Posted by Garett Rogers @ 7:15 am   Year:April 9th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 9th, 2006 Google buys new algorithm? Posted by Garett Rogers @ 7:15 am Categories: Google Tags: Orion, an advanced method of searching created by computer science student, Ori Allon, at the University of New South Wales in Australia has been getting a lot of attention lately. It looks like Google may have chalked another one up by acquiring the creator and potentially the technology behind Orion. Unfortunately there is no public demo of Orion, but this system is said to give users the most relevant results and a list of suggested topics that the user may not be aware of similar to QTsearch. An example would be a search for the "American Revolution". "Take a search such as the American Revolution as an example of how the system works. OrionTM would bring up results ...

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Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:51 am   Year:April 9th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 9th, 2006 Zimbra Office: now this is something for Microsoft to worry about. Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:51 am Categories: Microsoft Office, Software, Web Apps Tags: Last week, Dan Farber provided a look at the next step in the evolution of the Zimbra Office which features two "notebook" apps - a document processor and a spreadhseet and a new approach to sharing data between web-based applications called ALE (AJAX Linking Embedding). More than anything Google or the all-software-should-be-free contingent is doing, this is what Microsoft needs to fear - a disruptive player coming out of nowhere, delivering solid usability in a well-designed interface that takes on a cash cow (in this case Exchange Server). Exchange is an expensive proposition. Zimbra is not - an open ...

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Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:51 am   Year:April 9th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 9th, 2006 Its a bad day to be Robert X. Posted by Marc Orchant @ 6:51 am Categories: Software Tags: Robert X. Cringely is a bufoon - proved once again by his latest "get it wrong at all costs" screed. Anyone whos read his column more than once probably was able to figure that out all by themselves. But, just in case the facts that hes a PBS columnist hiding behind a pseudonym (his real name, BTW, is Mark Stephens) who never links to anything and who has a virtually unblemished track record for getting things wrong werent sufficient to help you arrive at that inevitable conclusion all by your lonesome self, Ed Bott and Engadgets Ryan Block are here to seal the deal. Ed Bott: Robert X. Clueless "That’s good advice (wiping the hard drive of a system thats been compr...

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Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 2:43 am   Year:April 9th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 9th, 2006 Why calculators are scarier than MySpace Posted by Christopher Dawson @ 2:43 am Categories: Education Technology, Teaching, Funding, Texts Materials, K-12 Tags: School, Grade, Computer, MySpace, Christopher Dawson Fellow blogger, George Ou, and I had a very interesting exchange this weekend over Marc Wegners post on the Lame $100 Laptop. In a nutshell, we came to the conclusion that it was very easy to jump on the more-technology-is-better bandwagon, but much harder to address fundamental underlying deficiencies in the 3 Rs (readin, ritin, and rithmetic). Many of my posts have in some way lamented chronic underfunding of public education, particularly in the areas of computer technology. Yet if students lack basic academic skills and the ability to think crit...

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Posted by Dion Hinchcliffe @ 6:15 pm   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 The intangible aspects of mashups matter most Posted by Dion Hinchcliffe @ 6:15 pm Categories: Business Models, Mashups, Governance, Convergence, Right To Remix, Products, Enterprise Web 2.0, Global SOA, Web services, Ajax, RSS Tags: National Public Radio had a really good story yesterday about Platial and the Google Maps world of mashups. Putting aside the fascinating aspects of this heretofore previously obscure phenomenon being increasingly spotted in mainstream media, the story actually got a lot of the spirit of the mashups world right. As part of this, Ive been looking at the various mashup APIs and components, watching how they get used, and also which ones are getting adopted most and why. Some interesting trends have begun to emerge. All of these ac...

