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Hyperion Offering BI For The Masses
Hyperion plans to offer next year mini desktop applications that can deliver to customer employees selected information from the vendor's business intelligence platform.
Post Vista: Microsoft Hints At What Comes Next
When asked the other day about what's missing from Windows Vista, Steve Ballmer refused to be drawn into the discussion. "I don't choose to go down that path, sorry," he replied. At today's official launch of Vista in New York, however, Ballmer opened up, rattling off a list of things customers can expect to see in Vista's successor.
Cooliris: It's A Keeper
I've been using Cooliris for about a day now, and my verdict so far: it's a keeper.
Cooliris helps you check out a page to see if it's worth visiting. Cooliris is a browser plug-in that lets you mouse over Web links and get a pop-up window that shows the Web page on the other end of that link. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
Visit Google's Super-Secret Experimental Playground: Searchmash
Searchmash is Google's site for experimenting with new features in its core search business.
Visiting Searchmash, you're confronted with a mostly-blank page, with a logo, and a one-line text entry field inviting you to type a search query.
Enter a query and you get a single page that shows search results, with side-panels showing search results in images, blogs, videos, and Wikipedia.
Convert Videos
The free Any Video Converter for Windows lets you convert between many video formats.
Watch Out for Oracle BPMS
Oracle has one of the most widely used BPEL tools on the market, but so far they haven't shown up in Gartner's business process management suite (BPMS) magic quadrants. That should change soon. Recall that Oracle did an OEM deal in July with IDS Scheer for the ARIS Process Design Platform. At the time I speculated this had more to do with keeping up with SAP, but that's apparently not entirely true.
Web 2.0 And The Ajax Challenge
Web 2.0, and in particular the Ajax technology that often embodies it, has the technology world abuzz. Ajax facilitates more interactive Web sites that deliver a better user experience. With Ajax, Web-based software makes data retrieval transparent to the user, so software behaves more like it's running locally.
BitTorrent Raises $25 Million, Ousts Founder Bram Cohen
TechCrunch is reporting that BitTorrent received $25 million in funding and ousted CEO Bram Cohen, who created the BitTorrent protocol. The company signed licensing agreements with Warner Bros., Paramount, and others to sell movies and TV shows priced starting at $1 each, and will put its software on DVRs, cable boxes, and wireless routers to allow BitTorrent users to download legal movies or
Cooliris Is The Coolerest
Cooliris is a browser extension that give you previews of links without clicking on them, by hovering the mouse pointer over the link, then moving your mouse pointer over a tiny little icon that appears when you hover the mouse over a link. It works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari.
Cooliris reduces back-and-forths that result from clicking a link and finding out that the page is unsuitable or the link broken.
To get a look at Co
CA Upgrades Application Performance Manager Introscope
CA enhances the integration between Wily Introscope, software for managing application performance, and the Unicenter Network and Systems Management framework.
TinyURL Comes To Firefox 2.0
One of my favorite Firefox extensions has finally been updated for Firefox 2.0. TinyURL lets you make wicked long URLs into short ones, which are easier to e-mail to other people, post to newsgroups, or write down with a pen and paper.
For example: Consider this URL:
Do Apple Advocates Use FUD To Criticize The Microsoft Zune?
Jon Lech Johansen, a/k/a DVD Jon defends the Microsoft Zune against misrepresentation and distortions by its critics. Microsoft, he says, is offering features to its customers that Apple isn't offering -- features that give users
Top E-Mail Security And Productivity Tips
ITsecurity has 99 tips for e-mail security and productivity, on subjects including etiquette, effectiveness, and mobile e-mail. Samples: "Don't forward chain letters. Just don't do it," "Rule 1 of email privacy: there is no true privacy," and "Don't use e-mail whe
Exchanging A Thermos Product For A Link
I got a nice e-mail from the guy offering to exchange a Thermos product for a link -- he agreed to the trade, and will send the Thermos product to the Broward Partnership for the Homeless. Thanks, Bill.
Microsoft's Big Day
Gentlemen and gentlewomen, start your engines.
The next generation of Microsoft's flagship operating system (Vista), office productivity suite (Office 2007), and e-mail platform (Exchange 2007) will be officially unveiled this week. The event is hugely significant for Microsoft; its desktop and server products accounted for 82% of the company's $44.3 billion revenue last year. That's one big cash cow.
100 Gigabit Ethernet--Impractical and Unnecessary, But Coming Anyway
Last week, an article in InfoWorld reported that the IEEE was beginning to lay the groundwork for standardizing 100 Gigabit Ethernet networks. While this is an interesting development, and is sure to advance networking science and industry, it's totally unneeded from my perspective.
