In Depth

In Depth

• Read the writing on the wall to solve the sum

  This doubly true alphametic involves nine of the ten digits from 0 to 9 and only has one solution. Each individual letter conceals a specific digit. No prizes...  Continue Reading

• Why storage compliance should occur in later stages of an IT compliance process

  The storage infrastructure is being adapted for IT compliance initiatives, but storage products are one small set of components in the bag of tools for a firm's compliance efforts.  Continue Reading

• How UK business broadband is evolving

  Broadband connectivity was supposed to be a revolution in digital communications. In the late 1990s, businesses that wanted high-speed internet access...

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• Guichelaar CTO focus and fizz

  A mainframe computer command centre in Sydney, Australia, 1990. It is lunchtime and, as usual, the guys are huddled in the corner playing cards. Canasta...

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• Hot skills: WebKit

  What is it? Anyone seriously interested in developing rich internet applications (RIA) should be paying attention to WebKit, an open source web browser...  Continue Reading

• Facing up to security perils of outbound traffic

  What about the threat from within and, more specifically, the security issues that arise from outbound traffic risks?  Continue Reading

• How to carry out a SaaS roll out

  Software as a Service (SaaS) is cheaper, quicker and easier than traditional on premise applications.  Continue Reading

• Oyster Card: The highs and lows of Oyster

  Transport for London’s Oyster card system uses radio frequency identification tags (RFID) to enable a contactless ticketing system.  Continue Reading

• Femtocells: delivering in-building mobile reception

  The next generation of mobile network could be built in a totally different way to today's 3G infrastructure. The Femto...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Qt

  What is it? Now owned by Nokia following the takeover of Trolltech earlier this year, Qt...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Mobile Linux

  What is it? The initial surge of Linux in the server market has settled down in recent years. But in embedded applications,...  Continue Reading

• Get up to date with the missing numbers

  In this matrix, contributed by Chelmsford reader Ivor Smith, there are five rows of three circles linked by straight lines (but note, no horizontal line)....  Continue Reading

• Securing the desktop and still allowing for flexibility

  Few enterprises could bear a $7.2bn loss caused by a "computer genius" avoiding company policies and controls. But for international bank Société Générale,...

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• Unified communications runs into business processes

  "Unified communications" might describe a genuine technological advance but the term is wide open to abuse by marketers.  Continue Reading

• Mish-Mesh

  Mesh Collaboration - Creating Business Value in the network of everything (Andy Mulholland & Nick Earle) "Creating business value in the network of everything", so the claim of the book, seems like a daunting task, for sure.  Continue Reading

• IT pros okay despite slowdown

  The IT recruitment market continues to hold up well in the jittery economic climate. House prices are falling, business insolvencies are up and food and...

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• How unified comms could help you

  A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In business, that link can be the length of time it takes to return a customer's call or send a response,...

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• Graphics chips help supercomputers become commonplace

  The sight of supercomputers in every home and office may soon become a reality thanks to video games such as Grand Theft Auto. High-end 3D games need the fastest graphics chips to run well. This has driven graphics cards makers to build ever-faster ...  Continue Reading

• Preparing for unified comms

  The board has signed off the proposal and the supplier's engineers are heading for the door, but how does a business make sure its new unified communications...  Continue Reading

• The secret to designing user-friendly interfaces for desktop software

  By the 1990s, user-friendliness had become so ubiquitous in software development that even the fictional programmers in Douglas Coupland's novel Microserfs...  Continue Reading

• Challenges of remote desktop management

  Late May and early June was not a fun time for Adobe, or its users. Suddenly, news began hitting the wires that a vulnerability...  Continue Reading

• Best IT blogs: Full shortlist for Computer Weekly's IT Blog Awards 2008

  Shortlist for Computer Weekly's IT Blog Awards 2008 in full, with links direct to all the shortlisted blogs.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Mono

  What is it? Linux may be making rapid inroads into the server market, but development tools haven't kept up. Microsoft development skills are also...  Continue Reading

• Puzzler answer

  If we work on the units column first, we find that only 4x9 will produce a valid figure for the bottom line (6). Moving on from there, we know that the thousands...  Continue Reading

• Evolution of the internet protocol virtual private network

  Fran Howath, principal analyst, Quocirca Many organisations today operate in complex, distributed environments that encompass multiple branch offices...  Continue Reading

• Puzzler

  The seven-card poker game Texas hold 'em is tremendously popular throughout the world, thanks to the reach of the internet. A treatise on the probabilities...

