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It isn't just goblins and trick-or-treaters you need to be afraid of this Halloween. Network and server intrustions are continuing at a too-high rate. A recent VanDyke Software survey found that 25 percent of the respondents had been hit with an intrusion within the last two years. Yet in spite of the high incidence of intrusions, only slightly more than half of the system administrators polled said they had eliminated insecure protocols such as Telnet.
Continue reading "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid..."
It isn't just goblins and trick-or-treaters you need to be afraid of this Halloween. Network and server intrustions are continuing at a too-high rate. A recent VanDyke Software survey found that 25 percent of the respondents had been hit with an intrusion within the last two years. Yet in spite of the high incidence of intrusions, only slightly more than half of the system administrators polled said they had eliminated insecure protocols such as Telnet.
Continue reading "Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid..."
I have a confession to make: I've been stealing from Google. With $1.578 billion in revenue last quarter, the company is unlikely to miss the pennies I've denied it. Still, I feel I owe an explanation: I'm "adnorant," which is to say I ignore online ads.
Continue reading "Stealing From Google..."
A Cambridge University study has found that text messaging has boosted the ability of teenagers to write. The study found that "today's teenagers are using far more complex sentence structures, a wider vocabulary and a more accurate use of capital letters, punctuation and spelling."
That's the good news. The bad news is that they're also "ten times more likely to use non-standard English in written exams than in 1980, using colloquial words, informal phrases and text-messaging shorthand - such as m8 for 'mate', 2 instead of 'too' and u for 'you'."
The study, of course, was conducted on UK teenagers. American kids are most likely similarly transformed by their obsessive use of instant messaging, rather than texting (and are ten times less likely to use the word "mate").
I would also guess that American teens can type faster than any previous generation in history.
Enjoy it now, because new technologies will inevitably come along any minute now that will make communication possibly without typing and without writing -- and those skills will be tossed aside for good.
Move over iPod snobs, with your fancy gadget aftermarket of music docking stations. We Treo 650 smart phone snobs now have one of our own. The Treo 650 Music Dock charges and connects (for PC synchronization) your Treo, and plays music either from the Treo or from an external music source (the dock sports a 3.5mm stereo input jack).
Does it provide rich, full sound? At $32, probably not. Still, it's a cool idea and I want one.
(via Techie Diva's Guide to Gadgets)
Black lists and white lists . . . what does it all mean? To many of us it all looks like spam. I once asked an associate of mine on the sales side of the house what makes for legitimate advertising. His response, while understandable, was a bit disturbing. His philosophy was any ads that are paid for are legitimate. It took me a while, and I didn't like myself better as a result, but I started to see his point.
As a culture, we've accepted without necessarily appreciating the notion of advertising as the means of paying the freight for all the various forms of passive media that we digest. We might be put off by the sheer volume, poor quality or content that offends, but we accept it in order to partake of the content that we purchase.
When it comes to interactive media, however, we draw a line. We don't like the marketers interacting directly with us, uninvited. We don't like it on our phone systems, we don't like it on our messaging systems, and we don't like our Web sessions interrupted by pop-up ads. It's more intrusive and makes us feel helpless, because we've lost the control that we can normally exert as subscribers to content.
Continue reading "Shoot The Messenger, Not The Medium..."
Black lists and white lists . . . what does it all mean? To many of us it all looks like spam. I once asked an associate of mine on the sales side of the house what makes for legitimate advertising. His response, while understandable, was a bit disturbing. His philosophy was any ads that are paid for are legitimate. It took me a while, and I didn't like myself better as a result, but I started to see his point.
As a culture, we've accepted without necessarily appreciating the notion of advertising as the means of paying the freight for all the various forms of passive media that we digest. We might be put off by the sheer volume, poor quality or content that offends, but we accept it in order to partake of the content that we purchase.
When it comes to interactive media, however, we draw a line. We don't like the marketers interacting directly with us, uninvited. We don't like it on our phone systems, we don't like it on our messaging systems, and we don't like our Web sessions interrupted by pop-up ads. It's more intrusive and makes us feel helpless, because we've lost the control that we can normally exert as subscribers to content.
Continue reading "Shoot The Messenger, Not The Medium..."
Thanks in large part to the Internet, enterprise threats are constant and they are everywhere-- viruses, Worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, phishing attacks, and on and on and on. And throw in the growing ubiquity of so-called greynet apps that end users can install without the help -- or approval -- of IT, and the threat worsens. So what is an under-resourced, overburdened systems administrator to do? Read our excellent feature on setting Internet policies and Web control practices and take heed - that is my advice.
Continue reading "Shades Of Grey..."
Thanks in large part to the Internet, enterprise threats are constant and they are everywhere-- viruses, Worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, phishing attacks, and on and on and on. And throw in the growing ubiquity of so-called greynet apps that end users can install without the help -- or approval -- of IT, and the threat worsens. So what is an under-resourced, overburdened systems administrator to do? Read our excellent feature on setting Internet policies and Web control practices and take heed - that is my advice.
Continue reading "Shades Of Grey..."
Microsoft, according to a number of reports, is "evolving its position" on the OpenDocument format. Although Microsoft told the State of Massachusetts last month that Office 12 will not support ODF -- and state officials effectively told Redmond to shove off by endorsing the format anyway -- the company was apparently hedging its bets in a big way.
Continue reading "Microsoft Does What The Others Didn't..."
It used to be the case that internally created and internally transmitted messages (the oldest form of e-mail) were of little threat to the security posture of an organization. That was before we actually started monitoring what went on behind closed doors, so to speak.
Organizations started paying a little more attention to internal messages once compliance and legal requirements made it more important to do so. But the focus for e-mail protection has always been on incoming messages, and more recently, outbound messages. But there is still a heck of a lot of messaging going on behind the firewall, and security and compliance vendors have only recently begun to address it.
Continue reading "Messaging Behind Closed Doors..."
It used to be the case that internally created and internally transmitted messages (the oldest form of e-mail) were of little threat to the security posture of an organization. That was before we actually started monitoring what went on behind closed doors, so to speak.
Organizations started paying a little more attention to internal messages once compliance and legal requirements made it more important to do so. But the focus for e-mail protection has always been on incoming messages, and more recently, outbound messages. But there is still a heck of a lot of messaging going on behind the firewall, and security and compliance vendors have only recently begun to address it.
Continue reading "Messaging Behind Closed Doors..."
When President Bush scans the horizon for his next Supreme Court nominee, he might do well to not only choose a candidate who has spent some time on the bench, but also one with some understanding of, or background in, science and technology.
Such an addition to the Supreme Court would be very timely at this juncture in high-tech litigation and advances. We have entered a technological age, and we need Supreme Court justices who are up to speed on what that means, and can intelligently grapple with the issues this creates.
Continue reading "Supreme Impact On IT..."
It's hard to believe a company that controls more than three-quarters of perhaps the most profitable segment of the electronics industry can simultaneously look vulnerable and weak even while posting "banner" operational results. But Intel, in reshuffling its processor roadmap this week has ensured that the momentum rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has built over the past year will continue for at least another year.
Continue reading "Intel Self-Destruct Mode Aids AMD Momentum..."
If the writing wasn't on the wall before it, it certainly is now. IDC numbers published Thursday show that sales of wireless devices without voice communications capabilities slid for the seventh quarter in a row. Given that much of corporate mobile use rose up almost organically, with individuals increasingly using their personal wireless devices for work-related communications, this trend toward consolidation almost certainly mirrors the trend in the enterprise toward employees relying on single wireless device to handle all of their mobile communications.
Continue reading "The Future Is (Starting) Now..."
If the writing wasn't on the wall before it, it certainly is now. IDC numbers published Thursday show that sales of wireless devices without voice communications capabilities slid for the seventh quarter in a row. Given that much of corporate mobile use rose up almost organically, with individuals increasingly using their personal wireless devices for work-related communications, this trend toward consolidation almost certainly mirrors the trend in the enterprise toward employees relying on single wireless device to handle all of their mobile communications.
Continue reading "The Future Is (Starting) Now..."
Two Australian tourists in New Zealand found out the hard way that you can't always rely on GPS to give you the best route. The visitors rented a car from Avis, which comes with a GPS system, plugged in their destination and drove where the gadget told them to drive.
The system guided them through a ten-hour, death-defying journey into hell: through rivers, fog and perilous and narrow mountain passes terminating at a locked-gate dead end high in the mountains.
Continue reading "Don't Believe Everything Your GPS Tells You..."
As the trend continues to extend collaboration capabilities into all facets of our computing and communications experience, why not include our most often used Web tools, the search engines?
Why not, indeed, say bevy of new search players that are starting to put meat on the bones of the "Web 2.0" movement to make the Internet a more collaborative environment. While Web applications in general have become more collaborative, search engines have been slow to follow suit.
Continue reading "Collaboration Brings New Life To Web Searches..."
As the trend continues to extend collaboration capabilities into all facets of our computing and communications experience, why not include our most often used Web tools, the search engines?
Why not, indeed, say bevy of new search players that are starting to put meat on the bones of the "Web 2.0" movement to make the Internet a more collaborative environment. While Web applications in general have become more collaborative, search engines have been slow to follow suit.
Continue reading "Collaboration Brings New Life To Web Searches..."
In the last few days, economic news for IT has been pretty much all good - more funding, more jobs, and now, higher salaries on the horizon. A report issued this week by Robert Half Technology predicts that, on average, next year IT salaries will rise 3 percent versus the .5 average they saw this year. The report goes on to forecast that the most sought after will include lead applications developers, network security administrators, and IT auditors.
Continue reading "In The Money..."
In the last few days, economic news for IT has been pretty much all good - more funding, more jobs, and now, higher salaries on the horizon. A report issued this week by Robert Half Technology predicts that, on average, next year IT salaries will rise 3 percent versus the .5 average they saw this year. The report goes on to forecast that the most sought after will include lead applications developers, network security administrators, and IT auditors.
