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Latest posts from all the ZDNet blogs
Latest posts from all the ZDNet blogs
- SOA Insights analysts probe Software AG's webMethods buy, wikis for SOA governance, and SOA hype curves - 2007-07-08 11:55:24-04
Read a full transcript of the discussion. How good of a match-up was the recent Software AG acquisition of WebMethods? Was is strictly a geographical sales force synergy? Or will webMethods become the de facto R&D arm of Software AG while the parent firm's legacy cash flow sustains the movement toward SOA? Are the mutual product sets well aligned to provide a fuller SOA suite offering? All of the above? We posed these and other questions to our panel of independent IT industry analysts in a recent BriefingsDirect SOA Insights Edition roundtable podcast discussion. We also delve into the ongoing heavy-breathing between SOA and Web 2.0. Should governance by done by wikis, for example? Is this mashup of SOA and...
- Turn your SOA into a HOA (human oriented architecture) - 2007-07-08 15:00:00-04
In light of all the pushing to bring IT to closer to the business, Dana Gardner is proposing an experiment. That is, take an accountant -- or better yet, CFO -- to lunch, to see how much they understand service-oriented architecture, and use the occasion to sell them on the value of SOA. Perhaps SOA could benefit from the free-form collaboration of Web 2.0 -- and breaking bread with a bean counter. "Tell them how great IT is and what SOA can do in terms of long-term efficiency and lower total costs," Dana advised in the latest SOA BriefingsDirect podcast to be released. "Bring in some of the other megatrends, such as software as a service, virtualization, and data master...
- Vista SP1 beta 1 to launch in mid-July - 2007-07-08 15:31:25-04
It's official: We are now in the under-promise and over-deliver era at Microsoft. Just when Microsoft had customers, partners and competitors all believing that it was going to delay the first service pack for Vista -- not releasing a first beta of it until just before year-end -- the company is set to deliver Beta 1 of Vista SP1 in mid-July. Word (from various sources who asked not to be named) is Microsoft is gearing up to drop Vista SP1 some time the week of July 16. And despite what Microsoft seemingly led Google, the U.S. Department of Justice and other company watchers to believe, the final version of Vista SP1 is sounding like November 2007. (November 2007 is also...
- U.S. Best Buy to sell the iPhone? - 2007-07-08 19:52:58-04
According to a newly posted page on the site of Best Buy-Canada, the iPhone is coming to that nation soon. That in itself is news, of course. But what is even more interesting are the questions that such an impending availability pose: 1. Apple only has four retail stores in Canada. Three are in the Toronto region, and one is in suburban Montreal. So is the Best Buy-Canada iPhone availability a move by Apple to extend their retail reach from their own few stores to the 48 Best Buy stores throughout Canada? 2. Given the inevitable mania when iPhone is released in Canada, would it be a good idea for Best Buy-Canada to equip personnel in its in-store Geek...
- Third-party Skype developers offer feature suggestions - 2007-07-08 20:15:15-04
A post by Skype Journal's Jim Courtney leads us to a Skype Developer Zone wiki page where third-party Skype developers offer their recommendations and added features for future versions of Skype. Proposals and reactions are due in by July 11, which is this Wednesday. Some may stay as recommendations, while others will probably become reality. With that in mind, let's go down the list. Where I have something to add, I will, in boldface. API Calls OnContactsProfileChange event. Fired when a contact changes any part of their profile API call to grab avatar in memory rather than via temp file. Yes. The fewer temp files, the better. Search using exact match instead of wildcards. Yes, yes and yes. Skype...
- BlackBerry 88xx series test results surface on FCC site - 2007-07-08 21:25:05-04
OK, now this is real advanced stuff. Electrical Engineering degree or IEEE membership probably needed to grasp all the data in the FCC-required, newly posted report on tests for the Wi-Fi enabled BlackBerry 8800/8830 series. Bottom line, everything checks out A-OK. But if you are brave and want to dig deeper, this 109-page report from the testing service BlackBerry uses will let you know about the BlackBerry 8800/8830 via talking hundreds of highly technical diagrams and charts here. Let's just pick a few, which plot the results of tests performed on 802.11g: Good to know there are folks who check BlackBerrys out before we dig in and buy one.
- Don't be fooled, Linux is not free - 2007-07-08 21:31:33-04
I just finished reading Chris Dawson's most recent piece (Linux definitely has a place in education) and I couldn't agree more, until he said ... "If the choice is arbitrary, then would you rather pay hundreds of dollars (or many thousands or millions at the enterprise level) or would you rather use something free? What if the free products have arguable advantages outside of cost, as well?" The fact is that, in a production environment, Linux is NOT a free solution. There are costs associated with every solution and the relative cost of any solution is dependent upon many factors. In the end, no solution will serve all needs, nor will any solution, by itself, prove to be dramatically more cost-effective than...
