Jim Rapoza

Not everyone should have a personal computer. There. Ive said it. Youll say Im a techno-elitist, that I believe that some people should be excluded from the technology revolution. Thats not true. I believe that everyone should be part of the technology revolution. But I dont think PCs are the right platform for everyone because […]

Most of the focus on business-to-business e-commerce is on supply chain management and Web services, with little thought given to actual product catalogs. This is despite the fact that such catalogs are the backbone of B2B for many businesses, especially those in the manufacturing sector. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xCat 4.0 This xCat update from A2i (www.a2i.com) […]

Often when a user creates a PowerPoint presentation, it is not solely intended to be shown in face-to-face meetings. Sometimes it will be necessary for the presentation to be archived and accessed remotely, and for those uses, audio and video are needed to put the slides in context. Microsofts Producer plug-in for PowerPoint is a […]

Are the browser wars back? Theres plenty of debate on that, thanks to the latest Mozilla developments and the direction that Microsofts Internet Explorer is taking. Some people believe that Microsoft won the browser war and thats that; others believe that browsers are irrelevant; still others believe, as I do, that Microsoft won Browser War […]

Every once in a while, a new product comes out with such a sensible and useful solution to a real problem that it makes you wonder why no one came up with the idea before. A product that eWEEK Labs recently tested that clearly fits into this category is Twingo Systems Inc.s Twingo 2.0. EXECUTIVE […]

While interest in many enterprise applications has cooled in the last few years, companies remain hot on enterprise information portals. And why not? Portals provide the much-needed ability to integrate and unify access to a companys applications, back-end systems, data sources and content repositories. And unlike many other pricey enterprise applications, EIPs continue to show […]

Quick, who are Cynthia Cooper, Colleen Rowley and Sherron Watkins? How quickly we can forget. Theyre the three whistle-blowers from MCI, the FBI and Enron, respectively, who were Time magazines persons of the year in 2002. Sen. Joe Biden has called whistle-blowers “national assets.” And Tom Devine, of the Government Accountability Project, said whistle-blowers are […]

The newest release of Mozilla, 1.4, is most likely the last Mozilla release well see: The Mozilla Organization plans to split the suite into stand-alone browser and mail clients by the time Version 1.5 comes out. If this is the last release of Mozilla, at least its going out with a bang. Version 1.4, released […]

I talk with plenty of it buyers and analysts from consulting firms about the products they evaluate and use. Disturbingly, there is a common undercurrent in these conversations: Quality doesnt matter. Since its my job to help companies find the best products and technologies, I do think that quality matters, and I reserve my loudest […]

Security has become a very big business in IT over the past few years. Youd think its growth as a commercial market would have made all our information more secure. It hasnt. Aside from the vendors that provide scanning, assessment and protection products, there are many specialized security consulting firms that will analyze your exposure […]

The newest release of Mozilla, 1.4, offers increased usability and customization options to the popular open source Web browser. However, this release also signifies more because it is most likely the last Mozilla release well see: The Mozilla Organization plans to split the Mozilla suite into stand-alone browser and mail clients by the time Version […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BizTalk Server 2004 The core piece of Microsofts forthcoming Jupiter e-business suite, BizTalk Server 2004, looks like it will also be one of the premier business process management platforms available. Microsofts upgrade offers many significant improvements, including finally supporting the XML Schema standard, which should expedite business process integration. PRO: Very good support […]