Continue reading "In The Money..."
Apple's iPod is cool enough -- especially the new one. Detractors belittle the device, saying that it's nothing more than a hard disk with a play button.
The iPod lovers and the iPod haters will disagree, but there's no denying the design influence Apple's music player has had over other music players, over other consumer electronics and over a large variety of random products.
Continue reading "My Favorite Fantasy iPod..."
The release of OpenOffice 2.0 is a red-letter day for the open-source movement, but what does it mean for for companies and individuals who now have a choice of more than half a dozen alternatives to Microsoft Office? Free is good, and OpenOffice is free -- but is it good? We'll find out -- there's a review coming in Desktop Pipeline RSN.
It looks like the office-suite marketplace is settling down into three camps. The first is the free ones, like OpenOffice. The second is the commercial ones, like Sun's StarOffice 8, that come with support. And the third, and by far the largest, is MS Office.
Continue reading "How Many Office Suites?..."
The release of OpenOffice 2.0 is a red-letter day for the open-source movement, but what does it mean for for companies and individuals who now have a choice of more than half a dozen alternatives to Microsoft Office? Free is good, and OpenOffice is free -- but is it good? We'll find out -- there's a review coming in Desktop Pipeline RSN.
It looks like the office-suite marketplace is settling down into three camps. The first is the free ones, like OpenOffice. The second is the commercial ones, like Sun's StarOffice 8, that come with support. And the third, and by far the largest, is MS Office.
Continue reading "How Many Office Suites?..."
Reading the recent news out of Google, I can't help thinking about Netscape. Like Google, Netscape had a dazzling entry into the world of business. At that time, Web browsers were still a new thing; there were literally two dozen commonly available, none of them with decisive market dominance. And none of them presented any significant competition to the Netscape browser, which was decisively smaller, faster and lighter.
Later, Netscape launched the first superstar dotcom IPO.
We all know how that story turned out: badly. The common wisdom is that Microsoft crushed Netscape by outmarketing it, and by illegally wielding its clout as a monopolist. And that's true, but there was another factor: Netscape lost sight of its customers and mission. The browser became the Elvis Presley of software: fat, slow, and bloated. Now, the company's only significant presence is as a brand owned by America Online.
Now, let's fast-forward to the present. Like the Netscape browser ca. 1995, Google's search service is so fast and powerful that the competition can't compete.
Like Netscape, Google leveraged its early success to branch out into other services: In Netscape's case, that was Web servers, e-mail, and directory services. Google branched out to provide GMail, Google Maps, Froogle and, recently, Google Reader.
Like Netscape, Google is being hailed as the company that will kill Microsoft; doing to Microsoft what Microsoft did to IBM 20 years ago. And Microsoft's critics are talking just like they did during Netscape's prime, eight or nine years ago, saying that Microsoft is fat, bloated, doesn't understand the business models created by new technology, and doomed.
But Netscape took on too much. Is Google doing the same?
Continue reading "Is Google Spreading Itself Too Thin?..."
Call me a worrywart.
I'm troubled that reports about offshore outsourcing means many young people don't think they can make a career in IT and related fields, such as engineering. This attitude will damage our competitiveness as the world shrinks, making it more likely that more jobs requiring a high degree of tech know-how will end up overseas.
Enrollments are down at colleges offering many technical fields, and that troubles educators leading many of our top schools.
Recently, I caught up with Kristina Johnson, dean of the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. She feels educators must and can do more to attract talented students to engineering and other technical careers. Globalization is a fact, and programs like Duke's are addressing that reality. Listen to what Johnson says.
Most software licenses serve two purposes: They demand the right to do crazy things, so that the slightly less crazy things they really want to do look reasonable; and they discourage users from thinking too hard about this fact. There's a way to solve the second problem -- and if you own or manage a business, thinking about the first problem might be a very good idea.
Continue reading "EULA Be Sorry Someday..."
For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it may be the only procedure.
Security is still the biggest concern for SMBs when it comes to their messaging systems, but archiving is starting to pick up steam as a priority for this group as well as large enterprises.
So says a report just published by the Radicati Group, which contains the results of Radicati's survey of businesses with less than 500 employees.
Continue reading "Before SOX, Archiving Was Just Good Procedure..."
For small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), it may be the only procedure.
Security is still the biggest concern for SMBs when it comes to their messaging systems, but archiving is starting to pick up steam as a priority for this group as well as large enterprises.
So says a report just published by the Radicati Group, which contains the results of Radicati's survey of businesses with less than 500 employees.
Continue reading "Before SOX, Archiving Was Just Good Procedure..."
That old Saturday Night Live skit about the dessert topping/floor wax was made for people like me. Ever since I was kid, I was a sucker for tips and tricks on how to multitask the things you already own, making them perform tasks you could never dream of on your own. My friends might have considered me too loosely wired when I roasted an ear of corn on my car engine's exhaust manifold while driving down the highway, or when I poached a trout using the rinse and wash cycles while running a load in the dishwasher. But I still get a kick out of those kinds of ideas.
So when C2C published a white paper on using an e-mail archiving system to help with an Exchange server migration, I was interested.
Continue reading "An E-mail Archiving System And A Floor Wax!..."
That old Saturday Night Live skit about the dessert topping/floor wax was made for people like me. Ever since I was kid, I was a sucker for tips and tricks on how to multitask the things you already own, making them perform tasks you could never dream of on your own. My friends might have considered me too loosely wired when I roasted an ear of corn on my car engine's exhaust manifold while driving down the highway, or when I poached a trout using the rinse and wash cycles while running a load in the dishwasher. But I still get a kick out of those kinds of ideas.
So when C2C published a white paper on using an e-mail archiving system to help with an Exchange server migration, I was interested.
Continue reading "An E-mail Archiving System And A Floor Wax!..."
Last week saw further consolidation in the SOA marketplace, as IBM Corp. announced that it had acquired DataPower Technology, removing from the field one of the last independent startups in XML acceleration, since Intel acquired Savega last summer.
Continue reading "SOA Consolidation Continues..."
Last week saw further consolidation in the SOA marketplace, as IBM Corp. announced that it had acquired DataPower Technology, removing from the field one of the last independent startups in XML acceleration, since Intel acquired Savega last summer.
Continue reading "SOA Consolidation Continues..."
I value the contributions information technology has made to our lives probably more than most people. I make my living on the Internet and spend the bulk of my time managing Web content and technology projects, and really enjoy working in this fast-evolving medium. Information technology -- in the form of a wirelessly enabled laptop computer and the omnipresent cell phone -- has permanently changed the lifestyle of my family, particularly as the computer's value as an educational tool increases almost daily.
Continue reading "A Hot Dog, A Soda And A...Cell Phone?..."
Regular readers of my blogs will know that, for the most part, I'm pro-offshoring. It's a hot-button issue, so it's not surprising that my inbox is usually stuffed with E-mails calling me, at best, misguided and, at worst, Propaganda Minister for the One World Conspiracy.
Continue reading "Why Dutch Call For More Offshore Outsourcing Means U.S. Businesses Have To Follow Suit..."
Let's say a car dealer sells you a new set of wheels. Then, let's say they send a mechanic to your house six months later who yanks out the stereo, replaces it with an AM radio and a coat-hangar antenna, and tells you it's an "upgrade." Most of us would call this behavior insane, stupid, suicidal, or all of the above. Yet here in the tech industry, we call it something else: a business model. Here's my question for all of you: Just how common is it?
Continue reading "A Question For All Of You..."
Remember the heady days of the Internet boom and endless technological possibilities? VC funding was plentiful, creativity was soaring, and yes, in the age of the overvalued acquisitions practicality was pretty scarce. But who hasn't missed those times just as little bit as we struggled through uncertain days and leaner years. Well, there certainly aren't any guarantees but it does look like things may be picking up, finally.
Continue reading "The Return Of The Boom Years?..."
Remember the heady days of the Internet boom and endless technological possibilities? VC funding was plentiful, creativity was soaring, and yes, in the age of the overvalued acquisitions practicality was pretty scarce. But who hasn't missed those times just as little bit as we struggled through uncertain days and leaner years. Well, there certainly aren't any guarantees but it does look like things may be picking up, finally.
Continue reading "The Return Of The Boom Years?..."
From time to time, I like to let you know of inexpensive (or sometimes free) tools that might help guide your thinking as you begin or continue to roll out new compliance processes. I noticed a couple interesting new Web-based survey tools that help assess employee attitudes and awareness of integrity and antifraud risks as part of an ethics program evaluation.
I found it interesting because it got me thinking about all the compliance-related products out there designed to document controls. Of course there is some urgency in doing just that, but how many companies truly understand what it is they are trying to control? Perhaps you have potential controls issues that are based on attitudes and beliefs that have been allowed to flourish unchecked.
Continue reading "Being Compliant And Ethical..."
From time to time, I like to let you know of inexpensive (or sometimes free) tools that might help guide your thinking as you begin or continue to roll out new compliance processes. I noticed a couple interesting new Web-based survey tools that help assess employee attitudes and awareness of integrity and antifraud risks as part of an ethics program evaluation.
I found it interesting because it got me thinking about all the compliance-related products out there designed to document controls. Of course there is some urgency in doing just that, but how many companies truly understand what it is they are trying to control? Perhaps you have potential controls issues that are based on attitudes and beliefs that have been allowed to flourish unchecked.
Continue reading "Being Compliant And Ethical..."
In the name of protecting against phishing, identity theft and other forms of fraud, federal regulators handed banks and consumers an enormous job recently. The work required will make online transactions a great deal more expensive for banks--who will no doubt pass the expense on to customers. The requirement will make online transactions far less convenient for consumers. And it'll be, at best, partially effective.
As reported in a story by my colleague Steve Marlin, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council is giving banks until the end of next year to implement two-factor authentication for online transactions. Right now, banks only use one-factor authentication: You go to the bank's web site, enter in a login and password, and you're in your account.
