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Dig this. You can “digg this” as well. Anyway, you have a small business of 10 to 20 employees, with a couple managers, a couple sales people, an accountant, an AP person, an HR person, and an IT person. You are a visionary who foresees, according to your nicely drafted business plan, your business will grow from $750K to $7.5M in 3 years and from 10-20 employees to 200. You forsee running a $250M company in 10 years. You are looking for software to manage your entire business, but one that will grow along with your business. You want something powerful and complete. Read the rest of this entry »

Does anyone remember the free operating system, [GNU] Linux, that people originally thought was child’s play, or for educational enthusiasts / hobbyists, or too difficult for business use? They said it would not catch on. When Linus Torvalds created the first Linux kernel and enthusiasts jumped aboard to help build what was a 0.9 kernel, then a 1.0 kernel of Linux, not many people thought it would materialize. Linux was largely ignored by the masses. A few groups/companies came up with the idea of creating their own [Free] distributions based on the Linux kernel. Many outsiders, on-lookers, and [future] competitors got a chuckle. Well, as Linux-based distributions began to chip away at the market share of industry giants like Sun and Microsoft, Linux began to get a fight. Even companies (SCO) with their own Linux distribution was fighting some Linux distributions and companies that implemented Linux… but that is another matter.

There is another phenomenon, “a radical idea” as Jorg Janke put’s it, sweeping the business world. This time it is not a free operating system. This time, it is a complete business solution built to work seamlessly instead of one made from a bunch of parts. The product is Compiere. Read the rest of this entry »

Pete Seeger wrote and performed a song in late 1959 / early 1960s called “Where are all the Flowers gone?” A cleverly-written song, “Where have all the Flowers Gone?” focused on the cyclical nature of things. He suggests that the flowers have gone to the young girls, who have gone to young men, who have gone [on] to [become] soldiers, who have then [died and] gone to the graveyards, that have [decomposed and] gone to flowers… So has been the nature of the Tech Jobs in America. Read the rest of this entry »

Nothing wastes more of our time on the Internet than things like spam, spyware, pop-ups, unsolicited pornography, and software like worms, viruses, and trojans. It is about time we take back our Internet experience. The Internet has too many good points for us to be thwarted by these types of material/software. Worse than wasting our time, these types of materials/software cost companies billions of dollars each year in damages, security consultation, combat software, employee time, etc. We shouldn’t be forced to spend this much time, effort, and money on combating these annoyances. Enough is enough. Read the rest of this entry »

I am pleased to announce that, after nearly a 3-year wait (see What’s with Broadband? and What’s up with DSL?) I have finally been blessed with the Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) broadband service offering to my home, this after nearly a 3-year wait. I have been using the service for approximately 6 months now, and pay approximately $50 a month (quite worthwhile in my opinion). Truly, it was quite a relief for me to finally be blessed with some sort of broadband offering. The only unfortunate thing is that immediately after signing up with DirecTV DSL, they went belly up and I had to go with another provider who had a few issues in the beginning that have cleared up now. But, it is still early. Some of the contributors on this EZine have not been quite as fortunate as I have and still cannot get DSL or cable Internet into their homes, however.

After seeing the title of this article, one might “Why is that crazy guy analyzing computer job TITLE trends when so he should be analyzing computer JOB trends?” I will probably address the job trend in a future article but right now I think it is pertinent to address the job title trend. You see, I have often debated with computer veterans and newbies on whether it is the roles of computer personnel that have evolved, or just the titles. Also, I don’t recall any article that tackles this subject. I hope that after reading this article, one might see how one can step on toes by calling a self-proclaimed software engineer a programmer, for example. Read the rest of this entry »

Home consumers have been using 56Kbps modems to access the Internet via their regular telephone line for quite some time now. Actually, some people still use a 28.8Kbps modem. By regulation, the 56Kbps modem will max out at 52Kbps connection. However, consider yourself lucky when you get a connection of 48K or better.

Furthermore, a connection of 48K does not guarantee a consistent speed of 48K while online. After all, you are dealing with an analog telephone line (with potential line noise) whose signals are MODulated and/or DEModulated using so-called analog MODEMs – one attached to your computer and one at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) site. Read the rest of this entry »

It is the year 1996. The road to residential broadband Internet connectivity seems promising… with cable providers like Media One, TCI, and others offering the promise of high speed connections to the Internet using the existing cable coming into your home. All you need is a cable modem, 10Mbps network interface card (NIC), and possibly a 56K modem. “You will download at speeds greater than T-1 lines that companies currently pay over $1000 per month for” was the common promise. We were in awe. We awaited availability… Read the rest of this entry »