Jim Rapoza

That old PC hardware upgrade curve just isnt what it used to be. Remember the days when you would get a state-of-the-art, fully loaded system, and within two years it would be woefully underpowered to run the vital applications of the day? I sure remember them, but, for the most part, not all that fondly. […]

In recent years, theres been a big push among IT managers to become more business-savvy. An increasing number of senior IT managers and CIOs are taking business courses and even getting their MBAs. Im a big proponent of this movement. IT managers with a good understanding of business practices enhance their own careers and are […]

When I look at many companies Web applications, services and portal implementations, Im often surprised by the amount of unnecessary and unusual work that went into developing them. It isnt uncommon to see weird coding, configurations and design decisions that could have been a lot more elegant and efficient if the developers had taken one […]

For organizations that are dependent on Web traffic and site visibility, nothing is more important than being clearly seen by the Google search engine. Luckily, Sitemaps, a free beta tool from Google, makes it easier for Web masters to ensure that Google is always up-to-date with new content and changes to Web sites. eWeek Labs […]

Just as security became an issue no organization could ignore, so, too, has compliance come to infiltrate the hearts and minds of IT managers at companies big and small—whether its compliance with regulatory requirements, industry standards or corporate governance initiatives (or, likely, all of the above). Theres no getting around it: Every business needs to […]

I like to read all kinds of books—from fiction to nonfiction—but some of my favorite tomes detail historical accounts of famous battles. I always find it intriguing to read about the brilliant strategies, the colossal blunders and the overall role of luck in determining the outcome of conflicts that shaped future societies. Going all the […]

Ive been writing about the Semantic Web for a few years now—pretty much ever since I first read about it in Tim Berners-Lees 1999 book, “Weaving the Web.” During that time, Ive been excited about the possibilities of the Semantic Web. The way its designed, all content would be easy to identify, search and build […]

Stupid is as stupid does.” Thats what my mama always said to me. One example of folks who werent being too smart about their computers happened over there in London not too long ago. These fellas from an IT training group called The Training Camp decided to do a test to see if people there […]

Ah, open source—is there anything that you cant do? Youre my operating system, my Web and app server, and the basis of my Web services architecture. You help me develop applications and then surf on the Web. You even let me create images and audio and use one client for multiple instant messaging networks. I […]

Lately Ive been thinking a lot about innovation. To a large degree, this has been due to the 30th and 10th anniversaries of, respectively, Apple and Palm—two companies generally considered to be innovators. As I was going through old issues of eWeek (and PC Week, as we were formerly known), gathering all the reviews that […]

At the very first LinuxWorld conferences I attended, in the mid-90s, anyone who even appeared to be a businessperson was stared at by the free-software masses like some kind of strange animal that had accidentally wandered into the show. Then, as “real” companies began to exhibit, the show was treated like a validation of Linux […]

As high-profile data thefts and losses continue to populate the news headlines, many companies dont realize that they already have a tool at hand that they can use to find and close at least one potential area of data loss. Is it an advanced security analytics tool? Nope, its just a simple, ordinary search engine. […]