With two-factor authentication, you'll need something else in addition to your password to get in. Generally speaking, that something else is a hardware token, such as a smart card or a gadget the size of a key fob that generates one-time passwords. (For a photo of one of those gadgets, follow the link in the previous story.) Some banks distribute a list of one-time passwords on a scratch-off card.
Implementing support for two-factor authentication is going to be a huge expense for banks.
Moreover, for consumers, it's one more thing to worry about, remember, and eventually lose and have to go to the trouble of replacing.
But it'll be worth it if it wipes out online bank fraud, right?
One problem: It won't.
Continue reading "How Not To Stop Online Bank Fraud..."
This podcast interview with IBM Master Inventor Nizam Ishmael Jr. served as the basis for this story, which was published today in print and online.
Continue reading "Interview With IBM's Nizam Ishmael Jr...."
Forrester recently issued a report confirming what many of us have suspected for some time: Instant messaging isn't the cool thing that it used to be and there is no loyalty among users.
The last statement is rather obvious because loyalty has never been a major part of the strategy. You can't have closed networks and expect users to play on your turf exclusively. Imagine where the mobile handset market would be if you could only talk to in-network users. Microsoft and Yahoo have decided that the benefits of a controlled community of users tied to their own portals don't outweigh the market penetration they might achieve with a more open approach. Good for them. Forrester also expects AOL to follow on their heels. Why, because as Forrester's survey pointed out, there is little correlation between IM preference and portal preference.
But the bigger problem for IM is that it is heavily dependent on the under-25 market. IM penetration among adults 25 and older has been declining steadily since 2003 according to Forrester. And the researcher found that the older those teens and young adults get, the more IM clients they are likely to use. No surprise there. As their world expands, so does their circle of contacts.
Continue reading "As Teens Abandon IM, What's Left?..."
Forrester recently issued a report confirming what many of us have suspected for some time: Instant messaging isn't the cool thing that it used to be and there is no loyalty among users.
The last statement is rather obvious because loyalty has never been a major part of the strategy. You can't have closed networks and expect users to play on your turf exclusively. Imagine where the mobile handset market would be if you could only talk to in-network users. Microsoft and Yahoo have decided that the benefits of a controlled community of users tied to their own portals don't outweigh the market penetration they might achieve with a more open approach. Good for them. Forrester also expects AOL to follow on their heels. Why, because as Forrester's survey pointed out, there is little correlation between IM preference and portal preference.
But the bigger problem for IM is that it is heavily dependent on the under-25 market. IM penetration among adults 25 and older has been declining steadily since 2003 according to Forrester. And the researcher found that the older those teens and young adults get, the more IM clients they are likely to use. No surprise there. As their world expands, so does their circle of contacts.
Continue reading "As Teens Abandon IM, What's Left?..."
Enterprise management software vendors still have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to educating the market on Business Service Management. Last week's Systems Management Pipeline poll shows that while nearly half of the respondants think BSM sounds terrific in theory, they believe the products associated with it are either too expensive or too complex for them to implement. Forty-one percent of the respondents said that while they like the concept, they are far to busy fighting fires to stop and implement something as complicated as BSM sounds.
Continue reading "Educating The Masses..."
Enterprise management software vendors still have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to educating the market on Business Service Management. Last week's Systems Management Pipeline poll shows that while nearly half of the respondants think BSM sounds terrific in theory, they believe the products associated with it are either too expensive or too complex for them to implement. Forty-one percent of the respondents said that while they like the concept, they are far to busy fighting fires to stop and implement something as complicated as BSM sounds.
Continue reading "Educating The Masses..."
My Web video debut describes how Firefox's stalled market share and the threat of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 could mean big trouble soon for the plucky, open-source browser. Download the video here (Windows Media format, 2 min., 7 sec, 7.3 MB), or, if you have your podcasting software pointing at this blog, the video should download automatically.
Like I said, this is my first effort, so it's not exactly an award-winner, production-wise. My goals were modest: to produce an intelligent video, in which you could see me and easily hear what I was saying, and which included a couple of cool graphics. Looking at the final product, I can see a couple of glaring production mistakes.
- The video shows a guy with a prodigiously huge head inexplicably crowded into one corner of the frame. I should have pointed the camera lower down.
- I wore a T-shirt. Hey, I always wear a T-shirt this time of year when working from home. I just wasn't thinking that I was filming myself for a video that was going out over the Internet. Duh.
You have two reasons to watch the video: (1) Well-reasoned discussion about Firefox's upcoming troubles or (2) Laugh at how much of a doofus I look like.
As if carpal tunnel wasn't bad enough - it appears we now have digit-specific repetitive stress to look forward to, or dodge as the case may be.
I guess this means I'd better steer clear of the BlackBerry and other such tiny-keyboarded gadgets. Rats. Just as I was beginning to warm up to the idea, too. It was hard enough getting over the aging eyesight issue, I mean, can you really read those things? I see people all over the place with BlackBerries held a foot from their faces, furiously paddling away with their thumbs for all they are worth. (I was already braced for the inevitable debate with myself - glasses on or off for this one?)
Continue reading "Hand-Held Hand Hell..."
Can you smell it? There's something in the air, but it's not the autumnal hearth. A smoldering anger, something I'd call "code rage," is everywhere, spilling over into, permeating, and often dominating every discussion we've had with readers this year about the state of the IT industry, IT careers, and education. For each commentator who loves the industry and offers upbeat advice, you'll find 10 or more cynical, resentful, and seething posts.
Continue reading "Improving The IT Workplace..."
The next time you dig into your pocket for $40 or $50 to buy a couple of cartridges for your inkjet printer, just remember -- the printer manufacturers don't enjoy charging such outrageous prices. They're only doing it to make you happy. Really. HP said so yesterday when it sued Cartridge World for supposedly violating a patent on its ink formulation.
The article included a quote from Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of supplies for the company's printing group: "HP spends millions of dollars annually in R&D to create innovations that benefit our customers, and we are rigorous in our protection of this investment."
Thanks, Mr. Jotwani. Could you maybe be, like, oh, 50 percent less rigorous?
Continue reading "Ink Is Thicker Than Water..."
The next time you dig into your pocket for $40 or $50 to buy a couple of cartridges for your inkjet printer, just remember -- the printer manufacturers don't enjoy charging such outrageous prices. They're only doing it to make you happy. Really. HP said so yesterday when it sued Cartridge World for supposedly violating a patent on its ink formulation.
The article included a quote from Pradeep Jotwani, senior vice president of supplies for the company's printing group: "HP spends millions of dollars annually in R&D to create innovations that benefit our customers, and we are rigorous in our protection of this investment."
Thanks, Mr. Jotwani. Could you maybe be, like, oh, 50 percent less rigorous?
Continue reading "Ink Is Thicker Than Water..."
The trade-off for a business hiring a new, enthusiastic, and relatively cheap college grad is that recruit's lack of practical working experience. In a nutshell, new hires don't have an extensive background in field to draw from for problem solving that can be so crucial. Companies are still willing to give newcomers a chance but businesses are looking for ways to bring their new hires up to speed as rapidly as possible. Businesses looking to accelerate their new hires' skills acquisition would be wise to take a page from the skills training book of a couple of vendors.
Continue reading "Accelerating Skills Development..."
The trade-off for a business hiring a new, enthusiastic, and relatively cheap college grad is that recruit's lack of practical working experience. In a nutshell, new hires don't have an extensive background in field to draw from for problem solving that can be so crucial. Companies are still willing to give newcomers a chance but businesses are looking for ways to bring their new hires up to speed as rapidly as possible. Businesses looking to accelerate their new hires' skills acquisition would be wise to take a page from the skills training book of a couple of vendors.
Continue reading "Accelerating Skills Development..."
By the mid-21st century, as envisioned by futurist Ray Kurzweil, society will be shaped by intelligent, networked devices integrated and implanted into almost everything, including people.
Imagine the privacy concerns of 2030 and beyond, when the Internet consists of nodes that could include nanobots sewn into our clothing and injected into our bloodstream. Imagine, too, how ill-willed individuals could exploit these advances in IT.
Kurzweil, in the final of a five-part series, discusses the delicate balance that must be achieved between privacy and security as technology advances in the coming decades explodes at exponential rates.
Earlier Podcasts of the Kurzweil interview:
* Singularity explained.
* Thinking machines with emotions.
* Civil liberties for machines.
* World-Wide Mesh.
Related Podcast
* PalmPilot founder and artificial-intelligence researcherJeff Hawkins discusses his new venture to develop technology based on the brain's neocortex.
A reader responding to my most recent blog about a user survey and the future of e-mail brought up an interesting point about the nature of always-on communication technology. He said his life pattern had changed once he started using his Blackberry device, and that he felt somehow more compelled to read e-mail on his Blackberry the moment it is received, akin to the urgency of answering a mobile phone. He ended with a lament that he and his associates spend more time looking at the device and less time in direct personal interaction. Even "Good Morning" greetings around the office are handled via IM.
It's a common lament about technology in general and, of course, we always have a choice to respond immediately or not to any communication. But some media are just more compelling. Back in the good ol' days before answering machines, most people felt fairly compelled to answer the ring of a telephone, and auditory signals are still very compelling (although the "You've Got Mail" thing grew tiresome pretty fast). If you didn't answer the ring, you didn't know who was calling. There was always a little mystery. Today, in our always-on, constantly connected world, that feeling of being compelled seems to be largely a function of a) the newness of the medium and b) the level of exclusivity you can exert on the environment (which is partially a function of price). Something always comes along soon that is more compelling and sooner or later it's cheap and pervasive enough that the entire planet can find you. And that makes the existing message medium less compelling. Cases in point:
Continue reading "Are You Going To Answer That?..."