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• Puzzler Solution

  The original order was: Ace, 3, King, 7, Queen, 4, Jack, 6, 10, 2, 9, 5, 8.  Continue Reading

• Google Apps makes its way into big business

  Earlier this year, Google said that the number of organisations using Google...  Continue Reading

• OpenOffice.org: a viable alternative to Microsoft Office?

  Sun launched the OpenOffice.org project with the aim of creating a community-based, international office suite, able to run on all major platforms and access all functionality and data using open application programming interfaces and XML.  Continue Reading

• Goodbye, Bill Gates - Essential Guide and Video Round-up

  Bill Gates leaves his full-time role with Microsoft in June 2008. Catch up with with all the essential facts in our guide, and view our top Bill Gates videos in the video round-up.  Continue Reading

• Airline IT - reports from the annual Air Transport IT Summit

  How the airline industry can use IT to improve efficiency and profitability were hot topics at this year's annual Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels.  Continue Reading

• Place the squares to form a 13 x 13 figure

  (The problem of squaring a square, where all smaller pieces must be different from each other, can be solved in minimum terms by using 21 smaller squares...  Continue Reading

• Internet doomed unless everyone switches to IPv6, expert says

  The internet is heading for a meltdown in just two and a half years unless every man, woman, child and device on the planet moves to IPv6, it was claimed today.  Continue Reading

• De Montfort University selects Linux infrastructure

  De Montfort University has chosen Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 as the foundation for its IT infrastructure for students and staff.  Continue Reading

• VoIP suppliers - Essential Guide

  The benefits of voice-over-internet-protocol in cost and flexibility are well understood, but what is not yet certain is how the supplier community will ultimately shake out. With multiple companies offering different voice-over-internet-protocol (...  Continue Reading

• Installing VoIP - Essential Guide

  Roger Jones's customer had a problem. The firm had Cisco implement one part of its voice over internet protocol (VoIP) system and Avaya do the other. Sound quality was suffering, and callers were hearing jittery audio.  Continue Reading

• Snapi smartcard promises access for all

  A man may have eyes but may not always see, at least not clearly. In a similar way, taking perfect vision for granted when building a user interface can...

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• Photo story: Microsoft DesignIT 2008 Winner and Art Gallery

  DesignIT is intended to encourage creativity in UK IT. Discover this year's winner - an IT project to help a youth homelessness charity - and view photographs of the artwork in the accompanying art exhibtion.  Continue Reading

• Photo story: ERNIE goes on display at the Science Museum

  Photos of ERNIE, the British 1950s computer that generated random numbers for the premium bonds draw, which has just gone on on display at the Science Museum, London.  Continue Reading

• Solution: doubly truncatable primes

  73,331 This prime is the only such number. Tom Marlow will receive £20 for this ingenious contribution. Incidentally, he tells me that he now has a...  Continue Reading

• Puzzle: doubly truncatable primes

  Tom Marlow, from Saffron Walden in Essex, has been looking at the obscure subject of doubly truncatable primes. For example, taking the prime 1373 (and allowing...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Apache Derby

  Apache Derby  Continue Reading

• VoIP: navigate the pitfalls to reap savings

  Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is...  Continue Reading

• Strategy clinic: staying ahead in the new media sector

  Question

  My brief is to set technology strategy to develop and support new business at a new media company. I have read statements to the effect that...

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• The end of the IT department – is it in the cloud?

  Hewlett-Packard has become the latest vendor of many to sound the death knell on the IT department. An imminent - and presumably universal - move to cloud...

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• De Montfort chooses Novell Open Enterprise Server 2

  De Montfort University has chosen Novell Open Enterprise Server 2 as the foundation for its IT infrastructure for students and staff.  Continue Reading

• Legacy systems continue to have a place in the enterprise

  Despite the IT industry's efforts to improve the standard of operating systems used in the enterprise, a significant number of users choose to stick with...  Continue Reading

• Interview with Jeremy Garside, head of technology at the London Symphony Orchestra

  Jeremy Garside is in Norway supervising the technology for an orchestral and choral concert. It is 2003 and he has already clocked up 20 years' experience...

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• The internet revolution: software as a service

  Is the browser the new operating system? It is by no means a new question, but it is certainly one that has gained in credibility in recent years. That is...

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• Chinook helicopter disaster - computer software failure or pilot error?

  Chinook helicopter crash: was it computer software failure or a cause we'll never know? This article gives the background to the Chinook helicopter disaster with links to all the relevant articles published by ComputerWeekly and other useful web ...  Continue Reading

• Power and control: a history of the operating system

  Operating systems are something we take for granted, but they have not always been a feature of computing. In the early days, they did not exist at all....

