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The InformationWeek September 2006 Archive « August 2006 | Main | October 2006 » |
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Running The Numbers On Vista
With every month that ticks by before Windows Vista arrives, Microsoft needs to fill the white space with reassurances to companies that an upgrade will be worth their time and money. On Friday, Microsoft released new total-cost-of-ownership figures--the overall price tag of installing, running, and supporting its upcoming operating system--that show the best-managed IT shops could save as much as $340 per PC each year they run Vista, compared with today's Windows XP system. Any payback numbers released by Microsoft should be taken with a grain of salt, of course, but it's worth taking a look behind the numbers.
Continue reading "Running The Numbers On Vista..."
How Blogging, Podcasting Can Help Your Company--And Your Career
Tom Olzak is unusual among today's 390,000 IT managers in the United States. The director of IT security at HCR Manor Care goes out of his way to share his knowledge about IT security to anyone who'll listen. Olzak blogs, writes security technical papers, podcasts, and earlier this year self-published a book, Just Enough Security: Information Security for Business Managers.
Continue reading "How Blogging, Podcasting Can Help Your Company--And Your Career..."
Businesses Seek Security In Windows Vista
With only two months (barring further delays) until Windows Vista is due for business availability, InformationWeek surveyed 672 business technology managers to gauge their plans for the operating system. Microsoft should be happy to know that 39% of the businesses we surveyed plan to upgrade to Vista within the first year of availability. The top reason? Security, what else?
Continue reading "Businesses Seek Security In Windows Vista..."
Daily Podcast For Friday, Sept. 29
In today's daily news podcast, Hewlett-Packard goes before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee, AT&T will cut hundreds of tech jobs, Dell begins a program of no-charge PC recycling, Lenovo and IBM recall Sony battery packs, and Kofi Annan praises Silicon Valley. The commentary of the day looks at Cory Doctorow's essay on high-definition television.
Your host today is Barbara Krasnoff.
Management Vs. Staff
Which is more satisfying, managing people or technology?
Some people are lifelong staffers because they like to be hands-on with technology. They say they're never going into management, that they didn't get into IT so they could sit in meetings all day.
Other people choose to be managers. They say management is the place to be. Hardware guys have their heads in server cases all day. Software guys do nothing but stare at computer screens. The help desk spends all day talking to angry idiots. But if you're in management, you get to take a hand in shaping company policy.
Which are you? Management or staff? Which is better? Take our poll and let us know, and leave your comment below.
An HP Blow-By-Blow
As soon as Patricia Dunn walked into Room 2123 of the Rayburn Building here on Capitol Hill, camera shutters went off like machine guns, all directed at the former Hewlett-Packard chairwoman, her curt dark hair, and her beige pantsuit.
But the throngs of paparazzi stalking dark- and beige-suited business types alike before (and during, especially at the short lunch break) today's congressional hearings on Hewlett-Packard's probes into boardroom leaks and so-called "pretexting" only foreshadowed the fireworks to follow.
Continue reading "An HP Blow-By-Blow..."
Legislative Hammer Poised Over 'Environmentally Unfriendly' IT Industry?
Increasing heat and power consumption within data centers is contributing to global warming and leading to inevitable legislation that could place mandated restrictions on businesses in the near future, according to recent research by Gartner.
Continue reading "Legislative Hammer Poised Over 'Environmentally Unfriendly' IT Industry?..."
To Boldly Go Where No Mascara-Wearing Captain Has Gone Before
We'll forgive you if you want to start Cory Doctorow's latest column with the last paragraph on the second page. That's where Cory starts to talk about how Hollywood is unprepared to deliver video that takes advantage of the new high-definition TV screens. Most existing video looks terrible in high-def, and directors don't know how to use the new medium correctly.
I laughed out loud at Cory's description of Friends on HD.
Continue reading "To Boldly Go Where No Mascara-Wearing Captain Has Gone Before..."
Daily Podcast For Thursday, Sept. 28, 2006
In today's podcast: Microsoft reissues a third patch from the August batch, security researchers accuse Microsoft of not sharing information about a new PowerPoint exploit, Microsoft upgrades its Data Protection Manager software, the Berkeley open source database gets an upgrade from Oracle, a federal judge dismisses much of AMD's antitrust lawsuit against Intel, CA announces a configuration management database, and Intel and IBM push a new version of PCI Express.
