IT job skills that matter now

Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World

The hottest skills for IT professionals to develop center on business acumen rather than deeper technical expertise. Project management, financial analysis and communications skills are in big demand, according to CIOs, recruiters and IT staffing specialists. ...continue reading 'IT job skills that matter now'

Google-DoubleClick Deal Moving Ahead

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

Bad news for all the conspiracy theorists who believe that Google will be able to read your thoughts and direct advertising directly into your brain: the FTC has given the go-ahead for the Google-DoubleClick merger. ...continue reading 'Google-DoubleClick Deal Moving Ahead'

Advice to Apple: Ignore the Enterprise

James Gaskin, ITworld.com

Technology has become such a big business the current leadership lacks any measurable amount of guts. Who knew we'd miss Scott McNealy mouthing off? So I was thrilled to read this blog from MarketCircle CEO Alykhan Jetha. Short summary: Apple should ignore the enterprise business and focus on small and medium businesses. ...continue reading 'Advice to Apple: Ignore the Enterprise'

Operating Systems on the Web

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Computers are paradoxes of potentiality that respond to our pleadings with sublime indifference. Computers are fast, stupid and general purpose. With every passing year they get faster for sure. The stupidity stays pretty constant it seems. But the "general purpose" bit...Well now. I think that is different and becoming more different with the passage of twenty-first century time. ...continue reading 'Operating Systems on the Web'

Master Foo On Structured Documents

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Master Foo instructs: Ask yourself what parts of your structural rules are better expressed outside of a hierarchical schema rather than within it. Embrace the controlled vocabulary. Do not fight it. It is stronger than you are and it has Murphy's Law on its side. ...continue reading 'Master Foo On Structured Documents'

Google Knol Battles Wikipedia

Dan Blacharski, ITworld.com

Google has come up with a more workable alternative to Wikipedia's approach of creating content through anonymous committee. The search giant's new service, Knol, hopes to cover all topics, but unlike Wikipedia, continuous editing and revision by anonymous trolls, wannabes, policy wonks and nit-pickers will not be allowed. And as anyone who has ever been party to a report written by committee can attest, this is a good thing. ...continue reading 'Google Knol Battles Wikipedia'

One-on-one with a global CCIE headhunter

Eman (Emmanuel Conde) is a global CCIE headhunter. He connects with CCIEs in over a dozen countries and uses innovative techniques to find great new minds. Today, he shares his thoughts on recruiting smart IT professionals, things you need to do now to prepare for 2008 and his exciting email mentor efforts. ...continue reading 'One-on-one with a global CCIE headhunter'

Leaving it to your imagination

By Sean McGrath

Technology's limitations have a way of forcing us to think past the norms, the obvious, the "reality" that is out there. We think beyond mere emulation and invent new things. ...continue reading 'Leaving it to your imagination'

In memoriam: the ISV

The past 12 months saw many of the remaining big names in business software absorbed into other companies, including Hyperion, Business Objects, Cognos, Opsware and webMethods. They join PeopleSoft, Siebel, JD Edwards and JBoss from the recent past. Outside of security companies, it is now difficult to name even a half dozen well-known, best-of-breed vendors that are holding their own. ...continue reading 'In memoriam: the ISV'

Doris Lessing and the Internet: "We never thought to ask"

Dan Blacharski, ITworld.com

The tech blogs have been abuzz with criticism of British writer Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, in which she referred to the "inanities" of the Internet. Much of the blogosphere took immediate offense. But as much as we love to defend our favored medium, one cannot deny the hard truth of the matter. She's right, the Internet is indeed full of inane and meaningless nothings, wild inaccuracies and unpolished drivel. But we cannot limit this observation to the Internet alone, and blame technology; there is also a high crap-to-quality ratio on television, and yes, even in printed books. ...continue reading Doris Lessing and the Internet: "We never thought to ask"

vPro and Altiris Update

James Gaskin, ITworld

Every time you touch a user's PC you lose money. If there's one big benefit from the update of Intel's vPro hardware technology with Altiris software, it's the way you remotely manage more PC problems than before, even when the PC is frozen or turned off. ...continue reading 'vPro and Altiris Update'

Scratching and sniffing the ones and zeros

By Sean McGrath

We have five senses and we like to use them. All the 1s and 0s in our digitized lives are ultimately translated into some combination of sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing. Of those, sight, touch and hearing are currently well-covered, digitally speaking. PCs, MP3 players, vibrating game consoles... I cannot recall yet smelling or tasting a translated digital artifact but it is only a matter of time I'm sure. ...continue reading 'Scratching and sniffing the ones and zeros'

Tim Berners-Lee on Redefining the Web

By Dan Blacharski, ITworld

Tim Berners-Lee coins a new term "giant global graph", and gets the
joint a buzzin. ...continue reading 'Tim Berners-Lee on Redefining the Web'