Larry Dignan

Blog Watch Dell feels secure First, it was Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos pricey security detail. Now its Dell founder Michael Dell who is on the security bandwagon. Heres the rather snarky recap from Footnoted.org on June 6: “Company executives must really be feeling the heat from shareholders these days. As posted back in April, Amazon […]

Spending IT = dead money Eight out of 10 dollars spent on IT is “dead money.” That humbling statistic came courtesy of Gartner at its Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Oct. 8-13. According to Gartner, most companies technology spending is devoted to just maintaining the status quo, or keeping the lights on, so to speak. About 20 percent […]

BlogWatch Replacing Jobs? Former Apple Computer Chief Financial Officer Fred Anderson resigned from Apples board of directors Oct. 4 amid a growing stock-option backdating scandal. Meanwhile, Apple CEO Steve Jobs apologized to shareholders, and the company acknowledged that he knew of some backdated option grants. Thats all it took to get some bloggers speculating about […]

Ask an IT professional about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and you are likely to get rolling eyes, some angst and the occasional rant about the lack of return on investment on compliance. Thats why technology pros might be cheering news from Sept. 25 that former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan panned SarbOx, which is designed to […]

The network is back. For the network administrators in the room, that statement may not be much of a shocker. But for other casual observers—including me—the networking industry hasnt been terribly exciting ever since Cisco Systems was briefly the most valuable company in the world during the dot-com boom. Since then, networking overall has been, […]

Digital rights management conflicts could make for some strange bedfellows as hunting season opens on Apple and its iTunes juggernaut. As eWEEKs Peter Galli reports, the Free Software Foundation is planning to protest DRM software, which restricts how and where content can be played, at Apple stores in New York and London Oct. 3. And […]

More than 50 percent of CIOs plan on spending more on technology in 2007 than in 2006, according to a survey released by the Society for Information Management on Sept. 18. To be specific, 51.8 percent of those surveyed said 2007 IT budgets would be higher than 2006 IT budgets, with 32.8 percent expecting flat […]

FINANCIALS Compensating Larry Oracles annual proxy statement filed Aug. 23 is an interesting read (at least for folks that like Securities and Exchange Commission filings). The best part: the footnotes. Heres a look at Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellisons home security costs. Ellison had a fiscal 2006 salary of $1 million with a bonus […]

NEW YORK—Cisco CEO John Chambers worked the crowd at the companys financial analyst meeting here, outlining a vision where the network—run by Cisco gear, of course—serves as a platform that follows you around as you flip between work and play. The convergence means “the excitement is back in networking,” says Chambers. For anyone following the […]

Options Scandal Should Steve Jobs be concerned? For those keeping score of the options-backdating scandal at home, Apple Computer and Pixar are two of a slew of companies that may have priced stock options at lows to give executives easy money. The common thread between Apple and Pixar: Apple CEO Steve Jobs ran both companies. […]

Google announced on Aug. 28 Google Apps for Your Domain, a set of ad–supported communications tools such as Google Talk, Google Calendar and Gmail, to target small businesses that dont want to install and maintain software. This initial volley, which analysts say is targeted at upending Microsofts Windows Live plans, is expected to become part […]

Googles plan to offer a bundle of hosted office applications sparks a lot of talk about the search giants chances of upending Microsofts Office juggernaut, but leaves one question unanswered: Will enterprise customers give Google a chance? On Monday, Google announced Google Apps for Your Domain, a set of ad-supported communications tools such as Google […]