In addition to manual notifications and task management, AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail proactively delivers data through system-driven notifications triggered by events in back-end retail systems and associated task a store manager should perform. As a result, retailers using the product can streamline store operations, manage inventory, control costs, improve customer satisfaction and provide a clear understanding of priorities and tasks to store and field managers.

“We see AquaLogic HiPer for Retail as a potential next step in the evolution of our portal deployment. We initially deployed AquaLogic User Interaction to provide a single point of entry for store managers, suppliers and corporate headquarters to access information and collaborate on projects,” said Bruno Raybaud, applications integration manager of Casino Information Technology. “AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail brings new capabilities such as notifying targeted stores of business changes and allowing for two way communication. Apart from the benefit of fitting seamlessly with our portal, the product could help improve our business processes, specifically in distribution logistics, promotion execution and feedback solicitation from our store managers.”

Deployed along with BEA’s WebLogic RFID Edge Server and WebLogic RFID Enterprise Server, the AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail provides corporate headquarters and field and store managers with a central view of product movement throughout the supply chain as well as notifications of critical activity occurring within that supply chain. As a result, retailers are better able to identify bottlenecks and share information with key trading partners. Combined, the two technologies illustrate an innovative end-to-end retail product that integrates the supply chain through to the store floor.

The BEA RFID products and solutions rapidly turn raw RFID data into business relevant information, which help address several industry challenges such as reducing out-of-stocks for major retailers; improving public safety through targeted product recalls and reduced product counterfeiting; mobile asset tracking for high value goods; and enabling compliance for both retail and defense mandates.

BEA will demonstrate the AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail in conjunction with key components of the BEA RFID product family at the National Retail Federation Conference and Expo taking place from January 15-18, 2005 at the Jacob Javits Center in New York, NY (booth 2429).

“BEA continues to demonstrate its technology and market leadership with the integration of two innovative products to provide improved corporate productivity and accountability,” said Mark Carges, executive vice president at BEA Systems. “Combining the WebLogic RFID Edge Server with AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail is a step forward in automating SOA-based business processes. Because AquaLogic HiPer Workspace for Retail is based on BEA’s service-oriented portal technology it can help companies in a variety of industries quickly deploy new products that facilitate collaboration and achieve the highest operational efficiencies. By targeting a variety of industries, such as retail, BEA is delivering innovative products that address a unique set of business challenges.”

Today personal computers fill the office with, typically, one computer per user. Each user creates information and saves it on his local drive. If the user’s disk drive fails, the data must be restored from a backup. However, backup programs can have serious shortcomings. In some cases, user intervention is required for tagging important data to be backed up, and the user may not have tagged some or all of the critical work. Also, if the user’s data is on a disk drive that is attached to the computer, the only way to get the data will be to fix the computer or to remove the hard drive. These scenarios can result in a significant loss of productivity for the user.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Finally, because each computer has its own disk drive, the applications and operating system must be installed on each client. Users are responsible for getting updates and patches for the OS and applications installed, leading to inconsistent deployment. Rolling out new and updated applications can also be inconsistent. As a result, there may be many different versions of software among the clients in an organization, making data management more difficult.
Consolidating the client’s storage to one location provides an opportunity to alleviate these data management challenges. Backups of the user’s data can be performed offline and after hours, even with the client computer turned off. Data is backed up using a consistent policy to ensure that the latest version is restored. Consolidated storage can be protected by the use of a redundant array of independent disks (RAID), with the complexity of RAID hidden from the user, and the system maintained by IT experts.

With RAID in place, the loss of a disk drive does not mean loss of data and subsequent downtime. It simply means replacing the disk and rebuilding the array. If the configuration includes a hot spare disk drive, this activity can take place without the user even noticing. In addition, virus checking of data can be handled offline. The latest virus definitions can be applied before running the scan to ensure that all data is as safe as possible. Another benefit of consolidating client storage is the ability to implement a just-in-time storage capacity policy. Storage usage can be monitored for each client, and capacity can be provisioned as needed for each user instead of devoting large amounts of unused storage space to every client.