A reader responding to my most recent blog about a user survey and the future of e-mail brought up an interesting point about the nature of always-on communication technology. He said his life pattern had changed once he started using his Blackberry device, and that he felt somehow more compelled to read e-mail on his Blackberry the moment it is received, akin to the urgency of answering a mobile phone. He ended with a lament that he and his associates spend more time looking at the device and less time in direct personal interaction. Even "Good Morning" greetings around the office are handled via IM.
It's a common lament about technology in general and, of course, we always have a choice to respond immediately or not to any communication. But some media are just more compelling. Back in the good ol' days before answering machines, most people felt fairly compelled to answer the ring of a telephone, and auditory signals are still very compelling (although the "You've Got Mail" thing grew tiresome pretty fast). If you didn't answer the ring, you didn't know who was calling. There was always a little mystery. Today, in our always-on, constantly connected world, that feeling of being compelled seems to be largely a function of a) the newness of the medium and b) the level of exclusivity you can exert on the environment (which is partially a function of price). Something always comes along soon that is more compelling and sooner or later it's cheap and pervasive enough that the entire planet can find you. And that makes the existing message medium less compelling. Cases in point:
Continue reading "Are You Going To Answer That?..."
It's time for corporate America to get specific. Shortly after the SOX legislation was introduced, we heard a lot of drum beating about shareholder value and the rosy, glass-half-full notion that early adopters of compliance management technology would hold a competitive advantage over the kickers and screamers. It seemed plausible at the time—still does, but the examples of that actually happening are few and far between.
So it gets me wondering: In the final analysis, will SOX go down as nothing more than a remedial reaction, designed to restore investor confidence, or are companies just being tight-lipped about how compliance initiatives are providing shareholder value? It wouldn't be the first time that discussions of competitive advantage are kept out of the media. Oh, technology vendors are quick to offer up case studies with real live user organizations, and they are generally educational, but they fall short of describing how a particular implementation or new practice is delivering shareholder value.
Continue reading "Show Me The Value..."
It's time for corporate America to get specific. Shortly after the SOX legislation was introduced, we heard a lot of drum beating about shareholder value and the rosy, glass-half-full notion that early adopters of compliance management technology would hold a competitive advantage over the kickers and screamers. It seemed plausible at the time—still does, but the examples of that actually happening are few and far between.
So it gets me wondering: In the final analysis, will SOX go down as nothing more than a remedial reaction, designed to restore investor confidence, or are companies just being tight-lipped about how compliance initiatives are providing shareholder value? It wouldn't be the first time that discussions of competitive advantage are kept out of the media. Oh, technology vendors are quick to offer up case studies with real live user organizations, and they are generally educational, but they fall short of describing how a particular implementation or new practice is delivering shareholder value.
Continue reading "Show Me The Value..."
I had an opportunity to catch-up with Tim Partridge, senior vice president and general manager for Dolby Labs in Los Angeles on Wednesday.
Click on this podcast link to hear Tim Partridge, senior vice president and general manager for the Professional Division at Dolby Labs, talk about digital rights management in the movie industry.
Recent economic news has been mixed at best, thanks in large part to soaring oil prices. But the employment picture remains bright. The IT professional, in particular, continues to be a hot commodity as businesses keep looking to technology as a means to drive new revenue opportunities and cut expenses. Monster.com's September local job index showed classified ads for IT professionals were up for 22 of its top 28 metropolitan markets.
Continue reading "IT Job Opportunities Still Abound..."
Recent economic news has been mixed at best, thanks in large part to soaring oil prices. But the employment picture remains bright. The IT professional, in particular, continues to be a hot commodity as businesses keep looking to technology as a means to drive new revenue opportunities and cut expenses. Monster.com's September local job index showed classified ads for IT professionals were up for 22 of its top 28 metropolitan markets.
Continue reading "IT Job Opportunities Still Abound..."
askSam has posted Leonardo Da Vinci's Complete Notebooks in a free, searchable askSam database. The REAL Leonardo (not the Hollywood DiCaprio) thus joins Hamlet, HIPAA, and the published opinions of John Roberts -- in all the database company has built a library of almost two dozen texts available for searching online or for download along with its free askSam reader app.
askSam, in case you're not familiar with it, is a database manager that is especially good at handling freeform text. It's one of those PC apps that's been around forever, and it's worth the reminder that it's still as good as always.
Continue reading "askSam and the REAL Leonardo..."
askSam has posted Leonardo Da Vinci's Complete Notebooks in a free, searchable askSam database. The REAL Leonardo (not the Hollywood DiCaprio) thus joins Hamlet, HIPAA, and the published opinions of John Roberts -- in all the database company has built a library of almost two dozen texts available for searching online or for download along with its free askSam reader app.
askSam, in case you're not familiar with it, is a database manager that is especially good at handling freeform text. It's one of those PC apps that's been around forever, and it's worth the reminder that it's still as good as always.
Continue reading "askSam and the REAL Leonardo..."
One year ago, Apple Computer dumped iTunes 4.7 on millions of unsuspecting customers. If that sounds like an ominous way to describe a routine software update, it's because this "update" -- or, if you prefer, "trojan horse" -- is more notorious for what it took away from users' systems than for what it added.
Continue reading "Apple's Captive Audience..."
If CIOs think they have a challenging job today, look what's on the horizon.
In the fourth of a five-part interview, the IT innovator and futurist Ray Kurzweil sees the Internet rapidly evolving to a world-wide mesh, tied together by an unimaginable number of devices, including ones embedded in the environment, on our clothing, and inside our bodies. Devices now spokes on the network, such as cell phones and wireless PDAs, will become nodes. Search engines of the future won't wait for us to ask; they'll anticipate the information we'll seek.
Will such massive networking ensure job security for future CIOs? I ponder what Kurzweil's cyrstal ball says about that.
Earlier Podcasts of the Kurzweil interview:
* Singularity explained.
* Thinking machines with emotions.
* Civil liberties for machines.
Later Podcast:
* Privacy threatened. Check out the Podcast Directory at InformationWeek.com on Friday.
How many of you think life would be so much easier if the brass in your company actually took Sarbanes-Oxley compliance seriously? With all the fear and loathing voiced over the C-level accountability of Section 404, we still hear from IT managers that their bosses still don't take SOX seriously.
The publicized fines levied for non-compliance have been few and far between, and the threat of incarceration for CEOs and CFOs has not been made real. Little wonder, according to some, why their compliance budgets get laughed at. And little wonder who gets blamed if material deficiencies crop up . . . you.
Continue reading "Tired Of Crying Wolf..."
How many of you think life would be so much easier if the brass in your company actually took Sarbanes-Oxley compliance seriously? With all the fear and loathing voiced over the C-level accountability of Section 404, we still hear from IT managers that their bosses still don't take SOX seriously.
The publicized fines levied for non-compliance have been few and far between, and the threat of incarceration for CEOs and CFOs has not been made real. Little wonder, according to some, why their compliance budgets get laughed at. And little wonder who gets blamed if material deficiencies crop up . . . you.
Continue reading "Tired Of Crying Wolf..."
We--as in 'we the world community of e-mail users'--are continuing to do the Texas two-step with those evil spam-makers. But even as the number of spam messages continues unabated and is in fact rising, there have been a couple of recent developments that give me hope.
Continue reading "Dancing With Spammers..."
Yippee!
I'm sitting here staring at the FedEx "We're sorry we missed you!" door tag on my desk. The FedEx Express delivery person left it while I was out this morning. I can't pick-up the package until after 6 p.m., the tag reads, but I know what's inside.
Continue reading "My Apple Video iPod Arrived!..."
Does sender certification work as a method of ensuring the legitimacy of e-mail senders? According to Habeas Inc., provider of the popular Habeas Safelist database of certified senders, it does.
Habeas claims that it is now receiving more than 20 million requests per day from messaging systems worldwide. That represents a ten-fold increase in traffic in the last six months.
Continue reading "Playing It Safe Doesn't Always Work, But It's A Good Start..."
Does sender certification work as a method of ensuring the legitimacy of e-mail senders? According to Habeas Inc., provider of the popular Habeas Safelist database of certified senders, it does.
Habeas claims that it is now receiving more than 20 million requests per day from messaging systems worldwide. That represents a ten-fold increase in traffic in the last six months.
Continue reading "Playing It Safe Doesn't Always Work, But It's A Good Start..."
A new Forrester Research study shows that the Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are literally almost everywhere. With the overwhelming majority of companies either implementing new and upgrading existing VPNs this year, VPNs are at the top of the project list for most IT managers. One of the biggest benefits VPNs promise is added flexibility so it is no surprise that demand for browser-based SSL VPNs that have the potential to allow end users to connect from non-corporate computers are taking off in a big way.
Continue reading "Virtually Ubiquitous..."
A new Forrester Research study shows that the Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are literally almost everywhere. With the overwhelming majority of companies either implementing new and upgrading existing VPNs this year, VPNs are at the top of the project list for most IT managers. One of the biggest benefits VPNs promise is added flexibility so it is no surprise that demand for browser-based SSL VPNs that have the potential to allow end users to connect from non-corporate computers are taking off in a big way.
Continue reading "Virtually Ubiquitous..."
I've become as dependent on my e-mail as the next person, but for me it's still an office and an occasional home activity. I consider traveling on business or pleasure an extension of my professional and personal lives so I'll include laptops in my mix of e-mail devices. I rarely, and I do mean rarely, use the Internet capabilities of my GSM network provider. I find it intrusive, but then I will also turn off my phone when I'm out camping, fishing, and mountain biking, checking once in a while for messages.
Continue reading "E-mail: Is It In You..."
I've become as dependent on my e-mail as the next person, but for me it's still an office and an occasional home activity. I consider traveling on business or pleasure an extension of my professional and personal lives so I'll include laptops in my mix of e-mail devices. I rarely, and I do mean rarely, use the Internet capabilities of my GSM network provider. I find it intrusive, but then I will also turn off my phone when I'm out camping, fishing, and mountain biking, checking once in a while for messages.
