Yay! We Want Another Bubble Bath!

The big story lately is how tech investment and business is fixing to blow up another bubble, right up to where we were at the turn-of-the-century. Can somebody find that Pets.com dog puppet again? He’s the web-bubble mascot now.

Our latest hand-wringer is Techi.com, saying the tech 2.0 bubble is here. And you know what? Bring it on! Now, why do we say that?

As any economics student can tell you, bubbles and busts are part of any business. One growth and shrinkage doesn’t make an industry very legitimate, but now that the web business world is old enough to start showing some patterns, that tells us that it’s a little more predictable than anybody thought. It’s only the first fall that hurts you.

Continue reading “Yay! We Want Another Bubble Bath!”

The 4Chan | Reddit Dogs of War

We love a good Internet investigation, so we got a real kick out of Gawker’s look inside a smear campaign. Things we learned this time around:

  • 4channers don’t all like electro-pop. Apparently they’re 50/50 split heavy metal and indie.
  • 4chan got their site’s founder voted Time magazine’s most influential person.
  • On a related note, Time thinks 4chan invented LOLCats. There’s published books of cat pictures with funny captions from the 1960s, at least.
  • There’s a website called ‘refreshthing’ that automates Google-bombing. Or at least (if you’re reading this a few days from now), there was.
  • 4channers can’t hack for a damn.

This is a good time to look at web culture. It’s the street we do business in; being streetwise is a good thing. It’s important because we’ve seen this scary glimpse into Internet mob mentality, and what basically amounts to Internet street gangs, and that tells us things about the future. It tells us that even greater control of the web frontier is in the future.

As always happens, the hooligans of today will age into the uptight, conservative nannies of tomorrow. Coupled together with the moral panic over Internet bullying, we’re going to see a future where the overkill of the cure is worse than the disease.

Continue reading “The 4Chan | Reddit Dogs of War”

Wannabes Are The Cancer That Kills Everything

Our favorite blogger who specializes in the human side of technology, Jeff Atwood, has brought to light the distressing story of how many candidates who show up for programming job interviews can’t program. He, and many of the comments appended, marvel at this phenomena. But it’s not so surprising, when you stop and think about it. They’re wannabe “hackers”.

Nobody wanted to be a hacker at first. Then trashy movies like “War Games” and “Hackers” came out, and people got the idea that hackers get to have sex with Angelina Jolie and start their own nuclear wars, so hence must be “cool.”

It’s a phenomenon older than civilization itself. It’s the same mentality that leads people to call themselves “geek” because they saw “Star Wars,” or call themselves “gangsta” because they wear their baseball cap backwards, or call themselves “bikers” because they wear a leather jacket, or call themselves “bi,” “poly,” or “kinky” because that’s the kind of porn they download.

Continue reading “Wannabes Are The Cancer That Kills Everything”

Why The 17-Year Flaw in Microsoft Windows Is Dead Serious

In case you didn’t catch the buzz going around, the story of how an ancient Microsoft Windows flaw was found after 17 years is pretty-well explained at the Inquirer. The news was particularly shocking because it was a simple hole that has been in existence since Windows 3.1 all the way up to the latest Windows 7! That’s a serious bug.

Quite a few commenters on that site and others have down-played the vulnerability, saying things like “Meh, who uses 16-bit anyway?” Which goes to show that the home user doesn’t think like a hacker. Guess what? Most of the programs to exploit Windows security holes are 17 years old, too! In fact, if you were a hacker (we know, the correct word is “cracker,” but English is changing) downloading security-cracking software, you’d have more of a real problem getting updated software than you would getting legacy software.

Continue reading “Why The 17-Year Flaw in Microsoft Windows Is Dead Serious”

Will We Ever Fix the Weak Password Problem?

Any website developer knows the drill: you put up anything requiring a login, and people are usually going to pick the laziest possible weak password. As documented in Ars Technica’s lament on the failure of the password model, this problem has existed unabated for 30 years. Users are still just as sloppy about password security as ever.

Future web application designers might need to start thinking beyond the password. For instance, what if we tried some other methods of user authentication along with the password:

Continue reading “Will We Ever Fix the Weak Password Problem?”