Still another advantage of consolidated storage is that the centrally located data can be accessed from other computers. This is beneficial when a user needs to be moved, when a user is unavailable to share files, or when the user’s computer is down and needs to be replaced or upgraded. Consolidated storage also means that data can be moved within the central storage location for upgrades of equipment or changes in storage policy (for example, migration from RAID-5 to RAID-6).

Lastly, applications and operating system images can be housed in a single location. Less storage is required because these images are not duplicated for every client. Patches and updates can be installed in one place to ensure that all clients are kept up to date.

Implementing a System for Consolidation

There are three basic elements involved in implementing a system for consolidation, as shown in the Figure. The first element is the client side–the computer to which the end user has access. This must be set up with minimal impact to the user so that productivity is maintained. The second element is the network, which connects the client to the storage. The network should be relatively easy for IT to set up and maintain. Finally, there is the storage backend, which houses all of the user’s data. This backend consists of both the disk drives and the management applications.

PRINCETON, N.J. and ELSTREE, England, July 16 — Infragistics, the world leader in presentation layer development tools, announced today Infragistics NetAdvantage for .NET 2007 Volume 2. With this new release that includes toolsets for both ASP.NET and Windows Forms, Infragistics is expanding its commitment to business intelligence, data visualization and supporting executive information dashboards by adding gauge controls, search engine optimization, a document export engine and enhanced Excel exporting capabilities. By leveraging the rich user interface toolset, AJAX compatibility and easy styling in this product, Infragistics empowers developers to add further productivity to business applications.
“This year, one of our focuses has been on giving our customers innovative tools to fulfill their needs for business intelligence and data visualization,” said Steve Dadoly, Vice President of Engineering at Infragistics. “The new features in this release give developers the power to easily and quickly build useful business applications such as business information dashboards or near real-time information monitoring software to deliver key performance indicators to executives in an easy-to-understand format.”

New Features to the Suite include:

Gauge Control: In both NetAdvantage for ASP.NET and NetAdvantage for Windows Forms, the gauge control supports Radial (Dial) and Linear style gauges and supports Digital LED-style character displays. It also includes a flexible Object Model that allows multiple gauges and displays to be composited together into a single display, and includes a rich styling API that allows for the creation of highly-styled, real-world controls.

Search Engine Optimization: When appropriate, the controls will alter normal output to include HTML markup that enables Search Engine Crawler to easily see the company’s entire website, helping increase search engine rankings, and website visibility. This feature is available in the ASP.NET toolset.

Document Export Engine: The Infragistics Document Exporting Engine is a new addition to NetAdvantage for Windows Forms that enables developers to create both standard PDF and XPS documents. This engine gives developers the power to create and easily design full-fledged reports.

Enhanced Excel Exporting: The Windows Forms toolset includes enhanced functionality support for importing images, reading of Excel files, and improving the depth of the control developers have when exporting in an Excel format.

As the market leader, Infragistics has enabled many customers to create professional immersive user interfaces in business applications that are consistent across the enterprise and the web.

“NetAdvantage has been instrumental in helping us build business-critical applications for our clients,” said Infragistics customer Jason Mindte, Principal and Technical Manager at Data Resolution. “It takes about fifty percent less time to deliver applications to my customers because of the tools in Infragistics NetAdvantage. With that time savings, we recover the cost of the product within a month.”

Gregory Varghese, CTO at 2Ahead.com, a development and design software company for the kitchen and bath industry added, “Infragistics makes my life as a developer a 1000 times easier, made me look like a genius to the CEO of the company, and helped me deliver the interface none of your competitors’ products could.”

In September of 2006, a Congressional e-waste working group held a stakeholder meeting in which manufacturers and retailers agreed to find a financing solution for the hill and other stakeholders to consider, Rick Goss, EIA vice president of environmental affairs, says. The EIA’s Environmental Issues Council, which is made up of representatives from 64 companies, including major IT and consumer electronics manufacturers, debated the framework, with the EIA executive committee voting to accept the framework in late May.

