GCN Lab Reviews

• With all-in-one PCs, one size doesn't fit all

  The GCN Lab reviews five desktop systems where everything is bundled together -- for better or worse.

• Zinstall lets you take XP with you when upgrading to Windows 7

  With Zinstall, you don’t have to leave your old desktop behind when moving from XP to Windows 7.

• DVD can save on training costs when getting users ready for Windows 7

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GCN Lab Impressions

• Apple backs up iPad's battery -- for a price

  

  Apple has a program to give users refurbished iPads when the batteries fail.

• DHS wants to make your cell phone a 'smell' phone
• Lab puts new iMac to the test

More Impressions

Tech Product News

• Global Graphics offers ‘freemium’ alternative to Acrobat

  Global Graphics’ gDoc Fusion document software can work with PDFs, using a rival format developed with Microsoft; gDoc Creator lets users view and convert files in multiple formats.

• Intel introduces 6-core chips with cloud-secure features
• New app turns smart phone into secure two-way radio

More Tech Product News

Tech Blog

• E-books: It's not the medium, it's the message

  

  In response to a recent column by GCN's Trudy Walsh, regarding the rapid spread of electronic books, many readers praised the convenience of books in electronic form, emphasizing that content is what counts, regardless of the format. But a few did tackle Walsh’s larger question about what might be lost in a world of constant electronic information.

More Tech Blogs

Interviews

• The revolution will be televised — online

  

  Cisco CTO Padmasree Warrior sheds light on the evolution of collaboration, networking, social media, video and the concept of a media experience platform.

More Interviews

Another View from Industry Thought Leaders

• Cyber ShockWave exposed missing links in U.S. security

  

  Former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, who took part in Cyber ShockWave, says the exercise showed that the United States lacks the ability to effectively respond to a catastrophic cyber event. He identifies a few steps government and the private sector need to take.

• DOD social media policy fails to answer security questions

  Former Director of Defense Information Paul Strassmann questions how DOD's new directive, permitting NIPRNet access to the Internet, will work without more explicit security direction.

• Virtualization increases the need for reality management in IT

  Virtualization has reduced data center footprints, but little has been done to disentangle the duplication and complexity of information and applications sitting in those servers, observes Francis Hsu, an information executive working for the Homeland Security Department.

Guest Columnists

CyberEye | Bill Jackson

• P2P file sharing could leave you with your slip showing

  

  The recent announcement by the FTC that sensitive information from nearly 100 organizations had been compromised through peer-to-peer file-sharing networks underscores the risks of this technology.

Editor's Desk | Wyatt Kash

• Fulfillment of the cloud's promise requires congressional action

  

  The residence of clouds and data will become increasingly important -- and so will the aging and conflicting laws that govern data.

Internaut | Shawn P. McCarthy

• If virtual servers can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen

  

  It's important to correctly estimate the strain virtualization will put on your servers. Is your data center more like a sporadically utilized home workshop? Or more like an occasionally very busy kitchen?

CISO Perspectives | by (ISC)2

• How a process model can help bring security into software development

  A secure software development life cycle requires a process model wherein process improvements are managed from a common framework. This disciplined approach will not alleviate all vulnerabilities but will increase the likelihood of building secure software to meet users’ needs in a cost-effective fashion.

Reality Check | Mike Daconta

• 10 flaws with the data on Data.gov

  

  Even a cursory examination of Data.gov's newly released high-value datasets revealed 10 types of quality deficiencies, says columnist Mike Daconta.