Jason Brooks

Its been a big buzz week for open-source software in government. First, there was Mondays announcement from the German government of its plans to standardize on Linux and open source across that nations entire IT organization with help from IBM. And yesterday, Ralph Naders Consumer Project on Technology issued an open letter to the US […]

When Handspring launched its Treo 180 communicator in March, the release marked some significant departures from the Visor devices that had preceded it. Gone were the Visors Springboard expansion slot and Graffiti input area, in favor of integrated cell phone functionality and a RIM-style thumb keyboard. Id never been a particularly big fan of the […]

Bluetooth counts among its backers nearly every significant force in the fields of networking, hardware and operating systems. However, at every Bluetooth congregation Ive attended, one vendor has been conspicuous by its absence: Apple. Thats why it was good to see Apple previewing a Bluetooth solution for Mac OS X at Macworld Expo earlier this […]

3 Distributions Power Up Linux”> The power and fine-grained configurability upon which Linux has built its popularity as a network operating system are the same qualities that have tended to hold it back in the desktop world. However, the security and cost benefits of open-source software should compel IT organizations at least to evaluate Linux […]

Lets have a show of hands: Who out there runs Windows with administrative permissions, whether or not youre engaged in the sort of system configuration tasks for which those rights are required? Logging in as an admin for everyday computing is a bad idea, and this shouldnt be news to anyone. Admin users enjoy unrestricted […]

Next -Generation P2P Collaboration”> Groove Workspace 2.0 Professional Edition, the second-generation collaboration client from Groove Networks Inc., equips users with an impressive array of tools for getting group work done over the Internet. In addition, the Groove client boasts enough extensibility to ensure that those tools with which the product does not ship can be […]

While Bluetooth has failed to achieve the sort of instant ubiquity promised by early vendor and analyst estimates, I believe this low-power, wireless personal networking standard has a solid future—a viewpoint rooted not only in the intrinsic worth of Bluetooth as a technology, but in the wide industry support that Bluetooth enjoys. Bluetooth counts among […]

BlackBerry 5810 Offers Java Platform”> With a design that boasts new cell phone functionality, speedy GPRS network connectivity and a Java-based software platform, Research In Motion Ltd. has built a better BlackBerry—while remaining true to the form factor and messaging facilities that drove the popularity of its previous BlackBerry models. However, pending wider deployment of […]

With a design that boasts new cell-phone functionality, speedy GPRS network connectivity and a Java-based software platform, Research in Motion Ltd. has built a better Blackberry—while remaining true to the form factor and messaging facilities that drove the popularity of its previous models. For all its new capabilities, however, the Blackberry 5810 has its trade-offs. […]

A couple of weeks ago, I came across a troubling page on Microsofts Web site, titled “A Guide for Accepting Donated Computers for Your School.” Heres the passage that caused my consternation: “It is a legal requirement that pre-installed operating systems remain with a machine for the life of the machine. If a company or […]

Cheap and provocative, WLANs are making their way onto production networks through the back door. Tech-savvy employees pick up a system at Circuit City and share the wireless LAN among department colleagues like a box of doughnuts—with about as much thought about the consequences. The popularity of wireless networking among home and business users alike […]

Ten or so megabits per second is more network speed than most business users need, but this hasnt stopped the march of wired networking gear from there to 100M bps to Gigabit Ethernet to 10 Gigabit Ethernet. That same need for speed—particularly for applications such as streaming video—has driven the development of the 802.11a and […]