Opinion

Clearing up my views on OSS: 2 of 2

See post 1 of 2 here. Recently Shaun Connolly wrote: "I admit I have traded barbs with Savio in the past. I still like my "Open Source Community and Barack Obama" blog that got him off his uninformed rants of JBoss not being "open

Running cable without a clue

Back in the bad old days, sloppy network cabling practices caused intermittent network problems that were painful to solve One day we got a call from somebody having trouble with her mainframe connection. I had started the installation of this workst

A new bandwidth breakthrough

Polymer integrated circuits promise gigabit Internet bandwidth everywhere. And the first killer app will be videoconferencing We all realize that technology can change human behavior. If you don't quite know what I mean, just ask television netw

Security information management

Buyers' Guide: Follow InfoWorld's expert advice before shopping for a SIM solution to monitor network security and compliance

This has got to stop

Clearing up my views on OSS: 1 of 2

Recently, John Jackson wrote: "After reading your posts for the last ~1 year, I am wondering why you are on an open source forum. It seems to me that you don't understand the point that comparing the newer model of open source software (tec

CES groomed for green

Green tech continues to flourish, and not only in the enterprise. Eco-friendlier tech wares are becoming more plentiful in the pockets and on the desks and laps of end-users, as evidenced by the green-tinged goods showing up at the annual CES (Consum

Is the success and influence of Gates and company repeatable in the 21st Century?

In reading that this is Bill Gates last appearance at CES [Consumer Electronics Show] I got to thinking, was Gates lucky the first time? Could he repeat in 2008 what he did in 1978? What this question is not asking is can an entrepreneur start a comp

More on Bad SOA Consultants

Boy, I really hit a nerve with this post, speaking about how some SOA consultants are killing SOA. You can read the comments, but I received many more e-mails (mostly from free account) verifying that this is indeed an issue. Of course, I have some m

Test Center Tracker: Peek at the top tech of 2007 — and beyond

And the winners are … With the Writers Guild of America on strike, it's hard to guess what the next Emmy or Oscar Awards will bring. Fortunately, we're not having any strikes here at InfoWorld, and thus we can bring to you the 2008 InfoWo

“Flyback” to the future

Those who follow my online ranting know how disappointed I've been with Microsoft's Vista Backup utility. Here you have this technically superior (to Apple's "Time Machine") backup solution that is hamstrung by the fa

Yet Another Silverlight Sports Video Site

What is it with Silverlight and sports video sites? First baseball, then basketball, and now the Olympics. This just in from Microsoft: Tonight at CES in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced that NBC Universal has chosen to partner with Microsoft to make &

Honoring technology that matters

When IT's messy problems seem insurmountable, there's an easy antidote: Have a close look at a year's worth of great products. You'll renew your faith that innovation can overcome any difficulty. We at InfoWorld have that honor ev

Blue rays of hope?

Promises broken, contracts torn up, splashy CES announcements hastily canceled. It was a nasty bit of business all right – and no, I'm not talking about Warner Brothers' sudden decision to ditch the HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-ray.

Even the Homeless Hurt by Vista Updates

<P>I'm still drying out and powering up after California's storms, as is my webhost's DNS server, so I apologize to those who've been trying to get through to the Gripe2ed website. But there's nothing like going through

Reasons to buy Microsoft

Just back from a few days off to find a pair of bullish notes on Microsoft; and what a pleasure it is to see something positive after the carnage of last week. Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar raised her earnings estimates for the software giant on

Should disciplinary freezes carry over?

Dear Bob …In response to your recent post, "How long should a discipinary freeze last?" I think you missed the point of his question.His point was that if you are not included in the 4% this year, next year's 4% is based on a lower b

Intel/OLPC split

Looks like the co-operation between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative has come to a grinding halt with Intel's decision to quit the OLPC board. The OLPC is an open source software based laptop targeted at emerging markets with

Citrix and HP team up on virtualization

Virtualization vendors continue to fight the fight for virtualization market penetration by creating bundling deals with leading hardware providers. Citrix Systems and Hewlett-Packard have announced such a deal and will be working together to push se

Determine virtualization readiness in three seconds

Virtual Iron recently highlighted the top 10 posts that received the most attention in all of 2007 from its company blog. The blog post titled "The 3-Second Hardware Virtualization Check" seemed to be the company's biggest winner and m

MessageLabs update

I cheated.After my last post regarding my problems with MessageLabs ("Spam filtering for dummies," Advice Line, 12/26/2007) I notified the company's press contacts that I'd highlighted MessageLabs in Advice Line. (Unlike non-clien

LINQPad LINQ Query Builder

As I was testing the LINQ to SQL functionality in Visual Studio 2008, I found myself missing the SQL Query Builder. For the relatively simple three-table inner join SELECT queries I needed, I was able to write correct LINQ syntax myself with only a

SonicWall TZ180W

With more and more small office and branch offices (SOBO) opening around the world, it makes sense that vendors are attempting to add big box features into tiny little appliances. Now while I've not done any real throughput testing (RFC2544 or s

Geek Week in Review

No bangs, just whimpers. The year 2008 started with a bang up in Seattle – or it would have, if the city's fireworks show had gone off as planned. Instead, a glitch in the software running the pyrotechnics forced the technicians to reboot

Stop the big-drive addiction

New 2.5-inch drives from Hitachi open worthwhile possibilities for laptops and storage arrays

Security predictions for 2008

A recap of 2007 and what to expect in the coming 12 months

Parallels starts beta testing of its server virtualization product

Parallels has officially kicked off the first round of beta testing for its long awaited Parallels Server product. For those of you interested in participating in this beta, you'll have to wait for now. Parallels has kicked off Beta 1 to a small

Research: Cell-phones plus driving equals traffic

You might just think you're an excellent driver, even while chatting on your cell phone. In truth, however, even if you've got both hands on the wheel thanks to a handy hands-free phone, you're likely contributing to aggravating, dange

Ruby on Rails gets new default database

A minor, incremental upgrade to the Ruby on Rails Web application framework released on December 17 makes a change in the framework's open source default database. With the 2.0.2 release of Ruby on Rails, the default database has been switched f

East versus West in the marketplace — who will win this duel to the death?

