Opinion

Microsoft tools ease Vista deployment

Free software reduces the stress of the OS upgrade

Tolerating online fraud

Laissez-faire attitudes toward security abound, as one money-making hand washes the other

Deploying Microsoft Office 2007

Despite what you might hear, the process is trickier than you might hope

Daylight Saving changes for Outlook users

Microsoft has posted an article on how to make changes to Outlook in preparation for the forthcoming Daylight Saving Time adjustment. Here is a snip from the full article: In August 2005, the United States Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which

Gartner security expert: RFID middleware, readers vulnerable

The recent flap over RFID vulnerability in security cards manufactured by HID led me to call Gartner and to have a talk with its top security guy John Pescatore, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst. I was suddenly wondering how insecure RFID rea

Crackpot tech: Quantum cryptography redux

The Piranha Effect

VMware’s New Acronym: FUD

It's time for another episode of the "Sour Grapes Chronicles." This week I'm spotlighting VMware and the breathless diatribe it unleashed last week against all things Microsoft. I am, of course, referring to the white paper the co

You should be a mentor, starting right now

<p>Ok, so we've <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/leadtrenches/archives/2007/02/why_you_need_me.html">talked about</a> why you should recruit mentors as you develop your own ability to get your job done better/fast

Test Center Tracker: Sunrise, sunset… and daylight savings

Here comes the sun: Daylight savings time arrives early this year – as in March 11, about a week and a half away. The date was moved up three weeks with the intent of saving some energy (check out Ted Samson's thoughts on the realities of that i

In Praise of ASP.NET

I'm working on a data-intensive Web site for a client, the kind of gig I can't really talk about except in general terms. Basically, we have extracted the non-proprietary information from thousands of detailed technology reports, and loaded

A Pioneer collides with Metropolis

Dear Bob …Referring to this week's Keep the Joint Running, ("Office biogeography," 2/26/2007), just yesterday I was put on "Administrative Leave" because I am a "Frontier Person" (aka, Pioneer) living in the corpo

Reference Models, Reference Architecture, and Enterprise Architecture…Oh My!

Some of you may have tuned into the Shared Insights Webinar on "Marching Toward SOA: Does EA Lead the Band?" I can't find the archive of it, by the way. However, there is a good summary article here, by Rich Seeley. So, this is the lar

One PC switcher’s tale

Every day, around 9,000 people switch to the Mac. Here begins a unique test case

Dark days before daylight-saving time

With March 11 just around the corner, you need your systems prepped and patched now

Attachmate touts SOA for mainframes

Attachmate on Tuesday debuted Verastream Host Integrator 6.5, for accessing mainframe data and logic. The product is geared to SOA integration. Featured is flexibility for Web-based user interfaces and support for 64-bit hardware and software platfor

New Daylight Saving Time not so bright an idea

Call me a conspiracy theorist, if you like, but I suspect the coffee lobbyists in Washington D.C. had a hand in convincing Congress to extend Daylight Saving Time (DST) by a full month. DST kicks in on March 11 this year, three weeks earlier than be

Create an inclusive leadership style

<p>A sizeable part of get on track to becoming a successful leader is adopting the right attitude. Example: when resolving a conflict between one or more people we are taught, from a very early stage, to think about the <em>winners</em

Test Center Daily: IBM won’t do Oracle Linux

Big Blue says "no" to Oracle: Matt Asay over in the Open Sources blog notes that IBM, for the time being, isn't ready to promise users that its software will run on Oracle's brand of Linux, despite Oracle's claims that its Li

The benefits of a fast close

IT can help the finance department get its closing numbers to Wall Street faster A fast close –the ability of a company to complete its accounting cycle and close its books — is more than just a badge of honor for the finance department. It means d

The benefits of a fast close

IT can help the finance department get its closing numbers to Wall Street faster

When lawyers use Napster at work

Take an open network, add file sharing, and you've got a security hole big enough for a battleship

Acrobat Activation Agonies

There has to be a better way. Even if you have some sympathy for software publishers wanting to protect themselves from piracy, anyone who has experienced the aggravation that a flawed copy protection scheme can cause knows that the industry's D

To SOA, or not to SOA, that is the Question

To SOA, or not to SOA, that is the Question Download file…

Veeam Software Announces the New FastSCP 2.0 for ESX

Today, the international Russian software firm, Veeam Software, announced the release of their second generation fast and secure copy program – Veeam FastSCP 2.0 for VMware ESX Server. Veeam FastSCP is an easy-to-use tool that is used to perform file

Novell Makes Announcements with Microsoft and Intel

Novell has recently come out with two announcements, one announcing a collaboration for customers between Novell and Microsoft, and the second, an announcement between Novell and Intel about a device driver allowing unmodified Windows Server 2000/200

Failed DRM

Copy protection schemes hinder the honest customers, not the pirates. &nbsp;LISTEN!…

Dell, the new (free) Linux provider?

