Proclivity's Prediction Software Is In Style
Proclivity Systems, which predicts trends with its e-commerce "predictive engine," is looking like a trendsetter itself. The New York startup has moved into Fifth Avenue office space, and upscale retailer Barneys New York is a reference customer. Founder and CEO Sheldon Gilbert recently took a break from selling software to be photographed for Men's Vogue.
Interop: Jumping to SaaS -- Look Before You Leap
Got SaaS yet? If not, you're either a nattering nincompoop or blazingly brilliant. For every drumbeat touting the power and ease of Saas to remake your IT operations, there's competing tympany warning of the dire hazards of leaping into SaaS headlong.
Microsoft Finally Concedes On Windows-Linux Management
Microsoft's announcement of Linux extensions for Systems Center settles an old debate I once had with Bill Gates. Four years ago, I suggested Microsoft could do a better job at cross-platform management, but Microsoft's chairman wouldn't hear of it. Now, the company is doing just that.
Google Admits Making Money With YouTube Has Been Difficult
In a candid TV interview, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said, "I don't think we've quite figured out the perfect solution of how to make money [with YouTube], and we're working on that. That's our highest priority this year." You don't say...
What Do Google And John McCain Have In Common?
Since early March, Sen. John McCain has had the GOP nomination tucked safely in his back pocket, while the stalemate between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has left the Democratic party at an impasse. Like the Republican pundit, Google is benefiting from the current standoff between Yahoo and Microsoft.
Google Refines Its Image Search Technology
Having won the text search war, Google may soon take the lead in image searching. In a paper published last week, Google researchers describe how they were able to use image recognition technology to reduce the number of irrelevant images returned through a Google Image search by 83%.
Interop: Oracle Looks Beyond ERP
The company announced at Interop that it will follow the money by emphasizing line-of-business applications embedded with Web 2.0 features.
What's Your Opinion on Performance Management?
It's your last chance to "Take The Poll" on our home page (left column below the blog). I'm wrapping up this month's poll on performance management and will post a new poll next week. So... Which of the following best describes your top performance management priority?
ReiserFS Without Hans Reiser, Continued
In my post the other day about whether or not work in the ReiserFS file system would continue after Hans Reiser's murder conviction, I mentioned that this being an open source project, it wouldn't be hard for someone else to pick up where others leave off. And as it turns out, that's precisely what's happening: according to folks on the ReiserFS team, work on ReiserFS will
SAP Scales Back SaaS Product Plans
Technical issues and profit-bleeding implementations prompt SAP to move more slowly with its ambitious Business ByDesign on-demand software service.
If You've Done Nothing Wrong, This Shouldn't Worry You
There's a worrisome article in the Seattle Times about an investigative toolkit that Microsoft is making available to law enforcement agencies. It's got 150 tools, including data collection and password crackers, conveniently packaged in a USB thumb drive. Police no longer need to seize a computer to peek into its contents.
Why IT Might Be in Big Trouble - Again
IT has lost touch with reality as they have been disconnected from the situation in business and do not seem to be concerned about it... IT is apparently responding by shifting focus to data management rather than worrying about or focusing on the capabilities needed by business...
Vidyo Named Best Startup Of Interop
Vidyo, which began shipping its videoconferencing-over-IP system in March, has just won the startup category in this year's Best Of Interop competition. Vidyo promises to make low-cost, high-quality videoconferencing an option for more companies.
Content Management Blunders From Down Under
The hits keep coming in from our "Top 5 Reasons A Content Management Company Will Go Out Of Business" post. This time, the experiences come from a university from the land down under, proving content management blunders serve us all on a truly global scale.
Interop: Fixed/Mobile Convergence Coming to Your Company?
Employees no longer sit in their cubicles all day. Instead, executives move from place to place, visiting customers and clients. Figuring out how to reach these individuals has been a problem: Do you try their office number or their cell?
Java, You, and Me
Where does Java fit into your life? Have you ever really considered how much Java is a part of your everyday life, even outside of software development? For instance, it's most likely running software on your cell phone, smart phone, or other device; but you probably knew that already.
Two Must-Have Open-Source Security Tools
Over the past decade, open-source developers have created some of the world's top-rated IT security tools. While some of these applications have a well-deserved reputation for being complicated and difficult to use, there are some notable exceptions.
BI Goes Green(er)
This week, SAS is announcing SAS for Sustainability Management. It uses the BI platform and performance management applications to provide companies with a way of measuring sustainability goals and performance against them. Using predictive analytics, customers can even model changes in energy consumption or emissions to see the impact on sustainability goals.
What Will Oracle Acquire Next?
So now that the BEA Systems acquisition is complete, what is next for Oracle? Given Oracle's pattern, it's due for about three acquisitions this spring.
A ReiserFS Without Hans Reiser
After three days of deliberation and six months of testimony, a jury found Hans Reiser, creator of the ReiserFS file system for Linux, guilty of first-degree murder. There's no end of commentary about the trial itself, but now that the verdict is in, I thought I'd contemplate a related issue: What happens to an open source project when one of its main instigators suffers calamity?
Google To Fine-Tune Image Searches
So you performed an image search for "Corvette," and instead of finding the spy shot of the C7 you had in mind, you end up with irrelevant pictures of
Windows Vista SP1 Disaster Recovery Guide
Vista's SP1 was expected to solve a lot of problems; instead, it caused even more trouble. Here are fixes to some top complaints, from a Windows Update that won't update to endless reboot loops.
Finding Design Failure with Microsoft Office Search Commands
Cheers to Microsoft Labs for their release of Search Commands, an Office 2007 add-in that "helps you find commands, options, wizards, and galleries in... Word, Excel, and PowerPoint." The embedded Guided Help calls it "a useful complement to the usual method of browsing for commands by clicking tabs on the Ribbon." But with Search Commands, Microsoft has adapted a findability fix that's quite common on the Web: Search as a crutch. Search Commands reinforces a point I've made in the past, that
Will Someone Please Answer the Mobile Device?
Remind me. When exactly did cell phones stop being cell phones and start being "mobile devices running content-rich mobile applications"? I'm still grappling with the Rich Internet Applications (RIA) on my new Nokia N95 phone (and I have to admit, it's a beauty) when all I really want to do is answer the phone.
Oracle Database Susceptible To Rare Attack
"A lateral SQL injection" attack that can be placed by an outsider in a database application using Oracle's extended PL/SQL query language can be prevented, security experts say.
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