The legislative framework EIA has proposed is based on a bifurcated financing system that distinguishes televisions from IT equipment. “The key point is that televisions and IT equipment need to be treated differently,” Goss says. He adds that the major market and life cycle differences between televisions and IT equipment call for different funding mechanisms.
FUNDING A SOLUTION. Goss says that the state laws concerning electronics recycling that have been passed each provide different financing mechanisms to fund the collection and recycling of televisions and IT equipment, creating an uneven playing field for the electronics industry’s various manufacturers depending on their product range. According to Goss, advanced recovery fees or producer responsibility funding mechanisms create winners and losers when applied to electronics manufacturers as a whole. Instead, he says, the EIA’s proposed bifurcated financing system provides a “fair and equitable” financing solution to the industry’s manufacturers.

Goss points out that the life span of a television is generally 15 years, while the life span of IT equipment, especially personal computers and laptops, tends to be much shorter, in the range of six-to-eight years. Technological innovations help to speed the obsolescence of personal computers and laptops as well as to serve as a barrier to entering the industry. However, Goss says, a smaller barrier to entry exists in the television manufacturing sector, meaning that companies, particularly overseas firms, can easily set up manufacturing facilities. “Our members are getting competed to death by foreign competitors, particularly Chinese competitors,” he says. “We don’t know if these companies will be around in 15 years. They are virtual companies with virtually no permanent presence in the U.S.” Goss adds that there is a “huge risk” these foreign competitors may not be around 15 years in the future, which would leave EIA member companies to foot the bill for the recovery and recycling of their competitors’ televisions. “We see a higher orphan rate for TVs than for computer monitors,” he adds.

The bifurcated financing solution the EIA has proposed separates televisions from desktop computers, laptops and computer monitors to reflect their different business models, market composition and consumer base, according to the organization. The collection and recycling of televisions would be conducted through an industry-sponsored, third-party organization and initially supported by a nominal advance recovery fee at the time of purchase. The fee would expire once a significant portion of legacy televisions have been recovered and then revert to a producer responsibility funding mechanism.

Goss says many EIA members are extremely concerned about legislation that calls for manufacturers to fund the recovery and recycling of their branded products in light of the volume of televisions in the market, their longevity and the number of manufacturers entering and leaving the market, all of which contribute to considerable legacy issues. “Long-standing manufacturers have a huge and retroactive responsibility,” he adds, while “virtual” manufacturers can evade their responsibilities by closing down their operations in 10 years and reopening under a different name in the future.

Has Valve’s Steam Network Been Hacked? MaddoxX, of the anti-Valve website No-Steam.org, says he’s hacked the Valve Steam content distribution network as well as Valve itself. 1UP investigates the story with independent security researchers.

House Approves Anti-Spyware Bill Legislation that would help protect consumers from harmful spyware that can harvest personal data from a user’s computer was approved on Thursday by a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee.

Researcher: JavaScript Attacks Get Slicker Malicious JavaScript is getting smarter. It’s now able to fingerprint victims’ Web browsers, vulnerable components and accessible CLSIDs, and deliver custom-tailored exploits, according to Dr. Jose Nazario, senior security engineer for Arbor Networks.
Man Pleads Guilty in P2P Piracy Probe A fifth defendant pleaded guilty Tuesday in connection with a piracy ring that used BitTorrent technology to distribute copyrighted movies, software, games and music over a peer-to-peer network.

