Rafe's Blog

Deniable instant messages

There’s been a lot of play recently given to making instant messages logged and trackable, mostly so companies can ensure their IM traffic complies with regulations like Sarbanes-Oxley. Now here’s the backlash: A completely secure, untrackable IM system called Off-the-record messaging. It defeats the whole intent of compliance. I predict it’ll be a hit.

Who needs retail?

Jazz composer Maria Schneider won a Grammy for an album that was sold online only, never in retail. Does this spell doom for music and video stores? Not quite yet, but for how much longer will it make sense to buy digital goods from physical stores – or even on physical media at all?

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Big security show this week

The annual RSA conference is on this week, in San Francisco. And boy is there a lot to confer about. New online threats are coming at us from al angles. In related news, privacy wonks are worried about governmental agencies that plan to implant RFID tracking chips in passports and drivers licenses.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Is beta better?

“Beta” used to mean something. For business users, it used to mean, “Stay away – this software isn’t ready for you.”  But today there are lots of apps in beta that are just fine to use day-to-day.  Oddly, many of them come from Google. For example, the company’s fantastic new mapping service.  In fact, Google applies “beta” to so many solid services that it is confusing the term. GMail, to take another example, may still be beta to Google -- but it’s not to the people coming to rely on it. 

Just remember: Not all betas are like Google betas. The beta of Maps.google.com is useful to find your way with today, but you’d never run your business on a beta of Windows.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Present and accounted for

You’ll be hearing more about PAM (presence and availability management) in coming months. It’s the jargon for tools that let a person or an application know if the person they are trying to interact with is actually present. Over at the New York Times, Katie Haffnerwrites about software that discerns your cognitive state (attentive, working, asleep). Then it crafts its messages appropriately or even holds them back while you are busy.

I wrote a Works for Me column on the topic.

Victim of its own success

Hooray! Firefox is getting attacked by Spyware and phishing scams.  It’s a sign that the alternabrowser is important enough to pay attention to, and maybe start using. It can’t be worse than IE, after all.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Mozilla continues to chip away at Outlook

After the Firefox browser, Mozilla shipped Thunderbird, a decent e-mail client. Now it’s showing a beta of Sunbird, a calendaring tool. I’m hopeful these products will present a credible alternative to Outlook. That old suite desperately needs a jolt from the market.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Carly: success or failure?

Carly Fiorina was sacked by her own board this week, after she led HP’s largely criticized acquisition of  Compaq. Does anybody have anything nice to say about her reign? Check News.com's user feedback or read the real arbiter of success, the stock market. HP shares soared on the news of her departure.

From my "Business Buzz" on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.

Who needs a landline?

My brother-in-law has no wired phone. His mobile phone is his one and only. He figures he needs a cellular phone anyway, so why pay for two? He's not alone, and according to the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association), by 2007, 30 percent of phone users is the US will be mobile-only. That's more than 60 million lines.

Even if you discount a bit the CTIA's number as self-serving, the trend towards people giving up their landlines, or just never getting one in the first place, is clearly on the rise. And really, who needs a landline phone? And why?

More about two companies trying to bring cellular into the home in my latest Release 1.0 column...

Offshoring goes onshore with “homeshoring”

The US tech meccas are too expensive. India and China are too cheap. But Arkansas is just right. The latest trend in outsourcing is “homeshoring,” the shuffling of technology service jobs to lower-cost communities inside the US, instead of overseas.  There’s even a company that will manage it for you: Rural Sourcing, Inc.

From my Business Blog on CNET.com - work.cnet.com.