You have probably learned it by now, from various web sites such as <a title="Slashdot – Pre-Installed Linux Tops Dell Customer Requests" target="_blank" href="http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/19/2212213&quo

CipherMax bets the company name on encryption

If the name CipherMax triggers a blank stare, think of Maxxan, a name that you may remember from previous articles , because the two are one and the same. According to CipherMax, the new name was inspired by a new line of products focused on encrypti

Understanding SOA Architectures and Models…SOA RA

Continued from my last blog…while there are SOA Reference Architectures all over the place, including mine, the best known SOA Reference Architecture (SOA-RA) is defined by OASIS. So, what's a reference architecture and how does it relate to

Why you need mentors

If you talk to successful people in any walk of life and ask them how they became successful, almost all of them will include the contributions of one or more mentors in their list. One of the best ways to develop, to learn, or to do anything new is

Semantic Web toolset readied

TopQuadrant plans on Monday to announce availability of TopBraid Composer 2.0, a modeling toolset for languages pertinent to the Semantic Web. These languages include RDF/S (Resource Description Framework Schema) and OWL (Web Ontology Language). TopB

Use Red-Gate’s backup… and Go to Jail???

A reader just informed me that there's a huge problem with Red-Gate's licensing for SQL Backup. I never would have dreamed this, but I checked, and it's true. The basic problem is this… if you buy a SQL Backup license, it's not

Test Center Tracker: iSCSI in the spotlight

Fresh from the Test Center: It's an iSCSI explosion! We've got reviews of LeftHand Networks' SAN/iQ and the EqualLogic PS3800XV, plus a full report on iSCSI's present and future. If you're looking for storage upgrades, this i

Komodo Extensions Contest

I guess that ActiveState really wants developers to build extensions for Komodo IDE 4.0 and Komodo Edit 4.0. They recently set me this press release: ActiveState Software Inc., the leading provider of development tools and services for dynamic langua

“Neither here nor there” followup

Two weeks ago I posted a question from "Neither here nor there," whose position was, apparently, going to go away as the result of his company being acquired ("When your position evaporates," Advice Line, 2/13/2007). He was kind e

HP ships D2D backup for SMB, with no tapes, literally

If you're keeping a tally of how many different packaging of the Proliant server line HP can come up with, add one more, actually two more: The StorageWorks D2D110 and D2D120 Backup System. The two systems have essentially the same form factor a

At 25, Sun struggles to reinvent itself

In a bid to shape its future, Sun Microsystems must look to its past

iSCSI: The rising enterprise star

iSCSI won’t replace Fibre Channel anytime soon. But for SMBs and remote offices, the low price and overhead are just right

The trends that shape iSCSI’s trajectory

Experts debate where iSCSI will find its niche

New choices in networked storage

Companies such as Agami Systems are taking on Network Appliance in NAS, SAN, and iSCSI

The well connected distributor

Electronic parts distributor Avnet needed simpler connections to its customers — and among its internal systems. The solution: service orientation and a common data model

The greening of IT

Environmentalism in the datacenter is suddenly part of the Zeitgeist

StorageCraft and VMware Sign OEM Agreement

Utah-based StorageCraft Technology, provider of innovative disk-based backup, disaster recovery, data protection and security solutions for servers, desktops and laptops, announced an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement with virtualizatio

Virtualization Licensing for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP2

Microsoft does it again. Just when you thought you were completely confused about Microsoft virtualization licensing, they do it again. Remember when Microsoft announced their virtualization license policy for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2 Datacen

Egenera Awarded Patent for ARP in Virtualization

Egenera, Inc. announced that they have been awarded U.S. Patent No. 7,174,390 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent is titled, "Address resolution protocol system and method in a virtual network." According to the company, &qu

More on offshore

My recent posting about offshoring ("Thoughts about the economics of offshoring," Advice Line, 2/19/2007) resulted in quite a few comments. Two common threads deserve a reply.The first is the common complaint about job loss. It's a ver

Review: Parallels and VMware Mac Solutions

Virtualization on Intel-based Mac OS X machines has been a hot topic for quite a while. Parallels hit the ground running when it first introduced us to their Desktop for Mac product, and they haven't slowed down or looked back since. Microsoft b

The Secret Life of SuperFetch

One of the more mysterious new features of Windows Vista is its SuperFetch memory management subsystem. Billed as a "smart" pre-caching mechanism, SuperFetch is supposed to improve system responsiveness by monitoring application usage patte

Double-Take Introduced to VMware Infrastructure

Double-Take Software Inc. has announced that it is enhancing its replication product offering for VMware environments. The solution will now replicate the virtual machines at the host level, which should make the solution more cost effective for the