ISV Learns Open Source Lessons To Meet User Needs

manageStar, a business software firm in Walnut Creek, Calif. is among a growing number of commercial software firms looking to blend its commercial software with Open Source practices to better meet customer needs.

manageStar’s flagship software suite, Harmony, is comprised of modules that help businesses automate some key internal and B2B processes, including asset management, employee services, contract management, lease management and facilities management. Automating these types of practices in software can often require manageStar to customize the base modules, as one might expect.

To help contain costs and speed deployment of these customized solutions, manageStar engineers in 2001 hit on the concept of bring Open Source principals to their software — and their customer base. The ability to let customers “tweak” its core Harmony package is supported by the manageStar’s Equal Source Initiative, which execs say simply boils down to a simple idea — a balancing act between commercial and Open Source offerings that lets the customer use the right tools for the job.

In an interview with OET, Jason Henriksen, server technologies lead at manageStar, describes the balancing act at manageStar this way: “I’m responsible for code that is useful in a variety of software applications. However,” he added, “I am also responsible for the implementation of very client-specific solutions. Equal Source helps my team gain the advantages of Open Source for generic libraries, while maintaining tight control over the work that our clients would like to remain private.”

Continue reading “ISV Learns Open Source Lessons To Meet User Needs”

Using Open Source To Secure Online Purchases

Lokitech Inc., a small software security firm in suburban Washington, D.C., has crafted an Open Source-based security solution for credit card processing that will run with .NET and Java enterprise systems.

Lokitech’s approach allows a business to store encrypted credit card lists and other sensitive information, says the company’s CEO, Serge Knystautas. Lokitech developed the encryption solution for an Internet-based casino project, involving teams in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Costa Rica, but the resultant easy-to-deploy two-way encryption platform is finding a larger audience, taking the risk out of using Open Source solutions for securing mission-critical data.

“We needed a way to store credit card numbers and account information without making the integration between different teams overly complicated. The technique we came up with allowed us to ensure that backups and communication were secure without adding significant costs or complexity,” Knystautas added.

Lokitech also needed to find a method that would help eliminate developer error. Company engineers hit on a solution that, with a little re-engineering and some Open Source libraries, moved the encryption function from the application layer to the data layer.

The encryption/decryption libraries are available as Crytpo++, an Open Source (and free) C++ Class library for encryption. To make the transfer of the encryption logic to the database layer, Lokitech wrapped the C++ encryption code inside extended stored procedures of an off-the-shelf SQL database (in this case, the casino used Microsoft SQL Server). Using the .NET Framework Class Library, Lokitech took advantage of many encryption APIs that can be called from any .NET-capable language, such as VB .NET, VC++ or C#

Continue reading “Using Open Source To Secure Online Purchases”

IBM Applies Open Source Lessons to Commercial Apps

IBM is borrowing some important pages from the Open Source playbook in its pushes to re-architect its most valuable software assets, including Websphere and Tivoli.

OET speaks with Doug Heintzman, head of IBM’s Community Source program, to learn more about what Open Source approaches Big Blue finds the most valuable as they move from tightly-coupled to component-based appdev.

IBM software execs have aggressive goals in place to convert many of their core software products, including Websphere and Tivoli, from tightly-coupled offerings to a collection of integratable loosely-coupled component-based apps.

To get their software inventory to that destination, IBM managers have invoked some tried-and-true software development practices from the Open Source arena. The result: IBM’s aptly-dubbed “Community Source” Program. Doug Heintzman, director of Technical Strategy for IBM Software Group, said Community Source has been in existence for more than 2 years and now involves just over 10% of IBM’s 25,000 in-house developers, and involves more than 100 projects.

How Open Source is Helping IBM’s SOA Sea Change
Heintzman conceded that Community Source has been “like turning a big boat,” as far as getting long-time IBM programmers to update how the think about, design and do appdev. But, with the “sea change” coming from SOA and composite apps, it’s an important turn for Big Blue’s boat to make.

