eWEEK EDITORS

I agree with Peter Coffees philosophy that “fixing problems” needs to become a routine, managed process, rather than a crisis event (Peter Coffees Epicenters, “The Knowledge Trek,” Aug. 8). But … its not always that easy. What do you roll back when an application is failing for one set of users or performing badly on […]

My wish list [for the forthcoming windows Vista] is a bit less “new stuff” and more “improve whats there now” (“Labs Windows Wishes,” Aug. 22). Vista should allow me to more easily specify what programs are allowed to run on startup. In fact, I should be able to set a rule that would prevent any […]

Microsoft Corp.s Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles last week was perhaps the Redmond, Wash., companys most important event of the year, as officials try to sell developers on the value of creating new applications for the companys next generation of products. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer talked with eWEEK Senior Editor Peter Galli at the […]

LOS ANGELES—Stop the presses. Windows Workflow Foundation, the newest of the next-generation Windows infrastructure pillars, is running early. WWF, Microsofts combined human- and machine-level workflow subsystem, was expected to debut as part of Longhorn Server in 2007, at the earliest, Microsoft officials said this past spring. But at the Professional Developers Conference here this week, […]

LOS ANGELES—While declining to talk packaging specifics, Microsoft executives offered more hints on its Office 12 server plans here at the Microsoft PDC this week. During his Professional Developers Conference keynote address on Wednesday, Microsoft Corp. Senior Vice President of Office Steven Sinofsky didnt reveal specifics on Microsofts plans to add new servers to the […]

Panasonic Ventures has opened an embedded Linux incubator at its Digital Concepts Center in San Jose, Calif. The Technology Collaboration Center (aka Linux Collaboration Center) hopes to host and collaborate with four or five consumer electronics Linux startups, in exchange for first right-of-refusal on up to 10 percent of the startups next institutional funding round. […]

During an annual tax-free shopping holiday in Georgia, a Wal-Mart store mistakenly charged sales tax on an item due to a coding error, according to Wal-Mart spokeswoman Susan Weber. “There are many, many items in a tax-free holiday and all of them have to be hand keyed in,” Weber said. “This one just fell through […]

One of the biggest launches of digital menus is taking place at Burger King locations in Germany, with the technology already in place at several hundred of the fast food restaurants. The digital menus give customers information on products and prices, using a combination of video, kinetic product images and animated text. The system changes […]

Retail IT execs would be wise to triple-check their barcode accuracy before setting up shop in Arizona, after that state started cracking down on incorrect scanned prices. State inspectors found inaccurate prices at major retailers, prompting overcharges for consumers and $51,000 in fines to retailers. The largest of those fines went to The Sports Authority […]

SecurePrint Keeps Print Jobs Private The corporate world is rife with examples of someone sending a print job containing highly sensitive data, such as salary numbers or a layoff plan, to a public printer, where someone else picks it up and sees information that wasnt intended for widespread dissemination. Silex Technology America aims to solve […]

Sun Microsystems Inc. is about to enter the second phase of its push into the competitive industry-standard server space with the rollout on Monday of the first two of its “Galaxy” family of systems powered by Advanced Micro Devices Inc.s Opteron processor. The first step was establishing a presence in the market, which Sun did […]

Hewlett-Packard has rescheduled its HP Technology Forum, which was due to run this week in New Orleans but was postponed following Hurricane Katrina. Hewlett-Packard Co. will now hold the show Oct. 17-20 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The forum is the first show co-hosted by HP, in conjunction with its user […]