Bullying Video Tests Online Free Speech In Italy
Legal action in Italy raises the question of whether Web 2.0 sites should be held legally liable for content posted to them by users. Italian authorities are investigating Google executives in connection with a segment on Google Video showing students at a Turin school bullying an
Put Up Or Shut Up, Microsoft
I can't decide whether Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has been acting on some carefully constructed business strategy, or is just off his meds again. But his threats against companies that run Linux are getting old. When Ballmer blustered that "In a sense you could say anybody who has got Linux in their data center today sort of has an undisclosed balance sheet liability," he probably intended to strike fear into the hearts of companies running Linux servers. But instead it was one of those acutely
Give The Software Away, Sell The Data
he most used camera among Flickr users is the Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT, according to statistics released by Flickr. The company automatically captures the types of camera used to take photos that users upload.
That points to a possible new business model for Web 2.0,
Employers, Break Out Web-Use Monitoring Tools; Employees, Watch Your Backs
Today is Cyber Monday (or Black Monday as those possessing a darker outlook on life call it) and although there's ample evidence that the popular belief of it being the busiest online shopping day of the year is myth rather than reality, no one disputes that by this date, Web-based browsing for holiday gifts is in full swing.
Microsoft Wants You To Party Like It's 1995
Everyone keeps talking about five years. Five years since the release of Windows XP, five years to develop and push Vista out the door.
But Microsoft wants you to double that number, and recall the monumental launch of Windows 95 that coincided with an Office suite upgrade, culminating in the biggest festival Redmond has ever seen. I remember how the cumulous clouds in the blue Redmond sky eerily matched the software's packaging (like Bill Gates ordered them up for the event), and the nightly
Who's The Stupid Megacorporation Now?
Chevy marketers had this bright idea: As part of the campaign touting the Tahoe luxury SUV, they'd put some video clips and sound clips and stuff out there on the Web and invite users to come up with their own commercials. And the users responded -- with videos slamming the Tahoe for being an environment-destroying, terrorist-funding gas-guzzler, and ridiculing people who would buy the SUV. Sound like a marketing disaster, right? Actually -- not so much.
Governance Gauge: Top Court Issues E-Discovery Rules
Newly amended e-document related laws take effect December 1, 2006.
Dashboard: To Avoid Meltdown, Test, Measure and Check Web Site Stats Often
A Weather Channel site used web analytics to find users weren't picking up on important navigational tools.
Headsup: Explorer Upgrade May Break Interfaces
Will IE7 affect your software?
Sneak Peak Of New Windows Mobile "Crossbow"
Pics and reviews of the newest version of the Microsoft Windows Mobile OS have hit the blogosphere. The new OS, codenamed "Crossbow," is expected to debut sometime in the first half of 2007.
Shortlist: WebMethods Fabric 7 and More
Also, Hyperion System 9.3, Pervasive Data and Business Integrator 8.12 and IDS Scheer Aris 7.02.
SaaS and SOA: Together Forever
If you want a flexible and scalable software-as-a-service partner, look no further than the solid pedigree of service-oriented architecture. We explore the relationship between SaaS and SOA, two emerging approaches for delivering IT functionality, applications and end-to-end business processes.
Field Report: RiskMetrics Says SaaS Goes Better With SOA
To both consume and provide SaaS, this risk analytics firm is turning to SOA.
Kimball University: Building a Foundation for Smart Applications
Off-the-shelf apps may offer built-in analytics, but the best approach to supporting operational decisions is to rely on a solid data warehouse that cleans, integrates.
Innovation Asset Management: Don't Bottle Up Creativity
As businesses compete in the emerging knowledge economy, many are focused on managing intangible assets, such as intellectual property--and that's bringing asset management into vogue.
A New Twist On Link Exchanges
I keep a personal blog, in addition to this one. It's just a friends-and-family blog, with a dozen or so regular readers. Maybe fewer. Sometimes I don't post on it for weeks at a time. This morning, I checked my personal e-mail account and found this variation on the old link-exchange technique for search-engine optimization, in relation to something I posted on my personal blog:
Application Insight: The Unstructured Revolution
A real revolution is at hand -- and it's the ability to develop, display, manage and otherwise leverage unstructured data across the enterprise. Not excited? You should be.
Gmail Focuses On The Little Things
Google has been working on smaller refinements in Gmail. In case you haven't noticed, Gmail now has a feature that lets users see attachments in HTML instead of having to download them. Users can now also
ACLU Sues Washington State Library To Remove Internet Censorware
The ACLU sued the North Central Regional Library District in eastern Washington state, charging the library's use of a "restrictive Internet filter to bar access to information on its computers and refusing to honor requests by adult patrons to temporarily disable the filter for sessions of uncensored reading and research," according to an ACLU press release.
