Jim Wagner

As is often the case in the technology world, the tussle started with an open letter, in this case from Rod Smith, IBM’s vice president of emerging technologies. In his public missive to Rob Gingell, Sun Microsystems vice president, Smith got the spat started by suggesting the companies put their heads together to create an […]

While the industry watchers obsess over Google’s IPO plans, the search engine’s developers continue to improve the technology. Their latest effort allows U.S. users to perform local searches by zip code or city name. In beta testing, Google Local lets users find shops and information that’s right around the corner. Previously, a general Web search […]

Microsoft officials unveiled the next step of the company’s software management strategy to help them better compete with rivals IBM, HP and Computer Associates. The Redmond, Wash. software giant’s Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI), which was the story at the Microsoft Management Summit in Las Vegas, is an effort to provide a platform to reduce complexity […]

After years as working implementations, the Voice XML 2.0 (VXML) and Speech Recognition Grammar Specifications (SRGS) won the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) seal of approval Tuesday. The two new standards, called the Speech Interface Framework at the W3C, have ushered in a new era of Internet/voice applications, ranging from computer-generated information services like 555-1212 […]

Tech companies are beginning to sound off on their thoughts about the Federal Communication Commission’s intentions of becoming a software czar for any new application that deals with digital video transmissions. A group of tech companies from the Silicon Valley, under direction of Washington, D.C.-based Public Knowledge, is preparing to submit their comments to a […]

Eight years after launching one of the more popular Web development companies in the U.S., J.J. Allaire is coming around full circle with the launch of a start-up promising to make Internet-based research less onerous. Onfolio, an application available Monday that lets researchers and heavy Internet users compile pictures, documents and links, bears some similarity […]

Officials at business technology optimization (BTO) vendor Mercury Interactive are beta testing a new application suite whose job is to cut downtime from network failures in half. The Mercury Resolution Center, a product of several acquisitions, ties in technology via acquisitions (Allerez and Kintana) and licenses (Motive) to create an end-to-end product that prioritizes and […]

Vignette’s latest version of Application Portal hit the streets Monday, featuring enhancements in Java standards, and a bid to woo companies that want to build up corporate Web sites. Vignette Application Portal (VAP) 7.0 features essential support for Java Specification Request 168 (JSR-168), a Java specification that standardizes the use of portlets within a corporate […]

The primary creator of Apache Jakarta Project’s Struts and co-specification lead for Java Specification Request (JSR) 127 said confusion over the role of JavaServer Faces (JSF) is clouding its role for the Java development community. A standard for Web application development with visual components such as buttons, frames and radio buttons, JSR-127 was never intended […]

Some of the biggest names in the mobile communications industry are banding together to create a registry for Web pages built specifically for access by mobile devices. On Monday, nine companies — Microsoft , Nokia , Vodafone , 3, the GSM Association, HP , Orange, Samsung and Sun Microsystems — will apply to the Internet […]

With the need for keeping employee workstations current with patches and updates becoming increasingly more important, officials at Altiris and HP are set to update their own remote management tools. The HP Client Manager Software (CMS) has been upgraded to perform functions on the Altiris 6.0 platform, publicly released last month. HP also expanded the […]

Sun Microsystems officials rolled out Java Community Process (JCP) 2.6 Tuesday, along with a goal of more community participation in order to improve Java specifications. Although JCP 2.6 enhancements have been in the works for the past year, the timing of the release comes amid IBM’s recent push for an open source implementation of Java. […]