewhere between the release candidate that Scot evaluated last month and the final version of 1.5 released two weeks ago, problems emerged. The new Firefox (he says) is slower and more prone to crashes than 1.0x versions. Moreover, there are more pages on the Web that are incompatible with the current version of Firefox than with 1.0x versions.
When I saw Scot's article, I sent him an E-mail. "I wish I'd seen your review before I upgraded last week. Thanks a lot, fella," I said.
But I was just giving Scot a hard time. My experience with Firefox is somewhat different from his. I'm finding 1.5 to be pretty stable. I haven't noticed any sites that are incompatible with Firefox 1.5 in the week I've been using it. As a matter of fact, there's one site I visit many times every day that never used to work with Firefox, and now does: the content-management system we use to run InformationWeek.com--although Scot says that parts of the CMS don't work with Firefox, and neither do some other applications on our company intranet that used to run just fine in Firefox.
As to stability: I have noticed that Firefox 1.5 crashes more often than previous versions, but it has only happened a couple of times during the week I've used it, so it's not important. Likewise, some pages seem to load slower in 1.5 than in previous versions, but not significantly more slowly.
So what's my recommendation on whether you should upgrade?
In the end, it's pretty much the same as Scot's: If you haven't upgraded to version 1.5 yet, then wait for the next minor update to do so. Version 1.51 (or whatever they decide to call it) will, hopefully, fix the problems we're seeing with 1.5.
On the other hand, if, like me, you have upgraded, then there's no reason to take the few minutes needed to uninstall the current version and reinstall the old one.
If I knew last week what I know this week, would I have still upgraded? Actually, yes. I like to run the latest version of software, even where there's no appreciable difference between the new version and the old one. I'm compulsive that way. Fortunately, like a neat-freak surgeon, I'm in a job that rewards that kind of compulsiveness.
Of course, Firefox is crippled without extensions, software add-ins that let you customize the browser's behavior. One of the most popular articles I've ever written was "My Favorite Firefox Extensions," which ran in April. After reading Scot's review yesterday, I took some time to look over the extensions landscape; read on to find out what I'm currently using and what looks intriguing.
Continue reading "Firefox: Why You Shouldn't Upgrade Yet, And Best Extensions..."
Firefox 1.5: Some Pig!
In the Editor's Note for this week's Linux Pipeline newsletter, I praised Mozilla for fixing the memory-management bugs that had plagued Firefox for such a long time, but which no longer seemed to be a problem in Firefox 1.5. Today, if I could add just two words to that Editor's Note, I would call upon the immortal wisdom of Rosanne Rosanna Danna: Never mind.
Continue reading "Firefox 1.5: Some Pig!..."
So Just How Well Does Cybercrime Pay?
That question is apparently, and very unsurprisingly, up for debate. At a banking and security conference in Saudi Arabia in late November, U.S. Treasury Advisor Valerie McNevin claimed that cybercriminals made more than $105 billion from their exploits but there are plenty of experts who think that number is over the top.
Continue reading "So Just How Well Does Cybercrime Pay?..."
So Just How Well Does Cybercrime Pay?
That question is apparently, and very unsurprisingly, up for debate. At a banking and security conference in Saudi Arabia in late November, U.S. Treasury Advisor Valerie McNevin claimed that cybercriminals made more than $105 billion from their exploits but there are plenty of experts who think that number is over the top.
Continue reading "So Just How Well Does Cybercrime Pay?..."
Daily News Podcast, Friday, Dec. 9
Listen to the current daily news podcast: Today we cover security issues with IE 7, and Microsoft's plans to enhance the browser's security; a look at whether Firefox 1.5 is ready for prime time; NEC's paper-thin mobile battery; VoIP service from Yahoo; webcasts to the Troops; and our Ultimate holiday high-tech gift-giving guide.
Background Music "Juniper" by Kevin MacLeod, Courtesy IncompeTech under Creative Commons License.
Help Us Help Ourselves
More proof that life extends indefinitely on the internet, is a letter I received out of the blue from a student the other day in reference to a column I had written in 2002. 2002? Lord, what had I written? (Apparently it was assigned reading for some class) Well, it was a lament about the dying throes of customer service and the need for "Trustworthy IT." Today I'd wager that many people, when asked about customer service, wouldn't hesitate to say, "It's dead - stick a fork in it already!" Certainly the student writing me felt that way.
Continue reading "Help Us Help Ourselves..."
