Articles by Jack M. Germain

Two weeks ago, Apple and AT&T outlets opened their doors to massive lines of fans eager to buy the new iPhone 3G. The stores were stocked and ready to sell, but the network -- shouldered with the burden of activating so many new phones -- was quickly overwhelmed, and the process slowed to a crawl. Demand quickly outpaced the ability of the system to provide for it, and as a result, it failed. Most users were told to go home and activate their new phones from there...

Intel announced on Thursday new processors built around its plans for a new category of highly integrated, purpose-built and Web-savvy system-on-chip (SoC) designs The company also unveiled its first eight products under its Intel EP80579 Integrated Processor family for security, storage, communications and industrial robotics....

MindTouch announced on Wednesday the latest version of its open source collaboration and collective intelligence platform, MindTouch Deki (formerly Deki Wiki). Dubbed "Kilen Woods," it features new workflow capabilities, enterprise adapters and usability improvements. The release targets information workers, IT professionals, and developers looking to collaborate and connect enterprise systems and data sources.

Open source business intelligence (BI) firm JasperSoft on Wednesday announced its next-generation community platform at the O'Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON). The new platform features tools to enhance community project developers as well as business users. The new JasperSoft Forge responds to the changing needs of both open source software ...

New adopters often see virtualization as the Holy Grail of enterprise computing. It enables consolidation of separate servers and databases to provide more economic operations. Running consolidated computers from one virtualized machine also eliminates the electrical waste spent to keep idling servers and data-processing machines running However, a...

The most widely used open source software packages for the enterprise are exposing users to significant and unnecessary business risks, according to an open source security study from security firm Fortify Software The study, released Monday, concludes that open source software (OSS) development communities have yet to adopt a secure development pr...

VKernel is a young company with its finger on the pulse of the virtual server market, one of the hottest in the software world. Buzz over virtual servers is so high-pitched, in fact, that CEO Alex Bakman sees the potential for a steady stream of new hires that will swell his company's workforce to 5,000 people over the next five years Why the posit...

The i2i Stream digital music broadcaster is the latest wireless music delivery innovation from Aerielle. It enables users to stream audio wirelessly from any device, including iPods, MP3 players, computers and home entertainment systems The concept of wireless voice and music transmission over short distances from player device to listener is nothi...

The larger the business or government agency is, the bigger the volume of data it deals with. That translates into massive efforts to manage that data to meet ever-increasing compliance regulations for adequately maintaining electronic records. Any software company that can figure out how to manage this process better than its competition can become king of the vendor hill...

Depending on which set of criteria you reference, ID fraud either is on a significant decline or will be a lingering threat for several more years The general trend points downward. Overall, 2007 saw a 12 percent drop in ID fraud incidences to US$6 billion, according to Javelin Strategy & Research's report released in February....

Custom Linux provider Xandros announced Wednesday that it has acquired Linspire , developer of the CNR software distribution facility, and the Linspire and Freespire Linux desktop operating systems Xandros, which also develops Linux desktop and server products along with advanced cross-platform Windows-Linux management tools, will use the combined ...

MuleSource, a provider of open source service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure software, on Monday announced the release of Mule GalaxyEnterprise, a solution for storing and managing SOA artifacts with enterprise-class features Mule Galaxy Enterprise, the first open source SOA governance platform with integrated registry and repository, o...

Social networks are peppering the Internet with Facebook-like interactive features. Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is fast becoming the defacto programming tool for Web developers. But by itself, Ajax is a daunting challenge that requires demanding coding skills Ajax toolkits offer Web developers a shortcut method to build in the convenient...

Part 1 of this two-part series discussed hardware for the small to medium-sized business. Part 2 tackles software aimed at the SMB The continuing growth of the SMB market is pushing vendors to adaptor lose sales. Vendors are tweaking their more costlyenterprise-grade offerings to feature sets and price levels SMBcustomers can afford.

HP announced Monday it is letting its Tru64 Unix Advanced File System (AdvFS) source code run free in the Linux community. Access to this code will provide capabilities that increase uptime, enhance security and help ensure maximum performance of Linux file systems, according to HP officials. The AdvFS source code will give the Linux community a r...

One of the biggest trends in consumer marketing today is to appeal to the do-it-yourself mentality. Don't think so? Just visit home improvement outlets such as Home Depot and Lowe's for some clues. Then count the number of auto parts stores on your drive to the office Also consider the iPod and other MP3 players, along with install-it-yourself audi...

A partnership with the Collaborative Software Initiative (CSI) and the Utah Department of Health is cementing an emerging community sourcing software model that could thrust open source development deeper into vertical markets CSI and the state of Utah on May 19 announced the availability of a software system that resulted from a first-of-its-kind ...

The Open Source Census, a collaborative project initiated by OpenLogic to collect and share quantitative data on the use of open source software, has revealed more than 220,000 open source packages and project installations on business hard drives. The census now aims to take a deeper look into open source products used by enterprise adopters. The...

Open source business intelligence (BI) firm JasperSoft has announced the availability of its new JasperSoft Business Intelligence Suite v3 Professional Edition The suite provides enterprise-class functionality delivered through interactive Web 2.0 interfaces, the company said. The new functionalities extend JasperSoft's price/performance ratio and ...

High-profile data breaches continue to spotlight the growing risks consumers face of identity theft and credit card fraud. Four highly visible data breaches disclosed in the last 18 months are particularly worrisome because they show a systemic failure in the procedures that both the public and regulatory agencies expect companies to get right One ...