Peter Coffee

Throughout the years of pre-announcements, the promised “three pillars” of the next Windows platform have been described as major improvements in data accessibility, interactive presentation and behind-the-scenes communication. The first of these has proved wobbly, but the other two continue to be key differentiators for Microsoft Corp.s forthcoming Windows Vista. The pillar of data access […]

I felt an odd chill up my spine when I read last weeks comments from the U.S. Department of State on the subject of Internet governance. “These systems and networks are subject to threats and vulnerabilities from multiple sources and different geographic locations; security requires a concerted preventive effort by all stakeholders, appropriate to their […]

I had an opportunity last week to observe a transition, still in progress, from paper-based record keeping to an online operation. The new system was vastly superior when everything—and crucially, everyone—was behaving according to specifications. Its important to remember, though, the dictum of “Systemantics” satirist John Gall, whose “Systems Bible” includes the warning: “Any large […]

Using scripting in the right parts of an application stack, to do the right things, is a complex and subjective challenge of finding the right fit between talents and technologies. Writing, debugging and testing scripts is a more straightforward but nontrivial challenge of finding the right fit between complexity and capability. Toolmakers, recognizing the white-hot […]

In an eWEEK column last autumn, I proposed “a new default: to configure system privileges from the bottom up, instead of starting with wide-open systems and frantically battening down their hatches before something bad gets in.” I heard that thought coming back to me in a conversation this past week with Rix Kramlich, the VP […]

Java Studio Creator 2, expected to ship this fall from Sun Microsystems Inc., combines an improved pure-Java integrated development environment with a greatly expanded arsenal of prebuilt components. JSC2 also offers an array of effective Web-oriented construction tools and coding aids. Click here to read the full review of Java Studio Creator 2. 2 Java […]

Every enterprise IT constituency craves the attractive user experience and low life-cycle costs that can flow from the use of scripting languages—notably JavaScript, Perl, Python and PHP—and script-based application models such as AJAX. Those benefits are multiplied by growing connectivity, and the synergy of client-side scripts manipulating server-side data, to make scripting a candidate for […]

With at least some of his ashes soon to be placed in Earth orbit, the late James Doohan cant even be imagined to be spinning in his grave. Even so, I hate to imagine the reaction to recent events that one might have heard from the character made famous by that veteran actor. In real […]

People take it for granted that computer hardware should be universal, while applications should be specific to particular tasks. It seems obvious that this makes sense, since hardware is expensive to prototype but cheap to mass-produce—while software modules can be cost-effectively refined and customized. At what point, though, do the cost curves cross to make […]

Its often said, and I agree, that “Better is the enemy of good enough”–but Im not prepared to declare myself the loyal ally of one or the other. There are times when Im prepared to hold the line against the assault of “better,” but there are also times when “good enough” really is not. Developer […]

The tale is widely told, probably with dramatic license, that tycoon David Sarnoff of RCA and NBC made his first proposal in 1915 for radio broadcasts of music and news. His associates, the story goes, pooh-poohed the idea as “messages to nobody in particular” and demanded to know who would ever pay to send them. […]

Few would dispute that Java was a great idea, but it takes years for even the biggest brainstorm to evolve into a technology ecosystem. A decade is none too long. Sun Microsystems Inc.s 10th annual JavaOne conference, held in San Francisco at the end of last month, combined that level of maturity with a surprising […]