Windows Live Local Vs. Google Local
Microsoft has launched Windows Live Local in beta to try to catch up to Google Local. Check it out. It does some neat tricks, but it's sort of like a cocker spaniel: after you've been through what it can do a few times you find yourself focusing on what it can't do. Of course, I've got to admit, I was wowed by Google Local when it first came out, but it's basically a cocker spaniel, too. In fact, the two services are pretty much separated only by an IQ point here and and an IQ point there.
Continue reading "Windows Live Local Vs. Google Local..."
Windows Live Local Vs. Google Local
Microsoft has launched Windows Live Local in beta to try to catch up to Google Local. Check it out. It does some neat tricks, but it's sort of like a cocker spaniel: after you've been through what it can do a few times you find yourself focusing on what it can't do. Of course, I've got to admit, I was wowed by Google Local when it first came out, but it's basically a cocker spaniel, too. In fact, the two services are pretty much separated only by an IQ point here and and an IQ point there.
Continue reading "Windows Live Local Vs. Google Local..."
Homeland Security Heavyweights Can't Explain Lack Of Data Sharing, Cybersecurity
More than four years after 9/11, and nearly three years after the formation of the Homeland Security Department, we still haven't progressed past the problem of data sharing between the public and private sectors. Companies are worried that their closely held information could become public if citizens or the press file for disclosure under the federal Freedom of Information Act or state Sunshine Laws. But that's not enough of an excuse for the lack of progress made in data sharing when you consider that the private sector owns more than 80% of the country's critical infrastructure, including energy utilities, manufacturing and transportation facilities, telecommunication and data networks, and financial services networks. Several key figures in federal and state government weighed in on this topic Wednesday at the InfoSecurity conference in New York. Here's what they had to say.
Continue reading "Homeland Security Heavyweights Can't Explain Lack Of Data Sharing, Cybersecurity..."
Guys: Never Ask For Directions Again!
You no doubt saw Fred Langa's awesome piece on hardcore, advanced trip planning. If you're really serious about off-the-beaten track trip planning, there's no substitute for the specialized mapping and routing sites he talks about. But for everyday getting around -- without asking directions -- Verizon Wireless customers using Motorola's V325 phone have a new option.
Continue reading "Guys: Never Ask For Directions Again!..."
Daily News Podcast, Thursday, Dec. 8
Listen to the current daily news podcast, featuring: A new Sony security vulnerability needs patching, more security vulnerability warnings, breaking news about when you can expect to get your hands on the public beta for Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, an in-depth report about Microsoft, and my editorial comments on the latest chapter in the Sony fiasco.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Thursday, Dec. 8..."
Sony: The Company That Couldn't Shoot Straight
Well, it looks like the wacky gang at Sony is at it again. Sony BMG Music Entertainment said it shipped 5.7 million CDs with anti-piracy technology with a security vulnerability that requires a patch.
No, this isn't the same security vulnerability we wrote about weeks ago. This is an entirely new one, involving a different copy-protection technology.
And that's not all. The blog Freedom to Tinker reports that Sony's patch is itself insecure; the blog recommends users avoid the patch. Freedom to Tinker provides details about the vulnerability, noting that you're infected even if you decline Sony's terms of service. Simply putting the CD in your PC opens up the vulnerabilities.
Continue reading "Sony: The Company That Couldn't Shoot Straight..."
Prediction No.5: New Content To Manage
Remember your first reaction when you found out you had to manage content like e-mail and instant messages as part of the business record for compliance regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Remember the collective "Oh Brother" you heard from your department. Well repeat after me . . . "Oh Brother" because its happening again.
With the growing popularity of blogs in the enterprise and the use of wikis in corporate settings, these outlets are being recognized to contain potential material information and, therefore, will need to be managed for compliance.
If you employ wiki technology to gather comment or provide an open forum for customers, the information you collect via wikis could also become material. Hey, if you set it up, the information is yours. Your company, theoretically, has knowledge of the information, which must be documented.
Continue reading "Prediction No.5: New Content To Manage..."
Prediction No.5: New Content To Manage
Remember your first reaction when you found out you had to manage content like e-mail and instant messages as part of the business record for compliance regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Remember the collective "Oh Brother" you heard from your department. Well repeat after me . . . "Oh Brother" because its happening again.
With the growing popularity of blogs in the enterprise and the use of wikis in corporate settings, these outlets are being recognized to contain potential material information and, therefore, will need to be managed for compliance.