Today's In Depth is about more efficient power supplies, and our editorial is about the marriage of consumer and corporate technology.
Your host today is Johanna Ambrosio.
Consumer Tech In IT? Why Not?
Now that the technology sector is apparently growing steadily again, at least according to a new study by the American Electronics Association, we can all turn to the task at hand: incorporating more types of consumer technologies into corporate computing.
Continue reading "Consumer Tech In IT? Why Not?..."
Hold The Steak, IBM--Let's See Some Sizzle
Poor IBM. At Chateau Bleu, it's all steak and no sizzle.
The world's biggest technology company--at least until Hewlett-Packard catches it later this year--threw a 10th anniversary party this week for its AlphaWorks program, a Web site where the company's brainy researchers throw ideas over the wall that customers can test and critique. Twenty stories above San Francisco's Market Street, ensconced in a corporate office, IBM broke out the sheet cake and champagne--the pièce de résistance after the requisite 90 minutes of slides and speakers and a warm-up act of tuna fish sandwiches and macaroni salad picked through hungrily by Silicon Valley's B-list. And therein may lie IBM's problem, in an industry where Google gets ink whenever someone in Mountain View sneezes, Apple is more relevant to most people's lives, and Microsoft still maintains some of its Evil-Empire veneer. Even staid old HP is starting to look like a pretty lively place to work--albeit for the wrong reasons. The folks from Somers still haven't figured out how to bottle that effervescent marketing pop.
Continue reading "Hold The Steak, IBM--Let's See Some Sizzle..."
Consumers Hanging Up On Indian Tech Support
Many U.S. businesses are improving productivity and profitability by outsourcing routine functions to low-cost countries like India and China. But AT&T's plan to bring home some 2,000 customer service positions shows that not all forms of offshoring are created equally.
Continue reading "Consumers Hanging Up On Indian Tech Support..."
Daily News Podcast For Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2006
In today's daily news podcast, we present an opinion on why high-definition video is bad for both consumers and Hollywood, Microsoft posts its VML patch two weeks early, and Intel will land the first blow in the quad-core fight with AMD. Our in-depth report looks at data and privacy, and our editorial comments look at life outside of IT.
Your host: Mitch Wagner.
IDF: Intel Finds Energy Efficiency Religion
It may not have been as dramatic as Saul's Road to Damascus conversion, but getting hit upside the head by rival Advanced Micro Devices the past two years must have helped Intel see the light, and now Intel has belatedly become a full convert to the religion of energy efficiency.
Continue reading "IDF: Intel Finds Energy Efficiency Religion..."
Daily News Podcast For Tuesday, Sept. 26
In today's daily news podcast, we present stories on the increase in security vulnerabilities found in the popular Firefox browser; the debut of Revision3, a venture capital-funded video site that offers original, geek-oriented content with a broadcast TV advertising model; and the creation of a high-tech task force to help with Lebanon reconstruction. In addition, we have an in-depth report on HP's spying scandal, and the comments of the day report on a new survey of technology leaders by the Pew Internet & American Life Project that predicts the effects of technology on society in 2020.
Your host today is Alice LaPlante.
'Greatest Software' Story Triggers An Outpouring Of Recollections
When the story "What's The Greatest Software Ever Written?" appeared Aug. 14, it set off an explosion of memories from those involved in the early stages of computing. For example, one responder asked, "Do you recall the big board of the IBM 407 key punch processor into which the red, green, blue and yellow wires--each a different length--were inserted?" Hey, I may have learned to program with IBM punch cards, but I don't go back to wires-through-a-board.
Continue reading "'Greatest Software' Story Triggers An Outpouring Of Recollections..."
HP Sponsors Privacy Award
The International Association of Privacy Professionals and HP are sponsoring the 2006 IAPP Innovation Awards to recognize "three organizations that demonstrate high levels of integration of privacy protection throughout their entire business process."
Yes, HP, the company that hired outside security firms to violate the privacy of its board members and reporters, is sponsoring a privacy award. It's as if Enron were sponsoring an award for business ethics. If only AOL's name were attached somehow, the irony would be complete.
If there's an upside for HP, it's that the company now stands a chance of winning a Big Brother Award this year. But it's going to have to work hard if it wants to beat out AT&T.
