Eric Lundquist

Did Wal-Mart help keep the united states from falling deeper into economic trouble than it did? Matthew Szulik, chairman and CEO of Red Hat, thinks so. “I have great personal admiration for what Wal-Mart has done,” Szulik told me during a recent breakfast meeting. Wal-Marts combination of high value and low cost for the customer, […]

Three companies—AMD, Oracle and Sun Microsystems—have used three separate approaches to distinguish their products from the rest of the technology pack. While it is tough to guess whether those approaches will pay off in the marketplace, it is good for the technology industry and good for end users to have new choices. The respective approaches […]

Two years after Sept. 11, 2001, is the U.S. IT infrastructure a safer place to do business? If you ask the average home computer user whos trying to untangle the latest worms and viruses, the answer will be no. If you ask the corporate IT administrator whos trying to decipher the host of new regulations […]

When Jamie Shiers says grid computing is the next big thing, it is worth paying attention. Shiers is the Database Group lead manager at CERN. CERN is the birthplace of the World Wide Web, and the technology folks from the organization carry weight when they speak. “What would happen if something came along that would […]

What does golf have to teach the technology business? Quite a bit. Recently, I had a chance to play with the Ziff Davis crew and guests at Pebble Beach, where, in between trying to retrieve lost balls and taking too many futile swings, I pondered that question. Im a lousy golfer, but walking a storied […]

Who is responsible for the latest rounds of virus and worm attacks? While speculation includes the usual suspects—intelligent but twisted coders—the list has also lengthened to include digital terrorists. While we may never know who is responsible, the bigger question for technology professionals is who is responsible for keeping those viruses and worms away from […]

On my way down to Atlanta for Hewlett-Packards HP World event recently, I realized my questions about the company had changed nearly as fast as the integration of HP and Compaq. Previously, those questions focused on internal issues. Could the two very different companies be melded? Could the HP-Compaq combination sort through all overlapping products […]

My recent decision to upgrade a couple of home PCs came at the same time as a Consumer Reports survey was released showing increased frustration with the telephone support lines at software manufacturers. I knew immediately how not to join the ranks of the frustrated. No matter how grim the upgrade march, I know the […]

In the corner of the conference room adjacent to Steve Mills office is what may be the last remaining cardboard cutout of IBMs Hyperman. Hyperman, the main character in IBMs attempted early-1990s foray into educational cartoons, “The Adventures of Hyperman,” is a visual reminder of what happens when you get off focus in your business. […]

You know Web services is going to be a success when every vendor redefines its product to be a Web service. Were pretty much there. Interested in buying an application server? I dont think you can anymore, but you can certainly buy an information server, which is the same box but in Web services wrapping […]