Continue reading "E-mail: Is It In You..."
Let's assume that Ray Kurzweil's prediction comes true, that by mid-century, perhaps sooner, technology advances so rapidly that machines with human intellect, emotion, and self-awareness become a reality.
How do we treat these new beings? Are they alive? Do they have rights?
These are disturbing questions. An equally alarming one: What happens when people of ill will get hold of these machines?
In the third of a five-part podcast interview I had with Kurzweil, the futurist, author, and IT innovator addresses these concerns. After listening to Kurzweil, let us know what you think. Share your thoughts in the Comments box below.
Click on these links to listen to Part 1 and Part 2 of the Kurzweil interview. Future parts of the series can be retrieved by going to the Podcast Directory at InformationWeek.com. Also, listen to a podcast interview with PDA innovator Jeff Hawkins, whose latest venture, Numenta, is developing technology based on the neocortex, the part of the brain believed to be responsible for conscious thought, spatial reasoning, and sensory perception.
I definitely want some of the magic pixie dust that Google uses. Google gets away with stuff that other companies--particularly Microsoft--get hammered for. But Google gets a free pass. Because it's Google. And everybody loves Google.
Microsoft faces constant scrutiny for the data it collects--or might collect--on its customers. Four years ago, when the company introduced "product activation" to stem piracy, privacy advocates cried foul. Likewise, Microsoft proposed technology code-named HailStorm as a way of consolidating login information for multiple sites; privacy concerns eventually scuttled that proposal.
Google regularly gets away with this kind of thing. According to its privacy policy, Google explicitly reserves the right to track every time you click on a link from one of its searches. If you use Gmail as your primary E-mail--and many people do--Google keeps a repository of all your E-mail, and indexes it for marketing purposes.
And yet there's no outcry against Google; nobody complains except for a few privacy advocates (and, unfortunately, the phrase "privacy advocate" these days is simply a polysyllabic way of saying "kook").
Continue reading "Google's Magic Pixie Dust..."
If you haven't heard of the SOA Leaders Council, it's something you should check out. It's a collaborative peer-to-peer community of corporate and government SOA users who share their experiences and expertise with real-world SOA implementations. There's not a single vendor in sight. Instead, actual users talk about actual projects--both successes and challenges.
Continue reading "Still-Evolving Standards Chief Challenge Of SOA..."
If you haven't heard of the SOA Leaders Council, it's something you should check out. It's a collaborative peer-to-peer community of corporate and government SOA users who share their experiences and expertise with real-world SOA implementations. There's not a single vendor in sight. Instead, actual users talk about actual projects--both successes and challenges.
Continue reading "Still-Evolving Standards Chief Challenge Of SOA..."
At Gartner's ITXpo conference, HP CEO Mark Hurd promised the company will "double down" on the company's core hardware, software, and service areas. If I interpret Hurd's comments correctly, "doubling down" means not only will HP not sell off its printer, PC, or any of its other mainstay businesses as has been rumored for months but the company will actually invest more attention and resources in those areas. However, Hurd made no specific commitments, and his statements raise plenty of questions about how the company's future growth plans.
Continue reading "HP: Back To Basics?..."
At Gartner's ITXpo conference, HP CEO Mark Hurd promised the company will "double down" on the company's core hardware, software, and service areas. If I interpret Hurd's comments correctly, "doubling down" means not only will HP not sell off its printer, PC, or any of its other mainstay businesses as has been rumored for months but the company will actually invest more attention and resources in those areas. However, Hurd made no specific commitments, and his statements raise plenty of questions about how the company's future growth plans.
Continue reading "HP: Back To Basics?..."
The most confusing, frustrating and mind-numbing aspect of any compliance automation project is discovering that there are now a host of hardware and software tools for any compliance activity you can think of, and many you didn't think of. There are compliance tools that cost a couple hundred bucks and some that can set you back a couple hundred thousand just to initiate preliminary designs. If your company is like the majority who got past the initial regulatory audits the manual way, fixing problems with chewing gum and duct tape, you've probably been charged with making sure that experience isn't repeated.
But after a quick look at the compliance tools landscape, you're at a loss. The financial folks want a budget for making the pain go away. But the further you explore, the more frustrating the situation becomes. It's a bit like the poor sap who decides to refinish his kitchen cabinets and by the time he's done he's taking out a second mortgage to pay for new counters, plumbing, fixtures, flooring, wallpaper and appliances.
Continue reading "Do All Compliance Roads Lead To BPM?..."
The most confusing, frustrating and mind-numbing aspect of any compliance automation project is discovering that there are now a host of hardware and software tools for any compliance activity you can think of, and many you didn't think of. There are compliance tools that cost a couple hundred bucks and some that can set you back a couple hundred thousand just to initiate preliminary designs. If your company is like the majority who got past the initial regulatory audits the manual way, fixing problems with chewing gum and duct tape, you've probably been charged with making sure that experience isn't repeated.
But after a quick look at the compliance tools landscape, you're at a loss. The financial folks want a budget for making the pain go away. But the further you explore, the more frustrating the situation becomes. It's a bit like the poor sap who decides to refinish his kitchen cabinets and by the time he's done he's taking out a second mortgage to pay for new counters, plumbing, fixtures, flooring, wallpaper and appliances.
Continue reading "Do All Compliance Roads Lead To BPM?..."
Microsoft wants you to know it's making progress on the security of its software. It's feeling so comfortable, in fact, that last Thursday and Friday it held a meeting in Redmond and invited several security consultants to critique its performance.
Unfortunately, the PR value of the "Blue Hat" (the consultants aren't black hats -- the bad guys -- nor are they necessarily white hats -- the good guys, get it?) session was undercut by problems in Microsoft's most recent set of patches to fix security vulnerabilities in its products, released last Tuesday.
Continue reading "Microsoft's Patch Dilemma..."
Microsoft wants you to know it's making progress on the security of its software. It's feeling so comfortable, in fact, that last Thursday and Friday it held a meeting in Redmond and invited several security consultants to critique its performance.
Unfortunately, the PR value of the "Blue Hat" (the consultants aren't black hats -- the bad guys -- nor are they necessarily white hats -- the good guys, get it?) session was undercut by problems in Microsoft's most recent set of patches to fix security vulnerabilities in its products, released last Tuesday.
Continue reading "Microsoft's Patch Dilemma..."
The latest figures from outsourcing advisory firm Technology Partners International show that the offshoring of IT and business processes is having the desired effect--it's bringing down the cost of these services.
Continue reading "Customers Win As Offshoring Drives Outsourcing Prices Lower..."
No doubt Ray Kurzweil and Jeff Hawkins rank among the top original thinkers and IT innovators. Both see computing mirroring the functions of the human brain. But they don't agree on how fast scientists and engineers will develop technologies that exhibit the most complex cerebral traits of humans: self-awareness, emotion, and even a sense of one's own mortality.
Because of technology's exponential growth, Kurzweil sees emotion-laden, self-aware machines being developed by mid-century. Hawkins' view on technology patterned after the human brain is more limited than Kurzweil's prognostications, saying such artificial beings will take centuries, not decades, to create. The brain is just too complex to replicate that quickly. Emotional robots that run amok, Hawkins says, will remain science fiction for a very long time.
I caught up with Kurzweil via cell phone. In the second of five podcasts from our talk, he says society will face some tough choices in mere decades as it decides how to treat technologies that act like humans.
Hawkins share his thoughts in another podcast about a more benign technology, in which devices will be built using hierarchical temporal memory, the patterns found in the neocortex, the part of the brain that differentiates mammals from other vertebrates.
Both men have impressive credentials to make these predictions. Kurzweil--author of the recently published book--The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology--has been at the forefront of technological innovation, as the principal developer of the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first CCD flat-bed scanner, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer capable of recreating the grand piano and other orchestral instruments, and the first commercially marketed large-vocabulary speech recognition.
Hawkins, of course, is no technology slacker. Give him much of the credit for making the personal digital assistant a mainstay business tool, as founder of two pioneering PDA makers, Palm and Handspring. Now, he started a new company, Numenta, which is developing technology based on the neocortex. His ideas can be found in his book, On Intelligence.
So, who's right? Listen to their podcasts, and tell us what you think by responding in the comments box below.
All InformationWeek podcasts can be found by clicking on Podcast Directory at InformationWeek.com.
I received lots of sharp, thoughtful, and sometimes funny feedback to my last blog, Seeding IT's Future." Some readers applauded, some snorted and some wanted to know what I was smoking, and whether they could have some too. In between, some interesting questions were raised, and points posited, that I'd like to address, along with what I think are some erroneous assumptions about where my blog was coming from.
Continue reading "Why We Need IT..."
In a report issued last week, Susquehanna Financial Group said that Google's rapidly growing head-count could moderate its third-quarter earnings.
Google's site currently advertises 587 types of job openings.
SFG estimates that Google is hiring more than 10 new employees per day and notes that Google confirmed at the Web 2.0 conference two weeks ago that it had accelerated its hiring.
Continue reading "Google Is Hiring..."
Business Service Management (BSM) makes a lot of sense on paper. After all, what is not to like about the concept that ties technology to the business processes IT supports in an effort to ensure the business runs smoothly and efficiently? Nothing, in theory, but putting BSM into practice is a daunting challenge, to say the least. At the most basic technical level, think of all the resource mapping involved and you get the picture.
Continue reading "Great In Theory..."
Business Service Management (BSM) makes a lot of sense on paper. After all, what is not to like about the concept that ties technology to the business processes IT supports in an effort to ensure the business runs smoothly and efficiently? Nothing, in theory, but putting BSM into practice is a daunting challenge, to say the least. At the most basic technical level, think of all the resource mapping involved and you get the picture.
Continue reading "Great In Theory..."
Futurist and IT innovator Ray Kurzweil proffers many far-out ideas. And, by far-out, I mean his astonishing prognostications aren't too far away from being realized.
