Evan Schuman

A high roller walks into the casino, ever so mindful of the constant surveillance cameras. Wanting to avoid sales pitches and other unwanted attention, he pays cash at each table and anonymously moves around frequently to discourage people who are trying to track his movements. After a few hours of losses, he goes to the […]

The Virgin Entertainment Group is trying to push the envelope on kiosk use, with plans to use the multimedia machines not just to play video clips, audio samples and game demos but to identify customers and to handle payments. “Our minds are racing where we can go with this,” said Robert Fort, the CIO for […]

When Office Depot sued Staples last week over search engine keyword purchases, it touched on more than marketing strategies. The suit could force the discussion of the ethics of Web advertising tactics, a discussion that many in the industry would rather not have. The particulars of the lawsuit are not that exciting. Office Depot accused […]

With so many retailers and manufacturers embracing RFID tracking throughout the supply chain, there is a strong assumption that an RFID label is still connected to the product it is supposed to be connected with. One vendor—Mikoh—is trying to challenge that assumption. Todays barcode is relatively easy to replicate and fake with an ordinary laptop, […]

Soaring gas prices have been pushed by natural disasters and an unfriendly global climate. But some e-commerce players are looking on the bright side: Maybe this will push people to drive less in the fourth quarter and instead log in and buy more online. Gas prices could impact e-commerce activity in two opposite ways: by […]

MasterCard International Inc. Vice President Oliver Steeley is working to make contactless payment available to millions of Americans. Contactless payment is where a customer authorizes a charge to a credit card without the credit card being touched, often by using a key fob, a smart credit card or a chip embedded in something else (such […]

Like a Java version of the sword of Damocles, the threat of a Web tax has loomed over e-Commerce players since the Web was formed a little more than a decade ago. But fitting for an October deadline, this sword is more of the tissue-paper and cardboard type, one that looks scary only from a […]

On Wednesday, bar code pioneer and scanner manufacturer Intermec Technologies Corp. plans to unveil a new generation of bar code readers that rely on pure silicon to read bar codes, rather than mechanical means. Intermec predicts its readers will be 80 percent more accurate with the new approach to scanning. Traditional bar code readers use […]

One key part of a CIOs job is to protect company information. That forces a healthy amount of paranoia, as the exec must anticipate the unlikely and envision the impossible. Maybe we should call CIOs Chief Imagination Officers? Perhaps a Stephen King-like imagination. Just like in a classic horror story, the biggest threats to many […]

In what might signal the closing chapter in the CardSystem credit-card security breach saga, CyberSource Friday announced its intent to acquire all of CardSystems assets for an undisclosed amount. In May, CardSystems Inc. reported its role in the nations largest known data security breach, when it revealed that someone had broken into its systems and […]

The managers at one of the nations fastest-growing ice cream chains pride themselves on customers who know exactly what they want sweet-wise when given the tools to make it. The 1,200-store chain opened its first franchise store 10 years ago and has been gaining momentum ever since. It plans to open 400 stores this year […]

The software industry has for years had a proud tradition of announcing product long before an actual product existed—vaporware, in other words: software specs and capabilities that didnt really exist but might exist in the future. There were many thought-leaders in vaporware production, but Microsoft was always my favorite. When it announced nothing, it was […]