John Taschek

Everyone—except a couple of the vendors involved—predicted a washout in the application server space. Those predictions, which started more than two years ago, came at a time when it seemed that every vendor said it had an app server or was just about to release one. Thankfully, there just wasnt enough meat to make a […]

One of the good things to come out of bad economic times should be better products. Successful vendors focus on solving pressing business problems while setting themselves up for better times. Unsuccessful companies, of course, simply go out of business. Given this, its hard to see why so many competitors and detractors have raised a […]

Oracle chief Larry Ellison said the code name for Oracle9i is the “last database,” which I concluded to mean that Ellison thought the database market was dead. He later clarified his remarks. Its not the “last” database, he said—Oracle9i features the biggest, most radical improvements in database computing since the first relational database. There probably […]

Well all be broke soon if the trends continue. Inflation is up, savings are down, companies are going out of business, and now, to top it off, IT salaries are plunging for the first time—ever! Oh, the sadness and despair. Now who is going to buy all those junky plastic and silicon gadgets that have […]

BEA Systems might be the smartest company in the world, but its going to have to do some justifying this year. Thats because its now facing the big guns, which are heavily armed. BEA thinks it has no competitors. It thinks Oracle is a bunch of schmoes who happen to own a leading database platform. […]

Intels release of the Itanium couldnt have come at a more interesting time. Just a few years ago, everyone was concerned about megahertz, “Intel Inside” and collecting those stuffed Intel bunnies. Few people now probably know whats powering their systems. I barely keep track anymore, although the Polywell dual-Athlon system we received at eWeek Labs […]

A new report has it that it consultants are the first things to go during a downturn in the economy. No wonder all the great projects throughout time have been created during depressions! Seriously, as much as Id like to joke that companies—sans consultants—can finally get something done, dumping consultants is not a strategic move. […]

Ah. Some Linux advocates must smell the sweetness of victory after the operating system came out on top in a recent TPC benchmark. That the benchmark is flawed, is more appropriate as a hardware test and is not relevant for operating system comparisons be damned! Experienced IT professionals know exactly what the TPC is and […]

What the heck was he doing? Thats what everyone wanted to know when Craig Mundie, Microsofts vice president of advanced technologies, challenged the open-source license earlier this month (go to www.eweek.com/links to see what Mundie had to say). Not much good can possibly come from such a presentation. Then again, nothing good can come of […]

Microsoft has long been expected to enter the content management space once occupied by some high-flying companies but now populated mostly by has-beens. Its not that the space is bad; its just that there are fewer companies and less need for software to handle tracking content and customers. A lot of horrible installation stories, missed […]

We, the people, deserve compatible wireless access. And when it comes to the 802.11b Wi-Fi standard, we usually get it, with a niggling caveat. This minor headache centers on the preamble, which is the part of the 802.11 specification that deals with how packets are sent and received over the airwaves. The IEEE 802.11 committee […]

In a way, its sad that IBM purchased Informix. the troubled but innovative underdog of a company had quite a following. On the other hand, if anyone had to do it, IBMs not a bad suitor. Otherwise, Informix might have languished and died. Or—egads—it could have been beaten to a pulp by Oracle. I can […]