Stories by Anthony Doesburg

Software developers serve up spam

I’m not sure whether it’s just that my address has fallen into the hands of “email marketers” but every day my inbox is cluttered by yet more announcements of hot new software. They’re too numerous to read on the spot but I knew I’d be writing about them one day so most have been filed for this very occasion.

Compaq gives up Alpha for Itanium

Intel Australia and New Zealand head David Bolt is resisting the opportunity to gloat as Compaq announces it will abandon its 64-bit Alpha processor in favour of Intel’s Itanium.
Compaq and Intel announced the dramatic shift in high-end server architecture today. The transition will be complete by 2004.
Bolt says rather than score points from Compaq’s move, Intel is “enthusiastic” about it.
“It’s commonsense for both companies,” says Bolt, speaking in Auckland.
Compaq has engineers who can usefully switch their efforts to Itanium development, he says.
The move signals the “coalescing” of the industry around certain architectures, says Bolt.
Compaq currently offers high-end servers based on Intel, Alpha and MIPS processor architectures. Compaq boss Michael Capellas says the plan is to standardise on Itanium.
"We are definitely looking at a common server architecture down the road," Capellas says.
Before the transfer is completed in 2004, Compaq will release its upcoming next-generation Alpha processor known as EV7, while designing and building NonStop Himalaya servers that use MIPS chips, Capellas says. "There will be two more performance increases within that time," he says.
Under the nonexclusive, multi-year agreement, Compaq will transfer Alpha tools and engineering resources to Intel, along with granting licences to Compaq's Alpha microprocessor technology and compilers, Capellas says.
"This is great for efficiency. It allows everyone to do what they do best, and it allows us to simplify our product line."
Itanium has been commercially available for about a month, Intel claiming to have shipped 7000 systems.

Get weady to be wooed by web services

As combatants in the web services war amass their weapons, winning the hearts and minds of application developers looks to be the key to eventual victory.

Editors' days are numbered

I’ve seen a report that tells me my days are numbered. It’s a result of taking to the ultimate conclusion the technology that has made the editor’s job progressively easier. If the editor’s role is sifting for nuggets of news in streams of information, why not replace him or her with a filtering device that can cope with ever greater volumes of information?

Bandwidth call falls on deaf ears

The bandwidth-poor have told telcos they want better access to the internet. But according to Ernie Newman, head of the Telecommunications Users Association of New Zealand (TUANZ), the carriers weren't listening.

Talk, talk and more telecomms talk

You could be forgiven for thinking that more talking takes place in this country about telecommunications than via telecommunications.

ISOCNZ continues zig-zag course

I’m guessing new ground has been broken in the New Zealand legal landscape with the latest wild zag of the zig-zagging Internet Society.

Selling CRM to sales key

Most CRM implementations fail because IT does a rotten job selling such systems to their intended users, according to Mike Muhney, the US inventor of the ACT contact management tool.

Auckland Uni gets well-endowed data chair

As tertiary institutions and the government practised some good old-fashioned brinkmanship over funding last week, one university and large technology company were engaged in a more modern, pragmatic ritual.

Good riddance to bad rubbish

You can’t beat it as a means of drumming up business: apply all the tricks you’ve learnt during your misspent hacker youth cracking a few well-chosen websites. Then, armed with whatever embarrassing information you’ve succeeded in harvesting, contact your victims. If they don’t immediately sign you up as a security adviser, then fire off a press release telling the world about the slack security practices within New Zealand organisations. Name names, to really rub it in.

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