If there is such a thing as bringing closure to a rumor that was rampant at the end of last year, let me try to do that by saying it is highly unlikely that one of the top three Indian services organizations, Tata Consulting, Infosys or Wipro will bu

A New Year’s Podcast

Welcome to a new year of SMB IT. I'm going to start the year with the first episode in a new series of podcasts. My plan is for the podcasts to be weekly affairs with news of SMB IT products and issues along with interviews of vendors, service p

Takeover fever still rages

Technology and communications companies spent nearly $500 billion buying each other in 2007. The new year will be much the same, with software and storage leading the charge. A report by The 451 Group, a technology research firm, highlights the takeo

CES and Macworld Expo predictions

Two trendsetting trade shows hit back to back, starting next week. Here's a preview. Being far softer of belly and of brain for the time off, I'm glad to be returning to working and working out. Just in time, too, because I have just enough

The definition of green

One of my blog readers, the author of the "Green" Supply Chain Analyst Weblog, posed an interesting question in one of my previous posts. Essentially he asked, What defines a green product or service?

Virtualization in 2008: funding and acquisitions continue

Computerworld recently put out a report that venture capitalist firms still consider the virtualization market as a hot spot for future VC funding in 2008. At the same time, Macworld is reporting that virtualization vendors are set for acquisition at

Yes, OSS does innovate

Some of you may have seen this article in Discover Magazine by Jaron Lanier. I find it difficult to argue when someone challenges "OSS obvious truths" because doing so takes some degree of professional courage. Jaron writes: "Twenty-fi

2008 Prediction: cash is still king

My accounting prof liked to say that "cash is king". I believe him, and in 2008, I predict that cash (i.e. revenue and profit) will begin to matter a lot more to OSS vendors and their VCs/investors. I don't buy the "OSS is differe

Urlocker: My top 10 stories of 2007

Following up on the most underreported stories of the year, I thought I'd pick a few select blog entries as my top 10 stories of the year. (Or actually of the last six months of my blogging here at InfoWorld.) That's not to say these are th

New year brings tough new state immigration laws

While efforts to rewrite immigration law at the federal level failed last year, two state measures, Tennessee House Bill No. 729 and Arizona House Bill 2779, will have far-reaching repercussions for immigrants who want to work in the United States, a

Sun to host free OpenEco Energy Camp on Jan. 10

Just because it's winter doesn't mean it's too early for camp. Sun Microsystems will host the OpenEco Energy Camp on Thursday, Jan. 10, and swimsuits and sleeping bags are purely unnecessary. (Marshmallows are optional.)

Marriage of IT and telecomm will create more job opportunities

What better proof point that IT and telecommunications are rapidly merging and evolving into a new industry segment than the fact that IBM is positioning itself for the change over through recent acquisitions in the last 18 months, and the coming int

Predictions 2.0: Things that will make you Cringe in 2008

It's fun, it's easy, and virtually everybody else does it, so why not Le Cringe? I whipped out the Oujia Board, spit into some tea leaves, examined a few goat entrails, and came up with some of the big trends in tech that will come to pass

TC Tracker: It’s a promising, wonderful new year!

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous 2008! Want to keep XP? Of the many changes expected for later this year, the end of life of Windows XP is probably a primary concern for many IT departments. If you're wondering why, welcome from that long

Save Windows XP! The clock is ticking

Sign our petition to demand that Microsoft not to stop OEM and shrinkwrapped sales of Windows XP as planned on June 30, 2008, but instead keep it available indefinitely.

Some Consultants Are Bad for SOA

First of all, full disclosure. I am a SOA consultant, thus I'm always a bit careful when I talk about other consultants in the business. However, I'm also an industry pundit, and, as such, I think it's time for me to point out a rather

The Worst Vendor Poll

<P>Yes, it's time to make up your mind and cast your vote. And it's going to be really hard to choose, because there are so many worthy candidates. But a breathless nation awaits your verdict, so I know I can count on all of you to d

UI Design: Beauty, or Consistency?

For years, one of the big selling points of Windows was its consistency: once you've learned how to use one Windows application, you've learned a lot about using most Windows applications. You could say essentially the same thing about Mac

VMware updates compatibility guides for ESX

In case you missed it, VMware recently updated its compatibility guides for the VMware ESX Server product: HCL: Storage Compatibility Guide for ESX Server 3.x VMware ESX Server 3.x has been tested and deployed in a variety of storage area network (SA

Computerworld’s virtualization face-off

Computerworld recently did a really interesting piece with columnists Frank Hayes and Mark Hall squaring off over virtualization technologies. The face-off was less about the technology and more about the "when" aspect of virtualization. Ha

Xen Project Roadmap and Status

If you weren't able to make the fall Xen Summit in November of 2007, don't worry, you can catch up on the presentations that were given at this event by downloading them from the xen.org Web site. Ian Pratt, leader and chief architect of th