After a month of hype and alarms, analysts say they see Microsoft XP Service Pack rolling out with few major problems, and they seem cautiously optimistic about the patch's ability to fix security holes plaguing the OS.
Intel finally deliveres on its promise to update its Centrino processor platform with the launch of a tri-mode Wi-Fi adapter for notebook PCs.
Microsoft releases the latest versions of Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), its server management software, to manufacturing. MOM 2005 and MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition (formerly known as MOM 2005 Express) are part of the Redmond software maker's ongoing Dynamic Systems Initiative, the company's long-term systems management strategy.
The new version of Seapine Software's Surround SCM software change management product emphasizes integration with the tools and technologies development teams are using, says Rick Riccetti, president and CEO.
Actuate is joining the Eclipse Foundation as a strategic developer to spearhead the creation of business intelligence and reporting tools for the open-source Java IDE.
Seeking to win over Java coders working on Linux, IBM is making its Java Runtime Environment (JRE) for Linux available as a free download on its developerWorks Web site.
Compuware is releasing updated Java tools for managing the performance of applications running on IBM WebSphere and legacy systems.
Sybase is moving to claim a share of the burgeoning market for radio frequency identification technology (RFID) with an early adopter program.
BEA Systems this week unveiled a specialized version of its WebLogic platform aimed at ISVs. The WebLogic Platform ISV Edition is an integrated application platform suite (APS) designed to enable BEA's partners to meet growing customer demand for Service-Oriented Architectures (SOAs).
Although it is owned by Progress Software, DataDirect provides technology not just for the RDBMS of its parent company, but for other major RDBMS makers such as IBM, Sybase, Oracle and Microsoft. In fact, new company president Rick Reidy likes to call DataDirect "the Switzerland of data access."
At the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in San Diego this spring, Microsoft's Bill Gates listed speech recognition, handwriting recognition and code-free modeling among his top 10 "Holy Grails of computers." Ben Chen, CTO at Snapbridge Software, an XML technology start-up in San Diego County, Calif., adds another Holy Grail to the list -- content management of all text and graphics for the publishing industry.
Since it was introduced in 1997, the enormously popular open-source, server-side scripting language PHP has been gaining momentum, winning fans and burrowing into the enterprise. Consequently, many of the new features in the just-released PHP 5 are designed to improve interoperability.
Managing J2EE enterprise applications is not always the first thing on a Java developer's mind, but that may be changing, according to Martin Milani, CTO at Intersperse Inc., a Pasadena, Calif.-based provider of monitoring and management software.
The pursuit of standards in the software industry makes for strange bedfellows. A case in point is the recent collaboration of BEA Systems, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and Sun Microsystems on the Web services specification, WS-Addressing, which the group submitted last week to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
Borland Software Corp. has announced the imminent release of the latest version of its JBuilder IDE.
Attendance at last week's LinuxWorld Expo was on a par with the previous year's show (between 10,000 and 11,000, according to conference organizers), but the exhibit floor was busting at the seams. More than 190 vendors (around 55 more than last year) pitched their tents in San Francisco's Moscone Center to flog their latest Penguinesque offerings.
Scott Dietzen, chief technology officer at BEA Systems, left the company last week, adding to the list of recent high-level executive departures from the San Jose, Calif.-based application infrastructure software maker.
With demand for Microsoft SQL Server connectivity for Java applications growing steadily, and with many companies migrating their production platform from the 32-bit SQL Server 200 Enterprise Edition to the 64-bit versions of SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005, JNetDirect has added 64-bit support to two of its components.
(Editor's note: JDT conducted this interview with
Thomas Schaeck, IBM WebSphere Portal architect, via e-mail.)
For several years now Microsoft and IBM have been politely engaged in the run up to what is set to be an awesome battle, one that will commence within the next two years and will help to shape the technology industry for the next decade.