Stan Gibson

While most of the U.S. economy continues to inch its way through a prolonged recession, Fannie Mae, the federally chartered secondary mortgage market company, has been riding the home refinancing boom to new heights of transaction volumes. So its perhaps not surprising that, while many enterprises are focused intently on cutting IT costs and avoiding […]

A few years ago, as the dot-com bubble was still expanding, many an IT shop longed for the days of stability, when everyone wasnt leaving for the phony riches of stock options and workplace turnover was under control. Now were getting to see what less or, in some cases, no turnover is like. Gartner analyst […]

Theres a barely perceptible but significant thaw in the IT spending freeze, IT researchers are finding. “Theres unrelenting pressure on cost for the third year in a row. But now there is a requirement that companies innovate. People are becoming concerned that the future of companies is being put at risk,” said Ellen Kitzis, group […]

Now that China is gearing up its space program to put a robot on the moon, I wonder: Could the United States take its moonshot program out of mothballs and figure out what to do? Since we decided 30 years ago there was not enough ROI to warrant further trips, its certain that our skills […]

Give Forrester Research credit for one thing. Faced with a nuclear winter of IT spending, the IT think tank has come up with a green-sounding slogan to describe our predicament: organic IT. The catch phrase was introduced nearly a year ago, and its caretaker is Forrester analyst Frank Gillett. The slogan makes it sound like […]

Some technologies dont get older, they get better. This weeks issue has a couple of prime examples: virtual machine technology and Ethernet. Both originated in the 1970s, and both have been through several generations. Both are fundamentally great ideas, the need for which has not abated in the least over the years. Some 30 years […]

Youd never know just from talking to Steve Elterich, president of Fidelity eBusiness, that many enterprises are clamping down hard on IT spending these days. Even as the stock market has foundered in the aftershock of the dot-com boom and bust, Fidelity Investments, the largest mutual fund company in the United States, a major provider […]

It all depends on how you remember it, I guess. Last week, Bill Gates addressed a gathering of Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals, or MVPs, in Redmond, so you might have expected something to boost morale. Indeed, the chairman and chief software architect evoked victories of the past to instill a will to triumph today against […]

The entrance to the fidelity center for applied Technology in Boston is emblematic of the groups mission to seek out emerging technologies: Every month or so, a new biometric device guards the door. In early February, a facial recognition device stood watch. “We try a different one every month—face recognition, iris scan, thumbprint, hand geometry,” […]

eWeek will do $4 billion of Linux business this year. Hey, only kidding! But who would ever know? No one checks out these claims, and if they did, would you believe them if they used Generally Accepted Accounting Principles? I didnt think so. So Carly Fiorina is free to trumpet HPs $2 billion in Linux […]

Now that the Software Assurance cattle drive is in full swing, most Microsoft customers have been able to make a choice whether to join the herd in signing up for Software Assurance or to remain aloof. Its not that complicated a decision. If you dont upgrade that often—say, only every four years—then youre better off […]

This year, during a season that is sacred to many, I committed an unspeakable heresy—at least as far as e-commerce orthodoxy is concerned—I purchased no presents online. For several years, I bought more and more gifts on the Web. Then something happened. Maybe it was a midlife crisis, the dot-com bust or maybe I just […]