Continue reading “IBM Applies Open Source Lessons to Commercial Apps”

Open Source Graphics Take on Adobe, Microsoft

The Open Source desktop app sector is gaining another player, as the Xara Project speeds towards a 1.0 release. The Xara Xtreme project is focused on building an Open Source version of a commercial-standard vector graphics. The team just released its Xara LX 0.5 for Linux, and is available under the GNU Public License.

“Linux needs a top-tier commercial-standard graphics program,” the team wrote in the release announcement. “The Linux desktop has come on leaps and bounds in the last year or so, but it still lacks any vector or general purpose graphics program to genuinely compete with Windows and Mac commercial products. And although desktop Linux is evolving at a rapid rate, the platform is behind in the graphics market. We intend to change that,” the team added.

So what can Xara 0.5 do now? The list of functionality is pretty impressive:

Continue reading “Open Source Graphics Take on Adobe, Microsoft”

MySQL CEO Mickos Looks to Present, Future Opps

MySQL CEO Martin Mickos is always looking to the future, and not one to bugged by the past. OET had the chance to speak with Mickos about the immediate and long-term future of MySQL. Among the topics: relations with Oracle, a growing MySQL partner network, the dramatic uptake in MySQL 5 in the enterprise, and even his views on the webification of the enterprise. For a quick read and a great interview, read on.

An Open Enterprise Trends
Interview with Martin Mickos, CEO
MySQL AB

OET: What is this theme MySQL would like to put forward for 2006?
Mickos: I think the overall theme is that we are building something fantastic for the online world, and that the whole world, the enterprise and everyone, is going online.

OET: So, the message is that it takes MySQL to go online?
Mickos: To really get ready for the online world it takes a strong LAMP stack with partners. This year was great for MySQL’s partners. The [MySQL User Conference] was oversold and huge. My first LinuxWorld was smaller than what we had this year. And it’s just little us.

OET: Speaking of partners, things seem to be getting a bit better between MySQL and Oracle? Can Oracle be both a partner and a competitor?
Mickos: Yes, the world was a little bit shocked when Oracle acquired Innobase. . And yes, we thought there might be negative impact on our company and our users. But, we come out of it all even stronger. We have renewed our contract for innoDB with Oracle, and we even nominated them as a MySQL Partner of the Year.

Continue reading “MySQL CEO Mickos Looks to Present, Future Opps”

Madriva Adds OpenVZ Virtualization to Linux Offering

OpenVZ operating system virtualization software will be included as part of the latest commercial distribution product from Mandriva (formerly MandrakeSoft) Mandriva Corporate Server 4.0.

With virtualization technology, a Linux server running either Intel or AMD CPUs, can effectively be split into many small ones, each running its tasks so that the whole server is utilized more efficiently.

Mandriva is the publisher of the popular Mandriva Linux, which is used by IT departments in enterprise, government, and education. OpenVZ is OS-level server virtualization built on Linux, which creates isolated, secure virtual environments on a single physical server.

“Embedding the OpenVZ technology directly into the Mandriva kernel will give Mandriva customers unparalleled virtualization functionality,” said Kir Kolyshkin, manager of the OpenVZ project.

As a result of the partnership, Mandriva users will see greater server utilization and availability with fewer performance penalties. Further, bundled OpenVZ virtualization will let Mandriva admins ensure that applications do not conflict, and allows apps to be re-booted independently. Read the OpenVZ Project’s blog on virtualization.

Continue reading “Madriva Adds OpenVZ Virtualization to Linux Offering”

Enterprise Data Protection Goes Open Source

Enterprise IT managers concerned about costly or proprietary data backup and recovery now have an Open Source option.

Start-up firm Zmanda Inc. has optimized the Open Source Amanda data backup project for academia with new enterprise-class features. Zmanda has also hired many of the Amanda Project committers, and has thus become the de facto commercial arm of Amanda, Zmanda CEO Chander Kant told OET.

[Initially developed at the University of Maryland in 1991, Amanda has been in use as an Open Source data protection project by academia for more than decade. Now in all major Linux distributions, Kant estimates there are more than 20,000 deployments of Amanda worldwide.]