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Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 2:37 pm   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 Hope Springs Eternal Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 2:37 pm Categories: Project management, IT issues Tags: Information Technology, New York Times Co., ROI, Infomercial, Michael Krigsman The New York Times has an interesting article on infomercials. According to the article, successfulinformercials show viewers a magical transformation,relying on our hopes and fears to sell everything frompots and pansto fitness products. What does this have to do with improving IT projects? EVERYTHING! We all hopetomorrowwill be better than today,that our companywill be successful, and thatourIT projects will yieldan enormous ROI (especially since thats whatwe promised the CFO). Often, wishful thinking causes common sense to get lost in the shuffle:our bald headwill not grow...

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Posted by Dan Farber @ 1:27 pm   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 On the record: Motorolas Toby Redshow Posted by Dan Farber @ 1:27 pm Categories: General, IT Management, Software Infrastructure, Web Technology Tags: On the record: Following up on my post on remarks by the quotableMotorola CIO Toby Redshaw at Software 2006, Dan Bricklin dida podcast interview with him afew weeks ago, focusing on how his company uses wikis and blogs to further collaboration and innovation. Also, some bits on Redshaws SOA initiatives. Dan Farber, editor-in-chief of CNET News.com, has more than 20 years of experience as an editor and journalist covering technology. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations. ...

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Posted by Roland Piquepaille @ 9:05 am   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 A new female robot Posted by Roland Piquepaille @ 9:05 am Categories: Robotics, Engineering Innovation Tags: More than two years ago, I told you that female robots were coming. Now, Tomotaka Takahashi, founder of Robo Garage, a spin-off of Kyoto University, and creator of several famous robots, has unveiled his Female Type robot (also named FT). According to a brief article from Mainichi Daily News, FT walks like a fashion model. FT only weighs 800 grams for a height of 35 centimeters. It also has two gyrosensors to increase its stability. Before going further, here is a picture of the Female Type robot (Credit: Robo Garage and Mainichi Daily News). Now why did Tomotaka Takahashi build a female robot? "Therere loads of male-type and child-type robots a...

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Posted by ZDNet Editor @ 4:48 am   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 Top patent-owning universities Posted by ZDNet Editor @ 4:48 am Categories: Education Technology, Higher Ed Tags: ZDNet Editor The Patent Office has released its preliminary report on the top patent-holding universities. "Groundbreaking discoveries and patented inventions generated by innovative minds at academic institutions have paid enormous dividends," said the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property. But, PatentHawk points out: In his exuberant praise, Dudas failed to point out that these universities are whats been derisively termed "patent trolls": like spiders in their webs, patent holders that dont practice their own inventions, instead lying in wait to ensnare unsuspecting companies who infringe their patents. The University of Cali...

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Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 12:09 am   Year:April 8th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 8th, 2006 The High Cost of Failure Posted by Michael Krigsman @ 12:09 am Categories: Project failures, Implementation, Financial impact Tags: Michael Krigsman Invacare Corporation(NYSE: IVC), headquartered in Elyria, Ohio, is the global leader in the manufacture and distribution of innovative home care and long-term care medical products that promote recovery and active lifestyles. Invacare had 2005 revenues of about $1.5B. They are also one of the few companies to actually admit, in a press release, thattheir screwed-up ERP implementation causeda loss for the last quarter of 2005. I suppose they are pretty brave after all, project failures happen all the time, but few companies actually come out and acknowledge it. Usually, you hear about this kind of thing in gover...

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Posted by @ 10:57 pm   Year:April 7th, 2006   Source Site:zdnet

April 7th, 2006 Poor, Poor FBI Posted by @ 10:57 pm Categories: Project failures, Government projects, Project management Tags: FBI About a year ago, the FBI annouced they had thislittle problem: the agency built a software system, called the Virtual Case File, that never saw the light of day. You see, the software designers never asked the users what they actually did need. So, the FBI spent $170M developing a major system that didnt serve a useful function and was also obsolete by the time it was completed. Well, like any good government agency, when confronted with the sad facts, they took bold and decisive steps to move forward. What did they do, you wonder? They canned the whole thing and started over. Well, fast forward a year and we learn that, once again, the ever-...

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