The Good, The Bad, And The Implausible: More Predictions About The Impact Of Technology On The Future Of Society
A new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project reflects strong disagreement over whether technology is good for humankind.
Interestingly, the 742 handpicked "technology thinkers and stakeholders" who responded to the survey were largely in agreement about the ways that technology will evolve. But they contradicted each other about how this evolution will impact society in 2020.
Continue reading "The Good, The Bad, And The Implausible: More Predictions About The Impact Of Technology On The Future Of Society..."
Daily Podcast For Monday, Sept. 25
In today's daily news podcast: Encryption works wonders, but causes its own headaches. In our breaking news headlines: Dunn is out at HP, as trouble mounts for the company and its officers in the ongoing pretexting scandal. Our in-depth report looks at unexpected innovation, and our editorial comments on the news of the day look at the HP scandal and where executives crossed the line.
Your host today is Mitch Wagner.
Quick, Encrypt Everything!
On the surface, it seems like a good idea. Convert all your corporate information into a form unreadable by anyone except the intended recipient. Very straightforward and not terribly difficult to do. But there's a dark side to encryption. Just like anesthesiologists like to joke that putting you under is free, it's waking you up that costs so much money, decrypting your data is the part of the process where things get hairy. In this era of epidemically stolen and lost laptops and mobile devices, encryption is gaining traction in more mainstream IT environments (you no longer have to be a three-letter government intelligence agency to justify the investment). That's OK, as long as you know how to properly manage it.
My story in the Sept. 25 issue of InformationWeek navigates you through the tricky process of managing encryption. For those of you who just can't wait until Monday, here's what you should know, along with some examples of what can go wrong.
Continue reading "Quick, Encrypt Everything!..."
Daily Podcast For Friday, Sept. 22
In today's daily news podcast, the case against Hewlett-Packard continues, the mobile phone industry says it wants to reduce pollution, Yahoo admits one of its laptops burst into flames, a new browser will leave no tracks on your PC, and the Aussies are looking for software developers. The commentary of the day is on providing broadband for those who can't afford it.
Your host today is Barbara Krasnoff.
Where Did HP Cross The Line?
It's been another week of revelations about Hewlett-Packard's investigation into media leaks. Another week of unflattering details about illicit spying tactics, phony personas to dupe the press, and even e-mail tampering.
With everything that HP reportedly did in its zealous probe to find a media leak, exactly where did company executives cross the line? How big is the gray area of what's legal and what's ethical? And what's just way over the line?
Continue reading "Where Did HP Cross The Line?..."
Quad Core Should Be In Intel Developer Forum Spotlight
Expect quad-core microprocessors to be heard from early and often at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) next week in San Francisco. Intel could even further accelerate the timeline for the industry's first quad-core x86 microprocessors with a formal introduction in front of press and friends. After getting strong reviews for its recently introduced Core architecture-based processors for both PCs and servers, Intel may see an opportunity to seize momentum from rival Advanced Micro Devices.
Continue reading "Quad Core Should Be In Intel Developer Forum Spotlight..."
Broadband On A Budget
High-speed broadband has finally overtaken dial-up Internet access. According to a recent report by JD Power and Associates, 56% of residential ISP customers are now using broadband connections for applications such as Googling for the latest on Cameron Diaz, viewing online videos, and blogging about their pet dogs' latest tricks. Actually, I’m surprised the number is so low.
Continue reading "Broadband On A Budget..."
Daily Podcast For Thursday, Sept. 21, 2006
In today's daily news podcast, we present a summary of how users can defend themselves against Internet Explorer's potentially dangerous VML bug; report on why old media companies such as Walt Disney, Viacom, and Time Warner are declaring their commitment to exploit the Internet to serve viewers anywhere, on any device; and investigate how CIOs should derive intelligence about customers, the supply chain, and competitors from their data, then explore new applications that can put it to use for the business.
In addition, we have an in-depth report on Web applications, and the comments of the day focus on whether Time Warner has finally turned the corner on getting ahead in the online world.
Your host today is Alice LaPlante.
If E-Voting Is A Gamble, Could Web-Based Voting Be In The Cards?
This election season, you may be one of the approximately 60 million American voters who will be casting a vote using new computerized systems at your local polling place.