“At a time when protecting corporate data is becoming a top priority for all businesses, most data protection solutions are simply too costly and too complicated,” said Chander Kant, CEO at Zmanda. “Zmanda gives businesses proven, enterprise-grade data protection at a cost savings of up to 90 percent over proprietary solutions. The data protection market is ripe for commoditization, and Zmanda now offers a low-cost, simple and secure open source alternative to help drive this.”

Continue reading “Enterprise Data Protection Goes Open Source”

NetBeans Adds Features, Helps Eclipse with GUI

Sun Microsystems continues to push capabilities for its Open Source NetBeans IDE, expanding web services support, and adding support C, C++ and Mac devs. Far from feeling crunched by Eclipse’s continuing progress, NetBeans execs claim Eclipse’ success is just making NetBeans better. In fact, Sun is working with an Eclipse member to optimize Project Matisse for Eclipse.

OET runs through the highlights of the news, and gets comments and perspective from Dan Roberts, , Sun’s director of developer tools marketing.

    • NetBeans Gains C/C++ Source Code Plug-in Support — Sun released a preview version of the NetBeans C/C++ Development Pack, which allows devs to edit, compile, and build C and C++ applications on multiple operating systems, including Solaris, Linux, and Windows. The preview Pack includes a variety of features to support the C and C++ developer, including editor syntax highlighting, easier code browsing via hyperlinks between invocation and declaration, a makefile wizard, and templates for building C/C++ libraries and applications. The Pack also extends the Netbeans project system to support C and C++ projects and support for multiple project configurations. This plug-in is supported in NetBeans 5.0 and preview versions of NetBeans Enterprise Pack 5.5 across common platforms, including Solaris10, Linux, and Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.OET: What about broadening NetBeans to the C and C++ worlds, what is that about?

Continue reading “NetBeans Adds Features, Helps Eclipse with GUI”

Despite Storms, ODF Push Steady as She Goes

Despite recent storms over the resignation of Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn, prospects are bright that state MIS execs in 2007 will adopt the OpenDocument Format (ODF) as a way to “open up” Microsoft Office documents. So says Sun Microsystems’ standards manager Doug Johnson.

Johnson told OET the ODF effort remains “steady as she goes,” despite Quinn’s resignation, who was one of ODF’s most high-level and high-visibility supporters. “I am feeling optimistic,” Johnson told OET. “For the first time in a long-time, Massachusetts is not on fire anymore.”

Johnson admits that Quinn’s resignation initially raise storm clouds throughout the pro-ODF community. “Everyone we look at as our natural allies might look at this [resignation] and say, ‘This is kind of nasty. Peter explicitly said he left because of the huge political controversy that surrounded this ODF decision,” Johnson told OET

Continue reading “Despite Storms, ODF Push Steady as She Goes”

EnterpriseDB, JasperSoft Ships DBA Dashboard to PostgreSQL

EnterpriseDB, a commercial distributor of Open Source PostgreSQL database for enterprise use, has developed a DBA dashboard in partnership with the commercial Open Source reporting firm JasperSoft.

The idea behind the dashboard is to provide DBA critical database performance and configuration information for any EnterpriseDB or PostgreSQL environment, Astor said. The JasperReports DBA Dashboard for EnterpriseDB, will enable EnterpriseDB admins to monitor database performance, and to identify configuration issues across an unlimited number of servers.

EnterpriseDB CEO Andy Astor told Open Enterprise Trends that his company’s work with JasperSoft underscores an important factor in enterprise acceptance of Open Source: visibility and manageability of Open Source software needs to be easier.

Continue reading “EnterpriseDB, JasperSoft Ships DBA Dashboard to PostgreSQL”

Survey Finds ‘XML Devs’ Flocking to XQuery

More than half of all XML developers are working with XQuery, and another sizeable group expects to start before the end of the year.

That’s according to a DataDirect Technologies survey just released of some 550 “XML developers,” (which DataDirect defines as including a wide range of XML and database professionals). Specifically, the survey found 52% of XML developers have already started working with XQuery in the last 12 months and another 33% have plans to start using XQuery before years’ end.

