Topics by Lisa Hoover

When it comes to enterprise computer technology, everything seems to be happening in the cloud these days. Offsite storage was one of the first iterations of cloud computing and is continuing to gain traction as a smart way for companies to safely retain data. You're probably familiar with the typical …

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 …

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 the last place …

When sysadmin [URL="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/07/23/sf_admin_stays_jailed/"]Terry Childs went off the rails[/URL] in San Francisco a few weeks ago and deliberately locked down the majority of the city's network, no one should really have been surprised. As most IT professionals will tell you, it was bound to happen sooner or later. [URL="http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/18/34FE-it-under-pressure_1.html"]InfoWorld[/URL] took a …

I'm probably a disgrace to my gender for saying this but I think the new study showing women in IT face "significant barriers to advancement" is a bit overblown. According to [URL="http://anitaborg.org/news/archive/new-research-reveals-significant-barriers-to-advancement-for-mid-level-technical-women/"] research conducted by the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology[/URL], the situation is so bad that nearly …

The [URL="http://openid.net/"]OpenID[/URL] authentication method allows visitors to participating Web sites to log in with a single digital identity and avoid having to remember [I]yet another[/I] login / password combination. Many businesses are implementing this method on consumer-facing Web sites in order to lower the barrier to user registration and participation …

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 -- [URL="http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-undo-send.html"]Undo Send[/URL]. I don't know a single person who hasn't had the gut-wrenching experience of typing …

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 …

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 that the …

There's an interesting article over at [URL="http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161270/social_networks_risks_for_business_security.html"]PCWorld[/URL] 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 LinkedIn, a single status message …

I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get in on the phone management service [URL="http://www.grandcentral.com/"]Grand Central[/URL] when it was still in beta. [URL="http://googlevoiceblog.blogspot.com/"]Google announced[/URL] late last night that its relaunching the service as Google Voice and is available to current customers as a private beta. I, …

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. …

As part of my [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4037.html"]ongoing quest[/URL] to [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry4007.html"]bring you information[/URL] on getting -- or keeping -- a job in the tech sector, I want to point you to a [URL="http://www.palamida.com/blogs/eight-open-source-projects-for-highly-effective-job-hunting"]great blog post[/URL] by the folks at the application security company [URL="http://www.palamida.com/"]Palamida[/URL]. They've assembled a list of eight open source tools …

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 [URL="http://reviews.cnet.com/gsma-world-congress/"]GSMA Mobile World Congress[/URL] in Barcelona, …

As my colleague [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3927.html"]Davey Winder pointed out earlier today[/URL], Google has launched yet another cool tool, [URL="http://www.google.com/latitude/intro.html"]Latitude[/URL]. 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 location tracking service …

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 …

[URL="http://briefcase.yahoo.com/bc//home"]Yahoo![/URL] 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: [URL="http://www.idrive.com/"]IDrive[/URL] -- This service …

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 [URL="http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/index.html"]Google Apps[/URL], a powerful suite of business tools, many people still shunned Gmail citing about a lack of offline …

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. [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank"]Google PageRank[/URL] is the current gold standard that …

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 [URL="http://www.sans.org/top25errors//?cat=top25"]top 25 coding errors[/URL] programmers make when building Web sites. Since many of the mistakes can leave sites vulnerable to to cyber crime, it's a …

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 …

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. [URL="http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10129438-92.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0"]Cnet has the details[/URL] today of a patent application filed by the company and I'm having trouble believing it's not Bill Gates' attempt …

Even though we still have the playoffs and Super Bowl to look forward to, fans of American football are ([I]really, really[/I]) 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 …

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 …

If your company has a blog -- and it should -- you might what to have a look at [URL="http://www.typepad.com/connect/faq.html"]Typepad Connect[/URL], a new way to bring the finer points of social networking right to your Web site. In the old days (meaning around 18 months ago) it used to be …

Miami has hurricanes, Silicon Valley gets wildfires, and Seattle sits at the foot of a volcano. Where should your data center be? How about the heartland of America -- the Midwest -- where a growing number of server farms are springing up instead of corn or cattle farms. John Rath, …

[I]"With great power, comes great responsibility." -- Uncle Ben in "Spiderman"[/I] I read a [URL="http://ask.metafilter.com/107859/How-to-deal-with-the-IT-Skinner-box"]fascinating question[/URL] over at [URL="http://ask.metafilter.com/"]Ask Metafilter[/URL] this week that I've been thinking about ever since. An anonymous tech worker writes that though he loves job, he's over-worked and over-wrought. His two-man department achieved an uptime of …

If you've been thinking of ditching your old BlackBerry and getting a new Bold or Storm, but hate the idea of an upgrade or early termination fee, I have some great news for you. The best part of the new devices has been all its new browser has to offer. …

A few years ago, small businesses just needed a telephone line and maybe a single computer with a dial-up connection to set up shop. Now that technology has exploded, nearly every company needs a reliable phone system, a Web site, and maybe even a whole network of computers to stay …

If you've been clinging to the interoffice email and calendaring capabilities of Microsoft Exchange as your company's last vestige of proprietary software, it's really time to consider giving up the ghost. Open source collaboration software vendor [URL="http://www.open-xchange.com/"]Open-Xchange, Inc.[/URL] announced recently it now offers its flagship product, Open-Xchange, as an [URL="http://www.open-xchange.com/en/products/open-xchange-appliance-edition-en"]appliance …