Small Business Computing Staff

By Jim Wagner Through the 1990s, executives listened to their IT department heads explain why the company needed PDAs and other high-tech gadgets distributed throughout the workforce to improve “workplace efficiencies.” For those that bought into the promises of the mobile worker, the promised efficiencies didn’t exactly deliver what they were expecting, according to mobile […]

By Martin Lindstrom The concept of personalization has become distorted by certain brand Web sites. What’s so “personal” about being greeted by name and having it awkwardly repeated throughout a company’s communications with you? Rather than personalizing the experience, the automatic, field-filling salutation can underline a company’s detachment from its customers. Once again, technology prevails […]

Wayne N. Kawamoto Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com Novell and MySQL announced that Novell will ship a NetWare-optimized commercial version of the MySQL database with Novel NetWare 6 and subsequent releases of NetWare, which may provide savings to Novell customers and allow them to develop and distribute MySQL applications without open source license requirements. The MySQL database […]

By Roy Santos How many times have you read or heard about a newer, faster wireless technology even as a older one becomes more and more widespread? That’s what’s happening with current wireless technology. The 2.4GHz 802.11b is the most popular way to create a wireless network. The 11Mbps technology achieves real-word average speeds of […]

By Edward Grossman Last month, Michael Mayor, president of NetCreations, took me to task on my interchangeable use of the terms “confirmed opt-in” and “double opt-in.” My view of confirmed opt-in was it is just a nicer way of saying double opt-in. To politicize it a little bit, marketers like to use the word “double” […]

Wayne N. Kawamoto Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com Smith Micro Software, a developer and marketer of software and eBusiness solutions, announced the release of WebDNA Intranet Edition. According to the company, WebDNA Intranet Edition enables companies of virtually any size to easily and cost-effectively deploy a rich, enterprise-level Intranet website, creating a platform for efficient exchange of […]

By Craig Liddell A wireless hotspot provider comes knocking. But what’s in the deal for the venue? You’ve been a successful restaurant owner for a decade. You have neither knowledge nor interest in information technology. You may not even have a dial-up connection for the premises. So when a hotspot provider comes knocking with promises […]

By Robert McMillan Is open source software more secure? To most Linux enthusiasts, the answer is obvious: open source means more people can look for bugs and a faster dissemination of bug fixes. Obviously, yes. But noted security expert Gene Spafford says that this may not necessarily be true. According to the Purdue professor of […]

Wayne N. Kawamoto Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com NetLedger announced a new release of Oracle Small Business Suite, which is designed to enhance the solution’s functionality, ease of use, and reporting. According to the company, important features in release 8.0 include: Functionality enhancements – Major new functional enhancements were assigned priorities based on customer requests. The top […]

By Seana Mulcahy I’m sure it’ll come as no surprise to find that eBay is consistently ranked as one of the most trafficked sites month after month. In August, Nielsen//NetRatings listed the site as number 8 on the Top 10 Brands list. This ranking combines the at-home and at-work active Internet audience to come up […]

By Gretchen Hyman In an effort to start the blood flow again in the PC market and in some respects reinvent the wheel for a new generation of PC users and their multi-media needs, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp. announced plans to release a PC crossover product by the end of October […]

Wayne N. Kawamoto Managing Editor, www.smallbusinesscomputing.com Like almost everyone I know, I’m sick of seeing those many pop-up Internet ads that tout X10’s surveillance cameras. It’s not just the frequency of the ads that bother me, it’s the underlying message. While the cameras have a legitimate use for helping business owners monitor rooms and property, […]