Articles by Jack M. Germain

In the 1980s, auto manufacturers began using simple computers called the "engine control unit," or ECU, to monitor and regulate such things as fuel mixture and spark plug timing. Since then, a cottage industry has developed around hardware and software to bypass, tinker with or replace this system. A significant chunk of the players in this space use open source software, which cuts down on costs and improves the development process...

Plano, Texas-based Docudesk, which makes software tools to convert proprietary file formats such as Adobe's PDF (portable document format), recently introduced an enterprise version of its deskUNPDF document conversion line. The launch of deskUNPDF Professional provides users with new feature options and conversion formats to address a wide array of PDF document conversion needs on both Intel and PowerPC OS X systems...

Open source software is making its way into the systems that touch our everyday lives, from our banks to the stores where we shop. Open source is also found in some of the IT systems that manage traffic flow on city streets, state highways and in the skies. In fact, throughout the overlapping transportation and travel industries, open source has a very big footprint...

Information technology managers are facing a massive rollout of new demands and computing models that could potentially make inroads in enterprise computing in 2008. As the technology continues to evolve and the landscape continues to change, IT managers have to pick and choose carefully in deciding which new, talked-about technologies to implement in their enterprises...

Give office workers familiar with the Microsoft XP operating system an opportunity to try the same navigational tasks at a Linux-based desktop. Then step back and wait for the reaction. First will come the surprised look. Then questions like "where did the command line go?" will soon follow That's the typical scenario Morgan Spencer, public sector ...

Depending on which set of criteria you reference, ID fraud either is on a significant decline or will be a lingering threat for several more years The general trend points downward. Overall, 2007 saw a 12 percent drop in ID fraud incidences to US$6 billion, according to Javelin Strategy & Research's report released in February....

There are approximately 20 million small businesses in the United States. Even for a large firm, finding the right person for any given job can be like finding a needle in a haystack. When you're a small business, finding reliable and affordable talent can be even more difficult Filling that niche formed the basis for the business plan of startup c...

Wikis are finally becoming a useful tool for collaboration and information sharing in the workplace. However, like all business tools exposed on the Internet or corporate intranet, IT managers have to view their deployments with a stern eye regarding who can use them and what corporate information may be at risk The concept of a wiki, named for the...

A study by the Authentication and Online Trust Alliance (AOTA) shows that more than half of all e-mail is authenticated. However, the Alliance wants the industry to push for higher adoption. AOTA has issued a call to action to implement e-mail authentication at the top level corporate domain within the next six months Those brands that adopt higher...

It could only be a matter of time before someone found a formula for taking the immediacy of YouTube and the entrepreneurship of eBay and wrapping them around an original Internet mainstay -- the conversation of the Bulletin Board System (BBS). That time has arrived with the debut of BigThink.com BigThink, the brainchild of cofounder Peter Hopkins,...

Kace announced Monday what it called the first virtual systems management appliances to run natively within the VMware infrastructure The Virtual Kbox appliances offer users a software product that runs on the user's existing computer hardware. Earlier versions of the Kbox appliance required the installation of separate hardware to deploy and manag...

PostPath on Wednesday announced the release of PostPath Email Server 3.1, which offers small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) an alternative to Microsoft Exchange Email Server 3.1 is interoperable with the Exchange ecosystem as well as BlackBerry and ActiveSync devices. PostPath's e-mail and collaboration server provides enterprises an alternativ...

In January, network security tools startup Packet Analytics launched Net/FSE, or Network Forensic Search Engine. Net/FSE is the first commercial search engine for enterprise network data to focus on security incident response by harnessing the analysis of NetFlow data. It is designed to exploit the forensic potential of NetFlow data to dig deep into network alerts...

In order to turn bigger profits from their armies of compromised computers, hackers this year will use a new tactic in targeting master boot records with viruses that plant rootkits on computers' hard drives, security experts warn. These infections activate during the boot sequence before the operating system starts The MX Logic Threat Center has i...

The 2008 presidential primaries capture the lion's share of election season media exposure, but an equally critical campaign is running quietly in the background The controversial decision to implement various types of electronic voting machines in place of paper ballots is garnering little public attention, while many states hastily implement flaw...

Managers of enterprise networks are becoming more aware of the importance of IT risk management issues even though they still cling to four so-called myths that give a false sense of security, according to Symantec The security vendor on Wednesday released its IT Risk Management Report Volume II, which looks beyond last year's study of how the IT i...

Black Duck Software announced today the availability of Black Duck Code Center software to help manufacturers accelerate software development through the managed use of open source and third-party code. Code Center manages software component selection, project approval and license tracking designed to maximize benefits to organizations from their reuse of open source and other third-party software components...

HP announced Thursday a three-part software governance initiative to help companies address the legal, financial and security demands associated with using free and open source software (FOSS) The company is donating its intellectual property for monitoring open source products to a new open source community. It is also founding a new organization ...

McAfee announced Monday a security suite that provides enterprise users with host data loss prevention, device management and endpoint encryption to ensure compliance and limit exposure to fines McAfee Total Protection for Data, a solution for data loss and data leakage protection, has full visibility and control of confidential data with scalabili...

The growth of e-commerce and the continuing expansion of outsourcing and the remote workforce are fueling a new approach to paying for services. Internet-focused companies are replacing traditional online payment transactions with prepaid debit cards Payoneer is a startup firm that is pushing this concept of prepaid debit cards to leverage more Web...