By 2030, Kurzweil envisions a society where technology is embedded in everything: our work tools, our clothing, and even inside our bodies. Kurzweil sounds utopian in what technology will do for society, such as nanobots entrenched in our bodies to fight off disease and aging. We get there so quickly because, as Kurzweil explains, technology is advancing at an exponential pace. I take Kurzweil's prophecy to mean that the brainy, emotion-laden computer Hal in 2001, A Space Odyssey will no longer be the stuff of science fiction by mid-century.
As the renaissance man of IT, Kurzweil presents his views in a just-published book, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Viking Press).
I reached Kurzweil via cell phone while he awaited a flight at Boston Logan International Airport. In the first of five podcasts from our chat, Kurzweil explains the meaning of the title of his book.
To hear more of my interview with Kurzweil, which will be updated daily, check during the week InformationWeek's Podcast Directory Updates will occur daily.
A Web site called TVpredictions.com looks into its crystal ball and concludes that the video iPod will be a failure. Philip Swann, president of TVPredictions.com, really hates the idea. In what appears to be a press release, TVpredictions.com writes:
"The video iPod will be Steve Jobs' folly," Swann said. "Americans will not watch full-length videos -- or perhaps even short music videos -- on 2.5-inch screens on portable devices. It makes no sense."The music IPod is successful because it replicates something we've been doing for more than two decades -- listening to portable music players while on the go. It's easy because we can continue to perform other tasks while we listen to our tunes."
Swann added: "However, the video iPod will require you to stop what you're doing and focus on a video. Who has the time to do that during the day? Plus, the video will be on a small screen that will make watching highly uncomfortable and unsatisfying.
I don't know who this "Phillip Swann" is, but he's clearly one of those rich fellers who has gold-plated toilets in his home, lights $100 cigars with $100 bills ... and pays people to do his waiting for him.
Continue reading "Why It's Wrong To Predict Failure For The Video IPod..."
So what happens when an analyst whom you've trusted with confidential information about your company and your customers takes a job with one of your competitors? Howard Dresner, one of the most well-known and influential analysts in the business intelligence space, left Gartner to take a job at BI vendor, Hyperion, a couple of weeks ago. That's a move that has at least one CEO of a major BI company, who asked to remain anonymous, crying foul. "He knows confidential information about my company," he said. "That could hurt me."
Continue reading "When An Analyst Works For Your Competitor..."
Ask me as a journalist who inspires me and I'll have a list of answers: Edward R. Murrow, who broadcast from London's rooftops during the Battle of Britain and later helped bring about the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy; Tom Friedman, whose columns in the NY Times on globalism and foreign affairs, particularly the Mid East, never fail to educate and impress; and yes, even Barbara Walters, mostly for the impressive roster of folks she's been able to interview in the course of her career.
Continue reading "Who Inspires You?..."
Storage is cheap and getting cheaper all the time, which is driving up user expectations about just how much storage we "need." The mania for storage is hitting even Sony's diminutive PlayStation Portable (PSP). Datel is reportedly planning to ship later this month a 4 GB clip-on hard drive for the PSP, complete with kludgy add-on battery.
Is 4 GB enough? Of course not! Companies will start competing with each other to launch bigger and ever bigger hard drives. I think PSP owners will say "bring it on!"
A recent survey of 1,200 end users by security vendor Trend Micro shows a bad news/even worse news scenario. The slightly less bad news, if you can call it that, is that the overwhelming majority of end users are aware of spyware. The worse news is that much of this awareness comes from direct experience with the malacious code, with approxmiately 40% of the respondents reporting a spyware encounter.
Continue reading "Tangled In A Safety Net..."
A recent survey of 1,200 end users by security vendor Trend Micro shows a bad news/even worse news scenario. The slightly less bad news, if you can call it that, is that the overwhelming majority of end users are aware of spyware. The worse news is that much of this awareness comes from direct experience with the malacious code, with approxmiately 40% of the respondents reporting a spyware encounter.
Continue reading "Tangled In A Safety Net..."
If you haven't read Fredric Paul's rant about Why Everyone Hates The Music Industry you should check it out.
Fred is reacting to a Forrester Research study that actually uses Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' famous five stages of death and dying as the framework for its analysis, but he goes further, and I think he's absolutely right.
Continue reading "Digital Rights and Wrongs..."
If you haven't read Fredric Paul's rant about Why Everyone Hates The Music Industry you should check it out.
Fred is reacting to a Forrester Research study that actually uses Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' famous five stages of death and dying as the framework for its analysis, but he goes further, and I think he's absolutely right.
Continue reading "Digital Rights and Wrongs..."
The burning question of the moment for our readers, columnists and vendors seems to be that while salaries and job openings are at their highest peak in years, fewer and fewer kids are showing an interest in IT. We've written a number of blogs addressing the whys, which I think we all know by heart, so I won't repeat them here. You can instead go here or here, or even here to read lots of the commentary on that.
Continue reading "Seeding IT's Future..."
Early results from this week's poll that, in spite of some vendor progress in creating applications and services that take a more predictive approach to management, IT managers still say the available tools
have them working mostly in a reactive mode. A scant 29 percent of the respondents said that management applications and services have made real strides in recent years to becoming more proactive while 57 percent said their enterprise management apps have them doing too much troubleshooting after-the-fact.
Continue reading "Room For Improvement..."
Early results from this week's poll that, in spite of some vendor progress in creating applications and services that take a more predictive approach to management, IT managers still say the available tools
have them working mostly in a reactive mode. A scant 29 percent of the respondents said that management applications and services have made real strides in recent years to becoming more proactive while 57 percent said their enterprise management apps have them doing too much troubleshooting after-the-fact.
Continue reading "Room For Improvement..."
We've seen some heady projections recently for instant messaging growth, a fact that leaves some scratching their heads, but not me. Sure, it's a technology that IT managers love to hate. Sure, it's a market already consolidating behind some big players. Sure, there are standards issues that would appear to be slowing its adoption, at least in the enterprise arena. But hey, it's a hot, real-time communications technology that promises to keep offering ever-better
functionality, and we humanoids love our communication technology. History has shown we never seem to get enough. Small, incremental improvements? Gotta have 'em. IT won't support it? No problem.
When it comes to communication technology, the leading edge is a momentary status that is by no means a predicament, and the bleeding edge means the technology got inside your organization without invitation. What else is new?
Continue reading "You Can Believe The IM Numbers . . . And Then Some..."
We've seen some heady projections recently for instant messaging growth, a fact that leaves some scratching their heads, but not me. Sure, it's a technology that IT managers love to hate. Sure, it's a market already consolidating behind some big players. Sure, there are standards issues that would appear to be slowing its adoption, at least in the enterprise arena. But hey, it's a hot, real-time communications technology that promises to keep offering ever-better
functionality, and we humanoids love our communication technology. History has shown we never seem to get enough. Small, incremental improvements? Gotta have 'em. IT won't support it? No problem.
When it comes to communication technology, the leading edge is a momentary status that is by no means a predicament, and the bleeding edge means the technology got inside your organization without invitation. What else is new?
Continue reading "You Can Believe The IM Numbers . . . And Then Some..."
As the business of spyware proliferates and grows in complexity, companies are looking for ways to quickly rid their PCs of a problem that has evolved from a pesky plaque that slows system performance to an outright security threat for corporate data.
Continue reading "Spyware Proliferates As Feds Crack Down..."
There have been widespread reports that implementation of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) is slower than expected. A new survey of adoption patterns for SOAs and Web services by webMethods appears to back this up, showing that although more than 80 percent of respondents from 500 companies currently deploy Web services, SOA adoption is still "formative."
According to the survey, there are two main things standing in the way of SOA adoption--and concern about the technology itself isn't one of them. Instead, the lack of widely accepted methodologies and related business case analysis tools were cited as the chief roadblocks to SOA.
Continue reading "Web Services Accelerating, SOA Still Emerging..."
There have been widespread reports that implementation of service-oriented architectures (SOAs) is slower than expected. A new survey of adoption patterns for SOAs and Web services by webMethods appears to back this up, showing that although more than 80 percent of respondents from 500 companies currently deploy Web services, SOA adoption is still "formative."
According to the survey, there are two main things standing in the way of SOA adoption--and concern about the technology itself isn't one of them. Instead, the lack of widely accepted methodologies and related business case analysis tools were cited as the chief roadblocks to SOA.
Continue reading "Web Services Accelerating, SOA Still Emerging..."
At the InformationWeek Fall Conference last month in Rancho Mirage, Calif., I caught-up with Len Greendyk, Tiffany & Co. vice president of business systems development for information technology. He told me that Tiffany had considered using radio frequency identification technology to develop an inventory tracking system at its Manhattan flagship store, but chose bar codes instead.
His answer to why, as well as my question -- when did Tiffany first begin to look at RFID as an option to track necklaces, bracelets and rings, or the little blue signature boxes they come in -- might surprise you.
Listen to the podcast about Greendyk's thoughts on RFID at Tiffany & Co.
You also can read a related article:
RFID Implementation Challenges Persist
It makes no sense for Google to try to compete with Microsoft on the desktop, and any sign that Google is getting into that business would be evidence that Google has jumped the shark.
As all good couch potatoes know, "jumping the shark" is what happens when a good television show goes bad. The name comes from an episode of the 1970s sitcom "Happy Days," where teen idol Fonzie does a waterski jump over a tank full of sharks, to demonstrate how courageous and cool he was. As if that wasn't ridiculous enough, he did it wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket and T-shirt (because nothing says "cool" like a guy wearing swim trunks with a leather jacket).
