Month: December 2003

Not your father's tax software company.  Known almost exclusively for its tax and accounting software offerings, Intuit is expanding into other areas including the enterprise software segments of collaboration and CRM. Two years ago Intuit acquired Turning Mill Software, rebranded the technology, has since gained traction within corporate workgroups and small businesses. I had lunch… Continue reading Not your father's tax software company

Sputnik-Claus is Coming to Town. Just in time for the holidays, a new promotion from Sputnik: the Sputnik Quick Start Kit (buy). The program runs from now until the end of the year. A perfect stocking stuffer for that hot spot on your holiday shopping list! Sputnik Quick Start Kit – includes: 2 Sputnik AP… Continue reading Sputnik-Claus is Coming to Town

Leveling the Playing Field. Brilliant Collaborative Effort “These last few days I've been very excited about the PER:NA project, sponsored by the National Library of New Zealand. PER:NA stands for Purchasing Electronic Resources: a National Approach. What the National Library has done is negotiate a consortium deal that covers every library in New Zealand. All… Continue reading Leveling the Playing Field

Review of the Squeezebox. DesignTechnica review of the Squeezebox that new digital audio from Slim Devices adapter which has built-in WiFi for wirelessly streaming MP3s and Internet radio from your PC to your stereo. [Gizmodo]

The Answer Is in the Question. The answer to Alison's question is in the question. There is no one formula for delivering a great customer experience. The dynamics involved with delivering great customer experiences is just as complex as our personalities are complex. Delivering great customer experiences is a by-product of a company's culture. If… Continue reading The Answer Is in the Question

code4lib. If you are interested in discussing computer programming in the area of library and information sciences you might want to subscribe a new email list code4lib. Dan Chudnov, Chuck Bearden, Eric Morgan, Rob Fox and I got to talking via email about it, and it seemed like a good idea. Chuck (who helped mature… Continue reading code4lib

Computerworld: Moving data to the mountain. In response to the resulting surge in demand for safe and secure digital records storage, Iron Mountain earlier this year opened a 5,000-sq.-ft. data center inside its secret underground facility. The data center includes 24TB of storage capacity and the equivalent of 1,586 T1 communication lines connecting it to… Continue reading Moving data to the mountain

News.Com: Internet worms and critical infrastructure. Bruce Schneier. And regardless of the answers, there's a very important moral here. As networked computers infiltrate more and more of our critical infrastructure, that infrastructure is vulnerable not only to attacks but also to sloppy software and sloppy operations. And these vulnerabilities are not the obvious ones. [Tomalak's… Continue reading Internet worms and critical infrastructure

Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy?.  Thanks to The Virtual Chase for the pointer to an article entitled Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy? The study showed that very short search requests (like “distance learning” or “St John's Wort”) tend to produce more “mainstream” search results, and fewer dissenting views. The authors conclude “[A]nybody can find the… Continue reading Do Search Engines Suppress Controversy?

Google Triumphs & Travails.  beSpacific links to a Forbes article about the popular Google search engine. There are many postive indicators: In 18 months the company has quadrupled in size, now employing more than 1,300 people. Annualized revenues have sextupled, to about $900 million. Annualized pretax profits have grown by a factor of 23, to… Continue reading Google Triumphs & Travails