Articles by Brian R. Hook

This story was originally published on Oct. 8, 2009, and is brought to you today as part of our Best of ECT News series. Gamers are often devided into two categories: those who play on consoles and those who play on PCs A console gamer will drop few hundred dollars for Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or Nintendo's Wii, but a PC gamer w...

Gamers are often devided into two categories: those who play on consoles and those who play on PCs A console gamer will drop few hundred dollars for Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, or Nintendo's Wii, but a PC gamer who wants to purchase a desktop or laptop optimized for gaming could pay thousands just for the machine....

What's hot, and what's not? And how does an e-commerce concern turn it into cash? Knowing Internet trend patterns is not enough. Small e-commerce companies have to be able to act on the information they obtain in order to capitalize on it. When they do not move quickly enough, they may find themselves on the tail end of a petering-out fad....

Last year, the buzz surrounding social networking concerned "data portability" -- giving Facebook and MySpace users, for example, an easy way to connect to one another without the need to create new profiles. That once-deafening buzz has now fallen silent, and the social networks are back working to corner more of the Web in exclusion of others "Fa...

As the business use of mobile devices such as laptops and smartphones proliferates, IT departments are scrambling to implement adequate security safeguards both inside and outside company walls The cost of implementing security measures is problematic for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises, but the alternative can be worse....

The rising cost of fuel is prompting thousands of federal government workers to consider the benefits of teleworking -- either working from home or at an offsite location closer to home "The increased urgency to reduce the burden of high gasoline prices on the workforce has pushed telework to the forefront as an imperative operating model for the f...

Industry insiders think it's going to be a big holiday season for Bluetooth wireless technology -- which is showing up in a wide range of gadgets, from mobile phones to audio players to personal digital assistants to personal computer keyboards and even cars Christophe Dissaux, executive vice president at Paris-based Parrot S.A., said Bluetooth -- ...

If bad data is put into a data warehouse, companies risk what Tony Fisher, president and general manager at DataFlux, described as "code, load and explode." "If the data from a source system doesn't meet the expected qualities for that data, the loading process may fail, causing the company to stop the load process and try again," Fisher said, whic...

South America and Central America are increasingly becoming popular destinations for information technology outsourcing -- whether it is offshore, nearshore or even "rightshore." "Central and South American countries are improving on outsourcing competitiveness," said Mark Minevich, international strategic advisor and principal at Going Global Vent...

May I take your order please?" These sometimes-garbled words uttered through a speaker at your local drive-through restaurant may soon originate from a different city or even another state thanks to new customer-relationship-management technology Hardee's -- part of CKE Restaurants Inc. in Carpinteria, Calif., which also operates Carl's Jr., La Sa...

Linux, the ubiquitous free operating system that by some estimates currently runs over half of all servers and is swiftly making inroads into operating systems from computers to mobile phones, is now targeting the automotive industry As the cost of electronic components in automobiles continues to increase, the battle is being waged between Linux a...

The open-source movement has been expanding beyond the world of software development recently into the biotechnology research arena. U.S. BioDefense Inc, based in City of Industry, Calif., is trying to capitalize on this evolving trend by developing an open-source stem cell research platform The small, publicly held contractor for the U.S. Departme...

The Princeton Review is aiming to simplify the college admissions process with a free online tool designed to help students find the right college. Simultaneously, for a fee, colleges can search for students who match their needs and specialties The New York-based publisher and provider of test preparation services says the service is similar conce...

Instant messaging is no longer just a quick and easy way to keep in touch with family and friends: It is quickly becoming a mainstay in the workplace, creating a new set of problems to worry about for information technology professionals International Data Corporation, a technology research firm, estimated that the number of corporate IM users will...

With the holiday shopping season now in full swing, video game publishers are seeing brisk sales and offering only a few surprises. Since December accounts for a major percentage of the industry's annual revenues, most video game publishers are playing it safe by promoting sequels to already successful titles Greg Kasavin, executive editor at Game...

Biometric identification is no longer something found only in science fiction. The technology, such as fingerprint identification and face recognition, is starting to be used on a regular basis on everything from personal computers to airport security systems Clain Anderson -- program director for security and wireless at the PC division of IBM in ...

With more and more young people turning to video games for entertainment instead of watching television, advertisers are looking for creative ways to reach out to this growing demographic. One of the newest techniques is to place advertisements directly into video games -- a practice that's rare right now, but could become common in the not-too-distant future...

Rio Rancho, N.M., may not provide its citizens with all of the services available in larger cities like San Francisco and Philadelphia, but the small city six miles north of Albuquerque is leading the technological race to provide a citywide WiFi network The rollout of wireless Internet access is already underway in Rio Rancho, one of the fastest g...

Biometric identification is no longer something found only in science fiction. The technology, such as fingerprint identification and face recognition, is starting to be used on a regular basis on everything from personal computers to airport security systems Clain Anderson -- program director for security and wireless at the PC division of IBM in ...

Laptops are no longer the slow-but-necessary alternative for mobile professionals. Today's notebooks offer powerful processors, dazzlingly large LCD screens, improved upgradability and features as potent as those you'd find on many desktops -- all at attractive prices. Couple that with the siren song of ubiquitous wireless connectivity, and more buyers are seriously considering a notebook for their next business or home PC...