However, in the future, you might be casting your vote using your home PC and the Internet.
That's what some U.S. election officials predict.
Continue reading "If E-Voting Is A Gamble, Could Web-Based Voting Be In The Cards?..."
Daily Podcast For Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006
In today's daily news podcast, analysts dissect -- favorably -- Motorola's planned acquisition of Symbol Technologies. A new and troubling Microsoft IE vulnerability is on the loose, Yahoo took a stock market beating after saying some categories of Internet ads are growing slower, and Toshiba is now "exchanging" Sony-based laptop/notebook batteries. The commentary of the day is on IT-business alignment, and IT's need for speed.
Your host today is Tom Smith.
Is Time Warner Finally 'Getting' The Internet?
Time Warner seems to be finally putting its six-year-old AOL merger debacle behind it, thanks to recent aggressive moves to promote a new Web strategy.
Continue reading "Is Time Warner Finally 'Getting' The Internet?..."
Citizendium To Be Professional Wikipedia
Larry Sanger, one of the principal founders of the Wikipedia public encyclopedia project, has recently announced the establishment of a project called Citizendium. The latter is expected to be managed by authoritative experts within a field and will rely heavily on formal partnerships, which stands in sharp contrast against the Wikipedia model of being a free-for-all where content can be edited by any and all comers.
Continue reading "Citizendium To Be Professional Wikipedia..."
Speed--Or Lack Of It--Kills
Being slow to define, build, and deliver new or enhanced systems is a long-standing criticism of many IT organizations and, increasingly, the antithesis of the speed and agility that are so vital to IT's ability to enhance business results.
Continue reading "Speed--Or Lack Of It--Kills..."
Cool Meets Clunky: Motorola's Deal For Bar-Code Reader Symbol
Motorola has been pushing for more sales from business, taking solid steps like helping developers include enterprise search functions on wireless handhelds. But for most businesses, Motorola is just a really big company with a supercool cell phone. Motorola's deal to buy Symbol for $3.9 billion in cash marks a leap ahead for its enterprise ambitions.
Continue reading "Cool Meets Clunky: Motorola's Deal For Bar-Code Reader Symbol..."
Spinach Woes Portend Repercussions Of Cyberattack
Wonder what the aftereffect of a terrorist attack on the Internet would look like? The way we're responding to contaminated spinach provides a clue.
Continue reading "Spinach Woes Portend Repercussions Of Cyberattack..."
Podcast: New Growth From Enterprise Systems
Listen as Jeanne Harris, executive research fellow and director of research at the Accenture Institute for High Performance Business, tells us how the findings of Accenture's ongoing global research effort are shaking up old thinking about enterprise technology and demonstrating that there's untapped value in enterprise systems. She shares the how's--and the why's--of driving competitive advantage through enterprise systems so that these investments contribute to a company's business success and generate new growth.
Daily Podcast For Tuesday, September 19, 2006
In today's daily news podcast, we ponder, has Apple lost its security shine? Also: Microsoft hopes its new search tool will draw converts from Google, and we feature an in-depth report on software, including Microsoft warning that its August patch corrupts data. The editorial comments look at teapots, application design, and a couple of new products from InformationWeek.
More links referenced in this podcast: YiXing teapots, MyInformationWeek (new users, returning users), Don Norman's essay on design in teapots and other tools, Jakob Nielsen's "PDF: Unfit for Human Consumption," and InformationWeek Download.
Your host: Mitch Wagner.
Outsourcing No Threat To Tech Jobs, Survey Says
Unemployed computer professionals are quick to blame their situation on the so-called offshoring of U.S. tech jobs to low-wage countries like India and China. But a new survey of corporate CIOs shows that spending on foreign tech labor by American businesses is miniscule.
Continue reading "Outsourcing No Threat To Tech Jobs, Survey Says..."
Teapots, Application Design, And A Couple Of Our Recent Products
This note starts out about a million miles away from information technology, but it all comes out in the end, so stay with me on this, OK? It's about some basic principles of designing tools, and how those principles apply to teapots as well as to IT.
Continue reading "Teapots, Application Design, And A Couple Of Our Recent Products..."
