Jim Rapoza

Several years ago, Macromedia Inc. representatives came to what was then PC Week Labs to pitch a product called Dreamweaver, which they said would make it easy for anyone to create Web content without having to learn HTML. Over the years, that product morphed into a high-end Web development platform that can easily intimidate Web […]

Although much of the focus has switched to Java, Flash and other newer technologies, Macromedia Inc.s venerable Director is still one of the top platforms for developing interactive multimedia applications. eWeek Labs found its latest incarnation, Director MX, to be an excellent upgrade, with increased usability, capability and integration options. Director MX, released last month, […]

The latest stable release of the open-source Web browser Mozilla, Version 1.2.1, gains some welcome features in its browsing and mail capabilities, making it a worthwhile upgrade for those still using Mozilla 1.1 or earlier. Among the new features I found useful in Mozilla 1.2.1 were improved keyboard shortcuts, additional user interface customizations and a […]

A recent study found that I am the best-looking man in the Western Hemisphere. Sure, I commissioned the study, and the only participants were my wife, mom and two dogs, but all most people will notice is the headline. Of course, this is a joke, not unlike the recent study commissioned by Microsoft that tried […]

Early last month, a key element in using Web services for business applications reached a milestone when SAML 1.0 was released as a standard by the XML consortium OASIS, or Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. Security Assertion Markup Language, which is based on XML, provides a framework for authentication and authorization in […]

One of the newest acronyms in enterprise business applications is BPI, which in many ways seems awfully similar to formerly hot acronyms such as B2B and EAI. Whatever you call it, business process integration can, when done correctly, make it possible to tie together disparate business systems and applications within a company and among business […]

The motto of the National Guard Is “Always Ready, Always There,” and soon, the U.S. government will ask IT workers to stand by the same credo. Within the sweeping Homeland Security bill, recently signed into law by President Bush, is a section calling for the formation of a “National Emergency Technology Guard.” This NET Guard […]

Last week, the XML consortium OASIS announced the formation of a working group with the goal of creating an XML-based standard for office application formats. This group has the backing of several software vendors, including Sun, but noticeably absent is Microsoft, and it seems to me that trying to develop a standard for office formats […]

AltaVistas namesake service, with its up-to-date and accurate results, was for years my main resource for searching the Web. But as its capabilities waned and Googles waxed, I stopped visiting except for the occasional language translation from AltaVistas Babel Fish. The most important feature of the new service, which became available earlier this month, is […]

Recently I met with representatives from a software vendor, and while they were showing their product, they mentioned how a specific feature could be used to prevent “deep linking.” As they finished, I thought to myself, Is it really smart to promote a feature that keeps visitors from coming to a site? And make no […]

If youre a regular eWeek reader, youre probably not a user of the AOL or MSN browsers. However, there is also a good chance that you support users of these services, whether at home or in the office. If this is the case, youre probably aware that America Online and Microsoft released new versions of […]

Almost 3 years old, Active Directory is a product based on the priorities of a different time. Microsoft Corp. developed AD mainly as a corporate directory, designed to manage users and groups within large (and Windows 2000-only) organizations. Although Microsoft based AD partially on LDAP, it fell short of complete support for the directory standard—for […]