Peter Coffee

The value of a thing is whatever it will bring. So goes the proverbial definition of fair market value, and fair markets are exactly what we need if were going to build any kind of sensible economy based on information as the scarce good. Thats why I disagree, collegially but firmly, with the position taken […]

We speak routinely of software crashing, but we dont give those events nearly the level of scrutiny that we give to real-world crashes. An airplane crash triggers a painstaking investigation. When software fails, the user is told to hope that it works the next time. Is this any way to run an airline? This jarring […]

System Architect Version 10, released earlier this month by Popkin Software & Systems Inc., defies the “Version 10 curse” that often seems to pull a product across the line from maturity to senility. Click here to read the full review of System Architect Version 10. 2 System Architect Version 10, released earlier this month by […]

In “Matrix Revolutions,” our hero Neo enters a (simulated) dark and stormy night. He finds himself surrounded by ranks of grim-faced copies of “Agent Smith,” the former intrusion detection avatar whos grown into the ultimate virus. “Welcome back,” Smith snarls, as the rain pours down and his thousands of clones look on. “How do you […]

Its getting much easier to tailor an applications platform to the specific tasks of the target user. Ironically, such long-sought customization may no longer be a good idea. What got me thinking about this possible paradox was a pair of news stories that praised almost opposite approaches to enabling device-oriented application developers. In one case, […]

A “Provenance,” documenting the origin and the chain of ownership of an art object to ensure its authenticity, is also good to have in the case of a complex calculation used in designing a product. Designate, set to be unveiled this week by Mathsoft Engineering & Education, brings the idea of provenance to the companys […]

Ten years ago, congress enacted the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, otherwise known as CALEA. That bills opening paragraph mandates that “a telecommunications carrier shall ensure that its equipment, facilities, or services … are capable of … delivering intercepted communications and call-identifying information to the government.” The camels nose had officially entered the building. […]

When someone says that something is “remotely possible,” most people take it to mean that something might happen but isnt likely. I wonder if application developers will soon find themselves hearing a different and more positive meaning in that phrase, along the lines of “Yes, you can make that happen anywhere, from anywhere.” My thoughts […]

Personal storage capacity growth is outpacing the speeds of both our processors and our network connections. This means that many ideas about how to manage future desktop and mobile storage are swimming against the tide, while recent developments are ignoring users most critical priorities. Offloading personal data to managed servers is at best a mixed […]

Wolfram Inc.s Publicon 1.0 offers electronic wordsmiths a novel environment for creating and sharing complex documents and for building customized documentation tools. Click here to read the full review of Publicon 1.0. 2 Wolfram Inc.s Publicon 1.0 offers electronic wordsmiths a novel environment for creating and sharing complex documents and for building customized documentation tools. […]