John Shirley’s cyberpunk story “Freezone” describes a future in which leather-clad “rock classicist[s]” keep alive the traditions of 1960s and ’70s music (Shirley 142). These fundamentalists wage a losing battle against techno performers (”sexless … dancing mannequin[s]”) whose bodies are wired to software that turns stage antics directly into sound (145). The present article explores the real-life context of this cyberpunk story. I intend to show how the discourse of classic rock musicianship was reconfigured in the 1980s and 1990s by music television and computerization/digitalization respectively. I argue that recent media relegate performance practices (real-time playing and singing) traditionally central to rock personas to a secondary status. My argument describes this shift as a change in work-gender identities; specifically, labor practices linked to sex roles. Expertise in classic rock was ideologically associated with a realm of masculine craftsmanship illustrated in displays of musical skill. However, the practices introduced by MTV and computer music (image editing, sampling, programming, computer interfacing, or Internet downloading) mimic the procedures of the corporate world. They turn musical gestures into raw material that can be processed by graphics software, computerized instruments, and information networks. The masculine ideology of classic rock is affected by these changes because it celebrates autonomous working subjects handling musical technology in real time. Even though 1960s and ’70s music was mediated by increasingly sophisticated multi-track recording equipment, it made the live context the testing ground of each performer’s authenticity.
John Shirley’s cyberpunk story “Freezone” describes a future in which leather-clad “rock classicist[s]” keep alive the traditions of 1960s and ’70s music (Shirley 142). These fundamentalists wage a losing battle against techno performers (”sexless … dancing mannequin[s]”) whose bodies are wired to software that turns stage antics directly into sound (145). The present article explores the real-life context of this cyberpunk story. I intend to show how the discourse of classic rock musicianship was reconfigured in the 1980s and 1990s by music television and computerization/digitalization respectively. I argue that recent media relegate performance practices (real-time playing and singing) traditionally central to rock personas to a secondary status. My argument describes this shift as a change in work-gender identities; specifically, labor practices linked to sex roles. Expertise in classic rock was ideologically associated with a realm of masculine craftsmanship illustrated in displays of musical skill. However, the practices introduced by MTV and computer music (image editing, sampling, programming, computer interfacing, or Internet downloading) mimic the procedures of the corporate world. They turn musical gestures into raw material that can be processed by graphics software, computerized instruments, and information networks. The masculine ideology of classic rock is affected by these changes because it celebrates autonomous working subjects handling musical technology in real time. Even though 1960s and ’70s music was mediated by increasingly sophisticated multi-track recording equipment, it made the live context the testing ground of each performer’s authenticity.

The White House has mandated that all federal agencies using Microsoft Windows software must implement new computer security standards developed in tandem with the National Security Agency.

An administration memo issued this week requires agencies to ensure that any existing or newly purchased Windows machines include certain default settings that substantially decrease the time and money spent securing those personal computers and in repairing systems that have been compromised by hackers or viruses.

A majority of agencies has fallen short of federal computer security standards, often for failing to implement basic changes to harden systems against cyber attack or employee misuse. The new rules would force agencies to employ preconfigured security settings on all existing PCs. It also would require agencies seeking to purchase the latest version of Microsoft’s operating system — Windows Vista — to order systems specially configured to meet the government’s new security requirements.

Officials from the White House Office of Management and Budget, which sets computer security policy for all federal agencies, declined to be interviewed. But according to the White House memo, agencies will be required to develop plans by May 1 to show how they will implement the new requirements. Full compliance will be required by February 2008.

The new rules require agencies to take steps to decrease the likelihood that systems can be compromised by viruses or cyber criminals. Agencies must include tactics such as disabling unneeded software and services that expose systems to cyber attacks, and configuring machines to run under user accounts that cannot install new programs or alter existing software.

Scott Armstrong, vice president of marketing at Secure Elements, a Herndon, Va., company that sells security software and services to federal agencies, said the requirements should help dramatically reduce the number of security incidents at federal agencies.

“It’s a whole lot easier to lock down these systems than it is to spend a lot of time cleaning up security breaches,” Armstrong said.

The standards are based on configurations developed over the past four years by the NSA, U.S. Air Force, National Institutes of Standards and Technology and the Defense Information Systems Agency, among others. The new requirements, which have been implemented across more than 420,000 Air Force Windows PCs over the past year, are directly responsible for decreasing the security incidents and the overall workload of Air Force IT personnel by at least 30 percent, said Kenneth Heitkamp, associate director for the Air Force Life-Cycle Management Office in the Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer.

The White House mandate also offers the promise of improving the quality of third-party software designed to run on top of Windows, said Clint Kreitner. He heads the Center for Internet Security, a nonprofit group of agencies and companies that helped to coordinate collaboration on the new standards, which have been roughly four years in the making. One persistent problem, he said, is that application developers often write their software to work on non-hardened platforms, which can force users to soften the security of the operating system to get the applications to work properly.

