Category: Uncategorized

The semantic web, digital identity, and Internet governance. Consider Eliyon, a company that's gathered public information about more than 22 million people to support sales, recruiting, and other applications. As it turns out, I am several of those people. In addition to my current title, InfoWorld Test Center lead analyst, I show up as executive… Continue reading The semantic web, digital identity, and Internet governance

Mozilla Calendar. It's been a while since I looked at Mozilla Calendar, so this morning I installed the Firefox version and gave it another whirl. My first reaction was that this descendant of Netscape's calendar program must share a lot of DNA with the original — it feels a tad clunky, UI-wise, in the same… Continue reading Mozilla Calendar

Knoppix Rescues. Kyle Rankin, author of Knoppix Hacks and a sysadmin, writes about a few of his Knoppix rescue stories. As a battle-hardened sysadmin, I've seen a lot of broken systems (some I broke, and some were broken for me). I've carried a number of rescue disks, including tomsrtbt and the LinuxCare Bootable Business Card,… Continue reading Knoppix Rescues

Help Me Research an Article on Mobile Technology for Lawyers?. I'm writing, on a fairly tight deadline, an article on putting together the basic set of tools for mobile computing for lawyers. I want to write this article with the idea of capturing the solid, middle-of-the-road, realistic choices for lawyers. I want to leave the… Continue reading Help Me Research an Article on Mobile Technology for Lawyers?

Smarter Traffic Lights. If you're like me, I bet you hate moments when you're in a hurry and all the traffic lights seem to intentionally switch to red just in front of your car. Now, according to Nature, a Belgian traffic researcher thinks that traffic lights that respond to local conditions could ease congestion and… Continue reading Smarter Traffic Lights

Spyware on My Machine? So What?. There's a reason why so many PCs are infected with spyware and adware: Users seem to have stopped caring about having online privacy. Many are saying spyware is a small price to pay for free applications. By Michelle Delio. [Wired News]

Economics of health care IT. Last week's column on the dysfunctionality of health care IT drew comment from some folks who deal professionally with the issue. John Rodat, who is president of Signalhealth and who blogs at healthsignals new york, reminded me that while we all complain, “we've still got to develop the market.” And… Continue reading Economics of health care IT

Enigmail: Easy E-Mail Encryption via Thunderbird. The enigmatic Troutgirl points at the Enigmail project which, aside from having a great name, may make some headway in getting e-mail encryption technology in front of the masses. Enigmail is an extension to the mail client of Mozilla / Netscape and Thunderbird which allows users to access the… Continue reading Enigmail: Easy E-Mail Encryption via Thunderbird

RIA platforms. Infoworld has run an in-depth analysis and comparison of Flex to Laszlo. With over 10 times the resources, Macromedia has successfully cloned and ripped off the nascent Laszlo platform – and have a couple of things Laszlo does not have. But Laszlo is free and open source and Flex costs $12,000 a server.… Continue reading RIA platforms

Heather, in marketing, at Microsoft: “I just feel a little bit like the bumble-bee girl in the video trying to find my bumble-bee peeps.” [Scripting News]