“That one number was of the most dramatic findings for me – that XQuery is already happening, and in a much bigger way that I would have expected,” Larry Kim, DataDirect’s XML Programs Manager told Open Enterprise Trends. The survey interviewed some 550 developers and other IT professionals across a number of different industries. “The survey data confirmed what we’ve known all along – that there’s a tremendous interest for an alternative to the tedious, low-level methods presently employed for querying, manipulating and transforming XML data,” Kim added.

Continue reading “Survey Finds ‘XML Devs’ Flocking to XQuery”

What Execs Want from Open Source in 2005

Recently, the analyst firm IDC announced they are forecasting the market for servers running Linux will exceed $9 Billion by 2008. If you think about it, that’s really an amazing statement.

It means that in the next few years, big hardware companies like Sun, IBM and Dell are going to sell literally billions of dollars of servers specifically for Linux. A billion dollars here and a billion dollars there, and suddenly we’re talking about serious money. But, Linux is just part of the story. There are literally thousands of others Open Source applications, and their growth is also accelerating — dramatically.

So what new issues or surprises are waiting for us in 2005 with respect to Open Source? Here are a few predictions:

Continue reading “What Execs Want from Open Source in 2005”

2005 Will See XML’s Powerful Next Wave

The stars are aligning for 2005 to be the “breakout year” for XML’s next wave technologies, including XQuery, according to ISVs and toolsmakers watching the XML space.

Perhaps most bullish among the outlooks comes from DataDirect Technologies, who say that are getting growing interest from architects and devs to learn more about how XML can speed integration for data and documents, and even set up complex, multi-database queries on-the-fly.

“This is the year XQuery is going to happen,” Jerry King, general manager for DataDirect’s XML products told Open Enterprise Trends. “Developers are architects are asking us two questions,” King added:

Continue reading “2005 Will See XML’s Powerful Next Wave”

Use Case: An Open Source Alternative to HP OpenView

A growing number of Open Source sysadmins and developers are working on web services projects, and are finding themselves mixing their Open Source and commercial software to deliver innovative solutions.

Massimiliano Panchi, a system administrator at an Italian financial software company, needed a way to monitor and log uptime history for a number of Oracle applications in a high availability configuration. Using PostgreSQL as his backend, Panchi built a Perl-based system that would check the status of his applications, populate the PostgreSQL database with these results, and send alert messages if something required human attention.

Now, this innovative solution left Panchi looking for ways to solve his management of his new blended commercial/Open Source software.

After his company evaluated proprietary (and expensive) solutions such as HP OpenView, Panchi wanted to look elsewhere, noting that commercial packages were too expensive and way over-engineered for his needs. OpenView “had a few too many great features that didn’t really address [my] specific problems. It was a bit too wonderful,” Panchi told Open Enterprise Trends, noting OpenView’s sophisticated GUI as an example.

Continue reading “Use Case: An Open Source Alternative to HP OpenView”

BEA Eyes Open Source Implementation of BPEL for Java

Controversy may be giving way to simple heads-down hard work when it comes to BPEL4WS, the proposed orchestration standard for web services supported by both Java and .NET vendors. The leading J2EE app sever vendors BEA and IBM have jointly proposed extensions to BPEL (Business Processing Execution Language) to make it more easily implementable within Java/J2EE environments.

Further, a BEA executive close to their BPEL work told Open Enterprise Trends that BEA intends to provide a reference implementation of BPELJ to the Java/J2EE community, and may even provide this royalty-free and as open source.

“BEA will write and provide a reference implementation of BPELJ. Depending on demand and the evolution of the specification, we will also consider making this implementation open source and royalty-free. We’re very serious about it. We want this to be very portable across the Java platform,” said Stephen Hood, BEA product manager for WebLogic Integration.

Continue reading “BEA Eyes Open Source Implementation of BPEL for Java”

Australian Firm Calls on Perl for Telco Projects

Add telco services to the growing list of legacy systems that Perl can connect to, thanks in part to a software firm based in the farthest corner of the South Pacific.

Australia’s SkunkWorks focused on Perl and Linux to build its affordable appdev toolkit and engine for building and deploying telecom services.

