David Spark

At the Federal Aviation Administration, in Washington, Steve Dash, manager of the Air Traffic Control Telecommunications Services Office, became frustrated with the agencys traditional pay-for-service relationships with contractors. While vendors could fulfill service requests, Dash said he thought FAA agreements never induced contractors to think about the administrations long-term welfare. “The vendor would be more […]

GPS has been considered the de facto standard for location tracking. Although still king, a few not-so-new technologies are joining the party to extend the functionality of LBS. When introduced, location-based services were to fleet managers what VisiCalc was to accountants. This killer app eliminated the time-consuming need for “Where are you now?” conversations between […]

Sue Merk keeps an Excel spreadsheet of compliments. As they come in, she appends them to the file. “I absolutely LOVE the fact that we never have to change our password!! Thank you!!” reads one compliment. If she likes a compliment, shell move it up on the Microsoft Corp. application and highlight it in yellow. […]

Executives at financial institutions are frustrated—very frustrated. Who can blame them? Theyve spent tons of time and energy building their online infrastructures and the publics confidence in online banking. Now both are being torn apart by phishing: deceptive e-mails and Web site redirection tricks designed to entice users to unwittingly reveal their user names and […]

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange is undergoing an unprecedented growth period, with the volume of trading doubling every year since Sept. 11, 2001. The exchange handles commodity futures (for example, live cattle and lumber), foreign exchange (such as the euro and the peso), equity index funds (like Nasdaq and the S&P 500) and one of the […]

In South Florida, hurricanes are an expected and predictable emergency. Homeowners shutter windows, companies back up data and send it off-site before a storm strikes, and afterward life and business resume as usual. Such was the contingency plan for Banco Santander Central Hispano International, a Spanish financial institution with U.S. headquarters in Miami, which for […]

The merging of global networks can cause confusion and conflict and, worst of all, force a venture into the unknown. Thanks to a network discovery tool, however, Smiths Group PLC.s IT department controlled the chaos. Managing a worldwide network can be tough. Node by node, you painstakingly map out the entire structure. And just at […]

So many things can go wrong with a projector. Connections drop off, video inputs change and bulbs burn out. These inevitable failures are compounded because they never happen at a convenient time. There is no such time for a projector. Due to the high cost of bulbs and their limited life span, projector use often […]

Coffeehouse consumers can be demanding. They want double nonfat lattes. They want onion bagels. And they expect Wi-Fi. Notebook owners are rapidly acquiring the capability to connect wirelessly. Market research company In/Stat MDR estimates that by next year, 90 percent of all new notebooks will have built-in Wi-Fi connectivity. Coffeehouse owners are feeling the pressure […]

After a few years of inconsistent service, many Lucent Technologies Inc. customers are discovering that if they want Lucent expertise, they shouldnt look to Lucent—not directly, that is. “Service started breaking down here in the last couple of years,” said Dennis Eby, a transmission engineer for Matanuska Telephone Association, a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier in […]

Anyone can respond to a job ad. In todays tough economy, however, interviews—much less job offers—can be hard to come by. Finding work thats not available on Monster.com demands investigation. And that requires talking to people outside ones normal group of contacts. Its a form of networking thats better suited for salespeople, not IT professionals. […]