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• Moving closer to the internet as an operating system

  The internet is arguably evolving as an operating system in its own right, with IP, HTML, SMTP and other underlying protocols combining with online application frameworks such as SOAP, web services, Ajax, Ruby on Rails and mash-ups. Added to this ...  Continue Reading

• Neuroimaging Centre chooses Apple technology

  The University of York's Neuroimaging Centre has made a £300,000 investment in Apple technology, including the OSX operating system.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Expensive and time consuming - but Oracle 11g pays dividends

  Not for the first time, Oracle has created poor publicity for a new release of its market-leading database  Continue Reading

• Sterling Insurance Group moves to Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services

  B&T - operating systems - p4 Lindsay Clark Sterling Insurance Group , an independent UK insurer...  Continue Reading

• Veracode automates software testing process

  Testing software applications to minimise the risk of security vulnerabilities and compliance failings is a time-consuming and costly process, albeit an essential one. Security testing company Veracode has developed a automated tool that promises to...  Continue Reading

• Are we entering the age of 10 gigabit ethernet necessity?

  It is not long ago I was asking in various broadband-testing reports whether we really need widespread Gigabit Ethernet. But now the question is, do we need...

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• Efficiency the priority as main players map out datacentre strategies

  Computer Weekly reviews how the main server makers are formulating strategy for the datacentre, and whether any viable alternatives are on the way. Our conclusion: keep an eye on Dell  Continue Reading

• End users 'biggest winners' from HP's acquisition of EDS

  End users could be the big winners following Hewlett-Packard's announcement that it is to acquire outsourcing company EDS for £7.13bn.  Continue Reading

• Roles in manufacturing and engineering offer career development

  Manufacturing and engineering companies have historically invested little in IT. However, companies that have survived the repeated recessions and downturns are now investing heavily, says Ian McKeand, a director at recruitment consultancy Harvey ...  Continue Reading

• Cranfield seeks key to understanding change management

  How can you maximise the chances that a large-scale IT project will succeed?  Continue Reading

• Computer data recovery - Essential Guide

  Computer data recovery can be a tricky business, usually requiring the help of hard drive data recovery experts. But in all hard drive recovery situations, experts advise users remain calm and not act in a way that will make matters worse.  Continue Reading

• Keep your datacentre in good health

  The datacentre is the heart of the organisation. The network provides the arteries and the veins that distribute vital information to the various parts of the corporate body, but it is the datacentre that keeps pumping it out. Keeping the heart in ...  Continue Reading

• Opportunities in the datacentre

  Working in a datacentre may not sound like the most glamorous corner of IT, but for staff who like to work in a close-knit team using the latest technologies and who can handle occasional periods of high stress and out-of-hours working, it is ideal....  Continue Reading

• Puzzle: Six in the bed and the little one said...

  It is well known that if we multiply 142,857 - a number which describes one-seventh when preceded by a decimal point - by 5, then the digit 7 jumps over...  Continue Reading

• Solution: Six in the bed and the little one said...

  Solution to 6 May Puzzler  Continue Reading

• Computer Weekly Security Think Tank

  Information security questions answered by experts from: (ISC)2, British Computer Society, Gartner, National Computing Centre, Information Security Forum, Information Systems Security Association, and The Corporate Information Forum  Continue Reading

• Marry open source and commercial services with JBoss

  For most of us, JBoss still means the open source J2EE application server,...  Continue Reading

• Credit crunch: the IT expert view

  The credit crunch currently blighting the financial services industry and contributing to the onset of global recession has had a major impact on IT...  Continue Reading

• San in tune for BRIT School

  Centralised storage brings famous music school increased archival security plus added flexibility.  Continue Reading

• Web3D: fad or future?

  The truth goes through three stages. First, it's ridiculed, next violently opposed, then finally accepted as self-evident. No...  Continue Reading

• Spearheading growth with IT: Frank Bandura, financial director of Carluccios

  Squid ink pasta is one of the glories of Italian cuisine, with a subtle and delicate flavour that is entirely its own. But it is also jet black in colour, and this is sometimes a bridge too far for restaurant customers, even the sophisticated ...  Continue Reading

• Embedded systems development offers intellectual and pecuniary rewards

  It used to be a joke that one day you would have a computer in your toaster. Microprocessors are fast becoming ubiquitous, and many of the commonplace gadgets in your house and car rely on them. Even groceries are becoming technology dependent, with...  Continue Reading

• Télécoms Sans Frontières: The three-minute heroes

  It began as a simple idea. In the early 1990s Jean-François Cazenave, founding president of Télécoms Sans Frontières (TSF), saw that people displaced by humanitarian crises...  Continue Reading

• Solution: triangles – can you make 11 from seven?