“These requirements give the government the specific information it needs to tell an application vendor — be it a Beltway company some other vendor developing custom stuff — that it wants applications to be fully functional on a more secure Windows version,” Kreitner said.

AS THE FOUNDER OF ExploreAnywhere Software LLC in Plaistow, New Hampshire, Bryan Hammond is proving that wisdom doesn’t always come with age. At the ripe age of 21, he already helms a software company with 2005 sales projections of more than $1 million, and his computer-monitoring products have become a big hit among parents, employers and educators. How did he achieve all this, when most people his age are still finishing college?

Rewind to fifth grade, when Hammond’s father gave him a book on computer programming. The gift immediately sparked an interest and a thirst for more knowledge. At 16, Hammond put his skills to the test when he set out to develop computer-monitoring software superior to the bug-filled products on the market. Using the anonymity of the internet to keep his age a secret, Hammond launched his company in 2001 with $100.

Hammond admits he’s made difficult decisions along the way–like leaving college early–but he insists the sacrifices have been worth it: “I want to give this my all, because if I don’t, I’d feel like I’m passing up a really great opportunity.”

IS APPLE Computer’s iPod the greatest consumer product of our time? At minimum, it’s an undeniable success. Over 20 million units have been sold since its launch in 2001. It has managed to cross social and demographic barriers–with every one from soccer morns to Wall Street executives sporting white ear buds. The portable audio player has created an entire economy of accessories and imitators, single-handedly grabbing the music industry by the ear and pulling it into tomorrow. The iPod has become the icon of cool, and every entrepreneur should pay attention.

Jeremy Horwitz, editor in chief of iLounge, a leading online iPod authority, says entrepreneurs can take away three critical lessons from the iPod. First, he says, “Timing and execution are everything. Being first in an emerging market is neither as important nor as lucrative as designing the right products and services to cater to second- and third-stage growth.”

Michael Gartenberg, analyst at Jupitermedia Corp., says a lot of experts were initially skeptical of the iPod’s success because it was late into the market. Horwitz adds, however, that it was the first player to marry substantial storage capacity with great looks, small size and simple controls.

The second lesson, says Horwitz: “A smart company can command a premium for successfully blending off-the-shelf technologies into a new and useful product.” Essentially, the iPod is a portable hard drive (in the Shuffle and Nano models, a flash drive) hidden inside a simple and beautiful enclosure, accessed through intuitive menus, buttons and a scroll wheel. “Separately, these parts were forgettable, but together they became unforgettable,” says Horwitz.

The third lesson is Apple’s approach to pricing. “Instead of creating a good product and knocking down the price until everyone could afford it,” says Horwitz, ‘Apple has sold stripped-down versions at lower price points and hoped demand would follow.” This strategy helped create Apple’s bestselling music player, the iPod Mini.

While useful, these lessons don’t wholly explain the iPod phenomenon. Leading up to the release of the first iPod, audiophiles were cramming their PC hard drives full of music. This enabled listeners to develop long lists of songs, but once they stepped outside, the music stopped playing. Apple recognized the demand for complete portability and offered the first device that would put an entire music library into one’s pocket. This concept was much more revolutionary than the Walkman or Discman, which only made new formats portable. The iPod changed the rules, just how revolutionary was it? Well, if you were to change the engine in your car, you’d still drive it the same way. But if you could make it fly, you’d have a transportation revolution. Making music fly is no easy task, but as Gartenberg proclaims, “Apple is not afraid to be bold.”

It’s a boldness that even the most daring entrepreneur would hesitate to emulate. Would you dump your bestselling item? That’s what Apple did with the Mini, to make room for the Nano. Why drop the Mini? Because the Nano is smaller, offers better functionality (color screen and flash drive), and keeps what works. The same can be said about Apple’s latest venture, the video iPod–it’s a logical evolution.

What’s next? Apple, notoriously tight-lipped, refused to comment; however, Horwitz ventures a guess. He believes consumers can expect a redesign of the full-size iPod, optional Bluetooth add-on and an “iPod sport” model, which he says is long overdue.

