(2 votes, average: 7.5 out of 10)
Loading ...Microsoft is not going to buy the BlackBerry
Not sure how many days will have to go by before this little conspiracy theory dies off, but I explain why I think the whole thing is unlikely here. I have to say I was surprised by this reaction, though.
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(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Nokia has a right to the convergence dream
There’s a weird attitude that seems to have greeted Nokia’s plan to offer gaming and music services for wireless devices through an online store called Ovi, one that enterprises that attempt a similar transition in IT-enabled business strategy should prepare themselves for: outrage.
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(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...SAP: We’re not thieves. We just can’t read contracts
I doubt many SAP customers (or even Oracle customers, for that matter), are too concerned about the lawsuit between the two firms, unless it mean that one of the two companies managed to get some kind of injunction against the other’s technology. Still, you can learn a lot about how these vendors operate in the way they respond to legal action, and the documents from SAP are a case in point.
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(3 votes, average: 7 out of 10) Loading ...More oomph in Norton 2008?
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
One common complaint with many leading anti-virus programs is that they often significantly slow down your computer.
It seems security products’ vendor Symantec has taken seriously some of the user feedback they’ve received about their products in this regard.
The company assures us that “improved performance” is the hallmark of Norton Internet Security 2008 - the latest iteration of one of its flagship products, that was launched yesterday.
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(4 votes, average: 9.25 out of 10) Loading ...Acer’s ambitions shouldn’t end at Gateway
Although the company is taking a beating in financial circles over its proposed US$710 million takeover, and its CEO is promising to step down if it fails (according to what metrics, exactly, and on what timeline?), I still think there’s some hope for Acer. I examine its prospects in more detail today on ITBusiness.ca.
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(3 votes, average: 6 out of 10) Loading ...Web 2.0 – like charity - begins at home
By Joaquim P. Menezes -
Yesterday, my colleague at IT World Canada, Tina Monod, in a fabulous presentation to our editorial staff, talked about strategies for effectively using Web 2.0 tools, and some practical steps we could immediately take to implement these ideas.
Tina is herself an avid user of a range of social networking apps - from del.icio.us, Flickr, YouTube and FaceBook, to the more business-oriented sites such as LinkedIn.
So she could speak from personal experience, when offering up practical suggestions on how us editorial types could use these apps to more effectively interact with our “audiences.”
In this context, Tina made a crucial point:
External stakeholder interaction via Web 2.0 tools, she said, is most effective when the same tools are also used to foster a culture of interaction inhouse.
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(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...Holy cow! Acer buys Gateway
Signs that the desktop market is getting even more challenging: Acer is getting Gateway for US$710 million, which isn’t that major when you consider the US$18 billion size of the HP and Compaq merger. Of course, the latter two firms had a much more comprehensive product line, whereas both Acer and Gateway are pretty much PC-only peddlers. Maybe it will put the squeeze on Lenovo and Toshiba, but for Gateway, it might mean a second chance in Canada.
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(5 votes, average: 7.8 out of 10) Loading ...More BAM for your buck
- By Joaquim P. Menezes -
IT Concepts video - Business Activity Monitoring
I was at event yesterday during which Chris Brakel, product manager, eBusiness, Microsoft Canada Co. offered some interesting insights about the value of business activity monitoring or BAM.
This was only tenuously linked to the focus of the event – which had to do with Longos (the grocery chain) implementation of Microsoft BizTalk server 2006 – and about which I plan to write about more extensively later.
But Brakel’s BAM spiel was interesting enough for me to want to use it as a basis of an IT Concepts video – and this blog.
First let’s take a look at the Wikipedia definition of BAM: enterprise technology “intended to provide a real-time summary of business processes to operations managers and upper management.”
BAM, it goes on to say, presents dashboards that contain key performance indicators (KPI) that support root cause analysis and alerts that warn of impending problems.
So let’s see if we’ve got that right. Read the rest of this entry »
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(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...That’s JAVA, in really big, capital letters
There’s subliminal advertising, and then there’s what Sun has decided to do: replace the traditional SUNW with which it is traded on stock exchanges like NASDAQ with the more simple, direct JAVA. As crass as it might sound, it’s better than trying to come up with another pop-up ad, and it says a lot about Sun’s future direction.
As CEO Jonathan Schwartz notes on his blog today, “the number of people who know Java swamps the number of people who know Sun.” That calls into question the logic of why the company would need to build awareness around the technology even more, but this isn’t really about advertising. This is a statement of purpose from a company which has its arms and legs in hardware, software, storage and components. Schwartz insists that buliding workstations will continue to be a big part of his business, and I believe him, but it’s become clear that software will drive Sun’s strategy (and its hardware sales) much more than the other way around.
This has been evident for a long time, of course, and most IT managers probably wouldn’t even notice the exchange symbol change, but it implies Sun’s management is more centred and focused than it has been in recent years. It also reminds us, despite the recent moves to open source Java, that Sun isn’t prepared to give up its leadership of the technology anytime soon.
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(2 votes, average: 10 out of 10) Loading ...AMD needs more than just a good salesman
What a difference a year makes. About 12 months ago it seemed like Intel was beset by organizational challenges that hobbled it product launches and allowed AMD to take away some market share. Now AMD is left fighting whiny antitrust battles and having to explain why, according to reports, its head of sales is stepping down today.
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