Peter Coffee

Sitting there on my desk, apparently doing nothing useful but getting awfully hot in the process, my Windows 2000 laptops CPU was running at 90 percent. Spyware? A virus? None could be found. With its icon bouncing away in the dock of my Mac OS X desktop, a file decompression utility seemed unable to start. […]

I began this year with high expectations for broader application of grid computing. At the same time, though, I shared some concerns about vendors who might seek to warm themselves in the glow of grids fire while actually promoting their own proprietary approaches. A welcome reinforcement of standards-based grid technology comes with this mornings announcement […]

The next time you check into a business-class hotel, imagine how youd react if told that use of the room TV would cost you $8 a night. Or that hot water would be surcharged by the gallon. If this seems ridiculous, what do you think about charging for high-speed Internet access? How much is that […]

The last few months of 2004 saw notable progress toward the challenging goal of all-optical data switching. By eliminating costly and time-consuming conversion between electronic and photonic signaling, all-optical hardware promises data-handling rates of 100 terabits per second before the end of this decade. Current optical switches include Lucent Technologies WaveStar LambdaRouter, a microelectromechanical system […]

Pervasive public networks and the explosion of network-facing applications and Web services have dragged enterprise development out of the back room and into the showroom. Customers and supply chain partners are coming to rely on network applications to complete time-critical transactions; government and public safety agencies are incorporating Web services into their missions. In this […]

In a column last October, I warned builders of systems that users literally dont see things unrelated to what the users are trying to do. This makes users almost useless in diagnosing system problems. Ive now learned that users cant even be trusted to tell you if something makes them happy—assuming they notice it at […]

Numerical libraries for C# and Java attack one of the least appreciated but most important problems of the enterprise application developer: Data analysis applications are more difficult than they look. Beyond the equivalent of counting on electronic fingers, computer-based mathematics quickly becomes a quicksand of flawed formulas and unscalable algorithms. Even if calculations are correct, […]

IT providers love to associate their products with the satisfying experience of driving a well-tuned sports car. We hear about “dashboards” and “cockpits” for the enterprise information user; we read about database “engines” and even laptop “airbags.” Fair enough. After all, the desktop metaphor is 21 years old this month, if we date its arrival […]

In the coming year, I doubt that any information technology topic will be more hyped than grid or utility computing. When I talk about grids, Im talking about a technical model; when I talk about utility computing, Im talking about the way that IT is managed and priced. These overlap, though, and both are great […]

When seeking an irresistible force that can shift the immovable object of IT inertia, two candidates come to mind—and only one of them is an Arkansas-based retail chain. “The Wal-Mart Effect” may get the headlines in trendy business magazines, but bigger still is the U.S. Department of Defense—with 3 million uniformed and civilian employees compared […]