Scot Petersen

Web services development got a boost today when Serena Software Inc. announced support for Microsoft Corp.s .Net platform. Serena makes products that help developers make changes to application code and content. Serenas ChangeMan DS 5.4 for distributed systems and ChangeMan WCM (Web Code and Content Manager) 3.1 will support Microsoft APIs for its Visual Studio […]

I dont know about you, but my idea of a good evening is making a bowl of popcorn and curling up on the couch to watch a good DVD movie—as it downloads for anywhere between 2 and 12 hours, depending on what format my computer supports and the speed of my Internet connection. As absurd […]

If you missed the news, more penalties against Microsoft were handed down the week of Thanksgiving. What you didnt miss was that Microsoft got off lightly—again. The beneficiaries in the settlement of about 100 private lawsuits—filed against the company in the wake of the governments antitrust case—are students at some 14,000 public schools who will […]

There are some videos and sound files making the rounds of the Internet featuring Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and his usual over-the-top brand of hysterics. In one, he enjoins his audience to consider the significance of “developers, developers, developers, developers!” To Microsoft, developers are indeed a linchpin in its hold on corporate IT departments: Without […]

Ive sat through enough keynote speeches and accompanying promotional videos to take them for what they are worth, which isnt much. But at a recent analyst conference, Microsoft presented a commercial about the benefits of .Net My Services that was truly disturbing. We meet the Cleavers in the near future in their well-appointed suburban home […]

At Comdex this week, most attendees will learn their latest lesson in adapting to the New World Order: IDs will be checked; handbags will be searched; no bags of any kind will be allowed on the show floor, which means no laptop computers. Like many other aspects of the Sept. 11 tragedies, positive changes will […]

BOSTON–The new, more responsible Microsoft Corp., which capitulated in the DOJ settlement in part, officials said, because of Sept. 11, is still playing the game as fiercely as ever. Speaking here today at Forrester Research Inc.s Executive Strategy Forum, Microsoft President and Chief Operating Officer Rick Belluzzo took some competitors to task, especially Sun Microsystems […]

So he did it. Bill Gates finally said goodbye to the DOS prompt. Gates drew cheers as he ceremoniously exited from the command-based operating system during the launch party for XP, the latest version of Windows. Somehow, I think DOS deserved a more dignified ending. After all, it was DOS, and the business deal behind […]

I dont want to give terrorists any credit, but from the strikes against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to the anthrax letters scare, whoever is behind these events has been remarkably efficient. Efficient in crude means and effects: Attack innocent lives, and, as a bonus, shake the foundations of our economic infrastructure and […]

Weve heard the acronym/motto kiss: keep it simple, stupid. Buried in that philosophy is another maxim of the IT manager: If it aint broke, dont fix it. For administrators and end users alike, living by these credos can mean enduring things like the instability of Windows 9x and the annoying Microsoft Office mate Clippy (now […]

Back more than a few years ago, in the dark ages before digital technology, a roommate of mine used to buy a record album and play it only once. In playing it, he would record the pristine vinyl onto a brand-new cassette tape, thereby saving any wear and tear on the record and prolonging its […]

Its truly tiring sometimes to hear the way we overuse the word “innovation” when it comes to IT. I think its because weve been conditioned by certain parties to think that giant, memory-sucking media players embedded in Windows are particularly innovative, if not essential. But in business today, innovation is so much more about processes […]