Opinion

Not rocket science

Wireless security may be vital, but that doesn’t mean it’s a mystery

Permissions on the edge

The way out of the digital rights tangle: Trust but verify

Insiders on outsourcing

Planned obsolescence

Smart IT execs plot their next tech move before finishing this one

Die, die accursed PC

Who is this speed-bumped beige box supposed to impress?

Business analytics is the precursor to going grid

Cost transparency is an enabler for utility computing

Getting the most from Microsoft .Net

Windows Forms enabled rapid development of an application for AIDS providers

Java pros reap benefits from Jakarta

Open source initiative offers logging, deployment tools

New models of storage for the masses

NetApp takes unified storage platform down

Forests and trees

Another idea that doesn't come from me … Bob … You have a letter from an IT pro who can't get managers to let him run their projects because his predecessors screwed up. You suggest that he hunker down fix what he can. True enough. But

If I take this job, can I bring this Athlon 64 box home?

In my previous post, I mentioned the chassis that AMD chose for its Athlon FX-51 reference machines. A couple of readers asked for more specifics. The CoolerMaster model is the WaveMaster TAC-T01. Brushed aluminum stem to stern, not a speck of plasti

Apple G5 and AMD FX-51: Separated at birth?

My AMD Athlon FX-51 reference desktop arrived in early September, wrapped in a so-not-a-PC silvery case bearing the CoolerMaster brand. Okay, it's a wicked case. Mad props to CoolerMaster and all that. I have been working with it almost constan

Orion: Pay by the pound

In 2002, I participated in an interview with Sun VP Jonathan Schwartz, who rates as one of my favorite vendor celebrities. He was busy ragging on Microsoft, as Sun was given to do, and was full stride into a rant on Windows' weird pricing and l

Defining success

Dear Bob … I feel that IT projects are different in kind and degree from non IT projects and while they benefit from standard project management techniques (PMBOK, etc), that is not sufficient to increase the probability of success more than a few

ZENWorks and the art of Windows desktop maintenance

Though Oracle is quiet about it, ZENWorks 6 is an excellent desktop-management tool

Affordable HBAs on the way

At $800 to $1,000 per port, FC connectivity gets more attractive

Fixed wireless future takes shape

Fixed wireless providers can give relief to your company, and you don’t have to give up security to get it

SCO stays in the game

More code needs to be examined to get a better view of the intellectual property case

Hedging your bets on the outcome of SCO’s lawsuit

SCO's lawsuit against IBM seems like a long shot to many, but there's no harm in considering options just in case they win

Linux users face uncertain future if SCO wins

Notion of 'derivative works' may come to haunt Linux users and IBM

Baseball lessons for software teams

Novel ways to judge the real value of dev team members

Once and future Linux

IT’s next chapter awaits the outcome of pivotal legal battle

SCO’s legal moves change the open source landscape

The SCO lawsuit creates new opportunities for proprietary vendors

A SCO loss would clear the air

Linux would be reaffirmed, and IBM would get stronger

Don’t let tech extremists suck you in

Extremist advocates poison legitimate debate

IBM and Oracle plot grids

Although they claim different strategies, both seem to be vying for control over your IT destiny

Netgear congested, Office 2003 infested

Sorting conspiracy theories from reality is enough to drive you to drink

SCO bets on its copyright lawsuit

Claim for Unix rights is a high-stakes gamble

Reader wisdom

Advice from the experts (aka, one of your fellow readers): Good advice for Getting Started in your 9/10/2003 Advice Line Newsletter. I would like to add one other context to the situation he is facing with the [former] internal candidate for his posi

Veresigned

Maybe, just maybe, they underestimated the scope of this change. As of this writing, all the .com/.net roots have a wildcard: [pvenezia@t800 pvenezia]$ dnstracer -s . -o www.notarealdomain.com Tracing to www.notarealdomain.com via A.ROOT-SERVERS.NET,

Another nail in the coffin

VeriSign has added a wildcard A record to .COM and .NET. I'm nearly speechless. Here's a PDF of the implementation. I'd seen this in the periphery and thought it would never happen… but it has actually come to pass, and it's a b

So long, and thanks for the memories

An icon has been snuffed. Wind River has announced the end of BSD/OS, or BSDi. This isn't altogether surprising, as Linux and (Free|Net|Open)BSD have taken what little market BSDi had. The decline of the small ISP also hastened the end of BSDi,

Customer Control

Dear Bob … I enjoy reading your articles, and your advice is sound and even insightful at times. I would like to get your thoughts on the issue of "customer control." By customer control I'm referring to those situations where the cu

Another desk o’death

Dear Bob … I was hired a month ago as the new head of IT for a medium-size company (the industry doesn't matter). It's one of those "desk o'death" situations you've written about in the past. Under th

Send P-to-P Packing

Make sure your company doesn't take the blame for employees who swap music files

The death spiral

Will IT ride today’s approach to anti-worm and anti-virus software to certain doom?

Virtualization eases integration

Solutions from IBM and Fujitsu Softek soothe SAN-integration headaches

Integration remains the big storage problem

Protocols may ease integration pains

Vendors square off in SAN integration challenge

EMC, HP, IBM, and Fujitsu Softek grapple with synching up three heterogeneous SANs

E-mail’s special power

If e-mail disappeared, what would replace it?

Catches in Voice-over-WLAN

Group Dekko faces problems with the new technology — just growing pains?

Emerging technologies

How do you know when to jump in on a new technology that is still having growing pains?

Microsoft training to relocate?

Brace for the RFID data deluge

BI capabilities will enhance the usefulness of wireless tags, but IT must find a way to use all the information

Vendors: follow the money

Look at who's considered today's high-margin customer

Voice over wireless LAN: Ready or not?

Some hurdles remain, but ubiquitous voice communications may be the killer app for wireless LANs

How are your listening skills?

Random musings … How are your listening skills? Many leaders, when asked that question, respond in terms of their good manners. They consider listening to be something they need to do enough of in a conversation. Some, more arrogant than others, wa

Is leaving always the answer?

Dear Bob, I've enjoyed reading your articles in InfoWorld for years. But lately as I've been reading your Advice Line email newsletter, I've been seeing a trend in your responses to people's situations. You give excellent advice

<RANT>

Take a deep breath. Count to 10, slowly. Envision a mountain stream with bears fishing, fishes bearing, John Denver strumming… OK, forget about John Denver. I've been fighting Microsoft worms for two weeks now, on every front imaginable. From

Do-it-yourself Web services management

The tools you'll need if you don't want to go the consultant route