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March 2008 - Shane Schick's Computerworld

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Eat, pray, love, compute

The train broke down near Oshawa, Ont., and stayed there for more than an hour. Once all the grumbling and emergency cell phone calls to friends died down, it suddenly sounded like I was sitting in an office. All around me people were opening up laptops...

Published Mon, Mar 31 2008 12:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Lives, Gilbert, Closer, Pray, Profession
YouTube Fridays: Vista SP1 install in real time

It's hard to get a real sense of how many enterprises have actually deployed Vista, but for those IT managers who have it might be interesting to watch this clip where someone tries out Microsoft's first service pack for the OS. And yes, it is the business...

Published Fri, Mar 28 2008 9:03 AM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Preparation, Shaky, Production
Why HP is sticking with the software-for-the-CIO strategy

The first thing they told us when a group of local media sat down with the head of HP’s worldwide software division on Thursday is that the company has a policy of not discussing its competitors. This, despite the fact that one of them happily answered...

Published Thu, Mar 27 2008 12:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Hogan, Enterprises
Use a fog index to clear up enterprise content confusion

If the word processor I’m using to write this has a fog index, I can’t find it. A colleague recently asked me about fox indexes, believing that it used to be a feature embedded in an early version of Corel’s WordPerfect. For the uninitiated, a fog index...

Published Wed, Mar 26 2008 2:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Fog index, Audience, Education
What people are saying about the future of open source

In two years we’re going to see another major open source vendor the size of Red Hat taking on the platform companies like Oracle and SAP in the battle for subscription-based software market share in every segment except security tools and business intelligence...

Published Tue, Mar 25 2008 2:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Respondents
The case against online Can-con regulations

I hope Bryan Adams has a dot-ca domain name registered somewhere. More than a decade after the rock singer faced a skirmish over whether his album was “Canadian” enough to get additional airplay on radio stations here, the regulator who sets Canadian...

Published Mon, Mar 24 2008 1:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Web sites, Can-con, Crtc
IT professionals are defined by talent, not their generation

A couple of weeks ago I was having a dinner party which included an acquaintance who is new to the IT industry. He’s in his mid to late 20s and started out in with a major retailer before moving on to a small but interesting startup about a year ago....

Published Thu, Mar 20 2008 2:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Waiting longer, Telecommuting, Generation gap
Surprise! An IT usage policy that actually makes sense

I’ve often imagined the ideal IT usage policy, but I never thought a company I worked for would be the one to compose it. Before anyone accuses me of sucking up, let me point out that I once wrote in great detail about the IT policy at my previous employer...

Published Wed, Mar 19 2008 1:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Policy, Resources, Usage policy
Risks, regulations and a reality check

It quickly became apparent to me that a roundtable Microsoft was hosting on Tuesday about compliance was really another commercial for SharePoint. But that turned out to be the more minor exaggeration. Although executives eventually admitted – after implying...

Published Tue, Mar 18 2008 1:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Compliance, Jail, Privacy
Behind BladeLogic’s buyout: Why data centre apps are hot

Q9 Networks said it was indifferent. Peer 1 Networks simply turned me down. Fusepoint Managed Services passed, too. I thought getting comment on the consolidation in the data centre automation space would be easy. And who better to discuss it than the...

Published Mon, Mar 17 2008 2:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Virtualization, Help desk, Bladelogics, Server
YouTube Fridays: Bye bye, Mr. Software Guy

I've never watched South Park, but I'm assuming by the style of animation that this is a character on the show. If not, he should be. There are probably a lot of IT managers who could sing you a sad song about their job, but let's hope it never comes...

Published Fri, Mar 14 2008 8:03 AM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Animation, Assuming, Comes, It, Never, Park, South, Style, Watched
Don't call them customers: From alignment to fusion

“Alignment” was always an ugly word. I’m not surprised IT executives want to replace it. At Computerworld U.S.’s Premier 100 IT Leaders conference in Orlando this week, managers from Golden Gate University in San Francisco and petroleum company Hess Corp...

Published Thu, Mar 13 2008 12:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Matter
Say it ain't Siebel

The people at BEA better hope they don’t end up like Siebel. Two years since it acquired the customer relationship management (CRM) specialist, Oracle this week launched what is being called Release 15 of its Siebel On Demand product, even though it has...

Published Wed, Mar 12 2008 3:03 PM by Shane Schick
Me and my digital shadow

IT managers are about as eager to hear future data growth projections as Canadians are to hear about another snowfall. EMC this week published the results of an IDC study it commissioned that says the so-called digital universe grew to 281 exabytes last...

Published Tue, Mar 11 2008 2:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Digital shadows, Consumer technology, Monitoring, Data growth
What literary fiction has to tell us about the IT industry

It’s taken the better part of eight months, but I’ve finally finished reading War and Peace . Given that a new translation came out during that period , sparking yet another round of critical assessment, there’s not much left to say about the book. Except...

Published Mon, Mar 10 2008 1:03 PM by Shane Schick

Filed under: Literature, Ryan, Fiction, Communication, Doctorow

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Shane Schick's Computerworld

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About Shane

Shane Schick is the Editor-in-Chief of IT World Canada, which includes Networkworld Canada, CIO Canada, CDN, Direction Informatique and ITBusiness.ca He has written about technology for the Globe and Mail, CBC.ca and many other publications. Shane has been recognized by the CATA Alliance for excellence in science and technology reporting.