Stories by: Mark Gibbs

Last week I began to discuss a remarkable virtual-appliance-based system for network monitoring and management called Groundwork Monitor Community Edition.

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed WhatsUp Gold and liked what I found. Of course the topic of network management tools is one that is close to the heart of every network manager so a flurry of letters followed.

In the IT world it is amazing how often you'll be presented with an idea that sounds good, seems reasonable and appears to fix a problem but in reality is a bad idea. I say this because a proposal that sounds good is being developed to address the "problem" of online music piracy, and not only is the idea bad for consumers, it also could be particularly problematic for enterprise networks.

This week I was going to continue with my discussion of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers 4.0 but, as is so often the case, I got distracted by another problem.

The Internet is just shy of its 20th commercial birthday. Given that, and the fact that the Internet is based on technologies that are open, well-documented, and well-understood, you'd think that all serious enterprises that connect their e-mail systems to the Internet would be capable of ensuring their security and protecting their assets.

Here at Network World, we use Drupal for our blogging platform. Drupal -- which runs on any platform that supports Apache (1.3+) or Internet Information Server (IIS5+) and PHP (4.3.3+), and MySQL or PostgreSQL -- is impressive in its scope and the level of community effort that has gone into improving, enhancing and extending its features and facilities.

Skype and Vonage illustrate what is wrong with user communications: They are "closed" and not standards based. These strategies support business models that are not in line with 21st century wants and needs. They have to go!

Let me start by asking if any of you have experience with Plesk? Plesk from SWsoft is a Web-based control panel for Windows and Linux servers that has been adopted by a number of hosting providers.

Science is how we try to explain the universe and what the guys who do science (usually called "scientists" but you can call them anything you like because most of them are pretty nerdy) really want is a TOE. No, not those things that stop your feet from fraying; what they want is a Theory of Everything, a theory that allows them to start from first principles and deduce (if I might quote Douglas Adams) the existence of rice pudding and income tax.

George Lucas has been quoted as saying that "A movie is never finished, only abandoned." This is actually a profound insight and makes a lot of sense, because creative people always want to refine their vision to be as close as possible to the perfection they envision. The trouble is if their work is to ever be seen, they have to turn it loose when it is as far past "good enough" as they can afford to go.

I've just seen the most remarkable documentary called "The Corporation", which is based on a book by Joel Bakan called The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power.