It’s been five years — and the nominations for the 2007 SD Times 100 are now open. You can learn all the rules and access the nomination forms online. There’s no cost to nominate. Unlike some other awards in our industry, the SD Times 100 isn’t a product award. It’s an award for a company, […]
Here comes the new boss — literally, the same as the old boss. Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc., reclaimed the CEO position, as his longtime #2 guy, Kevin Rollins, left the company. Rollins took over the command chair in 2004, and led Dell Inc. through some tough times. What does this mean? Well, a […]
Microsoft Vista Has Gates Saying “Wow” That’s the headline of a CBS News story about the launch of Windows Vista today. Oooh, the headline writers at The Associated Press must have worked overtime to come up with that one. No, this isn’t a knock on Microsoft. This is a knock on the AP (this is […]
1. Windows Presentation Foundation and Aero user interface. The new GUI is clean and slick, and when run on the right hardware so that it can use its “glass” effects, is much more visually appealing than Aqua, the GUI in Mac OS X 10.4… though, frankly, Aero is not as intuitive to use as Aqua. […]
For the past week or so, Microsoft has been dribbling out press releases touting a benefit of Windows Vista: The upgrade will drive IT jobs and spending. Today’s release brags that Windows Vista will generate US$10 billion in new revenue for the California IT industry in 2007, and will drive 16,000 new jobs in the […]
Two important server-development elements have been finalized this week. ASP.NET AJAX, which is Microsoft’s tooling to support rich Web applications on its ASP.NET application server, reached 1.0 status on Tuesday. ASP.NET is a well-respected app server, and from what I’ve seen, Microsoft has done an excellent job with its AJAX implementation. See my comments from […]
Bruce Schneier, in a blog posting today, argues (convincingly) that it’s important for researchers and white hats to publicly release details about security vulnerabilities in hardware, software and Web sites. He writes, Before full disclosure was the norm, researchers would discover vulnerabilities in software and send details to the software companies — who would ignore […]
Where have all the great tech journalists gone? They’ve gone to vendors, every one. First, last month, InfoWorld’s Jon Udell went to work for Microsoft. See his auto-interview about the new job. He’ll be working as an evangelist on MSDN’s Channel 9. This is a savvy move by Microsoft, and I’m sure it’s good for […]
According to a CBS News report, Sun will soon be using Intel processors in some of its servers. In return, Intel will endorse the Solaris operating system. If true, this is a good move for both companies, and potentially, for everyone except AMD, which has enjoyed an exclusive deal with Sun since November 2003. Sun […]
Yesterday, we learned that Fortify Software will be buying Secure Software. Each company makes source code analysis tools. Both are well-regarded in terms of the quality of their products, and in the expertise of their teams. However, Secure Software had been undergoing a transformation, as the well-known security guru, John Viega, had already left the […]
Larry O’Brien tagged me. Larry, that prankster, is playing Blog Tag, where you dare people to reveal things that most people won’t know. (I traced Larry’s tag back and found this entry on “Storm & Wind” from August 2006. After that, the trail went dark.) I’m cool. I’m hip. But I also want to stay […]
The SCO Group released its earnings for the quarter that ended Oct. 31, 2006. To no surprise, they’re worse than ever, as CEO Darl McBride (pictured) continues to drive the company into the ground. Some highlights: * Revenue for their fiscal 4th quarter dropped to $7,349,000, vs. $8,528,000 for the same quarter last year. * […]
I’ve seen relatively little coverage about yesterday’s approval of the PCI Express 2.0 specification by PCI-SIG, the industry consortium that, well, defines the PCI Express specification. With the introduction of PCI Express (aka, PCIe) a couple of years ago, server expansion cards got a huge performance boost, with the biggest impact on RAID and other […]
Best e-mail of the week so far: A press release from Pantone, a company that sets color standards, telling us that “they” have selected Chili Pepper, which they catalog as color #19-1557, as the Color of the Year for 2007. So, if you go to a paint store, or to a commercial printer, you can […]
Before 2006, only one company – IBM – managed to gain more than 2000 U.S. patents in a single year. But in 2006, five companies broke that barrier: IBM with 3651 patents, Samsung with 2453, Canon with 2378, Matsushita at 2273, and Hewlett-Packard at 2113. That’s a huge amount of patent activity. In fact, according […]