If you employ wiki technology to gather comment or provide an open forum for customers, the information you collect via wikis could also become material. Hey, if you set it up, the information is yours. Your company, theoretically, has knowledge of the information, which must be documented.
Continue reading "Prediction No.5: New Content To Manage..."
Google Cleans Up A Mess Microsoft Made
Google has had its share of problems lately -- the messy backlash over its plan to scan whole libraries of books is still spreading, for example. But it's cleaned up one mess it didn't even make.
Last week an Israeli hacker, Matan Gillon, posted his discovery of a bug in Internet Explorer (I know it's not exactly big news that there are bugs in IE, but bear with me, this one gets interesting). He used a malicious cascading style sheet to exploit the IE bug and get Google Desktop Search to reveal the user information stored on the target PC.
Google patched the problem on Monday, so if you run Google Desktop you're protected -- the program updates itself automatically.
Continue reading "Google Cleans Up A Mess Microsoft Made..."
Google Cleans Up A Mess Microsoft Made
Google has had its share of problems lately -- the messy backlash over its plan to scan whole libraries of books is still spreading, for example. But it's cleaned up one mess it didn't even make.
Last week an Israeli hacker, Matan Gillon, posted his discovery of a bug in Internet Explorer (I know it's not exactly big news that there are bugs in IE, but bear with me, this one gets interesting). He used a malicious cascading style sheet to exploit the IE bug and get Google Desktop Search to reveal the user information stored on the target PC.
Google patched the problem on Monday, so if you run Google Desktop you're protected -- the program updates itself automatically.
Continue reading "Google Cleans Up A Mess Microsoft Made..."
IM Interoperability On The Horizon
Oh, what the heck. I made a prediction for the New Year yesterday, so I'm on a roll. Here's another, albeit no so far fetched prediction: We will see true interoperability between the major instant messaging services in 2006.
Hey! No fair, you cry. Microsoft and Yahoo! have already struck a deal to have their networks talking to each by mid next year. That's not a prediction, you say, it's just an expectation that they will carry through with the agreement.
Well, yes and no. We're still waiting to see what level of interoperability is actually achieved between the MSN and Yahoo! IM networks in 2006. But the larger question is whether the granddaddy of IM networks, AOL, is going to make an interoperability play.
So then you tell me that you can already get interoperability between disparate, competing IM platforms by using one of the third-party IM clients like Trillian or Meebo that allow access to all the major IM networks for text chatting and certain other features. True enough, but that's not "true" interoperability and they don't provide access to all the features provided on the native IM clients.
Continue reading "IM Interoperability On The Horizon..."
IM Interoperability On The Horizon
Oh, what the heck. I made a prediction for the New Year yesterday, so I'm on a roll. Here's another, albeit no so far fetched prediction: We will see true interoperability between the major instant messaging services in 2006.
Hey! No fair, you cry. Microsoft and Yahoo! have already struck a deal to have their networks talking to each by mid next year. That's not a prediction, you say, it's just an expectation that they will carry through with the agreement.
Well, yes and no. We're still waiting to see what level of interoperability is actually achieved between the MSN and Yahoo! IM networks in 2006. But the larger question is whether the granddaddy of IM networks, AOL, is going to make an interoperability play.
So then you tell me that you can already get interoperability between disparate, competing IM platforms by using one of the third-party IM clients like Trillian or Meebo that allow access to all the major IM networks for text chatting and certain other features. True enough, but that's not "true" interoperability and they don't provide access to all the features provided on the native IM clients.
Continue reading "IM Interoperability On The Horizon..."
Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, Dec. 7
Listen to the current daily news podcast: featured is a round up of upcoming product debuts, and a new lawsuit for Microsoft; SAP's road map; Red Hat's support for other packages; an in-depth report on top gun CIOs; and a look at how tech jobs have helped out in strife torn Belfast.
Background Music "Turkish" by Disco Nap, Courtesy The Cow Exchange
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Wednesday, Dec. 7..."
Profiting From Cybercrime
Since I am already on a bad news roll, I might as well continue with the latest word on this banner year for security threats. 2005 has proven to be a very productive year for cybercriminals, as the number of threats went through the roof. According to the U.K. security company Sophos, just under 16,000 new worms, viruses, and Trojan horses were discovered between January and November.
Continue reading "Profiting From Cybercrime..."
