Spotlight Features

We are at a very important juncture in the evolution of service-oriented architecture. An incredibly important issue right now is whether we are going to win broad acceptance and deep penetration, or whether SOA remains somewhat marginal. There are a number of things going on in the market that dese...

With sales up more than 20 percent, more e-commerce outlets than ever before and relatively few high-profile snafus compared to previous years, the holiday season of 2006 might be seen as an unqualified success. A closer look, however, reveals both winners and losers in what was a blockbuster holida...

About three years ago, it seemed as though reverse mergers were falling out of favor with the SEC. The agency sanctioned some of the companies that were created by this process and some were actually suspended from trading. Now it seems that reverse mergers are once again regaining their popularity....

The first computers were programmed by electrical engineers moving jumper cables around in the back of a giant mainframe. This is how the concept of a "bug" in software got started. A bug crawled into some of these wires, shorted a couple of them, and changed the logic of a program. In addition to...

Although 2006 was filled with surprises in the telecom space, as described in Part 1 of this two-part series, there were equally dramatic changes in terms of the pure processing ability of computers and how that power translated to consumers in the form of lower-cost, higher-end products. "Good news...

Unsolicited e-mail is an old Internet nemesis, but spammers have come up with a new twist, and it's causing corporate and individual users alike e-heartburn. It's called "image spam," and it's waiting in an in-box near you. Image spam contains little ordinary text to analyze. Instead, it uses the .g

After several disappointing years, the telecom market experienced renewed growth in 2006, and a number of surprising developments occurred. The highlights include the integration of cellular and WiFi features, a rush to deliver mobile music services, movement toward bundled services, a focus on high...

In strict chronological terms, e-commerce is still a young adult, but by all accounts it has rapidly matured into an economic force, accounting for billions in online sales and helping consumers make decisions on billions more in offline buying. Still, e-commerce continues to grow by any measure. No...

What is shaping up to be a landmark technology patent lawsuit, KSR v. Teleflex, is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court right now. At its most basic, the decision could redefine the standard of "obviousness" that is used when deciding whether a patent should be granted for a particular invention or...

Have you heard what a certain software company has been saying about next-generation IT development and deployment strategies? There's this gem about service-oriented architecture: SOA "is not about a product or skill, but rather it's about style of how one comes up with a system." Or: SOA should al...

During 2006, Enron executives were sent to jail for their role in the corporate scandal that rocked the U.S. and brought about sweeping regulatory reforms meant to protect investors and raise the bar among corporation. In passing Sarbanes-Oxley, Congress hoped to avoid such high-level corporate scan...

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, many shoppers are turning to their computers to shop online, rather than facing the thousands of shoppers at the malls. Like malls, e-commerce networks are experiencing a glut of holiday traffic. With an increase in online traffic during the holiday s...

Opportunities for using new media for the public good have been overlooked in the excitement surrounding the rise of new media itself. The fading of television as a traditional media form, the end of television sets as distinct single-function devices, and the redirection of advertising dollars away...

With the formation of the PCI Security Standards Council, multichannel merchants, online retailers, consultants, payment processors, and virtually every organization that touches online payments should find it much easier to comply with the PCI Data Security Standard. The newly formed council also w...

Online merchants may want to rethink their advertising strategies next year for the weekend following Thanksgiving in light of a report released this week by BlueLithium Labs. The San Jose, Calif. maker of online advertising solutions reported that "click-through" rates -- the rate at which consumer...