Daily Podcast For Monday, September 18
In today's daily news podcast, we present our analysis of what's likely to happen at HP now that CEO Mark Hurd is also taking the helm of the board, as well as investigate how General Motor's massive IT overhaul is progressing. In addition, we have an in-depth report on Microsoft Office 2007, and the comments of the day focus on whether HP's strong fundamentals can help it weather the spying scandal.
Your host today is Alice LaPlante.
Amidst Scandal, Finally Some Good Press For HP
It's been a tough week for HP. Although the company is trying to move on from its spying scandal, several questions about HP's role linger. Patricia Dunn, after stonewalling on calls for her resignation, finally agreed to step down as chairman in January. And HP's actions are now being examined by as many as six regulatory and law enforcement groups.
Continue reading "Amidst Scandal, Finally Some Good Press For HP..."
Apple's Future Phone
It's pretty much a given these days that Apple is hard at work on a mobile phone. The company won't acknowledge this, but it's hard to find an Apple rumor site or financial analyst covering Apple that hasn't speculated about the iPhone or whatever the fabled device eventually ends up being called.
Despite its studied coyness, Apple in this job posting clearly states that it's seeking a product design engineer with experience in "design of input device electronics: mobile phone, game players, keyboards & mice."
While that's not the same thing as, "Yes, we're working on a phone," it's pretty close.
Continue reading "Apple's Future Phone..."
Daily Podcast For Friday, September 15
In today's daily news podcast, Microsoft reveals details about its new Zune music player, Apple takes heat from iTunes 7 users, Microsoft expands its Windows Vista preview program, Mozilla's new security chief wants to clean up Firefox code, and California is ready to file charges against individuals at HP as well as investigators hired by the computer maker.
Today's in-depth roundup is on reviews and personal tech, and the comments of the day are on celebrating the Web's 15-year history.
Your host today is Valerie Potter.
Thank Heaven For The Web
A significant tech anniversary quietly slipped by last month. Fifteen years ago, Tim Berners-Lee made public a little project he was working on. He called it the WorldWideWeb.
Continue reading "Thank Heaven For The Web..."
Daily Podcast For Thursday, September 14
Today's daily news podcast details an Apple QuickTime patch, explains how Skype's new release lets Apple and Windows users conduct free video calls, examines an Adobe Flash patch, and reviews the Trusted Computing Group's new cell phone security spec. The commentary of the day is a testament to Cigna and its success in locking down and continuously protecting its customer data.
Your host today is Tom Smith.
Author Peters Puts Both IBM And Microsoft On The 'Guarded' List:
In Search of Excellence author Tom Peters is no admirer of GM. But he suggested there were two computer industry behemoths out there that may be teetering on the verge of decline as well. One was IBM, due to its increasing dependence on services revenue. But also put on the "guarded" list was Microsoft.
Continue reading "Author Peters Puts Both IBM And Microsoft On The 'Guarded' List:..."
Daily Podcast For Wednesday, September 13
In today's Dailycast, the top story is about major players making their exit from HP following more revelations of spying on employees, directors, and members of the press. Other headlines include news of Apple's new online movie service and the iPods to back it up; a smaller, gentler Patch Tuesday from Microsoft; and Dell officials and their explanations of delayed quarterly financial reports.
Today's In Depth package looks at lessons learned at the InformationWeek 500 conference, and the editorial concerns HP's CIO and his plans to keep IT services within the company.
Today's Dailycast was prepared by Sharon Gaudin and read by Curtis Franklin, Jr.
Data Protection: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This
Corporate America's efforts at data protection--in particular, protecting sensitive personal information about customers--have in many cases failed miserably. There's a long and dubious list of data breaches, losses, thefts, and mishandlings from the past 20 months, with the total number of records containing sensitive personal information involved in security breaches now topping 93 million. Time and again, we've taken to task those companies that have failed in their duty to lock down an asset that's critical to them, and even more critical to their customers.
Continue reading "Data Protection: It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This..."
How To Throw Away Your Professional Life, And 7 Other Bits From The InformationWeek 500 Conference
Here are eight quotes that caught my ear during presentations and conversations at the InformationWeek 500 conference this week.
Continue reading "How To Throw Away Your Professional Life, And 7 Other Bits From The InformationWeek 500 Conference..."
A New Path To SOA: Follow The Customer Data
If you get enough smart people in a room, one thing becomes clear: There's a simpler way to SOA. At the IW 500 conference, some smart people chose a customer- and data-centric path to their service orientation.
