The bMighty Blog

Data Center Conservation: Some Practical Tips

Posted by Naomi Grossman 12:37 PM ET | May 9, 2008

Jack Pouchet, the director of energy initiatives at Emerson Network Power, believes companies can reduce 50 percent of the power consumption in their data center, if they tried just a little. Is your small or midsize business interested?

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Green Business | IT | Operations

Backscatter Spam Spreading, Bouncemail Battle Heats Up

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:56 AM ET | May 9, 2008

Have you been backscatter or bounceback spammed yet? No? Be patient -- if your e-mail address has ever been published on the Web, the odds may be against you.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Messaging | Security

Getting Windows Audio/Video Files into Your Mac

Posted by Alan Zeichick 03:39 PM ET | May 8, 2008

The world is filled with multimedia files, and if you receive files from a Windows user, it may be in a Windows format. The challenge can be to play them on your Mac, and to import them into iTunes.

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Apple

Reliability Study Serves Up Good News For Linux Users

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 01:47 PM ET | May 8, 2008

A 2006 research study caused an uproar when it reported that Windows Server 2003 was more reliable than Linux. This year's results tell a somewhat different story -- at least in terms of which side wins the bragging rights.

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Linux

Web Text: They're Not Reading Much So Keep it Short

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:29 AM ET | May 8, 2008

Recent research into the reading habits of the average Internet user reveals what we've all long suspected: those visitors to your site are not reading much. The lesson for smaller businesses is obvious: Tighten up that copy and remember to make those words that you put up there count.

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Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Sales/Marketing

More On Disaster Recovery: Mind The Gaps In Your Plans

Posted by Keith Ferrell 01:49 PM ET | May 7, 2008

We've talked a lot here about disaster recovery, and almost as much about planning for disaster recovery. In considering these, it's well-worth considering -- and looking for -- any hidden gaps or vulnerabilities that might bring even the best-laid plans to grief.

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Business & E-Business | Hardware & Software | IT | Management | Non-Profit | Security | Services | Storage | bMighty

Management Vendor Broadens Reach

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 05:51 AM ET | May 7, 2008

Systems and network management have been coalescing, so dividing lines between the two have become hard to discern. Consequently, it is not too surprising to see vendors in one of these areas moving more squarely into a new niche.

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IT | Management | Networking & Communications | Storage

Big Blue Thinks Smaller

Posted by Naomi Grossman 12:26 PM ET | May 6, 2008

IBM is launching a web-based application initiative for smaller businesses. The company is finally starting to realize there's real money to be made off small to midsize businesses. The question is what took them so long?

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Hardware & Software

Most Workplace Toilet Seats Are Cleaner Than Most Workers' Keyboards

Posted by Keith Ferrell 02:54 PM ET | May 5, 2008

The viruses in your computer can harm your computer's data; the viruses (and germs and bacteria and toxins) on your computer can harm you.

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Green Business | HR | Hardware & Software | Healthcare | Open Source | Security

Web 2.0: Videos Can Give Smaller Businesses an Edge

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:41 AM ET | May 5, 2008

On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog, goes the famous New Yorker cartoon. Nobody has to know you’re a smaller business either – and videos are one of the most effective ways to look bigger and impress the search engines, if you do it right.

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Business & E-Business | Sales/Marketing

10G Ethernet Moving from Fiber to Copper

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 11:20 AM ET | May 5, 2008

Faster speeds are something that IT departments constantly desire. 10G bps transmissions have been relegated to backbone switch connections but are starting to make their way into servers and storage systems because of less expensive cabling.

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Company Size: 1,100-1,500 | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 250-999 | Company Size: 50-249 | IT | Networking & Communications | Storage

How Prepared Are You For Disaster Recovery?

Posted by Keith Ferrell 01:21 PM ET | May 2, 2008

If your business got hit by a natural disaster that resulted in your "losing everything" -- would that "everything" include your company's digital records and history? It shouldn't.

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Business & E-Business | IT | Management | Operations | Security | bMighty

Interop: Smaller Businesses Get Some Attention

Posted by Naomi Grossman 11:26 AM ET | May 2, 2008

There was lots and lots of focus on larger enterprises at Interop, but, if you looked for it, you could find that many tech companies are thinking more and more about the smaller business.

