Peter Coffee

Thinking back over 2002, strictly from a developer perspective, it seemed to me that the biggest dog that isnt barking is C# (“C sharp”), arguably the native language of the .Net platform. For Windows developers, C# offers most of the strengths of Java while retaining more access (for good or ill) to programming models that […]

Its easy to offer a single vision of how things ought to be; its harder to build a coalition of compatibility. Borland Software Corp.s JBuilder 8 shows the strain of that competitive burden, which faces the Java development community as it confronts the monolith of Microsoft Corp.s .Net platform. Released in November, JBuilder 8 offers […]

Despite industry doldrums and the glacial pace of IT spending, 2002 saw continued innovation and technology adoption at every level of the IT stack. From processors to worldwide networks, crucial transitions—such as those from 32- to 64-bit computing and from intermittent to always-on connections—gathered momentum. Acceptance of these and other new technologies may even have […]

In our end-of-year discussions about the coming years it issues, someone mentioned government concerns about training in computer security. “The more people take these classes, the more people know how to hack” seems to be a growing concern at No Such Agency and its District of Columbia brethren. Lets kill this thought before it multiplies. […]

Remember the classic scene from “L.A. Law,” when the direct-marketing expert is urging the high-priced divorce attorney to go for volume with a video aimed at women considering a split? “You want women ready to talk about divorce? I can give you women over 40 whove just applied for credit in their own names! I […]

When CNN Headline News reporters asked me for comments on the Ptech incident, Ill bet they were anticipating a reassuring reality check. Id guess, based on the way they framed the questions, that they thought I would say the notion of software back doors being built in by devious developers was an exaggerated risk. If […]

Having despaired last week that mindless idiots control the movie business, its ironic that I should be inspired this week by news of animated characters with brains. The special effects software called “Massive,” which controls the battle scenes in the “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy, reminds me of what drew me into computing in […]

Ive always wanted personal computing to help me with personal organization. I bought my first laptop, in 1988, to run Ashton-Tates Framework III. With one command, I could search all my current work, all my recent e-mail and anything in my desktop library. It was worth the $8,000. Fourteen years of Moores Law progress have […]

When the latest Disney film, “Treasure Planet,” yielded disappointing revenues for its Thanksgiving weekend opening, the company was quick to let the industry know that it had a recovery plan. As reported by the New York Times, “Disney executives … point out that Treasure Planet is the last of the films to be made using […]

If theres one thing I expect to see at Comdex, its the Sony pavilion filled with PCs and peripherals that make new rules for high-touch design. Sonys near-total absence from this years Comdex floor was one of the shows jarring notes, but smaller companies such as Jetway Computer (www.jetwaycomputer.com) filled the gap with designs like […]