Last week, I visited CodeGear — the tools business from Borland, which has been spun off into a wholly owned subsidiary. CodeGear will be evolving JBuilder, Delphi and C#Builder, and will also be introducing some new tools for dynamic languages and for otherwise enhancing developer productivity. You can read some notes about my visit with […]
Threads are breaking out of the server into the desktop and notebook computer – and even in servers, the advent of dual-core and quad-core processors is drastically changing the landscape for applications. To put it bluntly, applications need to be designed, coded and tested to run optimally in a multithreaded environment – not just to […]
Today, Cisco Systems Inc. sued Apple Inc. over unauthorized use of the iPhone trademark. You see, Cisco’s Linksys division already has a line of wireless VoIP telephones called the iPhone, introduced last month. The press has been speculating about how Apple would handle this situation — rumors about Apple’s iPhone have been swirling around for […]
This is my 100th blog entry on Z Trek. Profound, ain’t it? Z Trek Copyright (c) Alan Zeichick
Last Thursday, I wrote my SD Times newsletter column on CUA compliance in general, and Microsoft Office 2007’s lack of CUA compliance specifically. I also mentioned it briefly here in the blog. Some nice comments came in the column, and I followed up with another Zeichick’s Take on Monday that shared ’em with the broader […]
Apple’s decision to change its name from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc. reinforced my nascent feelings about the company, and by extension, IDG’s independent conference for the Macintosh industry. Apple and Macworld Expo aren’t about computers any more. They’re all about consumer electronics. Sure, in the Macworld North Hall there were a few enterprise […]
At the Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates announced the Microsoft Windows Home Server, designed to serve as the digital hub of the modern house. It’s a great idea, and frankly, it’s about time someone addressed this need. Consider digital photos. My iMac has my camera’s photos. My wife’s Dell has her photos. How do we […]
Jon Bosak informed me this morning that UBL 2.0 has been approved as an OASIS standard. UBL, or Universal Business Language, is designed to provide a consist way for businesses to share common documents using XML; that is, documents like invoices, purchase orders, catalog updates, transportation manifests, things like that. UBL is an alternative to […]
While we’re on the subject of storage: don’t forget solid-state drive technology. This week, SanDisk released a 32GB SSD that’s going to cost about US$600, and fits into a standard 1.8-inch form factor. Sure, that’s a lot of money for a 32GB hard drive today. But given the incredible rate of change in flash memory, […]
Andrew Binstock pointed me to this CNet article, regarding the forthcoming introduction of terabyte hard drives from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. Too bad they didn’t ship in December. My, that burger tastes good. Hitachi GST, by the way, is IBM’s old storage division, which Hitachi bought in 2003 and absorbed into their own storage group. […]
I love the ability generate gorgeous graphics using Excel 2007 and PowerPoint 2007. But otherwise I’m unimpressed by the software update, and have no plans to upgrade our company to Office 2007 any time soon. One particular issue I have is the new user interface, which replaces the familiar File-Edit menu system (which was Common […]
Standards are important. Not only for interoperability, but also for sanity. Take, for example, our two family cars, a Mazda3 hatchback and an Acura TSX sedan. Both are great, peppy cars, and both have five-speed automatic transmissions with a manual shift override feature. There are odd differences between the cars. For example, on the Mazda3, […]
I love the cover of the January 2007 issue of Software Test & Performance. It has graphics by LuAnn Palazzo, the wonderful art director for that magazine, and text from Edward Correia, the editor of ST&P. Be sure to read the fine print on the can. This is a really strong issue of the magazine, […]
Three decades ago, the British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins proposed the concept of a “meme” – that is, a unit of cultural transmission that exists independently of one person, and therefore, can spread around throughout a culture. Some memes are obvious. President Bush referred to himself last April as “the decider,” that is, what we […]
Nominations are now open for the Eclipse Community Awards; the cut-off for entries is January 22, 2007. The Eclipse Community Awards, launched last year, are designed to recognize the people and projects that make Eclipse a successful community. There are two categories of awards: * Individuals: ambassadors, contributors, committers and evangelists. * Technologies: best open-source […]