Jim Rapoza

Given the high cost of commercial survey applications and services, its no surprise that low- and no-cost open-source alternatives have emerged for performing surveys using the Web. These options range from open-source tools that provide everything from basic surveys to complex questionnaires to authoring tools that allow sites to build their own survey applications. /zimages/3/28571.gifClick […]

For baseball lovers, this is hotstove season—with lots and lots of trades and free-agent signings that leave fans unsure of just which team their favorite players will end up on. And it seems as if baseballs hotstove season has spilled over to the technology world, leaving many IT buyers unsure of just which company owns […]

Twenty years ago, a little publication started out that billed itself as “The newsweekly of IBM system microcomputers.” That publication was PC Week, which, in 2000, became eWEEK. During the last two decades, weve seen our fair share of innovations, successes, failures and revolutions in IT. But theres one thing that weve seen more of […]

Recently, I started to again have an old nightmare that I thought I had gotten rid of once and for all. In the nightmare, I sit down at my computer to look for information or an answer to a problem, perhaps a solution to an application error or installation procedures or even personal help such […]

Anyone who has wanted to create or edit digital audio files has probably run into the high-complexity problems of most audio-editing tools, which seem to be designed more for budding record producers than for people who just want a simple but effective program. Over the years, Ive tried many purportedly user-friendly audio-editing programs but didnt […]

Watchfire Corp. has clearly taken the safe but smart position for its first release of the AppScan products it gained from its acquisition of Sanctum Inc., making no major changes to the award-winning product for testing the security of Web applications. Click here to read the full review of AppScan Audit 5.0. 2 Watchfire Corp. […]

Now is truly the dawn of the golden age of mobile computing. Cell phones incorporate more and more true computing features while leveraging faster and faster wireless networks. As you can see from the wireless data network stories that lead off the Labs section this week, true enterprise business applications can be logged in to […]

Macromedias Captivate 1.0, based on the companys acquisition of eHelps RoboDemo technology, is an overhaul of the popular application simulation and demo-creation software. These major changes have been mostly for the better, as Captivate 1.0 is one of the best tools Ive ever used for creating rich and complex tutorials, simulations and e-learning demos. Using […]

Recently, people in the United States came out in large numbers to choose who would be president for the next four years. Whether your candidate won or lost, you had the opportunity to participate in selecting the person who would lead the country. There is someone relatively as powerful in the IT community, but we […]

When eWEEK labs reviewed Macromedia Inc.s Flex 1.0 earlier this year, we were impressed with many of its capabilities but noted that the product had a significant number of kinks and was, in some respects, unfinished. Click here to read the full review of Flex 1.5. 2 When eWEEK labs reviewed Macromedia Inc.s Flex 1.0 […]

Things have been pretty confusing around here lately while Ive been trying to get my column topics in order. What with all the fallout from the recent “ELECTION RESULTS” and the continuing “WAR in IRAQ,” I sometimes feel like Im stuck in a catfight between “BRITNEY SPEARS,” “PARIS HILTON” and “CARMEN ELECTRA.” Im not sure […]

Making it easier for Web application developers to prototype and specify applications is the goal of Axure Software Solutions Axure RP 3 (formerly Ubiquity RP), which shipped last month. Using Axure RP 3, I could build browser-based mock-up prototypes of Web applications, making it possible to show early design and functionality specifications for an application. […]