Opinion

A data trust scoring framework for reliable and responsible AI systems

Stop blaming "the algorithm" for bias; without a rigorous trust scoring framework, your AI is just a high-speed engine for spreading automated inequality.

By Sunil Kumar Mudusu

Mar 26, 202610 mins

Artificial IntelligenceData QualityGenerative AI

Ubuntu on Dell desktops – Who loses?

In response to "overwhelming" customer demand, Dell will be selling some consumer models of its PCs with Ubuntu pre-installed. This is fantastic for Ubuntu, of course, but it's not necessarily bad for Novell and Red Hat. Why? First off

By Matt Asay

May 1, 2007 3 mins

Open Source

Silverlight 101

At Microsoft's MIX07 conference, the keynote was mostly about Silverlight. What is Silverlight, and why should we care about it? Officially, Silverlight "is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next

By Martin Heller

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Software Development

Online publications shifting to being marketing-driven?

A not so subtle shift is taking place in online publications that is worth noting and worth watching. Here's a link to a podcast that discusses this very issue, "Journalism and Marketing." In the old days, maybe two or three years ago,

By Ephraim Schwartz

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Technology Industry

Pimp my bride

So you made a killing selling those backdated stock options, and now you're looking for someone to help you spend all that dough? SeekingArrangements.com has the solution. It matches up Sugar Daddies and Sugar Mommas with Sugar Babies, who are m

By Robert Cringely

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Small and Medium Business Software Development

Finally, some patent sanity

After law school I lost much of my faith in the law. Perhaps because law text books focus on "edge cases," it's easy to get a jaded view of the law, and especially of the US Supreme Court. Today, I feel some of that old faith coming ba

By Matt Asay

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

SMB Tech News Today; 5/1

* Nokia adds security appliances. Two new models, including low-end job aimed at SMBs. Not just better speeds and feeds, but improved protection against smart malware threats, too. (Source: InfoWorld) * IT salary survey. Just in case you need some mo

By Oliver Rist

May 1, 2007 1 min

Technology Industry

Bad corporate cultural habits lead to tolerating waste

If you've got a data center full of x86 servers — and it's entirely likely that you do — you should be aware that on average, you may be using less than 10% of their computing power in a 24-hour period. Think about that for a moment: 10 p

By Ted Samson

May 1, 2007 3 mins

Technology Industry

Interview with F5’s Lori MacVittie Talking about SOA Security

Download file…

By Dave Linthicum

May 1, 2007 1 min

Software Development

Hitching a free ride on your neighbor’s wireless

Unencrypted Wi-Fi access may seem harmless, but it's an open invitation to hackers We live in a society where polite behavior is on the decline. Just last week, for instance, I was chagrined to discover that my neighbor had enabled encryption on

By InfoWorld Anonymous

May 1, 2007 4 mins

Data Management

Exclusive review: MeetingSense 2.0 makes meetings productive

If you're like me, you let out a big sigh every time a new meeting notice appears in your Outlook mailbox. There's often no agenda, backup documents, nor even the basics of conference call dial-in numbers. And when the meeting's done,

By Mike Heck

May 1, 2007 3 mins

Technology Industry

The truth about China

China is looking to be more than just a strategic solution for low-cost labor arbitrage Way back in the day, the term "old China hand" referred to a diplomat or journalist who had spent years stationed in China and, as a result, understood

By Ephraim Schwartz

May 1, 2007 6 mins

Technology Industry

Symantec Owns Veritas Licensing Mess

After all these years of doing the Gripe Line, I usually have a pretty good idea what kind of response any particular story is likely to get. But I was totally unprepared for the outpouring of anger from many longtime Veritas corporate customers over

By Ed Foster

May 1, 2007 6 mins

Technology Industry

I just don’t understand Red-Gate

I've been meaning to post this for quite some time, but I got hung up with a few things that took my attention.  However, I think it's important to post this update to the Red-Gate licensing post because they've really gone ou

By Sean McCown

May 1, 2007 4 mins

Databases

Dell’s desktop Linux: Ubuntu

Word on the street is that Dell has chosen Ubuntu for a line of desktops and laptops. Good for them–now to rid the world of MS Office… DesktopLinux.com: Dell to choose Ubuntu Fabian Rodriguez: It's D Day…

By Dave Rosenberg

May 1, 2007 1 min

Open Source

Test Center Tracker: Make your meetings meatier

Exclusive review: There's little in the work day that's less satisfying wasting time in an unproductive meeting. Test Center Contributing Editor Mike Heck has found an excellent remedy for those time-wasting experiences in his exclusive han

By Ted Samson

May 1, 2007 1 min

Technology Industry

One more Novellite leaves the building

While John Dragoon (a generally likable and great guy) attempts to confuse the issue as to why people are annoyed with the Microsoft/Novell pact (Hint: John, it's not an interoperability thing, it's a patent thing), the Novell exodus contin

By Matt Asay

May 1, 2007 1 min

Open Source

OpenLaszlo on Adobe’s and Microsoft’s open source RIA moves

What with the recent changes in the RIA market, including the emergence of Microsoft's Silverlight (going into beta on Monday at the MIX conference), Adobe's decision to open source its Flex platform by the end of 2007, I asked David Temkin

By Matt Asay

May 1, 2007 3 mins

Open Source

VMware Releases Free Converter 3.0.1

VMware recently released build 44840 of their free virtual machine conversion software. VMware Converter provides an easy-to-use, scalable solution for migrations of machines, both physical to virtual and virtual to virtual. With its hot clone abilit

By David Marshall

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Software Development

Isn’t the future supposed to be in front of us?

