Wednesday, September 23, 2009 4:00 PM/EST

Video: Helping Small Business Avoid Deadbeat Companies

Cortera is an online service that provides credit information on businesses large and small but then combines it with ratings from a community of small business owners, who provide feedback both good and bad on these businesses. This makes it possible for a small business to know which companies are likely to be good business partners and which ones they might want to avoid.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 10:33 PM/EST

Live at DEMOfall 2009: Getting Secure and Getting Paid

The second half of day one at DEMOfall 2009 saw a weird mix of security products (for both business and consumers), products designed around either getting paid or paying someone, and a couple of products that didn't seem to fit any other category at DEMOfall.

Friday, September 18, 2009 11:02 AM/EST

Raw Power Standards

When one thinks of engineers, especially engineers on standards bodies, the last thing that comes to mind is legendary glam and punk rockers.

James Williamson is a member of the Standards Association Board of Governors at IEEE and was also until recently a Vice President of Technology Standards at Sony.

James Williamson was also the lead guitarist for Iggy and the Stooges and played guitar on Raw Power, one of the most legendary rock and punk albums of all time (and a personal favorite).

Friday, September 04, 2009 9:55 AM/EST

Netbooks and the Enterprise Are a Good Match

My colleague Don Reisinger recently wrote an article where he talked about the rise of netbooks and stated how they were not yet enterprise ready, pointing out their inability to multitask, connect securely to company networks and handle business class graphics tasks.

I have to admit I was a little bit surprised by Don's article, especially since, as I was reading it, I was on my own netbook, running multiple applications, including Adobe's latest Creative Suite graphics applications and connecting to my office network over a VPN connection.

So what gives? Is Don just wrong to state that netbooks are not yet enterprise ready?

Well, yes and no.

Thursday, April 09, 2009 9:19 AM/EST

Apple Trumps Microsoft, Google as Tech Monopolist

With mergers and company failures regularly in the news, the amount of healthy competition in the technology world is clearly decreasing. This, of course, means that more companies will gain a monopoly in their markets.

This got me thinking about monopolies in general and the companies that are typically seen as monopolists in the technology arena. Just which tech companies are true monopolists, and which ones fall short of being a monopoly?

My dictionary defines a monopoly as "exclusive ownership through legal privilege, command of suppy, or concerted action, exclusive possession or control, a commodity controlled by on party, one that has a monopoly".

Wednesday, April 01, 2009 12:15 PM/EST

Don't Get Security Sucker-Punched

Is the devil you know—and expect—better than the one you don't?

Consider this: You run into person No. 1—let's call her Melissa—on the street. Without warning, Melissa hits you in the face and then proceeds to beat you up as you lie on the ground.

Then, person No. 2, Michelangelo, walks up to you and calmly states that in two weeks time, at exactly 2 p.m., he will beat you up. Then he walks away.

Now, while neither is a pleasant scenario, I have a feeling that the majority of people would rather run into Michelangelo than Melissa.

Monday, March 02, 2009 2:50 PM/EST

Live from DEMO 09

DEMO 09 launched this morning with Executive Producer Chris Shipley referring to 2009 and its downward spiraling economy as a "reset year." Shipley didn't shy away from the effect this economy is having on tech overall and the on the DEMO show itself, as she acknowledged the smaller size of this year's show.

Shipley though referred to herself as a glass half full type of person and said that there are still plenty of opportunities for smart and innovative companies.

This show is also the penultimate show for Shipley, who is stepping down after DEMOFall 09 and handing the Executive Producer position to Matt Marshall.

Of course, people don't go to DEMO to listen to inside baseball stuff about who is running it, they go to see new companies and new products launched.

The morning session of this year's DEMO definitely got off to a slow start. Not too many of the initial presenters were showing products that made me sit forward in my seat and get excited. Still, some showed a bit of promise.

Thursday, February 12, 2009 3:41 PM/EST

Unplugging from Tech Is a Choice

Oh no! Technology has taken over my life! There's no escaping it! What am I to do?

If these kinds of statements sound familiar to you, then you've probably been exposed to the frequent handwringing about the invasion of technology into our modern lives and how it's turning everyone into anti-social introverts who constantly stare at their phones and other gadgets.

A recent article in the Boston Globe took this idea even further with a piece titled "The End of Alone." In the article, the author discusses how new technology is making it basically impossible to enjoy or even have moments of solitude. The author essentially says that if Thoreau were alive today, he'd be busy at Walden Pond texting pals, updating his Twitter feed and checking his friends' Facebook status.

Monday, February 09, 2009 3:40 PM/EST

20 Things About Technology that Drive Me Nuts

Given the current "25 things you might not know about me" craze, there are a lot of people out there who have to tell you all kinds of things about themselves. This whole thing seems a bit nuts to me, after all, if there are things about me that people don't know, it's probably because I don't want them to know these things.

While I've tended to ignore these lists as they've ended up in my mail or Facebook updates, the one's I have read tended to be pretty positive and good natured. Again, this seems nuts to me. In my opinion, if you really want to know someone, you should find out the things that they hate, the things that really drive them nuts.

So to put my money where my mouth is, I've done just that. Without further ado, here is my list (in no particular order) of the Twenty Things about Technology that Drive Me Nuts.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009 3:13 PM/EST

RFID Puts Us All at Risk

I've never really thought of myself as much of a seer, prognosticator or predictor of the future, but based on a column I wrote back in 2005, I may just have a future in the prediction field.

In that column, "Security Getting Trampled in the Rush to RFID," I put forth a "hypothetical" situation where I could sit in a city square with nothing but a laptop and a small wireless device and--because of the ubiquity of unsecure RFID enabled gadgets--be able to do everything from read passports, identify employees and students, and even access credit card numbers and information.

When I wrote that column, I was roundly jeered by RFID proponents. They said what I envisioned was impossible, that to read those RFID tags I would need to be within inches of the person carrying them and would have to use a very large and expensive device.