Like TV shows, software companies can jump the shark. It starts happening when the upstart company attracts cheerleaders that say the upstart is the company that's going to take Microsoft down. Microsoft starts believing the hype, and begins to target its massive resources on destroying the upstart. Eventually, the upstart itself believes the hype--and that's the beginning of the end. The software company loses focus on its customers, and instead starts focusing on beating Microsoft. Eventually, the company gets fat and bloated, hemorrhage money, loses market share and customers and--in the final stage--top management bails out, often accompanied by the company being acquired. It happened to Borland, Novell, and, most famously, Netscape.
So now Google is acquiring its "Kill Bill" cheerleaders. As reported in this week's InformationWeek, Google cut a deal with Sun to offer Java combined with the Google Toolbar. Prior to the announcement, there was widespread speculation in the blogosphere that Google might be offering Sun's OpenOffice.org, and the two companies fueled that speculation by saying their deal included joint marketing and development of technologies including that office package.
One question for those who think Google will offer an office package to compete with Microsoft:
Why?
Continue reading "Why Google Shouldn't Attack Microsoft..."
It was as inevitable as my next tax bill; the "rest of us" now have a reference guide for compliance. Wiley Publishing has added IT compliance to the Dummies series, in this case a pocket guide to help with an IT audit.
Titled "IT Compliance For Dummies," and penned by some folks at Active Reasoning the booklet directs readers in general fashion how to develop a compliance strategy, how to plan ahead, develop controls, automate processes, validate controls, leverage compliance for other IT practices, and make compliance sustainable.
The guide also cites many of the common material deficiencies found during Sarbanes-Oxley audits. For instance, did you know that not performing self-assessments is "like putting off cleaning out the refrigerator—the longer you wait, the more you create messy work for yourself." I wondered what that smell was coming from the archives!
Continue reading "Dummies Get A Compliance Guide..."
It was as inevitable as my next tax bill; the "rest of us" now have a reference guide for compliance. Wiley Publishing has added IT compliance to the Dummies series, in this case a pocket guide to help with an IT audit.
Titled "IT Compliance For Dummies," and penned by some folks at Active Reasoning the booklet directs readers in general fashion how to develop a compliance strategy, how to plan ahead, develop controls, automate processes, validate controls, leverage compliance for other IT practices, and make compliance sustainable.
The guide also cites many of the common material deficiencies found during Sarbanes-Oxley audits. For instance, did you know that not performing self-assessments is "like putting off cleaning out the refrigerator—the longer you wait, the more you create messy work for yourself." I wondered what that smell was coming from the archives!
Continue reading "Dummies Get A Compliance Guide..."
Proactive management may be one of the most overused phrases in enterprise management. Every management vendor promises it; but historically few have actually delivered it, at least not in an affordable form. But two new solutions being rolled out this week look promising. Today equipment vendor Extreme Networks is launching a suite of hosted network and application performance monitoring tools. Tuesday CentrePath follows suit with its Magellan DataPath Manager, which is designed to take on both LAN and WAN management.
Continue reading "Getting A Jump On Trouble..."
Proactive management may be one of the most overused phrases in enterprise management. Every management vendor promises it; but historically few have actually delivered it, at least not in an affordable form. But two new solutions being rolled out this week look promising. Today equipment vendor Extreme Networks is launching a suite of hosted network and application performance monitoring tools. Tuesday CentrePath follows suit with its Magellan DataPath Manager, which is designed to take on both LAN and WAN management.
Continue reading "Getting A Jump On Trouble..."
While offshoring call center work to India can save businesses millions, the practice can very quickly become a boondoggle if quality of service slips. The latest example of this came last week when a British Telecom executive called those customers who complain about being routed to an offshore service agent "bigots."
Continue reading "Indian Call Centers May No Longer Be Worth The Trouble..."
Director Christopher Coppola is working to build a digital movie school in New Mexico to help young moviemakers combine technology with art, believing "the land of enchantment" could become "the next digital capital" for the industry. "Film is daunting for young and old filmmakers because it's expensive," he says, relaxing in a leather easy chair at his movie studio Ears XXI in Los Angeles. "You can buy a digital camera and if you know how to use Final Cut Pro," editing software from Apple Computer, moviemaking can be mastered on a desktop or laptop PC.
Moviemakers are grabbling with methods to combine video gaming with movies and Internet media, and kids will have to find ways to "tell their stories in this kind of multitasking environment," he says. "I don't even like technology, but I've embraced it because I feel it's important for people to learn how to use it, and artists to use it."
Perhaps that's why Coppola chose to create HD American Portraits with retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and PRN Corp., an ad agency, bringing art to the retailer through its closed circuit TV network in stores.
Listen to the podcast to hear Christopher Coppola's thoughts on moviemaking, video podcasting, and the project with Wal-Mart here.
Continue reading "Coppola Talks Moviemaking, Technology and Wal-Mart?..."
Silicon Valley's Stanford University won the 132-mile, $2 million 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous vehicle robot race over the weekend.
The race was conceived and organized by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) -- the same folks who brought us a little thing called the Internet.
The Pentagon wants an unmanned car that can drive all by itself through a battlefield to deliver supplies, shoot at the enemy and rescue wounded soldiers -- all without human intervention.
Research groups all over the world have been trying to achieve this feat for decades -- without success.
DARPA figured -- correctly -- that the quickest way to achieve this unprecedented capability was to turn America's geniuses loose on the project in an open contest. The DARPA Grand Challenge promise a million dollars to the fastest robot-car across the finish line in the desert last year (none finished, nobody won the prize) and two million dollars this year. Four vehicles finished and 18 did not.
The Stanford Racing Team's "Stanley," a modified Volkswagen Touareg R5, finished with a time of six hours and 53 minutes.
If you haven't seen these cars in action, here is some really good video. Note that the cars are NOT remote-controlled. Onboard sensors and computers are doing ALL of the driving (the cars following can only shut down a car if it threatens public safety).
InformationWeek writers have been getting a blog-ful of reader responses about why people are leaving the IT fold and why new talent is so slow in entering.
Readers are saying that, among other things, outsourcing, long hours, and bosses' unrealistic expectations have proven deadly to morale. And who wants to suggest a career path to young people--their own kids or others'--that they wish they themselves could escape from? You can read more about what readers have to say in the blog entry of my colleague, Mitch Wagner. He shares some of the email he's gotten on the subject, and points to a few other editors' blog entries on the topic that have received related feedback.
Continue reading "Can The IT Career Choice Be Saved?..."
Refusing to let a day go by without making a play for headlines, Google today began offering Google Reader, an online RSS feed reader.
Continue reading "Google Introduces Feed Reader..."
If you want to see the future of technology for post-production digital movie and TV editing, visit PlasterCity Digital Post on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, Calif. I had the opportunity to talk with Michael Cioni, Emmy-Award winning post-production supervisor at PlasterCity, who described the new facility, the technology, and the decisions that went into designing and building the new systems.
Listen to the podcast about PlasterCity here.
You can also read the article, PlasterCity Gets High-Tech Digital Digs.
This just in from the Desktop Pipeline "What I Really Meant to Say" Department: In my e-mail newsletter this week I wrote an Editor's Note about recent developments in the open document format area -- the release of Star Office 8, the Massachusetts state government's decision against Microsoft Office, and Microsoft's announcement that it would offer PDF as an output format in Office 12 next year.
In the course of that I wrote something like, "You can't edit a PDF file." My only excuse is that I had just washed my hands and I couldn't do a thing with them.
Continue reading "Editing PDFs, Etc...."
This just in from the Desktop Pipeline "What I Really Meant to Say" Department: In my e-mail newsletter this week I wrote an Editor's Note about recent developments in the open document format area -- the release of Star Office 8, the Massachusetts state government's decision against Microsoft Office, and Microsoft's announcement that it would offer PDF as an output format in Office 12 next year.
In the course of that I wrote something like, "You can't edit a PDF file." My only excuse is that I had just washed my hands and I couldn't do a thing with them.
Continue reading "Editing PDFs, Etc...."
We got quite a lot of feedback from disaffected IT managers on our articles and blog entries about why young people aren't getting into IT. IT managers described the profession as having become tough and unrewarding, with long hours, little pay, and little recognition.
We invited readers to write in after senior executive news editor Chris Murphy wrote an article saying that IT managers must do more to recruit young people into the job, starting with their own children. InformationWeek Editorial Director Bob Evans says universities and colleges are failing in their obligation to educate.
For comments on this issue, read the comments sections of the blog entries accompanying the articles. Chris wrote a blog entry inviting reader comment on his call for IT managers to start recruiting at home. Marianne Kolbasuk McGee wrote a blog entry asking whether it's harder to keep good people. And I did a blog entry suggesting that one reason it's harder to recruit young people is that they've seen that IT managers have been badly treated the past five years.
Here's some of the comments I received in e-mail:
Continue reading "Readers Say Difficulty Recruiting IT Managers Reflects Poor Working Conditions..."
The Delaware Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a group of anonymous bloggers in a defamation suit, saying in essence that free speech trumps defamation. (If that's true, there is no point to the concept of defamation.)
In his ruling, Delaware Chief Justice Myron Steele also compared anonymous Internet speech to anonymous political pamphleteering, a practice the U.S. Supreme Court has apparently found to be "an honorable tradition of advocacy and dissent." (Bad choice for comparison if you ask me since characterizing the latter as a gutless tradition of cowardly attacks would be more accurate.) And that 1995 ruling seems contradictory. We insist on the identification of the sponsors behind political advertising - so why would pamphlets be treated any differently?
Continue reading "Oh Behave!..."
Beset by lawsuits and recognizing how our fee-for-service government works, Google has hired its first lobbyist, Alan Davidson, formerly an associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Continue reading "Google Plays Politics..."
Symantec is alerting the press that it has identified the first trojan virus that targets Sony Playstation Portable game devices. The trojan, called Trojan.PSPBrick, is a "Category 1" threat (Category 5 being the worst), which is circulating in the wild, although there are no confirmed infections, according to Symantec.
