Opinion

Get more out of your data mining models

 Analyzing the data you have enriches your returns

Data mining outside the firewall

Mine the Web

Flash: Orion to collide with earth

And other fascinating revelations from Sun’s CTO of software

Nine questions for evaluating data-mining tools

Check it out before you buy

Consultancies aim to ease Web services woes

IT services companies help deliver on the promise of a new computing paradigm

The power of the grid

Organizations are discovering more uses for ever-evolving grid computing technology

Beer, hacker roasts, and peace of mind

The teen who unleashed Blaster-B deserves punishment, but it's high time Microsoft took security seriously

Web services: too cheap to meter

Web services are hot, but for cool-headed reasons

Anti-spammers get wormed

More than worms

If you think your challenges are SoBig and its friends, check out the bigger picture

Complex, ergo simpler

Maxxan proposes simpler storage via more complex switches

Crossing the management divide

Bob, I thoroughly enjoy reading your weblog and KJR and am taking much of your advice to heart. I have a strong technical background and well-honed commuication/people skills (former consultant). I just got hired by a major University to work as a m

Security blame games

Worm epidemics inspire more scorn for Microsoft

Pearl Harbor

More reader advice: Lauren Perreault suggests: Although you asked this guy ("Desperate") if he had any documentation, I would also add the future advice to create a "Pearl Harbor" file. Any time your boss either leaves yo

Choosing the new boss

Dear Bob, I work for a small company with an IT staff of 8. We are currently without a department manager and probably won't hire one until late this year or early next year. When it comes time to hire a new manager all of us will have at least

Pay to be seen

More companies are shelling out cash for top placement by Internet search engines

Getting Past 1984

High tech can serve, if we let it

The real cost of switching to Linux

Is the total cost of ownership really lower than Unix or Windows?

More pleasant surprises, please

Software should recognize our patterns and make our lives easier

Industries where Linux makes sense

Some vertical markets are especially well-suited to the Linux option

How to prepare before you leap to Linux

Helpful hints from those who have taken the plunge

Lowering storage TCO

New SAS products promise performance, reliability, and contained space requirements

Tight budgets are no excuse to be lax on security

Looking for an excuse to recruit a security professional? Just scan recent headlines.

For want of a wall…

Don’t let your company be the source of the next big attack

Reader wisdom

More advice for "Slightly stressed tech" from other readers: From Dan Sitler: He should take at least 8 work days off (10 to 16 calendar days if possible). If he can do this, make sure the users call his boss while he's gone.

Faith-based computing 

Why there's no such thing as a free lunch — in meals or operating systems 

So long, Joe, and thanks for all the SPEWS

In a move sure to delight spammers everywhere, Joe Jared's Osirusoft SPEWS (spam prevention early warning system) blacklist database is now off-line. SPEWS survived lawsuits, constant threats and vilification by the press. It was a relentless d

Should have done this last night

After witnessing the sheer volume of virus-laden emails shipped via blues, I decided that sending a 550 back to the client just isn't justified. Thus, it's the bitbucket for all those emails now. Take a look at the graphs. As of this writin

Putting on the Thimking Hat

"Thimking," and reserving time for it … Credit where it's due: "Thimk!" – the headline of one of last week's entries – came from an old Mad Magazine poster. Quite a readers provided thoughts and ideas. Here ar

Should have done this last week

Finally got some time to drop a simple SoBig.F filter on blues. In 20 minutes, 225 emails were rejected. This is by no means pretty, since blues doesn't have the horsepower to handle real virus scanning. All I did was insert a new local rule tha

Manipulation 101

Dear Bob, We have corresponded several times in the past. I always appreciate your insights and provocations. But the 7/23 Advice Line [The 7/14 weblog entry, mailed out 7/23 – Bob] is giving me apoplexy, mainly the first two paragraphs in your resp

Extending laptops’ ROI

New mobile drives can prolong the life of obsolescing computers

The good worm. Or not.

Nachi may be trying something good, but it still doesn't belong on your network

Herding users

Corralling roaming profiles is easier with the right tools

Adjusting SAN volume control

Companies contemplate making an intelligent switch

Weaving SAN fabric proves complicated

Even switches from the same company don't get along readily

Dynamic languages and virtual machines

Trying to find a way to tame the services network that is under construction

Shifting IT budgets

Companies are steering dollars toward integration, open source

Committed to reviews

Our Test Center serves those who must approve or nix new products and technologies

SAN management is still rocket science

Bewildering CLIs and configuration settings remain a challenge

J2ME connects corporate data to wireless devices

Sacrificing proprietary gimmicks for software portability, J2ME leads the way

Identity theft: It’s not about you

The only ones sowing fear about digital identity are the ones who don't need it

What color is the sky?

Dear Bob: I'm working in an IT department at a major healthcare facility. My duties are to: 1. Support all end user calls. This means anything from my computer is unplugged to my hard disk needs reloading. 2. Support a 15 server networ

Pitfalls of J2ME development

Vague specs and hardware differences pose problems for programmers

It’s going to get expensive for SCO

SCO's missteps are many and record-making. I predicted that going after Linux would bring out leagues of obsessive geeks armed with electron microscopes. Proving SCO wrong is now the ultimate wizard's challenge, like a million-dollar conte

Hung out to dry

Dear Bob,I've made a serious mistake at work.  The only way I can explain it is to say that I did what my boss wanted me to do (which is what happened).   My boss had told me several times, in various settings, to hire

Profile of a Duct Tape Tool

WYSE included <A HREF="http://www.thinkman.com/dimension4/index.html">D4Time</a>, a freeware utility, to handle the SNTP synchronization of every client, but the utility doesn't have timezone support, and the EmbeddedNT DHC

Fork in the road

Dear Bob, I am&nbsp;a 29-year-old&nbsp;support analyst (for middleware, DB2 and Lotus Notes Server Administration) working&nbsp;as a contractor. I've started my career working part-time while still taking university Computer Science

Laziness and ineptitude let the Blaster worm win

Sure, you know what to do to keep your enterprise safe, but you also have to actually do it

Network management made affordable

As companies pinch pennies, affordable network tools are worth a close look