Doing business online is beginning to catch on in Japan, where a new study predicts the automotive industry will become more dot-com dependent than any other business except personal computers.The numbers still are small. Internet sales here in 1998 were $614 million (Yen64.5 billion) and the automotive share of that e-commerce was 3.1%, including parts and components as well as new and used cars. By 2004, however, e-commerce business is expected to balloon nearly 100-fold to $57 billion (Yen6 trillion) with the automotive share 14.5%.

The study by Andersen Consulting, commissioned by Japan’s Ministry of International Trade & Industry’s Electronic Commerce Promotion Council, was conducted in 1998 and 1999 via questionnaires sent to 937 Japanese companies. These were followed by interviews with the 339 executives that responded.

“Japan is three to four years behind the U.S. in electronic commerce. It will be 10 years or more before we catch up,” says Hiroyuki Nishimura, an Andersen Consulting partner in Tokyo.

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce, he says, currently is two to three times larger in the U.S. than in Japan. Business-to-consumer (B2C) is about 20 times larger.

While about 30% of Japanese homes - roughly 13 million - currently have computers, the country’s Internet population is estimated at 22 million people. Consumers are considered the key to e-commerce expansion, and more and more Japanese are logging on from homes, offices and Internet-compatible cell phones, and game consoles are fast becoming another gateway.

For most automakers and their dealers, the Web so far has served primarily as a conduit of product information available from sites such as Toyota Motor Corp.’s Gazoo, Nissan Motor Co. Ltd.’s Clicar and Honda Motor Co. Ltd.’s HEAT. Now the role is expanding to order-taking and processing.

Mazda Motor Corp. in January became the first Japanese automaker to try online sales with the offer of a limited edition of 200 “Web-tuned” versions of the latest model Demio wagon. The price, $350 (Yen37,000) higher than the standard, is fixed and includes several sporty extras. Other details, including trade-in allowance and credit checks, can be settled online. After a purchase reservation is made, Mazda steers customers to their nearest dealer to sign the sales contract. By Jan. 31, more than 35,300 inquiries had been made and 10 Demios sold.

No one yet seems sure who should do what in this brave new automotive world of e-commerce. For example, Toyota reportedly planned to sell its innovative new WiLL Vi subcompact directly over the Internet after its Jan. 17 introduction. Dealers, however, were so alarmed about this step - possibly marking the beginning of the end of dealer territories - that the plan reportedly was scuttled.

“The Net is useful for exchanging information between customers, dealers and companies, but not for making final sales,” a Toyota spokesman says. Yet, tectonic shifts already are underway.

Since most dealers only have room to display three or four models, automakers may establish showrooms in each of Japan’s 47 prefectures large enough to display all of their models to help customers, especially those dealing online, make a choice.

Says Kunihiko Shiohara, a vice president of Goldman Sachs (Japan): “E-commerce probably won’t change the structure of dealerships much, but their function will change dramatically.” Dealers will remain the delivery point for new cars, however purchased. But with the gross margin on new-car sales only 1.6% and more than half of Japan’s dealers losing money, the focus will be on new profit centers.

Mr. Shiohara says the ultimate goal of automotive e-commerce is to reduce inventory costs for both makers and dealers, with a make-to-order routine involving completely flexible manufacturing systems.

“Ideally, automakers want to skip dealers as go-betweens in order placement,” he says, “so as to narrow the gap between projected production and actual output.”

Mr. Shiohara expects Honda, which pioneered the mix-and-match production of different models on the same line, to lead the way at its Suzuka plant with the introduction this fall of an even more flexible production system featuring eight different models coming off one line - up from five.

But for something as new and different as e-commerce, some perspective is needed. In 1998, 0.02% of all consumer purchases in Japan were made on the Internet. If the total reaches the $55 billion (Yen6 trillion) projected for 2004, that still will only be an estimated 2.2% of total consumer sales. The 14.5% automotive share of e-commerce estimated for that year will be worth $8.2 billion, a small fraction of total transactions in that sector.

All the same, it’s a beginning. No one in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, can be sure how far and how fast online car purchasing will grow.