The itmWEB Information Technology Report

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http://www.montana.com/asc/

A monthly report featuring selected IT topics and time sensitive links.

Volume 2, Number 3, March 3, 1998

Welcome to the 15th distribution of the itmWEB Information Technology Report. This month's edition is being distributed worldwide to 912 IT professionals and associates. You are receiving this report because you either requested it from one of the sites above, or you have been added to the email list as having a potential interest. itmWEB's policy is not to SPAM. The itmWEB report is a non-commercial, professional resource, and care is taken to only send the report to interested readers.

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Please send comments or contributions to: feedback@itmweb.com

CONTENTS:

1. The itmWEB Report
2. Product News
3. Jeff Gainer's Corner
4. IT Management Quickies
5. US Tax Software
6. Selected IT Resources

This edition focuses on high level issues. The BIG EVENT is taking place in Washington D.C. today when Bill Gates and several rivals testify before the senate judiciary committee.

You can follow this event via streaming video and audio at this link:

http://www.techweb.com/wire/special/0398microsoft.html

(Coverage begins at 10:00 eastern time)

Some recent feature highlights from my Mining Company column are listed below:

Year 2000 Legal Dangers
Lawyers are expecting to reap a financial windfall from the Year 2000 problem. Here are some ways to protect your company:

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa022098.htm

The Bill Gates DOJ Email
Bill Gates comments on the ongoing DOJ actions with passion in this internal Microsoft email:

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa021298.htm

IT Executive Survival Skills (Part 1): Part one of a two part series which examines important survival skills for IT executives:

http://mis.miningco.com/library/weekly/aa020698.htm

THE UP FRONT LINKS

A collection of time sensitive links covering current IT issues.

My old firm, Ernst & Young has canceled their planned merger with KPMG Peat Marwick. Many people I have spoken with in the consulting areas of both firms are actually relieved:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/print.nsf/CWFlash/9802232DC2

Bill Gates (Microsoft), Michael Dell (Dell), Scott McNealy (Sun), and Jim Barksdale (Netscape) will all testify on March 3rd at a U.S. Senate Judiciary hearing chaired by Utah Republican Orrin Hatch. Hatch is examining how antitrust regulations should evolve to ensure competition and innovation in the computer industry.

I predict some great debate will come out of these hearings! More links:

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?980213.whgates2.htm

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?980223.wcmcnealy.htm

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2553052133-1c6

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980224mcnealy1D0D6

Barbara Walters also recently interviewed the Microsoft CEO:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980202gates1C75E

Netscape is really making its Communicator source code publicly available. Personally, I think this is a huge mistake!

Here is the statement from the opening page of the new Netscape site:

"mozilla.org is an arm of Netscape Communications Corporation whose mission is to provide open and common software for network client applications, by coordinating, building, and guiding the public sharing of the Netscape Communicator source code".

http://www.mozilla.org/

Watch out! Some the current schemes for blanket Year 2000 legal protection against liabilities in the US won't be effective:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980218senate1CE76

A great interview piece with some certified Information Technology gurus: (James Gosling, Bjarne Stroustrup, Grady Booch, and Chris Date)

http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?sc?interviews.htm

The European Commission has told the United States government that its latest actions and plans regarding the Internet reflect an improper takeover of the world wide network:

http://www.techweb.com/news/story/domnam/TWB19980226S0018

MCI Communications Corp., Sprint, America Online, and C-NET have all reported receiving a subpoena from the US Department of Justice. The current legal battle with Microsoft continues...

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2553004822-c6e

Hewlett Packard plans to market high-performance computers that will function for months without stopping. These will compete with IBM's mainframe class machines:

http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2552824421-bbb

BMC Software has announced a purchase of enterprise analysis software company BGS Systems. This puts BMC's Patrol and BGS's Best/1 under one corporate umbrella:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980202bmc1C78A

Sybase continues to make dramatic accounting and executive management moves in order to regain profitability:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980227sybase1D292

http://www.techweb.com/investor/story/INV19980226S0007

Advanced Micro Devices has announced an arrangement to have its successful K6 microprocessors built by IBM. Sources here in Austin tell me that this insures that AMD will be able to meet increasing demand while they continue to work on production yield problems. As the article below confirms, AMD has had difficulty converting its Fab 25 here in Austin to produce the required 0.25 micron process wafers. K6 chips are still being produced in Sunnyvale, California.

http://www.techweb.com/investor/story/INV19980227S0007

Sometime this month 3Com plans to introduce a $99 V.90 based internal modem:

http://www.techweb.com/news/story/TWB19980227S0007

Computer Associates continues its hostile takeover bid for Computer Sciences:

http://www.techweb.com/wire/special/0298ca.html

Jeff is taking this month off while he jets around the US on consulting engagements. You can still visit his web site at:

http://www.montana.com/asc/

This month, University of Texas professor and CIO columnist Tom Davenport discusses ordering ERP data from a "data deli," where end user information is served with a side order of IT assistance:

http://www.cio.com/archive/020198_think.html

CIO magazine takes an in depth look at the impact a new intranet is having at U S West. Some of the changes have been unexpected:

http://www.cio.com/archive/webbusiness/020198_village.html

CIO also looks at IS turnover and worker recruitment:

http://www.cio.com/archive/010198_over.html

And retention...

http://www.cio.com/archive/010198_loyalty.html

And retraining...

http://www.cio.com/archive/010198_skill.html

And new cultures and pay systems...

http://www.cio.com/archive/010198_expert.html

And contractors...

http://www.cio.com/archive/010198_forrester.html

Here is a great walk through from CNET of how to setup encryption software for your personal communications:

http://www.cnet.com/Content/Features/Howto/Encryption/?dd

The Meta Group examines the challenge of getting IT employees to see the business side of the business:

http://www2.computerworld.com/home/online9697.nsf/CWFlash/980220getting1CFA6

A reminder for US readers: April 15th is 45 days away! It's time to go out and get this year's tax software. PC magazine reviews both TaxCut Deluxe and TurboTax Deluxe:

http://www.zdnet.com/chkpt/pcma980227/www.pcmag.com/features/tax98/_open.htm

MIS Net Links:
http://mis.miningco.com/mlibrary.htm

MIS Benchmarks and Metrics Scoreboard: http://mis.miningco.com/blbench.htm

Job/Career Resource Center:
http://mis.miningco.com/msub31.htm

Security
http://www.geocities.com/~itmweb/security.htm

CASE Tools
http://www.geocities.com/~itmweb/case.htm

THIS MONTH'S PLUG:

Oracle

http://www.oracle.com

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