Mar 26th, 2009 - You already know how important it is to archive business email in case you need it later for reference, audits, or litigation, but storing all those archived bits and bytes is a real headache. Shoving them all on disks or a dedicated hard drive isn't practical or secure, and searching old email... (Read More)

Mar 24th, 2009 - One of the most time-consuming (and boring) after-effects of attending an industry conference is the deluge of business cards you bring home. Despite your best intentions to cull them and put important contact information in your database, let's be honest, it rarely happens. It's a pretty safe bet... (Read More)

Mar 19th, 2009 - The folks over at Gmail have been busy rolling out all sorts of new features in the last few months but the one they dropped on users today is by far my favorite -- Undo Send. I don't know a single person who hasn't had the gut-wrenching experience of typing up an email, hitting send, and then... (Read More)

Mar 12th, 2009 - I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get in on the phone management service Grand Central when it was still in beta. Google announced late last night that its relaunching the service as Google Voice and is available to current customers as a private beta. I, for one, welcome our new call... (Read More)

Feb 17th, 2009 - BlackBerry smartphones get love from Google and iPhone gets love from, well, everybody. Most companies that develop mobile apps worry about these two user bases before any other, leaving other mobile phone users out in the cold. According to an announcement out of the GSMA Mobile World Congress in... (Read More)

Feb 4th, 2009 - As my colleague Davey Winder pointed out earlier today, Google has launched yet another cool tool, Latitude. For the most part, its usefulness doesn't extend much beyond social gadflies, but I can think of at least one practical implication for the workplace. Google Latitude is an opt-in... (Read More)

Jan 31st, 2009 - Early this morning, people using the Google search engine got a strange surprise. Nearly every result for every search was marked with the alert message, "This site may harm your computer." If you clicked on a search result, instead of being directed to a Web site, you were automatically taken to a... (Read More)

Jan 31st, 2009 - Yahoo! announced this week plans to shut down its free online storage service, Briefcase. Users have until March 30th to find a replacement service before their files become inaccessible. There are loads of free online options to choose from, but here are three of my favorites: IDrive -- This... (Read More)

Jan 29th, 2009 - When Google launched Gmail's IMAP capabilities last year, it thrust the ubiquitous Web-based mail service into the limelight as a true contender for enterprise use. Even though it's tightly integrated with Google Apps, a powerful suite of business tools, many people still shunned Gmail citing about... (Read More)

Jan 27th, 2009 - If your company has an online presence, it's tempting to dismiss offhand comments from disgruntled customers who claim they plan to smear your name on the Internet. I mean, one negative comment online cant amount to much, right? That's not necessarily true. Google PageRank is the current gold... (Read More)

Mar 18th, 2009 - Ordinarily I tend to agree with many of the things PCWorld's John C. Dvorak has to say, but a column he wrote this week has left me scratching my head. He asserts that the email system is fundamentally flawed and has pronounced it "dead." Email? Dead? What? Dvorak gives readers nine reasons to... (Read More)

Mar 10th, 2009 - When things go wrong in the server room or the network operations center (NOC), employees are usually eager to point the finger somewhere else before it can be pointed at them. While absolving oneself of wrongdoing is reflexive human behavior, it shouldn't override dealing with the problem at hand.... (Read More)

Feb 27th, 2009 - Oh, the poor beleaguered BlackBerry Storm. It just can't catch a break. Mobile phone company Orange delayed its launch in the UK last year because of undisclosed "software issues." The Bold's much anticipated arrival in the U.S. got bumped back nearly six months. Now sales of one of Research In... (Read More)

Feb 27th, 2009 - Few things are more cringe-inducing than admitting to your boss that you lost your company-issued laptop. No matter how careful you are about securing your computer, sometimes all it takes is a second for it to vanish in a crowded airport or bus. To increase the chances of getting your laptop... (Read More)

Feb 23rd, 2009 - Unless you were unplugged and on living on a Himalayan mountaintop last week, you no doubt heard about the Great Facebook Flap of 2009. If not, then be sure to read Ron Miller's excellent recap at TechTreasures. ComputerWorld's Frank Hayes posted a great article this morning that takes a look... (Read More)

Feb 16th, 2009 - As President Obama's economic stimulus package winds its way through the politico, people in the tech sector wait with bated breath to find out what it will mean for the IT industry. Of particular interest is the section of the bill that details how the administration plans to go about digitizing... (Read More)

Feb 10th, 2009 - Jaspersoft CEO Brian Gentile made an interesting observation on his blog last week about what enterprise information systems need to do in order to appeal to younger workers. He says that because the up-and-coming workforce is so completely comfortable with technology, their expectations will be... (Read More)

Jan 14th, 2009 - A reader at Slashdot posed an interesting question this week. His (or her?) company has instituted a new scheduling policy known as "9/80." It compresses 80 hours of work into only nine days, instead of the more traditional 10. In exchange for working longer days, employees get every other Friday... (Read More)

Jan 8th, 2009 - India-based IT company Satyam is facing scandal after its chairman, Ramalingam Raju, admitted he falsified approximately $1 billion of profit in the last several years. The incident, which some are calling India's Enron, may end up costing hundreds of IT workers in Australia their jobs and... (Read More)

Dec 27th, 2008 - Wired Magazine reports this month on Männerspielplatz, a playground of sorts that's designed specifically with men in mind. Located in Germany, guys come to try their hand at things many have only dreamed of: riding dirtbikes through mud, driving a backhoe, or operating jackhammers on mounds of... (Read More)

