John Taschek

AMDs Opteron microprocessor is by far the most interesting thing to happen in the server chip world in the last two years. It put Intel into reaction mode, forcing the company to change how it would optimize 32-bit applications on the Itanium 2 by introducing the IA-32 Execution Layer. The Opteron has also left Sun […]

Is it possible that something once pronounced Bipple and now Be-PEL is shaking up the Web services world? Is something as dry as Business Process Execution Language signaling an important split in Web services standards groups? Are Microsoft, IBM and BEA icing Oracle and Sun and their customers? The answer to each is yes. The […]

With Opteron, the best we can hope for is that the marvelous 64-bit processor wont be buried by AMDs marketing bungles. Unfortunately, it looks like AMD is still bungling, much to the chagrin of the IT community. AMDs rationale for 64-bit computing is in line with most industry thinking. Sixty-four-bit systems are necessary because the […]

Just when we thought the economic climate for IT couldnt get worse, it did. Larry Ellison drove another stake through the heart of tech-sector optimism when he told The Wall Street Journal recently that at least 1,000 Silicon Valley companies should go bankrupt. The comments were vintage Ellison: utterly self-serving—and wrong. There are an estimated […]

Adobe Systems Inc.s Acrobat—the pre-eminent tool for generating documents in the popular PDF file format—is now easier to use and is more tightly integrated into commonly used applications. Its also not just a single product anymore. With Version 6.0, Adobe splits its PDF publishing software into three separate tools. Acrobat Elements is a simple Windows-only […]

Windows Server 2003 has been released to manufacturing and is ready to be launched to a community that is going to be hard pressed to pay for it. These days, IT budgets are under intense pressure from corporate chief financial officers. Microsoft, of course, realizes this. Thats why the company has been attempting to make […]

When the economy started heading south, vendors of CRM (customer relationship management) and SRM (supplier relationship management) products began to focus. Whereas the vendors once attempted to inflict stringent business processes on organizations, theyre now more flexible. Whereas solutions were once their own departmental silos, they are now integrated modules. Category judges considered these aspects […]

Three weeks ago, Cisco and Linksys were just about the most dramatically different companies you could find. Cisco sold expensive networking gear to enterprises, service providers and carriers; Linksys sold low-margin, high-volume gear to end users, mostly through the retail channel. So it was somewhat of a shock when Cisco announced the purchase of Linksys […]

Wireless warriors confused by todays 802.11 standards have a new ally: Netgears WAG511, a wireless PC Card that supports two bands and all the major wireless standards, including 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g. I expected compromised performance from this $129 all-in-one wireless card, but performance met or exceeded that of the best cards Ive tested. In […]

To many, Microsofts full-fledged launch of .Net Compact Framework last week sets up yet another battle with Sun Microsystems. This time its over mobile devices. Unfortunately, this battle is one of perception. The two companies are as far apart on how to develop for mobile devices as they are regarding legal issues. Microsofts mobile strategy […]

Intel Corp. promised two things with Centrino, the companys brand name for its mobile processor and modular chip set: higher performance with better battery life and a wireless module that integrates well with the chip set. Tests show that Intel is close to delivering on these promises. The first thing to note is that the […]

Intel Corp. promised two things with Centrino, the companys brand name for its mobile processor and modular chip set: higher performance with better battery life and a wireless module that integrates well with the chip set. Tests show that Intel is close to delivering on these promises (see test results here). The first thing to […]