Peter Coffee

To users and operators of information systems, the plummeting costs of digital storage and processing power are becoming as much a threat as a blessing when it comes to protecting data privacy. Massive processor complexes combing through vast banks of data are silver-bullet solutions for those whod like to gain unauthorized access to the byproducts […]

The habitat of the Real Programmer, observed Ed Post in his classic 1982 essay, may have a computer screen at its focal point, but it has piles of hard-copy listings of source code obscuring every other surface in the office. Code, not specifications. Code, not project schedules. Code, not transcripts of user walk-throughs or focus […]

When eight states propose laws that could make it illegal to use a network firewall, it would be nice if working IT professionals could laugh it off. It would be nice if those who know better could assume that laws like these would fail as quickly and obviously as a measure that seeks to repeal […]

In the past week, various people have been telling me about their initiatives in both enterprise data mining and ultrawideband (UWB) wireless networks. Besides growing momentum, these IT domains share a common demand for a statistical approach to system design: data mining with its emphasis on inference and significance, UWB and other shared-spectrum techniques with […]

There have been genuinely interesting books about the tortuous path that new IT hardware follows to market: Tracy Kidders 1981 landmark The Soul of a New Machine, for example, superbly balances the human element against the complexities and limitations of new technology. Sad to say, Itanium Rising gives the genre a different and much less […]

The past years lapses in corporate governance give new importance to the category of Analytics & Reporting, in which enterprise architects can hope to find the tools for constructing better decision-making systems. Companies particularly need these powerful aids as they move into mixed-vendor data warehousing projects and increase their reliance on standards-based technologies and outsourced […]

For half a century, breakthroughs in computing have come from the predictable sources of federally funded aerospace and defense. During the past three decades, though, theres been a dramatic tilt in federally funded research toward the life sciences. That means the dividends from bleeding-edge computing that filter back to enterprise IT will be coming from […]

Despite a year of buzz and hoopla surrounding Web services technologies, the challenges of application development are still the biggest source of friction in the gears of enterprise IT. The finalists and winner in this category illuminate the long-established demands and the newly emerging pressures on development professionals. WINNER WebSphere Studio 5.0 IBMs WebSphere Studio […]

Proponents of the exceptionally fine Clarion development language and RAD tool were arguing the other day about the importance of enterprise-oriented marketing for development tools and technologies. Some of Clarions independent-developer users, frustrated by what they saw as inadequate promotion, asserted that this was the biggest barrier to those whod like to make their living […]

When something that might be a useful tool appears at the edge of your vision, your brain gets ready to grab it—before youve consciously noticed its there. When tools are seen at the lower right, a right-handers brain shows more activity than when the same objects are off to the left; when the object is […]

Ive got to stop wearing my red vest to Frys. Going there from church on a Sunday morning, it compounds the effect of shirt and tie to practically scream, “I work here!” I wind up doing tech support in the aisles. On a recent Sunday, someone was telling me, “I need to show video during […]

People whove never looked at a technology are usually open to the possibility that it might have something to offer. The biggest challenge is getting back on the radar of those who looked at Release 1.0, found it seriously wanting and have moved on to other possibilities. My recent letter on virtual machines, for example, […]