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Business & E-Business | Hardware & Software | Networking & Communications

Can Mozilla Build A Better Web App?

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 10:36 PM ET | May 1, 2008

A Web application is only as good as its delivery platform. Unfortunately, the two most popular choices, Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, aren't very good at delivering Web applications.

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Open Source

Seething Booth Envy at Interop

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 08:37 PM ET | May 1, 2008

The surreal world of trade show meshes effortlessly with Las Vegas' disposable facades. With more than 500 tech businesses shoehorning their brands into artificially constrained spaces, jealously of all kinds oozes through the partition walls over booth size, location, and entertainment spectacle; size matters, but it all comes to down to the realtor's mantra of location, location, location.

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Sales/Marketing

Interop Insight: Why Users Hate IT

Posted by Fredric Paul 06:27 PM ET | May 1, 2008

In case you haven't noticed, today's consumer products and applications routinely outperform -- and out "cool" -- their business counterparts. So no wonder users bristle when forced to make do with second-rate business solutions. But IT folks often make the situation worse.

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Apple | Company Size: 1-49 | IT | Internet/Web

Interop: The Scary Business of Data Privacy

Posted by Naomi Grossman 03:45 PM ET | May 1, 2008

With Interop taking place in the very unreal city of Las Vegas, it's easy to forget that a smaller business has anything to worry about. But the issue of privacy and database breaches is not only very real, apparently it's getting more and more real every day.

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Business & E-Business | Security

Interop: Jumping to SaaS -- Look Before You Leap

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 09:30 PM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Got SaaS yet? If not, you're either a nattering nincompoop or blazingly brilliant. For every drumbeat touting the power and ease of Saas to remake your IT operations, there's competing tympany warning of the dire hazards of leaping into SaaS headlong.

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Hardware & Software | Services

Apple Finally Upgrades to the Latest Version of Java

Posted by Alan Zeichick 05:41 PM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Java is the "write once, run anywhere" platform, developed by Sun Microsystems, which gives applications developers the ability to write powerful, portable cross-platform software. And finally, we can use the latest version on the Mac.

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Apple

XP Service Pack Delay: What Else Is New?

Posted by Keith Ferrell 01:26 PM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Microsoft's on-again/off-again extension of support for XP may or may not be on-again, but the latest delay of the latest long-awaited XP Service Pack delay may strike some of us as the last straw.

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Business & E-Business | Retail | Security | Windows

Interop Swag Wars

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 10:13 AM ET | Apr 30, 2008

As at any trade show, there are new products, new services, metric tons of backgrounders, spec sheets, and brochures, buzzwords, and cadres of corporate clans marching along in matching polo shirts. But with all that eye candy to spin your head every stroll across the show floor, it's the take home swag that keeps on giving.

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Sales/Marketing

Interop: Fixed/Mobile Convergence Coming to Your Company?

Posted by Paul Korzeniowski 05:39 AM ET | Apr 30, 2008

Employees no longer sit in their cubicles all day. Instead, executives move from place to place, visiting customers and clients. Figuring out how to reach these individuals has been a problem: Do you try their office number or their cell?

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Company Size: 1,100-1,500 | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 250-999 | Company Size: 50-249 | IT | Mobile | Networking & Communications | Technology/Telecom

Two Must-Have Open-Source Security Tools

Posted by Matthew McKenzie 11:49 PM ET | Apr 29, 2008

Over the past decade, open-source developers have created some of the world's top-rated IT security tools. While some of these applications have a well-deserved reputation for being complicated and difficult to use, there are some notable exceptions.

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Hardware & Software | Open Source | Security

Vendor Rankings an Imperfect Science

Posted by Benjamin Tomkins 05:24 PM ET | Apr 29, 2008

Transparency's not a new business buzzword, but the drive to peek behind the curtain has more and more industries concerned about the coverage quality of their clothing (emperor's or otherwise). Some IT vendors may be scrambling to duck behind mama's nightshirt.

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Services

New Scam: Hackers Use Phony Certificate To Seal Victims' ID-Fates

Posted by Keith Ferrell 04:51 PM ET | Apr 28, 2008

A new approach to password/account info-theft appeals to users' desire for enhanced protection, rather than directly asking for info. The scam asks users to install an important digital security certificate -- which is, of course, anything but secure.

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Finance/Banking/Insurance | Internet/Web | Security