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It was nice doing business with my Eee
I consider myself a business user, and I just took my Asus
Eee on a business trip to the
I could read my email, I did a presentation using it, I typed documents, I accessed documents remotely, I backed files up over the internet, I video-Skyped with the family at home, I listened to the BBC World Service in the morning, I watched films on it in the evening, and I listened to MP3s on it while I was working at my desk in my hotel room.
When I returned to my regular laptop, I found its keyboard felt stretched. The only thing I missed was the page-up and page-down keys.
The Eee has got a small screen, but that is the only real compromise, I felt. Even so, it never got in the way of getting work done. Although it has not got as much in the way of storage – 4GB, to be precise – this can easily be rectified. I bought a 4GB SD card for E20, which is always in it, and had a 4GB USB stick with me as well. That is a lot of memory, and it is going to be a while before I need to actually use the SD card.
Steven Pemberton
PC firms are power crazy
Like many people these days, I am trying to be more environmentally-friendly in my IT buying decisions. With this in mind, imagine my surprise when I discovered how much a brand new Dell Optiplex 755 consumes if it is off: 34W (Green IT still has a long way to go, 11 February). I immediately tested an Optiplex GX240, thinking how much worse an older machine was going to be. It was actually better at only 14W.
The new Dell 755 has a Bios option called Low Power Mode, which is set to “off” by default. According to Dell, “This field determines how aggressive the system is at conserving power while in hibernate mode or when turned off.” I tried this, but the machine still uses 34W just waiting to be turned on.
Another discovery I made was that the power button on Dell LCD monitors makes absolutely no difference to its standby consumption. To save the 14W that the 17in panel consumes while off, you have to turn it off at the mains.
It certainly seems that the biggest PC manufacturer has not taken the green IT call to heart.
Steve
The road to CIO success
The analogy of chief information officers (CIOs) reaching a “fork in the road” is a severe underestimation of the situation (CIOs approaching a fork in the road, 11 February). The debate is no longer about which direction to take, as the IT chief must adopt a business-focused role to ensure continued growth.
With information systems becoming increasingly embedded in business operations, the role of the CIO will gain in importance. It is imperative the CIO has a presence on the board, to allow greater transparency and improved collaboration in shaping the future of the company.
There is no “fork in the road”. However, there is a path of integration and business alignment. Otherwise, there is a dead-end, down which too many IT projects and too much thinking is currently backed up.
Lindsey Armstrong, Salesforce.com
Why Microsoft wants Yahoo
I think the extermination of a useful and proven competitor to Exchange is the prime motivation for Microsoft with its Yahoo bid (Zimbra at risk from Microsoft bid, 11 February). And if it succeeds, we will stay stuck in the IT dark ages, paying endless licences based on a model of intellectual property rights that will hold us back for decades.
All we need is simple software that works. Complicated software breaks down all too often and requires an army of “professionals” to administer to it. So, no vested interest there, then.
Martin
Time to voice opinions on fibre
As a network manager who has been frustrated at the lack of a BT dark fibre service, and staggered at the cost differentials charged by BT for differing services provided over its fibre, I was intrigued to read Bill Pechey’s article (Ofcom casts light on dark fibre, 28 January).
I urge every network manager in the country who has ever used a BT fibre-based service to deliver connectivity between sites to submit their feedback to Ofcom and to hopefully bring about cost-effective access to the BT fibre network.
This would enable BT to provide fibre point-to-point connections that are as simple to use as the fibre backbones many organisations have within their buildings, offering gigabit and upwards connectivity between sites. The user would then be able to send what they like over the connection, rather than being tied into the speed and data type BT dictates.
James Marshall
Holy Grail of mobiles
The Holy Grail of handhelds is to have one device that can be carried in a pocket, with a screen good enough to view a quarter of an A4 printed page, and can be used for almost anything a mobile phone or a PC can be used for (The internet gets local in 2008, 4 February).
The iPhone shows the way screens can go, but my XDA Orbit has so many facilities that its shortcomings in the screen area can be forgiven at present. It has a radio, browser, email, Wi-Fi access, spreadsheet, MP3 player, GPS receiver, phone and contact manager.
The other most important feature with these devices is that you can forget you are carrying them. This is the reason why the first XDA was not popular: it really was a brick. If this issue is fully understood, and all the functionality mentioned in Phil Muncaster’s article is included, then this would be the ultimate device.
If the manufacturers of the XDA devices switch to an operating system like the iPhone’s Mac version, and retain all the functionality they already have, then I think Microsoft may have a few worries. If, as your article implies, the mobile phone becomes the major vehicle for IT functionality, and therefore for operating systems and software – as I suspect will happen – then Microsoft should worry even more.
Dave Traish
UMPCs are too pricey
In response to your concerns about the current wave of small and light PCs (Small may be beautiful, but not for laptops, 4 February), my goal is to replace my hefty HP nx7400 with a lightweight but still capable alternative.
I am interested in the concept of ultra-mobile PCs over mobile, smartphone and PDA alternatives, but need to be convinced of the performance both in terms of battery life and also connectivity. The OQO e2 seems to be going in the right direction, except for the price.
Marco Smith
Lessons for web retailers
Top retailers that continue to offer inaccessible web sites are failing to understand the fundamental difference between online and high-street shoppers (Top sites fail to offer easy access to all, 28 January).
The gulf is vast. Online shoppers have far more opportunity to shop around. They can be far more selective, so web retailers have a much shorter time to attract them and engage with them.
The high street has now been replaced by the web as the most important retail channel, and firms need to reflect that by taking the challenge more seriously. Opportunities are clearly already being missed, and businesses must rethink and overhaul their web presence if they are to have a future.
