Archives


IBM crosses signals: Domino or Workplace?

While IBM touts Workplace, Domino/Notes customers wonder whether they should stick with a potentially obsolete platform or migrate to the new messaging and collaboration environment.

Managing unstructured information

Most of the information companies generate—more than 80 percent, according to experts—won’t fit into the neat-and-tidy cells of a traditional relational database.

DE-CODER: The kings of coding

“Tomek” and “Pops” may be unfamiliar names to you, but in the world of coding competitions, they’re as big as rock stars. Now they’re at the top of the stack, according to their peers who participate in online programming contests at TopCoder.com, a mecca for those willing to publicly test their programming chops.

Open-source users find rewards in collaborative development

IT shops discover that sharing code outside the corporation can result in better software.

For every little patch you make

A comprehensive patch-management approach needs to start with a complete IT inventory assessment, which can be the most time-consuming piece of the job.

On patch patrol, armed with third-party tools

If you're ready to go shopping for patch management tools, here are a few things to keep in mind before you begin.

It’s all about J2EE and Web services

One important attraction of Workplace, says Jim Russell, director of application development tools for Lotus, is the ability to retrofit Domino applications to participate fully in next-generation application architectures.

Review: SmartOutline 2005

Everyone needs a place to store unstructured information. There are choices galore out there, from simple text files to Microsoft OneNote to OPML-based outlines. SmartOutline 2005 aims to shake up the outlining market with a flexible .NET plugin-based architecture.

Managing to Cope with Patches

Keeping up with a steady stream of patches to close security loopholes and upgrade apps has become time consuming and costly.

No more requisition forms to requisition forms

The U.S. Army’s decision to convert its legendarily lethargic paper-based systems to an e-forms-based model is one of the most talked about unstructured information management projects in recent years.

It works when a developer gets stuck

According to open-source development veterans, the collaboration model offers several technical advantages, but by no means guarantees success.

DE-CODER bits & bytes

INSIGHTS, ANALYSIS AND STUFF FOR MANAGERS

EDITORIAL: No easy questions these days

This month’s issue is about making tough choices that can cost plenty if you happen to make the wrong decision.

Product Guide: New Products

Brief news on new products.

DE-CODER: Q&A: IT's role in the supply chain

Kevin O’Marah is vice president of research at AMR Research in Boston, where he directs the analyst firm’s coverage of supply chain technology. In this interview with ADT, he looks at the potential of radio frequency identification (RFID) and how IT should respond to demand-driven supply networks.

Review: patterns & practices Enterprise Library

Microsoft used to just hand us compilers and tools, but somewhere along the way they realized that things had gotten too complex for many developers to know how best to use these tools. Enter the Enterprise Library, the latest set of useful code blocks packaged up as prescriptive guidance by Microsoft's Patterns & Practices group.

Briefing Book: Oracle gets on the grid

Oracle, Dell, Intel, and EMC are joining forces on a project aimed at combining their core technologies and technical resources to develop an enterprise grid computing infrastructure that can outperform traditional symmetric multiprocessing systems at a much lower cost.

Review: DevPartner Fault Simulator

You know, of course, that your code should be catching and properly handling exceptions. But how do you test that part of the code? DevPartner Fault Simulator provides an elegant solution for the .NET developer, injecting exceptions deliberately and watching how your application handles them.

Hand me my waders, it's getting deep in here

Microsoft says that its latest round of anti-piracy measures are for our own good. Isn't that nice of them?

Review: ActiPro SyntaxEditor .NET

If you've ever tried to implement a full-featured editing control that keeps up with the state of the IDE art, you know that it's not a simple job. In fact, it's not a job you should do at all if you're using .NET. Instead, look to ActiPro to have it already done for you.