Peter Coffee

Call me old-fashioned, but a byte used to be worth eight whole bits, and every one of those bits represented a choice: yes or no, present or absent. OK, maybe not actually a matter of good or evil, but nonetheless a value proposition. And the eight bits in a byte, combining to represent 256 distinctly […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY JBuilder 9 JBuilder 9 is a surprisingly significant upgrade to Borlands exemplary Java development environment, incorporating project life-cycle management technologies acquired by the company since the last release of the product and also improving support for many application server platforms. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS USABILITY EXCELLENT CAPABILITY EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE GOOD INTEROPERABILITY EXCELLENT MANAGEABILITY EXCELLENT […]

The average CIO holds that position for 18 months but has to project at least six months further into the future, observed BMC Software CIO Jay Gardner during remarks at the GigaWorld IT Forum, held last month in Phoenix. “In January, I was 17 months into the job, and I started to worry,” Gardner recalled, […]

On June 23rd, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency will receive the first round of proposals for the development of “LifeLog,” which it describes as a system that will “trace the threads of an individuals life in terms of events, states and relationships.” I imagine ears pricking up all over at the thought of this […]

I spoke late last week with representatives of Avanade, BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Sonic Software and Systinet in a round-table session on the status and prospects of Web services: the technologies, the standards, and the development practices and business models that are growing on those foundations. Youll see our discussion reported in the July 7 […]

As I looped around the east edge of Phoenix, heading home from the GigaWorld IT Forum, I heard NPRs salute to National Night Shift Workers Day conclude with a poem by Karen Jane Glenn. “Let us now praise the night shift,” she began. “Those on the 8-to-4, the 10-to-6 … the sleep-deprived … the wired.” […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Net Express 4.0 Micro Focus Net Express 4.0 combines an object-oriented COBOL development environment with XML extensions and Web services interface construction tools. Sensible default behaviors combine with customization options to meet a wide range of needs for legacy-integration projects. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS USABILITY GOOD CAPABILITY EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE GOOD INTEROPERABILITY EXCELLENT MANAGEABILITY GOOD […]

New models of application development—including server-side code, distributed Web services, and deployment of workplace functions to handheld and embedded devices—have programmers clamoring for more code analysis and process integration capabilities in their old reliable tool, the text editor. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Visual SlickEdit 8.0 SlickEdits Visual SlickEdit 8.0 gives developers cross-platform source code editing, with commendable […]

You buy new technology to make your company more productive. Ironically, actual measures of worker performance in IT tasks suggest that much of our information technology has long been as good as it needs to be. Upgrading IT users, with emphasis on strengthening employees basic skills and improving their problem-solving abilities, is a too-often-overlooked option. […]

“The Wizard of Oz” is a parable of computer and network security, said Ira Winkler, Hewlett-Packards chief security strategist, at a recent IT security conference hosted by Washington Group International, in Boise, Idaho. “The moral of the story only seems to be Theres no place like home,” said Winkler, who delighted the audience of more […]

If youre looking for a hot combination of highly employable skills, consider writing code to provide Web services–in COBOL. Can a person build a 21st-century IT career on this 1960s foundation? Well, foundations are better than shifting sands. Legacy Reserves, a databank for over-35 IT pros, cites Gartner estimates that retirement and death will shrink […]

Its probably hard to remember, 35 years after U.S. law finally required them, that cars did not always have seat belts. First offered as an option on the 1950 Rambler, these simple, effective safety devices didnt appear until almost 50 years after Oldsmobile introduced the speedometer. Our approach to IT has reflected similar values. We […]