Dec 23rd, 2008 - Quick, what segment of your IT setup uses the most electricity: your servers and network technology or the assorted PCs scattered around the cube farm? If you said the stuff in the server room, you're wrong. According to recent data released by Forrester Research, desktop computers, printers,... (Read More)

Dec 22nd, 2008 - An IT expert within the Bush administration was killed in a plane crash over the weekend when his single-engine airplane went down just short of the Akron, Ohio, airport where he was trying to land. Michael Connell has made headlines recently for his alleged part in the rigging of both of George W.... (Read More)

Dec 19th, 2008 - I've been noticing a trend in recent weeks among large companies, small businesses, and consulting firms and I must say, it warms my heart. It seems that people are more interested in giving to the less fortunate this year than exchanging wacky Secret Santa gifts or having indulgent holiday... (Read More)

Mar 16th, 2009 - There's an interesting article over at PCWorld this week suggesting that social networking Web sites are putting businesses at risk for security breaches. Author Howard Price says now that it's possible to link personal accounts like Twitter and Facebook to accounts at career-oriented sites like... (Read More)

Mar 3rd, 2009 - Skype is an excellent VoIP phone service for telecommuters or company employees who travel a lot. You can make and receive calls from your computer for free, and get a personalized phone number, voicemail, and other upgrades for a small fee. Skype announced a new fee-based feature this week,... (Read More)

Mar 2nd, 2009 - Everyone is talking about how open source technology is the answer to budget cuts and belt tightening in the workplace. There's no denying its use is on the rise and, in fact, the Linux server market is predicted to extend into the tens of billions over the next few years. Clearly IT professionals... (Read More)

Dec 26th, 2008 - There's a disturbing trend afoot -- particularly if you're a writer -- and it involves the print magazines sys admins and IT managers have relied on for years. Simply put, they're disappearing faster than beer at a frat party. Although no one can be sure exactly why, there's little doubt that a... (Read More)

Feb 27th, 2009 - You can tell a lot about a company by the way they treat the employees lowest on its pay scale. Pay cuts and, yes, even layoffs are inevitable in today's economic climate. The decisions are painful, but they're often necessary and unavoidable. They aren't, however, a license to be callous and cold... (Read More)

Feb 26th, 2009 - As part of my ongoing quest to bring you information on getting -- or keeping -- a job in the tech sector, I want to point you to a great blog post by the folks at the application security company Palamida. They've assembled a list of eight open source tools you can use to help find your next job.... (Read More)

Dec 30th, 2008 - Apparently the stinging failure of Windows Vista is a distant memory for Microsoft because they've cooked up yet another hair-brained idea to draw in customers: pay-as-you-go computing. Cnet has the details today of a patent application filed by the company and I'm having trouble believing it's not... (Read More)

Feb 24th, 2009 - If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know I focus a lot on employment -- or lack thereof -- in the tech sector. I'm always on the lookout for ways IT professionals can get additional skills or enhance the ones they have, so I feel compelled to tell you about Microsoft's... (Read More)

Feb 18th, 2009 - As layoffs mount in every industry across the nation, there's no shortage of advice on how to avoid or cope with them. Suggestions range from taking some time off to catch your breath to jumping right back on the in the saddle after your last paycheck clears. It's difficult to know just who or... (Read More)

Jan 20th, 2009 - In the run-up to Inauguration Day, just about has been everyone speculating on what changes our newly-elected president will bring to the table. Naturally, we talk a lot around DaniWeb about how Obama's plans will affect the tech sector. As long as everyone else is making predictions and... (Read More)

Jan 6th, 2009 - A new study by Janco Associates, Inc. is full of gloom-and-doom about the state of employment in the IT industry. A year-long survey of U.S. and Canadian businesses indicates a combination of job outsourcing, layoffs, and other cost-cutting measures have led to the worst job market IT professionals... (Read More)

Feb 2nd, 2009 - From angry customers to irate CIOs, service outages are an IT nightmare to be avoided at all costs. It's impossible to prevent them entirely, so post-mortem assessment is critical to understanding how to minimize their impact in the future. While not strictly a service "outage," Google's search... (Read More)

Jan 30th, 2009 - Although Mozilla's Firefox and Google's Chrome browsers get a lot of attention in the media, Apple's Safari browser is not too shabby in comparison. The one thing it unfortunately lacks is robust security. Given that so much computer activity revolves around the browser these days, security is... (Read More)

Jan 13th, 2009 - A group of over 30 organizations including the Department of Homeland Security, Microsoft, and Symantec collaborated recently on a security project designed to identify the top 25 coding errors programmers make when building Web sites. Since many of the mistakes can leave sites vulnerable to to... (Read More)

Jan 26th, 2009 - Even if your marketing team says you don't need a company blog (though you probably do), consider setting up a Web site status blog for your visitors or customers. A status blog is a basic, no-frills site that contains updates and posts concerning a Web site's uptime (and downtime). It's a great... (Read More)

Jan 5th, 2009 - Under new a new law adopted in the UK, the British police are now permitted to access data stored on home computers without benefit of a search warrant. Worse yet, officers are allowed to hack into computers remotely without notifying its owner. Even though officials say these methods would only be... (Read More)

Dec 29th, 2008 - Even though we still have the playoffs and Super Bowl to look forward to, fans of American football are (really, really) disappointed that the regular season ended yesterday. Since there's not much else to do but kill time until the 2009 season starts nine long months from now, let's have a look at... (Read More)