Category: Technology

ITM launches integrated suite to manage the business of IT – Computerworld
MAY 28, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) – ITM Software Corp. this week launched an integrated suite of IT management applications that early users and consultants said is something akin to an ERP system for CIOs

In my InfoWorld column this week (“Blogging behind the firewall“), I write about a small but really amazing outpouring of information-sharing in InfoWorld’s IT department since we started a group weblog a few months ago. After I filed my column, I came across a Jon Udell column (“Publishing a project weblog“) on roughly the same subject (with slight differences which I’ll get to in a moment) — about a year ahead of me, as Jon tends to be. In my experience so far, weblogs work best as documentation repositories in the spirit of what Scott Ambler has written about as “agile documentation,” a concept I also discussed recently.

Scoble wonders what we write about in our internal InfoWorld weblog. Here are a few recent headlines to posts with some background info in parentheses:

• Vacation – IT staff (a scintillating view into the summer vacation schedule for InfoWorld’s IT staff)
• Long-term equipment plan (5-year plan for Test Center capital spending)
• FY 05 Capital budget planning (our purchase plans for web site scaling, desktop/laptop replacements, etc. for next fiscal year)
• Oracle migration procedure (a step-by-step explanation of what we did to upgrade from Oracle 8i on Solaris to Oracle 9i on Linux for our CMS)
• Firewall settings (see why this stuff isn’t public?)
• MX record trick to fake out spammers
• InfoWorld: Behind the Music (a link to a Quicktime video clip of various members of the InfoWorld IT team rocking out during a recent off-site retreat, shot with an iSight camera — see the photo of Wade Grubbs — our systems administrator and resident musician — with this post)

[Chad Dickerson]

WriteTheWeb – What is a k-log?

Some people are taking the concept of weblogs and applying it to the wider concept of knowledge management. The result is k-logging (“knowledge-logging”). But will it catch on – will your employer dump Lotus Notes databases in favour of browsers and blog-style brain-dumps?

It is good to remember that things don’t always have to be built according to the template.

It is good to remember that the goal is to deliver the “goods” not comply with a “standard”

Good Experience – The Page Paradigm

– – – – – – – – – – The Page Paradigm – – – – – – – – – –
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| On any given Web page, users will either… |
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| – click something that appears to take them closer |
| to the fulfillment of their goal, |
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| – or click the Back button on their Web browser. |
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– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

IEEE Spectrum – A Fountain of Knowledge

A Fountain of Knowledge

The great strength of computers is that they can reliably manipulate vast amounts of data very quickly. Their great weakness is that they don’t have a clue as to what any of that data actually means.

CaRP: Freeware Caching RSS news feed Parser

Keep your website fresh effortlessly by importing RSS newsfeeds.

Test page can be found here at the moment
UIS Status Messages

Plan A for Microsoft | CNET News.com

The next operating system, code-named Longhorn, promises a huge leap forward from current versions of Windows, with better graphics, storage, search and security features, according to analysts and others familiar with the technology. But those features come at a price: Most can be used only through client software that’s designed specifically for the new system.

InfoWorld: Mac OS X: It just works: September 12, 2003: By Chad Dickerson: Platforms

With decimated IT staffs getting slammed from without (Sobig.F) and within (frustrated end-users), something that just works is downright refreshing.