In Focus: When Capture Becomes a Service
Imaging and content management executives were still buzzing last week about
EMC's pending acquisition of Captiva Software, debating just what it will
mean to the future of both markets.
Stealing From Google
I have a confession to make: I've been stealing from Google. With $1.578 billion in revenue last quarter, the company is unlikely to miss the pennies I've denied it. Still, I feel I owe an explanation: I'm "adnorant," which is to say I ignore online ads.
Keeping Control
The United States needs to cede some control over the Internet. Just not too much.
Winning Design Ways
Software design contests can pay good money and provide an educational experience for competitive developers.
Work In Progress
Service-oriented architectures are a blueprint for software development, but they're hard to perfect
MySQL Upgrade Targets Enterprise Deployments
MySQL can no longer be viewed as a limited, departmental database. With the release of version 5.0 in mid-November, the popular open-source database is a serious contender for enterprise-level use.
Microsoft Does What The Others Didn't
Microsoft, according to a number of reports, is "evolving its position" on the OpenDocument format. Although Microsoft told the State of Massachusetts last month that Office 12 will not support ODF -- and state officials effectively told Redmond to shove off by endorsing the format anyway -- the company was apparently hedging its bets in a big way.
Doctors Without Wires
Voice-recognition software lets health-care providers transcribe notes wirelessly, saving time and money
Shortlist
ARIS Platform v. 7.0; Hyperion System 9; Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database v. 6.0; MindSolve Visual Performance "MVP Express"
What, Me Worry?
Microsoft is making good on its plans to invade the business intelligence market with the launch of Business Scorecard Manager, a business intelligence server that's due Nov. 1. But at least one stand-alone analytics vendor says it isn't worried by Microsoft's foray into BI.
Play To Your Strengths
Midsize companies can use customer intelligence to out-maneuver the big firms, but executives will have to learn to share the knowledge and the authority to act.
Is Google Spreading Itself Too Thin?
Reading the recent news out of Google, I can't help thinking about Netscape. Like Google, Netscape had a dazzling entry into the world of business. At that time, Web browsers were still a new thing; there were literally two dozen commonly available, none of them with decisive market dominance. And none of them presented any significant competition to the Netscape browser, which was decisively smaller, faster and lighter.
Later, Netscape launched the first superstar dotcom IPO.
We all
Letter Drop
Customers Vs. Vendors; Plenty of Blame To Go Around; Content Modeling Lives
EULA Be Sorry Someday
Most software licenses serve two purposes: They demand the right to do crazy things, so that the slightly less crazy things they really want to do look reasonable; and they discourage users from thinking too hard about this fact. There's a way to solve the second problem -- and if you own or manage a business, thinking about the first problem might be a very good idea.
Microsoft Rattles Some BI Cages
Never mind that Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion Solutions and others are allied with Microsoft on the operating systems front. The giant from Redmond wants their business on the applications end.
SOA Consolidation Continues
Last week saw further consolidation in the SOA marketplace, as IBM Corp. announced that it had acquired DataPower Technology, removing from the field one of the last independent startups in XML acceleration, since Intel acquired Savega last summer.
A Question For All Of You
Let's say a car dealer sells you a new set of wheels. Then, let's say they send a mechanic to your house six months later who yanks out the stereo, replaces it with an AM radio and a coat-hangar antenna, and tells you it's an "upgrade." Most of us would call this behavior insane, stupid, suicidal, or all of the above. Yet here in the tech industry, we call it something else: a business model. Here's my question for all of you: Just how common is it?
Federal Reserve Chairman Nominee Bullish On IT
Outgoing chairman Alan Greenspan was an outspoken advocate of IT. In a time when mainstream business leaders are skeptical of the value of IT, Ben Bernanke, named as Greenspan's possible successor, sees IT as a valuable investment when done right.
Jewel In Plain Sight
Oracle says Siebel's budding business intelligence functionality is a "hidden jewel" within the database maker's planned acquisition of the customer relationship management firm. But it's hard to call analytics a "hidden" jewel when such BI functionality is the very thing Oracle most wants to add to its enterprise software and database systems.
Labatt Brews Up A Data Warehouse
To better analyze diverse data sets related to operational and transactional performance, the Canadian brewing powerhouse foregoes an ERP system and builds a data warehouse instead.
Videocast: Firefox Heading For A Wall
My Web video debut describes how Firefox's stalled market share and the threat of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 could mean big trouble soon for the plucky, open-source browser. Download the video here (Windows Media format, 2 min., 7 sec, 7.3 MB), or, if you have your podcasting software pointing at this blog, the video should download automatically.
Like I said, this is my first effort, so it's not exactly an awar
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