Only Sony-approved games can run on the PSP without specially written unauthorized software. Hacks, however, allow users to run their own games. Trojan.PSPBrick presents itself as such a hack. Once downloaded and installed, the hack deletes system files and disables the PSP device.
In the classic war between the pro-government Left and the pro-free-market Right, I'm a member of both camps. Governments are good at providing some services, such as national defense, police, and enforcing building and health codes.
On the other hand, free-market capitalism has been a driver of most of the material benefits we enjoy today. Free-market capitalism has provided us with everything from healthcare to indoor plumbing.
It also brought us movies starring Rob Schneider. Nobody said the free market is perfect.
Then there are other categories of services that are sometimes provided by government and sometimes by the private sector. These include road-building, collecting trash, and even electrical generation.
And there are still other services that are provided by public-private partnerships--and the classic example of that is the Internet itself: developed by government research, made powerful, essential and almost ubiquitous by private industry.
Which side should wireless Internet access fall on? Should private industry provide public wireless connectivity, should it be government, or should there be a partnership between both?
Continue reading "Debating Municipal Wi-Fi..."
So what WAS that all about? Yesterday morning we're getting reports that Sun Microsystems and Google are going to announce something like a Web-based competitor to Microsoft Office, and then they hold a press conference and make a lot of hoo-ha about installing the Google Toolbar along with Sun's JRE, as in "Java Runtime Environment"? Doesn't that strike you as a little bit . . . lame?
Continue reading "Sun/Google: Less Than Meets The Eye?..."
So what WAS that all about? Yesterday morning we're getting reports that Sun Microsystems and Google are going to announce something like a Web-based competitor to Microsoft Office, and then they hold a press conference and make a lot of hoo-ha about installing the Google Toolbar along with Sun's JRE, as in "Java Runtime Environment"? Doesn't that strike you as a little bit . . . lame?
Continue reading "Sun/Google: Less Than Meets The Eye?..."
This has been a hurricane season we won't soon forget. More than a month after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, bringing down much of the communications infrastructure which linked homes and businesses to the world, we are still learning the stories of those who helped faciliate communications that are particularly vital during a time of crisis. It is during times like these when perservance and a little technical creativity can make all the difference.
Continue reading "To The Rescue..."
This has been a hurricane season we won't soon forget. More than a month after Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast, bringing down much of the communications infrastructure which linked homes and businesses to the world, we are still learning the stories of those who helped faciliate communications that are particularly vital during a time of crisis. It is during times like these when perservance and a little technical creativity can make all the difference.
Continue reading "To The Rescue..."
Not content to rest easily on the laurels its major announcement two weeks ago that reorganized its software and services portfolio around SOAs, this week IBM added a little more muscle to
its services-oriented architecture (SOA) initiative by signing up
two new partners and broadening its portfolio with new technical capabilities.
IBM Global Services (IGS) plans to integrate and sell Actional's Looking Glass and SOAPstation products, which have the ability to transform heterogeneous environments and services beyond those of SOAP and XML. IGS will also resell DataPower's line of policy-based management functions for legacy and XML transaction flows.
Continue reading "IBM Continues Its SOA Juggernaut..."
Not content to rest easily on the laurels its major announcement two weeks ago that reorganized its software and services portfolio around SOAs, this week IBM added a little more muscle to
its services-oriented architecture (SOA) initiative by signing up
two new partners and broadening its portfolio with new technical capabilities.
IBM Global Services (IGS) plans to integrate and sell Actional's Looking Glass and SOAPstation products, which have the ability to transform heterogeneous environments and services beyond those of SOAP and XML. IGS will also resell DataPower's line of policy-based management functions for legacy and XML transaction flows.
Continue reading "IBM Continues Its SOA Juggernaut..."
Now there's an odd question, but at least one conferencing vendor is using the deadly Katrina/Rita combo to promote its services and give back a bit to the relief effort.
As fuel prices rose but didn't recede with the floodwaters, the cost of travel, even local travel, can make managers think twice about scheduling in-person meetings. So Web and video conferencing may soon gain more allure. Even those who've tried it and found it too unwieldy for most of their meetings may be ready to take another look when they review their most recent expense reports.
Realizing this potential, LiveOffice Corp. has made a special offer to its financial advisor customers, a three-month program where advisors can try LiveOffice's IMConferencing service for $150. Called the "Filler-Buster" program, the campaign is limited to the first 1,000 advisors who sign up. LiveOffice is also offering complimentary copies of its Collaboration 101 guide for financial advisors.
Continue reading "Will Hurricanes Bolster Conferencing?..."
Now there's an odd question, but at least one conferencing vendor is using the deadly Katrina/Rita combo to promote its services and give back a bit to the relief effort.
As fuel prices rose but didn't recede with the floodwaters, the cost of travel, even local travel, can make managers think twice about scheduling in-person meetings. So Web and video conferencing may soon gain more allure. Even those who've tried it and found it too unwieldy for most of their meetings may be ready to take another look when they review their most recent expense reports.
Realizing this potential, LiveOffice Corp. has made a special offer to its financial advisor customers, a three-month program where advisors can try LiveOffice's IMConferencing service for $150. Called the "Filler-Buster" program, the campaign is limited to the first 1,000 advisors who sign up. LiveOffice is also offering complimentary copies of its Collaboration 101 guide for financial advisors.
Continue reading "Will Hurricanes Bolster Conferencing?..."
I was recently helping my daughter locate French-English translations on the Internet, and we couldn't find the information we needed through nearly a half-dozen online versions of widely used dictionaries. Where we ultimately found the translations: Google, or more specifically, Google Language Tools.
Prior to this experience, I didn't even know this service existed. Not only was Google the only site where we could get the information, it provided the answers in a simple, elegant fashion.
Continue reading "Where Isn't Google?..."
Microsoft technology evangelist Robert Scoble posted a blog http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/ asking Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates if he could have some money to make an acquisition. It would go toward a company appearing at Web 2.0 this week in San Francisco. Speculation immediately centered on Morfik. What's it got that nobody else has got?
Continue reading "Web Development Made Easy: AJAX Gets An IDE..."
Having that queasy feeling in your stomach about the prospect of upcoming compliance audits? If so, good for you, it shows a healthy respect for the challenge ahead. But why not take advantage of some of the tools out there to get a snap shot of your audit readiness? What could it hurt, right? It might help to ease that acid stomach, and it just might turn up a potential problem or two that no one thought of. Either way, you win, and some of these tools are free.
Two compliance vendors last week brought out readiness evaluation tools and services. GlassHouse Technologies was up first up with its Compliance Readiness Solution, a package of evaluation services for CIOs that assess compliance readiness and identify and close potential gaps in companies' data handling procedures.
Continue reading "A Time For Assessment..."
Having that queasy feeling in your stomach about the prospect of upcoming compliance audits? If so, good for you, it shows a healthy respect for the challenge ahead. But why not take advantage of some of the tools out there to get a snap shot of your audit readiness? What could it hurt, right? It might help to ease that acid stomach, and it just might turn up a potential problem or two that no one thought of. Either way, you win, and some of these tools are free.
Two compliance vendors last week brought out readiness evaluation tools and services. GlassHouse Technologies was up first up with its Compliance Readiness Solution, a package of evaluation services for CIOs that assess compliance readiness and identify and close potential gaps in companies' data handling procedures.
Continue reading "A Time For Assessment..."
It's a puzzling paradox of life here in America in the year 2005: On the one hand, information technology has woven itself into the very fabric of our lives, so much so that it's difficult to imagine how we managed to live life without the Web, e-mail, instant messaging, cell phones, and iPods. That's most truthful for young people who, as always, are the first and most enthusiastic to embrace new consumer technologies.
Young people are very happy to consume information technology. They just don't want to create it. America's colleges and universities simply aren't turning out computer science graduates at a rate needed to fill the jobs available.
What's the solution?
Chris Murphy, our senior executive editor, news, says that IT recruiting starts at home. IT pros need to communicate to young people, starting with their own kids, that IT is still an exciting and rewarding profession to get into.
InformationWeek Editorial Director Bob Evans says universities and colleges are failing in their obligation to educate.
Both these things are true, but there's another institution to blame as well: businesses who hire IT managers.
Continue reading "Why Kids Aren't Going Into IT..."
Listen to the enthusiasm in the voice of Brian Cantrill. The 31-year-old senior staff engineer at Sun Microsystems created DTrace for Sun's Solaris operating system. DTrace provides systems administrators with real-time software diagnostics.
For his work, MIT's Technology Review named him one of its young technology innovators.
I caught up with Cantrill at MIT's recent emerging technology conference, and he explained why the app is so important. Listen to the interview. And, remember his name. He's going places.
Hi, I'm back. Did you miss me? I took my first real vacation in a long time, went to Munich for Oktoberfest and on for a r-e-s-s-s-t-f-u-l-l-l week on the Aegean coast of Greece. It's interesting how different the perspective is from overseas. Other than my 16-year-old Greek nephew, who wanted to know about Vista and told me all about what he's doing with Bart PE, I didn't talk computers with anybody. Only my airplane reading did anything to satisfy my jones for PC news. But that was plenty.
Continue reading "Airplane Reading..."
Hi, I'm back. Did you miss me? I took my first real vacation in a long time, went to Munich for Oktoberfest and on for a r-e-s-s-s-t-f-u-l-l-l week on the Aegean coast of Greece. It's interesting how different the perspective is from overseas. Other than my 16-year-old Greek nephew, who wanted to know about Vista and told me all about what he's doing with Bart PE, I didn't talk computers with anybody. Only my airplane reading did anything to satisfy my jones for PC news. But that was plenty.
Continue reading "Airplane Reading..."
Google has dropped another of its seemingly endless supply of bombshell announcements: The company has submitted a plan to cover 95 percent of San Francisco with 300kpbs wireless Internet access, at no charge either to users or to the city. I'm thrilled with the plan, both because I live in San Francisco and because SBC is obviously terrified at the idea.
Continue reading "Google In The Air..."