Continue reading "A New Path To SOA: Follow The Customer Data..."
Desktop Defectors
Recently, I wrote a story about the vulnerabilities of Web applications in which Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute, predicted, "Security will drive people to centralized applications."
That's in fact what I'm hearing from some of the attendees at the 2006 InformationWeek Fall Conference. The difficulty and expense of keeping desktop and laptop PCs secure, not to mention provisioned with licensed software, is making some IT execs re-evaluate the need for full-blown PCs.
Continue reading "Desktop Defectors..."
Daily Podcast For Tuesday, September 12
In today's daily news podcast: The 2006 InformationWeek 500 winners are announced, and the annual survey results are unveiled; federal prosecutors probe Hewlett-Packard's investigation into boardroom leaks to the press, while the HP board agrees to meet about the controversy; the EU widens its antitrust probe into Intel; Xanga Agrees to pay a $1 million penalty for violating the Children's Protection Act; Facebook's founder apologizes over a privacy flap; and a hack of the "Second Life" database highlights growing security issues in the gaming market.
Your host today is Patricia Keefe.
With Help From IBM, U.S. Biz Schools Teach Grads How To Move Jobs Offshore
While outsourcing technology work to low-cost countries like India can help companies cut costs and improve productivity, many such efforts go awry because they're not properly managed. The problem is that overseeing an offshore workforce takes multidisciplinary skills that few of today's managers possess. Several well-known biz schools, with help from IBM, are trying to change that.
Continue reading "With Help From IBM, U.S. Biz Schools Teach Grads How To Move Jobs Offshore..."
As HP's CIO, Randy Mott Hasn't Changed His Outsourcing Stripes
At Wal-Mart and at Dell, Randy Mott kept IT work in-house, with almost no outsourcing. He's got the same game plan for HP.
Continue reading "As HP's CIO, Randy Mott Hasn't Changed His Outsourcing Stripes..."
HP Must Rebuild The Damage To Its Image
Like most everyone, I've been thinking about the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, in the past few days. I'm also remembering former Hewlett-Packard Chairman Lew Platt, who died on Sept. 8 of last year, as his former company faces a criminal investigation into tactics used to hunt down the source of media leaks.
Continue reading "HP Must Rebuild The Damage To Its Image..."
Daily Podcast For Monday, September 11
In today's daily news podcast: Microsoft promises to patch the latest Word 2000 bug and is threatening to delay the release of Windows Vista in Europe; our In Depth report features corporate scandals at Hewlett-Packard, Broadcom, and Worldcom; and a review looks at the top five improvements in Windows Vista RC1. And our editorial comments look at the InformationWeek 500, which goes live at 1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Tuesday.
Your host today is Mitch Wagner.
Getting Down To The Final Days To The InformationWeek 500
You're going to want to stick close to InformationWeek.com Tuesday at 1 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. That's when we pull back the curtains on the big event of the year--the selection of the 2006 InformationWeek 500.
Continue reading "Getting Down To The Final Days To The InformationWeek 500..."
Podcast: A Fresh Check-Up For HIP Health Plan, The 2002 InformationWeek 500 Winner
The fact that a nonprofit health-maintenance organization ranked at the top of the InformationWeek 500 may have come as a surprise to those who equate insurance companies with slow, complex, laborious processes, but HIP is no ordinary nonprofit--or HMO, for that matter. The company has used IT to keep customers happy, process claims more efficiently, and accelerate new business processes. CTO Pedro Villalba is quick to credit the close alignment between IT and the business folks as the prescription for success. He says the InformationWeek 500 win was an exciting but "humbling" feeling that led his team to think about ways to do even better. Listen to this podcast to learn more about Villalba's favorite emerging technologies, biggest tech dud, and why he learned to play golf on a trip to Brazil.
Video: Getting Up To Date On 2004 InformationWeek 500 Winner E.&J. Gallo
You might think he's a sommelier instead of a technology executive. Kent Kushar, CIO of E.&J. Gallo, knows quite a bit about pinot noir, the grape-growing season, and what consumers love most in a wine. He also knows it takes "ruthless execution" for the company's business technology strategies to succeed. The company has heavily automated its business-–from the time the grapes are ready until the wine reaches distributors and retailers.