Now I'm mad.Until now, the changes from "upgrading" to Office 2007 were merely annoying. And even there, I have to admit to one advantage. So far as I can tell, the Ribbon is hard-coded, and while that eliminates customization, it does

By Bob Lewis

May 1, 2007 2 mins

Technology Industry

Coverity checks source code

Coverity has unveiled Coverity Prevent Plug-in for Eclipse, which allows developers to find software defects in source code as it is being written. An extension to the company's Prevent source code analysis system, the plug-in enables a fast ana

By Paul Krill

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Technology Industry

Virtualization – Filling in the Missing Management Pieces

If you're listening to this Podcast, you are probably like me, one of the people in the IT industry that believes virtualization is the future. And to get to that future, one of the things we need is a good way to manage the entire infrastructur

By David Marshall

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Software Development

Emerging markets to seal fate of Dell’s fall from grace

By the mid-90s, Dell's business model was unstoppable, having turned the high-tech industry and distribution on its ear with its direct-marketing model. But that model is in doubt with today's memo, which speaks of new directions for the co

By Ephraim Schwartz

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Technology Industry

Stephen O’Grady explains open source development models

Over at Tecosystems, SOG was trying to explain a misquote of his in Computerworld re:MySQL and somehow drafted a great explanation of dual-license models. The short version of my explanation went something like this: in layman's terms (I know th

By Dave Rosenberg

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

Off-topic: Craigslist is much better than eBay

At least for what I sold. I put my wife's road bike up for sale on Saturday, and by noon Monday had sold it. On eBay it was still at $250 (a fraction of its price) with six days left in the bidding process. It's possible that I would have e

By Matt Asay

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Open Source

More on Microsoft’s lobbying tactics

You know this Microsoft ODF thing is a big deal when MarketWatch is reporting on it. A great analogy popped up in the article (paraphrased) — "Word and Excel are like drugs about to go generic." Soon after introducing an open document form

By Dave Rosenberg

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Open Source

Off-topic: Fat Guy Stuck in the Internet Videos

Cartoon Network has a new show–basically a souped up version of "Gemberling," which is a series of short films about fat computer programmer who gets stuck in the internet…something we are all familiar with. Well worth the hour you will

By Dave Rosenberg

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Open Source

Sun contemplating more GPL (does it matter?)

BusinessWeek says Sun is mulling a deeper open source dive. I think it's great that Sun continues to push further into OSS, but the issue with Solaris isn't the license. The technology is good–often even superior, but it just doesn't

By Dave Rosenberg

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

When Critical Updates kill

As the flame wars over last week's post about Windows and Linux continue to rage, I thought I'd toss more gasoline onto the blaze. This one is about Microsoft's incredibly flawed update process (which was invented, of course, to fix Mi

By Robert Cringely

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Small and Medium Business Software Development

Adobe vs Microsoft battle turns to open source

Adobe open sources flex (as well as a growing list of other technologies). Microsoft responds by indicating it will open source some of its upcoming Silverlight product (which competes with Adobe's Flash technology). There is a war emerging for

By Matt Asay

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

Should We Pay SOA Bonuses?

I was listening to talk radio this weekend, and to a gentleman who was selling a book that made the case that humans work better when using incentives. I could not agree more, in my tenure as both a CTO and a CEO I always made sure incentives where t

By Dave Linthicum

Apr 30, 2007 3 mins

Software Development

Book Review: Windows Vista, The Missing Manual

I looked at the table of contents inside David Pogue's Windows Vista, The Missing Manual and thought I was going to pan it. I see a title containing a phrase like 'Missing Manual' and for some reason I think it's going to contain

By Oliver Rist

Apr 30, 2007 2 mins

Technology Industry

Test Center Tracker: When updates attack

A cure worse than the disease?: Cringely may be in an all-digital format these days, but he hasn't lost his nose for rumors, gossip, and sundry news items. His latest post on some killer updates (distributed by Microsoft) fans the flames of an e

By Stephanie McLoughlin

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Technology Industry

Mapping the world’s open source implementations

John Scott (RadiantBlue, Department of Defense) and I were IM'ing this morning, and he raised a topic that I've heard once before, but never seen implemented: a wiki/mashup/listing of all companies using open source. I think it's an ex

By Matt Asay

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Open Source

Giving Second Life a Second Chance

At the end of March, I wondered aloud whether companies like IBM were really serious about doing PR in Second Life (SL). That got me quite a few comments, mostly from people who, on even cursory examination, clearly have stakes in SL. "illumina

