Jim Rapoza

About

Jim Rapoza, Chief Technology Analyst, eWEEK.For nearly fifteen years, Jim Rapoza has evaluated products and technologies in almost every technology category for eWEEK. Mr Rapoza's current technology focus is on all categories of emerging information technology though he continues to focus on core technology areas that include: content management systems, portal applications, Web publishing tools and security. Mr. Rapoza has coordinated several evaluations at enterprise organizations, including USA Today and The Prudential, to measure the capability of products and services under real-world conditions and against real-world criteria. Jim Rapoza's award-winning weekly column, Tech Directions, delves into all areas of technologies and the challenges of managing and deploying technology today.

Catch-22 of WLANs

Data cant be stolen from a network that no one can access. Thats the absurd principle that many IT managers are following when they install wireless networks. On the one hand, they want to bring wireless ease of access to employees, partners and clients. On the other hand, they face such strict security requirements for […]

Authentication & User Management

Once, authentication simply meant controlling user access to company networks; then it changed to include resources on Web sites, portals and intranets; now it can include authentication into Web services and wireless networking devices. With this much change, excellence can mean doing all these things well or doing one of these things very well. WINNER […]

Mozilla Browser Tightens Up

Not surprisingly for an application that is intended mainly as a development platform, the Mozilla Web browser continues its seemingly constant upgrade cycle. Version 1.3 of the browser gains many useful new features, including some effective anti-spam features in the mail client. Other new features in Mozilla 1.3, which was released by The Mozilla Organization […]

DtSearch Covers All Data Sources

In the world of search technologies, theres usually a world of difference between desktop search tools and powerful search engines. DtSearchs dtSearch 6.0 bridges that gap with a suite of products that provide advanced desktop search tools and powerful Web-based engines for searching across lots of data. I found dtSearch Developer 6.0—which includes the Desktop […]

Snapshot: Camino Is Friendlier by Design

As many Mozilla users know, the Mozilla Organization states that the open-source browser is a developers tool, not an end-user application. Because of this, several side projects are under way to create end-user browsers that employ Mozillas Gecko browser engine. One that recently underwent a name change is the Camino browser (formerly Chimera). Camino, which […]

Mozilla Tightens Up

Not surprisingly for an application that is intended mainly as a development platform, the Mozilla Web browser continues its seemingly constant upgrade cycle. Version 1.3 of the browser adds many useful new features, including some effective anti-spam features in the mail client. Other new features in Mozilla 1.3, which was released by the Mozilla Organization […]

The War on Tasteless, Baseless Product Pitches

It seems that nothing—not even war—is sacred to IT vendors looking for a new hook on which to hang their products. During the past few days, Ive received several product pitches that use the conflict with Iraq for leverage. These pitches, not surprisingly, include several from security firms warning about potential cyber attacks. I guess […]

FreeHand Draws on Better Tools

With the release of FreeHand MX last month, Macromedia completed the upgrade of its product line to the new MX platform and has the best-integrated development, authoring and graphics-building products Ive seen in quite a while. Of course, FreeHand MX is a stand-alone product in its own right and is a very good vector graphics […]

Heads Up on Six/Four: Anonymity on the Net

New peer-to-peer technology called Six/Four System will raise anonymous Internet use higher on the list of security concerns for enterprise IT managers. eWeek Labs evaluated a beta version of the developers edition of Six/Four, released last week by Hacktivismo, an offshoot of the Cult of the Dead Cow hacker group. Hacktivismo, which is dedicated to […]

Six/Four: The Internet Under Cover

The Six/Four System is peer-to-peer technology that makes it possible to carry out almost any Internet activity securely and—more importantly, for all sorts of reasons—anonymously. The Hacktivismo system, or anything based on it, just may become the Internets next killer app. Many who will be affected by Six/Four might use the term “killer” in another […]