Sales Clerks Who Really Click With Customers

1to1 Magazine -- 12/03/07

A salesperson who provides information or encouragement is often the catalyst that turns shoppers into buyers in a retail store. In an attempt to capture that personal touch, more and more businesses are channeling human contact online through proactive chat, where agents approach customers in real time, leading to increased sales, more efficient support centers, and greater customer satisfaction.

[available in .pdf form]

1to1 Magazine:

Mining Millions of Minds Online

1to1 Magazine -- 10/05/07

Web 2.0 has created a gold mine of information on customers' opinions and preferences, wants and needs, goals and dreams. That insight is trapped inside millions of online blog posts, community sites, and personal pages that hold the tantalizing promise of helping companies better understand their customers.

[available in .pdf form]

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HD DVD vs. Blu-ray: Will the War End With Two Losers?

TechNewsWorld -- 01/02/08

The battle between the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats slogs on, with neither side apparently willing to surrender. Meanwhile, most consumers stand on the sidelines, reluctant to spend money on what could be the war's loser. Will either side ever gain a significant upper hand and rise to ubiquity, or will high-definition DVDs become a niche market for cinephiles as digital downloads gain popularity?

Amazon Wrangles Warner Into No-DRM Club

E-Commerce Times -- 12/28/07

Warner Music Group has become the third major label to let Amazon sell its music without digital rights management technology. The label does not currently have such a deal with market leader iTunes. Generally, major labels have loudly defended their DRM schemes in the past, but now Sony BMG is the only major player not to ink a no-DRM deal.

2007: Apple's Biggest Year Ever?

MacNewsWorld -- 12/11/07

"Not only was 2007 financially a big year, but it was also a year where Apple graduated to being a part of every conversation," said analyst Gene Munster. "We had an Internet conference last week, and the number of times that Apple came up was surprising. They are in the center of this digital media storm of four major markets -- computers, music, home entertainment and mobile."

Ten Days With Leopard: Coolest Cat Ever

MacNewsWorld -- 11/12/07

The act of upgrading a MacBook from Tiger to Leopard was not without problems. Let's just say you should not proceed without first making a full-on backup. Once it's properly installed, however, Leopard shines. Spaces gives you a ton of extra desktop real estate, Time Machine will probably get more people to play it safe and keep constant backups, and smaller features just plain make sense.

Organizing a Personal Media Library, Part 1: Getting It

MacNewsWorld -- 09/14/07

Few intrepid souls dare tread into the deep archives of amassing an organized and useful personal digital media library. There are spiders among those old home videos, movies, photos from childhood, recorded TV shows. Heck, maybe there's even something hidden and really scary, like a dusty Michael Jackson "Thriller" CD. Sure, Jackson's album may have spurred the rise of the compact disc, but. . . .

Web 2.0: Spreading Vital Info Amid Calif. Firestorms

TechNewsWorld -- 10/25/07

Facing numerous devastating wildfires, residents of Southern California have turned to technology to spread and share vital information about each fire such as size, containment status, deaths, injuries, evacuations and structure damage. Beyond traditional media like TV news, information is being shared through blogs, photo sharing sites, Twitter, YouTube, Google Maps, RSS feeds and more.

X Factors Surrounding Xbox

TechNewsWorld -- 07/12/07

The Xbox's status in the console gaming market is quickly shifting, but where is it headed? Having entered the market first, it leads its competitors in total sales. It's also making an honest stab at the movie download market. Now, however, Sony is attacking it in price, and hardware problems will cost it over $1 billion. What lies ahead?

Days After Dumping iTunes, NBC Shacks Up With Amazon

E-Commerce Times -- 09/05/07

NBC Universal didn't stay single for long. After a weekend with no partner in the paid TV show downloading market, the network hitched up with Amazon to sell its shows through the online retail giant's Unbox service. The new deal gives NBC something it couldn't get from iTunes: the ability to charge different rates for different shows and bulk purchases.

Patriots Pummel StubHub - 13,000 to Nothing

E-Commerce Times -- 10/19/07

Following a Massachusetts Superior Court ruling, the New England Patriots are now in possession of customer data from 13,000 users of ticket reseller site StubHub. The NFL team forbids ticket holders to resell their passes. The Patriots, however, asked for details surrounding not only sellers and buyers, but those who made bids as well.