  The triangles are shown shaded for optimum clarity. Once again, an underlying five-point star has been needed.  Continue Reading

• 29 April 2008: triangles – can you make 11 from seven?

  Puzzle from 29 April 2008  Continue Reading

• Will Sun rise higher after MySQL deal?

  Sun Microsystems hopes its purchase of the MySQL open-source database will be a key step towards positioning it as the pivotal infrastructure player in a burgeoning online world.  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: IBM’s WAS CE offers free route to develop and deploy applications

  What is it? IBM's Websphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS CE) is a free downloadable J2EE platform for developing and deploying applications. It is built on the open-source application server, with extensions from IBM, including the IBM ...  Continue Reading

• Solution: A game of avoiding the neighbours

  Solution to puzzle for 22 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• Puzzle: A game of avoiding the neighbours

  Puzzle for 22 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• GP promotes online medical record access for NHS patients

  NHS patients should have easy access to their medical records through an online database interface, according to the GP who took over Harold Shipman's practice near Manchester.  Continue Reading

• Answers to Guess that kit competition round one: Business on the move

  See the answers to round one of our guess that kit competition, themed around 'business on the move'.  Continue Reading

• Digital document management boosts efficiency for health trust

  South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust is an example of a hospital that has invested in technology to improve its business processes and make impressive cost savings.  Continue Reading

• Supercomputers help Exeter reach for the stars

  Are we alone in the universe? Could life exist on other planets? Questions like these have inspired countless science fiction stories, but at the University of Exeter's Astrophysics department, these queries are at the forefront of research. The ...  Continue Reading

• Datacentres move towards virtualised future

  Although it started life as a back-office support function, the datacentre has transformed from a "glorified computerised filing cabinet" (in many people's eyes) to a major consumer of resources. The big question now is how to rationalise it. There ...  Continue Reading

• Open source software security

  The security of open source software is a key concern for organisations planning to implement it as part of their software stack, particularly if it will play a major role.  Continue Reading

• How much emphasis should I put on green IT?

  The question: I am a newly appointed IT director, and my new company makes much of its good record on corporate social responsibility, one aspect of which is the reduction in its carbon footprint. Should I be proactive on the issue of green IT, and ...  Continue Reading

• ID cards in depth

  Prime Minister Gordon Brown has reiterated the government's determination to press ahead with plans for ID cards at a cost of £5.4bn over 10 years, despite concerns over a series of data losses by government departments.  Continue Reading

• Solution: Go round in circles to find the constant

  Solution to the puzzle for 15 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• Puzzle: Go round in circles to find the constant

  Puzzle for 15 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• RSA Conference 2008 round-up: Reports from RSA USA

  A round-up of reports from RSA 2008 in San Francisco, one of the biggest events in an IT security professional’s calendar  Continue Reading

• IT jobs relocating to West England and South Wales

  Many IT professionals looking for a better quality of life assume they need to make a trade-off in terms of career development and salary, but that isn't the case if you move to the West of England and South Wales, according to recruiters and ...  Continue Reading

• Hot skills: Apache HTTP web server

  What is it? The Apache HTTP web server has lost a great deal of market share to Microsoft's IIS in the last couple of years. But since its share once amounted to almost 80 per cent of the market, a readjustment was perhaps inevitable.  Continue Reading

• Constant vigilance keeps Stroud & Swindon secure

  "Information security is part of life now for financial services organisations and you have to take it seriously. If the business is linked to any loss of sensitive data, it causes serious reputational damage and you can't afford for that to happen,...  Continue Reading

• HC2008 will focus on information strategy for NHS

  "Information saves lives. Information professionals need to step forward and play their part in creating an NHS that is founded on quality, evidence and empowerment" said Matthew Swindells, acting CIO for health at the Department of Health, when ...  Continue Reading

• Puzzle: Place seven discs so they are inequidistant

  Puzzle for 8 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• Puzzle answer: Place seven discs so they are inequidistant

  Answer to puzzle for 8 April 2008.  Continue Reading

• Infosecurity 2008: show guide and preview

  Infosecurity Europe is the event where those responsible for securing their organisations' information can find all the latest technology, services and advice, with more than 300 of the top security companies from across the globe taking part.  Continue Reading

• Spot the Editor: Terms and conditions

  Full competition terms and conditions  Continue Reading

• Interview: Microsoft's chief operating officer, Kevin Turner

  Kevin Turner, Microsoft's chief operating officer, shares his views on what makes a successful IT manager.  Continue Reading