SkunkWorks’ Whirlwind toolkit, which comes with the Telco Perl appdev engine, enables developers to use traditional Perl scripting skills to deliver a variety of enterprise-caliber telco services, including: voicemail play/record, fax, conference, text to speech, speech recognition, and even complex voice protocol conversions. The Perl-based system also supports all major providers of SS7 and VoIP solutions. Whirlwind also includes S.100 and VoiceXML interfaces. CPAN.org provides many plug-in modules for Perl to connect to third party and legacy systems. Examples of these modules are SMPP for SMS, DBI for database and LWP for web connectivity.

Continue reading “Australian Firm Calls on Perl for Telco Projects”

New Money, New Code Keep PHP Marching in March

PHP is on the march in March.

In a sign that the marketplace sees lots of promise in PHP’s growth prospects, Zend has completed a new venture capital infusion of $6 million. The latest investment, from venture capital fund Index Ventures, together with previous investors Walden Israel and SFK Technologies, brings to $12 million the total of VC investments in Zend in less than six months, since November 2003. Isreali-based news service Globes Online reports that Zend may actually get $2-3 million more in funding before the round closes.

And as if to justify investors’ faith, the long-anticipated PHP5 First Release Candidate is finally for download from Zend. To get a closer look at PHP5, OET spoke with Zend’s co-founder and Zend Engine co-creator Zeev Suraski.

Continue reading “New Money, New Code Keep PHP Marching in March”

Driving Enterprise Python – Patches, Plug-ins, Outlines

A number of enterprise devs had pushed Python’s state-of-the-art in the last few weeks. Notably, Python has a new patch for a particularly sneaky security vulnerability, better support for new logging modules and even an upgraded documentation tool and programmers’ editor.

In this Python wrap, OET provides devs a quick tour, links for code downloads, FAQs and forums.

Security — A buffer overflow in python 2.2’s getaddrinfo() function was discovered earlier this week by Sebastian Schmidt. If python 2.2 is built without IPv6 support, an attacker could configure their name server to let a hostname resolve to a special IPv6 address, which could contain a memory address where shellcode is placed. This problem does not affect python versions prior to 2.2 or versions 2.2.2+, and it also doesn’t exist if IPv6 support is enabled. . Python with the patch is available here. For more background on the problem, go to theMandrakeSoft Security Advisory

Continue reading “Driving Enterprise Python – Patches, Plug-ins, Outlines”

Tips To Using PHP Templates: Inside Smarty

Templating has been gaining in popularity for years among web developers, especially those working on portals or business sites that may have their web pages tied in with complex business rules. Now those same benefits from templating are coming to PHP. This article, originally appearing at DotGeek.org, looks at Smarty, one of the leading PHP templating engines available.

Benefits of PHP Templating
Web design and programming are closely related and yet are very different. Designers speak in such languages as HTML and CSS, and programmers are often heard speaking in the tongues of PHP and SQL. Design focuses primarily on presentation logic, and programming focuses primarily upon business logic. Separating these processes in web development cycles helps to achieve rapid application development goals while providing for website maintainability.

Continue reading “Tips To Using PHP Templates: Inside Smarty”

IBM, Novell Differ Over Linux Indemnity for Users

Even among those companies that favor Open Source Linux use, there are differences over just how much those companies need to do to protect their enterprise users from liability.

During last month’s LinuxWorld, it became clear that not all major Linux providers are on the same page when it comes to indemnifying customers against any fallout from SCO’s $3 billion still-pending Linux copyright infringement lawsuit.

Notably, IBM and Novell execs last months outlined their views on indemnifying customers against any fallout from SCO’s Linux lawsuit. IBM remains steadfast that the suit has no merit and looks to original Linux providers, including Red Hat, SuSE Linux AG, and others. Meanwhile, Novell execs say that despite what Linux vendors’ opinion of the lawsuit are, they need to assure prospective customers.

For his part, Novell CEO Jack Messman told attendees that Novell would protect customers under a limited indemnity program. Novell will offer indemnification for copyright infringement claims made by third parties against registered Novell customers who obtain SUSE Enterprise Linux 8 after January 13, 2004, upgrade protection and a qualifying technical support contract from Novell or a Novell channel partner. Details of Novell’s program are available.

Continue reading “IBM, Novell Differ Over Linux Indemnity for Users”