Behind the Curtain of the MySpace Legal Drama

TechNewsWorld -- 05/22/07

MySpace has taken heat recently from both the press and state attorneys general over its refusal to turn over sex offender data. MySpace, which has gone to significant lengths to eradicate sex offenders from its user base, insisted it needed a subpoena in order to legally hand off the information; AGs said it required no such thing. Right or wrong, it turned out that a subpoena wasn't very hard to obtain.

What Does Microsoft Want From the Free World?

LinuxInsider -- 05/14/07

Microsoft officials have claimed that free and open source software has violated at least 235 of its patents. However, the software mega-corporation has declined to name exactly which programs, developers or companies are responsible. Its only options may be to either do nothing or sue its own customers.

Free Software Licensing, Part 1: Third Time's the Charm?

LinuxInsider -- 07/23/07

Many open source projects have been licensed under GPLv2, and while the open source world at large is on-board with free software and the ideal of free distribution, it is less concerned with the FSF's social movement to provide software freedom to all users. Consequently, most new features of GPLv3 address issues geared first toward protecting the rights of end users.

Tasty Baking Gets the Dough Rising Again

SAP NetWeaver magazine -- Winter 2007

After moving into negative operating-margin territory, Tasty Baking decided to “bet the business” on mySAP ERP. The company now has an infrastructure capable of handling new business-development efforts. That’s particularly important for smaller companies that may need to scale at rates higher or faster than large businesses.

Rohm and Haas: Dashboards to the Rescue

SAP NetWeaver magazine -- Fall 2007

Rohm and Haas was growing rapidly through acquisitions. The company had more than 300 disparate IT systems and 600 reports. The challenge was to deliver higher-level views in a consistent, standard way; the solution was executive dashboards. See how Rohm and Haas met this challenge.

SAP NetWeaver Portal Resolves Customer Service Issues

SAP NetWeaver magazine -- Winter 2008

BI Technologies wanted to give its customers what they asked for. That meant implementing SAP NetWeaver Portal instead of the SAP Online store. Find out how BI Technologies improved customer service by making it easier for customers to do business with the company.

Siemens PG Simplifies Document Management

SAP NetWeaver magazine -- Fall 2007

From relatively simple text documents to highly complicated architectural and engineering designs, Siemens PG's requirements for documentation, certifications, and manuals for a new power plant project are nothing short of astronomical. See how this company manages 60,000 documents for each project with SAP Product Lifecycle Management cFolders.

Security Wonks Reveal Holes in Firefox Straight Out of the Gate

LinuxInsider -- 06/19/08

Firefox developers worldwide spent months vetting and testing the many betas and release candidates that Mozilla served up. After all that poking and prodding, the final version still had at least one security flaw, which TippingPoint's DVLabs held up to the light Wednesday. The security researchers haven't offered details on how the exploit works, but they have notified Mozilla, which is presumably working on a fix.

Free Software Licensing, Part 2: Beyond GPL

LinuxInsider -- 07/27/07

In practical terms, developers use GPL v2 and GPL v3 if they want their software to be free and open and to remain free and open no matter how the code is used downstream. It can get more complicated than this, of course, especially since the copyright holder of GPL v2-licensed code, for example, can sell it and even use it in closed-source solutions.

iPhone 3G Sold Out in Moscow, Idaho

MacNewsWorld -- 07/11/08

As a follower of Apple news, you've probably seen photos of the throngs who lined up throughout the week at big-city stores like Apple's flagship Manhattan shop just to get their hands on a new iPhone 3G. But for small towns like Moscow, Idaho, iPhone 3Gs are more scarce, and only the earliest of early birds got the worm.

What Should Apple Tackle Next?

MacNewsWorld -- 06/24/08

Cell phones, personal media players, online music stores -- Apple didn't invent any of these technologies. Instead, the company sought out existing segments that it felt needed change and then took them by storm, in some cases dominating the space within a few years. What's the next tech category Cupertino's preparing to shake up?