Profiting From Cybercrime
Since I am already on a bad news roll, I might as well continue with the latest word on this banner year for security threats. 2005 has proven to be a very productive year for cybercriminals, as the number of threats went through the roof. According to the U.K. security company Sophos, just under 16,000 new worms, viruses, and Trojan horses were discovered between January and November.
Continue reading "Profiting From Cybercrime..."
SOA And Security
We had a couple of terrific how-to features this week for you on SOA Pipeline. The first focuses on security and SOA.
Peter Lacey explains why, if your company is ready to begin implementing a true service-oriented architecture (SOA), you'll need to consider what technologies are used to enable messaging and message processing, and how to secure those messages as they flow through the network and are retained in memory or on disk.
Continue reading "SOA And Security..."
SOA And Security
We had a couple of terrific how-to features this week for you on SOA Pipeline. The first focuses on security and SOA.
Peter Lacey explains why, if your company is ready to begin implementing a true service-oriented architecture (SOA), you'll need to consider what technologies are used to enable messaging and message processing, and how to secure those messages as they flow through the network and are retained in memory or on disk.
Continue reading "SOA And Security..."
Prediction No. 4: A Central Theme
After going out on a limb for my third prediction for the new year, I'll make another semi-safe forecast this time around. What compliance management, disaster recovery, and general process optimization has shown us in 2005 is that some data is just better off centralized.
At the very least, the views to data need to be centralized, but companies found this year that managing for Section 404 of SOX, or getting back on track after hurricane damage, or just setting up an archiving system is easier if the data is all in one place. I'm not saying we'll see a wholesale shift, a re-centralization, if you will, of all those distributed servers out there.
But IT organizations have started to learn that the data that counts needs to be counted, and putting it in a secure place where it can be viewed in context of all the reasons we now need to prove the existence of data is simply the best way to achieve that.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 4: A Central Theme..."
Prediction No. 4: A Central Theme
After going out on a limb for my third prediction for the new year, I'll make another semi-safe forecast this time around. What compliance management, disaster recovery, and general process optimization has shown us in 2005 is that some data is just better off centralized.
At the very least, the views to data need to be centralized, but companies found this year that managing for Section 404 of SOX, or getting back on track after hurricane damage, or just setting up an archiving system is easier if the data is all in one place. I'm not saying we'll see a wholesale shift, a re-centralization, if you will, of all those distributed servers out there.
But IT organizations have started to learn that the data that counts needs to be counted, and putting it in a secure place where it can be viewed in context of all the reasons we now need to prove the existence of data is simply the best way to achieve that.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 4: A Central Theme..."
A Tangled Web
Sticks and stones may break bones, but I beg to differ with the rest of that saying. Words can hurt and they do every day. Look at examples of involving the spread of false, and often outrageous, information that has caused irreparable harm to reputations and worse. Without even going into the most horrific examples, just consider the issues raised by the posting of cruel, and untrue, biographical information about John Seigenthaler Sr., on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia that purported the assistant to the attorney general in the early 1960s had been implicated in the assasinations of both John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.
Continue reading "A Tangled Web..."
A Tangled Web
Sticks and stones may break bones, but I beg to differ with the rest of that saying. Words can hurt and they do every day. Look at examples of involving the spread of false, and often outrageous, information that has caused irreparable harm to reputations and worse. Without even going into the most horrific examples, just consider the issues raised by the posting of cruel, and untrue, biographical information about John Seigenthaler Sr., on the Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia that purported the assistant to the attorney general in the early 1960s had been implicated in the assasinations of both John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.
Continue reading "A Tangled Web..."
Netflix, You Need To Read This Story
Information Week has a story about a new, more scratch-resistant CD. A Colorado company called Scratch-Less Disc Industries is bringing out a CD that uses a special polymer, co-developed by General Electric, that's 100 times harder to scratch than the plastic used for standard CDs -- a resistance to abrasion similar to glass, the company claims.
Netflix, are you listening? Get with these people right away and force the studios to use this stuff for all the DVDs they sell you -- and do it before you send me one more scratched, unplayable movie and I have a stroke or something and my widow sues you for millions.
Continue reading "Netflix, You Need To Read This Story..."
Netflix, You Need To Read This Story
Information Week has a story about a new, more scratch-resistant CD. A Colorado company called Scratch-Less Disc Industries is bringing out a CD that uses a special polymer, co-developed by General Electric, that's 100 times harder to scratch than the plastic used for standard CDs -- a resistance to abrasion similar to glass, the company claims.
