The Top Ten Issues On The Minds Of Today's CIOs

I recently had the chance to talk and share a glass of wine or two with some of the top CIOs in the country at the annual Ziff Davis Enterprise CIO Summit in Half Moon Bay, California. Right, tough duty but someone has to do it. What was at the top of their minds? I put together a ten slide slideshow on what I think are the top of mind items. Let me know what you think.

HP To Build Wall Between Plano And Round Rock?

What does the HP takeover of EDS mean for the EDS and Dell alliance

Five Customer Reasons For and Five Customer Reasons Against the HP purchase of EDS

What do customers get from an HP purchase of EDS? A bigger stack but can a hardware company find happiness in also offering business services?

Tech Products Needed For Hard Times

What are the tech products or services you need to help you through a difficult economy? A food co-op tied to a social network? An easy way to manage your home's energy consumption. I came up with ten ideas, but I'd like to hear from you.

The New Rules For Tech Etiquette

I've become a fan of the recharge stations sprouting at the airline terminals. However, those terminals aren't everywhere and what should you do when your battery charge indicator is hitting zero while the guy with the 100% charge is hogging the only outlet to be found in JFK? Is there a new set of tech etiquette rules? Yes, or at least I'm trying to start the ball rolling here with a slideshow with the new rules of tech etiquette.

liveblog of Marc Benioff: Salesforce.com/Boston

A liveblog of the salesfoce.clom success on demand roadshow in Boston, April 22

Yar, Them Hackers Are Whaling For Some Big Phish

A week after the big RSA security show, the hackers (or phishers or whatever) are back in the headlines.

This time the issue is a new twist on phishing attempts which rather than try to reach the masses with promises of cheap viagra and untold riches waiting to be claimed are aimed at the executive ranks at large corporations and purport to be a subpoena from a U.S. District Court. John Markoff of the New York Times had an article on whaling (going after the big phish, get it?) on the front page of the Wednesday business section.

While it is always tempting to say that phishers, hackers and other assorted digital scammers will always go where the money is, you could also add that they like to go for the most money and the most gullible. Courts don't go around emailing subpoenas and since it is tax season it is good to remember that the IRS doesn't go around emailing either. Here is the lesson for CIOs and IT execs, now is a good time to ask for that extra money for another layer of email scanning software. Email is still the way most viruses get into a company's network and clicking on bogus links is still the way those viruses get initiated. Explain to your boss that he or she is a whale of a target for phishers.

The five tech rules of GM.'s Ralph Szygenda

If you have the chance, read through Stan Gibson's interview of General Motors CIO Ralph Szygenda. Ralph is as close to the dean of CIOs as you will find in the U.S. He was early at redefining the role of corporate technology to be based on service agreements with hard benchmarks, redefining the role of those working for him as business and technology service managers rather than simply tech gurus and, more recently, helping a struggling G.M. use its worldwide design network to become a global auto competitor rather than U.S. centric company doing much of its business elsewhere.I've pulled out what I think are the five tech rules, Ralph might want to change the list a bit, but these are my takeaways from the interview

April 14: Blockbuster,Google,Salesforce and Taxes

Blockbuster wants to acquire Circuit City. Delta wants Northwest. Salesforce and Google get closer. AMD needs a new tech chief and you need to pay your taxes. A news roundup for the week of April 14.

Is Shyftr Shifting Or Shafting The Blogosphere?

When Robert Scoble declares The Era Of blogger's control is over, you should pay attention. In a series of conversations that sound eerily reminiscent of newspapers complaining about the era of free content and the music industry complaining about ripped off content, the blogosphere is abuzz about what happens when your blog content gets hijacked, collected and you lose the ability to get an ad served against your scribbles?