MacBook vs. MacBook Pro: The Agonizing Choice

MacNewsWorld -- 03/04/08

Now that the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are here, it's clear that the higher end of the MacBook line is more closely resembling its larger cousin when it comes to internal hardware -- and it has a lower price. Still, the MacBook Pro has its advantages in graphics processing and screen size. For a prosumer in need of a new Mac notebook, it can be a tough choice.

Five Days With Apple TV Take 2

MacNewsWorld -- 02/25/08

The movies and TV shows Apple TV downloads are great features, but what I really like the most are two features that have been around for a while -- iPhoto integration and podcasts. The first thing I did with my Apple TV was sync a bunch of albums I had already in place in iPhoto. Wow. Digital photos look great on a computer screen, but on your HD television, they are a joy to share.

Bringing High-Def Into Focus

TechNewsWorld -- 05/17/08

It might appear that high-definition is everywhere -- the newest TVs, the latest DVD formats and the hottest movie download platforms. Cable and satellite TV companies beat the HD drum non-stop in their ads. But getting actual HD content into the home means jumping through a series of hoops. Picking a TV is the easy part. Then comes the task of deciphering the confusing array of packages offered by providers.

Roku’s Netflix Player: Nifty Box but Not Much Worth Watching   

TechNewsWorld -- 06/10/08

The $100 Netflix Player by Roku is a great little device for watching streamed content on your TV. It's easy to use, the viewing quality is decent, and did I mention it's cheap? Add to that the availability of 10,000 DVD titles for Netflix customers to choose from at no extra cost, and, well, there's the rub. Those 10,000 titles are pretty much the bottom of the Netflix content barrel.

The Horror at 37,000 Feet: EU Allows In-Flight Cell Phone Use

E-Commerce Times -- 04/07/08

Airline passengers who want to talk on their cell phones mid-flight may be able to do so as early as this year -- at least when they're flying over Europe. The European Commission has introduced new regulations concerning cell phone use on planes. Chatting it up at 35,000 feet will be allowed, provided the plane is equipped with devices that create an on-board cellular network.

SearchOracle.com:

What Happened to Oracle's Red Hat Challenge?

SearchOracle.com -- 06/26/08

It's been more than a year and a half since Oracle launched its aggressive bid to poach Red Hat's Linux support contracts -- and at the same time, imply that Red Hat wasn't good enough to support the operating system end of Oracle's applications. So where do things stand now?

System i Morphs Into Power and 'i'

System iNetwork -- 04/02/08

In a bold consolidation move, IBM has removed and replaced the identity of the System i by turning it into an "i" operating system that runs on IBM's hottest POWER6-based hardware. Gone is the old identity of the integrated system, and along with it, presumably, the associations of a legacy system. The company has replaced System i and System p with a new line of unified servers with simplified pricing. The line is now officially IBM Power Systems, known as the IBM Power platform, with hardware server models branded with Power, as in, the Power 520, which will run AIX, Linux, or i5/OS. And i5/OS, by the way, really is simply "i." IBM is essentially shedding the old, keeping the best, and embracing the new.

Don't Wait for Clarity on Oracle's VM Strategy, Experts Say

SearchOracle.com -- 06/09/08

When Oracle Corp. announced its own virtualization management software, Oracle VM, late last year, the company brought credibility to the notion that Oracle applications could be successfully virtualized. Despite this, Oracle managed to muddy the virtualization waters at the same time by claiming publicly that it wouldn't support virtualized systems that weren't running on Oracle VM. But, in practice, Oracle seems to have tacitly supported them anyway.

System iNetwork:

Bullish on Blades -- But Customers Hard to Find   

System iNetwork -- 06/09/08

Ninety percent of System i clients can fit on a POWER6-based blade, currently the 2-core 3.8 GHz JS12 and 4-core 4.0 GHz JS22, according to Mark Shearer, vice president of marketing for IBM Business Systems. Both blades are wicked fast, but it turns out that "fit" is more closely aligned with horsepower than trunk space. Although a Chevy Silverado pickup customer could theoretically upgrade to a Corvette, the driver might have to customize the Corvette with a hitch to drag along a storage trailer loaded with reality.