Netflix, are you listening? Get with these people right away and force the studios to use this stuff for all the DVDs they sell you -- and do it before you send me one more scratched, unplayable movie and I have a stroke or something and my widow sues you for millions.
Continue reading "Netflix, You Need To Read This Story..."
Daily News Podcast, Tuesday, Dec. 6
Listen to the current daily news podcast: detailing IBM's support for OpenDoc, featuring an in-depth report on e-business, and analyzing the ongoing role of Wikis.
Background Music "Zombies Awake," Courtesy Digital Riffs.
TV-On-iPod Gets Realer And Realer
Don't look now, but Apple is suddenly offering TV shows on iTunes for downloading to and viewing on the new video-capable iPod from NBC, SciFi and USA. It still costs $1.99 per show. (via Engadget)
The Beginning Of The End For Spam
Here's a shocking prediction: The volume of spam is going to fall off in 2006. Why? Because it has to. It will outlive its usefulness to spammers. It's become it's own worst enemy, too prevalent to be effective. Spam needs people to open e-mails and attachments, and no matter what new enticements are tried anymore, we don't trust them enough to do their bidding.
Ok, some of us are still learning, but we've all had to deal with spam. We know what it looks like, smells like and feels like, even when it purports to be something else. For most of us, it's more annoying than dangerous, because we toss everything that might be spam. We have to. The attachments are just as likely to come loaded with worms and viruses as come-ons for winning a free I-pod.
Spam will eventually crumple under its own weight. Can those that employ spam for marketing and advertising find the techniques even remotely effective anymore when we just delete what doesn't head straight for the spam bucket?
At this point, you've already asked yourself, twice, what I've been smoking. If you're like me, you're looking to change your ISP yet again because you've just deleted your 83rd spam e-mail before noon. It sure doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.
Continue reading "The Beginning Of The End For Spam..."
The Beginning Of The End For Spam
Here's a shocking prediction: The volume of spam is going to fall off in 2006. Why? Because it has to. It will outlive its usefulness to spammers. It's become it's own worst enemy, too prevalent to be effective. Spam needs people to open e-mails and attachments, and no matter what new enticements are tried anymore, we don't trust them enough to do their bidding.
Ok, some of us are still learning, but we've all had to deal with spam. We know what it looks like, smells like and feels like, even when it purports to be something else. For most of us, it's more annoying than dangerous, because we toss everything that might be spam. We have to. The attachments are just as likely to come loaded with worms and viruses as come-ons for winning a free I-pod.
Spam will eventually crumple under its own weight. Can those that employ spam for marketing and advertising find the techniques even remotely effective anymore when we just delete what doesn't head straight for the spam bucket?
At this point, you've already asked yourself, twice, what I've been smoking. If you're like me, you're looking to change your ISP yet again because you've just deleted your 83rd spam e-mail before noon. It sure doesn't look like it's going away anytime soon.
Continue reading "The Beginning Of The End For Spam..."
Northern Ireland's IT Peace Dividend Could Show The Way Forward in Iraq
Belfast, Northern Ireland--An imposing length of concrete still divides much of this city into Protestant and Catholic zones, and many walls on either side still bear graphic murals depicting militant images of 'The Troubles.' But in old stone pubs and newly built office parks, many residents here are now voicing a belief that Northern Island's long history of sectarian violence may be at an end. And it's no coincidence, they say, that this once strife-torn part of the United Kingdom has achieved sustainable peace at a time when economic growth is being fueled by investment from Citigroup, Raytheon, Fujitsu, Seagate and other global giants that have chosen Belfast as a site for offshore software development. It all begs the question--could this miracle be repeated in Iraq?
Continue reading "Northern Ireland's IT Peace Dividend Could Show The Way Forward in Iraq..."
ITIL Reality
Vendors have spent a lot of time -- and marketing dollars - promoting the benefits of ITIL this year. And they certainly aren't alone as analysts and the press offer up examples of how this best practices approach to IT service management can pay off for the enterprise. We have certainly spent enough time here talking the ITIL talk in recent months.
Continue reading "ITIL Reality..."
ITIL Reality
Vendors have spent a lot of time -- and marketing dollars - promoting the benefits of ITIL this year. And they certainly aren't alone as analysts and the press offer up examples of how this best practices approach to IT service management can pay off for the enterprise. We have certainly spent enough time here talking the ITIL talk in recent months.
Continue reading "ITIL Reality..."
Sun Combativeness, Open-Source Peacekeeping A Good Match?