Managing the process for designing, updating and running content on retail web sites does not have to be complicated. Retailers must realise it is not difficult, just different.
James Pavey, SDL Tridion
Curse of the domain name snatchers
Domain snatching is another scourge of the internet (Icann acts to stop domain name abuses, 31 January).
Royal Air Force (RAF) Gan had a very successful web site with thousands of hits. When the original domain name owner wanted to pass it on to another member of the team, the domain was snatched during the changeover by a domain sitter. The site is now just running adverts and no doubt getting payment from the advertisers for every unfortunate hit it gets from people looking for the original RAF Gan site.
We have publicised the incident as much as possible to stop people inadvertantly clicking on this bastardised site. I have no doubt that this happens frequently, and it does not do the internet any good.
A Gannite
Revenue data still at risk
Over two months after the initial child benefit fiasco, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is only able to accept self-decrypting files, which rather defeats the object (M&S staff data losses, 29 January).
I am trying to send a statutory return to HMRC which contains name, address, postcode, date and place of birth, and National Insurance number – great for identity theft or getting hold of a birth certificate, which then also gives your mother’s maiden name.
The Information Commissioner has just issued Marks & Spencer with an enforcement notice giving it until 1 April 2008 to complete encryption of all its laptops. Why doesn’t the Commissioner give HMRC 60 days’ notice as well?
Keith Appleyard
iPhone can do the business
Several things need to happen before the iPhone becomes an
attractive device for business (iPhone packaged up for business, 28 January). As the article points out, it would help if a
NetSuite, Salesforce.com and Sybase have stated they have
launched or are developing applications for enterprise use of the iPhone, and
this quarter Avaya will launch software in the
It is a big distraction for business people to carry a variety of handsets, gadgets, laptops and the like, especially if they are frequent travellers. There is a strong convergence argument for making one device powerful enough to fulfil all key personal and business tasks, and the iPhone is a perfect candidate for the role.
Nick Roullier, Avaya
Backing the case for IT
At a time of economic uncertainty, it is not surprising that IT budgets are among the first to be cut (Fight your corner, 28 January). Indeed, recent research shows that three-quarters of chief information officers and chief finance officers fail to assess the financial value of their IT assets in the same way as other assets such as brand, land and property, or intellectual property.
However, core IT systems have proved their business value over time and firms should remember that well-planned IT spend is as much an investment as expenditure in other areas of the business. While the article is correct in advising IT chiefs to present IT as a way of making cost savings and finding efficiencies, the important question is how they convince colleagues of IT’s business value.
Conjoint analysis has been proposed by business school Insead as a method to assess the true business value of organisations’ core software assets, and could therefore provide IT directors with the collateral they need to make their case to the board.
Nick Bray, CFO, Micro Focus
Success is not dependent on IT alone
It was no surprise that the highlight of last week’s business process management (BPM) roundtable was the revelation that BPM must be adopted by the board if it is to have any real impact on the efficiency of a business (Firms failing with BPM, 21 January).
With the threat of recession looming on both sides of the Atlantic, businesses are reviewing their enterprise operations, competitiveness and ability to design, produce and deliver new goods and services to customers quickly, in a way that minimises costs while maximising profits.
To do this successfully, management teams must create a model of the business that exactly replicates its composition and competitive position including product development, cost, quality and time to market. Once these variables are in place they can be adjusted to replicate the impact of any changes.
The success of a business is determined by events, effective use of resources, availability of commodities, performance of activities and delivery of profitable goods or services. This cannot be done by IT alone.
Greg Carter, Metastorm
Mac versus PC. Again.
In regards to the MacBook Air review and responses to it, let’s put aside the playground arguments where the main issue of concern may well be to satisfy the rants of insecure Wintel users against other vendors that use Unix or Linux (Letters, 28 January).
Perhaps rather than becoming obsessed with reawakening the long-dead Mac versus PC debate – younger readers should remember that Mac migrated to Intel from Motorola in 2007 and the Mac operating system since OS X has been based on Unix BSD – techies should adopt a far more professional outlook to the numourous merits of computer hardware.
Rebecca Pidgeon
Siemens idea is not unique
The recent article highlighting Siemens’ entrance into the 802.11n arena indicates as a differentiator the ability within the access points (APs) to work in the same Power over Ethernet (PoE) that many installs use in older a/b/g APs (Siemens enters 802.11n fray, 21 January). However, this is not a feature unique to Siemens.
Since Meru Networks’ launch of 802.11n technology last year, we have supported 802.x using the existing PoE standard of 802.3af.
To understand the clear differentiators for 802.11n you have to look at the planning aspect. Each vendor is recommending very different approaches to planning and placement. Vendors with a fourth-generation architecture have been identified by analyst firm Gartner as offering the easiest deployment and simplest site planning. This is due to the fact that they are more immune to interference issues and can operate with fewer non-overlapping channels.
Meru Networks’ fourth-generation architecture uses a single channel with the capability to layer additional channels for greater network capacity, eliminating the need for complex site surveys when planning a network. Access points can be deployed after an eyeball site survey, and more can be added if coverage holes develop, without the need for channel planning.
Dave Kelly, Meru Networks
Threats on the horizon
That’s it, I am selling my Macs and investing in some Windows machines (Security hosts plug holes as threat to Macs grows, 28 January).
These guys must be right this time. I have spent the last eight years worrying about getting an OS X virus or something along those lines and I cannot take the waiting for it any more.
I am tired of being scared about what could happen one day. Which system is better – Windows XP or Windows Vista?
Mack
