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Carl Weinschenk

Data and Telecom

Companies’ communications strategies must be agile in a rapidly evolving market

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March 31, 2008

Careful Developers Don't Have to Pick Their Poison

The back-and-forth between crackers and good guys played out during March through the ominous-sounding "SEO poisoning" exploit. Independent security consultant Dancho Danchev has been tracking what... More >

March 28, 2008

For Crooks, Big Gifts Come in Small Packages

One of the under-discussed subplots of the last decade is how the emergence of the Internet has shifted the balance between medium-sized business and enterprises.   Once upon a time, each existe... More >

Comcast Shift a Nod to Political, Competitive Realities

Comcast's decision to cooperate with peer-to-peer (P2P) platform provider BitTorrent is a surprise that has the potential to shift the political debate and alter the technical landscape.   Earl... More >

March 27, 2008

Dressing up Bad News

Somebody should talk to Verizon's public relations department.   The company just issued a press release on a survey conducted on its behalf by KRC Research that says 83 percent of consumers "i... More >

More Scary News on Web 2.0, Mashups

I blogged a little earlier in the day about bad news from WhiteHat Security about threats opened up by new Web 2.0 technologies.   WhiteHat is not alone.   The press release describing We... More >

Negative Numbers for Web 2.0 Security

The news from WhiteHat Security is in -- and it isn't very good.   The firm released a study this week that says nine out of 10 websites have at least one vulnerability, and the average site has... More >

March 26, 2008

A Big Potential WiMax Deal as Wireless Action Heats Up

Moves, rumored moves and intriguing technical announcements made for an interesting week as the wireless sector gets ready for the CTIA show next week in Las Vegas.   Since nothing has actually ... More >

Unified Communications: Look at Products, Not Labels

Unified communications is a mess.   Not the technology itself, of course. That's in fine shape. Armies of very smart people are working on platforms that get any message to any device wherever t... More >

IM and Security: No LOL Matter

I'd love to take credit for it, but can't: The CRN review linked to below started with the line that IM security is no LOL matter.   The two trends have been barreling into each other for a co... More >

March 25, 2008

Auction 73: Lots of Spectrum, Lots of Questions

Seems as if you just can't auction off -- or try to auction off -- a massive amount of spectrum without unleashing a lot of interesting market forces .   PCWorld.com offers a good commentary o... More >

March 24, 2008

Rootkits Growing in Number and Sophistication

Microsoft's acquisition of Komoku both gives it new tools against rootkits and another entry point into the government market.   Komoku, according to this eWeek story on the acquisition , deal... More >

Bandwidth Management: A Simple Name for a Complex Discipline

The U.S. has an excellent interstate highway system, but that doesn't matter to a driver stuck behind somebody topping out at 45 miles per hour.   That's an imperfect analogy to the state of the... More >

March 21, 2008

Virtualization Thrives, Security Struggles to Keep Up

Tall fences make good neighbors. That goes for life in suburbia and, apparently, on the inside of computers.   The profile of virtualization is growing and, with it, the importance of virtualize... More >

March 20, 2008

Change Is the Theme in a Roiling Cellular Industry

Now comes the hard part. Or, at least, the unwieldy, contentious, cumbersome and frustrating part.   In November, Verizon Wireless said that it will open its network to devices other than those ... More >

Hannaford and PCI

There is little definitive to say at this point about the massive theft of credit and debit card information reported Monday by Hannaford Brothers, a grocery retailer based in Maine. The firm reveale... More >

March 19, 2008

Thumb Drive Security: Encryption, Tracking ... and Epoxy

Thumb drives are cheap, high capacity and everywhere. That's great for getting work done, but crummy for the nervous systems of security personnel.   Computerworld says Washington state's Divisi... More >

March 18, 2008

Unified Communications Puts On its Traveling Shoes

Unified communications (UC) is an empty slogan -- or at least, a sector that is a shadow of what it can be -- until it has a strong mobile element. The two endeavors overlap and share the goal of mak... More >

P2P: Three Problems, One Big Headache

In many cases, a threat of any type doesn't coalesce in the minds of folks until concrete examples are given. It's one thing to say that global warming will raise the temperature a couple of degrees ... More >

March 17, 2008

If Web 2.0 Didn't Exist, CRM Vendors Would Have to Invent It

In some ways, this is a fairly normal story detailing the general evolution of a company's product. What's interesting is the number of new and "newish" elements that Sage Software is including in ... More >