By Martin Heller

Apr 30, 2007 4 mins

Software Development

SMB Tech News Today; 4/30

* Dell thinking about more than direct. In a leaked memo, Dell's CEO outlines a number of 'steps to success' one of which is looking at sales opps in an 'indirect' channel. (Source: InfoWorld) * Cyber-currency business under

By Oliver Rist

Apr 30, 2007 1 min

Technology Industry

Review: Not flipping for the FlipStart micro PC

Vulcan’s entry into the burgeoning mini PC, micro PC really-small-thing-running-a-full-PC-OS-almost market has a lot about it that's small. You can see just how small in the photos of the unit next to my fat hands that ran in my March 8 pr

By Oliver Rist

Apr 30, 2007 5 mins

Technology Industry

Rootkits: The next big enterprise threat?

Capable of cloaking malware, rootkits are fast infiltrating the enterprise to expose sensitive data without detection

By Steve Hultquist

Apr 30, 2007 12 mins

Intrusion Detection Software Malware Technology Industry

Rolling out a startup a day

Consumer ventures get all the buzz, but for real utility, look to the enterprise

By Steve Fox

Apr 30, 2007 3 mins

Small and Medium Business Software Development Technology Industry

Re-entering the job market

Dear Bob …I am the IT Director at a midsize company. I've been with the same organization my entire career and it's been a great ride. But it has become obvious recently that the time has come for me to move on to bigger and better challe

By Bob Lewis

Apr 29, 2007 3 mins

Technology Industry

Open source executive moves Part…? (Ted Haeger moves on)

Novell just lost one of its most visible and vocal advocates. Ted Haeger, once the face of Novell's Linux desktop and eventually its most prominent community liason, has left Building H (Novell's former Provo headquarters) to scout greener

By Matt Asay

Apr 29, 2007 1 min

Open Source

View the VMware TSX Nice 2007 Presentations

If you weren't able to attend the VMware TSX 2007 event in Nice, you can at least now view many of the presentations online. VMware has recently added a list of presentations online, available for download. Some of the interesting presentations

By David Marshall

Apr 28, 2007 1 min

Software Development

XenSource Publishes Xen Summit 2007 Presentations

XenSource has recently published the presentations made at the Xen Summit of 2007, held in New York this April 17-18, 2007. Some interesting presentations to note: Xen Development Roadmap by Keir Fraser and Ian Pratt Paravirt Ops Update by Jeremy Fit

By David Marshall

Apr 28, 2007 1 min

Software Development

Linux Kernel 2.6.21 with VMware and KVM Support

Linus Torvalds has released the second version of the Linux kernel in 2007. And this time, it further extends the virtualization capabilities found in Linux. "It's been over two and a half months, and while it's certainly not the longe

By David Marshall

Apr 28, 2007 2 mins

Software Development

Free, Open-Source Virtualization for Mac OS X

Intel-based Mac OS X users now have yet another virtualization solution to choose from now that Innotek has announced a Mac version of its VirtualBox virtualization software. This time though, the product is based on open-source code and is the first

By David Marshall

Apr 28, 2007 2 mins

Software Development

Parallels Announces Technology Network and Virtual Appliances

Parallels, best known for their popular desktop virtualization solution on the Intel-based Mac (Parallels Desktop for Mac) and desktop virtualization solutions for both Windows and Linux, announced the Parallels Technology Network (PTN). The goal of

By David Marshall

Apr 28, 2007 3 mins

Software Development

Experts offer proof H-1Bs used to hire cheaper labor

Human resources professional, software industry analyst cite first-hand experience and government statistics to prove H-1B visas are often used unfairly as a ploy to keep wages low Two observations were sent to me following my blog entry, Professor R

By Ephraim Schwartz

Apr 27, 2007 4 mins

Technology Industry

Open source content management that you can actually use (Alfresco)

LinuxWorld has a good (and flattering 🙂 post on Alfresco and the rise of open source Enterprise Content Management that is faster, more usable, and a heck of a lot cheaper than traditional proprietary ECM. But ease of use should not be underestimat

By Matt Asay

Apr 27, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

Who really owns a free API (Nat Torkington)

Nat has a fantastic post on the value of free APIs…to those who consume but don't create them. I don't want to give them away, but here's a teaser and one of my favorites:Amazon and Google have recently shattered a common misconcepti

By Matt Asay

Apr 27, 2007 1 min

Open Source

Qantas proves that time travel is possible

Who knew? I always thought those children's fantasies about going back in time were…fantasies. But in a surprise move announced today, Qantas Airlines has revealed that it has decided to turn back the clock on industry momentum and replace Lin

By Matt Asay

Apr 27, 2007 2 mins

Open Source

Honesty at work

<p>Yes it's obvious, but if we're talking about leadership you have to talk about honesty. It's hard, and can make you unpopular from time to time. But when you stick to it you'll find benefits you never planned for, along p

By John West

Apr 27, 2007 6 mins

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