- Google calculator - it's no TI-89, but it's pretty cool - 2007-07-09 02:00:34-04
As I was wrapping up some coursework last night, I cut and pasted a modulus expression into my Google search bar, hoping for some references on how to solve a particular problem. Google instead offered a solution to the problem and pointed me to their calculator function. In addition to the proposed solution, I was offered a link to search for documents containing my search string as well. This is actually an incredibly handy feature, since any search string entered into Google that looks like a math problem gets solved. This includes units conversions (actually a separate feature), trigonometric functions, logarithms, roots and powers, factorials, and combinatorics. Wow. While it hardly rivals full-featured graphing calculators, it's a useful tool that...
- Apple sneaks Java support onto the iPhone - 2007-07-09 03:01:18-04
Despite public comments by Steve Jobs that "Java's not worth building in [to the iPhone]", it turns out that Apple did just that by using an ARM-based CPU that supports Java natively. Programmers cannot (yet) take advantage of this, but Apple could, if they wanted, ship a software upgrade to enable it. Shortly after the iPhone went on sale, hardware enthusiasts started tearing into them to see what made them tick. They found that the iPhone is using an ARM1176JZF-based processor, probably the Samsung S3C6400 that operates at 667MHz. This chip sports an embedded Java acceleration engine called Jazelle. From the ARM web site: ARM processors traditionally support two instruction sets; ARM state, with 32-bit instructions and Thumb state which...
- Compromise - 2007-07-09 03:15:42-04
Compromise is generally considered to be a good thing: you have one agenda, I have another, but a compromise provides the middle road we can both support. Right? Not always, and almost never on strategic or design issues. In both cases a compromise means that somebody's holistic vision of what something could look like, work like, or become gets hacked up to produce something that meets neither side's needs. How bad this gets depends on your criteria and how resilient the original design or strategy is: a couple of Macintosh holdouts won't disrupt an all Microsoft client-server infrastructure, but a single metallized plastic bucket of artificial flowers will destroy the design integrity of a stone and wood setting. I see...
- Differences - 2007-07-09 04:41:48-04
I am gaining interesting insights into differences in technology adoption as I travel to various parts of the world. Today I am in Beijing where I have met with customers, prospects, analysts, and journalists. One theme that has been expressed is that China looks to the US and Europe to lead the way in networking technology. In other words, a telecom provider here can get a glimpse of the future by looking at what their Western counterparts are up to. I find that a little ironic because I know many US telecom providers are focussed on South Korea because of the widely deployed broadband there. I'll learn more about Korea when I pass through Seoul next week. Another common theme...
- Is Microsoft rushing Vista SP1 to boost adoption? - 2007-07-09 05:49:32-04
Over the weekend my blogging colleague Mary Jo Foley reported that Microsoft is set to deliver Vista SP1 beta by mid-July. Sounds to me like Microsoft is rushing SP1 out of the door in order to encourage business users to adopt the new OS. SP1 is not so much an update for Vista but more a marketing toolThere are several aspects of Mary Jo's report, which if they turn out to be true (or even close to true) suggest that Microsoft is fast-tracking SP1. For example, dropping the beta in by mid-July and then the final version in November is fast turn-around for Microsoft and suggests that SP1 is not so much an update for Vista but more a marketing...
- Day 8 of the old coffee-in-the-keyboard trick - 2007-07-09 05:59:02-04
Here's a quick status report for those following my adventures in Dell-land. It's now been 8 days since I sloshed coffee in the keyboard of my new Dell laptop. Although I had a next-business-day, on-site service contract, the machine was not repaired on site on the next business day. It was sent to the Dell service depot. I've not heard a thing from Dell since it arrived at the depot on Day 5 of this adventure. I've reconstructed one of the two missing files and will start on the next one today. Thanks, once again, for all your encouraging messages. It appears that this is a much more common experience than I would have expected. 8:30 AM update I just...
- XDS - a new take on access virtualization - 2007-07-09 06:00:07-04
A short while ago, Roger Sakowski and I had the opportunity to speak with XDS, Inc.???s CEO and Chairman, Mario Dal Canto. His company has a new take on the idea of access virtualization. XDS, Inc., the SIMtone. Here's how XDS, Inc. presents this idea: SIMtone??? is a paradigm-shifting network service. It's a digital dial tone pervasively available across the global network that automatically manages and provisions network and session connectivity, security and devices. With the SIMtone???, digital services such as desktops, applications and media content are as simple and efficient to provision, manage and deliver as standard telephone service. And just like the telephone, users can access all digital services by just signing onto the SIMtone itself from any...
