Spotlight Features

Microsoft recently announced it would enable RSS feeds in the next version of its operating system -- Longhorn, due out in beta next month. While use of RSS feeds is only at about 5-10 percent of Internet surfers, according to Yankee Group analyst Laura DiDio, their endorsement by Microsoft is likel...

One of the big problems for complex companies is the ability, or inability, to use expertise developed in one area in another. This is one of the reasons complex companies like Sony often fail; they have all of the disadvantages of that complexity and don't really get the anticipated synergies or e...

Information technology experts warn that lingering security issues are making Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, another uncontrolled tool for identity theft. RFID is an old inventory control technology that is quietly being deployed throughout business and industry to track everything from pe...

In the late 1990s, Peter Relan was working as a software executive at Oracle when his neighbor, Louis Borders, the founder of Borders Books and Music, offered him a chance to join his new startup. Relan was intrigued enough to make the leap to the dot-com world, where he helped develop much of the t...

Federal rules crafted to curtail "adult entertainment" sites will not be enforced against sites involved in litigation against the government until after Labor Day, according to a temporary agreement reached by the U.S. Department of Justice and Web site producers. The proposed regulations, amendmen...

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, but for technologists with an eye on the Internet's future, it stands for much, much more. The technology provides a way for people to opt to have information delivered to their computer desktops without having to burn time surfing the Web. Although around for...

Last week, the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform held hearings in Houston to discuss fixing the nation's voting system. New technologies help make most businesses more effective and efficient, so it only makes sense to upgrade America's ballot box as well. E-voting machines, often ...

About this time of the year, many manufacturers start believing their markets are saturated. Sales cycles are too quiet in July and August, and everyone from the CFO to the custodial staff get nervous. Too often manufacturers mistake a larger-than-normal dip in a sales cycle for market saturation....

The battle over the nominee to replace retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor is already roaring -- on the Internet. An array of sites -- from the left and the right -- have already sprouted online, touting the views of their sponsors, and claiming that the nomination is the most im...

Today, for the first time, China has 100 million people on the Internet, 30 percent of whom are on broadband. Within a few years, a billion people in Asia will be playing with e-commerce. All that power and all that technology replicating at a phenomenal rate will create global shockwaves both in tr...