I used to know what XML is. Now I am not so sure.

By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

I used to know what XML is. With one hundred percent certainty I used to know that XML is a way of annotating text to make the structure of the text both open and explicit to machines. I have written a lot of stuff about it over the years. In the years since the acronym has crossed the chasm into, um, the chasms that follow the first chasm, there has been an enormous proliferation in the usage scenarios for XML. Not all of them wholly appropriate in my opinion but let us not go there today. For today's purposes, let us focus on two illustrative divergences in the interpretation of that humble TLA "XML". ...Continue

Symantec still digesting Altiris

James Gaskin, ITworld.com

I just returned from ManageFusion Orlando, the Altiris user conference. Last April, two days before ManageFusion, Symantec gobbled Altiris. Company officials could only say they promise to integrate the companies and products properly, but had no time to actually do anything. This gave some Altiris customers indigestion, because Symantec hasn't always integrated acquisitions well. ...continue reading 'Symantec still digesting Altiris'

Why I Gmail

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld.com

I recently closed an email account that I had been using since I moved to the Delmarva peninsula nearly seven years ago. I have switched to Gmail. Had the account I closed not been a local provider for most of the years that I was a customer and had I not put a good deal of value of electronic stability (I'd been sandra@ that provider for many years), I would never have hung on so long. Gmail is everything I need and then some.

YouTube gets anti-piracy religion

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

I've wondered aloud and within this space on numerous occasions, just what Google had in mind - and if they were in fact in their right mind - when they bought YouTube. At the time of the acquisition, YouTube was a vehicle for marginally useful home-made videos of poor quality, with no apparent revenue model. But it seems that the Googlers may have been crazy like a fox in the acquisition, and it may yet transform YouTube into something worthwhile, and maybe even profitable. ...continue reading 'YouTube gets anti-piracy religion'

The hidden costs of the multi-tasking software developer

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

There are times when the software world has a word/phrase for something that flows from geekdom into the mainstream. "Context switching" is one of them, I think. ... continue reading about the hidden costs of the multi-tasking

Will there be a gPhone? Should there be?

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

Speculation among bloggers about the possibility of Google getting into the cell phone business has been rising lately. USA Today carried an article this morning about the gPhone project, which may or may not even exist -- suggesting that Google is going to get into the ad-supported mobile phone business. There's no evidence that such is the case, but it does make an interesting proposition. ...continue reading 'Will there be a gPhone?'

Implementing the un-implementable

By Sean McGrath, ITworld

There is a school of thought that holds fast to the principle that systems analysis has to be fully bottomed out before design/coding can sensibly proceed. The classic embodiment of this approach is the so-called waterfall method. There is another school of thought that holds fast to the principle that systems analysis is a fool's errand. Better to design a little, code a little, deliver a little and then iterate the procedure over and over again. Extreme programming embodies this approach. Today, I have a different form of controversy in mind. Brace yourself for a real shocker.

Seven Ways Top-Performing Companies Get Ahead of the Pack

All leaders want to be part of a top-performing company. All employees do, too. And partners and customers seek out businesses that are at the top of their game, as well. It's natural to want to spend our working hours engaged with dynamic organizations that flourish, not struggling ones that flounder. But have you ever wondered what makes a company a top performer? Rick Lepsinger has, and when his company did a research study on a related subject, he discovered some surprising answers.

It's Back to the Future For Windows XP

A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that software used to make me smile.

That was back on Oct. 25, 2001, the day Windows XP arrived. That's just shy of six years ago and we've had only one meaningful update since then, Service Pack 2 in Aug. 2004. (I don't really count SP1 as "meaningful.") At last, SP3 has appeared on the horizon, and for those of us who still rely on XP to get the job done, SP3 is borrowing from the future -- from Windows Vista, to be precise.

Perhaps by now you've read that news leaked this week about details of the forthcoming release of Windows XP Service Pack 3, courtesy of a blog on NeoSmart Technologies' Web site. ...continue reading 'It's Back to the Future For Windows XP'

Google and DoubleClick: Good, Bad, or Ugly?

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

It's been since April that Google announced its plans to buy DoubleClick, but the deal's not done yet. Deep-pocketed Google has been on a shopping spree all year, buying up Web 2.0 media companies; including mobile social network Zingku, YouTube, Writely, and others; and amidst all that, is still trying to compete against Big Telco, buy bandwidth, and create their own phone. And at the same time Google is buying up other companies left and right, they're expanding organically too, by launching dozens of other applications and services. ...continue reading 'Google and DoubleClick: Good, Bad, or Ugly?'

Web 3.0 definitions debated and disputed

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

There's been a considerable buzz this week in response to a blog entry by Jason Calcanis, founder of the human-powered search engine Mahalo. At a time when most of us are still trying to figure out Web 2.0, he has put out an "official" (quote marks his) definition of Web 3.0, calling it "the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform."

Clearly, Jason is engaging in a bit of wishful thinking, but if the Web were indeed to evolve into that vessel of high-quality content, we would all be better off for it. In the current state of affairs, regrettably, the high quality content is dwarfed by dreck, and the voices of gifted individuals are drowned out by the voices of others far less eloquent. ...continue reading 'Web 3.0 definitions debated and disputed'

Whatever happened to dis-intermediation?

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Do you remember the beginnings of the "the Web changes everything" e-commerce boom? The word dis-intermediation seemed to be on the lips of everyone reading the tea leaves at the time.

It would only be a matter of time (or so we were told) before the Internet ushered in a whole new era. An era in which consumers and producers interact directly without middle-men taking cuts along the way. The Web (or so we were told) would reduce both the cost of selling and the cost of buying resulting in - gasp! - lower costs all round. ... Continue reading Re-intermediating the dis-intermediated

I have looked at clouds from both sides now

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Depending on your particular point of view, network clouds can be a fantastic concept, not requiring you to know or care where stuff lives or whether the right thing is going to happen when you connect to it. Or they can be a dangerous concept: You cannot know where your stuff lives on the cloud. You cannot care for or protect it by yourself. You have no option but to connect to it and hope that matters such as security, availability etc. happen somehow. How scary is that!