management

US Treasury wasting tens of millions on a $1 million problem

CMS Watch's Kas Thomas is reporting that the US Treasury is asking to bump up its content management budget from $16.9 million to $28.2 million. Kas further notes that the budget is for commercial off-the-shelf software not consulting bloatware.

It also likely means no open-source software (Alfresco, Drupal, etc.), which is the only way that the Treasury could manage to waste tens of millions of dollars on a $1 million (or so) problem. Other departments within the US federal government (US military, most notably) are weaning themselves from the proprietary nipple, as the federal IT spending report shows. But not the Treasury.

This isn't sour grapes: A wide range of US federal agencies already use open-source enterprise content management software (and other open-source software), including Alfresco. Rather, it's the same song that I've sung before about other wasteful government spending on proprietary bloatware. Governments shouldn't overspend on technology that locks citizen data into proprietary, private-sector software companies. Period.… Read more

Transmeta receives $150 million payment from Intel

Microprocessor technology supplier Transmeta said it has received the initial payment of $150 million from Intel toward the $250 million settlement that the two companies agreed upon back in October. The payment was received on January 28, according to Sujan Jain, Transmeta's chief financial officer. Mr. Jain also said that Transmeta is evolving its business model to generate a more constant revenue stream.

Transmeta, previously a supplier of low-power x86 processors, now develops and licenses microprocessor technologies and related intellectual property. The company filed a lawsuit against Intel in October 2006 alleging that the latter infringed upon Transmeta's … Read more

The silent explosion of log management

What's the fastest-growing data source at large organizations? Video? Maybe at YouTube, but not at Citibank. The answer is log files. Yup, those mundane text messages produced by every conceivable technology device are growing like a proverbial weed.

Why the log file explosion? First off, every IT shop has more and more devices to manage each day, and more devices mean more logs. In the past, most IT managers paid limited attention to logs, but this too has changed. Driven by security monitoring, regulatory compliance reporting, and IT troubleshooting, large organizations now aggregate, analyze, store, and archive terabytes of … Read more

Google buys Plaxo? File it under 'unlikely'

Wired's Epicenter blog reported Thursday that rumors point to contact-management-service-turned-social-network Plaxo as Google's latest shopping purchase. Well, maybe.

The report is extremely thin, and very little detail is given except that the buying price is under $200 million and the buyer is "most likely" Google. Representatives from Plaxo said that the company does not comment on matters related to mergers and acquisitions.

It would make sense: Plaxo has been a loyal and vocal member of Google's OpenSocial initiative, and contact management is one thing that Google Apps really hasn't nailed yet. But Plaxo, like … Read more

First Look: PhotoContacts for Windows Mobile

Oh sure, anyone can assign a photo face to a contact on their Windows Mobile phone. But how many can also resize images, associate tasks with a contact, and send text messages from their digital black book?

If you guessed "anyone using the application named above," give yourself a gold star. For about twenty bucks, PhotoContacts for WindowsMobile and Pocket PC rolls your contact list into a stylish wrapper with better people skills than your default address book. Could this application be for you? Check out pros and, yes, a few cons, in this First Look video before … Read more

SugarCRM lands $20 million venture round

SugarCRM has landed a $20 million venture investment round, designed to boost international expansion by the maker of open-source customer relationship management software, the company said Thursday.

Taking the lead on the funding was New Enterprise Associates, with existing investors Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Walden International joining in. That brings SugarCRM's total funding to $46 million.

The company plans to use the funds for not only research and development, but also increasing its global footprint--particularly in Europe and Asia.

SugarCRM, founded in 2004, released its Sugar 5.0 software in December. To date, the company has racked up over … Read more

Bulk up your context menu with FileMenu Tools

When I'm doing file-management chores, I'm usually in too much of a hurry to navigate the various options on the File, Edit, and other standard toolbar menus. It's faster to simply right-click the file and choose an option from the context menu that pops up. Unfortunately, the option I need is usually not on the right-click menu. There's a great free utility that not only adds a bunch of useful file-management tasks to your context menus, but also makes it easy customize the menus by adding entries of your own devising, and removing the ones you … Read more

CNET selects Hyperic to manage its web operations

CNET is not only one of the world's top technology news sites, but it's also a serious software shop. Over the years CNET has developed an impressive array of technologies to support its web operations. Remember Vignette? Its web content management software was originally developed at CNET (intriguingly, this is where Bill Hilf of Microsoft was "born"). This blogging tool that I'm using right now? Home grown by CNET.

This propensity to roll its own software extends to its IT operations, as well. So when I saw that CNET had selected Hyperic's HQ 3.2 platform for applications and systems management across its wide range of web operations, I figured Hyperic had to be pretty impressive. CNET's history shows that it doesn't buy what it can build better.

In Hyperic, it apparently met its match:… Read more

Adobe names Macromedia exec to be CTO

Adobe Systems brought the chief technology officer title out of retirement Tuesday and applied it to Kevin Lynch.

Lynch, previously chief software architect and senior vice president of Adobe's platform business unit, joined Adobe in 2005 when it acquired Macromedia, where he led product development.

At Adobe, he'll lead work with Adobe's Flash Player, Flex development tools, and Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Those products are gaining in importance at the San Jose, Calif.-based company.

"Adobe has transformed itself through several technology waves, from desktop publishing, to multimedia and to the Web," said Adobe's new chief executive, Shantanu Narayen, … Read more

CardScan turns cards into contacts

CardScan Personal is a compact business card scanner paired with powerful (though Windows-only) contact management software that makes short work of transforming a stack of business cards into useful information.

The 7.6-ounce scanner measures 4.8 inches wide, 3.3 inches deep, and 1.5 inch high, so it won't take up much room in your bag. (The device even comes with a carrying pouch that keeps the scanner and USB cable together.) According to the company, the CardScan can scan a monochrome card in 5 seconds and a polychrome card in a few more seconds. That's … Read more