Education Key in Slowing Laptop Theft

Corporations spend billions of dollars each year repeating the same message over and over. It's called advertising and it works. A similar approach, according to this Processor story , stands the be... More >

March 14, 2008

AV Vendors' Grades Sink as Malware Writers Band Together

AV-Test.org and Sunbelt Software are painting a troubling picture of antivirus software. It also is apparent that the bad folks are increasingly working together.   First, AV-Test tested what Da... More >

March 13, 2008

Broadband, Policy and the Future

There is no heavy technology in this New York Times story on growth of Internet congestion. That's for the best, since two of the worthwhile points the piece makes would be obscured if readers were ... More >

Municipal Wi-Fi: Still in Denial, or Better Days Really Ahead?

In one bit of cognitive dissonance that doesn't involve Eliot Spitzer, ABI Research has released a report saying that the model for municipal Wi-Fi has failed -- and forecast a 60-fold increase in ... More >

March 12, 2008

Biometrics Shows Its Growing Body of Work

Biometrics will succeed as one building block of two-factor authorization if it is done in a passive and non-intrusive way. Steady progress on several fronts is being made.   Late last week, IT... More >

March 11, 2008

Don't Supress SSID Broadcasting -- Have a Glass of Wine Instead

For years, people were told not to drink. Then it became okay -- even good -- to have a glass of wine every night.   While it may not be as good news as the go-ahead to down some Chianti, the sa... More >

Inconvenience Unavoidable as Data Leaves the Enterprise

The issue of security and the Internet cloud came into sharp focus during the past few days as news broke that Gmail's G-Archiver apparently was sending users' names and passwords to the service's c... More >

March 10, 2008

IP Wish Lists and Reality Checks: Don't Have One Without the Other

The questions of precisely what a company wants to get out of VoIP and other IP-based services and the preexisting condition of their underlying infrastructure are deeply tied.   CIOs and the de... More >

March 7, 2008

NAC: It's Time for a Good Idea to Get Good Results

The number of security technologies is proliferating on an exponential basis, and each, when seen in a vacuum, makes sense. Companies don't get launch products and startups don't get initial or ongoi... More >

March 6, 2008

The Enterprising of the iPhone Begins

The path of the iPhone changed this week when Apple said that it will eliminate many of the issues that have kept it from becoming a mainstream enterprise tool .   The changes were announced at... More >

SaaS and Security are Perfect Together

Earlier this week, eWeek reported that Webroot is moving further into the software-as-a-service (SaaS) sector . The report says that during the next couple of months, the firm will expand its SaaS e... More >

Cable Moves Toward the Big 3-0

Though the premise of Parks Associates ' report on broadband penetration is a little far afield, it does provide food for thought.   The report's main conclusion is that by 2012, 33 million hom... More >

March 5, 2008

Enterprise Mashups Spell Change for IT Departments

The 451 Group has released an intriguing study about the impact mashups will have in the enterprise.   In the past, the study says, employees were wholly dependent on IT for the applications wi... More >

March 4, 2008

The Very Cold, Hard Facts on Laptop Encryption

In the wake of laptop theft and loss that lead to embarrassment, legal liability and extra costs, smart organizations began to mandate encryption, at least to the devices given to folks who carry sen... More >

More Sensitive Applications Increase Need for Bandwidth Management

Bandwidth is getting less expensive all the time. Networks are delivering more data in a given amount of time.   Bandwidth is not infinite, however. Applications fight over bandwidth, and if the... More >

March 3, 2008

Security Evolution Continues for Vista and XP

This Redmond Magazine piece doesn't give the date -- it was August 2004 -- that Microsoft released Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2).   At that point the company committed what, according to the ... More >

Honesty, and Good Security Guidelines, are the Best Policies

On a conceptual level, virtually no executive would argue against the need for well thought-out security policies and procedures. Thinking security through clearly, writing down the steps to be taken... More >

NAS & SAN Storage

Oracle offers a complete portfolio of best-of-breed storage products and business-ready storage solutions that optimize performance, maximize data protection and reduce the total cost of ownership for Oracle databases, applications, and heterogeneous data management.

Data Warehousing

Comprehensive storage solutions for better data access and retrieval, leading to better-informed business decisions.

Database Management

Data management tips and techniques that insure ease of access, comprehensive security and absolute privacy for your invaluable company information.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service-oriented architecture is the catalyst that allows today's companies to respond to business demands faster and more effectively than ever.