Sun Microsystems took the plunge Nov. 30 and committed itself to convert much of its software product line to open-source code. Sun will give you its software ... if only you will use it. As a statement of business strategy, the move sums up multiple past failures, but maybe, just maybe, this time its approach will work.
Continue reading "Sun Combativeness, Open-Source Peacekeeping A Good Match?..."
What's Wrong With Google's Gmail Anti-Virus?
Google rolled out a new anti-virus component to its free e-mail service, Gmail. It augments the old protection, which merely blocks any attached executable file, such as those ending in the .EXE extension. The anti-virus technology provider behind the service is being kept secret. Free e-mail with free anti-virus protection. What's wrong with that?
Continue reading "What's Wrong With Google's Gmail Anti-Virus?..."
The Wicked-Pedia
The blogosphere is roiled over problems with the Wikipedia, where the ideal that letting anybody write or edit anything will increase the amount of truth in the world collected more than a little tarnish last week.
It's hardly surprising. The only safe way to treat the Wikipedia, and the Internet more generally, is as propaganda, because the velocity of the information has reduced civil debate to uncivil sabotage.
Continue reading "The Wicked-Pedia..."
The Wicked-Pedia
The blogosphere is roiled over problems with the Wikipedia, where the ideal that letting anybody write or edit anything will increase the amount of truth in the world collected more than a little tarnish last week.
It's hardly surprising. The only safe way to treat the Wikipedia, and the Internet more generally, is as propaganda, because the velocity of the information has reduced civil debate to uncivil sabotage.
Continue reading "The Wicked-Pedia..."
Daily News Podcast, Monday, Dec. 5
Listen to the current daily news podcast, highlighting the latest developments in the field of entertainment technology, new initiatives from the Transportation Security Administration, and an -in-depth report on Intel and the chip market. InformationWeek's Eric Chabrow opines on the Labor Department's payroll report, and what it means in the ISP sector.
Background Music "The Fall" by Miles Low, Courtesy The Cow Exchange.
Podcast: The Declining Number Of Women Seeking Careers In IT Is An Alarming Trend
Women comprise about 29 percent of the professional IT workforce. But there is concern among technology companies the number is shrinking, according to Lucy Sanders, chief executive officer at the National Center for Women and Information Technology.
Sanders said non-profit organizations, universities and businesses such as Wal-Mart, Cisco and IBM are working to reverse that trend. IBM and Cisco, for example, are sponsoring studies to gather base line data they will use to develop mentoring programs for women.
Podcast: Click on link to download or hear Lucy Sanders.
Prediction No. 3: Lockdown On Customer Data
This one might put me out on a limb, but I'm going to say that in 2006 we will see a marked reduction in customer data theft cases. Why, because it's on everyone's radar.
Today, close to half the states have enacted data privacy laws modeled after California's SB-1386, requiring companies to out themselves when a breach occurs. And late last month, the Senate approved the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, which requires businesses holding the personal data of more than 10,000 U.S. residents to conduct risk assessments and implement data-protection policies.
With consumer confidence shaken and politicians clamoring for stiffer laws and penalties, if companies can't make sufficient headway against the problem in 2006, the loss of customer data will become the big security issue of the year.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 3: Lockdown On Customer Data..."
Prediction No. 3: Lockdown On Customer Data
This one might put me out on a limb, but I'm going to say that in 2006 we will see a marked reduction in customer data theft cases. Why, because it's on everyone's radar.
Today, close to half the states have enacted data privacy laws modeled after California's SB-1386, requiring companies to out themselves when a breach occurs. And late last month, the Senate approved the Personal Data Privacy and Security Act, which requires businesses holding the personal data of more than 10,000 U.S. residents to conduct risk assessments and implement data-protection policies.
With consumer confidence shaken and politicians clamoring for stiffer laws and penalties, if companies can't make sufficient headway against the problem in 2006, the loss of customer data will become the big security issue of the year.
Continue reading "Prediction No. 3: Lockdown On Customer Data..."
IBM Can't Win With A Thin Envelope
IBM has sent a letter to the head of Massachusett's department of Administration and Finance urging him not to be fooled by Microsoft's PR campaign to promote its Office Open XML as an "open" format, and to continue his predecessor's support for the Open Document Format. My guess is IBM made only one mistake -- all it put in the envelope was the letter.
Continue reading "IBM Can't Win With A Thin Envelope..."