Kushar likes fast cars, but he doesn't expect technology innovation to come at lightning speed. He does, however, expect his team to have the "chutzpah" to innovate. You can learn more from this video interview with Kushar from MacMurray Ranch, the former home of actor Fred MacMurray and now a Gallo property.
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Daily Podcast For Friday, September 8
In today's daily news podcast, the popular Web 2.0 sites Digg and Facebook are under fire from their users, HP extends its Integrity line of servers with dual-core Itanium processors, Microsoft might delay the introduction of Vista in Europe, the class-action lawsuit against adware maker Zango is dismissed, and Research In Motion introduces the cell phone-sized Pearl, a sleeker version of the BlackBerry.
Today's in-depth roundup is on reviews and personal tech, and the editorial discusses two headache-inducing decisions to make when buying a new PC.
Your host today is Valerie Potter.
Post 9/11: Five Years Of IT Promise And Failure
Sept. 11, 2001, spurred IT innovation and integration like no other event in history. Driven by fear, defiance, and inspiration, industry and government quickly promised to correct the conditions--including siloed data repositories, incompatible communications systems, and lax security practices--that allowed the terrorist attacks to be executed with such deadly precision. How far have we come in five years? Let's put it this way: We've got a long way to go.
Continue reading "Post 9/11: Five Years Of IT Promise And Failure..."
The Achilles' Heel Of Online Storage: Network Bandwidth
Someday you'll be able to access all your files from any Internet-connected device. Just don't hold your breath. Despite the commoditization of digital storage, backing up and accessing files across the Internet remains difficult and unwieldy when it comes to large amounts of data.
But take heart. The ability to automatically back up files and sync them across devices will be here well before the paperless office and flying cars. Perhaps even before the arrival of Google's Gdrive and Mac OS X 10.5's Time Machine--keep an eye out for news about the next revision of TransMedia's Glide Effortless.
Until then, there are already plenty of dedicated online storage services (not to mention Internet service providers), which are fine if you have less than a gigabyte or two of files. But with a few years' worth of photos, music, videos, e-mail, and text documents, it's easy to find yourself managing 50 Gbytes or more. What happens then?
Continue reading "The Achilles' Heel Of Online Storage: Network Bandwidth..."
Podcast: Catching Up With 2005 InformationWeek 500 Winner Capital One
As part of the run-up to next week's announcement of the 2006 InformationWeek 500, we're catching up with past winners. In today's podcast, we talk to Gregor Bailar, CIO of Capital One, our 2005 IW500 winner.
What distinguished Capital One from the rest of the formidable pack on the 2005 InformationWeek 500 was its information-based strategy, which joins all areas of its business--marketing, credit, risk, operations, and business technology--into a single, flexible decision-making structure.
Continue reading "Podcast: Catching Up With 2005 InformationWeek 500 Winner Capital One..."
Decisions, Decisions
I don't know about you, but whenever I go to Dell's, HP's, or any other major PC manufacturer's Web site to look at new computers, I get a little overwhelmed with all the decisions I have to make. Do I want a home office or a small business computer? Media center capabilities or a machine that's all business? And those are the easy questions--after that come the big decisions: CPU and memory.
Continue reading "Decisions, Decisions..."
Daily Podcast For Thursday, September 7
In today's podcast: HP comes under scrutiny from California's attorney general for the way it investigated leaks of confidential information. Further news has Google adding 200 years of newspaper archives to the material available at Google News, Apple might just be bringing feature films to the smallest of screens, and Cisco and Microsoft at long last talk about how NAC and NAP will work together in enterprise network security.
Today's In Depth is all about the once and future Windows, with three sections including getting Unix services from Windows, a review of Vista Release Candidate 1, and Gartner's take on what must come next.
The editorial is from your host, Tom Smith.
As The Network Goes, So Go IT Careers
We've got an article this week on WAN optimization. Might not sound like the most emotionally charged topic--until you see comments like this from IT pros who faced network performance problems: "My name became mud as fast as you could spell it."
Continue reading "As The Network Goes, So Go IT Careers..."
Stakes Small, But Outcome Huge In Model Railroad Software Fight
Who owns exclusive rights to model railroad software? On March 11, 2003, the U.S. Patent Office came up with the answer to that question when it issued patent 6,530,329 to Matthew Katzer of Portland, Ore. There's something worrisome about that decision. Model railroads work on a scale whose complexity we ought to be able to grasp.
