John Taschek

About

As the director of eWEEK Labs, John manages a staff that tests and analyzes a wide range of corporate technology products. He has been instrumental in expanding eWEEK Labs' analyses into actual user environments, and has continually engineered the Labs for accurate portrayal of true enterprise infrastructures. John also writes eWEEK's 'Wide Angle' column, which challenges readers interested in enterprise products and strategies to reconsider old assumptions and think about existing IT problems in new ways. Prior to his tenure at eWEEK, which started in 1994, Taschek headed up the performance testing lab at PC/Computing magazine (now called Smart Business). Taschek got his start in IT in Washington D.C., holding various technical positions at the National Alliance of Business and the Department of Housing and Urban Development. There, he and his colleagues assisted the government office with integrating the Windows desktop operating system with HUD's legacy mainframe and mid-range servers.

Labs-Eye View

Oracle has figured out what the IT industry loves and hates in the computer industry. It hates debugging desktop operating systems and not having the right data at the right time. It loves some semblance of control and quick answers. IFS is the companys answer to everything wrong with desktop computing. Having a database manage […]

Ricochet: Fast but Very Scarce

Metricoms Ricochet is the first national, high-speed wireless network. The facts that high-speed is a relative term and that coverage isnt completely national shouldnt bother anyone. I work in one of nine Ricochet areas nationwide, and I appreciate having a wireless connection faster than the 14.4K bps that is the max for most cell phones. […]

Microtek Makes Nice Impression

When image is everything, a lightweight $150 scanner simply wont suffice. Microteks ScanMaker 8700 weighs 25 pounds and costs $1,000, but buyers get what they pay for. I get by with a Canon Canoscan that weighs about 5 pounds and cost me $150 (shipping included), but the ScanMaker 8700 produces a much sharper, richer image […]

Oracle: The Yahoo of the Corporate World

Once again, Larry Ellison has taken a basic technology and made it seem interesting. That basic technology is the portal, and Oracle is staking a good part of its business on it. Ive taken it on myself to see if Oracle can deliver, since theres obviously intense competition from just about all of Oracles rivals. […]

IT Unions Would Do More Harm Than Good

Unions are coming to IT—whether we like it or not. We should fear the worst. This is not necessarily to say that Im against unions; after all, my forebears were staunch advocates, and I inherited at least a partial belief in the effectiveness of unions. There are now, however, far too many negative connotations. Unions […]

Understanding the Why of the Buy

What does it say about todays music when an album of previously released songs, some of which hit No. 1 nearly four decades ago, tops the charts? What does it say when the Backstreet Boys knock that album by the Beatles off its perch? I dont know, but I suppose some analytical software out there […]

Corporate Should Pass On The Pentium 4

The “fast, faster, fastest” headline doesnt pack the same punch anymore when it comes to processors. Sure, gamers want to blast their cannons a little faster, but the rest of the people cant really care about this stuff, can they? Intel is counting on that they can and will. The company is hoping, of all […]