Microsoft Sits On Linux Dilemma Of Its Own Making
When Microsoft signed a patent agreement with Novell, owner of SuSE Linux, it thrust itself onto the horns of a dilemma. It seemed to be saying that Linux contains patent exposures. If you're a Linux user, Microsoft may sue you for using its intellectual property, unless you use SuSE.
The TechCrunch NYC Party: Web 2.0 East
While I didn't make it out to San Francisco for Web 2.0 earlier this month, I felt like I was at the East Coast version last night at the TechCrunch party.
Or You Could Just Make A Trip To Dunkin Donuts. If You Get Wet, It's Raining
Melitta is selling a coffeemaker that displays the current weather, along with the forecast, while it's making you a cup o' joe.
The coffeemaker gets the weather info using a wireless service from Microsoft.
I know you're all far too mature to make any jokes about things to watch out for if your coffee-mak
Google: Just What The Doctor Ordered?
Search is getting ready to go vertical and it looks like Google's first market of choice could be healthcare.
A study published last week in the British Medical Journal showed that a doctor or patient using common keywords thorugh a Google search could get a correct diagnosis in almost six out of 10 cases. The researchers warned that ef
China Opens Access To Wikipedia, But Some Topics Still Blocked
While China opened access to Wikipedia, it's still blocking some topics selectively:
In removing restrictions on Wikipedia, the Chinese government appears to be choosing to rely instead on keyword filters that block specific material on all sites, including Wikipedia. Subjects that are still off-limits on Wikipedia in
Google Adds Click-To-Call
The Official Google Blog explains how it works:
"Search for a business, like a hardware store, on Google Maps, and click the 'call' link next to its phone number.... Then, enter your phone number and click 'Connect For Free.' Google calls your phone number and automatically connects you to the ha
BlackFriday.info Says The Grinch Got Into Best Buy
BlackFriday.info, a site that informs consumers about holiday shopping deals, says it took down a leaked price list from Best Buy after Best Buy threatened to use the Digital Millennium Copyright Act to shut down the entire site. BlackFriday says Best Buy is abusing the law, but there's nothing they can do about it.
AboutUs Lets You Describe The Web
AboutUs is a Wiki designed to allow people to write comments about other Web sites. It currently contains listings for 3 million sites, the vast majority populated by whois records, with related links and a Google Map added for each page. Intriguing idea, but I fear it's the kind of thing that needs a critical mass to become useful, and needs to be useful before it ac
China Lifts Wikipedia Ban
China lifted its ban on Wikipedia and popularity is over the moon, with more than 1,200 users registering to contribute to the site every day.
Authorities had been blocking both the Chinese and the English versions of Wikipedia steadily since October 2005. The sites previously had been blocked in China only intermittently. The lengthy ban
Nifty Download: 'Faviconize' Your Firefox Tabs
The nifty Faviconize Tab extension minimizes the width of the label on a Firefox tab to just the favicon, to save space on your desktop. You can decide which URLs should alwas be "faviconized," and which ones should have their titles spelled out.
What's a favicon? Look to the top of your Firefox browser window right now. See the address bar? See the little "IW" immediately to the left of it? That's a favicon.
(Via
TechCrunch Vs. YouTube
TechCrunch is in a legal fight with Google's YouTube over the right of users to download YouTube videos. YouTube's attorneys claim that TechCrunch's staff violated the site's terms of use by creating a tool that lets users download YouTube videos to their hard drives or
Why Open Source Java Is Such A Big Deal
Well, it's not like the Open Sourcing of Java was a great surprise to most industry observers, but this week's announcement by Sun Microsystems that it is, in fact, releasing the Java Software Development Kit and JVM, the Java Compiler, and the just-in-time byte-code compiler known as HotSpot is a Really Big Deal nonetheless.
Coming Soon To the Zune
Ars Technica predicts some capabilities for the Microsoft Zune. Some of these are available in the current product, they're just not switched on. Zune users will be able to connect directly to the Internet and buy tunes wirelessly, without having to go through a PC. Zune users will be able to share video, and a Zune phone is likely.
Disaster Recovery Vendor GoldenGate Broadens SQL Server Support
GoldenGate Software releases an upgrade of its transactional data management system, which has been enhanced with support for IBM's DB2 on the mainframe, and better integration with Microsoft SQL Server.
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2021 State of ITOps and SecOps Report
This new report from InformationWeek explores what we've learned over the past year, critical trends around ITOps and SecOps, and where leaders are focusing their time and efforts to support a growing digital economy. Download it today!
Monitoring Critical Cloud Workloads ReportIn this report, our experts will discuss how to advance your ability to monitor critical workloads as they move about the various cloud platforms in your company.
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