IBM Can't Win With A Thin Envelope
IBM has sent a letter to the head of Massachusett's department of Administration and Finance urging him not to be fooled by Microsoft's PR campaign to promote its Office Open XML as an "open" format, and to continue his predecessor's support for the Open Document Format. My guess is IBM made only one mistake -- all it put in the envelope was the letter.
Continue reading "IBM Can't Win With A Thin Envelope..."
Decline In ISP Workers: Don't Believe It
Numbers never tell the whole story. Take, for instance, Friday's Labor Department's payroll report, which lumps together companies offering ISPs, search portals, and data processing hosting services. That segment experienced its second consecutive monthly decline in November. That's strange, considering increased Internet use and the popularity of Google and other portals.
Continue reading "Decline In ISP Workers: Don't Believe It..."
Open Source's Confidence Problem
At least on paper, open source technology offers enterprises a sort of promised land, an escape hatch from the world of expensive and disappointing proprietary commercial apps into one that features a technically-superior - and less costly - alternative. Simply put, on most days, what system administrator wouldn't like to give big bad Microsoft the slip. But though many organizations are beginning to use open source software, there is evidence that corporations are hestitant about adopting the technology.
Continue reading "Open Source's Confidence Problem..."
Open Source's Confidence Problem
At least on paper, open source technology offers enterprises a sort of promised land, an escape hatch from the world of expensive and disappointing proprietary commercial apps into one that features a technically-superior - and less costly - alternative. Simply put, on most days, what system administrator wouldn't like to give big bad Microsoft the slip. But though many organizations are beginning to use open source software, there is evidence that corporations are hestitant about adopting the technology.
Continue reading "Open Source's Confidence Problem..."
Daily News Podcast, Friday, Dec. 2
Listen to the current daily podcast: featuring product news from Skype, the latest security developments involving Microsoft as well as Sober, and an in-depth report with personal tech reviews.
Background Music "Morning Snowflake" Courtesy IncompeTech, www.incompetech.com.
EPCglobal: Privacy, Strategy And Focus For 2006
Mike Meranda, president of ECPglobal Inc. U.S., said the non-profit organization spearheading radio frequency identification technology adoption will rollout in early 2006 the Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS). EPCIS is a collection of standards that will enable companies to share data and information electronically. It also will give software vendors a platform in which to build features into their products.
But that's not the only project EPCglobal has in store for the RFID community in 2006.
Click here to listen or download the podcast.
A Thorny Tangle Of Blackberry Vines
I can see it now. Your restraint has reached its breaking point. You are a nanosecond away from bursting into your boss's office and hurling forth with a resounding "I-told-you-so," the vehemence of which can result in only two outcomes, your firing or your promotion. There is no in-between.
Ever since the first employee sparked a support ticket to get his Blackberry device hooked to the network, you've felt the ill wind of insecurity, knowing it was only a matter of time before mobile devices achieved their full nuisance potential.
So when a Federal judge ruled yesterday that the $450 million settlement in March between Research In Motion and NTP Inc. was invalid, and a possible injunction preventing RIM for offering its mobile e-mail service in the U.S. was back on the table, you felt a little vindication, didn't you? Be honest.
Continue reading "A Thorny Tangle Of Blackberry Vines..."
A Thorny Tangle Of Blackberry Vines
I can see it now. Your restraint has reached its breaking point. You are a nanosecond away from bursting into your boss's office and hurling forth with a resounding "I-told-you-so," the vehemence of which can result in only two outcomes, your firing or your promotion. There is no in-between.
Ever since the first employee sparked a support ticket to get his Blackberry device hooked to the network, you've felt the ill wind of insecurity, knowing it was only a matter of time before mobile devices achieved their full nuisance potential.
So when a Federal judge ruled yesterday that the $450 million settlement in March between Research In Motion and NTP Inc. was invalid, and a possible injunction preventing RIM for offering its mobile e-mail service in the U.S. was back on the table, you felt a little vindication, didn't you? Be honest.
Continue reading "A Thorny Tangle Of Blackberry Vines..."
Outsource Globally to Create Jobs Locally
Last week, the city council in Burlington, Vermont passed an "anti-offshoring" ordinance that stipulates that city contracts cannot go to firms that would perform the work overseas. "It is the policy of the City of Burlington to let service contracts to contractors, subcontractors and vendors who perform work in the United States," the ordinance reads.
Continue reading "Outsource Globally to Create Jobs Locally..."