- XDS - a new take on access virtualization - 2007-07-09 06:00:07-04
A short while ago, Roger Sakowski and I had the opportunity to speak with XDS, Inc.'s CEO and Chairman, Mario Dal Canto. His company has a new take on the idea of access virtualization. XDS, Inc., the SIMtone. Here's how XDS, Inc. presents this idea: SIMtone™ is a paradigm-shifting network service. It's a digital dial tone pervasively available across the global network that automatically manages and provisions network and session connectivity, security and devices. With the SIMtone™, digital services such as desktops, applications and media content are as simple and efficient to provision, manage and deliver as standard telephone service. And just like the telephone, users can access all digital services by just signing onto the SIMtone itself from any...
- Pownce launches in a post-email era - 2007-07-09 06:48:59-04
Kevin Rose (of Digg-fame) launched his new startup, Pownce, last month, which some have described as a potential Twitter-killer. And while the application can be used in a Twitter-like fashion, with its micro-blogging functionality, I think it's more an attempt to bridge the gap between asynchronous and Instant Messaging, in a post-email era. From the website: "Pownce is brought to you by a bunch of geeks who were frustrated trying to send stuff from one cube to another." The service basically allows users to send messages, links, files, and events, to their social network or to be published on their public profile. So essentially, Pownce can be used in two modes: as a public micro-blogging platform (similar to Twitter or...
- Pownce launches in a post-email era - 2007-07-09 06:48:59-04
Kevin Rose (of Digg-fame) launched his new startup, Pownce, last month, which some have described as a potential Twitter-killer. And while the application can be used in a Twitter-like fashion, with its micro-blogging functionality, I think it's more an attempt to bridge the gap between asynchronous and Instant Messaging, in a post-email era. From the website: "Pownce is brought to you by a bunch of geeks who were frustrated trying to send stuff from one cube to another." The service basically allows users to send messages, links, files, and events, to their social network or to be published on their public profile. So essentially, Pownce can be used in two modes: as a public micro-blogging platform (similar to Twitter or...
- News to know: Vista SP1 nears; iPhone Java support; Sprint's customer service - 2007-07-09 06:53:17-04
Notable headlines: Mary Jo Foley: Vista SP1 beta 1 to launch in mid-July. Larry Dignan: The strategy behind Vista SP1. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Is Microsoft rushing Vista SP1 to boost adoption? Ed Bott: The Vista driver outlook gets a little brighter. Ed Burnette: Apple sneaks Java support onto the iPhone. Review: Samsung Q1 Ultra (Q1U-V at left) . Christopher Dawson: Google calculator - it???s no TI-89, but it???s pretty cool. Sprint's customer service fiasco: Splitting up with your cell phone carrier. Larry Dignan: Time to boycott Sprint over its customer treatment. Russell Shaw: Sprint said to cancel nearly 200 military accounts. More Sprint outrages: phone, store employees told to shoo away cancelled account appeals. That to-be-disconnected Sprint customer tells me all....
- News to know: Vista SP1 nears; iPhone Java support; Sprint's customer service - 2007-07-09 06:53:17-04
Notable headlines: Mary Jo Foley: Vista SP1 beta 1 to launch in mid-July. Larry Dignan: The strategy behind Vista SP1. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Is Microsoft rushing Vista SP1 to boost adoption? Ed Bott: The Vista driver outlook gets a little brighter. Ed Burnette: Apple sneaks Java support onto the iPhone. Review: Samsung Q1 Ultra (Q1U-V at left) . Christopher Dawson: Google calculator - it's no TI-89, but it's pretty cool. Sprint's customer service fiasco: Splitting up with your cell phone carrier. Larry Dignan: Time to boycott Sprint over its customer treatment. Russell Shaw: Sprint said to cancel nearly 200 military accounts. More Sprint outrages: phone, store employees told to shoo away cancelled account appeals. That to-be-disconnected Sprint customer tells me all....
- Vista SP1: Behind Microsoft's strategy - 2007-07-09 06:55:04-04
Microsoft Vista SP1 is coming sooner rather than later. Mary Jo Foley reports that Microsoft will drop SP1 some time next week. With it Vista will add a few new features, but the impact goes far beyond that. For enterprise technology managers, the launch of SP1 in November is the equivalent of telling CIOs to "start your upgrade engines." In the end, that's what SP1 represents--the start of a corporate buying cycle. There will be many ways to portray the reasons behind the SP1 launch, but in the end this move is about wooing the reticent corporate buyer. Some reasons why SP1 is going now: It's positive for the upgrade cycle overall. For Microsoft SP1 is just good business. Consumers...
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