Stories by Lee Copeland

Checkpoint and Restart

Checkpoint and restart are mechanisms for protecting operating systems and enterprise applications from computer failures by taking a snapshot (the checkpoint) of the system and data at critical points. If the system or process crashes, it can be restarted from the most recent checkpoint file, without having to go back to the beginning and rerun everything.

IBM's Zeitler talks about Regatta, Linux

IBM posted less than stellar earnings last week, reporting net income of US$2.3 billion in its fourth quarter. That's down 10 percent from the $2.7 billion net income the Armonk, N.Y.-based company posted a year ago. IBM's chairman and CEO, Louis Gerstner, attributed the shortfall to declining PC sales and slow hardware sales. Even so, officials said the company completely sold out of its Regatta p690 servers, which debuted in October, and saw the first increase in revenue on mainframes in 11 years. Bill Zeitler, IBM's senior vice president and group executive for the server group, spoke with Computerworld about the company's new Regatta hardware, the Linux operating system, pricing issues and IBM's future hardware plans.

Startup stuffs e-mails with Web content

Bring two seasoned rocket scientists together and you might be surprised at the result: Mobular Technologies, a technology start-up that makes a searchable e-mail product that's well suited for e-mail marketing campaigns and document distribution.

Extreme Programming

Extreme programming (XP) is a software development approach built around rapid iterations, an emphasis on code writing and working closely with end users to achieve business results. The 12 basic practices of XP include continual testing and the idea that programmers should work in pairs.

Moving to Wintel: Big iron

Last October, Gary Clark looked into La-Z Boy Inc.'s data center and pondered two pressing concerns: rack upon rack of network servers that were multiplying like rabbits and the mounting costs of maintaining that rapidly growing server population.

Businesses tap IT after staff, budget cuts

The ongoing economic slump is prompting businesses to devote IT resources to projects aimed at keeping downsized enterprises humming in the face of across-the-board staff and budget cuts.

Gates boosts Web services to developers

Bill Gates kicked off Microsoft Corp.'s annual developer conference here today by beating the drum for XML-based Web services and offering a variety of beta products and software that support the new development method and the company's .Net framework.

Developers approach extreme programming cautiously

As corporations struggle to complete application development projects on time, within budget and without lots of buggy code, they're taking a closer look at new development methods, such as extreme programming.

Sun raises stakes with 72-processor server

Sun Microsystems has added more horsepower to its UltraSPARC server lineup, a move analysts said bolsters its dominance of the Unix market and boosts the company's competitive position against rival IBM.

Sun unveils J2EE 1.3

Aiming to provide simplified connectivity and easier to manage Enterprise JavaBeans, Sun Microsystems today unveiled the long-awaited next version of its Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) specification, the basic building block for Java-based application servers.

Security shoves auctions in-house

During the past 15 months, Volkswagen AG has spent $US5.2 billion buying parts, PCs and raw materials by means of an online auction service that has helped it slash procurement costs by 40 per cent to 50 per cent and cut contract negotiations from as long as three months to one day. But because of nagging security concerns, the German automaker plans to run eBreviate's auction software on its own servers behind its corporate firewall, said Meike-Uta Hansen, director of business-to-business online negotiations at Volkswagen.

United aims to make 'friendly skies' friendlier

United Air Lines Inc. last week launched a far-reaching initiative to bridge the gap between its fleet management, operations, flight planning, reservations and frequent-flier systems and to offer personalization services to passengers as a result of that improved data flow.

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