Why I Hate Microsoft
I do not actually HATE Microsoft. I just wrote that headline to get your attention. I even met Bill Gates once and thought he was a really nice guy. Besides, it would be unprofessional of me to be less than objective about a company that I cover day in and day out. And full disclosure requires me to state that over the last 20 years I have received and used copious quantities of free hardware and software from Microsoft (including a special commemorative model of the pistol-grip Microsoft mouse with my name engraved on a plaque on the bottom that I still think is really cool even though none of my computers have a connector to fit it anymore).
But every once in a while Microsoft does something that just ANNOYS me. And just now it did it again.
Continue reading "Why I Hate Microsoft..."
Why I Hate Microsoft
I do not actually HATE Microsoft. I just wrote that headline to get your attention. I even met Bill Gates once and thought he was a really nice guy. Besides, it would be unprofessional of me to be less than objective about a company that I cover day in and day out. And full disclosure requires me to state that over the last 20 years I have received and used copious quantities of free hardware and software from Microsoft (including a special commemorative model of the pistol-grip Microsoft mouse with my name engraved on a plaque on the bottom that I still think is really cool even though none of my computers have a connector to fit it anymore).
But every once in a while Microsoft does something that just ANNOYS me. And just now it did it again.
Continue reading "Why I Hate Microsoft..."
Disintermediation 2.0
In the dotcom bubble, a term that cropped up frequently was "disintermediation," the notion of leveraging the power of the Internet to eliminate middlemen that added little value and decreased the efficiency of a business. If you were on the receiving end of it, your business was toast. The concept is worth revisiting today in the context of the classified advertising business of daily newspapers and recent moves by tech giants. The big question: are the dailies being disintermediated in one of their bread-and-butter businesses?
Continue reading "Disintermediation 2.0..."
Message to FCC: Stop Hurting VoIP
When the FCC mandated enhanced 911 capabilities for VoIP providers, it opened a potentially anti-innovative can of worms commissioners can't solve with one punitive pen stroke. VoIP E911 is a complex problem with no simple answers, but if the FCC wants to keep the burgeoning industry growing quickly, it should stimulate discussion and aid compliance instead of fixing itself into a scolding pattern.
Continue reading "Message to FCC: Stop Hurting VoIP..."
Reaping Revenues From SOA Consulting
HP last week was the latest major vendor to plunge into the SOA consulting business. The firm has launched an "application modernization" consulting service for enterprises implementing services-oriented architectures.
Continue reading "Reaping Revenues From SOA Consulting..."
Reaping Revenues From SOA Consulting
HP last week was the latest major vendor to plunge into the SOA consulting business. The firm has launched an "application modernization" consulting service for enterprises implementing services-oriented architectures.
Continue reading "Reaping Revenues From SOA Consulting..."
Microsoft's Ad Plan? It's Classified
Is Microsoft's revelation that it is testing a classified ads service conclusive evidence that The House That Bill Built is truly trying to hitch its wagon to advertising revenues?
On the one hand, we've got to remember that Microsoft will try anything. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Microsoft is testing a personal solar-powered microwave coffee warmer. But on the other hand, this feels serious. It feels as serious as Microsoft's all-out war on Netscape. It feels like any day now we can expect Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to announce, "Advertising belongs in the operating system."
Continue reading "Microsoft's Ad Plan? It's Classified..."
Microsoft's Ad Plan? It's Classified
Is Microsoft's revelation that it is testing a classified ads service conclusive evidence that The House That Bill Built is truly trying to hitch its wagon to advertising revenues?
On the one hand, we've got to remember that Microsoft will try anything. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Microsoft is testing a personal solar-powered microwave coffee warmer. But on the other hand, this feels serious. It feels as serious as Microsoft's all-out war on Netscape. It feels like any day now we can expect Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to announce, "Advertising belongs in the operating system."
Continue reading "Microsoft's Ad Plan? It's Classified..."
Daily News Podcast, Thursday, December 1
Listen to the current daily podcast: A federal judge has ruled invalid a proposed settlement in the NTP/RIM patent-infringement case and Research In Motion says it is working on ways to keep BlackBerry service up and running just in case the judge shuts it down. Also, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's office berated Sony yesterday for not making good on its promise to pull its rootkit-infested CDs from store shelves. Finally, Microsoft has made a bevy of announcements, including when Vista's features will be ready, and sources say the company is arranging to have more of its internal IT development work done offshore.
Continue reading "Daily News Podcast, Thursday, December 1..."
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