Blu-ray is a waste of my time (and yours)

Don Reisinger, ITworld

Ever since Blu-ray won the high-def format war earlier this year, almost everyone I speak with is wondering whether or not they should upgrade their entire library from DVD to the new format and start moving into the "future." Invariably, the answer is no. ...continue reading 'Blu-ray is a waste of my time (and yours)'

Psystar has shown that Apple should license Mac OS X

By Don Reisinger, ITworld.com

Last weekend, a small, defiant company called Psystar unleashed an opening salvo as it announced (and started selling) the Open Computer - its own desktop running Mac OS X Leopard. If nothing else, Psystar's impending martyrdom will blaze the path for countless other companies that believe they can stand up to Apple. ...continue reading 'Psystar has shown that Apple should license Mac OS X'

How to stop worrying and learn to love IT complexity

By Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

Ask yourself why you got in to IT in the first place. Was it to just turn up every day and monitor a stable-state system that works just fine all by itself? No. I didn't think so. Here is a weird factoid about IT folk who are good problem solvers: they are bored when there are no problems to solve. To avoid boredom (a heinous mental state!), they innovate. Innovation creates complexity. We tear our hair. We worry. But deep down, we really like it this way. ...continue reading 'How to stop worrying and learn to love IT complexity'

Defining success for IT projects

Sean McGrath, ITworld.com

I am always amused when I read stats of the form: "X percent of IT projects fail". It would be funny if it wasn't so misleading. "That darned IT stuff.", the subtext goes. "It has failure written all over it..." Right. Here is an alternative headline: "X percent of attempts to fundamentally change the way an organization operates, fail." ...continue reading 'Defining success for IT projects'

Apple and Sony are the only brands that matter

By Don Reisinger, ITworld

How did Apple and Sony brainwash consumers so thoroughly? Surely we can find products that other companies make better, but both firms sit atop the personal technology industry with nary a hint of a competitor. All the while, better products, like a Canon digital camera or an iRiver Clix sit on store shelves while Sony's Cyber-shot and Apple's iPod continue to sell extremely well. This is especially baffling in an age where people are keen on research. ...continue reading 'Apple and Sony are the only brands that matter'

New face of IT recruiting

By Emmanuel Conde, Bridge Resourcing Solutions

Move over job fairs. The recruiting industry has changed, and it's either do or die. Recruiters who once relied on faxes and job fairs to collect candidates and connect with hiring companies must consider social networks, blogs, virtual worlds, and other online media in order to survive. There's a lot to choose from, and the key is to keep it fun, share the experience, and connect the virtual and real worlds when possible. ...continue reading 'New face of IT recruiting'

Interview: Sun's Mark Monroe on virtualization strategies that work

By Ken Brill, The Uptime Institute

Both internally and externally with clients, Sun has been able to realize significant savings through virtualization. By sorting applications into 4 groups - mission critical, business critical, business operational, and business administrative - IT departments can identify the greatest virtualization opportunities with the lowest risk. "The target-rich environment is that business operational and business administrative [bucket]. Not only are they good candidates but there are tons of them laying around in the data centers and in the laboratories and on people's desks," says Mark Monroe, Director of Sustainable Computing at Sun. In this interview with The Uptime Institute's Ken Brill, Monroe discusses virtualization strategies that help organizations achieve consolidation goals, improve efficiencies of space, and lower energy consumption. Listen now

Interview: Microsoft's Mike Manos on scaling up Moore's Law to the data center

By Ken Brill, The Uptime Institute

Moore's Law says that the number of transistors on a chip will double approximately every 18 months. But does Moore's Law work at the level of the whole system of a data center? Can the number of transistors (inside all the servers) double every 18 months at about the same cost, when the cost of the infrastructure (power and cooling) necessary to support those transistors is taken into account? In this interview, Microsoft's chief of data centers, Mike Manos, explains what Microsoft is doing in its new state-of-the-art data centers to scale up Moore's Law from the chip-level to the 500,000 sq. ft. data center level. If it can be done, then the economic productivity of enterprise computing can grow even as the carbon footprint is reduced. Listen now!

Ken Brill on green IT

"Green IT must focus on energy consumption of the data center as a first priority," says Ken Brill of The Uptime Institute. In fact, says Brill, the energy consumption in a data center is so overwhelming that for companies to reduce their carbon footprints in any meaningful way, they must address energy efficiency in the data center. Here, Brill discusses the four metrics of green IT and how greenness equates to bottom line profitability. Listen now!

Data center energy consumption exeeds EPA predictions

New research from the Uptime Institute shows data center energy consumption in the top third of sites researched grew 20% - 30% annually in 2006 and 2007, far exceeding the EPA's predicted 9% growth from 2006 to 2010. If data center power consumption continues to grow at the current rate, 10 new coal-fired or nuclear power plants will be needed by 2010 and 20 more (for a total of 30) by 2015. Here, Uptime Institute's Ken Brill discusses the broad-reaching impact of these findings. Listen now

Book review: Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

By Sandra Henry-Stocker, ITworld

An intense, thorough and extremely well written book, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition can take you from basic hacking concepts to building your own security code in a surprisingly short time. It is probably the best book to read if you want a thorough understanding of various hacking techniques, especially if you know enough about programming to put some of what you learn into practice -- not for hacking, I would hope, but to use the same skills for vulnerability testing and the same knowledge for protecting your network. ...continue reading 'Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition'

Not Just an Experiment: Guy Kawasaki's Alltop.com

Dan Blacharski, ITworld.com

It's not an experiment, it's not a demonstration site, it's just a commercial web property designed to provide something useful, gain readership and make some money. Guy Kawasaki's two new Web companies, Truemors.com and Alltop.com, represent a new direction not just for Guy Kawasaki, but for the entire community of Web entrepreneurs. Guy talks about how the Web has changed, and how it's a lot cheaper today to start a Web company than it used to be. ...continue reading 'Not Just an Experiment: Guy Kawasaki's Alltop.com'

Andy Hunt: Secrets of a Rock Star Programmer

By Ed Burns

The two most important things developers do, says Pragmatic Programmers co-founder Andy Hunt, is communicate and learn. And he should know. Hunt's career arc has brought him through most of the roles one can have in the IT industry, from rank-and-file programmer at a Fortune 100 company, to senior architect, to independent consultant, to his current role as the co-founder of the Pragmatic Programmers LLC. He and fellow Pragmatic Programmers founder Dave Thomas are seen as true thought leaders in today's global programming community. ...continue reading 'Andy Hunt: Secrets of a Rock Star Programmer'