Continue reading "Stakes Small, But Outcome Huge In Model Railroad Software Fight..."
Bungling Bureaucrats And IT Debacles
Just when you think the business and IT incompetence of bureaucrats can't get any more profound, they come roaring back to exceed our expectations.
Continue reading "Bungling Bureaucrats And IT Debacles..."
Daily Podcast For Wednesday, September 6
In today's podcast, Intel announces a new round of layoffs, with some 10,500 people slated to receive pink slips. At the same time, a research firm says Intel lost two points in global market share from the first quarter of this year to the second. Also: Vista RC1 still isn't ready for prime time, partners say; Trojans fire a zero-day attack at Microsoft Word; the IRS gives away $318 million because of a bungled software upgrade; Firefox gains a bit of market share; and we feature a dual-core CPU buyer's guide.
Today's In Depth is about security, and our editorial is about airing security-related dirty laundry.
Your host today is Johanna Ambrosio.
Job Hunting? Get Thee To Charm School
Sure, skills and professionalism still count--just not as much as personality and "likeability," according to a new survey.
Of course, it's no surprise that human factors matter in a job search. But I always figured that between two candidates with equivalent skills, the job goes to the candidate who was more personable or exhibited better people skills or, in the right setting, just had a better time yucking it up with his or her interviewers.
I never imagined it would be the other way 'round: that between two candidates with approximately the same "likeability" ratings, the job would go to the one with more or better skills.
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FreeDOS 1.0 Released
The open-source DOS replacement project has reached its first major milestone, and FreeDOS version 1.0 is now available. The distribution seeks to provide a functional drop-in replacement for MS-DOS, but also adds several new utilities and features, such as support for FAT32 partitions and long file names.
Airing Dirty Security Laundry
Everyone in IT needs to read this article about security alerts and how they're sometimes created in the self-serving interests of the vendors involved.
It's not a new problem, of course, but I'm glad to see this issue being held up to the light. Kudos to reporter Kevin McLaughlin and our sister publication CRN for doing so.
Given how much we've all come to rely on security alerts, and how often IT organizations prioritize their daily workloads around them, it's a problem that's both broad and deep. And it's about time the industry as a whole started talking about this particular elephant in the living room.
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Indian Schools Ditch Microsoft For Linux, Kill Golden Goose
Cows are sacred in India, but apparently not geese--especially the gilded variety. Proving that $1.7 billion doesn't go as far as it used to in winning over foreign governments--that's the amount Bill Gates last year pledged to invest in India--a school district in the country is set to rid its computers of Microsoft Windows and install Linux instead.
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Daily News Podcast For Tuesday, September 5
In today's daily news podcast, we provide an in-depth analysis of what's next for Microsoft after Vista, report on how the FBI is approaching a critical milestone as it prepares for a test of its latest effort to create a more cohesive data-sharing application infrastructure, and explain how the Supreme Court has agreed to hear arguments in a critical case regarding patents and open source. In addition, we have an in-depth report on innovative developments in the world of gaming, and the comments of the day focus on the discrepancy between Vista as it is and Vista as it should be.
Your host today is Alice LaPlante.
Software Developers Show Loyalty To Job, Not Employer
In this video podcast, Induslogic CEO Peter Harrison doesn't mind that his employees show more loyalty to their jobs and to the client than they do to the company, a provider of outsourced software product engineering. Harrison figures if employees are happy building products for clients, they'll hang around and not quickly seek new jobs elsewhere. Makes sense, doesn't it?
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Wireless Broadband Hasn't Lived Up To Expectations...Yet
The top cellular carriers all claim to have launched wireless broadband services, but they're still mostly intended for laptop users who are limited by not-so-bandwidth-intensive applications or on-the-go Web access. A desktop-type experience on mobile devices won't come to fruition for another couple of years, until WiMax and the ilk start delivering better network coverage and data speeds in the megabits. The carriers definitely have their work cut out for them.
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The Distant Vista: Visions Of Heaven From The Gates Of Hades
The most striking thing about Aaron Ricadela's excellent article about the future of Windows was the dramatic discrepancy between what Windows is and what it could (must) become.
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